General listening activities at 3 different levels
Easy, medium and difficult listening practice activities, plus preparation for the TOEFL and TOEIC exams.
Academic listening and note-taking skills
Help and advice for international students at British universities.
BBC Radio 4
A wide variety of spoken-word radio programmes (advanced level).
English Language Listening Lab Online
On this site you can practice and learn English by listening to English speakers from all over the world, for free. Listening activities come with transcripts, quizzes, pictures, and audio that can be downloaded.
English Listening Resources
Englishpage.com has created this collection of listening resources to help advanced English learners learn English online. The resources include free online news and culture broadcasts, online music, online movies, online radio and more.
BBC pronunciation tips and exercises
Lots of information and activities to help you practise your pronunciation, including the sounds of English and connected speech.
Multimedia phonetics project (Requires Flash)
An interactive website with audio, video and animated diagrams of the different vowel and consonant sounds of English.
Grammar explanations and exercises
Grammar explanations and exercises from the English Language Centre of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Mind Your Grammar Contents
An online self-access course featuring a wide range of grammar explanations and activities.
Printer-friendly handouts on grammar, punctuation and spelling
From the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University (USA)
English for International Students Unit - Kibbitzers
These pages from Birmingham University's English for International Students Unit focus on the discussion of a language problem, focussing on vocabulary, grammar or the way in which ideas are linked.
Guide to Grammar and Writing
A site written by Professor Charles Darling at the Capital Community College Foundation Hartford, Connecticut which gives detailed explanations of grammar at sentence and paragraph level, with quizzes as well as plenty of advice on the writing process.
Free online Cambridge University Press dictionaries
Including the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (British English), the Cambridge Phrasal Verb Dictionary and the Cambridge Dictionary of American English.
Free online thesaurus
A thesaurus is a dictionary of synonyms – a great way to expand your vocabulary.
Reading Resources
A wide range of stories on different subjects taken from CBS and CNN with vocabulary and comprehension exercises for you to practise your reading and listening skills. The stories are provided at 3 different levels and you can listen/watch with Realplayer.
Reading comprehension texts with questions
Reading texts based on articles from the South China Morning Post with comprehension questions.
Academic reading skills
Advice and exercises on reading strategies, understanding text structure, note-taking and critical reading.
Reading effectively
Advice on how to read academic texts.
How to Improve Reading Comprehension
An online tutor to help students improve reading comprehension skills.
Writing emails
How to write effective business emails in English
Online Writing Lab
Purdue University's website on all aspects of academic writing. A fantastic resource for international students.
Guide to effective academic writing (Requires Flash)
The University of Wollongong also has a great website dedicated to all aspects of academic writing.
Academic Writing Skills
The Using English for Academic Purposes website provides lots of advice, exercises and tests on essay writing.
Writing Academic Essays
A useful 12 step guide to essay writing.
IELTS.org
The official IELTS website, offering exam details, advice and practice materials.
This website includes useful information on:
the IELTS exam in general (PDF file)
