chedutech-zaban

Hope is the thing...


Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.


- Emily Dickinson

What to read

• Something fun. It needs to be so much fun that you will look forward to reading it every day. It does not have to be intellectual, it does not have to improve your knowledge of science or history. Remember: you want to convince yourself that reading in English is fun. Don't feel guilty about reading comics, magazines, detective stories, romances, etc. (related article by Stephen Krashen)
• Something challenging, but not too challenging. What does it mean? There should be some words that you don't know, because you want to learn something. However, there shouldn't be too many difficult words, because you don't want to use your dictionary 10 times in one sentence. There's a simple rule here: If you're not enjoying the text, switch to an easier one.
• Something with the kind of sentences that you want to write or say yourself. Want to learn to talk about computers in English? Read an English-language forum on computers. When choosing a book, choose one with modern language and lots of dialogue. If you read a book written in obsolete English with lots of literary descriptions, you won't be able to use too many of these phrases in your own sentences (unless you write books in English). You want useful sentences that you can imitate.
• Start by reading a few books by the same author (or a few books on the same subject). Each author has his/her own vocabulary and grammar. For example, when you read a book by Michael Crichton, you come across a lot of scientific vocabulary. Afterwards, it is easier for you to read another Michael Crichton novel than to read a book by a different author.

When you read another book by the same author, you will notice that you understand it much more easily than the previous one, and you will feel great about your progress in English. On the other hand, if you jump from author to author (or topic to topic), you will always be frustrated by unknown vocabulary and grammar, which is not healthy for your motivation. (related article by Stephen Krashen)

Some ideas

Here are some ideas of texts that you can read in English:

• Literature. Whatever kind of books you like, you can read them in English.
• Simplified books (e.g. the Penguin Readers series). These are popular books, re-written in simple language for English learners. They are just perfect for beginners and if I were to learn a new language, I would definitely use one of those. They are available in different levels of difficulty — the simplest ones use only 200 basic English words. Try the intermediate or advanced levels (over 1,000 words) — the lowest levels use so few words that they sound quite unnatural.
• Science books. If you are interested in science, you can get great science books written in English. There are many famous English-speaking authors in many subjects, such as psychology, evolutionary biology, physics, or economics.
• Textbooks. If you're studying at a college and you use textbooks written by English-speaking authors, you can get the original English versions. If you are learning a new computer language, you can use a book in English. You will learn your subject and English at the same time.
• Forums and blogs. Forums, discussion groups and blogs are a unique source of written informal language. Unlike other written sources, such as books or newspapers, they are very close to the way native speakers talk. As such, they are an excellent source of input for English learners. Ideally, stick to forums for native speakers and remember that many native speakers make spelling mistakes.
• E-mail. Like forums and blogs, e-mails from native speakers are a fantastic source of "everyday English", which is normally the kind of English you want to speak most of the time (except for some formal occasions). Communicating with a native speaker over e-mail gives you a lot of pleasure, as well as an opportunity to practice your writing skills.
• Software. You can start using English versions of your operating system, your word processor, and other applications.

How to read English texts if you want to improve your English

Reading for content

Normally, when reading a text, people use a strategy that I call "reading for content". The goal of this strategy is to get the main idea of the text as quickly as possible and with as little effort as possible. To accomplish this goal, your brain will try to read as few words as possible and spend only a fraction of a second on each word.

For example, when reading the following passage, you don't really see it like this:

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing. In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing.

To your brain, it looks more or less like this:

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing. In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing.

Here are some characteristics of "reading for content":

• Not seeing "grammar words" like a, the, in, of, through, that. The eye only stops at content words (main nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs).
• Not seeing word forms: Was it look or looked? Has looked or had looked?
• Not noticing the exact spelling. It is well known that the brain recognizes whole words — it does not analyze them letter by letter. Native speakers see the word piece all the time, but many of them still misspell it as peice, because the two spellings have similar shapes.
• Ignoring difficult words that are not essential to understanding the meaning (here: primeval, constrictor). Who has the time to use a dictionary?

An extreme example of "word blindness" is the rather well-known puzzle where you're asked to count how many times the letter F occurs in the following passage:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Click here for answer: Six times. The word of, being a grammar word, is not noticed by most people.

Reading for content is a great, time-saving way to extract information from printed sources. The problem is that you may not need the grammar words to understand a text, but you do need them to produce a text. So if you don't pay attention to things like articles and prepositions, you won't be able to use them correctly in your own sentences.

