Noisy Animal Verbs (more onomatopoeia) Posted by Gabriele on May 21, 2012
I introduced the topic of onomatopoeia yesterday with a number of “noisy verbs” found in English. Remember onomatopoeia is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Today I am going to focus on the verbs used to describe the sounds that animals make. Keep in mind these…
Onomatopoeia Posted by Gabriele on May 20, 2012
This is a really fun word to say in English! Click here and you should be connected to a link where you can hear how to pronounce this word correctly. What does this funny word mean? Onomatopoeia is the word we use to describe words that imitate or suggests the source of the sound that…
Comparison of Adjectives Posted by heather on May 19, 2012
I am tall but Mary is taller and Tom is the tallest of us all. Can you find the adjective in the sentence above? Remember, an adjective is a word that describes or tells us more about a noun or a pronoun. If you said “tall” then you were correct. Tall is the adjective in…
Nursery Rhymes Posted by Gabriele on May 18, 2012
Having lived abroad and having taught ESL for a number of years I have heard many people talk about what it means to be “fluent” in a second language. I set a very high standard for fluency myself and I think true fluency comes with both linguistic and cultural knowledge. In discussing how to determine…
I do not think it means what you think it means Posted by Gabriele on May 17, 2012
“I do not think it means what you think it means.” This is a line from a famous American film from the 1980’s called Princess Bride. This line is spoken in the following conversation between two characters, Vizzini and Inigo Montoya. Vizzini: He didn’t fall? INCONCEIVABLE*. Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do…
English Immersion Day Posted by heather on May 16, 2012
No doubt during your language studies you have received lots of advice about the best way to “become fluent.” One of these ideas that often comes up is to immerse yourself in the culture and the language but just how do you do that? Here’s some ideas of what a language immersion day might look…
Post Editing (Part II) Posted by Gabriele on May 15, 2012
Todays (Today’s) post is a little different than my usual posts. I’ve written this post with a number of common grammer (grammar) and spelling errors in it that I want you to find. This is like a game of ESL hide-and-seek! Tomorrow (Tomorrow) I will re-post this exact same passage highlighting all the errors that…