First published on 29.9.25

ESOL teaching resources for building grammar and vocabulary

This curated collection of web-based resources helps ESOL teachers to build their learners’ grammar and vocabulary skills with confidence. Featuring interactive tools, activities, and online dictionaries, there are resources for classroom or independent use. Support your learners with effective, engaging content designed to boost English language development at all levels. Ideal for ESOL teaching.

Link

Activities for ESL students
This website offers crosswords and quizzes at different levels for ESL learners. Also has bilingual quizzes for learning vocabulary.

Go to
Link

All Things Topics
Free printable PDF lesson plans, word banks, quizzes and games for EFL/ESOL teachers and learners

Go to
Link

BBC Learning English - Real Easy English
Real conversations in easy English to help you learn English. BBC Learning English presenters talk about a new topic each week and explain words to help you learn.

Go to
Link

BBC Skillswise English for Adults
Activities to improve reading, writing, spelling,and grammar. Videos and downloadable worksheets

Go to
Link

Books Unbound
This is a US based website aimed at children, but it has some useful information about different ESOL communities, and word lists in 5 different languages. (Pashto, Karen S’Gaw, Spanish, Rohingya and Dari). The word lists are free and there are links to culturally referenced books to buy.

Go to
Link

Dave's ESL Cafe
Includes a bank of grammar lessons and lesson plans, with a focus on phrasal verbs and idioms. Also provides a useful teaching community for ESL teachers around the world.

Go to
Link

Education and Training Foundation: ESOL
ESOL resources that were on the Excellence Gateway. Includes Grammar and Skills work for reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Go to
Link

English 4U
Grammar and Vocabulary exercises. including free downloadable grammar e-books. Good for self-study homework activities for learners.

Go to
Link

English Banana
Free printable resources for ESOL and ESL. Includes worksheets, books, podcasts, videos, learning material, and other resources for ESOL teaching and learning. Lots of material at different levels on grammar, vocabulary, reading, speaking and listening.

Go to
Link

English Club
ESL resources, some of which are suitable for ESOL. Includes a useful glossary of English grammar terms.

Go to
Link

ESL Video
ESL Video offers free online English listening and grammar activities, free teaching material, the ESL Video quiz maker tool to create video-based listening and gap-fill quizzes.

Go to
Link

ESOL Courses
Free online English lessons, including resources and activities. Some nice resources on Life in the UK and British Culture.

Go to
Link

FlashAcademy
This is a paid learning platform, but you can try it for free and it provides some good free resources, including Grammar videos and worksheets. Can be used as part of classes or by learners individually online.

Go to
Link

Games to Learn English
Games to play online. Aimed at children but some are relevant to adults.

Go to
Link

Games4esl
Useful free resources for teaching lower levels with ppt games, board games, worksheets, flashcards, a Youtube channel. Adaptable for adults, though originally designed for children.

Go to
Link

Kahoot
Set games and challenges that learners can play on their phones or tablets remotely.

Go to
Link

Learning Chocolate
Learning with chocolate is a user friendly site – really useful for both teachers and students (self study) – you choose either US or UK voices / pronunciation. You can change the language of instructions to match your students

Go to
Link

Learning English with Cambridge
Online activities for adult and young people. ESOL teachers can select downloadable materials by level and topic, including grammar.

Go to
Link

Learning Unlimited
A range of resources, some free and some commercial. They include reading books at different levels and resources targeted specifically at refugees and asylum seekers.

Go to
PDF
740kB

METRO Yorkshire slang quiz
A quiz on Yorkshire slang from Metro newspaper. Good to use with higher level learners, or use it in conjunction with the LearnEnglishPlus Yorkshire dialect resources.

Download
PDF
739kB

Phrasal verbs chart
A chart of informal phrasal verbs in English with pictures and definitions.

Download
Link

Road to Grammar
Grammar lessons and worksheets. Useful conversation handouts with vocabulary.

Go to
Link

Skills Workshop
Adult ESOL, maths and English resources. From beginner and Entry Level to Level 2

Go to
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way - Cooking and Food Resources
Resources developed by MESH to provide ESOL tutors with a selection of activities to teach about cooking and food.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way - Health Care in England
Resources developed by MESH to complement the Healthcare in England literature, which was developed to give new arrivals in the UK or those who don’t speak English an understanding of how to access healthcare services in their local area.