For example, here is a sentence from the opening paragraph of this article. Most learners (except those who are proficient in English grammar or extremely observant) will probably find it difficult to fill in the blanks:

To accomplish this goal, your brain will try to read as ___ words as possible and spend only a fraction of ___ second ___ each word.

The above explains why some learners can read a 300-page book and still have problems with relatively basic grammar. It also explains why articles and prepositions are among the hardest aspects of English to learn. The conclusion for the English learner is that if you want to improve your production (output) skills, you will have to train yourself to notice grammar words.

Here's an illuminating passage posted by Maya l'abeille at the Antimoon Forum:

I believe that seeing correct and typical English sentences helps a lot to learn how to use English properly. It is also important to read and read again every structure that is new to you, so that you can remember them. If you only read the book without taking any pause to think carefully about the "new" sentences, you will hardly remember any of them.

I've read all Harry Potter books straight myself, and when I opened them again, I realised I had viewed loads and loads of useful structures whithout remembering them - which was such a shame! I'm reading The Full Monty (Penguin Readers collection) using the "pause and think" method at present. Now after a few days of daily reading, when I take a look at an English text, many structures are familiar to me - "hey, I remember reading this one in The Full Monty!".

Therefore, I believe this method is efficient and I would advise it to all learners.

Sometimes, we don't realise how wealthy a single book can be - loads to learn just in one of them.

Pause and think

I agree with Maya l'abeille about the "pause and think" method. Here's the process that I recommend for dealing with sentences in texts:

1. Stop at interesting (not obvious) things: a new word, how a word was used, a grammatical structure, a preposition, an article, a conjunction, the order of words, etc. For example, spend a while to think about the fact that the sentence contains the preposition at, and not on. Perhaps the sentence uses the present perfect tense where you would have expected the past simple. Perhaps the word order is different than in your first language.
2. If the sentence contains a useful phrase, ask yourself: Could you produce a similar phrase yourself? Would you use the right tenses, articles and prepositions? Would you use the right word order? If you're not sure, practice saying a similar phrase aloud or in your mind. The idea is to move the phrase to your "active vocabulary".
3. If necessary, or if you feel like it, use your dictionary to find definitions of words in the sentence and get more example sentences. This will help enrich your "feel" of the word.
4. If you use SuperMemo, consider adding the phrase to your collection (e.g. as a sentence item) to make sure it will stay in your memory. Of course, only useful phrases should be added.

If you don't like to stop reading (to look up a word in your dictionary or add a phrase to SuperMemo), you can write down all the interesting sentences, or you can underline them in the book with a pencil. This way, you can handle these sentences later.

Another important piece of advice is that you don't have to use the above strategy all the time. Reading in this mode can be quite exhausting, so don't do it when you're tired after a long reading session. Also, do not try to give equal attention to every sentence. Some sentences in books (e.g. long poetic descriptions) do not contain phrases or structures that are useful for building your own sentences. Some characters in books use weird slang expressions which aren't very useful either.

Finally, the "pause and think" technique will not always make you remember the exact way to say something. But perhaps you'll remember that this particular type of sentence is "weird" or "difficult" in English. If you remember that, it will at least make you stop before you write that sentence, and look it up instead of making a careless mistake.

An example

I'll now give you a short demonstration of the "pause and think" method. Here are two English sentences and examples of thoughts that you should get when reading them:

Former President Jimmy Carter will visit Venezuela next week to mediate talks between the government and its opposition, which have been locked in a power struggle since a failed coup.

• "Former President" — not "The former President", so I guess we say "President Carter" and not "The President Carter", even though we say "The President will do something" when we don't mention his name.
• "to mediate talks" — not "to mediate in the talks" or something like that. I wonder if that would be OK, too...
• "power struggle" — I think I've seen this phrase before.
• "since a failed coup" — so I can say "He's been paralyzed since an accident" (preposition use), not only "He's been paralyzed since an accident happened" (conjunction use).
• "since a failed coup" — not "since the failed coup". The author does not assume we know about the coup.
• "coup" — hey, I know this is pronounced [ku:]!

Jennifer McCoy, of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, told reporters Saturday that Carter may be able to help break the political deadlock when he visits beginning July 6.

