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TEFL Links

On this page we have collected some of our favourite websites. While this isn't a big collection of links, we believe that what lacks in quantity, we compensate for in quality. Busy teachers and teacher trainers on our staff use each of these sites regularly. With such a huge amount of stuff on the internet for English teachers, we have also included a brief description of each site and why we like it.

Our tutors and graduates have also published articles and lessons in various magazines and on the web. In fact, some of them are so active that it's hard to keep up.

OxfordTEFL Tutors and Graduates on the web
Great sites for General English teachers
Job sites for English teachers
For Business English teachers
Language Teaching Methodology
Reference (good for making your own materials)
Organisations
Teachers travelling around
For teachers and students
Spanish Schools
Sites of General interest

Great sites for General English teachers

www.onestopenglish.com
While there are lots of websites with downloadable lesson plans out there, you'd be hard-pressed to find one with more than Onestopenglish. It is one of the most popular sites on the web for teachers and with good reason. It's got articles and a fun section called Diary of an English teacher. But the main draw is the sheer amount of free, quality lesson material with teaching notes.
Iona Lunan, Course Director Trinity TESOL Certificate

www.english-to-go.com
I really like this one, which is a site that uses Reuters' news stories as a basis for lesson plans. Most parts of it are paying, but there are some (good) free samples. It's categorised by level and is really easy to use.
Sarah Yandell, Director of Studies and General English teacher

www.puzzlemaker.com
This is a really good crossword and wordsearch creator site. Just type in the words (and definitions) of words you want to work on and the site creates a puzzle for you. It's so fast and great for vocabulary consolidation amongst other things.
Sarah Yandell, Director of Studies and General English teacher

www.bcnteacher.com

www.tefl.com
I consult this everyday as it gives worldwide jobs listings, and lots of them. You can subscribe free of charge to receive this as well as other newsletters full of TESOL info. It's really one of the biggest out there. You can also list your CV with them, get weekly job alerts and find out about courses to get certified.
Anna Stubbs, Careers Officer and CERT TESOL Teacher Trainer

www.englishjobmaze.com
As well as comprehensive worldwide jobs listings, it offers tips on how to put together a CV/ résumé and answers those tricky grammar questions. However my favourite section is countries @ a glance. You click on to the country of your choice and will be presented with fantastically useful information on that country such as contracts, salaries, tax, average number of hours you'd be teaching, busiest periods to find work, Visa information and links to other websites. It's a great (on-line) alternative to Susan Griffith's 'Teaching English Abroad'
Anna Stubbs, Careers Officer and CERT TESOL Teacher Trainer

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/index
This is a great link for up to date, real life business situations. Students can work on vocabulary, useful expressions, do listenings, add their comments to topical discussions and read the work of famous business gurus. It's good for homework as it is regularly up-dated and practical.
Jennifer Goodman, Director of Studies In-company & Business English Teacher

www.spainmedia.com
Remember Barcelona Business magazine? Well, it's no longer printed, but can be found here. I use it often as a source of information and scandal (he's one of the few really investigative journalists left), and also for ideas for lessons; it's particularly useful to prompt discussions in telephone classes.
Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training

www.entrepreneur.com
Another well-thumbed source of material for my students; articles covering every aspect of business, throws up a whole load of useful expressions and collocations, real-life case studies also make it a more authentic source of information than The Course Book.
Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training

www.hltmag.co.uk
This site published one of our articles so it must be good! Seriously though, Humanising Language Teaching has lots of articles, lesson ideas, jokes etc., all with a humanistic slant, which sets it apart from other sites. Edited by humanistic guru Mario Rinvolucri.
Duncan Foord, Director of Teacher Training Department

Learning Novish
An excellent simulation that teaches you an invented language: Novish. The aim of this activity is to make language teachers think about how new languages are learned and the role of mistakes. It is taken from a classic book by Julian Dakin called The Language Laboratory and Language Learning (1973). If you are doing a Diploma paper on cognitivism, this is a good experiment to undergo!
Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher

