LibGuides: Open Educational Resources (OER): English Language Learners

Open Resources

These textbooks have been created for free use in courses. These resources may be adopted for use as classroom text, modified to create new texts (if licensing allows), or used as a supplemental learning tool to aid in understanding key concepts.

For Students

Communication Beginnings: An Introductory Listening and Speaking Text for English Language Learners by Della Jean Abrahams
Publication Date: 2017
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
This textbook is designed for advanced beginning-intermediate English language learners in an academic English program. It is composed of 7 chapters, each of which covers specific speaking and listening learning objectives and includes dialogues, interviews, discussions and conversation activities. The textbook includes an audio component that consists of recorded conversations of native and non-native English speakers, as well as links to additional listening resources on the web.
College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success by Barbara Hall
Publication Date: 2018
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This textbook is designed as a comprehensive grammar and writing etext for high intermediate and advanced level non-native speakers of English.
Transition with Purpose: Pathways from English Language to Academic Study
Publication Date: 2018
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
An open text designed to help guide students through their English language study towards academic degree studies.
Writing for Success by University of Minnesota Libraries (Adapted by)
ISBN: 9781946135285
Publication Date: 2015-10-27
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This textbook provides instruction in writing, reading, and critical thinking; in addition to a comprehensive grammar review that introduces students to paragraph writing and composition.

For ELL Educators

Conventions 101: A Functional Approach to Teaching (And Assessing!) Grammar and Punctuation
License: CC BY-NC
An open text that discusses conventional errors common to student writing, and how to approach teaching with these in mind.
Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction by Beth L. Hewett & Kevin Eric DePew (Editors)
ISBN: 9781602356672
Publication Date: 2015
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction addresses administrators' and instructors' questions for developing online writing programs and courses. Written by experts in the field, this book uniquely attends to issues of inclusive and accessible online writing instruction in technology-enhanced settings, as well as teaching with mobile technologies and multimodal compositions.
Writing for Change: An Advanced ELL Resource by Inés Poblet
Publication Date: 2021
License: CC BY 4.0
This book has been a part of my pandemic journey with a goal of building English language learner resources, gathering up what I have learned about anti-racist, culturally responsive, and decolonization approaches.

Business English
License: CC BY 4.0
From Skills Commons, a collection of online course materials for use in a Business English Course.
Intro to Academic Writing for ESOL
License: CC BY-NC-SA
This course is a review of the writing process and development of the essay. It covers descriptive, narrative, process, and comparison/contrast essays.
UCI Open
The University of California - Irvine has a large collection of openly licensed courses available for the public to use, licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

Below are locations where you may find novels and nonfiction books that are openly licensed or in the public domain, available for use in courses or for your own enjoyment.

LibriVox
LibriVox is a site of free, public domain audiobooks read and submitted by volunteers worldwide. Users can listen to, download, and share the audiobooks.
HathiTrust
A partnership between major research institutions and public library to preserve the cultural record - nearly 10 million volumes digitized.

Project Gutenberg This link opens in a new window
Freely available ebooks. Downloadable.

American English - U.S. State Department
The U.S. State Department has an online resource center for teaching and learning about American English language and culture. It contains a variety of materials for use in the classroom. Unless a copyright is indicated, the information contained within this site generally lies in the public domain.
USAHello
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
An online center for information and education for refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and welcoming communities