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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!

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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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Active Vocabulary vs Passive Vocabulary

 

active vocabulary

VS.

passive vocabulary

 

The questions is…. How do YOU change Passive Vocab to Active Vocab?  Comment below and possibly be featured in a future post!

 

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Memory Retention | Remembering Vocabulary Words

Do you have a good memory?  Do you have issues with remembering vocabulary words?

 memory ˈmɛm(ə)ri/  noun

1) the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information  “I have a great memory for faces”  2) something remembered from the past “My favorite childhood memory is visiting my Grandmother”

Memory plays a HUGE role in language learning.  It is all about remembering vocabulary, grammar rules, idioms, phrasal verbs, the list goes on and on…

In this info graphic from Online Colleges  we can see  Hermann Ebbinghaus’ ‘forgetting curve’

Memory Retention | Remembering Vocabulary Words

As you can see, REVIEWING information is very important for retaining the things that you learn.  If you do not review, you will quickly forget the things you have just learned.

Reviewing and using the language are a very important part of the learning process.  Some people focus on learning new words everyday, but never actually practice using them in a real-life setting.  When you actively use a word (with speaking or writing), you are reviewing it.  Listening and reading also are forms of reviewing as they are reinforcing the words in your memory, but they are a passive form of review.

Anyone can read a page in the dictionary, but to truly ‘know’ the words, you have to be able to use them.

Get involved!  Make it fun!  Sign up for speaking sessions, practice daily by commenting on twitter and facebook  posts.  I’m always happy to respond.  Learning new words is very important, but remembering them is even more important.

Confusing Words in English and How to Use Them Correctly

Confusing words that sound the same? Do you keep using ‘through’ instead of ‘threw’, and mixing your ‘too’, ‘to’, and ‘two’? Have no fear – Ginger’s spelling book is here!
Ginger’s spelling book contains a broad collection of the most frequent word-pairs that people tend to confuse. Browse it by clicking on a specific letter to see how to remember which word is witch…or…which!
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Christmas traditions from around the world

Click on any one of the floating icons at the top of the page and enter into a world of information about the meaning of Christmas Traditions and Customs as well as how varies countries celebrate Christmas.
HAVE FUN!!!!!

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10 Fun & Easy Ways to Learn English Faster

We’ve all heard a thousand times that the only way to really learn English is to be totally immersed in the language, completely surrounded by it everywhere you go. But we wanted to go deeperthan that and find quick and easy ways to start getting immersed. So our research team put together 10 steps that you can follow, in this order, to make learning English faster and a whole lot more fun.
#1: Find some English radio stations and podcasts in iTunes
There are tons of podcasts about all topics imaginable these days: entertainment, politics, news. A good way to find one is to look for a podcast from a TV channel you usually watch in your cable TV. Look for one that interests you and listen to it in your car while driving. You’ll train your ear that way!
#2: Check out the Top Videos on YouTube and watch for at least a few minutes
Most of them are hilarious! It will be so worth it. Try looking at the comments to pick up some words and sentences you aren’t familiar with, but be careful there is all kinds of bizarre stuff in YouTube comments.
#3: Talk and sing to yourself in English
When you are alone at home, or of course in the shower, start talking! Sing a song in English the way it sounds to you, talk about the weather or any other topic. Do this frequently and your pronunciation will drastically improve – guaranteed!
4#: Do you have an English-speaking idol? Go to YouTube and watch all of his/her interviews in English
You can spend hours doing that listening to interviews and it sure won’t feel like studying. But it is! It helps you a great deal.
5#: Sit near people who are speaking English on the bus or in the park. Listen in…
Okay now don’t be a creepy eavesdropper! But, see what words you can pick up and listen to the flow of the conversation. How much did you understand? What general topic were they talking about? Did you hear an interesting word you might want to look up after?
#6: Pay attention to billboards, signs, advertisements, magazine stands and establishment names
Look and think about what these ads mean. How many words do you recognize? Did you see that same word elsewhere? Make up sentences about what you’re seeing.
#7: Love music? Try figuring out the words/lyrics of your favorite songs
Watch video clips with lyrics on YouTube and sing along. Read the translation and build up your vocabulary. Listen to “clean” versions of songs and try to figure out what dirty words were taken out. It’s fun!
#8: Watch TV clips, episodes or soap operas in English
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what they’re saying, watch anyway! Try to understand why something is funny or sad . If the joke is related to the word itself, then maybe that is why the joke does not make sense in your native language. What would be the best translation into your language then?
#9: Engage in a conversation on Facebook with friends who post in English
When you have English speakers in your timeline, you see their posts daily and get inside information about news and viral videos in English. Your friends can be your teachers! Their timeline basically sort out the best material for you to study.
#10: Produce, produce, produce. No matter how shy you are or how much you don’t “get” English, force yourself to speak
Help out a tourist who looks lost. They won’t mind you struggling with the language while you’re doing them a favor! After class, talk to your teacher about how things are going and what you need help with in English. When traveling, ask around for directions in English, even if you don’t need them! Try purchasing things online and by phone, or using customer support in English.

It does not matter if you talk slowly, you are learning, that’s only natural!
BONUS TIP: When seeing a new movie look up the original title on IMDB.com
The translation sometimes does not correspond directly to the original. Find out what the original title really means. Ask yourself how the translation makes sense.  What is the relation to the movie? You will never forget a new word that once it’s associated with an unforgettable movie. Works every time!
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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!

Hold the front page!

I think that this little exercise is one of the most fun activities that you can do that will vastly improve your English when you are over the basic level. This is to imagine that you are a journalist for the day.
 
Watch an old Agatha Christie crime story, such as Hercule Poirot, or any crime series really for this little project, then write a front page article for the newspaper after watching either a clip or a full episode. Don’t just try to do a simple report that just states the facts, try to use your imagination, report perhaps what a certain character had witnessed, or even imagine you also had the opportunity to interview either Hercule himself, one of his sidekicks, or any of the many suspects in the case.

This little exercise will help you to use all your tenses, to describe past activities and the backgrounds of the people involved, where they have been and who or what they say they saw at the time. Also, practice how to describe the current activities of an on-going investigation as well as the planned future activities of the investigation.
 
Then perhaps think about the task of interviewing the individual characters from the investigation. Try to ask direct questions relating to the episode and the character’s role in the events in order to expand upon the original crime report. You could try creating your own video news report and practice your pronunciation too, to check how you sound when you speak English, and get your teacher or another native speaker to check your work. So the written English exercise turns into a spoken English exercise as well.
 

I think crime drama adds a bit of spice which helps to fire up the imagination. Why not try this on a wet and rainy Sunday afternoon?

Contact Rachel today > http://www.italki.com/teacher/1394345