ESL / EFL Resources

Especially tailored to non-native speakers, these resources supplement our other links on Academic Writing.

1. Writing for American Academic Audiences

Writing for an American Academic Audience (Purdue)

Conventions of "academic writing" differ from culture to culture. Learn about expectations of American academic audiences here.

Cultural Perspectives on Plagiarism (Washington State)

Conventions of what constitutes plagiarism also differ from culture to culture. Read this site for an appreciation of some of those differences.

Using Appropriate Language (Purdue)

Certain kinds of writing/language use are appropriate in some contexts but not others. This website helps sort out what writing styles are appropriate for different situations.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Bartleby)

"Common knowledge" and "cultural literacy" vary from culture to culture. The entries in this dictionary center on material that most American high school students encounter by their senior year.

2. Grammar Help

Guide to Grammar and Writing (Capital Community College)
A Writing Studio favorite, this website offers grammar and usage advice from A ("A, An, The") to Z ("Zero articles"), with links to quizzes that test your grammar knowledge and provide explanations for answers.

ESL Common Errors Workbook (Penguin)

This Penguin Handbook offers tutorials and interactive practice for avoiding common ESL errors.

8 Common ESL Errors—and How to Correct Them (Hougton Mifflin)
This website explains common patterns of grammatical errors among ESL writers. It shows how to correct the errors, and it provides links to quizzes so you can test your understanding.

ESL Writing Errors (Gallaudet)

Some grammatical errors are more problematic than others. This website will help you decide what types of errors demand more attention.

Articles (UNC)

Studies show that articles are among the hardest grammatical units to learn in English. In some contexts, readers might be willing to "read past" article errors; in other contexts, they might not. To strengthen your understanding of article usage, check out this detailed method from UNC's Writing Center.

Help Center at Dave's ESL Café
Ask ESL questions online and receive answers from ESL tutors,

courtesy of Dave's ESL Café.

3. Learners' Dictionaries

Monolingual learners' dictionaries assist learners of a foreign language by providing more detailed information about definitions, usage, collocations, grammar, synonyms, countability, etc., than one can find in a bilingual dictionary or a dictionary designed for native speakers. Useful online learners' dictionaries include:

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online

4. Vocabulary: The Academic Word List

The Academic Word List (Massey University)

Averil Coxhead developed the Academic Word List, comprised of 570 word families chosen for their frequency in an academic corpus. Click on the site's links to explore the headwords and sublists.

Vocabulary Exercises for the Academic Word List (Victoria)
Gerry Luton of the Univrsity of Victoria created these vocabulary exercises for the Academic Word List (AWL).

5. Additional Resources

ESL Student Resources (UNC)
The UNC Writing Center offers handouts on a variety of topics of interest to ESL writers.