Improve your English - NOW!!

for my students

my Russian friend who taught himself English (and got wonderful unbelievably excellent results, his name is Sasha) sent me this video; I just would like to share it with you




who said 'think'? who said 'sink'? (do you know what it means?) did you get it?

the Simons family, Unit 3

new Listening task for 10 Grade

Merriam-Webster dictionary online

Language Links: Ask the Editor

Merriam-Webster editors have begun a series of short online videos featuring discussions about dictionaries and language. Facts about word histories, grammar, spelling, and usage are all a part of the popular Ask the Editor series. You can see them all here.

Here is the link to the explanation on 'effect / affect' difference - we'have discussed it with Anton and Robert

how to work on your pronunciation

good advice on improving pronunciation for Brigitte and other students here:

BBC one-minute news

Listening practice - short and fast, very efficient

topics for discussions

Ted Power
English Language Learning and Teaching

A work-scheme for Higher Intermediate & Advanced Level ESL Students

Prepare for Discussion

pronunciation dictionary

A free online Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation

Vocabulary

great site with exercises even phrasal verbs for expanding your Vocabulary here

ask anything here

ask anything here - might be interesrting for students to ask and read in English

country studies quiz

if you feel like finding out how much you know about English-speaking countries, here are some quizes for you

a new subscriber

I seem to have a new subscriber - DANIEL DIAS SILVA.
Welcome, Daniel!
I saw some posts in your blog in Russsian - do you know Russian?
Hope you will find useful materials here and leave your comments.

Robert and Anton 24 October

Unit 10 Listening 47 ex 8 p 123

8 Grade 23 October, Friday, Listening

click here to download the file

click on 'Free user' and download the file on Rapidshare


Ex 6 p 17 (SB)

it is amazing

it is amazing - this technological tricks....

listen and put down the main facts.

Here is the beginning:

"I've been intrigued by this question of whether we could evolve or develop a sixth sense. A sense that would give us seamless access and easy access to meta-information or information that may exist somewhere that may be relevant to help us make the right decision about whatever it is that we're coming across..."

technology advancements

I got this clip from Beau, my friend from the USA; I think it will be interesting for my students to watch a singing robot and will help them to find out more on this topic

Robert and Anton - click on this - BBC 'Teen begins solo sail attempt', listen to this video, write down the script (some parts of the script); be ready to retell the text in class, guys

Russian TV news

another piece of TV news here






Astrakhan' is a big city on the Volga river. 88-year-old resident Eugenia Kekina charitably gave all the money she had saved for her life to the city maternity hospital. She said she did not have her own children so she had been saving money in order to be able to help babies. Hospital workers said granny's money might help to save many lives. They are going to buy expensive medicines for prematurely born babies.

Russian picece of TV news

Monica would like to know more about Russia.
Fall is the time for gathering potatoes. There were too many rains in Khabarovks region this fall. Too difficult for machines to pick potatoes from the very wet soil. Local people were invited to help. Volunteers can take potatoes home as well. 'Let's save the harvest together!' is the motto of the action. Students also help. The gathered potatoes are for hospitals and orphanages as well. 5,000 people took part in the action last week. Volunteers have to work fast, the first autumn frosts might start at the weekend. Their contribution into the harvest rescue is immense.
It can also serve as a Listening exercise =)

for my foreign visitors

click ON 'Предыдущие' (previous posts) at the bottom of the page on the right and you will see my previous posts with lots of materials for learning English. Enjoy!

more visitors just in a couple of minutes

OMG! see who has come just for 2 minutes since I started to make my previous post - Freiburg, Adana, Maracay, Oberuzwill, Tunisia, Muscat, Marceille, Spring (Texas), Karlsruhe; Venice, Athens have just come - what opportunities blogging gives to me!
Happy to see you here, you must be great students of English.
Wish you all god luck in your studies! Happy to help

my visitors

A few people have just arrived to my blog since I started to post my Listening ex for 7 graders!
I see people from Gdyna, Nigeria, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Campinas and Parma - wow! wow!
I would be happy to see your comments here, guys. Do you need any help with your English? Feel free to ask me here, would be happy to help you,
Nadia

Listening exercise for 7 Grade

10 October

ex 6 p 9 'STOP CRIME NOW' was kindly recorded by Monica for me.

Listen to the recording and fill in the blanks in your Student's Book.
Enjoy your listening!

CNN Listening for Robert and Anton

CNN Listening exercise for Robert and Anton. Get ready for the class, guys!

Here is some more info to read on about Christopher McDougall (click on this link)

Born to Run: Christopher McDougall Says Humans Evolved to Run Like the Tarahumara

Like many runners, journalist Christopher McDougall got hurt. A lot. And like many of those injured runners, he was told that his aches and pains were a natural consequence of his chosen form of exercise. "Running," one doctor told him, "is your problem." McDougall didn't accept that—especially after reading about the Tarahumara Indians, who live in Mexico's Copper Canyons and run like stink, on shoes McDougall compares to flip-flops.

new Disney project in Russia

see the trailer here -

homework for 8 Grade 30 September

here is the file for you to listen to and do ex 2 p 5 (WB)

the Russian cartoon for Monica and Neal

'How films are created' or 'Film, film, film!' - you will like it and have some fun watching (with English subtitles)


Watch Film, Film, Film (cartoon). in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

VOA for learning English

I have started to teach complete beginners, this will be useful for them - VOA

ANKI

Anki
Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS). It helps you remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards, so that you can learn a lot of information with the minimum amount of effort.

