About.com English as 2nd Language

Study Skills - Make English Learning a Habit

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:26:16 +0000

Learning any language takes practice - lots of practice! Often, it's difficult to know what you should practice.

Should you watch a video?
Perhaps, it would be a good idea to do a few quizzes.
Of course, you should try to speak English with your friends.

All of these are great ideas, but it's also important to build a routine. A routine will help you make studying English a habit. That's the best way to improve your English! Beginning Level Study Skills Intermediate Level Study Skills

Tense Review Charts

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:45:24 +0000

This overview chart shows the positive, negative and interrogative (question) forms of all the principal tenses in English with a brief description of the principal usage. The timeline tenses chart provides a handy visual reference sheet to English tenses and their relationship to the past, present and future. Included you will find active, passive, simple and continuous forms positioned according to their occurrence in time. Once your feel comfortable with your tenses, try these tense review quizzes: Past Forms Future Forms Past or Perfect?

Are you excited (about / from) the concert?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Yes, I am excited about the upcoming concert! This question and answer pair includes an example of an adjective + preposition combination. There are many of these fixed combinations in English. Use these sheets to study some of the most common: Adjective + prepositions 1 Adjective + prepositions 2 Next, check your understanding of the use of these common combinations: Quiz 1 Quiz 2 Finally, if you'd like to read about the basics of the upcoming US election you'll find this Presidential Election Reading Comprehension useful. (with follow-up quiz and key vocabulary)

English can bring synergies to your roll-out!

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:49:55 +0000

What?! Yes, I know this is difficult to understand. 'Synergies' and 'roll-out' are examples of typical business jargon that is sometimes overused, but certainly important to understand. This advanced level business jargon dialogue provides an easier English version as well as definitions for some common business jargon.

This dialogues list provides dialogues for every level and purpose. Each dialogue comes with key vocabulary and follow-up comprehension quiz.

New TOEFL Grammar Quiz

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:27:33 +0000

The TOEFL resources are in big demand and I'm planning to create a large section dedicated to this popular exam. To begin with, I've added a new TOEFL Grammar quiz.

Here are the other quizzes:

TOEFL Grammar Quiz 1
TOEFL Vocabulary Quiz

Finally, this guide to free TEOFL study resources on the internet should also provide some help.

Prepositional Phrases

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:12:25 +0000

Many students are under the impression that the test will be difficult.

Under the impression is an example of a prepositional phrase. Improve your knowledge of some of the most important and common combinations of prepositions used in English. These phrases are in standard usage and can not be altered. They are used to connect, explain and show the relationship between ideas and things.

Prepositional Phrase Reference Sheet
Prepositional Phrase Quiz - 1
Prepositional Phrase Quiz - 2
Prepositional Phrase Quiz - 3

New Beginning Level Dictations

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:08:15 +0000

I've updated the popular beginning level dictations page with seven new dictations. Short dictations are helpful for both listening and writing practice. Each of these beginning level dictations focuses on a specific learning point such as 'at the restaurant' or 'comparisons'. The dictations include five sentences. Each sentence is read twice with time to write down the answer.

Sentence Auctions

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:29:46 +0000

Holding 'Sentence Auctions' is a fun way to help students review key points in grammar and sentence construction while having some good fun. Basically, students in small groups are given some 'money' with which to bid on various sentences.

Taking Tests

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:29:05 +0000

Here are five guides to taking standard English tests. The first, taking tests, provides advice on general test taking strategies. The next four, specific exercises found on most standard English tests, provide specific strategies for doing well on these types of exercises.

Word Formation Exercises
Blank Fill in Listening Exercises
Vocabulary Multiple Choice (cloze) Exercises
Reading Comprehension Multiple Choice Exercises

Web 2.0 Declared the 1 Millionth English Word

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:44:33 +0000

Yesterday, the Global Language Monitor announced that 'Web 2.0' is the one millionth word in English. I find this quite exciting as the Web has certainly driven a growth in English language use on a daily basis around the world. Web 2.0 allows literally hundreds of millions of people to communicate - and a huge percentage of that communicating is done in English. So, congratulations to 'Web 2.0'!

Here is a reference guide with pronunciation examples if you'd like to get started on the top 1000 words.