ESL Program
A Foolproof Plan to Improve Your English during Your Stay in the US
Whether you’ve enrolled in an ESL program for beginners, advanced ESl classes, or Business English courses, the key to improving your English lies in how seriously you take your English learning goals and how hard you’ll try to achieve them. Sounds too “serious”, right? And no fun? Although, improving your English does require a certain amount of hard work and concentration, it is possible to find the perfect balance between concentrated studying and spontaneous, fun learning. Follow this foolproof plan, and you’ll be speaking more confidently in English in no time.
Plunge into it head first!
No matter how great, how experienced, or how knowledgeable your teachers are, you will never absorb the teachings they impart through osmosis. Do not think you can just sit quietly in the back of the classroom, and just listen and watch what goes on. If you really want to improve your English, you have to dive into the experience; participate and be actively engaged in the lessons, right from the start, even if you’re a beginner and will only be able to say a few words. This is not the time to be shy or self-conscious about your English, after all, you’ll be surrounded by students just like you!
Do your homework
Throughout your life you’ve always heard teachers and parents tell you to study and do your homework, and let’s face it, they were a pain in the neck. But they were right. After school study is essential to strengthen everything you’ve seen in class. All of those new words, grammar tenses, and expressions must be reviewed, practiced, and chewed on, so to speak. This way you’ll increase your chances of remembering and effectively using everything you’ve learned. Besides the exercises assigned to you by your teacher, there are several fun things you could do for “homework”. You could read short news articles or blog posts. Watch videos on YouTube or CNN.com. Make a note of any new words or vocabulary and then look them up in your dictionary. The resources are endless!
Get out and mingle!
It is absolutely essential that you practice what you’re learning in class in real life settings. Engage the locals in conversation and ask them about their customs, history, sites of interest, and activities. Even if you’re a beginner there’s lots you could say and practice, from day-to-day phrases, to polite requests. No matter what your level is, you must make the effort to speak to people outside the classroom. You could join a club or organization, even sign up for extracurricular classes, like cooking, pottery, or skiing.
There is an amazing variety of ESL programs to choose from, but once you do make your choice, you have to commit to it for the duration. An English course in the US is an investment, and one you won’t want to waste. To really make it worth your time and money, you must do your part. If you do, you won’t be sorry. You’ll feel more confident speaking English and be ready to take on the world!
The ESL Student Guide to the Passive Voice
As you read about recent business trends and developments in newspapers and magazines, you will notice how often the passive form is used in sentences such as:
Grove Developments has been chosen to build the new sports center.
Most students will be able to understand this sentence; however, using the passive voice when you speak or write may not be as simple. It is important that you know, first, how it is formed, and secondly, you must know the past participle form of every verb you learn as this is essential to understand and make sentences in which the passive is used.
The passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb, or several, and the past participle of the verb. Students should also be able to use the passive voice in the correct verb tense, so look through all the tenses and see how you pass verb forms from active to passive. Notice also how the subject changes.
Simple Present
They sell more than 6 million tins of beans every week. > More than 6 million tins of beans are sold every week
They say Kent Industries is thinking of expanding overseas. > Kent Industries is said to be thinking of expanding overseas.
The company employs 200 people. > Two hundred people are employed by the company.
Simple Past
An American company took them over last year. > They were taken over by an American company last year.
They made no attempts to explain the inconsistency in the figures. > No attempt was made to explain the inconsistency in the figures.
They won the contract in the face of strong competition. > The contract was won in the face of strong competition.
Present Perfect
We have lost 110 working days so far this year as a result of industrial unrest. > 110 working days have been lost so far this year as a result of industrial unrest.
We have put prices on the list for 2010. > Prices have been put on the list for 2010.
We have received new machines. > New machines have been received.
With Will
They will build their new factory on the outskirts of town. > Their new factory will be built on the outskirts of town.
They will send a prospectus to all potential investors. > A prospectus will be sent to all potential investors.
We will hold an extraordinary general meeting next Wednesday. > An extraordinary general meeting will be held next Wednesday.
With Can, May, or Might
People can know a product by different names in different countries. > A product can be known by different names in different countries.
A new client may buy one thousand units this week. > One thousand units may be bought this week by a new client.
Our company might build new facilities for the South American operation next year. > New facilities for the South American operation might be built next year.
The use of the Passive Voice is one of the essentials covered in any good ESL program. Together with the other basics, it will give you the solid foundation you need to communicate more fluently and effectively in English.
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).
How to Increase Your Exposure to the English Language
You have already proven that you are good at languages; after all, you learned yours pretty well, didn’t you? If you were able to learn one language, you are able to learn others.
