English learning

W hether we are talking about a five year old that is about to start learning to read or whether we are talking about a thirty year old woman who is attempting to write a thesis for her master's degree, we cannot deny the fact that taking time to learn proper English grammar is important. When we see or hear about English grammar, the immediate reaction of many people I know is to cringe. They are reminded of junior high and high school English class and the way that their English teachers made them to English grammar exercise after exercise. Because English grammar is usually seen in such a negative sense, it is all the more important that people replace those lies with the truth that learning English grammar really is important for anyone who wants to have a proper perspective of the English language. When we are speaking or hearing English, not too many of us take the time to think about the fact that English grammar is the very thing that allows us to communicate with and und...

I t is not easy to plan a fresh and new class for your English students every week. Even though your teacher book gives you some great ideas not all of them are practical enough for your classroom. You often have to come up with a few exercises and ideas of your own to fill in as needed. You may try to get away and find some quite places that can help you focus and concentrate on your planning. Do not forget to take a notepad and some pens. That is about all you will need for now. First, take a moment to clear your mind of all other distractions and prepare yourself mentally for the task at hand. Okay! Are you ready? Good! Now think about the first group of students you need to plan for. Think about their needs. What do they know? What do they need to know to become more fluent and proficient speakers of the English language? How can you teach them what they need to know? Just brainstorm for a few minutes and write everything down. No idea is too crazy or unimportant. Once you have ...

T he General "Rule" of English Pronunciation You know that it is difficult to know when to pronounce the written letter “s” in English like “s”, the sound of air escaping from your bicycle tire, and when to pronounce it as the letter “z”, the sound of an angry bee. This problem shows up in the plural of nouns. In the same way, the written letter “t” sometimes sounds like the letter “d”. This problem comes up in the past tense of verbs. There is a logic that is at work in both cases, that of the plural of the noun and that of the past tense of the verb. The two cases have a lot in common even though one has to do with the "s" sound" and other has to do with the "d" sound. There is so much in common that some language teachers say that there is one general "rule" for the two cases. This "rule" works in most of the cases that you will have to learn. In both situations, the ending of the word depends on the sound that it follows. ...

A t one time, in the not so distant past, computers were not commonly found in homes. Computers served as a time saving device for businesses and offices and they were big, heavy, unattractive and very expensive. Over time computers, have become smaller, lighter, operate faster and have price significantly dropped in price. Thus many more of us have incorporated computers into our daily lives and homes. Today, most of us would be lost without our computers, electronic devices and the Internet! Before the age of computers, the only way to correspond with others at a distance was through letters written by hand or on a typewriter. There was no spell check or grammar check to make life easy. People had to rely on their own proof reading and language skills in order to be understood. In the 1990’s when computers began popping up in homes all over the world and the Internet became readily available, chatting programs such as ICQ, MSN, and AOL Instant Messenger made their debut. With these...

Important Points When Writing an English CV The purpose of an English CV is to sell yourself: An English CV is seen as an opportunity to sell yourself and should emphasise your skills, experiences and achievements. You should include successes and wherever possible include facts and figures to support your claims. Do NOT include information that is negative. Spelling and Grammar Check: Correct spelling and grammar are of absolute importance in an English CV. Employers will NOT tolerate any mistakes. It is very important that a native English speaker checks your CV before you send it to an English-speaking employer. CVwriting.net can provide a full spelling and grammar check and suggest any changes to the content of your CV in line with what employers expect. Do not include a photo: Most English employers do NOT like to see a photo on the CV and, in fact, including one could work against you. Only include a photo if it has been specifically requested for a particular job applicat...

Essay writing is a technical process; it is not as easy as it seems. People perceive essay’s importance and technicality to be very trivial but it is not like that. Unless and until a person writes an essay of his own he can not understand its importance, methodology and mechanics. If a person needs to improve his essay writing and formatting style he needs to follow some tips with which he can make a drastic difference in writing style. Following is the discussion about the tips to improve essay writing and formatting: First of all there should be a brief introduction of the essay topic which is an overview of the whole essay. Introduction is the mirror of essay through which the reader can see the whole essay, so it should be given special attention. After intro, the discussion should wrap up thorough information about the topic. Discussion not only needs information but it also needs critical analysis of the topic along with your personal comments whether you agree or disagree. The...

