Learn Useful Expressions in English | International House Bristol Check out IH Bristol’s extensive list of over 1000 of the most useful expressions in English, available for free for Beginner/Elementary students to Advanced speakers. Learning English is one of the best ways to improve your life and the prospects of getting a good job. English is used all over the world as the language of education and business and it is becoming normal to expect everybody to be able to speak it. IH Bristol has more than 30 years’ experience of teaching English as a foreign language, of helping students to pass Cambridge Exams, to achieve the right score in IELTS or OET or just to learn to communicate more effectively in the language. Whatever your reasons for learning English, we know the kind of language you need to learn. However, not everybody can come to Bristol to learn in person. How to use the Useful Expressions 1. The more you use them, the more you will improve!
WORD GAMES | ELT-CATION Ammon Shea, a 37-year-old former furniture remover in New York, spent 12 months conquering what he describes as the Everest of dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), by ploughing through 20 volumes, 21,730 pages and 59 million words (read more here). We can only guess how much of what he read has stayed between his ears, which is, at times, quite a challenge for our students. Luckily for the latter, though, their word lists are much shorter. We can use some magic formulae for helping words stick in the head trying to come up with clever associations, getting students to use definitions, determining a rate at which words should be learnt without falling out of their heads, creating some “brain surprises” (see more here), or resort to some oldies but goldies – word games. These are some pen and paper games that require next to no time to prepare and might be used to get students to look through their word lists again and again, and help them retain new vocabulary. Squares Stop!
UK slang for international students | Education UK (Global) By Sophie Cannon at Education UK, 27 January 2014 'Hiya mate, fancy a cuppa and a chin-wag?' 'I can't sorry pal, I'm skint. Gutted!' When you first arrive in the UK for your studies, you might be mystified by some of the words and phrases local people use. Don't worry, this is completely normal and you will soon be fine! People here often use slang – especially with friends. To help you cotton on (slang for 'understand'), here are some common words you may hear. Greetings, please and thank you Alright? People, friends and family Don't be confused if someone calls you pet, duck, sweetie, love, chicken, chuck, chucky-egg or sunshine. Other common slang and dialect terms you will hear are: Bairn = Baby or young child. Descriptions and exclamations There are lots of slang and dialect words to say something is good or cool – for example, in Wales you might hear people say tidy or lush, while in Birmingham you might hear bostin. If something is uncool, people may say it is naff or cheesy. Money
The best game ever! (How to increase student talking time) | How I see it now One of the rewards of teaching a class of 16 talented, motivated 12-year-olds is that you feel that almost every activity turns into something really valuable. Not that you don’t feel the same will other classes, it’s just that with young learners it’s somehow more tangible. Today, a classic game-like activity – originally meant to be just a warm-up to start the class – changed itself into a complex, meaningful and authentic lesson. I’m sure everybody is familiar with Categories (aka The Alphabet Game). Normally, it can get pretty complicated because the team members (or the teacher) often have to verify if a word actually exists, or if it’s spelt correctly. Now, her seemingly commonplace remark took my breath away. Then a miracle happened. It’s not always ideal if a warm-up activity extends across the whole lesson, but I couldn’t help letting it last for longer than originally planned. Like this: Like Loading... I'm an EFL teacher based in the Czech Republic.
Online English Vocabulary Size Test Ever wonder about your vocabulary size? Even if you are a daily English speaker or a native English speaker, you still might find this test challenging! We conducted academic research and looked at online resources to design the model of this quiz. Loading... Language In Use It is great to show and offer students many examples of English language in use. Meaning, students appreciate that there are many ways to say the same thing and like to see the "nuance" of the English language. Here are some images showing different ways / expressions to communicate a similar thing.
Seven steps to vocabulary learning You might expect that, after having been exposed to a word in ten, twenty, or maybe at the very most thirty, contexts, a learner will gradually piece together the word's meaning and start to use it correctly, appropriately and fluently. Classroom context Seven steps to vocabulary learning Conclusion Classroom context Of course we cannot expect a learner to acquire difficult words in the same way as a young child acquires their first language, but, perhaps as teacher we can somehow help learners to arouse their 'learning monitor' by, for example, providing rich contexts containing the target language and by giving our learners time to reflect on what the language item means. Seven steps to vocabulary learning Here are some practical steps that I have used to help my students. Step 1 I get my students to listen to the word or phrase in authentic-sounding dialogues Here are the dialogues I use for 'actually': Do you want a chocolate? Step 3 I discuss the meaning in plenary. Paul Bress
Question words with the verb to be Many students struggle with the basic question words even when they are at pre-intermediate level. That is why I have come up with the following post. There is a mind map explaining the meaning of the question words with examples. Question words – mind map Study the question words and examples. I think that students should translate the question words into their mother tongue too. Both of the following quizzes will play on your mobile device, however, you will not be able to play the games in the first quiz. In the first quiz you should complete and create the questions. The second quiz is fully in HTML5. Question words – Quiz (HTML5) There have been several requests from people who wanted to share the games on their website. Learn Vocabulary – envocabulary.eu You can learn some new vocabulary at our new site
66 Facts You May Not Have Known About The English Language The English language is, quite literally, the greatest language in the world. Great in terms of size - the current edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 615,000 entries. Great in terms of scope — it’s an official language in seventy-nine countries and territories. And great in terms of, well, greatness — it’s just one fantastic mishmash of borrowings, inventions, corruptions, misinterpretations, misspellings, alterations, words you’ll never need, and words you never even knew you’ll never need. Since December 2013, @HaggardHawks has been trying to prove precisely this by tweeting odd words, word origins and language facts everyday. 1,300 tweets later, it turns six months old this week and so to celebrate, here are 66 random facts from our first semester that hopefully go some way towards showing how great — and how downright bizarre — the English language can be. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 31.
5 cartoons of confused words Do you like walking around with bear feet? What would you take with you to a dessert island? There are many words in the English language that sound the same, but have very different meanings. These cartoons will show you just how awkward it can get with even the slightest spelling mistake… Bear feet or bare feet? Bear and bare are often confused when used as verbs. Find out more about how to use bear and bare correctly and take our quiz to test yourself. A stationery car or a stationary car? Another very common mistake is to confuse stationary and stationery. Find out more about how to use stationary and stationery correctly. A dessert island or a desert island? While the prospect of stranding on a dessert island may sound quite appealing to some, you’d probably be more likely to end up on a desert island after having survived a shipwreck. A supermarket isle or a supermarket aisle? There may be no such things as dessert islands, but what about supermarket isles?