Natural English explained at UsingEnglish.com

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Learning Websites, Vocabulary |

Using English is particularly useful for its phrasal verb dictionary, idioms dictionary and ask a teacher forum.  They have quizzes about phrasal verbs and if you have any questions they have special forums for phrasal verbs and idioms.  If you’ve heard an expression in a film or read something in a book that you just can’t understand, ask the helpful people at Using English.  I post there sometimes, too!

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Learning with the BBC

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Learning Websites, Listening, Reading, Videos, Vocabulary, Writing |

The BBC is possibly one of the richest sources of high-quality, free English learning material on the Internet.  Their Learning English site has so many sections I really can’t talk about all of them here (although I will say Words in the News is a very good place to start).  Skillswise has excellent sections on spelling, reading, and writing.  Their Video Nation site has interviews with real people and a short quiz afterwards to see if you...

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Advanced writing techniques for American university students

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Writing |

The Guide to Grammar and Writing is a resource for American college students so the language on the site is considerably more advanced than on a site for English learners.  However, the information is extensive and you may find the pages on punctuation (under Word and Sentence Level) and sentence combining skills (under Paragraph Level) particularly useful.

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Basic writing tips

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Writing |

English Grammar Online 4U is an excellent writing resource that provides a lot of very useful tips without getting too complicated.  Their General Information on Writing English Texts is a very good place to start improving your writing.

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Practicing phrasal verbs

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Vocabulary |

It may not always be necessary to use phrasal verbs, but they are a big part of using English naturally and fluently.  So how do you practice them?  First we need to figure out what exactly is difficult to remember about them and then find a way to isolate that and drill it in a way that we can remember.  Read my blog post about remembering phrasal verbs if you haven’t already.  Once you have examples that you want to practice, Anki is...

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Remembering phrasal verbs

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Vocabulary |

Once you have looked up the meaning of a phrasal verb, you will usually remember it when you see it again.  For example, to put up with something means to tolerate it.  You might read this and look it up in the dictionary and the next time you see it, you’ll remember what it means from the context.  But the difficult part is remembering all of the parts when you want to use it. The best thing to do is to take an example sentence from Using...

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