esl skills practice
How To Choose The Best ESL School For You
If your friends think that you are a walking version of Wikipedia and keep asking you for definitions, tips, and counseling on all kinds of stuff, here’s a good way to surprise them with some very useful information.
Or, on the contrary, if you are the one planning to study English abroad and are looking for the right information so you don’t feel so lost, you will find below a set of tips that will make your day.
Here’s a list of tips on how to choose the best ESL school for you. There are hundreds of such programs being offered everwhere and for everyone. How can you know if the program suits your needs, or if they will fulfill the contract and not leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere? Just a few steps to follow and no big worries afterwards:
-Define your goals: This is the key issue here. You must be very clear about your objectives, what level of English you want to acquire, how long you are planning to take for that, where you want to go and why. Choosing the right ESL program has nothing to do with the nice colors of the website or the great name the Institute or University has. You are staying in a foreign country where they speak a language you don’t master, and with obvious cultural differences, so you’d better choose a place where you think you’ll feel comfortable.
-Search for local agencies (using your mother tongue): This may sound a bit too logical, but believe me, there are many people who make the mistake of contacting agencies in the “target” language and they can’t understand all the implications of the trip, stay, or contract. A source of bad times is when you don’t understand all the rules of the game.
-Ask all the important questions: Wherever you go they will give you lots of information, flyers, pamphlets, catalogs, and testimonies telling you how wonderful job they do. Just concentrate on the vital things for your trip and life in the foreign country:
• Costs: How much the total program is, how much you need to carry with you; find out if there are extra costs.
• Housing: Is it included in the program? If so, where, and under what conditions?
• Meals: How many meals does the program include a day? (if any) For the whole period?
• Cost of living in general: General information about the cost of things there, just in case you have to stay on your own means for some time.
• Activities and support provided: Will you be alone or become part of a group? Can you do other things apart from studying? Do you have to pay extra for that?
• Extent of health insurance and others: What if you have an accident or need to be admitted into hospital? What if you need an urgent visit to the dentist?
-Establish direct contact here with the person who’s receiving you there at the agency (get all details): Don’t accept a “we’ll contact you there” for an answer. You need to know who to resort to in case of trouble. He/she is going to be the only contact with your mother country at the beginning, so you’d better feel confident about him/her.
-Contact people who have been there: Look for real, live testimonies, not the typical “I went there and my life changed forever” sentence. Find two or three people who have undergone this experience. They are the ones who can give you the best advice on what to do, what to avoid, and what to expect.
There. A few tips to get a nice ESL school and not die in the process. They will be of much use to you as they have been for many people. Now, you can show off among your friends about how clever and well-informed you are, and your popularity will increase for sure.
Now, if you’re preparing that trip to an English-speaking country to learn, you probably feel less insecure about all the aspects to consider. So, follow the tips and good luck there! By the way, remember to check your passport before leaving!
5 Ways To Practice English Without Noticing
Probably the most common sentence in relation to English is: “I simply don’t have time to study”. Said by 9 out of 10 students, it is an excuse they believe firmly and which keeps them content for not making much progress. Mothers complain about lack of time, so do students, executives, secretaries, lawyers, taxi drivers, and every person trying to learn English.
You may not have time to memorize 500 verbs in one day, or have a complete ESL class on the web, or search in the dictionary the meaning of all words beginning with “E”…but there are bits of time here and there that pass unattended, and that can really make the difference, if you know how to use them for your benefit.
Spare time to study? Where???- You may say.
Easy: on your way to (or from) work or school. During some recreational activities, and almost every activity that you perform everyday. Here are a few tricks :
1. Listening to music: On the subway, on the street or wherever you go, you see hundreds of people, earphones on, listening to music. Join them! Pick up your Mp3 player or Ipod, choose a group or singer you like (singing in English, of course) and, there you go. 30 minutes a day will do marvels to your pronunciation and vocabulary. Even better if you get the lyrics of the songs you like (available on the web). Repeat them until you know them by heart. Extra time invested: none.
2. Watching movies: TV, cinema, DVD, everything is valid here. The trick? The movie has to be in English. Start with subtitles in your language, then, as you feel more confident, switch to English. You may be lost at the beginning, but your ear adapts quickly, so be patient. Vocabulary, new expressions and sentence-recognition increasing like by magic. Extra time invested: none.
3. Browsing the web (in English): Ideally, use your browser in English. Do the same with your Facebook, My Space, and MSN accounts. Search for information in English first, then your language. Read the comments in Youtube!. Your vocabulary, common expressions, and sentence structure will stay in your mind without your noticing. Extra time invested: Just the time to switch everything to English.
4. Using TV as background noise: Do your housework, take a relaxing bath, play a game online, or do your paperwork with the TV on…in English (a TV series, a movie, a talk-show, anything will do). The purpose? Familiarizing with an English-spoken environment. Do this exercise daily, and in a week you’ll be recognizing not only words, but complete sentences, which you can easily insert into your already-learnt lexicon. Extra time invested: none.
