Jump to:

Dictionaries and Reference Works
Old and Middle English
English as a Second Language
• Lessons
• Software
• Examinations
• Organizations
• Literacy
• Links to ESL sites
Phonetics
Dialects and Slang
Publications
Banned Books

• Merriam-Webster Online. A searchable version of the desktop reference.
• Dictionary of Old English, University of Michigan.
• Wordnet, a lexical database in which English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into sets of synonyms, each of which represents a single lexical concept.
• Roget's Thesaurus, a searchable database of synonyms for words and phrases.
• Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus, a searchable database of synonyms for words and phrases, displayed in three-dimensional clusters. Requires a Java enabled browser.
• The Newbury House Online Dictionary, a searchable database with definitions, sample sentences, idioms, and cultural facts and figures. The dictionary is linked to a photo database, enabling browsing and searching by picture.
• Oxford English Dictionary Online - available only to users at Brown University

Language and Linguistics

• Dictionary of Old English: Old English Corpus, University of Michigan. (Available only to users at Brown University.)
• Lessons in Old English, from the Department of Medieval Studies, Brown University.
• Middle English Library, with works by Chaucer, Dunbar, Gower, Henryson, Langland, Layamon, the Paston Family and others, Humanities Text Initiative, University of Michigan.
• Old English Literature, from the Labyrinth Library project at Georgetown University. Poetry, prose, liturgical texts and references.
• The Corpus of Electronic Texts at the University College Cork, and resources on Irish, Middle English and Hiberno-English.
• Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Department, Cambridge University.

Fonts

• Font Pack - the Old English Program Website at the University of Virginia.
• Everson Mono Icelandic - Evertype.

English as a Second Language

Lessons

• Grammar for English Language Learners, Ohio University.
• Instant Lessons, English language training materials at the intermediate level, based on news articles from Reuters.
• BBC on-line tools for learning English.

Software

• A Place to Start in Selecting Software, a guide to analyzing programs that tutor students in English as a Second Language, by Deborah Healey, Oregon State University and Norman Johnson, Lane Community College.

Examinations

• Information about the TOEFL, Test of English as a Foreign Language, required by many universities of applicants whose first language is not English.

Organizations

• TESOL, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, providing educational materials and networking opportunities for members of the profession.
• NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, which promotes the exchange of students and scholars to and from the United States.
• Association of Departments of English, a group of departments of English, writing programs, and divisions of humanities in higher education.
• Adult ESL Literacy and Language Education (Center for Applied Linguistics).

Literacy

• Writing from the Field, a site for members and friends of the adult education community dedicated to the exchange of ideas, articles, and reflections on adult learning and teaching, community development and literacy generally. Swearer Center for Public Service, Brown University.

Links to ESL Sites

• Intensive English Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, providing opportunities and resources for non-native English speakers.
• "Links of interest to students and teachers of English as a second language" (The Internet TESL Journal)

• The Foreign Accent Archive presents recordings of speakers of English from many native language backgrounds and allows users to phonetically analyze non-native pronunciation of English. George Mason Univeristy.
• International Dialects of English Archive, a repository of primary source recordings of English speakers from around the world speaking a single passage in their various accents. University of Kansas.
• Canadian pronunciation with audio clips.

 

• The Creolist Archives, research and resources on English Creoles of Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. Stockholm University (Mirror Site).\

Dialects and Slang

• The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) documents those words, pronunciations, and phrases that vary from one region of the U.S. to another. University of Wisconsin.
• American Dialect Links.
• American Slanguages, a compilation of regional slang.

• The Vocabula Review, a monthly journal about the state of the English language.

Banned Books

• The top 100 banned or challenged books of 1990-2000. Compiled by the American Library Association.

Back to the top!