Archive for March, 2010
What English Vocabulary Should You Learn?
When you are learning English, and in your ESL programs, you will come in contact with thousands of new words and it will be very difficult to remember all of them, thus, you have to choose the words you truly want to learn.
There are 3 things you must consider when learning new vocabulary:
1.How do you identify the words you should learn?
You must think about how useful a word would be to you. Some words may work for casual and informal talk while others are better for formal and serious conversation. Think of how often and where a word or expression is used, then, you will know if it is worth learning.
The best way to learn new vocabulary is to study words in context; however, it may be hard to decide which words to learn. Words fall into two categories:
-Passive vocabulary (receptive)
-Active vocabulary (productive)
Your purpose for learning English will very much determine the level of effort you should put into learning active vocabulary. You have to understand the contextual nature of vocabulary, how a word is employed, and why, where and when it is used.
2.What do you have to learn about a word?
In a dictionary you will find information about the word’s:
-Spelling
-Meaning
-Pronunciation
-Part of speech
-Inflected forms
-Grammatical features
-Collocations
-Similar and opposite words
-Examples on how to use it
You should write the words that interest you down, along with all this information or part of it; it all depends on what you need. You must consider if you want the word to become a part of your active vocabulary or if you need to understand it when you read or listen. If you want it to be a part of your active vocabulary, write down everything that is listed above.
3.How should you undertake learning new words?
Words have to be learned in context; never memorize them. Pay attention to how and where a word or expression is used.
Look for interesting articles in newspapers or magazines. Listen to English as much as you can, in the radio, on TV, at the movies, at bars, at supermarkets, or in CDs.
Write down the new words you hear, sort them in alphabetical order, and look them up. It may be easier if you write down the words by date, so that you remember what happened the day you heard it, but you should find the way that works best for you. You can record the words along with useful information to listen regularly until you learn it. The key is to get organized!
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
11 Good Reasons Why Teachers Skip Certain Exercises in the Textbook
Many students sign up for classes at an ESL school and expect to work through their textbooks without missing anything. It could be because they want to make sure they are investing their money wisely or because they trust the textbook more than the teacher. However, most teachers won’t follow the textbook literally, and there are 11 good reasons they don’t do so:
1.Too easy
Textbooks are designed to be used by a range of students with somewhat different levels, strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds, thus, some exercises may be too easy for a certain class and the teacher may decide to use time more productively in other ways.
2.Too difficult
In the same way, some exercises may be too hard for a specific class, and thus, it is not constructive to complete them at the moment.
3.Complex instructions
Some exercises just take too much time to understand and thus, you are not able to concentrate on what you should really be learning.
4.Repetition
Some exercises are very similar to the current lesson, the homework, or the previous lesson, making them less effective than learning the same thing but in a different way or through a new activity.
5.Incorrect
It may be that the exercise is plain incorrect in the grammar explanation, the information it provides, or the stereotypes in regards to nationality or other groups of people.
6.Not accepted
Maybe previous students have not liked the exercise, thus, the teacher knows it won’t work.
7.Best for homework
Many exercises are better done as homework in order to use class time to reinforce speaking, pronunciation, and grammar theory.
8.Timing
Sometimes, time won’t allow for every exercise to be done if the teacher wants to finish the lesson or course fully.
9.Sticking to the program
The course’s program may differ from the book’s content.
10.Changes
The English information, language, or format may have changed since the textbook was first published.
11.Bad staging
The exercise may be right, but by using it, the teacher could be stopping the next stages of the class from running smoothly.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
20 Questions to Ask Before You Choose a TOEFL Course or Teacher
Before you sign up for a TOEFL course or hire a TOEFL teacher, make sure you ask these 20 questions to be sure you are getting the best help possible.
1. What are the teachers’ nationalities
If you are not familiar with the American accent, you will have to practice a lot, since most of the voices in the test have American or Canadian accents, and a teacher with such an accent will be best for you. Nevertheless, there are some Australian and British accents too, thus, if these pose a bigger problem for you, you better get a teacher who speaks them.
2. Is the school a TOEFL test centre?
It’d be great if you could take the test at your school because it will show the school is serious about teaching TOEFL; it will save you travel time, and will help your confidence by being in a familiar environment.
3. How many TOEFL students does the school get yearly and how many students are there in total?
The more TOEFL students, the better the school teaches TOEFL.
4. Does the school offer self-study materials one can borrow to prepare for the test?
It is always better if you can find such a school; it shows they are well-prepared to help in every way.
