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What is an accent? An accent is the carryover of sounds from the speaker’s original language to the second language. When we are infants we literally have the ability to speak any language in the world. We are all born with the necessary speech mechanisms and the capability to learn any language. We end up speaking the language that we do solely by reinforcement. The sounds a baby hears and the speech patterns he is exposed to are the ones that she develops.

 
Soon the baby gains the fine motor skill and control she needs to create sounds herself. The infant will begin by babbling and playing with sounds. Soon she is able to produce simple vowel/consonant combinations which maybe why mama and dada are often their first words, they can make the combination and the big reaction it elicits reinforces their efforts.
 
By 18 months she will be able to produce about 20 words that have meaning and understand around 50 words. Now babies of course have the ultimate immersion experience. In order to obtain any control over their environment they must learn the language and they are surrounded by the language almost 24 hours a day. (more…)

Do you have any plan to pursue your further education abroad? Will you need English for your career or your education? If so, you may wish to investigate your options for learning, or improving, your English skills.   The TOEFL Test: TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) is a test used by many colleges, universities, government agencies and exchange and scholarship programs in the US, UK and Canada as a means of evaluating the language skills of a person whose first language is not English.

 
You can find TOEFL study guides easily online with other recommended resources listed. You may be able to access some of the sample tests and prepare with personal study. Or you may look for a class with an instructor to help you prepare for the test.
 
ESL Classes: ESL classes are a common means for students to learn English with group of classmates. These can be in the form of an evening class with various individuals attending or may be part of a college program during the day. (more…)

To improve your English, we recommend you practice all the key skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening in English. In this article we will focus on improving your reading skills in English.   Practicing reading in English will help improve your understanding of English,knowledge of English vocabulary/phrases and understanding of English grammar.   Reading does not need to be boring. Below we look at ways of improving your reading skills in English - and we link to some top websites so you have instant access to authentic and interesting English reading material.

 
Newspaper articles are sometime difficult because they often use slang, idiom or specific cultural expressions which will be difficult for a low level learner to understand. For example, a couple of recent newspaper stories began: ‘How Leonardo DiCaprio scored big with Scorsese’(was immediately popular with) and ‘Iraq policy has lead to Blair’s downfall’ (decline in power, popularity or status.) (more…)

It is Halloween at Palo Alto Adult School and Marta is dressed for the occasion in long black robes and a three-foot witch’s hat.   “Oh Marta, I love those shoes,” teacher Elizabeth Bales-Stutes exclaims.

 
Before replying, Marta appears confused. She moves her lips first to form the words, then measures them out.
 
“Yes, my step-daughter bought them,” Marta replies.
 
Marta, an elderly Eastern European woman, smiles.
 
She has performed her first task correctly. “ESL Advanced Low,” Bales-Stutes writes slowly on the board, signaling the class had begun.
 
English as a Second Language (ESL), the Palo Alto Adult School’s most popular class, attracts a variety of foreign students and immigrants like Marta. The class convenes each Monday and Wednesday night on the Palo Alto High School campus and aims to provide students with a better grasp of English, teaching the adults a variety of speaking, reading comprehension and cultural lessons. (more…)

The two main examinations of second-language-learners’ English-language skills are IELTS (created by the International English Language Testing Service) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). The two are similar but by no means identical, and candidates for both tests regularly ask which is the better – and often which is the easier – of the two.

The similarities between the two are that both test writing, listening, and reading skills, in addition to one other skill area. In the case of IELTS, the additional area is speaking; for TOEFL, it is what the test-makers call ‘Structure’, which tests written expression from the standpoints of sentence completion and error recognition. One factor that makes many test-takers consider IELTS the more difficult of the two tests is its speaking module, which requires the candidate to participate in a formal interview with an examiner face to face.

IELTS rates candidates’ submissions with ‘band’ scores (0 to 9, including half-bands between), given first to each of the four skill modules and then averaged for one IELTS band score, which is the one university admissions programmes use as their determinant for accepting students. TOEFL, by contrasts, assigns numerical scores much like those of the SAT test to each of the skill areas and then totals them. The totals are the ones used to determine a candidate’s English skill level. (more…)

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