Online Tools for Language Teaching


The Online Tools for Language Teaching (OTLT) list below is not exhaustive and can be modified and updated in line with changes to existing tools and developments of new tools. Also, there are tools that can be listed in more than one category due to their integrated features.

-- This site was first created in November 2010 and is updated when needed.
-- The first version of this site was originally presented at GLoCALL 2010:
Son, J.-B. (2010, December). Online tools for language teaching: 5W1H. Plenary speech at the Globalization and Localization in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (GLoCALL) 2010 Conference, Le Meridien Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
-- An abridged version of the above plenary address appears in TESL-EJ published in June 2011:
Son, J.-B. (2011). Online tools for language teaching. TESL-EJ, 15(1). https://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume15/ej57/ej57int/ (pdf)
-- All web addresses are subject to change. Please use a search engine to locate it if you cannot find any particular website at the address given.

For a citation, please use the last updated date as follows:
Son, J.-B. (2023, December 19). Online tools for language teaching. https://drjbson.com/projects/tools/




Online Tools for Language Teaching

1. Learning/Content Management Systems

 

Canvas

https://www.instructure.com/canvas/

Open source LMS

Drupal

https://www.drupal.org/

Open source CMS

Joomla

https://www.joomla.org/

Open source CMS

Moodle

https://moodle.org/

Open source LMS

Sakai

https://www.sakaiproject.org/

Open source LMS

2. Communication

 

Gmail

https://mail.google.com/

E-mail

Skype

https://www.skype.com/

Chats

Zoom

https://zoom.us/

Cloud-based video communication

MyBB

https://mybb.com/

Forum

phpBB

https://www.phpbb.com/

Forum

3. Live and Virtual Worlds

 

ActiveWorlds

https://www.activeworlds.com/

3D virtual world

Second Life

https://secondlife.com/

3D virtual world

Twiddla

https://www.twiddla.com/

Virtual whiteboard

WizIQ

https://www.wiziq.com/

Virtual classroom

4. Social Networking and Bookmarking

 

Diigo

https://www.diigo.com/

Social bookmarking

Elgg

https://elgg.org/

Social networking

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/

Social networking

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/

Social networking

Ning

https://www.ning.com/

Social networking

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/

Professional network

X

https://twitter.com/

Information network

italki

https://www.italki.com/

Language learning community

Lang-8

https://lang-8.com/

Language learning community

5. Blogs and Wikis

 

Blogger

https://www.blogger.com/

Blog

Edublogs

https://edublogs.org/

Blog

WordPress.com

https://wordpress.com/

Blog

PBworks

https://www.pbworks.com/wikis.html

Wiki

Penzu

https://penzu.com/

Personal journal

6. Presentation

 

Animoto

https://animoto.com/

Video slideshows

Canva

https://www.canva.com/

Graphic design

Pixton

https://www.pixton.com/

Comic and storyboard creator

Powtoon

https://www.powtoon.com/

Animated videos

Prezi

https://prezi.com/

Presentation editor

Renderforest

https://www.renderforest.com/

Animations and videos

Zoho Show

https://www.zoho.com/show/

Creating and sharing

7. Resource Sharing

 

Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/

Documents

Zoho Writer

https://www.zoho.com/writer/

Documents

Box

https://www.box.com/

Files

Dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com/

Files

Google Drive

https://www.google.com/drive/

Files

VoiceThread

https://voicethread.com/

Group conversations

Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/

Photos

Google Photos

https://www.google.com/photos/

Photos

PodOmatic

https://www.podomatic.com/

Podcasts

Slideshare

https://www.slideshare.net/

Slides

SchoolTube

https://www.schooltube.com/

Videos

TeacherTube

https://www.teachertube.com/

Videos

VideoPress

https://videopress.com/

Videos

Vimeo

https://vimeo.com/

Videos

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/

Videos

8. Website Creation

 

Google Sites

https://sites.google.com/

Pre-built templates

Jimdo

https://www.jimdo.com/

Website editor

Mahara

https://mahara.org/

E-portfolio system

Movable Type

https://movabletype.org/

Weblog management

SnapPages

https://snappages.com/

Drag-and-drop

Webnode

https://www.webnode.com/

Website builder

Weebly

https://www.weebly.com/

Website builder

Wix

https://www.wix.com/

Website builder

9. Web Exercise Creation

 

Baamboozle

https://www.baamboozle.com/

Classroom games

ClassMarker

https://www.classmarker.com/

Web-based test maker

ContentGenerator

https://www.contentgenerator.net/

Flash-based

EdPuzzle

https://edpuzzle.com/

Interactive videos

ESLVideo.com

https://eslvideo.com/

ESL video quizzes

JClic

https://clic.xtec.cat/legacy/en/jclic/

Java platform

Hot Potatoes

https://hotpot.uvic.ca/

JavaScript authoring

Kahoot!

https://kahoot.com/

Game-based classroom response system

Lingt

https://www.lingt.com/

Spoken exercises

Listen and Write

https://www.listen-and-write.com/

Dictation exercises

Quia

https://www.quia.com/

JavaScript authoring

Quizlet

https://quizlet.com/

Creating free flashcards, games or quizzes

Quizzizz

https://quizizz.com/

Online quizzes

10. Web Search Engines

 

Bing

https://www.bing.com/

Decision engine

DuckDuckGo

https://duckduckgo.com/

No tracking its users

Google

https://www.google.com/

PageRank

Yahoo! Search

https://search.yahoo.com/

Yahoo! Slurp

11. Dictionaries and Concordancers

 

Dictionary.com

https://www.dictionary.com/

Free online

Merriam-Webster Online

https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Free online

YourDictionary.com

https://www.yourdictionary.com/

Free online

Howjsay

https://howjsay.com/

English pronunciation

Visuwords

https://visuwords.com/

Graphical dictionary

OneLook Dictionary Search

https://www.onelook.com/

Dictionary search

British National Corpus

https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/

English

Compleat Lexical Tutor

https://www.lextutor.ca/conc/

English and French

12. Utilities

 

Airtable

https://www.airtable.com/

Creating cloud spreadsheet-databases

CalculateMe

https://www.calculateme.com/

Conversion utility

Doodle

https://doodle.com/

Easy scheduling

ClustrMaps

https://clustrmaps.com/

Monitoring website traffic

Currency Converter

https://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

Currency calculator

Online converter

https://www.online-convert.com/

Converting media free

Google Earth

https://www.google.com/earth/

Virtual globe

Lesson Writer

https://www.lessonwriter.com/

Lesson plans

Lino

https://en.linoit.com/

Sticky notes

Storybird

https://storybird.com/

Collaborative storytelling

StoryJumper

https://www.storyjumper.com/

Creating storybooks

Cacoo

https://nulab.com/cacoo/

Collaborative diagramming

Mindmeister

https://www.mindmeister.com/

Mind mapping

Mindomo

https://www.mindomo.com/

Mind mapping

Popplet

https://www.popplet.com/

Mind mapping

Padlet

https://padlet.com/

Virtual wall

Remember the milk

https://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Task management

SurveyMonkey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/

Online survey

Voki

https://www.voki.com/

Speaking avatar

Tiki-Toki

https://www.tiki-toki.com/

Timeline maker

Time and Date

https://www.timeanddate.com/

Time zones

TinyURL.com

https://tinyurl.com/

URL shortening

W3C Link Checker

https://validator.w3.org/checklink/

Links and anchors

Wayback Machine

https://archive.org/web/web.php

Internet archive

WordArt.com

https://wordart.com/

Word clouds

WordClouds.com

https://www.wordclouds.com/

Word clouds