Read Along with a News Video

Manythings.org is a website that contains--well, many things for ESL students. It has news videos with subtitles in English. Subtitles means the text of the story appears on the screen while you watch and listen to the video. There are also news stories on video with no subtitles, but you can read a transcript of the story just below the video.

Reading while you listen at the same time is a great way to improve both your listening skills and your vocabulary. You can open the video in one window and open an online dictionary in a second window of your browser. Then you can pause the video while you look up the meaning of words you don't know.  You shouldn't look up too many words--first, try to guess the meaning of an unknown word from the context. After you read the entire article, then you can look up the word to see if your guess was correct.

My suggestion: Click on the first link below and choose a news story. Click on the name of the story to watch and listen to that story on video, with subtitles. Click on the second link to choose a story on video that has the text of the story below the video.

LINK: Manythings.org--Videos with Subtitles

LINK: Manythings.org--Videos with Transcripts

Reading and Listening--VOA News

Voice of American news articles have news stories you can listen to and read at the same time. You can choose from Level 1, 2, or 3 reading levels. Once you choose a story, you listen to the news story, but you can also read and follow the text (just below the picture).

My suggestion: Click on the link below to listen to and read a story about a new kind of Lego set.

LINK: New Legos--Real Women of NASA

What Do Adverbs Do?

Below is a link to a short review of what adverbs are and how to use them.

My suggestion: Click on the link below and read the chart to review adverbs. Then click on the second link to try a quiz--can you tell the difference between adjectives and adverbs?

(NOTE: The chart at the first link shows how adverbs modify verbs and adjectives. However, it does not tell you about the use of adverbs to modify other adverbs).

LINK: Parts of Speech--Adverbs

LINK: Quiz--Adjective or Adverb?

Nouns--Review Lessons and Exercises

The first link below takes you to a simple review of countable and uncountable nouns at www.englishpage.com.  It has some helpful lists of different kinds of noncount nouns: liquids, gases, solids, etc.

The second link below takes you to a page at www.grammarbank.com where you will see of list of lessons and exercises on nouns. These lessons and exercises are a good place to review basic things like common and proper nouns and noun plurals as well as more advanced topics like noun clauses.

The last two links will help you review when to use definite vs. indefinite articles (the vs. a/an) and when no article (nothing) is needed.

My suggestions: Click on the link below and read about countable vs. nouns. Scroll to the bottom and click on the link to Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns Exercise 1 Do the 20 questions in the exercise and check your answers.

LINK: Countable/Uncountable Nouns Review at Englishpage.com

Then click on the following link to try some of the noun review lessons and exercises at grammarbank.com:

LINK: Various Review Lessons and Exercises on Nouns

Finally, click on the first link below to review rules for using articles. Then click on the second link and try some of the "similar exercises" on articles listed at the right of the page:

LINK: Explanation of Using Articles

LINK: A/An/The or Nothing Exercises (listed on the right)

Capitalization Practice

My suggestion: Click on the link below to see how well you know the rules for capitalization by taking a quiz.

LINK: Capitalization Quiz

Repeat Celsa (Grammar) Test Before Fall Break--Practice Sample Questions

You are not supposed to know everything on the Celsa test! It includes some very advanced grammar questions and we haven't covered a lot of the material yet. Look at it as a challenge--use what you've learned (from your reading, writing, conversations, and grammar lessons) to help you figure out what is missing from a sentence.

My suggestion: Click on these two links to download the pages (pdf files) of sample questions. Answers are printed at the end of the questions. Before you try the questions, look at the strategies for taking the test that I have listed below.

LINK: Celsa Test Sample Questions
LINK: More Celsa Practice Questions

1. Cover up the box with the answer choices and read the rest of the sentence and the context around the sentence. Think about what kind of word the sentence requires to go in the blank and complete the sentence.

2. Does the sentence need an adjective, a helping verb, a past tense verb? What person and tense are needed?

3. If the sentence needs a noun, look at the rest of the sentence to see whether it requires a singular or plural noun.

4. If you are choosing between pronouns, pay attention to whether the sentence requires a subject pronoun, an object pronoun, a possessive pronoun, etc.

5. Does the verb in the sentence need a preposition after it? Review the use of prepositions of place and time. Also, some verbs are "phrasal"--they must be used with a certain preposition (we haven't reviewed this topic yet). 

"There is" or "It is"?

Click on the link below to read a description of different ways we can use "there is" or "it is" in the English language. The writer explains what a "dummy" subject is--if there is no other subject, we use "there" or "it"--but how do you know which one to use?

My suggestion: Click on the link below. Read the explanation of dummy subjects and the examples of using when to use "there" or "it" as the subject of a sentence (a copy of the first part of the explanation appears just below the link). Then scroll to the bottom of the screen for a short quiz in which you choose between "there" or "it" in the sentences.

