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Free Interactive English Practice on Twitter

Practice your English for free everyday by using #SE4UChat on Twitter

I’m going to start using a new hashtag on Twitter that encourages student participation.  That means YOU!  I will use the tag #SE4UChat for any interactive tweets.  When you hit reply, make sure to use the same tag and I will always see it and respond.  Hopefully others will as well!

twitter

Using Twitter to Improve English

Twitter is a great place to practice your English.  In this article > English on Twitter, I list popular hashtags used by English teachers and students to communicate on Twitter.  Hashtags are a great way to find exactly what you are looking for.  If you are looking to chat, use #SE4UChat and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Follow people and topics that interest you and read the links they share in English.  This will help you to expand your vocabulary and improve your grammar structure.

Get Interactive

In order to truly improve your English skills (or any language) you have to USE the language.  Produce it.  Construct sentences using the vocabulary and grammar that you have previously learned.  Only reading things isn’t going to get you to the next level, you must get involved with using the language.

Make Mistakes

Making mistakes is all part of the learning process.  Nobody likes to make mistakes, but you just have to try! Reply to one of my tweets and if your sentence isn’t correct, I will correct it and then you will have learned from your mistake.  If you don’t try, you’ll never know if you are ‘doing it right’.  This is a very common mistake for language learners, they don’t try because they are embarrassed and therefore, never progress.

It’s FREE

There is no cost involved when you are practicing on Twitter or other social media platforms.  Take advantage of the tweets I send out and use them to improve your English skills and accomplish your goals.

I hope to see you on Twitter soon!  My user name is SkypEnglish4U and you can also find me by using  #SE4UChat

 

 

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italki Instant Tutoring

Do you want to practice your English (or any other language) NOW?

Click here > Sign up to italki and once you are all logged in, you can find native speakers who are available to speak with you immediately, no scheduling in advance necessary.

You’ll see FIND A TEACHER on your top menu of your homepage.

italki instant tutor
There are different filters for you to select when searching for the right teacher.  The language you would like to practice is the first on you need to select and then there are some other optional filters such as where the teacher is originally from, what other languages the teacher speaks, price and tags (such as IELTS, TOEFL or business).

Another filter is Availability.  If you want to speak with someone NOW, click on Availability and select ‘Instant Tutoring Available Now’.

italki instant tutoring

You’ll see all of the teachers available at that time listed.  You can adjust the filters according to what you are looking for and then select the teacher for instant tutoring.  Perhaps you prefer to speak with someone from the UK who also speaks Spanish, you can enter that into the filter, but that particular combination may not be available at that exact time.  The instant tutor feature is something that teachers can turn on and off based on their schedule.

instant tutor

The request will be sent to the teacher and they have 10 minutes to accept it.

This feature is GREAT because it allows you to speak to a native speaker at your convenience.  So many of us have busy lives and scheduling in advance can be difficult.  Instant tutoring gives you the freedom to practice your speaking when YOU have time.

I’ve helped people prepare for job interviews, IELTS, TOEFL and even done some proof reading/editing while on ‘Instant Tutoring’.

Remember, the only way to improve your English is to use it, so go ahead, try it out!

 

 

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Understanding Suffixes : English Grammar

Suffixes are a letter or group of letters added at the end of a word which makes a new word.

Learning how suffixes are used in English, can help you to improve your understanding and comprehension of the English language.  There are two types of suffixes used in English.

Inflectional Suffixes 

Endings are added to a word for grammatical purposes, but they never change the word class.

ENGLISH INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES

Derivational Suffixes 

Endings change the meaning and create a ‘new word’ and the word class changes.  Nouns can turn into verbs, verbs into adjectives and adjectives into nouns… it gets kind of crazy!  In the chart below you will find some basic examples, but there are many more out there.

Derivational suffixes English Grammar

 

This is a good video explaining the different types and showing examples.  Youtube is an excellent way to sharpen your grammar skills while practicing your listening.

