The Collegial Centre for Educational Materials Development (CCDMD) in Canada has quite a few nice “English Language Improvement” Resources, primarily for advanced English Language Learners.

I particularly like College English Prep Online, which provides audio support for the text and provides instruction on topics like symbolism, setting, and imagery. It’s appropriate for more advanced ELL’s, and I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning How To Write Response To Literature Essays.

Risky Roads lets you type in any address or city and then see the number of (and details about) any fatal accidents that have occurred nearby.

It can be a useful tool for when my students do their annual neighborhood analysis project.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Student Neighborhood Maps.

Cambridge English has an intriguing site called the Chinese Zodiac Zone that’s designed to help English Language Learners become familiar with idioms.

It’s probably most accessible to Intermediate ELL’s. It’s a little too complicated to explain in a post, but it’s easier to play. It’s certainly one of the most creative ways I’ve seen to teach idioms.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Idioms.

Ford Driving Skills is a site designed to help teenagers help develop safe-driving skills.

The language is relatively simple, there’s at least some audio support for the text, and it has engaging videos and simulations.

I’ve placed it on my website under Driving.

College Grazing is site designed to both encourage and prepare high school students to consider attending college.

There are a number of interactive surveys students can complete, and a lot of good information. It’s probably only accessible to advanced English Language Learners, though. Students also have to register for the site.

I’ve placed the link with other college prep sites on my website under Careers.

How Red Light Cameras Work is an interactive from the Los Angeles Times. It shows how cameras on traffic lights work to take pictures of cars that “run” red lights.

There’s actually a lot of good information in the animation, and users can slow it down by clicking on a step-by-step button. Intermediate English Language Learners would find it accessible, and, at least for my students, learning anything about driving is a high-interest lesson…

I’ve placed the link on my website under Driving.

Gimundo, which has the sub-heading “Good News…Served Daily,” provides only positive and upbeat news stories and videos. I wouldn’t make it the primary source of news for either my students or me, and, I have to admit, the idea of just sharing positive stories doesn’t feel right to me — I guess I prefer the real world.

However, I have to admit many of the stories are engaging, and are accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website in the News section.

Merriam-Webster Word Games is an impressive collection of about twenty different games accessible to various levels of English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.

Word Vine is a fun game where you basically have to create compound words. It’s probably most accessible to Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners.

Since it’s a Miniclip game, though, I don’t know how many School District content filters will actually allow it through, which is a problem with a number of other links on my website under Word and Video Games.

I’ve put asterisks next to the online video games that our District lets go through, but haven’t gotten around to doing that for the word games.

Where To Next? takes you on a short audio tour of the United Kingdom, and then you’re asked comprehension questions.

It’s accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Europe.