About ESL Newsletter: Speaking

 Speaking is the topic of this week's About ESL newsletter. For "dessert" ~ spooky talk. Poe's Raven and a candy haunted house for Halloween,

Speaking English well is the goal of all English learners. In this newsletter, you'll learn about speaking English on the telephone, speaking English in situations at work, and speaking English in everyday situations, also known as small talk.

Here are ten questions to help you 

start speaking English

. Each of these questions help to begin or continue a conversation. The questions are in two categories: Basic Facts and Hobbies / Free Time. There are also a number of questions that can help you continue the conversation after the first question.

Teachers can help students with lesson plans on practicing telephone English, and making small talk. Teachers will also be interested in this lesson focusing on how to get an ESL class conversing.

candy haunted house ~ how to make one

Finally, it's Halloween here in the United States soon. Have fun learning spooky English with the Halloween resources on the site, including a vocabulary quiz, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe and more.

how to learn a language

How to learn a foreign language is the million dollar question, but actually there is no magic answer. Many factors should be taken into consideration, as well as tools useful for learning a new language. The good news is that there are methods and techniques to use.

Language Components	Language Tools
Vocabulary Grammar Writing Listening and Speaking	Memory Practice Motivation

"Word Trivia"

Word Trivia ~ vocabulary building and word fun for everyone. 

Game Based Learining

10 Free Digital Game-Based Learning Resources for English Classrooms from Educational technology in ELT Digital game-based learning (DGBL) can be a good way to get excited about learning. The right games can serve as effective teaching tools that not only speed up the learning process, but also improve comprehension. There are many different learning-based games that can be played online. Here are a few to try with your English classroom: Free Rice - FreeRice is an online trivia game created by the United Nations World Food Program to provide free education and end world hunger. When visitors answer game questions correctly, rice is donated to hungry people around the world. Trivia categories include English vocabulary, English grammar, geography, math, chemistry, language learning, and art. Free Poverty - Free Poverty is similar to FreeRice in the fact that it donates to needy people whenever visitors answer questions correctly. The difference is that Free Poverty donates cups of clean drinking water rather than rice and focuses solely on geography trivia. ProProfs Brain Games - This site offers free puzzle and brain games, such as word searches, hangman, memory games, and word jumbles. Visitors can play existing games or create their own online learning games and puzzles. Fit Brains - Fit Brains is an online brain fitness platform that provides fun games to educate and exercise the brain. The site's word fragment games have been proven to improve English language vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. Learning Today - Learning Today, a provider of Internet-based education, offers several free reading games that can be played online. All of the games are research-based and designed to improve phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

Word Vine

sounds like great fun + good for building vocabulary ~ enjoy! Sent by Google Reader from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo on 1/30/10

Word Vine is a fun game where you basically have to create compound words. It's probably most accessible to Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners.

Since it's a Miniclip game, though, I don't know how many School District content filters will actually allow it through, which is a problem with a number of other links on my website under Word and Video Games.
I've put asterisks next to the online video games that our District lets go through, but haven't gotten around to doing that for the word games.

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Word Games

These online word games look like fun (not all learning has to be serious). And of, don't forget Grammar Gorillas...

I've always enjoyed Wacky Web Tales - good practice for writing and grammar. Who can come up with and post the wackiest tale? MadLibs are more grown up - just as hilarious. Try mad-libbing your own version of "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles or The Princess and the Pea

Grammar games - and more English language games & BBC skillwise games

Three games to test your longer sentence skills. Spot the sentences, make sentences and put a text into sentences.

Have fun - and please share your wackiest web tale/madlibs.

New Online: Learn English with Pictures

From: Jacob Richman, jrichman@jr.co.il

Today I launched a new website called: Learn English with Pictures

  http://www.my-english-dictionary.com/  

Learn English with Pictures is a free, online, resource to learn English  words in a fun way. The site has over 400 words and photographs ranging 

from animals to kitchen appliances. The interface is simple  and both 

kids and adults who are learning English will find this  educational 

website entertaining and useful.  

Feedback is welcome.  Have a good day, Jacob 

Oxymorons

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http://oxymoronlist.com/
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An oxymoron is a phrase that has words that seem to have opposite meanings. Studying oxymorons is a very interesting way to think about and learn vocabulary.
Here are some examples of oxymorons:
-a new classic
-catfish
-dry wine
-fresh frozen
-pretty ugly

At this site, you'll find a very long list of oxymorons that people have sent in to the editor. Some of them are serious oxymorons, and some are funny. Sometimes they are oxymorons because one of the words has a double meaning (pretty ugly).

YOUR TURN:
Make a list of 5 or 6 oxymorons from the list. Why are they oxymorons? What are the words that have opposite meanings? What are the opposite meanings? Are they really opposite or is there another xplanation (a double meaning, for example)? Are they serious or funny oxymorons?

Dictionaries

Dictionaries
Bilingual dictionaries are necessary but not your best learning or reference too. Most, especially the small paperback version do not distinguish between different meanings and best usages. Nor do they provide examples. As soon as possible, start using an English-English dictionary. Not all dictionaries equally suitble for ESL learners. A category referred to as learner's dictionaries is designed for use by non-native speakers

Here are some useful dictionary choices. A number include audio files for correct pronunciation. Browsw them to see which one best suits you. You should also purchase your own paper copy of a good learner's dictionary. When you are further along in your studies, buy a GOOD English-English dictionary.

Dictionary activities
As part of reading/vocab development, use on-line dictionaries from this list (& search for more if you wish) to find multiple sentences using assigned target words. In the past, I've asked students to write original sentences, but there are too many errors this way, and the sentences are often too vague to show a clear context. Be “warned” that many samples are only phrases or sentence fragments. You will need to be develop the sample phrase into a complete sentence.

A good online biligual dictionary http://www.wordreference.com
Or search "dictionary + english + [your language]"

• The Internet Picture Dictionary http://www.pdictionary.com/
• Visual dictionary http://www.infovisual.info/
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online http://pewebdic2.cw.idm.fr/
• Cambridge Dictionaries online, select Learner's or Advanced Learner's at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary http://www.oup.com/elt/oald/
• Merriam-Webster's Learners Dictionary http://www.learnersdictionary.com/
• English Learner Dictionaries for English as a Second Language http://esl.about.com/od/engilshvocabulary/tp/tp_dict.htm
• Heinle's Newbury House Dictionary of American English http://nhd.heinle.com/

While you are looking through the online dictionaries, I'll be thinking about interesting target words for the activity I described above.

Post a comment to let us know what you think of these resources and which one you would recommend.