Russian News for Monica

Russia Today

English Pronunciation

English Pronunciation - video lessons with Jennifer on Youtube

BBC pronunciation sounds

learn English pronunciation on BBC site

news from Monica

Monica sent me a letter - they are going to the Royal Melbourne show today. Have you ever heard of it?
Have a look at the link - you will have a Reading online class on Australian Country Studies - it's great!

IELTS materials collection

was preparing for the class for my IELTS student - found the following stuff
iPas.uk.net
youtube videos
youtube My IELTS channel
myielts.org

phrasal verbs

they seem almost impossible to learn - phrasal verbs; these quizzes and exercises might help to cope with the problem

virtual tours, virtual panoramas

Virtual reality VR panoramas from all the world.

Panoramas.dk is created by Hans Nyberg a commercial photographer in Denmark

Interactive panoramas is a young media and as such it has for many years been known among enthusiastic photographers and multimedia creators. An interactive VR panorama can not be seen in a book or on a printed image. If you print the panorama it gets a completely different expression.

You can only experience the feeling of being at the place and look around, on a computer. You can only distribute VR Panoramas by the Internet or on CD.

With new fast Internet connections Virtual Reality Panoramas has a large advantage in the tourist industry and in many other areas.
Marina shared this link with me =)

my first podcast

i have made my first podcast here - http://nadiasol.podfm.ru/my/1/

Marina uses this teaching tool

Another tool Marina uses for creating presentations - I will post it here to remember and use AuthorSTREAM

cartoons in learning english

Marina posted this valuable resource for learning English via cartoons by Cathy Thorne. They may serve as a lively start-up for a funny / serious discussion in class

video for Monica

this is the video about my home town Obninsk. I would like Monica to have a look at it. The slide show was made by one of our students for one of school parties. I like this girl's creativity. Please watch her slide show and enjoy!

speaking24.com - free English conversation lessons online!

speaking24.com - free English conversation lessons online!

Free English conversations - here you can find an e-pal to practise English speaking skills online.

One more valuable resource - The Phrase Finder

Whether you want to resolve a friendly argument over how a saying or phrase originated or whether you just enjoy words, you'll probably find something here to interest you.

Are you a professional writer? If so, you may find that the Phrase Thesaurus could make your life easier.

This writers' resource spawns ideas for headlines, advertising copy, song lyrics, poetry etc. Journalists, advertising copywriters, songwriters, or anyone interested in creative writing in English, can benefit from this ideas generator.

Have you a question on the origin of a saying or phrase? Use our Discussion Forum to ask the people who know. Go to the current forum to ask questions..."

There's also a searchable archive of more than 50,000 postings about sayings and phrases.

Have newly researched origins of phrases and sayings e-mailed to you each week with our free Phrase A Week mailing list (join here).

You may also receive these updates each week via our news feed.

Dmitry Shapovalov's Accent Training Program

Дмитрий Константинович Шаповалов
(как гражданин Российской Федерации)
Dimitri Chapov
(как гражданин Соединённых Штатов Америки)
Родился в 1967 году в городе Джезказган, Казахской ССР.
В 1980-ые годы учился на факультете
Проблем Физики и Энергетики (ФПФЭ)
Московского Физико-Технического Института (МФТИ).
В 1989 году эмигрировал из СССР в США. Проживал также в Австрии, Чехии и Мексике.
Когда я взялся за изучение Английского в 17 лет, я столкнулся с проблемой - в то время просто не было учебных пособий, которые удовлетворили бы мою жажду студента-физика иметь логичный, стройный и законченный источник информации о реальном языке – столь необходимый начинающему.
Сегодня же перед изучающими язык открыт просто океан возможностей, и у них есть выбор из сотен существующих Российских и зарубежных пособий.
Но что вы точно из учебников не вынесите, это то, что большинство из Вас называют «произношением». Если Вы думаете, что это можно учить лишь слушая носителей языка (в живую или в записи), то у меня для Вас плохая новость – если Вам больше 12-13 лет, то Вам будет очень трудно что-либо так «выучить», а если Вам за 20, то просто забудьте об этом!

Готов с любым из Вас поспорить. Есть желающие?

Почему то, что Вы называете «произношением», важно в Английском – объясняется на разных страницах этого сайта. Оно особенно важно именно для начинающих, вопреки многим легендам. Почитайте, посмотрите видеоролики. Я очень старался, когда их делал. Для Вас.

