Learning English » Improving & Practicing http://www.learning-english.ca Learn English Online Thu, 27 May 2010 21:04:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=8310 en hourly 1 Types of Resources Available for ESL Students http://www.learning-english.ca/types-of-resources-available-for-esl-students/ http://www.learning-english.ca/types-of-resources-available-for-esl-students/#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:11:02 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=219 With more and more people arriving every day in this country, the number of ESL students increases dramatically. People are coming from every country in the world hoping to see the country on vacation, finish their studies in the United States or are being employed. With so many needing help in learning English resources are available everywhere to make their lessons easier and faster.

Online resources are plentiful – with many of them free – to take courses, to research words or phrases or to take a practice test. There are chat rooms where you can converse with other students thereby giving you access to friends while learning your new language. There are games that you can play that will improve your vocabulary and grammar quizzes that you can take to learn sentence structure.

There are library reading sources as well as places where you can listen – and learn – and there are places you can practice your writing skills in preparation for an exam or to write a business letter. You can get help with your resume and tips on what to do or say in an interview. You can look up words in a dictionary and check out common idioms used and dialects from different parts of the country.

For some people the way to learn is the traditional classroom with a teacher giving you assignments one or two times per week. However, this way to learn has taken a back seat today as most people do not have enough time or the ability to attend a class or it doesn’t fit into their schedule. It is therefore imperative that they find other resources. Other ways to learn are audio tapes along with reading and listening to the radio or watching television. Television and movies give you a picture with actions to fit with the words, so the resources are available in a variety of places and types of media – all you have to do is decide which is the most appropriate for you.

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/types-of-resources-available-for-esl-students/feed/ 0 Literal Translations Can Sometimes Trip You Up! http://www.learning-english.ca/literal-translations-can-sometimes-trip-you-up/ http://www.learning-english.ca/literal-translations-can-sometimes-trip-you-up/#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:02:35 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=215 When learning English as a second language it is sometimes difficult because when you look up a phrase in your little dictionary that translates for you – say from Chinese to English – Where is the bathroom? Your dictionary might give a literal translation with the result being – bathroom is where? Or where room for bath?

This can happen with any translation from any language because most people translate it exactly the way you stated it making it incorrect grammatically – but hopefully it is clear enough to get the message across. Sometimes a word in Italian or Japanese can mean more than one thing making the translation even more problematic.

For instance you might end up at a bathhouse where you bathe – rather than a place that has a toilet! This can be embarrassing for you and might result in some awkward moments. Literal translations might be all you have to work with and can many times lead you off in a different direction as demonstrated above. The quality of the translation can also be affected by the person who is translating – so depending on their depth and knowledge it could be open to interpretation.

Translating from another language to English can be difficult as it is important to ensure that the person gets the “meaning of the total phrase across” rather than translating each word specifically. Most people will be helpful and try to assist a stranger by ensuring that the person thoroughly understands what is being said – therefore they will do give a “literal” translation because that would be more confusing. It can also be difficult when idioms or local dialects come into play as the word or phrase might be pertinent only to that particular area of the country so translating it could be tricky.

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/literal-translations-can-sometimes-trip-you-up/feed/ 0 Learning English While You Work http://www.learning-english.ca/learning-english-while-you-work/ http://www.learning-english.ca/learning-english-while-you-work/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:59:46 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=213 Many students learning English are working their way through school or are struggling families trying to learn a new language and earn a living at the same time. Learning a new language is hard enough without having to depend on it so you can provide for your family. Actually though there are many jobs that will help you with your English because you will be constantly speaking to others while doing your job. 

What types of jobs are available to someone who speaks limited English but will allow them the opportunity to practice while they work? Here are some ideas that might help you.

- Servers in restaurants or bars – this is a typical student job but can give you the opportunity to meet lots of people and practice your English skills. Restaurants frequently have other jobs as cooks, dishwashers, head waiters and other types of positions that don’t often require lots of experience.
- Cashiers or baggers – grocery store chains and small “Mom & Pop” groceries or other businesses will hire people as cashiers or to work stocking shelves or bagging groceries.
- Hotel staff – some require multi-lingual employees because of their clientele. This could be at registration, restaurant or bar staff, housekeeping and other staff.
- Tour guides – Frequently in larger cities like New York or San Francisco, bilingual staff are required for tourists which is the perfect opportunity to practice your English.
- Housekeepers – Many families hire housekeeping staff on a weekly or biweekly basis with referrals providing other clients.