Have you ever considered how you learned your language? When you think about it, you realize that you never learned it; you just started using it when you were around two years old. You started with a few words, but rapidly moved to employing whole sentences and communicating fully.
All this happened because you can hear. During your first two years of existence, you heard people talking all around you, and this was the decisive factor for you to start speaking. This is why, if now you want to learn English, you have to hear and listen to it as much as possible.
But, how can you constantly hear and listen to English if you live in a country where the language is not spoken fully? In fact, there are many ways to do it.
1. Radio
No matter where you are, there is always a radio station playing music or talking in English. Just consider the two major international networks: BBC World Service and Voice of America. Both of these have special programs for ESL students.
2. TV
The TV is probably one of the best resources to hear and listen to English, because it offers a visual backup that helps you understand what is being said. Most people now have access to TV with English-speaking channels; however, you can also watch programs on the Internet.
3. Internet
There are thousands of radio stations on the Internet, and you can also watch all kinds of videos in hundreds of sites. Soon enough, you will have TV channels available on the Web.
4. Music/ songs
We don’t have to tell you how much music there is in English. You can listen to music on the radio, TV, Internet, or get some CD’s. Practice writing down the lyrics, or download them from the Internet to follow while you listen to the song. Start with an easy one, maybe a slow tune, and chose a singer whose voice is clear. Some songs are difficult to understand even for native English speakers.
5. Movies
Around the world, many movie theaters show movies in English, with subtitles in the country’s language. Try to watch a lot of these movies; even if you have to read the subtitles, you are listening to the words in English.
6. Video
The great advantage of videos is that you can play them as many times as you wish. You can watch and listen to a certain part, or the whole movie, as much as you need to understand the subtleties of what’s being said. Equally, you can enable the subtitles or not; these can be an aid, but you should try to avoid them little by little.
7. Friends
Try to speak English with your friends who speak the language. Here you will practice your speaking as much as your listening, and it is very helpful to hear the language from someone who is right there, standing next to you. You can also chat on the phone, which is a much more difficult listening exercise than listening in person.
As teachers have most certainly told you in your ESL program, don’t worry if you don’t understand everything you hear. The important thing is that you hear the language. Sooner than you think, the understanding will come alone.
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).
Tips for ESL Students - Destroy Your Fear of the Possessive Apostrophe
Apostrophes are not intended to be the nightmare of ESL students or anyone else for that matter. Here we destroy your fear of the possessive apostrophe by showing you how easy it is to understand.
What is the difference between the two sentences in the following three sets of statements?
1. The girl’s papers are on the table, and
The girls’ papers are on the table
2. The book’s pages are damaged, and
The books’ pages are damaged
3. What you see there is the dog’s food, and
What you see there is the dogs’ food
The possessive apostrophe is always used, as its name states, to denote possession of something. It is normal for those taking ESL lessons, to feel confused by the position of such an apostrophe in a noun; however, it is truly very simple to understand.
The trick, if you want to see it as such, is for the ESL student to define if the possessive noun, or the owner of the thing, which can be a person or a thing, is singular or plural, and whether or not it ends in –s in its written form.
These are the rules:
1. When the possessive noun is singular, always add an apostrophe (’) + an -s. For example:
- The cat’s litter
- Laura’s house
- The baby’s crib
2. When the possessive noun doesn’t end in –s in its written form, always add an apostrophe (’) + an –s. For example:
- Mary’s children
- The dog’s food
- The house’s roof
3. When the possessive noun is plural and ends in –s, which includes most plural nouns, just add an apostrophe (’). For example:
- The cats’ tails
- The foods’ flavors
- The texts’ meaning
This is why you see sentences with things like the following:
- Charles’s car (Note that ‘Charles’ is singular)
- The children’s toys (Note that ‘children’ is plural, but it doesn’t end in –s)
- The boss’s office (Note that ‘boss’ is singular)
And this is also why you don’t know if something belongs to one person or to several until it is written down.
In fact, you basically have to remember the third rule; if this one doesn’t apply, always add an apostrophe (’) and an –s.
Now you’re ready to go out and impress everyone at your ESL class, but remember to spread the joy. Let your classmates into the big secret you just learned and release their fear too!
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).
Seven Sure-fire Tips for Accent Reduction
If you are an ESL student and wish to communicate effectively in English for work, study, or travel, there are several things you need to improve, like listening, reading and writing. However, speaking is probably the hardest skill an ESL student will master. A lot of things go into effective spoken communication, one of which is your pronunciation.
