Teaching and writing materials for migrant learners in Australia
2025 Nov 04

Decodable readers for adult and young adult learners

Intro pic for decodable readers from ESL Reads

Decodable readers for adult (or young adult) multilingual learners, anyone? It sounds like an obvious part of a literacy program, but they are SO hard to write as relatable stories, with meaningful context. (I say that as someone who has tried – and given up!) So it was wonderful to discover that someone else has persisted – Lauren Piovesan, from … Continue reading

2025 Oct 16

Beach Safety: An updated ESOL resource list

Beach Safety resources Australia

Counting down to the release of the first four books in the new Read about Australia series, including one on Beach Icons… and it made me realise that it’s been a while since I looked at resources that focus on beach fun and beach safety. In fact, last time was in February 2018, so here’s my update. I’d love to … Continue reading

2024 Oct 04

Authentic cross-cultural stories for English language learners: an interview with Claire Kamber

Claire Kamber from Milpera Publishing

I’m always excited to see reading books that reflect the real-life experience of multilingual learners here in Australia. These stories for high school and young adult students are all about settling in, living a new life in a different environment, while missing parts of the old life…how to find a new sense of belonging. I hadn’t heard of Milpera Publishing, … Continue reading

2024 Feb 26

Where are they now? Australian ELT teacher-authors

All the teachers-turned-publishers whose resources we’ve loved over the years… Self-publishing is not for the faint-hearted. There’s more to it than creative fun, and there’s always the risk that it will become an expensive hobby, rather than a business. Yet teachers still do it, creating the resources they long for – but can’t find. In this post, I want to … Continue reading

2023 Nov 05

Australian EAL resources: What’s free? (an update)

Free Australian EAL resources 2023

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 … Continue reading

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