Welcome to the English
Toolbox web site.
English Toolbox is a
site offering over 1,000
ESL/EFL exercises,
worksheets, audio files
and lesson plans for
teachers of English as a
second/foreign
language. Most of our
materials cost 79¢ USD
via a monthly
subscription plan. So
why should you pay for
materials when there are
so many on the internet
for free? If you’ll
give us just a couple of
minutes to read the rest
of this page, we think
you’ll see the
advantages our site
offers.
Let’s start by looking
at some of the
differences between
English Toolbox and the
others on the internet
today. Certainly, there
are many good free
exercises on the web.
The problem is trying to
find something specific
among the dozens of
sites out there. For
example, if you had an
advanced level class of
businessmen and wanted
to review conjunctions,
how would you find a
suitable exercise to
give them? Free sites
rarely have a search
engine, and what you do
find may not be really
at an advanced level, or
may not use business
language, or both:
English Toolbox has a
search engine that
narrows the search down
to very specific
parameters. Run this
experiment yourself and
time it, and see how
long it takes you to
find even one
appropriate exercise (if
you can even find
one!).
If you do find one,
check how many questions
are contained within the
exercise (English
Toolbox always has at
least 12). What is the
format (all of our
exercises are available
in both Word and
interactive HTML format
so the student can
practice after class on
his/her own PC)? Is it
Business English or
General English (our
exercises are
specifically designed
for each category)? Is
there an answer key for
the teacher? Finally,
how would you judge its
overall quality in terms
of student level,
difficulty and content
validity? In other
words, have you just
spent a lot of your own
time searching for an
exercise that you then
decide you can’t use in
your classroom? This is
very often the final
result of such a search
of free web sites,
whereas we have never
received a single
complaint about the
quality of our materials
from any of our
customers.
In the area of Business
English, English Toolbox
offers more exercises on
skills like meetings,
negotiations and
presentations—for both
intermediate and
advanced levels—than any
other sites we’ve seen
over the years. In
addition, we have
specific exercises
devoted to English for
finance, English for
logistics, medical
English, etc. Again,
someone could search for
and perhaps even find
free exercises on these
topics if they had an
abundance of free time,
but it takes only
seconds to locate them
on English Toolbox.
Finally, when a teacher
gets an exercise from a
free site, it’s usually
a PDF with logos from
the publisher splashed
all over it… it’s
clearly something they
downloaded from the
internet. Our exercises
are clean: the teacher
can modify, re-brand
with a name or logo, or
do whatever he/she wants
with it (except re-sell
it). We believe this
has a value that sets it
apart from something
photocopied from a book
or grabbed off the
internet.
What we’re selling is
meant to be used in
conjunction with, not as
a replacement for,
what’s already available
on other sites. What we
offer is convenience,
specificity and speed in
searching for
materials. We think
that it’s worth the 79
cents we charge for an
exercise to save 20, 30
or whatever number of
minutes searching for
something that may end
up being inadequate for
the teacher’s needs.
That wasted time is
usually the teacher’s
time, not his or her
employer’s time, so the
employer ends up getting
a lot of free time from
the teacher for lesson
planning. Would you
teach English for $2.37
an hour? We hope not!
Yet that’s the price you
are putting on your time
when you spend 20
minutes searching for or
writing a new exercise
for your classes,
compared to buying one
for 79 cents from
English Toolbox! With
our detailed search
engine, you can find
exercises on any grammar
or business skills topic
in about ten seconds.
Then select and
download, and it’s yours
to use and keep
forever! You’re a
hardworking teaching
professional: isn’t it
time you started working
smart instead of working
hard?
Those who disagree can,
of course, continue to
avail themselves of the
free resources; however,
our customers have told
us they appreciate the
quality, quantity and
variety of the exercises
they’ve found on English
Toolbox, and that they
save a great deal of
time by using it (not
just “work time,” but
evening and weekend time
as well). Some people
think that’s worth
paying for.