Firstly, don’t confuse accent with pronunciation. There is always a correct pronunciation to be learned; this doesn’t vary from person to person. However, what does vary is the speaker’s accent, the distinctive way you express yourself orally, mainly composed of certain vowel or consonants sounds that you carry from your mother tongue. The goal is not to eliminate the accent, which is impossible, but rather reduce it. And the best way to reduce your accent is to practice correct pronunciation through exercises and activities that target this goal. Here are 7 tips that will help you reduce your accent:
1) Slow down
Probably the first thing you should focus on is speaking slowly. When you make a conscious effort to speak slowly, you not only speak more clearly to those who are listening, but also take the time to pronounce syllables, as well as vowel and consonants sounds as they should be pronounced.
2) Don’t forget the ending
Most foreign speakers of English don’t pronounce de “-ed” in past participles of regular verbs, and sometimes they neglect to pronounce the final “s” in plurals. Remember that the “-ed” in past participles may have three different pronunciations. Get yourself a good dictionary with phonetic symbols to know how each verb is pronounced.
3) Put yourself on tape
No matter how painful it may be for you to hear your own voice, it is essential that you record yourself and try to identify your pronunciation mistakes. Compare the way you pronounce a word to the way a native speaker says it.
4) Imitate
Listen to tapes, CDs, native speakers, TV and try to imitate the way they pronounce some words. Watch the way native speakers shape their mouths as they say some words. Look into a mirror if you have to.
5) Control the troublemakers
Keep a list of words you commonly have trouble with, for example, words that start with the “th” sound, like “three”, “thousand”, “thigh”; differentiate them from other sounds like “three” and “tree”; “thousand” and “those”.
6) Pick one sound to center your efforts on each week
One week, you may choose to practice the “r” sound. Pick a newspaper or magazine article, print a blog post or web page, and then circle all of the words you find with this sound. Say them out loud. Use a dictionary if you don’t know how to pronounce a word correctly.
7) Use online resources
There are lots of great online dictionaries where you can hear the word you search for. Try for example this great online dictionary at wordreference.com. You even have the option to hear the word pronounced in American or British English.
So you see, there are several things you can do to reduce your accent, speak more clearly, and make yourself better understood. Just remember, practice makes perfect, so you must be willing to commit to working on your pronunciation at least a little each day. This effort combined with what you learn from your ESL program will get you speaking like a local in no time!
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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The 4 Techniques That Will Perfect Your Reading Skills
Think about it! When you are reading a book, a summary, a paper, or an article in English, most certainly you don’t read every word and understand it in your main language, right?
This is because reading in English is no different from reading in your mother tongue. You know it is not necessary to read and understand all the words to grasp the meaning of what you are reading. The skills you require to read English are exactly the same as the ones you need to read in your native language.
There are four main techniques that will enhance your reading skills no matter the language. Use them and practice them extensively and before you know it, you will be reading in English, or any other language, like a native. Here they are:
1. Skimming
You use skimming to quickly grasp the main idea of the text. What you do is basically run your eyes down the text gathering the important information. This is a great practice when you need to rapidly understand what’s going on at a business meeting, since skimming does not require that you understand every single word that is written. Normally, skimming is a practice that is widely used while reading the newspaper, to get the news fast; magazines, to identify articles that may interest you; or brochures, to grasp the main information quickly.
2. Scanning
You scan a text to find a specific piece of information. The same as when skimming, you must run your eyes down the text to find what specifically interests you. People normally scan schedules and meeting plans, among others, to identify specific information they need. Scanning is also common when watching TV, and train or plane schedules, as well as convention handbooks. While scanning, forget about words or phrases that you don’t get; these don’t matter right away.
3. Broad reading
This aspect of reading is practiced for pleasure and general understanding of the text. You immerse yourself in the extensive reading of long texts as a leisure activity or for professional reasons. Broad reading increases your knowledge on a subject. Business people and students apply this practice when reading books related to their field, interesting novels, or specialized magazines.
4. Thorough reading
This is the concentrated aspect of reading, the one that allows you to understand something in detail. Thorough reading is used in short texts to comprehend very specific information. It requires lots of attention to be able to understand it completely. To grasp every detail, you must understand every single word, phrase, and number, like when reading reports, insurance claims or contracts.
As in any other skill, fast and effective reading is developed with practice. The more you read, the faster and more perceptive you get; words start to become familiar, phrases start to make sense, and you start to feel you are finally mastering the English language, with the help of your ESL program and your determination to make it to the top!
