Stanford
TeachingWriting

Resources for Students

Bechtel International—Bechtel International holds events, classes, and workshops for all members of the Stanford community. Cooking classes and other events provide opportunities for community members to practice English and share their cultural experiences. Bechtel also provides practical resources on topics such as Visas and employment.

English for Foreign Students—Stanford EFS is Stanford's ESL program for graduate students. Only selected graduate students are required to take English placement tests which determine which, if any, ESL courses they should take. EFS also runs TA training.

English Forums (https://www.englishforums.com/)

This is the largest online ESL network. It gives students the opportunity to discuss concerns, share experiences, or ask language questions.

Glasman-Deal, Hilary. Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English. London: Imperial College Press, 2010. (online)

This practical guide for ELL in the sciences is available in online form through Stanford Libraries. While it may promote a fairly rigid style of writing, it provides students with strategies and forms they can use immediately in their graduate science courses. It is also useful to graduate students outside STEM fields. It includes lists of commonly used academic terms.

OWL at Purdue (www.owl.purdue.edu) 

The OWL at Purdue is an easily accessible grammar resource for English Language Learners. It also includes a section aimed specifically at ESL students.

T.E.A—Thursday English Afternoons, at the Hume Center

A Hume writing tutor and OCT lead casual English language conversations on Thursday afternoons at 4pm in Hume. This conversation group is open to all community members.

TOEFL TV (https://www.youtube.com/user/TOEFLtv/playlists)

The TOEFL TV playlists include videos on a variety of topics to help students improve their English language skills.

Voice and Articulation Intensive for Non-Native Speakers (OralComm 105).

Tom Freeland offers this 1-2 unit course in Oral Communication. It is available for credit/no-credit and is repeatable for credit.

Using English (http://www.usingenglish.com/)

The reference section of this site useful linguistic references such as lists of idioms and irregular verbs.