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

Re: Anybody knows any good novels for learning English?

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:01:37 GMT

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/gradedreaders-21

Each book uses the same words over again, so say that's beginner, maybe 100 words, the number gets bigger and bigger as the levels go up, you have plenty of time to practise each word and you will see it again a few times so you're less likely to forget it. Also there are a whole range of books, so you can pick whatever you are interested in.

"Graded Readers" is the name for this type of book.

Re: feeling happy

Grammar Geek — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:18:03 GMT

It seems when people are learning English, there are a number of verbs they are first taught cannot take the progressive, the -ing form.

Then, when their English becomes more advanced, they learn that these verb (liking, loving, feeling, being) CAN take the -ing form when you want to emphasize that the situation is CURRENT and likely to change.

You are BEING a jerk is different from You ARE a jerk becuase I mean that only at this very moment are you are jerk. You are not usually.

I am LOVING this salmon dish - Usually I don't like salmon, but this is great. Right now, I am really enjoying it.

It's the same with She is feeling happy. At this very moment, that's how she is. Maybe she's been a bit sad lately, but knowing that there will be friends and cake at John's house later is making her feel a bit happier right now.

Re: articles with ordinal numbers

Pter — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:03:28 GMT

She started learning English as a second language when she was eight. English is her second language. English is the second most popular first language on the planet. Speaking English is now like second nature to her.

To determine if you need an article and what article to use, take away the ordinal numbers and see what or if articles are required. Of course, by taking away the ordinal numbers, you change the meaning of the sentence, but this is an easy way to check if your sentence is grammatical.

Re: articles with ordinal numbers

Pter — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:56:21 GMT

Damir
I thought that ordinal numbers can have only a definite article.

There is no such rule.

You are learning English as *a* second language, aren't you?

A second look. A second opinion. A second chance.

Re: Could anyone please correct my composition?

julielai — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:16:49 GMT

Taichimaster wrote:
Is it possible that Chinese language takes the place of English language?

In the United Kingdom, surprisingly there is an increasing trend in learning Chinese language. More and more high schools ~~in there~~ have introduced Chinese language lessons .Some predict that Chinese will eventually takes the place of English (In the world or UK? You have not made it clear.). However, I donât think this will happen because of the difficulties of learning Chinese, English current status and commerce-oriented reason for learning language.

First, the hardship of learning Chinese makes this language unlikely to be globally popular. Chinese is not a language,, like English and Greek, based on alphabets like English or Greek. You ~~can just~~ learn Chinese word by word. ~~This ,~~ Even learning basic and ~~daily-used~~ common words takes lots of time. Also, it is tough for non-native speakers to remember the symbols of Chinese words, which Putonghua aural alphabets cannot help. Conversely, it is easy to learn fundamental English because there are only 26 alphabets.

Second, English is currently the most used language in the globe, which creates barriers for Chinese to be widely used. Nowadays, the most trusted scientific research reports and the most famous movies are done in English. Many international organizations, for example, WTO and the Red Cross, prefer using English in their announcements.

Finally, the main reason for learning Chinese is the convenience of doing business with China. Only few of the learners are attracted by Chinese culture. Moreover, we can look back to the history that more Japanese learning English and fewer other peoples learning Japanese, while the economy of Japan was strongly influenced in the 1970s. So, it is possible that more Chinese learning English and fewer other peoples learning Chinese, while (while is an odd pick considering what you're trying to say) China is economically powerful now.

In conclusion, learning the language of Chinese is obviously an increasing trend but not the replacement of that of English. If you take the population into account, around 1.5 billion Chinese native speakers, including in the Great China Region and overseas, and about 1.5 billion English native speakers, including in the UK, US, Australasia, Canada and India, are close in number (does not make sense). Therefore, I predict a worldwide bilingual trend would be more rational, since Chinese and English will both be vitally important in the future.

Could anyone please correct my composition?

Taichimaster — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 07:05:32 GMT

Is it possible that Chinese language takes the place of English language?

In the United Kingdom, surprisingly there is an increasing trend in learning Chinese language. More and more high schools in there have introduced Chinese language lessons .Some predict that Chinese will eventually takes the place of English. However, I donât think this will happen because of the difficulties of learning Chinese, English current status and commerce-oriented reason for learning language.

