Showing posts with label Grammar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grammar. Show all posts

I couldn't believe my eyes | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

I couldn't believe my eyes | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC:

"In this activity the teacher creates situations for the students to get plenty of practice with the form and meaning of the past perfect."

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10 Teacher Tested Tricks to Teach Modal Verbs

10 Teacher Tested Tricks to Teach Modal Verbs:

"Teaching modal verbs can be a challenge, especially to beginning teachers who don’t have enough experience."
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Learning ESL / EFL Using Smartphones | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

Learning ESL / EFL Using Smartphones | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC:

"Dictionary.com: This app delivers reference content from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com. The app also features audio pronunciation, voice-to-text search, and Word of the Day. It has 375,000 words and definitions, over 300,000 synonyms and antonyms, phonetic and audio pronunciation, spelling suggestions, example sentences, favourite words list. My students and I have found the application immensely useful.

Test your English: This app is at three levels: Test Your English I, II, III. It helps the learner improve their English skills. Each level contains more than 900 multichoice tests. The types of tests are: ESL/EFL grammar exercises, ESL Business English tests, English synonym worksheets, idioms tests, common errors in English tests, etc. There are also many interesting reading passages through which English grammar can be learnt in a fun way.

250 Grammar Quizzes: This app consists of 250 basic grammar questions. Each test contains five questions. It helps learners understand English grammar better.

Crosswords: This application lets you download and solve crossword puzzles from around the world. New puzzles are available every day from major newspapers, plus hints, clue listings and many more."
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English Listening Skills and Activities-Effective Listening Practice for ESL EFL Learners and Teachers

English Listening Skills and Activities-Effective Listening Practice for ESL EFL Learners and Teachers

Acquiring listening skills is frustrating. This is because successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice. It's frustrating for students because there are no rules as in grammar teaching. Here is a discussion of the problem and some suggestions to improving listening skills.
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Grammar Rock Prepositions

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Train | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

A selection of free training resources for teachers and teacher trainers.
Train | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC
A new area on TeachingEnglish, and the place to go if you are looking for teacher training materials. For teachers, there are videos and self-access online courses on topics such as teaching grammar, using learning technologies and understanding learner styles. You’ll also find information about face-to-face training courses the British Council runs. For teacher trainers there are downloadable workshop materials, including guidelines on how to use them.
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Learn English with Jokes

This site contains jokes based on useful grammar points in English. Each joke is followed by a grammar explanation and exercises on the  grammar and key vocabulary from the jokes.

This site is currently being updated and when it's completed there will be more than 70 jokes.  (If you don't see any changes, click the "refresh" button on your browser.) I plan to build this site into the number one (and possibly only) collection of jokes for ESL on the internet. 
 http://esljokes.net/index.html
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Listen to English - learn English! - The podcast website for people learning English

Listen to English - learn English! - The podcast website for people learning English:

"Welcome to Listen to English, the podcast website for people learning English.

The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are two short (3 to 5 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. Many of them are linked to grammar and vocabulary notes, or to exercises or quizes. You can download the podcasts to your computer, or subscribe using a programme such as iTunes or Yahoo, or simply listen to them by clicking the Flash player on the web page beneath each episode. You can put the podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player, and listen to them on your way to school or work. The full text of each podcast is on this site (and will also appear on your iPod screen), so you can look up the meanings of words that you do not understand in a dictionary. Then close your eyes and listen! Have fun!

NEW : you can now subscribe to Listen to English – learn English! by Email"
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40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation - Dumb Little Man

40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation - Dumb Little Man:

"After all these years you finally have the courage and opportunity to write the email announcing that you and you alone have single handedly saved the company from utter disaster. You're excited, you type it, you spell check it, and you hit send.

Everything is great except that your gold star memo has dangling modifiers, double negatives and run-on sentences colliding with each other.

Now I am no grammar whiz but I know a good resource when I see it. Purdue University maintains an online writing lab and I spent some time digging through it. Originally the goal was to grab some good tips that would help me out at work and on this site, but there is simply too much not to share.


Learn and enjoy!"
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Bendable Grammar Rules

Bendable Grammar Rules:

"You might be surprised to learn how much language changes over time. One of my favorite shows is The Adventure of English. It’s a series that presents the history of English much like a biography. It is fascinating to see how the rules of English grammar changed over time. There’s a lot of drama in this journey, believe it or not!