• "Jennifer McCoy of the Carter Center" — not "Jennifer McCoy from the Carter Center" (in Polish I would say from). So we'd say "John Brown of IBM", for example.
• "Atlanta-based" — another way of saying "based in Atlanta". Guess I could say I'm a "Wroclaw-based webmaster".
• "told reporters Saturday" not "on Saturday" — seems we can skip the "on" sometimes. "I met her Friday" would probably work as well as "I met her on Friday".
• "told that Carter may be able" — not "told that Carter might be able" — lack of reported (indirect) speech. And my English teacher taught me to say things like "She said she might stay" (not "She said she may stay").
• "to help break the deadlock" — It looks like help can be used without an object (it does not say "to help Venezuelans break the deadlock"), and without to (it does not say "help to break the deadlock"). This is different from some other verbs like force (we cannot say "The President will force break the deadlock", we must say "The President will force Venezuelans to break the deadlock.").
• "when he visits" — not "when he will visit", even though it will be in the future. I don't think I have ever seen will used in such a sentence.
• "to visit beginning July 6" — interesting structure — I would say "to visit on July 6", but here beginning replaces on. This may be the first time that I've seen this phrase. It may be some sort of news jargon.

Reading everywhere

If you think you don't have time to read, try to carry a book with you everywhere you go. That way, you can read when you're waiting in line, waiting for a bus, or even when walking (but make sure you don't walk into other people or vehicles).

Why you need to start reading in English on your own

Before you can start speaking and writing in English, you have to learn how things are said in English. You do this by reading and listening to correct English sentences of other people (ideally, native speakers).

Reading and listening are both good ways to develop your English, but reading is usually much easier than listening for various reasons. With the help of a good dictionary, you can understand English texts much more easily than, for example, English television or movies.

In this article, I will show why reading English texts on your own is the way to go. The arguments will fall into three categories: Intensity, Motivation and Authenticity.

Intensity

If you read a few books in English, you will see that your English has become better. You will start using new vocabulary and grammar in your school compositions and e-mail messages. You will be surprised, but English phrases will just come to you when you are writing or speaking! Things like the past simple tense and how to use the word "since" will become part of you. You will use them automatically, without thinking. Correct phrases will just appear in your head.

It will be easy to use English, because your brain will only be repeating the things that it has seen many times. By reading a book in English, you have given your brain thousands of English sentences. They are part of you now. How can you make a mistake and say "I feeled bad", if you have seen the correct phrase ("I felt bad") 250 times in the last book you've read?

-- from our introduction to input

You need 1000s of phrases to speak English fluently. To be able to use thousands of phrases, you must read tens of thousands of phrases, because you will forget a lot of what you read.

If you just read when your teacher tells you to (e.g. 2 short articles per week in your English class), you are not going to make any progress. At such a rate, even if you learn something one week, you will forget it next week. You need to read, on average, at least a few pages per day. For this, you need to take charge of your learning — get some books and start reading on your own.

If you don't believe that reading on your own will dramatically change your English, consider this: In a week, a typical intermediate English learner who attends 4 hours of English classes learns maybe 5 new words or phrases from reading 2 pages in English plus another 5 from other sources (listening, conversation with teacher). Sure, they write down more than this, but after a week they remember less than 50% of the knowledge.

If you read 20 pages per week (which is only 3 per day), you will learn, mathematically, about 50 new words or phrases per week. If you read 40 pages per week (6 per day), you will learn 100 new words or phrases per week.

As you see, it's not very hard to beat the average learner. At 6 pages per day, you're already learning 10 times faster. Which means that you're learning in 1 year what the average learner learns in 10 years.

I'm giving you all these numbers because I want you to realize one thing: If you have been an "average learner", you cannot even begin to imagine how quickly you can develop your English skills with a little work on your own. The difference between readers and non-readers is that big. (Take a minute to read the passage in the box to the right to see what I mean.)

Motivation

You need to start reading on your own not just because it is effective, but also because it is so damn motivating. When you read on your own, you read something you chose yourself, something you really find interesting, rather than something your teacher told you to read. As a result, you read much more willingly and spend more time on it.

If you choose texts which are interesting and fun (Harry Potter, an article about computers, sports news, movie reviews, e-mail messages from friends, an Internet forum on relationships — whatever fits your bill), reading will not be something you have to do. It will be something you want to do. Once you try it, you will probably be thankful that you can understand English and read such great stuff!

Furthermore, when you read something that matters to you, you can remember much more. For example, if you read an article your teacher gave you, you want to read it quickly and be done with it. But if you read the lyrics of a new song by your favorite band, you're much more likely to repeat them to yourself and keep them in your memory — together with all the grammar and vocabulary.