First, the hardship of learning Chinese makes this language uneasy to be globally popular. Chinese is not a language, like English and Greek, based on alphabets. You can just learn Chinese word by word. This takes lots of time, even learning basic and daily-used words. Also, it is tough for non-native speakers to remember the symbols of Chinese words, which Putonghua aural alphabets cannot help. Conversely, it is easy to learn fundamental English because there are only 26 alphabets.

Second, English is currently the most used language in the globe, which creates barriers for Chinese to be widely used. Nowadays, the most trusted scientific research reports and the most famous movies are both in English. Many international organizations, for example WTO and the Red Cross, prefer using English in their announcements.

Finally, the main reason for learning Chinese is the convenience of doing business with China. Only few of the learners are attracted by Chinese culture. Moreover, we can look back to the history that more Japanese learning English and fewer other peoples learning Japanese, while the economy of Japan was strongly influenced in the 1970s. So, it is possible that more Chinese learning English and fewer other peoples learning Chinese, while China is economically powerful now.

In conclusion, learning the language of Chinese is obviously an increasing trend but not the replacement of that of English. If you take the population into account, around 1.5 billion Chinese native speakers, including in the Great China Region and overseas, and about 1.5 billion English native speakers, including in the UK, US, Australasia, Canada and India, are close in number. Therefore, I predict a worldwide bilingual trend would be more rational, since Chinese and English will be both vitally important in the future.

Re: Complexity of grammar

Forbes — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:05:31 GMT

Studies of languages have shown that any given language will compensate for complexity in one area with simplicity in another and that if you compare any two languages that they have roughly the same number of complex and simple areas.

Consider the following:

Imagine a language with only two vowels and two consonants, a rule that forbids consonant clusters and syllables ending in a consonant and without significant tonality at the morpheme level. We could characterise such a language as phonologically simple. However, discounting the possibilty of homophones, only four words of one syllable and sixteen words of two syllables would be available, which would mean that almost every word/ morpheme would have to be of at least three syllables; such a language would of necessity be morphologically complex.

Going to the opposite extreme, a language with a hundred vowels and three hundred consonants, even without allowing clusters and final consonants, has the potential to provide umpteen (I leave the mathematically gifted to work out how many) words/morphemes of one and two syllables and thousands more if clusters and final consonants are permitted. It is likely that such a language would be morphologically simple. It would of course be almost impossible to speak since the differences between the phonemes would be so subtle that both speaking and listening would require the utmost concentration at all times.

So we can see that both excessively simple and excessively complex phonologies would prevent effective communication. And the same applies to any language considered as a whole. An overly simple language would be of no use except to communicate at a very basic level indeed and an overly complex language could not be passed on to children.

There is a tendency to think of isolating or analytic languages as simpler than synthetic or agglutinating languages, but that is not the case.

Take these four sentences:

1. The bird ate the fish

2. The fish ate the bird

3. Avis piscem edit

4. Piscis avem edit

We know (if we know both Latin and English) that in 1 and 3 there is no doubt that it is the fish that had the bad luck, and that in 2 and 4 that it was the bird. English achieves certainty by word order and Latin ( where the order of words in 3 and 4 can be changed without altering the meaning) by changing the endings of words. From the perspective of an English schoolboy learning Latin, Latin is difficult because you have to change the endings, but from the perspective of an Ancient Roman schoolboy learning English, English is tricky because you have to get the words in the right order. English schoolboys wonder why Latin bothers with endings and Ancient Roman schoolboys may feel that English lacks flexibility because you cannot put the word you consider important first.

Agglutinating languages are often presented in a way that makes them look horribly complex. I have seen the Turkish verb presented in what appears to be a neverending set of tables. Further investigation though shows that the forms are made up applying quite simple principles and that the principles are applied universally, so the verbal system is not as complicated as you first thought.

A language can be neither too simple not too complex and all languages are simple/complex within a very narrow set of parameters.