5. Is the TOEFL examination mentioned in the school’s website, pamphlets, and signs?
All these tell you the school is serious about teaching TOEFL.
6. Is there a TOEFL class currently active or will they put you on a waiting list?
A waiting list is not convenient because it tells you the school doesn’t normally teach TOEFL and you may be delayed by their schedules.
7. Have the teachers written TOEFL books or materials?
This will not happen often, but it would be awesome if you could learn from such a person.
8. How much experience do the teachers have teaching TOEFL?
You want to find a teacher with over a year of experience preparing students to take the test; the more experience, the better they understand the exam.
9. If the teachers have no TOEFL experience, have they at least taught for other international examinations?
These are similar to TOEFL, thus you will know they have a bit of understanding about what you need.
10. For how long has the school been teaching TOEFL?
A good TOEFL school will have several years of experience teaching it; a year won’t do to understand the test well.
11. Do they only use English in class?
You must practice your English listening intensively, thus, you should prefer an English-only class.
12. Do you have to pass a test to enter the TOEFL class?
If this is not a requirement, your class may be full of students of different levels, and it will be difficult for the teacher to give the information every single student needs. TOEFL students should be separated by levels, according to their knowledge.
13. How long is the course and will all the students remain for the same length of time?
There are courses that last a month and are devoted to training for the test, thus, the students attending are taking the exam in a month, while other courses help you raise your English level in a year’s period in order to do much better in the test.
14. Does the course include as much language development as exam training and tips, and how much of each?
If you plan to take the exam soon, more training and tips will be good, however, if you need to study more to perfect your skills, you will require more language development.
15. If there is a textbook, how many hours of study does it take to complete?
Sometimes, one-month courses are not enough to complete the book, which is a waste of money. If this is your case, look for a school that offers photocopied materials included in the course’s cost.
16. How often are the TOEFL classes?
It is best to study one hour, twice a week, than two hours once a week, because you will remember the language better for the next class.
17. Is there a discount if you take a Business or ESL class along with the TOEFL class?
If you have TOEFL classes only once a week, you should sign up for other classes to reinforce the language.
18. Are the TOEFL students really motivated to take the test?
In some cases, students are forced to take these classes even if they are not interested in taking the test, making the class lose focus and motivation. You want a class where students are eager to take the test.
19. If you don’t improve your TOEFL score by “x” amount, does the school give you a free course or a refund?
This is not the rule, because how much self-study you do is more important than the class itself, however, if you can find a school that offers it, this shows the school is serious and confident about its teachers’ capacity to teach TOEFL, and the teachers will most certainly make you study hard.
20. Does the school offer TOEFL practice online?
This saves students a lot of money, makes practice more interesting, and you can study from anywhere, even without your textbook.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
Sure-fire Ways to Expand Your Vocabulary
Expanding your vocabulary should be one of your most important goals, and ESL programs provide great opportunities to acquire and practice it. Vocabulary is the substance of language, what will let you express yourself fluently without having to stop and look for the words in your head every time you want to say or write something.
An interesting approach to expanding your vocabulary is to understand the links and the semantic relations that exist between words, instead of considering them a chaotic soup of lost words. It’s amazing how our brains speed up their work and retain information when that information has a structure, and how they tend to reject unorganized data.
Examples of semantic relations are, for example, opposite words (antonyms): the opposite of good is bad; the opposite of hot is cold, and so on. Whenever you come across an adjective you don’t know, don’t limit yourself to learning its meaning: if you think that word has a possible opposite, look it up (you’ll need a synonyms and antonyms dictionary).
Some words don’t have an obvious antonym. For example, the word round. What would its antonym be? However, antonyms and synonyms are just an example of semantic relations. Although we can’t find an antonym for the adjective round, we can link it to all the adjectives that describe a shape: squared, triangular’ and so on.
Another example of semantic relation is the inclusion relation (also called “part-whole” relation): the words tree, branch and leaf are related in this sense. A tree contains a branch, which contains a leaf. An arm contains a hand, which contains fingers. Becoming aware of these relations is using your intelligence instead of your memory.
These are just some examples of how to organize your expanding vocabulary. Building a list that connects words through different aspects (such as meaning, opposition/similarity relations, etc.) will definitely give you more control over the words you use.
Once you’ve added a word to your list, open your eyes and ears and pay attention to the different contexts where it happens to appear, since the context is what truly gives shape to a word. For example, hot can refer to temperature, sexual excitement or something popular today.