Essay writing seems very difficult to some student; they think that they can not write. Though they are very knowledgeable and intelligent, they are not able to write a piece of their own. To some extent it is true that writing is not everybody’s cup of tea but if a person is keen to learn, nothing is impossible in this world. If a person is consistent in his aims and goals he can rule the world; he can make impossible things possible. Same is the case with essay writing; it needs hardworking and practice; the more you write the more your writing style and language will be polished and within a short span of time you will be included among those who are called the best essay writers. There are certain skills required for essay writing. First of all you need to analyze the title or topic of the essay on which you are asked to write essay. Once you completely understand what the title says next step is to collect information and facts using various source like print or electronic sourc...

Good essay writing requires certain essay writing guidelines which should always be adhered. It is a critical requirement for every academic essay that the student should prove his point or argument in the most transparent way. This can be done through the presentation of original thoughts or ideas or by analyzing what others have researched on the topic that is about to be written. It should always be realized that while writing an academic essay simply summarizing or repeating a set of text is seldom adequate to the assigned essay assignment. For example, while writing a research essay, only presenting an idea would not get the job done but it should be further spiced up by the inclusion of relevant facts and figures on a particular topic of study. The essay writing guidelines for a particular essay varies depending on the topic of the essay as well as the type of the essay. One important guideline that should always be followed is the format or structure of the essay should always b...

The college essay should not pose a challenge if you have kept up the writing habit after leaving school. The best way to do so is to keep in touch through writing letters. Whether you write with a pen or a mouse the heart of the matter is that if you have kept your thoughts flowing through words, writing a college essay should not pose a problem. Writing involves your style and habit as well as vocabulary. You must have a rich vocabulary bank. For that be a voracious reader. There is no other way of increasing your bank balance of words. Writing a college essay has become very important because with each passing day gaining entrance into colleges is becoming more and more difficult. The number of seats just cannot cope with the number of applicants. One of the best ways to gain entry is to write a star college essay as part of your application for admission. Usually it should consist of five hundred words. The essay must show why you are different from another. Thus admitting you w...

Learning how to express your ideas through article writing is a great means to becoming a professional writer. The crux of an article is the content. Organizing your ideas will make your article more readable and will earn you a greater audience. Consider these two steps when writing an article: 1. Choose simple language By writing in simple language, you are able to reach a broad range of people. Most magazine and newspaper writers compose their articles at a fourth grade level so their material is understood by the maximum number of readers. These writers are highly skilled and could write at a much higher level, but keep their reporting at an almost universal level, so the news can reach more people. Of course not all publications can communicate at such a remedial level. This does not mean that they dont possess the capabilities to write in hi-fi language, they just wish that the news should reach to more and more people. But surely, using simple language is not possible for all t...

A personal statement is a crucial part of your graduate school application, but writing it can also be one of the most stressful things on your to-do list. Many students do not consider writing to be their strong suit, and matters are only made worse due to the intense importance of this particular essay. It may help many students to remember what the purpose of the personal statement is. The grad school admissions board uses it to determine two things: • Whether you will be an asset to the graduate program • Whether you will be an asset to the school itself Graduate schools are typically judged by the performance of their students. As a result, no school wants to admit a student who will be a black mark on its record. Your personal statement’s purpose, therefore, is to convince the admissions board that: • You are deeply motivated to learn about (and excel in) your chosen area of study • You are a capable student who will perform well in your studies In order to accomplish these task...

Learning a second language can be a very stressful and arduous task if you let it. Somehow, the words you learn in the books don't seem to apply very well to real life situations. Those small and seemingly un-important elements the show a person to be in command of not only the language, but the culture of the people who speak it cannot be adequately expressed by words on paper. So, how do you learn these little secrets of mastering the ability to articulate yourself in another language? Here are 5 proven techniques that will help you improve your English without even trying, if you are learning to speak English as a second language. Do they really work? Yes. I've tried them myself as I've had opportunity to live somewhere where English wasn't the primary language. I found it to be a fun, exciting, and painless way to learn both the language and the culture. The culture is simply learning the way the natives express their own words. The genuine accent, facial expression...

Cause and Effect Effects of Stress Stress has become an increasing health problem nowadays. When it becomes severe, it may cause tragedy to those who have it. We can see from the news that many sad events have been associated with stress. At the same time, stress can have many effects on ordinary persons. They are physical effects, mental effects, and social effects. As for the first effect, stress affects a person physically by increasing the blood pressure. This can cause the person to have serious headaches. High blood pressure can also affect blood vessels. If it becomes too high, the blood vessels may be broad. This could be very dangerous to the life of the person. As for the second effect, stress can affect a person mentally. That is, it reduces a person's abiltiy to concentrate and accordingly it reduces his creatively. Unable to succeed what a person has done may cause persisting stress and that makes a person become emotionally unstable. This serious consequen...