Argumentative paper! need help!! got a D on this!!!!!!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:11:26 GMT

Hello i am currently taking english class over the summer..

and having trouble with English paper,

since english is my second language, as though i thought i wrote okay but

the professor gave me a D for this paper..

i don't understand its english 101 class and got a D for unclearity and lack of

explanations. and he said i need polish my punctuation which i don't know

what the hell it is, also i am too wordy?.... please guys help me to get an A.

here it is...

Even though its unfairness has been suggested from various points of views, the standardized tests in the United States have been used for college admission for almost 100 years. This problem-causing standardized test, the SAT, is also known as Scholastic Aptitude Test. The intended primary purpose of this test is to be a faculty instrument to predict the success of students in college. Also, the SAT is considered a measuring tool to gauge the level of studentsâ reading and mathematic comprehension. Carl Brigham, who developed the SAT as an intelligence test for the use in college admissions, once had said âthe SAT testing system ignored factors such as schooling, family background, and familiarity with Englishâ (Fleming). According to this statement, the SATs must be used as a fair source to test students because not only it affects college admission for students, but also for equalities for all test takers. Regarding the recent scholastic suggestions indicating the disadvantages that are followed by gender, minority groups, and misusage of the test materials, the SAT should not be used as a strong determining factor for the college admission.

One of the factors that results disadvantage of the SAT is gender of the test takers. It is universally known that the learning and problem approaching method significantly varies on gender. The SAT test is disregarding these facts because both genders get the same tests and be tested on it. Not surprisingly, few private schools have accepted theses facts anaccepting only one gender students . Based on the statistics from 270,000 students, Dr. Ken Rowe, Australian Council for Educational Research, found that both boys and girls performed between 15 and 22 percentile points higher on standardized tests when they went to single sexed high school (Rowe). This data proves that applying different teaching systems to different genders has led to better performance of students. McCullough, researcher at University of Wisconsin-Stout, also suggested that males are more intuitive, indirect, and abstract learners whereas females are more organized and analytical learners (McCullough). Therefore, each gender requires different learning approach system. And these characteristics in each gender should be carefully considered before giving out the tests and used as college admission.

In fact, an article titled âUnderprediction of Female Performance from Standardized Knowledge Testsâ states that there is an inaccurate prediction on the femalesâ performance in their freshmen year in colleges. It informs even though the femalesâ SAT scores are lower than malesâ by about 34 points on each section, the femalesâ have higher average grade points in their freshmen years of college (Poole). This suggests that the SAT is not well-structured enough to address the differences in gender learning process to represent the performance of female students in colleges. This male-favoring biased test should be corrected for better precision in determining the performance level of students in colleges. More specifically, the questions on the SATs should be changed to more analytical and organized questions for females while questions where intuitive thinking is required should be given out to male. Therefore, by gender, the test takers should get different SAT test in order to achieve its purpose.

Disadvantages of minority groups should also be considered as a factor of unfairness of SATs. The minority, African American, Hispanic, and Asian immigrants, score significantly lower than white students. Especially, on the verbal section on the SAT which tests college level vocabulary and reading comprehension. This section of the SATs is more disadvantageous for students whose English is not their first language. Also, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing found that even for bilingual students whose first language was English, the SAT inaccurately predicted college performance (FairTest). Although there is a replacement test for verbal section called âTOEFLâ which stands for âTest of English as a Foreign Languageâ. It does not entirely compensate the verbal section and represent the performance of the students. The TOEFL, also refers as English proficiency test, does not test college level of vocabulary and reading level, but it tests studentsâ capability of learning English. Therefore, with TOEFL, the performance of high school students further in college can not be predicted and used. Moreover, it costs about 4 to 5 times more than the SATs which causes to minimize the test attempts, and this factor also can not be ignored from the unfairness of the SAT. Also, the Rigidity usage of the SAT for college admission will automatically result in accepting less minority freshman classes (FairTest).

Everson and Michna, professors at Columbia University, have proposed that the family income influences on the score of the SATs. On the data titled as âObserved Relationship between Family Income & SAT Scores:â indicates the proportioned relationship between the family income and the SAT scores of students. It also suggests that the SAT score of the child depends on the race of the family and interestingly the race of the family also correlates with the family income. In that data, a student from a white family with an income above $ 70,000 would score above 1008 points on the SATs, and a child from an African-American with an income of lower than $ 10,000 would score below 675 points on the SATs (Everson and Michna). This statistic implies that the income of the parents directly affects the SAT scores of their children rather than their intellect. Since the income and class of the parents is usually determined by the educational level of parents, this could be interpreted as the SAT is designed and favors the students with highly educated parents. Therefore, based on the statistics, the SAT has preferential of certain ethnic race and higher income and educational level of parents.

