Reading Resources for English Language Learners

Activities

All levels

ESL Quiz Zone

Comprehension quizzes

ESL Independent Study Lab: Reading 1

A links collection (similar to this page) organized by level (level 100, level 200); it's well annotated and includes some user reviews

ESL Independent Study Lab: Reading 2

A links collection (similar to this page) organized by level (level 300, level 400); it's well annotated and includes some user reviews

English Exercises Online

Reading and vocabulary activities

Independent Study Lab -- Reading

Links to Reading Activities at several levels

TOEFL Reading Comprehension

example texts and questions from ETS

UVic Study Center: Reading - Interactive reading with comprehension, summarizing, and gap-filling activities; by level...

• 200 (BASIC)
• 330 (BASIC, INTERMEDIATE)
• 410 (INTERMEDIATE)
• 490 (INTERMEDIATE, ADVANCED)
• 570 (ADVANCED)

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Basic

English 200 Reading Exercises

Comprehension; story re-creation; gap-filling

Happy New Years!

By Dennis Oliver, Dave's ESL Cafe

Multimedia Language Lab

Reading 1 (Easy)

Intermediate

English 330 Reading Exercises

Comprehension; story re-creation; gap-filling

Fluency through Fables

Folk tales and reading and vocabulary exercises

Gallaudet Reading exercises

Interactive comprehension questions on a series of essays about prominent deaf Americans

Multimedia Language Lab

Reading 2 (Intermediate)

Self-study Reading Comprehension

collected by Internet TESL Journal

Advanced

CNN San Francisco (ADVANCED)

Reading activities based on current news stories; includes audio, story outline, summary, and text as well as reading comprehension and vocabulary activities.

Multimedia Language Lab

Reading 3 (Advanced)

Online Reading Club

A group or 30 readers from around the world who read classics in English every 2 weeks and send reviews to each other via e-mail

Reading Comprehension from South China Morning Post

Two modes -- practice and test; more materials at this site

Who's Who and What's What

Daily comprehension questions for new York Times feature stories

...Reading Skills

• Essay reading
• Exams: remembering what you read
• Comprehension Strategies
• SQ3R (Survey/Question/Read/Recite/Review)
• Textbook reading

...Electronic texts

Electronic Literature: Collections

Yahoo's index

Impact Online

Reading texts by topic (social issues, health and fitness, world news, sports and entertainment); each text has linked definitions (and often digitized pronunciation) of key words, as well as links to related topics

Online Books Page

University of Pennsylvania has a remarkable collection of thousands of online texts; you can sort by author, title, or subject; you can search by title or author; you can examine several interesting 'special interest' features such as "Banned Books online" or "A Celebration of Woman Writers."

Things to Read

An unclassed collection of web-based reading materials of potential interest to English language learners

Voice of the Shuttle

UC Santa Barbara's extensive selection of literature, neatly separated into different categories

Drama

ESL Cafe Web Guide: Drama

links for English language learners

Drama

many resources from Carnegie-Mellon U's English page

News

Bangkok Post for English Language Learners

Feature articles from the Bangkok Post, a major Asian English Language newspaper, with background information, vocabulary notes, and reading skill suggestions

Ohio World News page

News in English from around the world

Poems

ESL Cafe Web Guide: Poetry

links for English language learners

Haiku for People

classical and contemporary poems using the 5-7-5 syllable haiku structure

Popular Poets

a good collection of links for English and American poets

Stories

Short Fiction

many resources from Carnegie-Mellon University's English page

Short Story Search

search or browse web story and poetry resources by author or title; English learners may like "The shortest shorts," their collection of very short stories, which are arranged by author, title, and theme.

Storybytes

a few VERY short stories (2 words (!) to 2048 words)

Songs

Yahoo Lyrics Page

many sources of song lyrics

SongFile

searchable database of thousands of songs

Interactive Fiction

Hyperizons -- Hypertext fiction

construct-your-own-stories

Interactive Fiction page

Yahoo's collection of links

Other

Short Fiction

many resources from Carnegie-Mellon University's English page

Master Works of Western Civilization

links to (English-language) texts of a number of classics of European thought, from ancient Greece to the first half of the twentieth century

Myths and Legends

directory of links, organized by region and language group

...Et cetera

Ex-Change

"writings of nonnative English speakers from all over the world"

Humor, Jokes, and Fun

Yahoo's index of sites

Projects by ESL Students

read some student writing

Speed Reading Self-Pacing Methods

Five simple methods for reading speed improvements