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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English For Telephone Conversations
Learning how to communicate effectively on the telephone is of top priority for any student that is learning to speak English and is enrolled in an ESL program. You may want to communicate effectively with relatives, friends, or even for a job interview. However, telephoning in English can be tricky, if one does not possess the necessary skills specific for telephone competency. But with continuous practice, determination, and hard work, one can pick up the necessary skills and vocabulary to be able to converse with anyone all over the world.
One of the biggest barriers to be able to effectively communicate in English is understanding common phrases, or “slang” language. These are terms that sometimes you might come in contact with, and you need to be able to develop special skills to handle them. One way to do this is by role-playing conversations to practice new vocabulary or slang, and thus prepare for any difficulty that might arise.
Even though students may be successful in face to face conservations, they will soon realize that telephoning requires specific skills that just can’t be learned in the classroom. Some of these skills are as basic as the ability to speak with someone effectively through the telephone. This may not seem like a skill to someone who has spoken the language their whole lives, but to someone speaking it as a second or third language, this can prove quite difficult. The lack of visual communication often makes students nervous, and can create a challenge for someone who might be able to handle face to face conversations better.
One thing you can do is to kindly ask the other party to slow down a bit. One of the biggest hurdles for students to overcome is speed. Native speakers to the language tend to speak very quickly and with a lot of slang language. This may make it difficult to keep up effectively, so remember that it is not impolite to kindly ask the party to slow down and repeat themselves. By having them repeat key information, it will help you to comprehend what they are saying better, and naturally the party will slow down, trying to be more specific. Asking someone to repeat themselves once or twice will most likely make the person slow down their speech and talk in a slower, more formal tone.
Learning English as a second language can be challenging for even most skilled linguists, but if you stay determined, and practice a lot, you’ll be speaking the language in no time. Just remember to slow down and concentrate when talking formally on the telephone and ask the party to do the same if necessary. Practice makes perfect, so find some English speaking friends to call, and practice the language with them, learning proper tone and common terms. This will help you feel more comfortable when you are on that job interview, and you’ll sound as if you’ve been speaking the language your entire life.
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Top 5 Reasons for Learning a New Language
We are all born into a specific culture which determines the language we will use throughout our lives. Some people are born into multicultural homes in which two or more languages are used. For those who do not have this benefit, or those who want to learn more, then learning a new language is just for you. Joining an ESL program, taking Spanish classes, or any language lessons will always enhance your life. There can be many reasons to learn a new language. Whether it is English, French, or Chinese, learning a new language is always a positive action. Below are the top five reasons for learning a new language:
• Travel: Learning a new language will expand your horizons. You will be able to go to countries you have always dreamed of visiting. The opportunity to travel abroad and not need an interpreter to help you do simple tasks such as going out for dinner and ordering from a menu, asking for directions, or getting a taxi is one you can’t miss out on. It will also help you save time and money.
• Work and business expansion: If you own your own business, you can expand it to foreign markets. The possibility of entering the European or Asian market is an opportunity to grow your business. In the case that you don’t own your own business, and are an employee of a multinational enterprise, you have the opportunity of transferring to another department abroad, or taking over a foreign department in your country of residence.
• Education advancement: The capability of communicating in another language is essential if you want to learn more about a specific culture. It is a very different picture to learn about a culture through books than to learn it directly by immersing yourself in the country itself. Simply imagine what it would be like to learn Spanish by living in Spain, or Chinese in China. Learning a new language will also help you enjoy the arts of different countries. You would have the opportunity of communicating in Italian when visiting the most famous sights in Rome. You would not have to depend on an interpreter to guide you through your stay in the country.
• More information and perspective: The more languages you learn, the more you will understand the world and its events. If you learned a new language, you would have the possibility of reading newspapers in their language of origin. Your view of the world and what happens in it expands. With all of the technological innovations that we have today, you can use the Internet to access newspapers, magazines and articles in other languages. You would receive information directly from the source.
• Help people in other countries: If humanitarian help is what you’ve always wanted to do, then learning a new language will push you towards your goal. You would be able to join humanitarian help groups and travel aboard to offer your services. The important aspect is that you would be able to communicate directly with the people you meet. They can tell you their stories first hand.
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There’s No Magic Behind An English Course
Language learning can be very intriguing. People tend to think that after making the decision to take up a course, knowledge will start growing unattended in some corner of their minds. So, what they usually do is attend ESL classes, more or less regularly, and hope that every time a class finishes, their English level will be considerably higher. If they can’t tell a complete story then, using their “new” language, after the first or second lesson, frustration settles in their minds, and they usually end up blaming the trainer, the material, the time, their stress, or whatever seems most suitable.