In addition to those disadvantages, the SAT prep courses or materials are misused in various ways which violate the intended purpose of the SAT. Even though most colleges say that the college does not have specific cut-off lines of SAT scores for accepting students, there are an increasing number of students who are studying for the SATs only for higher scores. This is resulted from the common misconception from people that the comparative schools only accept the higher SAT scores and reject lower SAT scores (FairTest). McEntire, a researcher, had proposed a flaw of the SATs because 2 to 3 months of quick preparation of the SAT will significantly raise the scores. Therefore, those scores lack the relevance of the prediction of the studentsâ performance in colleges. Numerous test preparation materials are now on every book stores and even certain institutions are built solely in order to teach SATs. Even if the costs are up to $800-1000, parents are promoting students to attend SAT prep course (McEntire).

The Flaws along with illegal act upon taking SATs are abused globally, and this factor should be modified for a fair test. The following problem is time related disadvantages considering the fact that the SATs are given out to the students at the same time world widely. Therefore, students who took the test earlier in the one side of the earth provide information by posting the answers and discussing the problems on a certain website. This will give time differences for those who live in the other side of the earth and give pre-exposure to the test before taking the test. Not only this action is illegal and politically improper, but also raises the questions on the fairness of the SAT. Another abuse of the SAT can be suggested from the unjust time management. Because of the fact that the SAT also tests students time distributions for each problem, the SATs are should be taken in strict given time (Collegeboard). But few articles have reported the problems that were related to poor time management that results in giving extra times for students. Allen, a writer for home schooling, has proposed that the extra amount of time while taking SAT will improve the scores which disobey the purpose of the SAT (Allen). These time-related problems could be fixed by producing variety version of the tests, and also that test can be taken on computers which eliminate such disadvantageous factors.

Junior and Senior high school students are frantically studying to memorize SAT words and practice how quickly to apply mathematical theorems to the problems. Most upper classmen high school students undergo these rituals even though the SATs contain various flaws and unfairness factors. Regarding to previous discussions, those flaws are not appropriate enough to represent the potentials and abilities of studentsâ performance in their freshmen years in colleges. Even Testmakers acknowledge that high school grade-point average or class rank is the best predictors of first-year grades, despite the huge variation among high schools and courses (FairTest). Furthermore, the SATs should not be used as a definitive source for college admission. Itâs urgent for colleges to raise another valid standardized test which will eliminate such disadvantages and flaws. Such as for colleges not requiring the SAT scores from the students who falls in to top 20 percent could be a solution. And less concentration on the SAT scores, but put more weight on accepting students regarding their other curriculum such as leadership, activities, honor or awards, and GPAs would be an another solution. The current SAT materials are not apt to measure the studentsâ abilities of performance with those unfairness and disadvantages factors. Moreover, the SAT seemed it had lost its primary purpose of predicting the performance of the students, and what it actually stands for as Scholastic Aptitude Test.

thanks for reading this far but i am that frustrated for having freaking D.

you can email me with your revised version to wkawk2416@hotmail.com

or leave comments feel free to correct syntax + grammarical errors. thanks!

Re: Us people are very happy.

Kooyeen — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:45:19 GMT

Hi Amy,
ok, this is gonna be difficult to explain, but I'll try, so I'll also practice a little.

I don't think this is the right place to discuss descriptivism and prescriptivism, but I'd like to reply to your post. First of all, it is impossible to define exactly what prescriptivism and descriptivism are, because there are many kinds of descriptivism and many kinds of prescriptivism, and "perfect descriptivism" is impossible to achieve, especially for a language like English that is spoken by a large number of people.
I can only tell you my personal opinion.