5. Using the words around you: Switch to English in all the gadgets you use: cell phone, Ipod, laptop, alarm clock, remote control, EVERYTHING. You know how they operate already. Adapting to the new language will be extremely easy. Other options: Read the English version of operation manuals, food content lists, and anything with a readable wrapping on. Important vocabulary is hidden everywhere in these everyday necessities.
So, there you go. All you need is to make good use of the time you’re wasting everyday. Your brain will be working faster, your language will be improving by the minute and your mood will be better, as you will have fun and learn at the same time. No excuse now to stop making progress with your English, don’t you think?
5 Things to Avoid During Your ESL Class
Have you ever wondered why some people don’t seem to make any improvement in their English level? Even though they have been studying for years?
If you asked them, they would probably complain about the teacher, first, then the system (methodology), the schedule, their hearing capabilities, the time, and of course, the language itself. Very few people, not to say, no people at all, would admit that they are responsible to a great extent for their lack of progress when taking on an ESL course.
Why is this so? There are always certain acquired behaviors that prevent you from grabbing all the contents in an ESL program. These are repeated maybe unintentionally, but they do create a specific kind of atmosphere during the class, that would not only bother your teacher and classmates, but also distract you completely from your main goal: learning.
That special kind of atmosphere refers basically to the set of interrumptions and distractors that you can add systematically to your class, and which your classmates (if any) can also add on their parts. The result is usually a class with ups and downs, very few moments of deep concentration, a lot of frustration, and a few exercises to be done more or less successfully.
If asked about the factors taking part in this “sabotage” to your learning, many teachers would be able to pinpoint clearly what these factors are, and they would also agree that these can not only make your learning slower, but they could also prevent it completely. Here is a list of the things that you need to avoid if you want to make the best use of your ESL class.
What to avoid:
- Late arrivals: If your class starts at 8:00, don’t show up at 8:20 or you’ll lose up to 30% of your lesson (60’ class). If you arrive this late every class and you took up a 60 hour-course, how much real benefit are you wasting? You do the math.
- Interruptions: Cell phones can be your worst enemy here. Constant ringing, bleeping, and vibrating distract you considerably. It’s even worse if you answer, because your mind will travel to the issue that originated the call, and stay there, for sure. This is like going out of the room, walking for one block and coming back. How much concentration do you have left when you rejoin the class?
- Ignoring corrections: If the teacher corrects you, apply that correction immediately. There’s no point in saying “OK” and continue with the sentence. “OK” will not replace the term when you need to say something similar again. If the teacher makes you repeat, you repeat. Repeating helps you remember.
- Eluding note-taking: Paper was invented for some reason. There’s a whole mental process behind writing what you need to remember. Your ideas become clearer, more organized, and you have a good memory-helper afterwards.
- Leaving exercises incomplete: Saying: “OK, got it” is not the right way to exercise what you are learning. This is like trying to master a joystick: you need to practice, practice, and practice until the structure and your mind are fully synchronized.
Make sure the next time you attend your ESL class you start applying these tips. Maybe not all of them at the beginning, but do make the effort. You will notice the difference immediately.
As for your phone calls, you usually turn the cell off when in a meeting, why not pretend the class is an important meeting too? Not only your teacher and classmates will be grateful, so will your nervous system, as you will be more in control of your personal life. And your English will probably give you a nice surprise sooner than you think.
English Corner: The Chinese Social Occasion Made for English Students
There are English students eager to practice their skills all over the world. China is not the exception. This wonderful country has amazed the world with its meteoric economic double-digit growth during the past couple of decades, along with a fantastic display of organization and skill during their 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Its accelerating opening to the economies of the rest of the world has made it a necessity for the diligent and ambitious Chinese (this description suits practically the whole population) to acquire at least an acceptable level of command of the English language.
University students in Beijing and other cities are the most interested and motivated to learn and practice. If you happen to be around Beijing, and have some free time, don’t miss the opportunity to cooperate with this interesting group of English students. You will enjoy their company, get an inside look at their culture, and they will be very happy to get practice time with a fellow English student or an English speaker. Almost every university organizes an “English corner” which refers to the practice of getting together every day in a designated “corner” of their campus and basically engaging in a mingling session where they will practice English with anyone they find.
The English corners sessions at Beijing Normal University and Beijing Foreign Studies University, for instance, are quite famous for their crowds and nice international environment. You don’t have to be a university student to attend, so, while the crowds are composed mostly of Chinese students and Chinese people looking to practice English, there are many foreign attendees who are after a nice conversation and ambiance. The mix is cosmopolitan and very interesting; it also makes for a perfect setting to use English in a real-life situation, even though everyone there knows most of the speakers aren’t native or even fluent, which makes it very relaxing.
These kinds of sessions can be found elsewhere in the world, at any ESL school, and are extremely useful and enriching to an ESL or EFL student. English schools in the USA encourage these sorts of gatherings as an integral part of the learning experience.
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