A lot of people associate English with unpleasant things. For example, they think "I must learn English or else I won't find a job" or "I must learn English or I won't get a passing grade". In their minds, studying English is something they have to do, even though they would rather not do it — just like they would rather not have to go to school or work.

Those who read on their own think differently. For them, English is something which helps them achieve their own goals, such as reading the latest book by Stephen King or talking to people from other countries in an online forum. They are much more willing to spend time on English, even in ways which are not directly related to their interests, e.g. learning with SuperMemo or asking grammar questions on discussion groups. This shows that "free reading" improves your general motivation for English.

Authenticity

I believe it's important to learn from real American and British sources instead of resources prepared especially for English learners. If you see a phrase in a book or in a blog, you know it's really used in the English-speaking world.

By contrast, texts used in English classes often attempt to teach "proper" English, stripped of any informal expressions, such as crap, sucks or stuff. Authors of such texts probably disapprove of such phrases and believe that learners don't need them. But the fact is that most learners would choose relaxed, natural language — the language of regular educated Americans and Britons — over the stuffy standards of the proper-speaking "elite". Which is another reason why learners should go beyond English classes and start reading "real-life English" on their own.

How to buy a good English dictionary

 English-English dictionaries

When you think of a dictionary, you usually think of a bilingual dictionary. For example, an English-German dictionary or a French-English dictionary. There is also another kind of dictionary: an English-English (monolingual) dictionary.

Such a dictionary is written only in English. English words are not translated, but they are defined or explained in English. For example, if you look up the word criticize in an English-English dictionary, you will read something like this:

to criticize = to say negative things about; to talk about the mistakes of

Why English-English dictionaries are better than bilingual dictionaries:

• English definitions are real English phrases with grammar and words. If you read them regularly, you will automatically memorize the grammar and words.
• English definitions let you learn more. You will often look up a word because it was part of the definition for another word. For example, if you look up the word naughty, you will read:

If you say that a child is naughty, you think that he or she is behaving badly or is disobedient. [Collins COBUILD English Dictionary]

If you don't know the words disobedient and behave, you will have to look them up. So instead of one word, you will have learned three words!

Don't be afraid of using an English-English dictionary. If you can understand this article, you can definitely understand the definitions in an English-English dictionary.

Dictionaries for learners and for native speakers

There are two kinds of English-English dictionaries: dictionaries for learners and dictionaries for native speakers. Dictionaries for native speakers are used by Americans, Britons, etc. to look up very difficult words, such as tintinnabulation. Dictionaries for learners are used by people who are learning English as a second language.

Dictionaries for native speakers usually have more words than dictionaries for learners, but the definitions are complicated, and there are fewer example sentences. Therefore your first dictionary should be a dictionary for learners. Later, you will need other dictionaries — for example, a dictionary of phrasal verbs and a big dictionary for native speakers.

Software dictionaries

If possible, get a software dictionary instead of a paper one. Here are some reasons why:

• Quick searching. Software dictionaries let you look up words very quickly. Typing a word on your keyboard is much, much faster than turning pages in a large, heavy book.
• Easy copying. If you're making your own SuperMemo collection for learning English, you can select whole sentences and definitions in the dictionary, and copy them to your new items.
• Recordings. In many software dictionaries, you can listen to recordings which show you how to pronounce a word. Recordings cannot replace phonetic transcriptions (see below), but they are certainly a useful feature.
• More information/clearer layout. Paper dictionaries have limited space, which is why they are printed in a small font and the layout is very crowded. A computer dictionary has more space, so it can give more information (e.g. more example sentences) or it can present the same information in a clearer way (bigger font, blank lines, etc.).

Why is quick searching so important? Because if you want to learn English well, you should look up lots of words, and a paper dictionary discourages you from that. You want to look up a word, you look at the huge book with 1500 pages, think "Ah, never mind", and you never learn that word. With a software dictionary, once you see how easy it is, you will start looking up hundreds of words every week. And your English will get a huge boost.

Note: The advice in this article applies to both book dictionaries and to software dictionaries. However, the quality of a software dictionary also depends on other features (e.g. ease-of-use, software speed), which are not discussed here.