Analysis Why Nature Like a Women? Nature has been called Mother for many years. She produces and nurtures many things as her children, teaches them how to live and help themselves and preserves her original beauty. Nature produces and cares for her children. A woman may feel that she is not complete until she mothers a child or two. No one has ever conceived of a mother without children, including Nature. Nature produced all the animals and plants in the world as her own children, feeding and protecting them. Nature without these many things would be unimaginable. Nature teaches her children how to live and grow . After bearing many animals and plants into the world, like a true, good mother, she cannot simply abandon them. Nature teaches her young to grow and to find their own food, to prepare them for adulthood and the event that their parents can no longer support them. Women also teach and raise their children, if they truly desire and love them. Nature remains beautifu...

I t's the end of another class, and one student has stayed behind. No problem, you think, maybe an easy grammar question, or a comment on how they enjoyed the class (or not!)... or maybe it's a question about an ESL exam. "What's the difference between TOEFL and TOEIC?" "Should I take the FCE?" "Who recognizes IELTS?" So if you don’t know your BEC from your KET, or your CAE from your CELS, here's a brief guide to the most popular ESL exams. ESL exams fall broadly into three main categories: General English, Business English and Academic English. General English Probably the most popular in this category are the Cambridge ESOL exams. One and a half million people in 135 countries take Cambridge exams every year. There are five General English exams, sometimes referred to as the "Cambridge Main Suite." The first two levels are the KET (Key English Test) and the PET (Preliminary English Test). The KET and PET have reading and wri...

H ere's an effective way to teach the third conditional to your ESL students. 1. First, write a short story (a few paragraphs is fine) about someone who had a bad day. The first paragraph could start something like this: Sarah had to be at the airport for her flight at 9am, but her alarm didn't go off and so she overslept... With this example you could continue to talk about Sarah's travel problems as the day progressed. Maybe she forgot her passport and had to rush back home to get it, which made her miss her flight, and so on. The key is to create a problem in each paragraph and describe what happened as a result. 2. Once you've got your story, cut it up into paragraphs and you're ready to go. Pre-teach any vocabulary you need to and divide your students into pairs or small groups. Then hand out the story and ask the students to put the paragraphs into the correct order. 3. When everyone has ordered the story correctly, ask your students if Sarah (we'll u...

The IELTS Listening test comes first, and many candidates find it a hard, sometime even discouraging, way to get started. The IELTS Listening task tests a diverse range of skills, and many people find it challenging. There are many ways to prepare for this portion of the IELTS exam. There are, for example, many practice tapes and CD sets on the commercial market. While all of them are helpful to some degree, the one thing you can be sure is that none of them will be the IELTS Listening test you take. The good news is that the best forms of IELTS Listening practice are available free, or at least readily and at low cost. They’re also more fun. They are radio, TV, and movies! If you have access to an English-language radio or TV station, listen to it as often as possible. The benefits are many. - You become familiar with a wide variety of accents and individual ways of speaking - You get the rhythms of spoken English sentences in your ear - You become more familiar with the w...

It takes a long time for students of English-as-a-second-language to learn to read well. This is not because they have a reading problem: They can read perfectly well in their own language. The problem is just that they don’t know the meaning of enough English words. In other words, they don’t have a big enough vocabulary. It’s not easy to build a vocabulary that allows you to read as well, or almost as well, as people who grew up speaking and reading English. It's quite easy to build the basic vocabulary of 1000-2000 words that you need in order to speak English to other people and understand what they’re saying. You’ll probably pick up that many words, without really trying, during the early stages of your study of English. And if that doesn’t happen, you can always sit down with a good vocabulary list and a dictionary and start memorizing. However, to be able to read English well, you need to know a lot more than 2000 words — about ten times that many, in fact. You...

IX. A sample TOEFL essay (based on the outline above) It is a good idea for teenagers to have jobs while they are students because they can learn about responsibility; they can learn the value of money and they can learn how to work as a member of a team. When teenagers have jobs while they are students, they can learn how to be responsible. As an employee, you must follow a weekly schedule. This means, you have to come to work on time. If you are scheduled to begin work at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning, you have to be there at 8 a.m. It doesn’t matter if you went to a party the night before and do not want to get up. You have to get up. Your boss is relying on you to do your job. As an employee, you also learn that you must serve the customer in a friendly manner. If you are not friendly, the store may lose business and you may lose your job. Finally, an employee is responsible for maintaining the store shelves with inventory. If you work in a department store, you have to ...

