http://esl.about.com/

This site is part of the About.com website.  The guide to the site includes links to other websites and products.  If you move among the links there are plenty of good tips for tutoring ESL students, especially concerning rules and ideas to keep in mind when teaching parts of speech and grammar.  The site also provides some lengthy lists for vocabulary. 

Activities for ESL

http://a4esl.org

A collection of quizzes, exercises and other grammar puzzles can be found on this site.  There is also a link to another helpful page, “Interesting things for your ESL student”.  This site will be of value for Basic students and their tutors as well.  You are requested not to download the quizzes or practices, bit only to use them online. 

Antimoom.com: Learn English Effectively

http://www.antimoon.com

Developed by two Polish men who taught themselves English, this site takes an interesting approach to learning English.  Phonics is stressed and there is an excellent page providing audio clips for consonant and vowel sounds. 

Dave’s ESL Café

http://daveseslcafe.com/

Dave’s ESL Café is a well-regarded international site that has been around for ten years.  The site offers excellent free sources for teaching ideas, slang, idioms, phrasal verbs, and quizzes on grammar, geography, etc.  Another plus are the links to other ESL sites found in the “Web Links” area.  There are also links to commercial products, forums, and other resources for members. 

Demystifying Adult Literacy for Volunteer Tutors

http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/demyst/chapter8.htm

A resource from the Literacy Partners of Manitoba written by Charlene L. Ball, this site is essentially text, but very informative, providing a good review of what goes into the tutoring process when working with adult learners. 

Eclectic English

http://www.eclecticenglish.com/index.html

Another site for ESL learners, with grammar exercises for vocabulary, verbs, and grammar.  This site can also be used for Basic students. 

English Daily

http://www.englishdaily626.com/

English Daily is an interesting site that provides help on basic idioms, slang, grammar and other resources.  The more unique strengths of the site include links to audio with text, and some special sections helpful to ESL learners who native language is Chinese.  The site is free but there is a donation button. 

The Internet Picture Dictionary

http://pdictionary.com/

This site provides some basic pictures for use with ESL students, along with some word scrambles, spelling, and other exercises.  You are free to use this site with your student, but downloading the images is not permitted. 

My English Zone

http://myenglishzone.com/Level01/levelone.htm

This site can be used by both Basic and ESL tutors for their students.  There is a list of grammar topics, which will be helpful to Basic tutors, along with explanations of the points of grammar in Spanish and audio clips for English sounds. 

Oakland Public Library Second Start Adult Literacy Program: Tutor Tips

http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/services/SecondStart/tutors_tips.html

A good review of basic tutoring tips, but less detailed than “Demystifying Adult Literacy for Volunteer Tutors”.  Some good examples of stories with controlled vocabulary for reading and writing are also provided.  There are some helpful links in the Learner section as well. 

Plain English Campaign Homepage

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

Although not really a literacy site, the “Free Guides” section has an excellent guide to writing: “How to write in plain English”, which can be found in the right tab “Free Guides” under Resources.  The other general guide, “The A-Z of alternative words”, should help most tutors and students who are working on advanced writing skills. 

Using English

http://www.usingenglish.com/

This is an excellent site for both Basic and ESL tutors and learners!  The Reference area provides the following: a dictionary, idioms, grammar glossary and phrasal verb, all of which are searchable.  There is also an extensive list of irregular verbs.  The Teacher section provides several handouts and additional links for teachers, while the Articles section provides a variety of help for spelling, punctuation, and other grammar issues.  The Student section provides a variety of tests and quizzes for the English language.  One of the helpful links on this site is to Randall’s ESL Cyber Language Listening Lab, which can be found directly at www.usingenglish.com/links/Detailed/8.htm