ESL learning: Active Listening Tips

I know everyone has to participate in situations where active listening skills are very important. Some situations may be job interviews, meetings, lectures, class discussions, group activities, work events and so on. Let’s look at some very useful active listening tips below.

Lean body forward

When we lean our body forward this shows we are interested in what the other people are saying. The body language shows this.

Tilt your head

Tilting your forward shows curiosity. Tilting your head to the side exposes your neck, meaning you are comfortable and not feeling threatened.

Gaze in their eyes

A person who is paying attention can look directly into another’s eyes and hold the look for some time. Eye contact says a lot.

Moving eye brows

When we move our eye brows it shows we are concentrating, processing or understanding language. Nonverbal communication is essential. You can see our teachers doing this a lot in their class demos & introduction videos

Nodding the head

By nodding your head you show agreement and this makes the other person want to keep talking.  It can be used to show understanding as well. Keep the nod slow and consistent.

You can really see Barak Obama use this technique in this video:

Make noises

Saying things like MMmmm, Ahhhh, Yeahhh and Uhhh Huuhhh are all ways to show your interest. This is very encouraging to the person doing the talking.

In Closing:

If this was interesting or useful to you, you may also be interested in our Business Course or our Conversational English Courses, which both focus on many communication techniques. We also invite you to try a free trial class with ETO today and start learning English now!

In the meantime, please stay subscribed to our Facebook, YouTube & Twitter pages.

By: Luke 

ETO American English teacher

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ESL learning: Humor vs. humour

 

Humor and humour are different spellings of the same word. Humor is preferred in American English, and humour is preferred in all other main varieties of English. The distinction extends to the derivative participles—humored/humoured and humoring/humouring—but in all varieties of English, the ‘u’ in the second-syllable is dropped from the adjective humorous.

Speaking of humour, what makes you laugh? Tell us about it!!

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English for Chatting – Acronyms

English for Chatting – Acronyms 

One very useful thing to know in the English language is chatting acronyms. We need to know this in order to read and understand authentic English nowadays when chatting on smart phones, making tweets, meeting over Skype or commenting on Facebook posts. Here are the most frequently used chatting acronyms that you will see, and hopefully use.

The Most Common Chat Acronyms

B4 Before

BF / GF Boyfriend / Girlfriend

BRB Be right back

FB Facebook

BTW By the way

GR8 Great

IKR I know, right?

IMHO In my honest opinion / In my humble opinion

IMO In my opinion

J/K Just kidding

LMBO Laughing my butt off

LOL Laughing out loud

OMG Oh my God

PLS or PLZ Please

PPL People

TMRW Tomorrow

TTYL Talk to you later

ic I see

My last thoughts:

If you want to improve your English for reading, writing, chatting or any other reason, please book a free trial class with ETO today!

By: Luke 

ETO American English teacher

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Idiom: Butterflies in your stomach

The nervous feeling before something important or stressful is known as butterflies in your stomach.

Can I see some examples?

Whenever I have to speak in public, I get butterflies in my stomach.

He always has butterflies in his stomach before an exam.

It was not scary enough to give me butterflies in my stomach, but it made me a little apprehensive.

Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach? This idiom is very common among those in love. What other moments do you think could cause a fluttering feeling in the tummy?

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Adjective or Adverb?

Adjective: A word which describes, identifies or qualifies a noun or pronoun. An adjective usually, but not always, comes before the noun or the pronoun which it modifies.

For example: The cat is cute. The word “cute” is describing and modifying the noun cat.

Adverb: An adverb is a bit more flexible because it describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence. Adverbs usually end in “ly” (but not always). An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as “how,” “when,” “where,” “how much”.

For example: The dog quickly ran to his owner. The word “quickly” describes and modifies the verb ran. It also answers the question “how”. How did the dog run? It ran “quickly”.

Let’s Practice! Find the adjective or adverb in each sentence and write your answers below.

1) The rabbit is fuzzy.

