Top Reasons Why Learning English is Important :)

Communication

Those who like to travel will find that the ability to speak English makes the experience far more rewarding. Not just in terms of being able to speak to locals, but for interactions with other travellers too.

Reading

The ability to read and understand English is important as English is the primary language of books and newspapers around the world.

Music

English continues to be the favoured language for popular music. Plus, young people tend to use the lyrics of songs to help them learn the language!

Employment

The ability to speak English increases an individual’s employability – which is a big plus in these economically gloomy times. A mastery of the language provides job opportunities outside of English-speaking countries, as well as in them. Multinational corporations employ English-speakers in offices around the world.

Sunday 18 May 2014

How to teach reading with phonics - 1/12 - The Alphabet & Letter Sounds ...

How To Improve Listening Skill

Step 1
 Learn English pronunciation rules.
Many people think that pronunciation is all about speaking. But in fact, learning the rules of English pronunciation allows students to understand native speakers better. This is because listeners need to know how the language is being changed if it doesn’t come naturally to them (the way those changes are comprehended naturally by children).
Example
If a native English speaker says,
“How’d ya do that?”
a person who has learned English in the classroom may not realize that
“How did you do that?”
gets transformed into:
“How’d ya do that?” [HAUW dʒyə DUW ðæt]

Step 2
Watch a video or listen to audio in English with a transcript.
When you listen to English with a transcript, like you can on the Elemental English iTunes podcast, you can read what is being said while you hear it. A great web site for this exercise is TED.com, which provides transcripts for some incredible videos, all for free.
Also, there are plenty of free English podcasts that you can listen to often, so that you can “train” your ears to the different sounds and musical patterns of English. Take advantage of all of the resources on the internet.


Step 3
 Watch TV shows in English with no subtitles in your native language or in English.
The idea is the same as in step 2. Listen to plenty of English to train your ears. But without a transcript, you need to be an active listener. Think about what you are hearing, and if you don’t understand, replay the audio and make an effort to figure out how the speech is being changed.

Step 4
Talk to native English speakers.
Talk to native speakers, and if you don’t understand something you’ve heard, ask them questions about the language.
The majority of native speakers have no idea about the unconscious changes they make to the English language. But if you don’t understand a native speaker, tell them so. Then, when the time is right, ask them why they said a sentence the way they did. A native speaker can easily think about the change and give you some clarification about it. Of course, the explanation will likely be “that’s just how we say it!” But you can pull apart and play with the language with a native speaker and get some interesting insight into English.

Step 5
 Write down the sounds of sentences that you didn’t understand and try to figure them out later on your own.
Use those written sentences to test yourself. Sometimes learning and figuring out English–or any second language–is like putting a puzzle together. After a while, the pieces will start to fit together.

Step 6
Write down your questions
Students email and post questions on the web site, on Facebook and on Twitter all the time to get answers. And you can, too!

Step 7
 Replace native language activities with English activities.
Do you watch or read the news everyday in your first language? Do you socialize with your friends in your native language? Watch movies for entertainment in your native language? Why not “kill two birds with one stone” and replace activities that you do in your first language with activities in English?

Ask your friends to hang out with you in English. Watch or listen to the news on the internet in English instead of your first language. There are SO many free resources online; we really have no excuse not to replace some of our first language activities with second language activities

Tips To Write an Essay


Students can use the internet for research and they can build they own blog as a site to practice their writing skills. They can also get many ideas from many type of essay.

1. Research: Begin the essay writing process by researching your topic, making yourself an expert. Utilize the internet, the academic databases, and the library. Take notes and immerse yourself in the words of great thinkers.

2. Analysis: Now that you have a good knowledge base, start analyzing the arguments of the essays you're reading. Clearly define the claims, write out the reasons, the evidence. Look for weaknesses of logic, and also strengths. Learning how to write an essay begins by learning how to analyze essays written by others.

3. Brainstorming: Your essay will require insight of your own, genuine essay-writing brilliance. Ask yourself a dozen questions and answer them. Meditate with a pen in your hand. Take walks and think and think until you come up with original insights to write about.

4. Thesis: Pick your best idea and pin it down in a clear assertion that you can write your entire essay around. Your thesis is your main point, summed up in a concise sentence that lets the reader know where you're going, and why. It's practically impossible to write a good essay without a clear thesis.

5. Outline: Sketch out your essay before straightway writing it out. Use one-line sentences to describe paragraphs, and bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain. Play with the essay's order. Map out the structure of your argument, and make sure each paragraph is unified.

6. Introduction: Now sit down and write the essay. The introduction should grab the reader's attention, set up the issue, and lead in to your thesis. Your intro is merely a buildup of the issue, a stage of bringing your reader into the essay's argument.
(Note: The title and first paragraph are probably the most important elements in your essay. This is an essay-writing point that doesn't always sink in within the context of the classroom. In the first paragraph you either hook the reader's interest or lose it. Of course your teacher, who's getting paid to teach you how to write an essay, will read the essay you've written regardless, but in the real world, readers make up their minds about whether or not to read your essay by glancing at the title alone.)

7. Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused on a single idea that supports your thesis. Begin paragraphs with topic sentences, support assertions with evidence, and expound your ideas in the clearest, most sensible way you can. Speak to your reader as if he or she were sitting in front of you. In other words, instead of writing the essay, try talking the essay.

8. Conclusion: Gracefully exit your essay by making a quick wrap-up sentence, and then end on some memorable thought, perhaps a quotation, or an interesting twist of logic, or some call to action. Is there something you want the reader to walk away and do? Let him or her know exactly what.

9. MLA Style: Format your essay according to the correct guidelines for citation. All borrowed ideas and quotations should be correctly cited in the body of your text, followed up with a Works Cited (references) page listing the details of your sources.

10. Language: You're not done writing your essay until you've polished your language by correcting the grammar, making sentences flow, incorporating rhythm, emphasis, adjusting the formality, giving it a level-headed tone, and making other intuitive edits. Proofread until it reads just how you want it to sound. Writing an essay can be tedious, but you don't want to bungle the hours of conceptual work you've put into writing your essay by leaving a few slippy misspellings and poorly worded phrases..

You're done. Great job!