Then again, some old habits die hard, and some grammar teachers cling to rules they learned in their grammar school days. Recently, I read a newly-published grammar book with a very catchy title. I thought it would be pretty up-to-date in its views, but I was wrong. I was surprised to see the old grammar myth:

“Never end a sentence with a preposition.”


"The author went on to name all the prepositions with which one should never end a sentence. With was one. I sure hope your English teachers aren’t actually subtracting points for this.

Another stubborn rule is the split infinitive principle. Sure, your writing would be pretty ugly and awkward if you started to brazenly split infinitives on a regular basis. But an occasional infraction can be quite lovely. Just look at the examples provided by the Guide to Grammar.

But that’s not all. The Grammar Guide also advises that the old rule about starting a sentence with and or but is perfectly bendable."
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Secondary ICT - Plagiarism - A Cut and Paste Generation | Teachers TV

Secondary ICT - Plagiarism - A Cut and Paste Generation | Teachers TV:

"A look at how staff combat plagiarism in schools, colleges and universities, following the rise of the internet and the cut and paste generation.

A schools plagiarism workshop shows the difficulty in defining and responding to plagiarism in schools, and students at the University of Leeds attend a compulsory study skills module to help boost their understanding of plagiarism.

At Ripon Grammar School, North Yorkshire, staff help students develop independent research skills using the internet in unexpected subjects such as PE and biology.

Hemsworth Arts and Community College, Pontefract, teaches a Harvard style referencing system and uses a plagiarism policy to demonstrate the small steps that can provide pupils with the awareness they need in internet research."
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Basic English Curriculum for Teaching ESL - Grammar

Basic English Curriculum for Teaching ESL - Grammar:

"The follow grammar points will provide students with a solid base to build their English speaking and comprehension skills. Specific points are included in notes for the various grammar points.


Present Simple / Present Continuous (Present Progressive)

Note: Contrast between habits and temporary actions


Past Simple


Past Continuous

Note: Focus on use with the past simple to describe 'interrupted actions' in the past


Present Perfect

Note: focus on use of present perfect for unfinished time - i.e. the duration form. Focus should also include adverbs commonly used with the present perfect: since, for, just, already, yet


Future with 'Will'

Note: Contrast this form with future intentions form - i.e. future with 'going to'


Future with 'Going to'

Note: Contrast this form with future predictions form - i.e. future with 'will'


Present Continuous (Present Progressive)

Note: Use for future intentions and plans, discuss similarities to future with 'going to'


First Conditional (Real Conditional)

Note: Used for probable or realistic situations


Modal Verbs of Deduction Note: Use of 'must be', 'might be' and 'can't be' use in the present


Some - Any

Note: Call to attention the irregular use of some in requests and offers


Quantifiers

Note: too, enough, a lot of, a few, much, many (in question and negative forms), etc.


Prepositions of Place

Note: in front of, opposite, behind, between, across, etc.


Prepositions of Movement

Note: straight on, on your right, past the house, into, out of, etc.


Common Phrasal Verbs

Note: get on with, look after, fed up with, put off, make up, etc.


Verb + Gerund

Note: like doing, enjoy doing, go swimming, etc.


Verb + Infinitive

Note: hope to do, want to do, manage to do, etc.


Basic Verb and Preposition Combinations

Note: listen to, arrive at, go through, etc.


Comparatives & Superlatives

Note: taller than, more beautiful than, as tall as, happier than, the tallest, the most difficult, etc.


Listening Skills

Listening skills should include the ability to understand and act on basic information in the following situations:

  • Personal Information: Name, Address, Telephone #., Nationality Etc.
  • Telling the Time
  • Numbers, Cardinal and Ordinal
  • Simple Directions and Prepositions of Place
  • Spelling
  • Simple Descriptions of People and Places

Vocabulary

  • Descriptions of people: looks and character, the family
  • Food drink and restaurants
  • Likes and dislikes
  • The home, rooms, furniture
  • Town & country
  • Shops and shopping
  • The weather
  • Time, the seasons, months, weeks, days etc.
  • Films and television
  • Leisure and interests
  • Holidays - travel - hotels

Language Functions

Language functions concern "chunks of language" which provide essential phrases for everyday use.