2) She chewed slowly.

3) The apple is red.

4) She is quite beautiful.

5) He speaks very slowly.

Please comment below with your answers..

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ESL Learning: Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.

For example “meet” and “meat”.

Meet: to come upon; to encounter
Meat: the edible flesh of animals

Can you tell us the difference between these homophones?
1- “ice-cream” versus “I scream”?
2-“euthanasia” versus. “Youth in Asia”

Please comment below with your answers..

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Punctuation Matters!

Using the right grammar and punctuation is vital to convey messages without any ambiguity or misunderstanding. If I said: “Let’s eat grandma” you might think I’m a bit cannibalistic, or that I don’t really like my grandma that much. But if I said: “Let’s eat, Grandma” there would be no doubt that I wanted to eat with my grandma at that particular moment in time. You see? No ambiguity. Plus it would have saved my grandma’s life- which, you know, she would be quite happy about. 

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ESL learning: The Comma

The comma (,) is a commonly used punctuation mark indicating a pause between parts of a sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list, to mark off thousands in numerals, to separate types or levels of information in data, and, in Europe, as a decimal point.

Did you know that the word comma can have several other meanings? Can you guess a few?

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ESL Learning: Cacti or Cactuses?

Cacti is the Latin plural of cactus, and some writers use it in English. Cactuses is the plural form in English. Dictionaries list both, and neither is right or wrong. Also, like many names of plants, the cactus is sometimes treated as plural.

Cactus is not the only Latin-derived English word ending in “us”, and most are conventionally pluralized in the English manner.

Can you name a few more?

Feel free to comment below…

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ESL learning: How to Learn Vocabulary

Really, almost all of my students have asked me how they can learn more vocabulary. This is a great question because many times good vocabulary is more important for communication than good grammar. I have some tips to help you learn vocabulary.

So what tips do you have?

1. Read, read and then read some more. Read things of interest to you. Read many different things. Read lots of authentic materials. To learn more about authentic materials, see my other blog ESL learning: Learning Native English.

By reading, you are learning words in context. You are practicing your guessing skills and you are learning how to move words around and play with them grammatically.

2. Make notes. Be sure to circle or underline any words you do not know, look them up and write all new language down in a vocabulary notebook. Just the act of writing alone is enough to put the words into your long term memory and you will be able to remember them more easily.

3. Find synonyms and antonyms for new words. Do not forget to write them in your vocabulary notebook.

4. Memorization by association means you have learned new words because they remind you of other words in your own language.

5. Make as many word groups & collocations as possible with the new words. New words are always used with other words in pairs, phrases or in sentences. How many ways can you use new words?

6. Write more sentences, stories, paragraphs, letters and emails using the new language. Try different things and do not be afraid to be creative. Writing is a great way to remember new words. Writing puts these words in your long term memory.

7. Read a dictionary every day. Try setting a goal of 5, 10 or 15 words a day. Also, use the dictionary for any words you do not know. Do you have a small dictionary and vocabulary notebook with you all the time?

8. Use online resources like ETO’s Facebook page and Twitter and learn a little every day. Also, do not forget about YouTube. You can find all our links below this blog.

9. Make flashcards to help you practice daily. An excel spreadsheet is another option. Don’t forget, that writing helps you remember the words!

10. Open your mind and read and discuss topics that you normally would avoid. Variety is very important.

11. Stay aware and be alert to any new words that may be on advertisements, commercials, brochures, newspapers or anywhere else. Always be searching and making notes mentally and on paper.

12.  Practice, practice and then practice more. There is no substitute for actually using what you have learned. Use the new words as soon as you learn them. Use them in writing and speaking immediately.

13. Get a professional teacher. If you would like to try a vocabulary, pronunciation and conversation class with a professional teacher, feel free to book a free trial lesson with ETO today!

Parting Words

Just be sure to speak, read, write and listen to new vocabulary as much as possible.

By: Luke 

ETO American English teacher

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