LINK: "There is" or "It is"--Dummy Subjects in English

The Oxford 3000 Most Important Words in English

From the Oxford Learners Dictionaries website: 

"The Oxford 3000 is a list of the 3000 most important words to learn in English. The keywords of the Oxford 3000 have been carefully selected by a group of language experts and experienced teachers as the words which should receive priority in vocabulary study because of their importance and usefulness."

On the website, the 3000 words are listed alphabetically by the beginning letter.

My suggestion: If you want to look through the list, click on the link below (under the link there is a picture of the page you will see). Then click on A-B, C-D, etc., to view words on the list that start with those letters. You can click on any word to see its definition.

LINK: Browse the list of the 3000 most important words (keywords) in American English

Computer Skills Lessons for Beginners

If you fear computers, or if you think you don't know how to do much with a computer, the Northstar Learning Guide to basic computer skills can help you! Look at this lesson chart to see some of the things you can learn on your own:

 My suggestion: Click on the link below to start the tutorial on basic computer skills. You can also choose lessons on a different computer topic by clicking on one of the other tabs at the top of the page (for example, Module 5: Microsoft Word).

LINK: Northstar Learning Guide: Module 1: Basic Computer

Then test your knowledge of basic computer terms and skills by clicking the link below. Click on "Take An Assessment." In the box labeled "Essential Computer Skills," click on "Basic Computer Skills" to take the quiz.

LINK: Northstar Digital Literacy Quiz on Basic Computer Skills


(Remember, these quizzes do not work on the Mozilla Firefox browser, because it won't run Adobe Flash Player. Use Google Chrome or Microsoft Internet Explorer instead).

Summer School 2017 ESL Level 5 (NOTE: This class is not active as of August 2017)

Summer school begins on Monday, May 22nd, and lasts for 3 weeks. Even if you are unable to attend summer school, you can join my typing class and work on your keyboard skills from home. 

Click on the link below to join Teacher Kathy's summer school class at typing.com:

Join Teacher Kathy's class at typing.com

(NOTE: This class is not active as of August 2017)

NOTE: The above link to typing.com is best for beginning typists. If you already know how to type, try the typing games at sense-lang.org (click on the link Games at sense-lang.org in the Favorite Links list on the right side of this page). You can choose your level of difficulty. but even experienced typists may be surprised at how challenging the games are! This website also has lessons (click on the Lessons at sense-lang.org in the Favorite Links list at right), but I think typing.com is best for beginners.

3 Keys to Improve Your Listening Comprehension, and More Listening Practice

The Anglo-Link channel on YouTube has a 20-minute video with helpful tips for improving your ability to listen to and understand native speakers of English. There are also videos in which you can listen to common short expressions (things Americans say) and practice writing them.

My suggestion: Find a time when you have at least 20 minutes to sit down and play the video with helpful listening tips. Have a pencil and paper ready to take notes, and click on the link below. You'll probably want to listen to it more than once (if you can't listen again right away, listen again in 2 to 3 days):

LINK: Tips for Improving Listening Comprehension

Then click below to try some quick listening and writing (transcription) exercises. Fifteen short sentences are read, two times each. After you hear a sentence the first time, pause the video and try to write down what you heard. Listen to the sentence a second time, pause the video again, and check what you wrote. When you start the video again after hearing the sentence the second time, the answer will appear on the video. Then continue with the next sentence.

LINK: Transcription Exercise (listen and write practice)

Click on the link below for a third video from this channel, and practice some common English expressions. Listen and repeat, or have pen and paper ready so you can try writing down the expressions you hear (35 sentences in total).

LINK: Practice Listening and Repeating Common Daily Expressions

Daily Dictation Practice Videos

A teacher who calls himself Coach Shane has a YouTube channel for daily dictation practice. Dictation means somebody says or reads something for you to try to write down. I must point out that in his first video he misuses the verb "dictate" a little bit. To dictate is to say or speak some words that you want someone else to write down. Coach Shane tells you to listen, then do your best to "dictate" the sentence, but he should be telling you to listen, then do your best to write down what you hear. The action of writing down what you hear is called "transcription," not dictation.

My suggestion: The nice thing about Coach Shane's videos is that you don't just listen to the teacher say things (although he does have very clear pronunciation). He plays recordings of different voices saying things--cartoons, newscasters reading headlines, actors' lines from movies or television shows, etc. In one video, you listen to a sentence several times and try to write down what you hear, without seeing the actual words. In the very next video, Coach Shane reveals the answer--what you should have written down. He then explains the changes that happen when the written sentence is spoken out loud, like vowel reductions, strong sounds that "win" over weak sounds in English, or what sounds Americans connect in casual conversation. He also explains the context of what you heard--maybe it was a famous line from an American movie, or a news headline about an important world event.

LINK: Click on this link to the first video-- 

Or click on this sample video: