About
ESL Materials.
An independent resource hub built by a CELTA-certified ESL teacher. We test every platform we recommend in real classrooms, disclose affiliate relationships, and update our reviews when tools change.
ESL Materials at a glance
Curation
Long-form guides & reviews
Honest, in-depth, classroom-tested.
Testing
30+ day audit
Each platform used in real classes first.
Audience
ESL teachers
Adult ed, corporate, online.
Cadence
Quarterly reviews
Active recommendations re-tested.
Save teachers the hours they lose triaging resources.
ESL Materials exists for one reason: to save ESL teachers the hours they lose every week searching for, evaluating, and triaging teaching resources. The platform was built by a teacher who has spent years doing exactly that — and decided to publish the curation instead of keeping it private.
We do not list every ESL resource on the web. We list the ones a working teacher would actually recommend to a colleague after using them in real classrooms. The shortlist is the value. The reasoning behind each recommendation is what makes it trustworthy.
Our goal is not to be the largest ESL site. It is to be the one a teacher trusts when they have 30 minutes to prep for tomorrow's class and need to make a confident decision about a platform, a worksheet library, or an AI tool.
Six steps before any platform makes the shortlist.
- 01
Personal subscription
We pay for premium tiers with our own money to test from a regular teacher's perspective.
- 02
Content sampling
We audit representative guides and worksheets across diverse levels to evaluate depth.
- 03
Real classroom run
We teach with the resource in our own courses and track engagement, rhythm, and feedback.
- 04
Multi-week durability
Two weeks of lessons minimum — to ensure value beyond a single novelty class.
- 05
Comparative review
We measure the platform against free and premium alternatives to verify the pricing.
- 06
Quarterly audits
When pricing, features, or layouts change, reviews are updated within 30 days.
We follow Google's E-E-A-T framework.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — applied to every recommendation.
Experience
Every recommendation comes from real classroom use, not from a press release or sponsored placement.
Expertise
Content is written or reviewed by a CELTA-certified teacher with experience across adult ed, corporate, and immigrant programs.
Authoritativeness
We link to primary sources (Cambridge, IELTS, TOEFL) for any factual claim about certifications or methodology.
Trustworthiness
We disclose every affiliate relationship, every sponsorship, and every free sample. No invented statistics.
Run by one person, audited by experience.
ESL Materials is currently run by one person: Thomas Gueguen, a CELTA-certified ESL teacher with classroom experience across adult education, corporate training, and immigrant language programs. He writes every review personally and tests every platform himself.
As the site grows, we will bring in guest contributors with specific expertise (exam prep, young learners, EdTech). Every guest contribution will be clearly labeled and reviewed against the same editorial guidelines.
Affiliate disclosure
ESL Materials participates in affiliate programs with Teach-This, ESL Brains, ZenGengo, Crystal Clear ESL (opens in new tab), and others. When you sign up through a link on this site, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This income keeps the site running — it does not influence our reviews, and we have turned down partnerships with platforms we would not use in our own classrooms.
Have a correction, a suggestion,
or a platform worth auditing?
For corrections, suggestions, partnership inquiries, or to share your own classroom experience with a platform we have reviewed.