​[Excerpt taken from article written by Kenneth Beare and published on www.thoughtco.com]

Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays in the United States. Traditionally, it is a holiday that Americans spend together with their families. Thanksgiving dinner usually includes the traditional Thanksgiving turkey.

Improve your understanding of the holiday by reading the story that follows. Difficult words are explained at the end of each paragraph. Once you have read the story of Thanksgiving, take the reading comprehension quiz to test your understanding of the text.

To read more about the origins of Thanksgiving and to take the quiz, click HERE! 

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[Excerpt below taken from talkenglish.com]

The verb "to be" is different from other verbs in English. "Be verbs" do not show an action. "Be verbs" show a state of being. They act like an equals sign (=) in math.

"Be verbs" are usually followed by a noun or an adjective. A noun is a person, place, thing, or thing. An adjective is a word that describes a noun like big, small, happy, fast, interesting, and annoying. 

Simple present tense "be verbs" are - am, is, are. "Be verbs" go after the subject. Use this pattern with "be verbs":
               Subject + be verb + noun/adjective

To read more about the "be" verb, click here.

To practice using the "be" verb, click on the exercises below:
 

• Practice 1
• Practice 2
  
• Practice 3
  

To practice more, you can find other exercises at this link: https://agendaweb.org/verbs/to-be-exercises.html

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• Attend English class regularly.
• Only use English in class.
• Ask questions in class. There is no such thing as a silly or dumb question. Always ask for help if you don’t understand something, or if you need to know how to pronounce a word.
• Practice English outside of class: make conversation as often as possible at stores, Dr. office, library, work, gym, etc.
• Watch TV and listen to the radio in English
• Watch movies and then talk about them with an English-speaking friend or family member.
• Read books: go to the library and check out “easy reader” books or short stories
• Do your homework regularly and soon after class is over. You will remember more that way.
• Use the computer to learn and practice English. I can provide websites. 

"Many languages have one form to speak about the future, but there are four ways of using the future tense in English! These can often cause some confusion, so here are brief and basic explanations of the most common uses for each one.

Which form of the future tense should you use?"To keep reading this article about the Future Tense, click HERE

Here are some more thoughts on the Future Tense (from FluentU):
"Consider this: right now, we’re in the present. In a minute, we will be in the future. You read those sentences, and now that is all in the past.

Crazy, right? Everything that has not happened yet is part of the future.

It might happen after a few seconds, a few years or even after hundreds and thousands of years. It is hard to think about things that will happen that far ahead…but it is very easy to talk about them.

Talking about the future makes it possible to make plans and predictions, create schedules and wonder what the weather will be like this weekend.

To speak about the future in English, you need to learn some important facts about the English future tense. 

To read about 6 Surprising Facts About the English Future Tense, click HERE! 

To practice using the Future Tense, click on the links below:
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Future Tense Practice 1 
Future Tense Practice 2
Future Tense Practice 3

​[The excerpt below is taken from towson.edu. It was written by Margaret L. Benner. ​To read more about the topic, click the link at the bottom.]


Although you are probably already familiar with basic subject-verb agreement, this chapter begins with a quick review of basic agreement rules.

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural).  Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural.

In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns ADD an s to the singular form; verbs REMOVE the s from the singular form.

To read more and to practice, click on the link below:

SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT 


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"Matching up singular or plural subjects with singular or plural forms of a verb is part of the process called agreement. This is easy in simple sentences:

He admits that he is worried. [singular subject and verb]
They admit that they are worried. [plural subject and verb]

But there are some cases where the grammar is not so straightforward."

To read more about subject verb agreement from Oxford Dictionaries.com click here.

Do you know when you should the present tense in your writing? Do you when to use present progressive? 

Below are  some sites  that will give you an opportunity to review the two tenses and then practice identifying when to use them. I would encourage you to read through the information found on the first link. Then, work through the exercises at the bottom of that same link/page. 

There are additional exercises at the bottom of this post if you want more practice.


Simple Present vs. Present Progressive


Practice
Present vs. Present Progressive/Continuous Practice #2
Present vs. Present Progressive/Continuous Practice #3
Present vs. Present Progressive/Continuous Practice #4

Prewriting is the first step in the writing process. It's where we gather ideas about the topic we are assigned (or that we want to write about). There are several different ways that we can effectively gather these ideas including brainstorming, clustering, questioning...just to name a few. 

Below you will find some links which explain more about the different types of prewriting. Take some time to read through each one before working on your writing assignment. Not all of them work for everyone. You should try to find one that fits you.

• Definitions and examples
• Prewriting Strategies
• Clustering 
• Prewriting

From Englishpage.com: 
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"The simple present (also called present simple or present indefinite) is a verb tense which is used to show repetition, habit or generalization. Less commonly, the simple present can be used to talk about scheduled actions in the near future and, in some cases, actions happening now. Read on for detailed descriptions, examples, and simple present exercises.
Simple Present FormsThe simple present is just the base form of the verb. Questions are made with do and negative forms are made with do not.

• Statement: You speak English.
• Question: Do you speak English?
• Negative: You do not speak English.

In the third person singular, -s or -es is added. Questions are made with does and negative forms are made with does not.

• Statement: He speaks English.
• Question: Does he speak English?
• Negative: He does not speak English.

To continue reading about the Simple Present tense click here: englishpage.com

Click on the links below to practice using the simple present tense of the verb:

• Practice 1
• Practice 2
• Practice 3
• Practice 4
• Practice 5

The excerpt below comes from an online publication entitled The Writing Cooperative (www.writingcooperative.com). It is written by a native English speaker who has learned to speak and write in other languages; however, I think the writer offers some valuable tips and insights into how to improve your writing in English. 

One Sunday afternoon last year, I thought it would be fun to try to write a poem in Spanish. I think I must have been reading too much Pablo Neruda.
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I hadn’t written a line of poetry since high school, and I’d only been studying Spanish for about five years (my native language is English). Needless to say, the poem ended up being much more difficult to write than I’d originally thought.

Despite the nagging worry that a native speaker would laugh at anything I put on paper, I finally managed to finish the poem after several hours. (You can read it here.) It didn’t come close to Neruda’s poetry, of course, but to me it felt like a monumental achievement just to have written it.

You’ve probably had a similar experience if you’ve ever written in a foreign language (maybe English is that foreign language for you). It’s discouraging when you keep making mistakes, and it can be a struggle to figure out which words to use to express yourself correctly. But it’s an incredibly rewarding feeling when you keep pressing forward and finally have a finished piece of work that you can be proud of.

I believe that with practice anyone can improve their writing skills. As a writing tutor, I’ve seen my students (some who have spoken English as a second language) make incredible progress when they put in the time to write each week.

The same is true for me when I keep practicing writing in a foreign language. Five years ago, I wouldn’t have even dreamed of attempting to write a poem in Spanish. But now, after years of study, I can write not only in Spanish but also in Italian and French.

(To be honest, though, I’ve only been studying French for about two years so I still need a bit of practice before I can write poetry. 😉)

If you’re looking to improve your writing skills in a foreign language, here are eight tips that will help you make the most of your practice time:

To continue reading this article, click HERE. 

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