Two really great sites that I showed my ESL class last night, are:
Wordsift
www.wordsift.com
Wordsift will take entered (or cut and pasted) text and sort the words in order of frequency, which, for an ESL student (or any student), may help highlight the main idea. If nothing else, it's fun to play with! One example they give on the site is Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech." Here it is below. The larger words indicate the higher usage, and vice versa for smaller words. The words can be sorted from here, in alphabetical order, by subject area, etc.
able america american cannot check child city come daydream faith free freedom go god great hill hope hundred injustice join justice land later let life long made man mississippi mountain nation negro new person place right ring rise satisfied sing stand state time together valley walk white word year
and
Wordle
www.wordle.net
Wordle creates word "art" with the words or text that you enter. It's also fun to play with and useful for presentations.