You said that descrptive grammar (DG in brief) has some disadvantages, and prescriptive grammar (PG in brief) has some advantages. I strongly believe that PG has no advantages at all (it is "false"), and DG only has advantages (it actually deals with the real language).
DG just describe the language. It isn't against PG in any way, because PG is a part of DG. On the other hand PG is only a very little part of DG and it often only deals with formal written English, therefore it is incomplete and misleading to anyone who's learning English as a second language. DG describes the language and allows you to understand how the language is really used in every situation. DG doesn't differ from "standard English", for the simple reason that "standard English" doesn't exist. The "standard" varies according to the situation and the place. DG doesn't teach you to say "Hey dude" to your boss, and doesn't teach you that "If I was rich" is always ok in any situation, it just describes how English is used. DG describe what's "standard", common, or possible in a certain situation, but does not define a "standard" that has to be followed at any cost in any situation.
So it's up to you to choose the right way to express yourself, according to the situation, and if you understand DG correctly, you'll never end up sounding uneducated. On the other hand, if you only study PG, chances are you'll end up sounding odd sometimes, and you'll have a distorted perception of the language.
For example, DG teaches you the diferences between "If I was rich" and "If I were rich" (difference in appropriateness), but PG tells you that only "If I were rich" is acceptable. Then, you'll avoid "If I were" to avoid sounding odd, and you'll perceive that as a mistake: your perception of the language has been distorted.

ESL students need to feel comfortable with English and understand the natural language.
Just think: if I was a native speaker, would my English be the result of what I "prescriptively" learned at school, or would it be the result of all my "descriptively" absorbed English, form my childhood to now? (which is also made up of what I "prescriptively" learned at school) - If an ESL learner learn that only "If I were" is acceptable, what happens the first time they hear "If I was rich"? They probably think "I must have misheard that". But if they keep on hearing that? They will start to feel unconfortable, they will start to feel unsure of what they've learned. Feeling confused is not the best way to improve your English so as to become as confident as a native speaker.

So, no advantages for PG (which can only lead to confusion), and no disadvantages for DG (which can only lead to a complete view of the language). Well, actually PG has an advantage, and you know it very well: it is much simpler to teach and learn than descriptive grammar.

That's all.

Re: at what on in?

Yankee — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:39:30 GMT

Hamoody_usa wrote:
Hello, everyone

How are you ?

I am glad to be with you in the best forum for learning English.

My English is not perfect.

I've been learning for a year and a half.

However, I have some questions. First of all, if I make any mistakes, please correct me. OK. Please have a look at everything in blue.

My question is about the subject (In view of the fact that you asked a number of questions, it would have been better to say "One of my questions ...")

at: a specific time (at 8:30, at noon)

on: a specific day or date (on Tuesday, on June 11th)

in: a month, year, season (in June, in 2001, in winter)

When should I use those , for example? For more detailed information, please use the search function on this site and/or post a new, more specific question.

Let's start with days, months and year.

Second, sometimes we use at with school but ohertime we use in ,,{{ really confusion))
"He is at school." --> This basically tells you where he is (location).
"He is in school." --> This is more the idea that he attends school.

What is the correct sentence:

I am on my way to come to you ? Is it right? No, try this: "I'm on my way to your house."

or "I am in my way."? The word 'in' is wrong. "I am on my way" means that I am on my way to a place that has been mentioned in the broader context.

~~please, if u can~~ Could you please tell me some differences between at.and on? There are many differences. Please post specific and separate questions.

Thank you so much

By the way, I have a small question about clean and wash.

Do they have the same meaning? Can I say "I wash my dishes." Yes, this means you wash your dishes regularly.

Or "I am cleaning my dishes"? Yes, this means you are cleaning/washing your dishes now.

How about 'body'? wash your body, or clean your body? It would be more typical to use 'myself' or to word it completely differently: "I washed myself." or "I took a shower/bath."

.. Before I finish. really small point

How about wipe and swap? I assume you must mean 'swab'. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=swab&r=66

Do they have the same meaning , too? No: swap

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate your help.

Hi Hamoody
I agree completely with Nona and khoff. In the future, please limit the number of questions in a single post and please try to make your questions more specific.

I have corrected the errors in your post (in blue). Please use proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation! I've also given you some answers, many of which are the same as Nona's answers.