To sum up:
1.Organize words by linking them through different relations (such as opposition, inclusion, etc)
2.Sort words by similarity
3.Learn the different contexts where the same word can appear
We hope this article helps you with your ESL lessons, and we wish you the best in the process of learning English. Have fun!
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
20 Examples of Words and Their Antonyms
A good way to optimize your time when learning vocabulary is learning words in pairs. How? Well, every time you learn new words, instead of learning them by heart, you can reinforce your understanding of them by watching how their meaning is limited and shaped by other words, called “opposites”.
1.Agree / disagree: He agreed with my ideas, while Susan disagreed.
2.Unlock / lock: The thieves managed to unlock the door. Anyways, it’s always useful to lock it.
3.Remember / forget: She forgot the company’s name during the interview, but remembered it later.
4.Withdraw / deposit: She went to the bank to withdraw some money that I deposited earlier.
5.Asleep / Awake: Are you asleep yet? Or are you still awake?
6.Fail / succeed: Will his son succeed in what he has failed to achieve?
7.Slow / fast: The pros and cons of having a slow car are the same as the pros and cons of having a fast car.
8.Keep / lose: Did he keep his temper under control? Or did he lose it?
9.Lose / make money: We have made a lot of money lately, which compensates for all the money we lost last year.
10.Lower / raise: I’ve heard the banks are planning to raise their interest rates. I wonder if they’ve ever lowered them.
11.Deep / shallow: Is this lake deep or shallow?
12.Increase / reduce: While temperature increases as summer approaches, it reduces as autumn comes along.
13.Complicate / simplify: Why don’t they simplify things instead of complicating them?
14.Strengthen / weaken: You need to strengthen your position before your opponent’s move weakens you more.
15.Expand / decline: Ship building has expanded in this area over the years, while other activities have declined.
16.Accept / deny: The prime minister denied what his assistants had accepted earlier.
17.Disapprove / approve: I wonder whether they approved or disapproved my opinions on the subject.
18.Smart / stupid: Even smart people can say stupid things.
19.Reachable / unreachable: He was trying to convince himself that the unreachable can become reachable.
20.Understand / misunderstand: Everyone but me misunderstood your speech. I was the only one who understood it.
We hope this brief list helps you understand how some words come “in pairs” (although a word may have different opposites!), and that it gives you a better understanding of their meaning, an essential part of your ESL program.
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
5 Cool Ways to Improve Your Business English
You might be under a lot of stress to learn English if you need it for work or a business trip, but learning English should be a fun experience. When we do something we enjoy, we don’t have to make an effort in order to learn it: our brains learn it by themselves and they won’t forget it easily! Follow these steps; some are specifically targeted to Business English skills, while others are great to improve general skills like listening or pronunciation.
1)Try to sort out the lyrics of your favorite songs as you listen to them. To improve listening comprehension, play a song and listen to the story it’s telling you. This might be very hard to achieve, but don’t lose heart. Some singers use slang and sing very fast! This may discourage you, but you could always search for the lyrics on the Web. As time goes by, you’ll notice you’ll be catching what they are saying more and more easily.
2)Sing the songs you love to listen to! This is a great and creative way to improve your pronunciation. Let loose and imitate what you hear. Pay special attention to the intonation, and read the lyrics as you sing if you need to.
3)Imitate (out loud) what you hear in movies. Listen to Robert De Niro saying “Don’t you talk back to me”, or to Al Pacino whispering something and become an actor too –because this is what it’s all about: learning a new way of saying something and becoming a new character. Watch a whole movie without reading the subtitles. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t understand every word. Did you know that blind people develop a sharp hearing? Imitate them. Close your eyes and your ears will open up.
4)Read literature. You can also read comic books, newspapers, and business blogs (a great source of business vocabulary), but never forget that literature is one of the endless sources of language. It registers thousands of voices, ways of expressing, and it will fill you with vocabulary and grammar while you lose yourself in a fictional story. Reading and watching movies will help you stay up to date with the latest slang phrases and the different contexts in which they’re used.
5)Attend a Business English conversation group. Or start your own group by calling your friends to join you. When surrounded by others, and working with them, keeping a goal in mind is easier. You can get together and talk about any business topic you like (what happened at a recent meeting, an article you read in The New York Times, latest trends and news, etc), or you can set specific tasks, such as writing business emails or preparing a Power Point presentation. You can read in groups and correct each other.
These are just some examples of how you can improve your Business English, whether you’re attending ESL classes or not. Take advantage of all of the resources available to you!
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.englishlci.com as the original source).
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