This is more evident in one-on-one courses, as the pressure to succeed is only exerted by the teacher and not from peers. Excuses for a poor performance proliferate quickly and the students soon forget that at least 50% of their success depends basically on their own efforts. A course may be fantastic, the trainers and methodology a dream, but if a student is not fully committed to work hard all along the process, said course is bound to fail.
The symptoms of failure start long before the course is finished; they appear by the beginning of the second or third class. What are they? Just simple indicators that a student is not fully committed or has a careless behavior towards the course. Here is a list of the most typical ones:
- INCOMPLETE MATERIAL: Not having a notebook may be acceptable once, but lost books, CDs, or whatever material the class requires may be telling you that the course is not as important for the student as it should be. Important things are kept on hand, as you use them regularly.
- LATE ARRIVAL: Unexpected meetings or commuting may interfere sometimes with lessons. But students should arrange their schedules accordingly and make the best use of their time, not to interrupt their and other people’s lessons. Losing one half of each lesson will make a student learn probably only one third of what he expects.
- NO HOMEWORK: When excuses are abundant and real work too little, a student has found the shortest way to failure. Homework was created to use and practice what you learn, if you don’t practice, you don’t remember a thing.
- CLASS INTERRUPTIONS: Cell phones are distracting for students, and a nightmare for teachers. The more a cell phone rings during the class, the lower the level of the English course in the student’s personal hierarchy. Who learns unimportant things?
- QUESTIONING: A teacher may not be right all the time, but he certainly won’t be wrong all the time. When a student questions everything you say it is only obvious that he is not willing to learn from you. And people who don’t want to learn, will never learn.
Many other factors can interfere with a student’s capacity to learn English, like stress levels or natural skills. However, most of them can be eluded with the adequate methodology and a suitable trainer. But no strategy can work properly if the main interference comes from the student’s wrong attitude towards the learning process. There’s no magic behind an English course to make you learn a whole language over the weekend. No system can compensate for a lack of effort, only a student’s commitment and hard work will. So, if you’re planning to take up a course soon, remember that only by doing your best will you be able to get the most of the whole program. That’s the formula.
ESL Programs – A Large Variety to Choose from
English as a Second Language (ESL) has been instrumental in developing the English skills of individuals whose native language is another. ESL has a set of programs in which each one is different in its own way and is engaged in the task of imparting English knowledge. The number of programs has increased over the years as the needs of students have been on a rising trend.
The diversity of programs can be attributed to three major reasons, namely:
- The student population that is to be served
- Individual characteristics of the students
- Resources available at a particular place
The classification of programs chiefly depends on where the focus of the program lies and based on this criterion, there are two classifications:
- Stand-Alone ESL
- ESL Plus
The Stand-Alone ESL program is very much similar to Foreign Language classes, as the focal point is on Linguistics aspects. These programs are conducted for a special class of people who taken away from the normal classroom surrounding, and classes are exclusively conducted for them with extra care and attention. It covers only a lesser portion of the instruction material and hence the classes may be there for 2 to 3 days a week. Here are the few examples:
Pull Out: This is a situation adopted in elementary environment where the students are taken away from their normal classes to be provided with separate classes by a single teacher or by a teacher who is entrusted with a single building.
Class Period: This instruction is followed in middle or secondary school setting, where the students learn the ESL instruction along their normal course of classes in the normal class hours and are provided with credits for this course based on their level of proficiency achieved.
Resource Center: The Resource Center is the enhanced version of the pull out program in the sense that, the students from various classes or schools are taken away from their regular classes. To provide a better learning experience, the resources are all centralized at a single location.
As for ESL Plus, it is just an extension of the Stand-Alone ESL and hence covers a larger portion of the instruction. It is inclusive of all the aspects of Stand-Alone ESL but its focus extends beyond the Linguistic aspects to the medium of instruction of the content area which may be in English or the native language. Following are the few examples of ESL Plus:
Bilingual Education Programs: These programs on the basis of success levels are further classified as ‘Early Transition’ and ‘Late Transition’ and these programs are used at the elementary or the secondary level.
Structured Immersion Program: These programs at its various levels concentrate on enhancing English skills as a language and in the phase of content area instruction.
Sheltered English Or Content-Based Program: These programs are those which are provided simultaneously with other academic subjects.
High Intensity Language Training (Hilt): This program is characterized by intensive ESL training and it also shares various aspects of the sheltered program.
Thus, ESL programs have been very effective in imparting English skills with their wide range of exclusive programs.
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