Alison - English courses

• Alison is a free online learning resource for basic and essential skills.  These are their English courses.

Autoenglish

• Useful site with many courses and resources, including videos

A to Z Teacher Stuff

• A teacher-created site with many resources (American)

BBC Skillswise English

• Free videos and downloadable worksheets to help adult learners improve their reading, writing, spelling and grammar

Beating Dyslexia

• A website created by three dyslexic adults to help others overcome their literacy difficulties, gain qualifications and function successfully in the workplace

Breaking News English

• Current events and news articles aimed at those learning English as a second language but useful for adult learners too. Also contains quizzes and other activities to practice listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling.

British Council - LearnEnglish

• Although this is for learners of English, this site contains useful and helpful material

Busy Teacher

• Free printable worksheets and lesson plans for teaching English (American site)

Dictionary.com

• A useful resource for English learners with an online dictionary and thesaurus, translation tool and interactive games

Do2Learn

• An American site offering thousands of free pages with social skills and behavioural regulation activities and guidance, learning songs and games, communication cards, academic material, and transition guides for employment and life skills

Education and Trainging Foundation

• Interactive literacy resources covering a wide range of activities (such as reading signs and understanding forms)

English for Everyone

• Skill building resources geared towards a range of English ability levels

GCF Global Reading Tutorials

• Tutorials from a global education charity

GuruParents

• Preschool education site aimed at parents but many of the available resources may be useful for literacy level 1 learners

How to Spell

• Here to help you learn, improve, or teach spelling with free lessons and exercises

NALA - Better Handwriting for Adults

• For adults who would like to improve their handwriting, adults who don’t write often or are unhappy with the way their handwriting looks.

NALA - Brushing Up

• YouTube playlist of short videos made by NALA to help you improve your spelling, grammar and punctuation

NALA: The Distance Learner

• A practical and topical worksheet for literacy and numeracy students

NALA - Getting Started in Adult Literacy and Numeracy A Tutor Training Resource Pack

• A guide for literacy and numeracy tutors with ideas and suggestions for lesson plans

NALA - Guidelines on the Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Adult Literacy Services

• An overview of national and international equality legislation and suggested guidelines for inclusive practice in the context of working with people with intellectual disabilities

NALA: Making Cents – A tutor’s guide to financial literacy

• A NALA resource and support for literacy tutors to enhance literacy skills and increase awareness of financial literacy. Although aimed at tutors, it can be used by everybody to help with managing money and making sense of financial products and services

NALA - A Plain English Guide to Financial Terms

• Financial terms and ideas explained and defined in plain English

NALA Putting Pen to Paper

• A writing workbook with tips and ideas for basic writing skills including exercises. The workbook can be used on your own or with the support of a tutor

NALA: The Really Useful Guide to Words and Numbers

• For adults who want to brush up on their reading, writing, spelling and numbers skills

NALA - Safe and Well

• A workbook, produced by FÁS and the National Adult Literacy Agency, with the support of the Health and Safety Authority, dealing with health and safety issues

NALA - Steps to Safety

• A workbook of exercises designed for students to improve their reading and writing skills through a workplace theme

NALA Write On: A Learning Support Journal

• Information about going back to learning, improving your skills, a personal dictionary and a learning journal.

National Educational Psychological Service - Effective Interventions for Struggling Readers

• A guide aiming to help teachers by sharing information about evidence-based approaches to teaching reading to struggling readers

News in Levels

• Another site offering current affairs and news written simply for English learners

OpenLearn Everyday English

• Free online courses for anyone wanting to improve their everyday literacy skills, developed by the Open University

Reading Skills for Today's Adults

• American site with lots of easy reading stories at a variety of levels with questions and supplemental material

Rewordify

• A site that helps you read better and develop your vocabulary by simplifying complex English into more easily understood pieces

SENTeacher - Printable Literacy Resources

• Free resources from a special needs education site

Sightwords

• A comprehensive site of activities, techniques, and materials for teaching literacy

Simple Wikipedia

• A version of Wikipedia written in plainer and simpler English aimed at students, children, adult learners, and people who are trying to learn English

Skills Workshop

• British site offering free adult literacy, numeracy and functional skills resources

Super Teacher Worksheets

• American site offering printable worksheets & activities for literacy and numeracy. Membership required for full access but many free worksheets

The Teachers Corner

• Free resources for teachers and parents

Teaching English - Teaching Resources

• English resources for teaching English to primary, secondary and adult learners from the British Council's online teaching community

TV411

• American site - worth a look at the engaging videos about reading that cover topics like reading newspapers, reading poems, summarising and even reading medicine labels

Understanding Your Bills

• Not a literacy resource as such, but many companies have a page on their website where they explain how to read and understand your bill.  Pages may contain sample bills and/or videos that explain what all the bits of your bill mean
  • Bord Gais
  • Energy Bills (Commission for Regulation of Utilities)
  • Sky
  • Tesco Mobile
  • Virgin Media
  • Vodafone (PDF file)

Understanding Your Payslip

• Page from IrishJobs.ie explaining the terms you’ll find on a standard Irish payslip

Write and Improve

• Practice and improve your writing skills, using new technology developed at the University of Cambridge to mark English writing accurately, in seconds(!)