These are just a few of the opportunities available to improve your English skills while earning a living. Any city has a need for translation services, along with airlines and other professionals that need people to assist with their clients. What could be better than earning a living – and learning English at the same time?

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/learning-english-while-you-work/feed/ 0 Let’s go Shopping: A practice exercise for ESL students. http://www.learning-english.ca/let%e2%80%99s-go-shopping-a-practice-exercise-for-esl-students/ http://www.learning-english.ca/let%e2%80%99s-go-shopping-a-practice-exercise-for-esl-students/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:38:50 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=94

Who can forget the early practice exercises that had the learner taking an imaginary ‘shopping’ trip to the local grocery store in order to expand their item vocabulary? These exercises while quite practical were not very inspiring. Talk about boring! Who wants to remember how to say ‘I want ten bananas’, or ‘How much is that bread’? How about “What colors do these Air Forces come in so that they will match my Lakers basketball jersey, Gold t-shirt, and B-Ball Shorts?” That’s what young people are saying nowadays. The second part of the shopping equation is “What is my favorite celebrity wearing?” Shoes, sneakers jeans, dresses, caps, jewelry, shorts all come under the umbrella of the popular name brands clothing lines by those same celebrities. With the internet all these things are accessible online.

Let us combine these 2 teenage obsessions. Have your students select several celebrities and dress them for the “Red Carpet” for several events such as a movie premier, awards, sporting event. Your students must choose the complete outfit including sizes, colors, hairstyles, and accessories using information gathered from the internet. Then the students must shop by “going” to the store and asking for the appropriate apparel. Students must also be able schedule hair, nail, and fitness appointments so that their celebrity will look his/her absolute best. Students must also buy or rent the appropriate vehicles to bring these stars to the event. Finally on the night of the event, each student will now play the role of the network announcer describing each outfit in detail and biographical facts about their chosen celebrity.

Learning a new language is enhanced by the student’s personal interests while learning practical language skills and how the access information via the internet.

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/let%e2%80%99s-go-shopping-a-practice-exercise-for-esl-students/feed/ 0 Using Music to study English http://www.learning-english.ca/using-music-to-study-english/ http://www.learning-english.ca/using-music-to-study-english/#comments Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:32:44 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=88 Navigating through the English language is fraught with pitfalls and can be a confusing, frustrating labyrinth without a guide to help point out the points of interests. Trying to inspire adolescents (or oneself) to travel through this tangled maze requires a ‘hook’ or interesting approach to keep them involved.

Music, Music, Music we hum it, we sing it, we dance to it and teens and adolescents love it. Music can be a way for them to forge their own identify or blend in with the crowd. Songs are full of words. Words that your students want to learn so they can sing-along. Try a take on American Idol. You can follow along on the actual TV show, use the DVD game or create a game of your own.

Teachers can make up their own version of American Idol and have students practice their language skills as they participate. They can have their students translate and learn songs from artists in different musical categories such as country, rap, R &B, musicals, gospel, etc. The students can sing or say the words to their favorite songs in English. The judges (who are also students) must tell what the Idol participants are saying or singing and if it can be clearly understood. Another take on the American idol theme is to have students judged on creating silly songs from popular songs using all verbs, adjectives or nouns. You can also split the students into teams where they have to identify all verbs, nouns and adjectives within the song lyrics during a preset time interval.

Those who are practicing their English skills can take popular songs from their own language and translate them into English. This will help them understand the various differences in pronunciation, diction, and sentence/word sequences.

It is important to keep in mind the many (if not most) songs contain a large amount of slang and culturally specific phrases and while they may not always be grammatically correct, they are often a good representation of how English is actually spoken in the culture.

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/using-music-to-study-english/feed/ 0 Using My Space as a ESL teaching Tool http://www.learning-english.ca/using-my-space-as-a-esl-teaching-tool/ http://www.learning-english.ca/using-my-space-as-a-esl-teaching-tool/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:30:38 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=86 The hardest part of learning (and teaching) a new language is the need to familiarize oneself with the grammar requirements of the language to be learned, with English this is particularly tricky to do. When the person learning English is an adolescent or pre-teen there are a few resources that can help the learning process.

Who cares about English prepositions when all they really want to know is what color lip gloss Beyonce is wearing, what brand of clothes the Jonas Brothers had on in their newest video or whether or not Vannesa Hudgens and Zac Efron really dating or is it all a show to boost ticket sales for high School Musical 3.
The best way to teach anything to adolescents and teens is to tap into the things that are important to them mostly music, fashion, their friends, sports, entertainment and anything that is gross or anything that hints of sex. Find out what it is they want to say to each other and teach it to them. One of the best tools for conversation can be a My Space Language Sessions. Engage other native English speaking teens to partner with and help your students create My Space Pages in English. When they choose songs, backgrounds, and create a friends list teach them to describe these things in English.

