Search results for 'tag:Conversations tag:Learning English' matching tags 'Conversations' and 'Learning English'

Re: who/did

Tanit — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:05:59 GMT

Newguest
Hi guys

Why in this question we do not use "did": Who brought you up? (instead of: Who did bring you up?)

And in this one we do: Who did you look up to? (instead of: Who you looked up to?)

Hi,

It has to do with the role of "who". Is it the subject (as in Who brought you up?) or is it the object (as in Who did you look up to?)?
Here's a brief extract from a page from BBC Learning English that explains the differences between these two types of sentences:

When the question word is the subject - 'who' in this example - the auxiliary 'do' isn't needed and the word order is:
subject (who) + verb (wants) + object or complement (more coffee).
A. Who wants more coffee?

...

Here's one where the question word is acting as an object:
A. Who did you meet there?
B. I met an old friend.
In this example, 'who' is the question word and 'did' is the auxiliary.
'Who' is referring to the object of the sentence, the person I met.

Compare:
Who saw you? >>> "Who" is the subject. You were seen by somebody.
Who did you see? >>> "Who" is the object. You saw somebody. (Strictly speaking, this one should be "Whom did you see?" ... but in everyday conversations "Who did you see?" is far more common).

movies subtitle

mubrik88 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:16:19 GMT

Hi

I'm just wondering my friends, do you recommend watching movies with or without the subtitle (translation) ?

I mean to help learning English .

If I watch it without the subtitle I understand may be 60% from the conversation.

I don't know why, may be because they talk too fast

I like to see horror movies because the conversation is usually simple

What about you my friends

Teaching English using the Chatbot Game

amichail — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:35:48 GMT

I believe that the Chatbot Game can be used to help students learn English as a second language:

http://chatbotgame.com
http://chatbotgame.com/?cmd=chat_rs
http://chatbotgame.com/?cmd=chat_s

Players of the Chatbot Game shape the chatbot's personality and expertise by adding simple chat rules. The better their chat rules, the higher they will score. Higher scoring rules are more likely to be used to generate a chatbot response.

I think such a game may be useful for learning English as a second language. After all, to score lots of points, you will do well by focusing on common sorts of conversation fragments -- exactly the sort of thing that someone learning English should focus on. Moreover, you get to see how well your rules do in actual chats in terms of a rule score and actual conversation fragments.

If the player uses poor grammar in a chat rule, then that rule may not score well assuming that most people chatting with the bot already know English pretty well. Even if someone doesn't vote down a rule with bad grammar, he/she might comment on the bad grammar in his/her response.

In essence, the chat rules can be viewed as open-ended exercises that are graded by the people chatting with the bot.

What do you think?

Great website for English learning

adees123 — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:36:49 GMT

Hello,

I just wanted to share with everyone a great site for learning English. http://www.china232.com The site offers ESL podcasts for free and lessons to go with each podcast. It is great for conversation English and also very useful if students are planning on studying abroad. What do you think?

Add

hope this is appropriate

Raen — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:44:13 GMT

I have tried different ways to improve my English including listening to news, reading books or magazines, posting questions on forums such as this one (this one I frequent the most) and practicing talking to anyone who happens to be standing next to me (this takes tremendous courage). I'd like to branch out a little more now that I feel more confortable that maybe I can carry on a discussion or conversation with native speakers. So is there any websites that you would recommend and that's not necessarily about learning English but would likely help improve one's English?

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you.

Raen

Question from non-native speaker that stumped

pjrydo — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:05:31 GMT

My friend is Chinese and is learning English. In conversation she asked me which of these were correct:

'In three hours, I don't know what I should do'

'In three hours, I don't know what should I do'

She was asking me what she should do with herself for three hours while she waits for someone, so I think staright away she should substitute 'in' for 'for'.

Neither of them sound correct to me and embarrasingly I couldn't tell her which (if any) was correct. Could someone please check over them and;

a) tell me if either or indeed both are correct or not, and;

b) explain to me why they are correct/incorrect.

I have a feeling that the latter of the two would constitue informal, lazy grammar use in everyday speech but am not too sure?!?

Re: Gramatical Mistakes Common to Chinese English-speakers

Goodman — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:22:42 GMT

Hblaw wrote:

Hi all,

My native language is Chinese and I am learning English as a foreign language. I am wondering if you could name a few mistakes that are commonly seen in Chinese people who speak/write English as a second language, so that I can be more conscious in avoiding them in the future.

Any advice (relating to gramma) will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Best Regards,

- HBLaw

Well, I think this is right up my alley, so to speak. Speaking from experience, the most common problem for Asian learners, including Chinese are the followings:

In writing:

Capitalization

Third person/ singular rule

Gender (he/ she)

Space

Punctuations

Incorrect choice of word

Grammar Structure

Speech-wise:

Awkward Accent

Frequent Iteration

Unclear or incorrect pronunciation

Change of gender in mid conversation, i.e. switching he to she or vise versa.

Mixed grammar

Re: how can I improve my english

Teroff — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:41:21 GMT

Hi 2 all.

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name' Stan, I'm from Russia. I've read all of this advices and I get a very good help. Thx a lot for you advices.

1. Reading books and newspapers

2. Watching TV and Movies

3. Conversation with your friends

4. Speaking for yourself

5. Reading, watching, learning, and speaking again..

This is a best (IMHO) way for learning English.

Re: When I have trouble...

Kooyeen — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:36:17 GMT

Hi Anon,
what Jim said makes a lot of sense, and we discussed it a little in another thread, I think.
The point was that teaching completely descriptively is impossible. The teacher would have to say: Mr X says this, Mr Y says that, and Mr Z says another thing. Now learn what they say and then decide what to do by yourself.
Every time a teacher gives advice or suggest something, they're being at least a little bit prescriptive.
So if you want a good teacher, you need a teacher who "prescribes" the most appropriate English for you.

Now, suppose I'm 17. The better you know English, the more it should sound like English spoken by native speakers (this should be true for every language). How can I be as similar to a native as possible? If am learning American English and I imagine I am a native speaker, I should imagine I am a 17-year-old American guy. If I found an American teenager to imitate, I would learn how to speak like my imaginary native clone.

So, why would a ESL student who is 17, listen to punk rock and don't care much about school and rules in society... why would he want to have a teacher who is 50, listen to classical music, and is a literature professor? Learning English from a punk like him is probably the best way to learn the best kind of English for him.

And as for females... sometimes girls talk a little differently. Vocabulary might be different, tipical topics in conversations are definitely different, and sometimes intonation might vary (example: uprising intonation).

Re: learning english in private homes

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:16:59 GMT

I don't know whether you are still asking the above question but for your information I live in Stratford upon Avon UK and have been welcoming foreign students into my home for many years and while they live as family I also give one to one English Conversation lessons.

Many of my students return and all have improved their English while enjoying their two or three weeks with me and the family

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information

Sarah