Phonetic transcription for every word

Standards of transcription

A good dictionary must give phonetic transcription for every word. Phonetic transcription tells you how to pronounce a word. Ideally, the transcription should be based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is the standard phonetic alphabet used by linguists all over the world. Here is what IPA-based phonetic transcription looks like:

Here, the phonetic transcription is marked in yellow. It tells you that image is pronounced like this. (sound recording requires Flash)

Generally, dictionaries from UK publishers (Cambridge, Collins, Longman, Oxford) use IPA-based transcriptions, while dictionaries published in the USA (Random House, Merriam-Webster, etc.) use their own systems. Some dictionaries give phonetic transcription only for "the most difficult words" (usually less than 5% of all words). These are almost useless to learners, because all English words are difficult if you are not a native speaker. Avoid them.

If you want to check if a dictionary uses IPA-based transcription, look at the pronunciation symbols used in the dictionary and compare them with the IPA symbols in our table of phonetic symbols.

Phonetic transcriptions vs. recordings

Virtually all software dictionaries nowadays have audio recordings. If you can listen to a native speaker pronouncing a word, do you still need written pronunciations? Yes, for four reasons:

• Your ears are not perfect. Even if the dictionary has high-quality recordings, it is always good to see all the sounds in a word. Sometimes you hear a "t"; then somebody tells you it should be a "d", and then you start hearing a "d".
• Recordings are never perfect. No matter how high the quality of recordings, there are always some bad ones. For example, here is the recording for the word back from the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Not very clear, is it? Phonetic transcription (//) is always clear, because it represents each English sound with a different symbol.
• Dictionaries often have more transcriptions than recordings. For example, the transcriptions may show two ways to pronounce a word, but the recording will show only one. Or a dictionary may have British and American transcriptions, but only British recordings.
• Reading a transcription is faster than clicking a button and listening to a recording.

Example sentences for every word

A good dictionary must give example sentences for every word. Example sentences are English sentences which contain the word. Some dictionaries give them after the definition of a word. Example sentences are marked in yellow in this picture:

[Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture]

Example sentences are not just helpful — they are actually more important than definitions. While a definition tells you the meaning of a word and (sometimes) gives you some grammatical information, example sentences have at least three advantages:

1. They let you check if you've understood the definition correctly. The meaning of a word can become much clearer if you read a few sentences with the word.
2. They show you how to use a word in sentences. Many words "go with" certain grammar structures (e.g. important is often used in the phrase "It is important to...") or words (e.g. weather goes with forecast and not e.g. prediction). Example sentences present this information in a clear way. You can easily imitate them to make your own natural sentences.
3. They program your brain to produce correct English sentences. If you read an English sentence, there is a good chance that it will stay in your head, and that you will be able to build a similar sentence (or part of a sentence) to express your thoughts another day. So the more English sentences you read, the more you can produce.

(Read more about why example sentences are so important)

Other things to look for

• Simple definitions. The definitions should be easy to understand. If something can be simple, it should be simple. See example of a simple dictionary definition.
• Useful definitions. If possible, the definitions should tell you how to use the word. Generally, longer definitions are better, because they give more information. See example of a useful dictionary definition.
• Both British and American English. Your dictionary should have both British and American words. Also, both British and American pronunciation should be given, because both are used in today's world.
• Phrasal verbs and idioms. There are special dictionaries for these, but every English dictionary should have the most common phrasal verbs and idioms.
• Pictures. Sometimes you can understand a picture better than a definition. See this example.

How many and how big?

It is a good idea to have at least two dictionaries: a large one (about this size) to use at home, and a small (pocket) one to carry with you. For example, you can bring your small dictionary to English classes.

It is an even better idea to have at least two large dictionaries. What for? Well, it's about example sentences. Two example sentences are better than one; four are better than two. With more examples, you have a more complete picture of how a word is used and you can express more in English yourself.

Dictionaries also sometimes give incomplete information on phonetics, especially on American pronunciation. For example, the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary says that castle is pronounced // or //, but does not tell you that only // is used in American English. It helps to have another dictionary to get a "second opinion".

Recommended English dictionaries for learners

For your first learner's dictionary, we recommend the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary, 5th edition (our review of this dictionary). It's a large dictionary with IPA-based phonetic transcriptions and great example sentences for every word. But the best thing are the definitions: they are very friendly, and they really tell you how to use a word. The CD-ROM (included with the book) allows easy and fast searching, and also includes a Wordbank with lots of additional example sentences.

Listening: A good way to learn English

Everyone knows that there are four skills in learning a language, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. They are always related in terms of usage, and speaking is viewed by learners as the most desirable skill in face-to-face communication in the globalization era. However, what is the answer to the following questions?

