Category Archives: Learning Tips

English Words You Didn’t Realize That You Know

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The English word leopard has the same language origin as the Spanish and Portuguese leopardo, and the French léopard.  There are many other words like this that are very similar in English and other languages.  They are called “cognates”. One good way to quickly increase your English vocabulary is to study a list of these similar words.

  • For Spanish, there are words like adorar (adore), mágico (magical), teatro (theater) and many more
  • For Portuguese, there are words like apropriado (appropriate), importância (importance), familiar (familiar), and many more
  • There are lists of cognates available for many other languages too – including Russian and Arabic
  • For more lists of cognates with English and many other languages, you can use Google.  For example, in Google: English French cognates
  • You can try entering the same search words in YouTube to watch video lessons about these

Use Your Dog To Practice English

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Your English will improve if you speak or sing – out loud in English – to your dog.

But also, have you noticed that when you go walking with your dog, other dog lovers will usually be more friendly?  Maybe they’ll say hello, or ask you questions about your dog, or ask, “Can I pet your dog?”  Use this as a great opportunity for some small talk – short, informal conversation. Remember – the more English you speak, the more comfortable it will become.

Besides walking in your neighborhood, great places to meet other dog lovers (and for your dog, too) are parks in the area that are dog-friendly.  One of the best places is Eagle Pond at Callahan State Park in Framingham (shown in picture). Here’s a list of many more.

Do you have another favorite place?

Speaking English As Much As You Can

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  We all tell our students that 6 hours/week of class is not enough time to learn to speak English well and we encourage them to find opportunities to speak English beyond the classroom. Last term, I told my class how important it was to be exposed to English as much as possible. This is especially important if you are not in class now.

The students were assigned the homework below. Most of them did the homework and practiced speaking English with more people.

HOMEWORK

  1. Find someone who speaks English and whom you have never spoken to before.  For example: post office clerk, supermarket cashier, waiter, etc and try to speak to them in English for a few minutes.
  2. Write 4 or 5 sentences describing this experience – who, what, when where, etc.

— Thanks to Charlie for this article —

Get More Practice on the HiSET Math Test

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  The HiSET® exam is a test (similar to GED) that you can  take to show that you have the skills and knowledge equivalent to someone who has graduated high school in the United States.

The  HiSET Math Test is 90 minutes long and includes 50 multiple-choice questions. The content of the HiSET Math test includes the following:
• Number Operations and Number Sense
• Measurement and Geometry
• Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability
• Algebraic concepts

Practice tests below cover each of those areas.   When you take a test:

 Always thoroughly read the directions so that you know exactly what to do.
 Read each question carefully so that you fully understand what is asking.
 Read all answers choices.
 Narrow your answer options by eliminating some answers and work throughout to find the best answer. Only one answer is correct.

Click any of the links below to begin  a HiSET® Math Practice Test:

— Thanks to Yuriy for this article —

Google Images as Your Dictionary

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    There are some good, regular dictionaries for English language learners – including the Learner’s Dictionary, which explains 100,000 words and phrases in simple language, with sentence examples, and pronunciation.

However, there are many times when some pictures will help you understand a word better, and more quickly.  Perhaps the easiest way to see a word in pictures is with Google Images.  Here are some examples of words that are easier to understand with a picture, or a set of pictures…

100 Blog Postings

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   In addition to giving you information on formal classes and conversation groups in MetroWest, and suggestions for places to go, there have been 100 articles posted on this blog – Learning English in MetroWest.  Each posting is intended to be a little lesson – about a way to help you improve your English.  You can go back to review them in many ways including:

We hope you have found these postings helpful.  If you have any suggestions for what kind of information you want to see more of, let us know.

Google Translate Phrasebook

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   Google Translate is the most popular way to translate between two languages.  But most people don’t use their “phrasebook” – a place to save words, phrases, and sentences that you want to use or practice another time.

  • In Google Translate, translate a phrase or sentence as usual
  • Then, to save it, press the star to add this to your phrasebook.
  • Once the phrase is saved in your phrasebook, you can go there any time by pressing the star at the bottom of your screen
  • You can practice this phrase and listen to the pronunciation as many times as you like

Google Translate is available on computers, iPhone/iPad, and Android apps.

Pinterest

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   You can use Pinterest to see pictures and information about almost anything that interests you – such as chocolate desserts, or expensive cars, or origami.

You can also use Pinterest to help you learn English.  Just search Pinterest for what you would like to study. Include “ESL” in your search for results that are better for people learning English as a second language. For example:

or this one: ESL prepositions

 

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