I just answered an email enquiry about free resources – and realised that my last post on this topic was 5 years ago… oops. So I’ll do a quick update, and I hope you’ll let me know if I’ve missed anything. Of course, there are gazillions of ‘free ESL worksheets’ online, but I’m sticking to Australian resources aimed at adult learners. I do think that (at lower levels in particular) it’s so helpful for learners to have that input on local information, culture and language usage. Free reading books   (Since I’m writing this post, I’ll start with mine…) My beginner reading book: My Jo ..read more

How things change! Back in March 2022 I talked to Lauren Piovesan about her new readers. The stories offered terrific cultural and language support for learners with low literacy / refugee background, at four reading levels. She had so many plans and goals for her ESL Reads project, and such a lot has happened since then, including an expansion of her target audience… Lauren, I keep seeing positive comments from AMEP teachers… That’s right! As the project expanded, I realised that my books spoke to all ages. So while my focus started as 16-25, I’ve been including topics that both young ad ..read more

In this blog post I interview Helga Burry, as the third book in her Let’s Connect series is now out! The subtitle is: ‘An Australian ESL Grammar Workbook’, offering carefully scaffolded grammar explanation and practice, with Australian dialogues and content. Big congratulations, Helga! I know how much work has gone into this. Helga, this is the third book. Remind us about the others… The first two grammar books in the Let’s Connect series cover present tense, past tense and the present and past continuous tenses, as well as the future and First Conditional. After these books were pub ..read more

Today I’m going to interview myself wearing my ‘other hat’!  I usually post about English language resources, but today I thought I’d write about my other personal passion project, in case you’ve seen the Unforgettable Notes page on my website and wondered what that’s all about… So Clare, who or what is Unforgettable Notes? That’s the pen-name I chose when I started creating books for people living with concentration difficulties or memory loss. I began with guest books (to help people who forget visits), and then puzzle books (you know about my obsession with accessible word puzzles) … a ..read more

Have you seen the new reading books from Urban Lyrebirds, by Carmel Davies and Sharon Duff?  These are the Sing with me stories, a series of 10 reading books, matched to the Sing with me! 1 songs and workbooks. They’re available in paperback and pdf versions, with audio online. Each story is at two levels in the one book, (that’s beginner and post-beginner)… but they’re not just stories: they have some fantastically useful features. I realise it’s been over two years since I talked to Carmel about their May Street Readers, so I was happy to have the chance to chat with Sharon last we ..read more

You’ll know Bernard Miles from his ‘English Express’ workbook and website. His latest resource, ‘My Busy Day’ , is also for beginners, and it’s all about different jobs. When I tried ‘The Barista’ in my Course in EAL class, it was a perfect level! While some words were completely new for learners (like customer, serve, wipe), they picked them up really quickly. I’m guessing they had immediate relevance. So I asked Bernard if he’d share a little about the project… Bernard, describe ‘My Busy Day’ for us! ‘My Busy Day’ is a 162-page eBook for beginner learners of English. There are 36 short ..read more

English for Swimming! You’ve hopefully already seen the free-to-download resource, or read about Michelle Cowan’s work at Navitas Skilled Futures, creating an English for Swimming Program that anyone can use. It’s so accessible and appealing and the program was highly commended in the 2020 NSW Humanitarian Awards…and I was fortunate enough to be able to ask Michelle some questions about it: Michelle, how did this all begin? I know you’re a swimming instructor as well as an English teacher and learning designer, but what made you think of this resource? Covid! The English for Swimming Program s ..read more

New reading books for English language learners! This time they’re digital, ready-to-print books for young adult learners of English, based on author Lauren Piovesan’s work with low literacy, refugee background learners in schools. She’s also been an AMEP volunteer tutor, and you can see her awareness of issues that learners face in her books at eslreads.com Lauren, tell us what got you started on the writing path? Who inspired you? My work got me started! Being an EAL teacher with that adolescent cohort, I found myself writing so many texts. There weren’t many resources out there, and I wante ..read more

Chris Malakar, Anne Dunn and Moira Hanrahan I have my own set of ‘yellow Pageturners’, which I love so much – and of course we have all the colours in our college library. They are genuinely funny, they make me want to keep reading…and yet they’re so simple and accessible. So I was excited to be able to ask Anne Dunn, one of the team, some questions: Anne, how long is it now since you published the first Pageturners? Almost twenty years, I think (which is hard to believe.) That’s a long time! How many are there now? There are around 80 titles — and more in production — and they’re sold al ..read more

I was excited to hear that Bernard Miles had finished his English Express Beginner Workbook – and that it’s in eBook format, printable, but also ready for any teaching online that we may ever have to do. It’s so gloriously visual and even comes with animated videos. (I can’t imagine how much work that has been.) I asked Bernard to share a bit of the background to this project. If you want to take a look at the workbook, there are sample lessons ­– plus a whole free chapter – online. Bernard, tell us about yourself. Where do you work? I’m in Sydney, currently working as a freelance learning des ..read more