About WordLink

For teachers and tutors

WordLink is a free, browser-based phonics and reading resource for adult EAL learners at pre-level — adults with little or no prior literacy in any language, learning to read and write English for the first time. It was built by an EAL teacher for use in adult classes, and it is deliberately not a children's app: no mascots, no cartoons, no condescending language.

What it covers

• The alphabet — letter names, with audio on every letter.
• Letter sounds — each grapheme in the context of real words, including second sounds for the letters that have them.
• Reading words 1 — CVC decoding, short vowels and digraphs, with tappable letter tiles so a learner can sound out a word piece by piece.
• Reading words 2 — consonant blends and common English spelling patterns.
• Reading sentences — two levels, beginner and elementary.
• Speaking practice — the learner records an answer and compares it with a model.
• Letter tracing — stroke-order handwriting practice for letters, letter combinations, numbers and the learner's own name.
• Spelling and pronunciation practice and a test yourself mode inside each section.

The classroom game adds 31 more question categories on top of that, plus any you write yourself. Each is playable with a whole class or solo:

• Letters and sounds — Letter Names, Beginner Sound Gap, Beginner Tap Word, Beginner Build Word, Elementary Sound Gap, Elementary Tap Word, Elementary Build Word.
• Listening and reading — Beginner Listen and Fill Gaps, Elementary Listen and Fill Gaps, Listen and Unscramble.
• Vocabulary — Days, Months, Weather, Fruits, Body, Clothes, All Spelling, Odd One Out.
• Grammar — Question Words, Grammar Unscramble.
• Speaking — Speaking: the question is read aloud and the learner builds the answer from word tiles.
• Numeracy — 1–10, Numbers 11–20, Numbers 21–99, Clock, Shop, Dice.
• Everyday life — Signs, Messages, Forms.
• Translation — Translate.
• Custom — your own question banks, written in the built-in editor.

In the game itself these are filtered by skill — Letters & Sounds, Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Grammar, Numeracy, Translation and Everyday life — so a bank that trains several skills at once can be found under any of them.

Using it in class

Audio plays at three speeds, so the same material works for a learner who needs every phoneme separated and for one who is ready for connected speech. First-language glosses can be switched on or off per learner, which is useful in the mixed-first-language classrooms typical of AMEP and other adult migrant English settings.

There is also a classroom game mode. You create a room on the projector, students join on their phones with a room code or a QR code, and the class answers together — or a learner can practise solo at their own pace. You can write your own question banks for it.

Nothing needs installing. It runs in a browser, works on cheap phones, and keeps working offline once a learner has opened it, which matters when data is scarce.

It is worth installing it on learners' phones in the first lesson, with the steps in Install the WordLink app on your phone above: WordLink then opens from its own icon, full screen, like any other app, and a learner who cannot yet type a web address can still find it again at home. Share the address wordlink.au or the room QR code from the game, and walk the class through the three steps together on the projector.

Ways to use it in a lesson

• Differentiate: point each learner at the section that fits them: the alphabet for a true beginner, Reading words 2 or the elementary sentences for a stronger reader.
• Stations and rotations: learners work on their phones independently while you take a small group.
• Diagnose: the Level check, Reading words 2 and the elementary sentences show quickly which sound patterns a learner has not got yet.
• Homework and self-study: any section can be repeated between classes, as often as a learner likes.
• Whole-class review: run the classroom game from the projector at the end of a lesson on the patterns you just taught.

Where it fits

The content sits at roughly ACSF pre-level to Level 1 for reading and writing, which makes it useful in Course in Initial EAL (CIEAL) and CEAL classes, and in the early stages of general adult EAL and literacy programs. It is designed as supplementary practice — something a learner can repeat between classes — rather than a course in itself, and it is not mapped or accredited against any curriculum.

WordLink is an independent project made by an EAL teacher. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by AMES Australia, the Adult Migrant English Program, or any other provider. Any course names above are referred to only to describe the level the material suits.

Cost, accounts and privacy

WordLink is free and has no advertising. There is no sign-up and no account for the learning activities — progress is remembered on the device itself. The classroom game signs players in anonymously so that a room can keep score during a session; no names beyond the nickname a student types are collected.

Visitor numbers are counted with a privacy-friendly analytics service that does not use cookies or track people between sites.