VIII. A sample TOEFL outline: TOEFL Question: In some countries, teenagers have jobs while they are still students. Do you think this is a good idea? Support your opinion by using specific reasons and details. I. It is a good idea for teenagers to have jobs while they are students because they can learn about responsibility; they can learn the value of money and they can learn how to work as a member of a team. II. Students can learn responsibility a. They have to come to work on time every day b. They must serve customers in a friendly manner c. They have to maintain the store shelves with inventory III. Students can learn the value of money a. Students will learn that it takes a lot of time and effort to make money b. Students will make wiser choices when buying things with their own money IV. Students will learn how to work as a member of a team a. Students will learn how to compromise with other employees (helping out when someone is sick, etc.) b. Students will learn about the...

V. How to write good body paragraphs: Each paragraph in your essay introduces a new idea. It should include a thesis statement followed by support and examples. Be sure to use LOTS of examples. Within and between paragraphs be sure to use transition words like: on the other hand, however, though, for example, in contrast, likewise, in addition, first, finally. The paragraph should end with a concluding sentence which briefly summarizes the ideas in the paragraph. VI. The elements of a good concluding paragraph: A good concluding paragraph should include a summary of your main points. It may also include the author’s opinion. It should NOT introduce any new ideas. A good concluding paragraph often leaves an impression on the reader. It may make the reader think more deeply about the topic. VII. Preparing to write and writing your answer: I. Read and understand the essay question. (2 minutes). II. Organize your ideas on paper by writing a short outline of the introduction,...

TOEFL essay question #2: Is it better for children to participate in team sports or individual sports? Why? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Restatement & Thesis: It is better for children to participate in team sports rather than individual sports. In team sports, children learn how to cooperate. They learn good sportsmanship and how to rely on their teammates. These are important lessons that will benefit children throughout their lives. Analysis: The first sentence clearly states the author’s opinion. This is followed by three reasons for the opinion. Finally, the author mentions life lessons. In the essay, the three reasons will make up the three main idea paragraphs in the body of the essay. In addition, the author will mention how each main idea is useful throughout life. TOEFL essay question #3: Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons an...

III. The parts of an essay: In every essay, there should be an introduction, a body and conclusion. A. The introduction: The introduction restates the question using different vocabulary and/or sentence structure. The introduction also includes your thesis statement…the most important sentence in your essay. B. The body: The body of your essay is also the “heart” of your essay. It will include your main ideas and details and examples to support those ideas. Each new idea should be a new paragraph. Typically, a TOEFL essay will have 3 – 4 body paragraphs. C. The conclusion: The conclusion will be your final paragraph. It will summarize all the main ideas in your essay and it may also include your opinion. IV. How to write a good introduction: Let’s look at some more essay questions to see how to restate the question and how to write your thesis statement. TOEFL essay question #1: Some people prefer to eat at food stands or restaurants. Other people prefer to prepare a...

I. Before you begin: I. Relax and feel confident. II. Remember that you have 30 minutes to write your essay. Use your time wisely. III. You may write your essay on the computer or on paper. Choose the one you are MOST comfortable with. II. You can write an excellent essay if you remember all these tips! II. Understanding the TOEFL question: There are different types of TOEFL questions. You never know which question you will receive, so you must be prepared to write on ALL the types of questions. It is very important that you completely understand the question BEFORE you begin to write. Below are some different essay question types. 1. Choose a point of view and support that view. Example: Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Which point of view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer. This type of question asks you to...

Sometimes, it is difficult to figure out where to go with your argument. Aristotle in the Ars Rhetorica lists several inventio. Inventio, or "invention techniques" can help a writer generate ideas while brainstorming. Frequently, these tools can help you think about an issue and possibly develop individual paragraphs. Be warned that these techniques are not a panacea. Some work better than others in specific essays and arguments. For instance, in discussing whether or not healthcare should cover myofascial massage, it may be important to define what exactly a myofascial massage is, and how particular HMOs categorize it. But when writing an essay on automobiles, it seems unlikely one would need to define the word "car" for a reader. TECHNIQUE Narration How did it happen? Description How can it be described? Process How is it made? How is it done? How do you do it? Cause ...