Are you struggling to find ways to practice your English speaking skills? I know that many of my students have expressed that during the pandemic, it has been difficult to find those opportunities. I have provided some other posts on this topic, but here are some additional apps that you might find helpful: 1. Lingo Blabla 2. Duolingo 3. Speaky 4. Cambly 5. HiNative To read more about each one of these and to find a link to each app, click here! American poet and educator, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), wrote many poems that went on to become quite well known. My favorite is "Three Kings" which tells the Bible story of King Herod's search for the King, the one prophesied about in the Old Testament, the one who would become known as Jesus. Of course, we do not know how many "wise men" or kings there actually were who came seeking the Child. People often associate the number "three" with this story because there were three gifts mentioned in the Scriptures: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In any case, Longfellow accurately and beautifully captures the hatred directed toward the would-be King and the way in which He would be protected. The current pandemic has presented many challenges for each of us, but I know that it has been especially hard for you as an English language learner. One of the challenges that I have heard some of you express concerns the lack of opportunities to practice speaking English with others. Like me, I am sure that your teachers are doing their best to try and give you some opportunities to speak with your fellow classmates via ZOOM, but there is only so much time available during class. This means that if you want to really practice your speaking skills, you are going to need to find ways of doing this on your own more. Conversation practice is very important. It is how you build confidence in your ability to communicate with others. However, that is only one way to improve your speaking skills. Another way is to work on pronunciation. There are many websites online where you can find pronunciation practice. Here are a few: Pronunciation Exercises Pronunciation Tips American English Sounds To find more pronunciation exercises including how to sound out certain words, when to stress certain syllables, and how to pronounce certain nouns, click on this link: www.catesol.org If you are serious about wanting to learn English, Quizlet is a must-have app. You can use Quizlet to study vocabulary on your computer, your tablet, or even your phone. Here's a review from EdSurge.com: "Quizlet offers free online study tools starting with flashcards and other games, aimed at helping students learn material. Students can create their own study sets or can make use of the approximately 16 million flash card sets created by other students. In addition to "flashcards" the site also offers games. How Does It Work? Quizlet helps students focus on the facts that they are learning by making lists (say, words and definitions), and then self-testing their knowledge of these facts by using online flashcards and games. Among the games included in Quizlet are
To read more of this review of Quizlet, click here. You can use Quizlet on your computer, your tablet or your smartphone. To sign up for Quizlet, go to this site: quizlet.com/www.quizlet.com. To learn more about this wonderful app, check out the video below. When you are writing a paper and need help, where do you turn? You may turn to your instructor. But what if your instructor is not available? You are likely to turn to the internet to find help. The internet is full of great resources for academic writing. One of those resources is called Purdue Owl. Take some time and review the many resources found on this website. From the writing process and research helps to comma usage, basic grammar and spelling rules, the Purdue Owl has so much to offer. There is even some specific help for ESL students and job-seekers. The OwL does provide some exercises to practice various grammar and punctuation rules; however, to my knowledge none of them are interactive. In other words, to use them, one must print out a handout. To explore all that the Purdue Owl has to offer, click on the image below. Note: To find the comma rules, go to "General Writing." Then, click on "Punctuation." Then, click on "Commas." "The past perfect is a verb tense which is used to show that an action took place once or many times before another point in the past. The past perfect is formed using had + past participle. Questions are indicated by inverting the subject and had. Negatives are made with not.
To learn more about the Past Perfect tense and to practice using this tense, click HERE. "All languages have their confusing words…words that sound the same, look the same, or have the same meaning. Especially confusing are words that have similar forms (for example, in different verb tenses) but are not used in exactly the same way (the present and past tense of “read,” with two different pronunciations, comes to mind). In my opinion, the irregular verbs “lay” and “lie” rank at the top of the list in terms of confusing forms and usage." To continue reading this article from esllibrary.com click here. [The following excerpt is from https://learningenglish.voanews.com] "English learners have difficulty with gerunds and infinitives. A gerund is the –ing form of a verb that functions the same as a noun. For example, “Running is fun.” In this sentence, “running” is the gerund. It acts just like a noun. The infinitive form of a verb appears either as the basic form (with no marking) or with the word “to.” For example, you can say “I might run to the store” or “I like to run.” In this sentence, “to run” is the infinitive." To read more about Gerunds and Infinitives click here. Want to practice using and identifying these important verbals? Practice 1 Practice 2 Practice 3 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. 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. |
AuthorMy name is Craig, and I've been teaching English for many years. I initially created this site for my students, but all English learners are welcome. I hope you find something helpful to you. Feel free to leave suggestions or ideas in the Comments section under any entry. Categories
All
|