View page
Link

Teach English the Yorkshire Way - Video-based Resources
Resources created by MESH to showcase initiatives in Yorkshire & Humber that support migrants. These resources focus on food support services, enrolling at college and learning English outside the classroom, through activities such as gardening. The series uses film as a central resource, developing slides and lesson plans that help ESOL teachers to deliver classes focused on these issues in Yorkshire & Humber.

Go to
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way - Working in the UK Toolkit
Resources developed by MESH to complement the ‘Working in the UK Toolkit’ document produced by Migration Yorkshire. This document has been produced to help people understand how to find work in the UK.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Childcare Choices
Resources developed by MESH to help familiarise learners with the Childcare Choices website. This is a government website that tells parents and others about childcare provision and what people are entitled to.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Council Services
Resources developed by MESH to help familiarise learners with Council services and local council websites.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Dialect Poem
A Yorkshire Dialect poem written by Migration Yorkshire, including resources for teaching with it, audio files and an overview with teaching notes. This resource will help learners to get accustomed to the sound of region-specific terms, and how they sit in a sentence.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Enrolling at College
This Learning Resource is focused on enrolling for a course at an FE college.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: ESOL Outside the Classroom
This Learning Resource is focused on the ways you can learn English by doing things outside of a classroom. The resource includes a film made by MESH at Sunflower ESOL, which is an ESOL and gardening group at Catch, Leeds.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Foodbanks & Food Support
This Learning Resource is focused on local food support. The resource includes a film made by MESH that showcases The Branch, a food share initiative in Huddersfield.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: How the NHS Works
Resources developed by MESH to complement the ‘How the NHS Works – Guide for Migrants’ document produced by Bevan Healthcare. This document has been produced to help people understand how to navigate the healthcare system.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Progression Pathways
ESOL teachers focusing on learner progression into work and further study can use this participatory resource in the classroom. It is designed to support learners to understand where they are and where it is possible for them to go on their journey after and alongside ESOL learning. This is the current resource to accompany MESH’s ‘Progression Pathways’ project.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Theatre Resource
This resource focuses on the tradition of going to the Theatre and particularly Pantomimes around Christmas time.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Visitors Map Resource
Resources developed by MESH for use with Visitors maps. It can be adapted for use with any city’s Visitors Map. The aim of this resource is to help learners interact with the map by focusing on key vocabulary and information within it.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Volunteering
Resources developed by MESH to complement various volunteering websites with the aim of giving learners an idea of what opportunities are available in their local area, what skills are useful for different opportunities, and the language that will help them understand literature about volunteering.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: Warm Spaces
In this Learning Resource we focus on the provision of Warm Spaces – what they are and how you can access them in different areas of Yorkshire and Humber. Warm Spaces are also known as Welcome Spaces.

View page
Web page

Teach English the Yorkshire Way: What's on?
Resources developed by MESH to give learners an understanding of activities and events in their area and encourages them to engage with ‘What’s on?’ websites.

View page
Link

The English Hub for Refugees
Materials developed to help support refugees with the topics they need to know about at a variety of different levels, from A1 with literacy to B1+. (E1 – E3+). Plus grammar and vocabulary resources.

Go to
Link

The Teacher's Corner
Printable worksheets and a useful crossword puzzle maker resource for vocabulary lessons.

Go to
Link

Topic Dictionaries at Oxford Learning
Subject specific dictionaries based around different topics. Useful for building vocabulary!

Go to
Link

UsingEnglish.com
UsingEnglish.com is a general English language site specialising in English as a Second Language (ESL). They host a large collection of tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics. Incluudes useful idioms lists, including British English idioms and phrasal verbs.

Go to
Link

Wordtips
Word Finder, Grammar activities and Word lists to help with English learning and teaching.

Go to
Link

Wordwall
Games and quizzes for learning vocabulary, created by teachers. 5 free resources to create, then subscription required. Pre-created resources free to use.

Go to
Link

Writefix.com
Improve writing skills with clear examples and strategies, ideal for IELTS students, teachers, and academic English learners. Argument essays, graphs, other writing, and speaking for IELTS, PET, and TOEFL.

Go to