Research Guides: ESL: Reading and Writing Resources

Dictionaries and Word Finders

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Includes audio pronunciation guide, thesaurus, word games, and a Learner's Dictionary for ESL students.
Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online
When you know what something looks like but not what it’s called, the Visual Dictionary will help you match the word to the image.
OneLook Dictionary Search
A search engine for words and phrases, offering both definitions and translations. Indexes more than 900 online dictionaries.

English reading help. Includes reading comprehension quizzes and tests, reading lesson plans, reading types and strategies.

English Reading Comprehension from ESL Gold
Reading exercises, learning strategies and quizzes to improve English reading comprehension.
English Reading Comprehension Skills for ESL EFL Learners
English reading help including reading comprehension quizzes and tests, reading lesson plans, reading types and strategies.
EnglishClub.com: Reading English
Includes poetry, short stories with vocabulary and comprehension quizzes, and author biographies.
U.S.A. Learns (Registration Required)
Practice activities in listening, writing, speaking, and life skills necessary for success at work and in the community. Click on the Reading link for intermediate-level stories and activities.

APA Research Guide - Franklin University Library
The library's guide to citing your sources correctly in APA style.
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Basic rules of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and writing numbers.
EnglishClub.com: English Grammar
Grammar lessons with accompanying quizzes to check your understanding. Includes a glossary of grammar terms.
EnglishClub.com: English Writing
Covers use of capital letters, spelling rules, punctuation, sentence variety, peer editing, and plagiarism.
ESL Resources from Purdue's Online Writing Lab
Resource pages and handouts for English language learners and teachers.
Grammar Guide (Purdue OWL)
These OWL resources will help you use correct grammar in your writing. This area includes resources on grammar topics, such as count and noncount nouns, articles (a versus an), subject-verb agreement, and prepositions.
U.S.A. Learns (Registration Required)
Practice activities in listening, writing, speaking, and life skills necessary for success at work and in the community.

Topics: An Online Magazine for Learners of English
A place where people learning English can share stories, ideas and opinions, travel information, recipes, poetry, and more.

American Idioms
Click on an idiom for a sample paragraph providing a definition of the idiom and an illustration of how it is used.
American Slang
Definitions, sample sentences, etymology, and synonyms.
Internet Picture Dictionary
A picture dictionary for beginning English, French, German, Spanish and Italian language learners.
Language Guide
Sound-integrated resources for 13 different languages (with a choice of 21 native language interfaces). Particularly helpful for vocabulary building and word pronunciation.
Spelling Activities
Spelling games and quizzes from Interesting Things for ESL Students