The esl materials on this site have now formed the heart of three different sites. In January 2001, I started a MSN Communities site called 'Easy Lesson Plans' which was perfect except for the fact that users weren't able to download the materials! "Thanks Bill Gates", I said, and moved on.

So the site was recreated on GeoCities under the same 'Easy Lesson Plans' name where it thrived successfully for around 5 months from March 2001 with a thousand visits a day on weekdays.

I bought the esl-lounge.com domain name in the early summer of 2001 as I wanted to do more with the idea than was possible under GeoCities (including trying to make the site pay its way).

So this site was launched in July 2001 but the idea is a little older. For those who have followed the site across the web to its final resting place, thank you for your patience.

Any purchase made from this site helps to keep it on-line and free

How do I know if something has been added since my last visit?

The best way to keep up to date with the site is to subscribe to the newsletter. For more information on that, go to the newsletter page or read on in this FAQ.

What's this newsletter I heard about?

The esl-lounge.com newsletter enables site visitors to know what the latest additions and developments on the site are.

Know what new materials have been added without having to visit the site every day to see for yourself.
Read up to date articles on ESL.
Get more tips on using the materials on the site.

And all for the low price of free. Just subscribe. You can unsubscribe any time you want and our privacy policy guarantees your contact information will not be passed on to any third parties.

Will it be a problem if I don't have Word97 or better?

Over 90% of the esl materials on this site are presented as normal web pages which you can save onto your computer and print off as web pages as you like. A lot of the board games have been kept in Word format and you will need at least Word97 to view them. If you don't have Word97, save the files onto a floppy disc and print them off on another computer which does have Word97.

You are also advised to paste the rest of the materials into a word processor program for ease of editing and printing.

For more on this, see what's written on the Site Guide on this subject.

How can I print the materials on the site?

Most of the materials on the site have a "Printable Page" link at the top. Clicking this, you should be taken to a more printer-friendly version of the page without the graphics and formatting. If you have any problems with this, contact us here at the site.

I have my own website now, so can I put your materials on it if I say a big thank you to you?

Er, actually, no! We here at esl-lounge are very serious about protecting the hard work that has gone into the creation of the materials on this site and have no intention of losing it all to someone who knows how to cut and paste with a mouse.

First, you should view our copyright policy. All copyrighted materials are clearly marked with a copyright symbol.

You are free to download all the materials, photocopy them as many times as you like and use them in your own institution. Anything more than that requires the express permission of us at esl-lounge.com. Those found to be copying resources onto other web sites will get one warning before the relevant hosting company is contacted. We don't like being so strict on this, but we will do what is necessary to protect our work.

In these days of increasingly powerful and hi-tech search engines, tracking down our materials to other sites is surprisingly easy. Those wishing to infringe our copyright have been warned.

Can I add my own materials?

If you want to add something to the body of materials already here, e-mail them to us and, if appropriate, we will put them on the site and give you full authoring credit and ownership rights (i.e. you can take it off whenever you like and put it on any other sites you want - unlike our materials).

What's the best browser to view esl-lounge.com?

This site should view well in all flavours of Internet Explorer and Netscape. If you are using one of these browsers and you see something which looks a little amiss, let us know please.

Tell me something about the site creator.

My name is Neil Coghlan and I created esl-lounge.com in the early summer of 2001. I am a teacher from London, UK who teaches in Cagliari, Sardinia a beautiful island in Italy. I have taught in Greece, Prague, Copenhagen, Madrid, Russia and Italy. I started teaching in 1992 after gaining the Trinity College TESOL certificate and I gained the Trinity College Diploma in TESOL in 2001.

What's the deal with all the books you sell?

The books I sell on this site from Amazon very directly help to keep esl-lounge.com on-line. You benefit because Amazon is one of the most reliable and reputable booksellers on the internet and most of their prices are discounted 30%.

And I gain as every book sold gives the site between 50 cents and a dollar to pay for hosting fees and phone bills incurred updating and administering the site.