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