[embedvideo type=”youtube” id=”pYdIjc85tRc”]

 

Something to try… when you are reading something in English (on paper) go through the text and look for all of the suffixes and circle/highlight them.  You will be amazed at how many you will find.  Use one color for the inflectional ones that you find and another color for the derivational suffixes.

LINDA’S PROFILE

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Practice English on Snapchat

Practice English on Snapchat by chatting back and forth with me in English

Take advantage of social media and get free practice using English on Snapchat.  I will be posting daily ‘stories’ and sharing things from my life and English vocabulary.

  • Don’t know what Snapchat is?  Have a look here at this tutorial >> Snapchat 101

This is a great way for people to get practice USING English.  Over the years, I have learned that most of the students that I talk to have a great passive vocabulary, but are just missing the opportunity to speak and use that English they have stored in their mind.  From an early stage in language development, you can read and understand things, but producing language, especially in the spoken form, is more difficult and requires practice.

Enough of the boring stuff, onto the fun!  How can YOU use English on Snapchat?

First of all, follow me : SkypEnglish4U

English on Snapchat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find your friends from contacts or by searching and you can also ‘friend’ many celebrities.  You and your friends can ‘snap’ back and forth as a normal messenger system, except that the messages disappear after a short time.

I will post ‘stories’ with different things and while you are watching them, you can swipe up and respond to me directly.  I encourage you to send me a snap, better yet a video snap so that you can practice speaking.  You can send me a question, respond to my ‘story’ or just tell me about something, ANYTHING really.  Get involved and active with your English.  I look forward to hearing from you!

tutorial (noun) a book, computer program, etc., that teaches someone how to do something by explaining each stage of a process
take advantage (idiom) to make use of something well; to make use of an opportunity
*practice using these words in the comments section and I will check them and give you feedback*
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Around the World ‘Round Table’ Discussion

Round Table : a number of people gathered together for conference, discussion of some subject, etc., and often seated at a round table.

Round Table discussions are an excellent way for you to get a chance to practice speaking English with someone from another country and at the same time, learn a bit about their culture and everyday life!  You will be exposed to other accents and participate in a ‘real-life’ conversation with someone you have never met before in a comfortable, friendly environment.  The general topics are endless and if possible, we can even arrange for you to speak with someone who also works in your industry.

Sessions

I will serve as the ‘host’ making sure that the conversation keeps flowing and that everyone gets a chance to speak.

Generally we will speak in an order assigned at the beginning of the session. Person 1 gives their answer, 2, then 3 and then it is open for discussion as I see fit.  I will help keep the order by speaking directly to the student when they are to answer.  During the open discussion, participants must be courteous and not interrupt or speak over other people.  At any time, I reserve the right to remove someone from the call.

I will keep running notes of vocabulary, grammar issues and sentence structure in the Skype chat.

Scheduling

This options is only available to SkypEnglish4U clients (join today!) that are ‘pre-approved’ and have the appropriate level of English required to partake in one of these group exercises.

Each SE4U student will get one free 30min AWRT credit and will schedule it with me.  If a student wants to participate in more, they will pay a % out of their existing sessions based on the people participating in the call– If there are 2 students, for 30min, they each will spend 15min of their existing packages.  The maximum amount of students per call is 3.

You will see specific times labeled as ‘Round Table’ on my google calendar and you can select them just as you regularly schedule.  I will be very flexible with these sessions… if you want to do one at a certain time, please let me know and I will try to find another student.

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Another / Other / Others

Oftentimes, people get confused when using the words “other” and “another.”  How do we distinguish between the two?  Simple.  It’s a matter of singular and plural.  
 
A simple rule to help you remember the difference between another and other is:
another + singular noun
other + plural noun
others (a pronoun to replace other + plural noun)

 

  • I need another cup. (cup is singular so we use another)
  • I need other cups. (cup is plural so we use other)
  • I need others. (refers to other cups)

Another Other Others

 

Try the QUIZ

Thanks to Woodward English for putting this all together for us!

[gap height=”15″]
 [gap height=”15″]

 

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Common Marriage Phrases

Marriage.  A timeless conversation topic.  People talk about it before it happens, when it is happening and after it happens.

In the English language we commonly use the word GET before the word married.

The moment you say ‘I do’ (or actually sign the document) that is the moment you get married.

Phrases speaking about it happening in the FUTURE

Some little girls dream of getting married.

I want to get married on the beach.

I never want to get married.

I’m getting married!

We will get married next year.

Phrases speaking about it happening in the PAST

We got married in May.

They got married in Mexico.

He never got married.

marriage vocabulary

The actual marriage ceremony is the wedding (celebration) 

The marriage ceremony will be at a church.

The wedding will be in New York.

The marriage ceremony was lovely.

Kim’s wedding was the best I have ever been to.

Once you get married (sign the document) you are married

I am married.

James is married.

They are not married.

And FINALLY the word MARRIAGE (which is a noun)

I have a great marriage.

Their marriage was bad.

When friends get together, they often talk about their marriages.

 Try it out!  Write a sentence about marriage in the comments below and I will correct it.

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Google Phrasebook

Google announced their ‘Phrasebook’ in 2013 > Official Release Statement 

I was very excited by this because I am not only a language teacher, but also a language learner.  I am at a very beginner level, slowly and steadily learning Greek.  Taking my own advice that I give to my students, “you must have English in your life everyday if you want to improve…”  I’ve decided to start a journal writing very simple phrases in Greek.  Using my active vocabulary, each day I’ll write a few things down.

I wanted to check a few words using Google Translate (I know, I know, it’s not always correct, but for simple basic words, usually it is ok- and I am at that simple basic level!) and I remembered about phrasebook.  Happy times!  It is so simple to use and I think VERY useful for helping language learners review vocabulary.

First you just type in the word or phrase in your language using Google Translate

google phrasebook

 

Here I actually searched for the phrase first in English-> Greek and then switched it because I want my phrasebook to have the Greek words first, but either way works.

Next you just click on the little star below the phrase or word and you will see a little notification pop up in the upper left-hand corner showing that a word has been added.  That is your phrasebook icon!

google phrasebook

Click on that little star-book icon and you will see all of the words/phrases that you have previously saved.

google phrasebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, I have mine with the Greek phrase first, but you can sort by language and by the date you added it.

You can even export it to a spreadsheet by clicking on that icon under the search tool.

google phrasebook

 

 

 

 

 

google phrasebook

 

 

 

 

 

There are so many great tools out there to help us with language learning.  I hope that you will try it out and let me know how it works!

Please share some of the tools you use to improve your vocabulary in the comments section below and perhaps be featured in a future blog….

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The Word Detectives

In the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship held in the USA, the joint teenage champions had to spell words such assdrucciola, holluschick, thymelici, encaenia, terreplein and stichomythia in order to win. Whether or not they understood the meanings of the words, it is an impressive feat indeed that they managed to spell words such as these correctly upon hearing them used only once.
 
Traditionally, especially when I was at school, spelling was taught by our teachers giving us a list of words on Monday, which was followed by a spelling test on Friday. This has been the case with spelling for many years, but I bet the teenage champions at the 2014 National Spelling Bee learned spelling in a completely different way.
Most spelling follows expected patterns, teaching how and why certain patterns are used helps you to develop your spelling. For example, various words containing the /ay/ sound are grouped by their spelling pattern into lists:
List 1 would contain the ‘ai’ words (rain, bait, brain, wait, grain, aim, aid…).
List 2 would give the ‘ay’ words (play, away, stay, pay, pray…).
List 3 would give the a-consonant-e spelling pattern (gate, trade, game, make, grade…).
List 4 would contain the single vowel ‘a’ spellings (rang, bank, thank, sang…).
List 5 would contain the ‘unexpected’ spellings of /ay/ (eight, weigh, great …).
 