  • Introductions and greetings: How do you do? / Pleased to meet you. / How are you? , etc.
  • Asking for information: How do you spell ____? / How do you pronounce? / Where is the nearest bank? / What does "X" mean?, etc.
  • Offering: Can I help you? / Would you like some ...? etc.
  • Requesting: May I have a coffee? / Could you help me? etc.
  • Inviting: Would you like to come with me?
  • Suggesting: Shall we go out this evening? / Let's have some lunch. / Why don't we play some tennis? etc.
  • Asking for descriptions: What is he like? / What does it look like? etc.
  • Buying and selling: Which size are you? / How much does it cost? etc.
  • Asking for directions: Excuse me, where is the train station? / Where is the nearest bank? etc.
  • The language of travel: Hotels, restaurants, trains and planes, etc.
  • Giving advice: You should see a doctor / I think he should work harder. etc.
Grammar objectives for basic English courses."
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Resources for ESL / EFL Teachers

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Linguistics

Linguistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language, encompassing a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure (grammar) and the study of meaning (semantics). Grammar encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the rules that determine how words combine into phrases and sentences) and phonology (the study of sound systems and abstract sound units). Phonetics is a related branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived.

Over the twentieth century, following the work of Noam Chomsky,[1] linguistics came to be dominated by the Generativist school, which is chiefly concerned with explaining how human beings acquire language and the biological constraints on this acquisition. Generative theory is modularist in character. While this remains the dominant paradigm,[2] Chomsky's writings have also gathered much criticism, and other linguistic theories have increasingly gained popularity; cognitive linguistics is a prominent example. There are many sub-fields in linguistics, which may or may not be dominated by a particular theoretical approach: evolutionary linguistics attempts to account for the origins of language; historical linguistics explores language change and sociolinguistics looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures.

A variety of intellectual disciplines are relevant to the study of language. Linguistics — like other sciences — is highly interdisciplinary and draws on work from such fields as psychology, speech-language pathology, informatics, computer science, philosophy, biology, human anatomy, neuroscience, sociology, anthropology, and acoustics."

http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/
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Grammar Links

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar
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UsingEnglish.com - Learning English (ESL) Online

UsingEnglish.com - Learning English (ESL) Online:

"Resources for English as a Second Language

UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics. Browse our grammar glossary and references of irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, ESL forums, articles, teacher handouts and printables, and find useful links and information on English. Topics cover the spectrum of ESL, EFL, ESOL, and EAP subject areas."
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Grammar Lesson - Hyphens in compound adjectives

Grammar Lesson - Hyphens in compound adjectives:

"A single adjective made up of two or more words is called a 'compound adjective'. The words in a compound adjective are linked together by a hyphen (or hyphens) to show that they are part of the same adjective."
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BBC NEWS | The Editors - Grammar Test

BBC NEWS | The Editors:

"Each week on Newswatch (http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi), complaints come and go from members of the public about what some see as mistaken news priorities, bias, inaccuracy, or trivialisation. But what remains constant, and what seems to elicit the ire of viewers more than anything else, is one topic: sloppy grammar. Everyone seems to have their personal bugbear, be it the use of 'less' instead of 'fewer', the split infinitive, or the use of a plural noun with a singular verb. And many feel that standards have slipped in recent years.

We thought we'd put this to the test, and invited a number of BBC journalists to demonstrate their grammatical expertise - or otherwise - on camera. Perhaps surprisingly, five presenters or correspondents were brave enough to take up the challenge: spotting 20 deliberate grammatical errors which we'd inserted in a mock conversation between a presenter and a correspondent."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/11/grammar_test_your_turn.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/11/grammar_test_results.html
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Basic Guide to Teaching Grammar in an ESL / EFL Class Setting

Basic Guide to Teaching Grammar in an ESL / EFL Class Setting:

"Teaching grammar plays a central role in every ESL / EFL teacher's classroom. The important question that needs to be answered is: how do I teach grammar? In other words, how do I help students learn the grammar they need. This question is deceptively easy. At first look, you might think that teaching grammar is just a matter of explaining grammar rules to students. However, teaching grammar effectively is a much more complicated matter."
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Teacher Training Tips for Teaching Grammar

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