• What do you have to do before you can speak?
• What does a child learn before he talks?
• What do we do before chatting?

Listen, of course!

Naturally, children begin listening to their parents when they are babies. They are often greeted, spoken to and admired without any response expected. Though nobody knows if the baby understands the spoken words, the process continues. Children automatically acquire such language over some time, and later on gradually produce it through actual experience. The production may be incomplete at first, but successful at last. That leads to speaking skill which is quite applicable to daily conversation.

In learning English, listening can help improve speaking considerably. Although it is the first of all skills, it is neither the easiest nor the most meaningless. We need to hear various types of English repeatedly and continuously if we want to communicate properly, meaningfully and naturally.

Why is listening good?

1. When listening, we are reviewing a lot of English usage such as vocabulary, grammatical structures, intonation, accent and our own interpretation.
2. We can learn new words and expressions by hearing them frequently.
3. Besides the English revision, general knowledge from news, features, or even advertising spots is certainly beneficial for regular listeners.
4. We can imitate what we hear and apply it with great confidence.
5. Listening can be a good "hobby" while we do other things such as cooking, ironing, exercising, relaxing etc. In other words, we have no wasted time at all.
6. Listening is also a great way to train our attention.

A Tip for the Possessive Apostrophe

Apostrophes need not be learning catastrophes
 

What is the difference between

1. The boy's books are on the table, and
2. The boys' books are on the table ?

The position of the apostrophe in a noun (to indicate possession of something) often causes problems for ESL/EFL learners. Yet the rules are simple. In fact, learners only need to decide whether the possessive noun (the possessor, which, by the way, can also be a name) is singular or plural and whether or not it ends in -s in its written form.

The following rules apply:

1. If the possessive noun is singular, always add an apostrophe + s.
2. If the possessive noun does not end in -s (in its written form), always add an apostrophe + s.
3. If the possessive noun is plural and ends in -s (and this is a characteristic feature of the large majority of plural nouns), just add an apostrophe.

This is why you say James's books, the children's books, and even the boss's books. This is also why you don't know whether something belongs to one or several boys until you see the sentence in writing.

To simplify things further, all you really have to remember is Rule 3. If Rule 3 does not apply, always add an apostrophe + s.

Tips for Language Learning

Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows how difficult it is to become really fluent. The way a language is spoken in a classroom is often different than the more informal style of speaking used in everyday life. There are many idioms and slang terms to become familiar with. Seeking opportunities to actively use language is very important to reach the goal of fluency. Here are some suggestions to help you practice your language skills.

1. Find a conversation partner. Try to find someone in your school or community that is a native speaker, and ask him or her to meet with you regularly to have conversations in that language. This is a great way to get experience with actual usage, talking to someone with whom you feel comfortable. You'll be able to ask questions about how to speak correctly and appropriately, while discussing topics that interest both of you. Maybe you can offer to help your partner learn your native language also.
2. Watch some TV. Try to find a foreign language TV station and watch often. At first the actors will seem to speak too quickly, but try to recognize a few words or phrases. Later it'll become easier to follow dialogue. Pay attention to patterns of pronunciation, and the way that the voices rise and fall when questions are asked and statements are made. Children's shows are great for learning and reviewing basic concepts such as alphabets, counting, object names and more. You can gain some understanding of pop culture and life-styles in another country by watching advertisements and game shows.
3. If you are visiting a foreign country and trying to learn the language, you'll want to take every opportunity to go out and practice. Each day make a habit of going into a place like a shop, restaurant or bank. Even if you're only buying a loaf of bread or a newspaper, you can try to do so in the host language. Successfully making a purchase or getting information in a foreign language will help you become more confident. As you become more comfortable in these kinds of public situations, you can try to engage others in a bit of casual, polite conversation - a comment about the weather, for example. You'll feel less frustrated about your language skills when you accomplish these functional, routine kinds of activities. Going grocery shopping in your hometown may not be very interesting, but in a foreign culture it can be fascinating - any situation can be a learning experience!

Following these suggestions, you'll become an active user of your second (or third) language. Making consistent efforts to speak, listen and interact with others is the way to gain valuable practical knowledge and experience.

از همكاران محترم تقاظا مي شود نظرات خودشان را در مورد متن هايي كه در كتاب زبان انگليسي سوم راهنمايي بكار رفته روي سايت گروه زبان انگليسي راهنمايي ارايه دهند(جنبه هاي مثبت و منفي متن ها)

با تشكر

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