Another way to investigate and understand the patterns is to group words beginning with the same letter. For example, the letter ‘C’ would contain words beginning with a ‘hard-c’ such as cat, or a ‘soft-c’ as in cell, and once these words are grouped together you will start to discover that ‘c’ is usually hard when followed by consonants and the vowels ‘a, o & u’ (cat, cot, cut etc…), whilst it is usually soft when followed by ‘i. e & y’ (circus, celery, cycle etc.).
 
There are always exceptions to these rules, but it’s a good way to learn spelling patterns which will eventually help amplify your vocabulary and improve your English!
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Easter Bunny

Each spring, people throughout the world celebrate Easter. Many spend it painting or hunting for eggs and eating chocolate bunnies. Often, children will even flock to their local malls to meet and take pictures with the biggest bunny of all, the Easter Bunny. But how did a giant bunny even become one of the most recognizable symbols of Easter? Here are the top five reasons why we celebrate Easter with a bunny!

For centuries, rabbits and hares have represented not only Easter but spring in general. Rabbits have long been known for being a symbol of fertility and new life. This is because rabbits are very fertile animals and can give birth multiple times in a year. The gestation period for rabbits is between 28 and 30 days and a doe can become pregnant again even just hours after giving birth.

In Anglo-Saxon pagan tradition, there was a goddess called Eostre known as the goddess of spring. Her main symbols were the egg and the rabbit. There was a legend that the goddess found an injured bird during winter and in order to save its life, she transformed it into a hare. Although it was no longer a bird, the hare was able to lay eggs.

Actually, the first Easter Bunnies probably were not rabbits at all, but instead hares. It is unclear why this change from hare to rabbit occurred, but one noticeable difference between hares and rabbits is that hares are generally larger. They tend to have longer legs and ears just like the modern day Easter Bunny.

easterbunny-1

Since the Goddess Eostre was so important at springtime, there was a month-long festival dedicated to her. The festival started on the vernal equinox in March and lasted throughout the majority of April. When Christianity spread to Anglo-Saxons, many of the traditions during the festival of Eostre were adapted into the ceremonies in honor of the Resurrection of Christ because they both occurred in the same month and encouraged many pagans to convert. As a result, the English name of the Easter holiday is derived from Eostre.

Now, rabbits (or hares) come into this story because they’re the symbol of Eostre, but also because the rabbit has a strong connection to the moon in pagan tradition. The hare was believed to be a symbol of the moon, and the cycles of the moon are actually what determine what day we celebrate Easter each year. Easter is celebrated on the next Sunday after the Paschal moon which is the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

In other Easter folklore, the fabled white bunny we’ve come to know originated in Germany in the 1500s, where it was originally a white hare. It was believed that if a young child was especially good, the Easter Bunny would leave a nest full of colorful eggs. At the beginning, the children would use their caps or bonnets as nests for the eggs, but these were later replaced by the now familiar baskets.

In the eighteenth century, German immigrants to Pennsylvania brought the Easter Bunny tradition to the United States where it became quite popular. Germany is also where the first edible Easter Bunnies originated in the 1800s. They were first made of pastry and sugar.

The way you celebrate Easter each year may be somewhat different depending on where you live. Many places celebrate with the Easter Bunny but a few others have different animals delivering their Easter treats. For example, in Switzerland, cuckoos deliver colorful eggs to children, and in Westphalia, Germany, they believe in the Easter fox.

However, the most popular way to celebrate still seems to be with stuffed animal bunnies, rabbit-shaped chocolate and marshmallow candies and, of course, large anthropomorphic rabbits. One has even made it to the White House, presiding over the annual Easter Egg Roll with the Presidential family.

LINDA’S PROFILE

How do you celebrate Easter in YOUR country?