Reference (good for making your own materials)

www.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia is a free Internet encyclopaedia; the difference here is that people from all over the place contribute articles and information to help build the site. Plus all the content is free. They have entries on almost anything, from the general to the truly bizarre. I like to use it to create reading activities.
Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher

www.statistics.gov.uk
Ok, Ok, statistics aren't necessarily the most exciting things in the world, but this has so much information on life in the UK, from eating habits, to drinking habits (!), to gender pay gap, to how the UK has changed over the past few years. It's proved to be a very useful source of hard data for my business students to practise talking about statistics, which is something that most of them have to do at work, and is much more authentic than those dull graphs we find in course books.
Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training

www.education.guardian.co.uk
For anyone who thinks that a bit of grammar and a Tefl course makes you an expert, or anyone thinking they know all there is to know about the job, think again and read some of the interesting articles by respected TEFL pros in addition to plenty of comment from people in the field on the highs and lows of the industry.
David Young, Course Director OxfordTEFL Prague

www.iatefl.org
IATEFL is the International Association of English teachers. The website contains general information about the organisation, but if you check out the SIG (special interest group) websites you are sure to find something that will interest you, or be helpful in class.
Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher

www.easyjet.com
For those of you who haven't experienced the joy of an easyjet flight, this is the granddaddy of cheap airlines. Sometimes it's cheaper to fly to London from Barcelona than it is to take the train from London to Brighton! Book early.
Jennifer Goodman, Director of Studies In-company & Business English Teacher

Travel in Spain
Tourist information about Andalucía. I used it to plan a trip to Seville and Cordoba, found hotels, opening hours and loads of useful stuff. There's an English version too.
Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training

www.its-online.com
Most sites have printable and downloadable material for class, but little or no interactive stuff. The its-online network is a big exception. Loads of stuff for both teachers and students. I don't have room to do it justice here – just go and take a look! Some parts of the site are free, others are paying. It's not expensive though, especially if your school gets on board.

Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher

Spanish in Spain Learn Spanish with Barcelona Spanish....Experts in Spanish Tuition, Small Groups and 1-to-1, General and Business Spanish....You will learn !
www.barcelonaspanish.com

Sites of General interest

www.humanmetrics.com
You can do a free Myers Briggs personality test on this site by answering 50 questions. A lot of the staff at Oxford Tefl did it and most thought it very accurate! The test gives you a print out describing your personality type and consequent strengths and weaknesses. Very useful in helping you to understand yourself as a teacher and team member. You could also get your intermediate or advanced learners to do it and discuss the results.
Duncan Foord, Director of Teacher Training Department

The Hunger Site
Just one click and we can do some good; for every click, sponsors "donate" food, medical help etc to the more needy.
Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training

BCN Teacher
Useful information about Barcelona....

The Hot Topic – Monthly lesson plan on using hot, topical subjects in the classroom.
By Lindsay Clandfield and Scott Thornbury
http://www.onestopenglish.com/tefl_skills/speaking.htm

Essential UK – Material on aspects of life in UK, at the British Council Language Assistant website
By Jo Budden
http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant-arc-essuk.htm

Task Based Learning – Methodology article and activities
By Mark McKinnon and Nicky Rigby
http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/elt_taskbased.htm

Using L1 in the classroom – Methodology article and activities
By Lindsay Clandfield and Duncan Foord
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jan03/mart2.htm

Motivating Teenagers – Article and activities
By Jo Budden
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/motivate_teens.shtml

sing the phonetic chart with young learners – Article and activities
By Nicola Meldrum
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/pron/young_phonemic.shtml

Teaching One to One – Article and activities
By Nicola Meldrum, with activities by Lindsay Clandfield
http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/onetoone.htm

Teaching without a coursebook - Article and ideas
By Jennifer Goodman
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/no_book.shtml

Using Pictures in the Classroom - Article and ideas
By Jennifer Goodman
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/picture_story.shtml

The Teachers Survival Kit – Article
By Lindsay Clandfield and Duncan Foord
http://www.its-teachers.com/voices/survival/default.asp