Have the students allow the teachers access to their saved emails, and as part of their grade have them chat in English with their partners (no texting, please). Have them create a list of topics to discuss such as current movies, fashion trends, celebrity gossip (who is dating who), what team has the best record,, personal interests, etc. Review these conversations daily making verbal and written corrections. This is a great way to plug into what your students want to say and learn about the culture in which they live.

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/using-my-space-as-a-esl-teaching-tool/feed/ 0 Online Sources for ‘English as a Second Language’ Students http://www.learning-english.ca/online-sources-for-%e2%80%98english-as-a-second-language%e2%80%99-students/ http://www.learning-english.ca/online-sources-for-%e2%80%98english-as-a-second-language%e2%80%99-students/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:28:59 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=84 Learning English is a difficult task in the best of circumstances and in today’s busy world it can be a overwhelming undertaking without a reliable resource that can afford the ESL student to opportunity to practice writing, reading and listening the language. There are several free online websites that can be sources for helping ESL students learn the various nuisances of the English language. Here are three websites that are geared to the English as a second language student.

www.manythings.com- This is a one stop serves all ESL website. There are literally hundreds of programs and links that concentrate on the ESL student. There are audio/visual MP3 links that can be downloaded which will display a sentence with a audio component so that the learner can both see and hear the words in English. There are games, puzzles and exercises for every age and English level. All access is free to the user.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/- This website is a simple ‘bread and butter’ webpage where various exercises and worksheet handouts are displayed via webpage links. All work is presented in simple Adobe word format without an audio component. The worksheets and handouts are simple and easy to understand but there are no ‘extras’ such a voice augmentation or animated sequences. Because this site does not focus exclusively on the ESL learner, the nature of the material is ‘bare bones’.

http://a4esl.org/- This website, while simple in nature, contains several parts that many other ESL sites do not. The site consists of various quizzes (both vocabulary and grammar) and puzzles geared toward the ESL learner. There is a long list of bilingual quizzes in a large number of languages from Arabic to Zulu. The difficultly of the various tests and quizzes can range from very easy (simple) material, to some very tough examples.

These three websites are just a small sample of the many helpful ESL sites that are available to the ESL learner.

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/online-sources-for-%e2%80%98english-as-a-second-language%e2%80%99-students/feed/ 0 Compelling Conversations » Blog Archive » Looking for An ESL Book … http://www.learning-english.ca/compelling-conversations-%c2%bb-blog-archive-%c2%bb-looking-for-an-esl-book/ http://www.learning-english.ca/compelling-conversations-%c2%bb-blog-archive-%c2%bb-looking-for-an-esl-book/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:46:11 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=41 New post at Compelling Conversations » Blog Archive » Looking for An ESL Book ….

be used for the immigrant who must learn English to advance in the world. Eric H. Roth has taught many ESL courses at Santa Monica College, UCLA Extension, Cal State Long Beach’s. American Language Institute. …

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More on similar topic:-

do you know any good websites for ESL student to learn English?

Yes, go to: www.ESLDesk.com
Good day!!!!

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FYI, here is a list of recently published Posts on same topic:-
Learning English the Web Way
16 Websites to Super Charge Your English Vocabulary

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/compelling-conversations-%c2%bb-blog-archive-%c2%bb-looking-for-an-esl-book/feed/ 0 Learning English Online http://www.learning-english.ca/learning-english-online/ http://www.learning-english.ca/learning-english-online/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:18:58 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=141 Learn English and Spanish online

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]]> http://www.learning-english.ca/learning-english-online/feed/ 0 Learn English Online FAST http://www.learning-english.ca/learn-english-online-fast/ http://www.learning-english.ca/learn-english-online-fast/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:08:08 +0000 admin http://www.learning-english.ca/?p=34 Here is a new post at kirtsy – Learn English Online FAST.

Languagelab is a good place to improve your English, having fun and with a very good team of people doing a great work. I love English classes and I’m learning more useful English than in RL classes. There are a lot of places to be able …

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Here is a response on similar topic:-

Can anyone give me any suggestions for learning english online?

yea i do it on ics its pretty gd lyk they send u the work and u do it and email or post it to them

the website is

www.icslearn.co.

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