Home About Oxford TEFL Contact us Locations Accommodation TEFL Qualifications About Trinity Finding a job TEFL Links News, Articles & Workshops Pictures Trinity Cert. TESOL Trinity Dip. TESOL Certificate in International Teaching Business English Online Starter Course Teacher Development Courses Business - Young Learners One-to-One Language Courses		TEFL Links On this page we have collected some of our favourite websites. While this isn't a big collection of links, we believe that what lacks in quantity, we compensate for in quality. Busy teachers and teacher trainers on our staff use each of these sites regularly. With such a huge amount of stuff on the internet for English teachers, we have also included a brief description of each site and why we like it. Our tutors and graduates have also published articles and lessons in various magazines and on the web. In fact, some of them are so active that it's hard to keep up. OxfordTEFL Tutors and Graduates on the web Great sites for General English teachers Job sites for English teachers For Business English teachers Language Teaching Methodology Reference (good for making your own materials) Organisations Teachers travelling around For teachers and students Spanish Schools Sites of General interest Great sites for General English teachers www.onestopenglish.com While there are lots of websites with downloadable lesson plans out there, you'd be hard-pressed to find one with more than Onestopenglish. It is one of the most popular sites on the web for teachers and with good reason. It's got articles and a fun section called Diary of an English teacher. But the main draw is the sheer amount of free, quality lesson material with teaching notes. Iona Lunan, Course Director Trinity TESOL Certificate www.english-to-go.com I really like this one, which is a site that uses Reuters' news stories as a basis for lesson plans. Most parts of it are paying, but there are some (good) free samples. It's categorised by level and is really easy to use. Sarah Yandell, Director of Studies and General English teacher www.puzzlemaker.com This is a really good crossword and wordsearch creator site. Just type in the words (and definitions) of words you want to work on and the site creates a puzzle for you. It's so fast and great for vocabulary consolidation amongst other things. Sarah Yandell, Director of Studies and General English teacher www.bcnteacher.com Back to top of page Job sites for English teachers www.tefl.com I consult this everyday as it gives worldwide jobs listings, and lots of them. You can subscribe free of charge to receive this as well as other newsletters full of TESOL info. It's really one of the biggest out there. You can also list your CV with them, get weekly job alerts and find out about courses to get certified. Anna Stubbs, Careers Officer and CERT TESOL Teacher Trainer www.englishjobmaze.com As well as comprehensive worldwide jobs listings, it offers tips on how to put together a CV/ résumé and answers those tricky grammar questions. However my favourite section is countries @ a glance. You click on to the country of your choice and will be presented with fantastically useful information on that country such as contracts, salaries, tax, average number of hours you'd be teaching, busiest periods to find work, Visa information and links to other websites. It's a great (on-line) alternative to Susan Griffith's 'Teaching English Abroad' Anna Stubbs, Careers Officer and CERT TESOL Teacher Trainer Back to top of page For Business English teachers www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/index This is a great link for up to date, real life business situations. Students can work on vocabulary, useful expressions, do listenings, add their comments to topical discussions and read the work of famous business gurus. It's good for homework as it is regularly up-dated and practical. Jennifer Goodman, Director of Studies In-company & Business English Teacher www.spainmedia.com Remember Barcelona Business magazine? Well, it's no longer printed, but can be found here. I use it often as a source of information and scandal (he's one of the few really investigative journalists left), and also for ideas for lessons; it's particularly useful to prompt discussions in telephone classes. Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training www.entrepreneur.com Another well-thumbed source of material for my students; articles covering every aspect of business, throws up a whole load of useful expressions and collocations, real-life case studies also make it a more authentic source of information than The Course Book. Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training Back to top of page Language Teaching Methodology www.hltmag.co.uk This site published one of our articles so it must be good! Seriously though, Humanising Language Teaching has lots of articles, lesson ideas, jokes etc., all with a humanistic slant, which sets it apart from other sites. Edited by humanistic guru Mario Rinvolucri. Duncan Foord, Director of Teacher Training Department Learning Novish An excellent simulation that teaches you an invented language: Novish. The aim of this activity is to make language teachers think about how new languages are learned and the role of mistakes. It is taken from a classic book by Julian Dakin called The Language Laboratory and Language Learning (1973). If you are doing a Diploma paper on cognitivism, this is a good experiment to undergo! Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher Back to top of page Reference (good for making your own materials) www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia is a free Internet encyclopaedia; the difference here is that people from all over the place contribute articles and information to help build the site. Plus all the content is free. They have entries on almost anything, from the general to the truly bizarre. I like to use it to create reading activities. Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher www.statistics.gov.uk Ok, Ok, statistics aren't necessarily the most exciting things in the world, but this has so much information on life in the UK, from eating habits, to drinking habits (!), to gender pay gap, to how the UK has changed over the past few years. It's proved to be a very useful source of hard data for my business students to practise talking about statistics, which is something that most of them have to do at work, and is much more authentic than those dull graphs we find in course books. Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training Back to top of page Organisations www.education.guardian.co.uk For anyone who thinks that a bit of grammar and a Tefl course makes you an expert, or anyone thinking they know all there is to know about the job, think again and read some of the interesting articles by respected TEFL pros in addition to plenty of comment from people in the field on the highs and lows of the industry. David Young, Course Director OxfordTEFL Prague www.iatefl.org IATEFL is the International Association of English teachers. The website contains general information about the organisation, but if you check out the SIG (special interest group) websites you are sure to find something that will interest you, or be helpful in class. Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher Back to top of page Teachers travelling around www.easyjet.com For those of you who haven't experienced the joy of an easyjet flight, this is the granddaddy of cheap airlines. Sometimes it's cheaper to fly to London from Barcelona than it is to take the train from London to Brighton! Book early. Jennifer Goodman, Director of Studies In-company & Business English Teacher Travel in Spain Tourist information about Andalucía. I used it to plan a trip to Seville and Cordoba, found hotels, opening hours and loads of useful stuff. There's an English version too. Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training Back to top of page For teachers and students www.its-online.com Most sites have printable and downloadable material for class, but little or no interactive stuff. The its-online network is a big exception. Loads of stuff for both teachers and students. I don't have room to do it justice here – just go and take a look! Some parts of the site are free, others are paying. It's not expensive though, especially if your school gets on board. Lindsay Clandfield, Diploma Tutor and General English Teacher Back to top of page Spanish Schools Spanish in Spain Learn Spanish with Barcelona Spanish....Experts in Spanish Tuition, Small Groups and 1-to-1, General and Business Spanish....You will learn ! www.barcelonaspanish.com Sites of General interest www.humanmetrics.com You can do a free Myers Briggs personality test on this site by answering 50 questions. A lot of the staff at Oxford Tefl did it and most thought it very accurate! The test gives you a print out describing your personality type and consequent strengths and weaknesses. Very useful in helping you to understand yourself as a teacher and team member. You could also get your intermediate or advanced learners to do it and discuss the results. Duncan Foord, Director of Teacher Training Department The Hunger Site Just one click and we can do some good; for every click, sponsors "donate" food, medical help etc to the more needy. Nick Rawlinson, Director In-company training BCN Teacher Useful information about Barcelona.... Oxford TEFL tutors and graduates on the web The Hot Topic – Monthly lesson plan on using hot, topical subjects in the classroom. By Lindsay Clandfield and Scott Thornbury http://www.onestopenglish.com/tefl_skills/speaking.htm Essential UK – Material on aspects of life in UK, at the British Council Language Assistant website By Jo Budden http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant-arc-essuk.htm Task Based Learning – Methodology article and activities By Mark McKinnon and Nicky Rigby http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/elt_taskbased.htm Using L1 in the classroom – Methodology article and activities By Lindsay Clandfield and Duncan Foord http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jan03/mart2.htm Motivating Teenagers – Article and activities By Jo Budden http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/motivate_teens.shtml sing the phonetic chart with young learners – Article and activities By Nicola Meldrum http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/pron/young_phonemic.shtml Teaching One to One – Article and activities By Nicola Meldrum, with activities by Lindsay Clandfield http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/onetoone.htm Teaching without a coursebook - Article and ideas By Jennifer Goodman http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/no_book.shtml Using Pictures in the Classroom - Article and ideas By Jennifer Goodman http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/picture_story.shtml The Teachers Survival Kit – Article By Lindsay Clandfield and Duncan Foord http://www.its-teachers.com/voices/survival/default.asp Back to top of page
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