Так вот: при кажущейся частоте слова «произношение» в поисковиках на интернете, вы не найдёте ничего дельного, что реально чему-то значимо учит русскоговорящих. Это я Вам как человек с менталитетом физика говорю. Видите ли, люди, со склонностью к точным наукам, умеют учиться гораздо лучше людей без такой склонности.

Опять же – готов поспорить! Найдите мне такое пособие, которое лучше учит русскоговорящих английской фонологии, чем SoundSmart, и я подарю Вам или любому другому частному лицу (по Вашему выбору) участие в SoundSmart «Тренинг».

Я уверен, что мой опыт и врождённое умение объяснять сложные вещи просто, на пальцах, окажутся очень полезными в Ваших усилиях по изучению английского языка! У Вас всё получится!

Я концентрируюсь исключительно на моментах, необходимых именно русскоговорящему человеку. Я постоянно сравниваю английские фонемы с "похожими" русскими и учу как, логопедически просто, перейти от "неправильных" к "правильным".
Весь теоретический материал и инструкции SoundSmart озвучены по-русски, поэтому он подходит и для начинающих русскоговорящих изучающих.

Learn English a lesson d day

Have just found another resource - Learn English a lesson a day - 737 lessons + 1 new English lesson every day
learn English, ask, practice & discuss!
It's free
GRAMMAR VOCABULARY LISTENING READING - what else? Perfect!
Phrasal Verbs Reading Vocabulary
Idioms Phrasal Verbs Phrases
Double Negatives
Confusing Words Grammar Vocabulary
Non-count and count quantifiers
Choose the correct word
Confusing Words
Word of the day: Whinge
Using 'Pre'

You work on your Listening skills with Youtube movie trailers - scripts are provided, Active Vocabulary words are highlighted and linked to Cambridge Dictionary online - a ready-made resource - take and use and study!

british accent

How to Speak With a British Accent: Video Series.
Interested in having a convincing British dialect? Learn how to speak with a British accent in this free entertainment video series.

There are 28 videos in this series:

About the Presenter
ev_3b6ab8f9-7970-49cb-8f2f-3963b0402bcc

Tracy Goodwin Tracy Goodwin has a master’s in corporate communication and 10 years experience in professional speaking. Recipient of numerous public speaking awards and is a college professor of public speaking, interpersonal communications, voice and diction, and business speech. Goodwin is the author of "Be Delicious: The Art of Voice & Movement Integration."


British Accent: Pronunciation, Not Listening -- powered by eHow.com

Dr. Zeuss

Beginner reading books (videos) can be found here on Youtube.

I know how difficult and frustrating it is for adult learners to start reading. These funny videos from Dr.Zeuss series might help eliminate stress and they are very funny. Watch them!

WordWeb

Students (and teachers) experience lots of problems trying to cope with 'Word formation' exam task on FCE, etc. What are the derivatives for 'legal'? Are you sure you are able to jot down all of them? I have found free software helpful for this purpose - WordWeb.

The software has a full dictionary and thesaurus for American, British, Canadian, Australian, Indian, and global English.

Practice and enjoy!

video on 1st September for Monica

Monica is from Australia. She has a big family - a husband and 6 children. She is keen on Russian history and culture and learns the Russian language. In my last letter I was telling her about the way the 1st of September is celebrated in Russia and found this video for her.
I hope you will get a better idea about this celebration now, Monica

Moodle

Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. It is a global development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education.

Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software (under the GNU Public License). Basically this means Moodle is copyrighted, but that you have additional freedoms. You are allowed to copy, use and modify Moodle provided that you agree to: provide the source to others; not modify or remove the original license and copyrights, and apply this same license to any derivative work. Read the license for full details and please contact the copyright holder directly if you have any questions.

The word Moodle was originally an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which is mostly useful to programmers and education theorists. It's also a verb that describes the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course. Anyone who uses Moodle is a Moodler.

World Science Festival

a thought-provoking video for further discussion with advances classes


Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

For more of Bobby McFerrin and the science behind this program, please view the full "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus" event video at our website:

worldsciencefestival.com/video/notes-neurons-full

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Richi Rock on Edufire and his blog

Richi Rock in an American instructor, teacher, educator on Edufire.

He teaches Vocabulary Expansion and Listening Practice through Cultural English.
In his classes he carries out Analysis of English spoken at authentic velocity using cool and entertaining videos found on-line + Exercises to increase understanding + Explanation of useful expressions + Focus on phrasal verbs + Heavy use of wikipedia, Youtube and Twitter.com. Global LOL.

In his Edufire profile he writes - 'I like chillin and i like rockin. as for my teaching methodology, the challenge is keeping students engaged and excited. i build courses around students’ interests, and use examples and exercises from modern culture.

It is very good I can go on working on the vocabulary discussed in class using the materials of his blog. It helps me to memorise new words in context and it is very exciting to read his posts 'flavoured' with humor

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

One more source for developing Listening skills and expanding Vocabulary.

I am following my American instructor Richi Rock on twitter (he is the teacher on Edufire). I read the following article - 'Paper Money Tainted with Cocaine
A study presented at the meeting of the American Chemical Society finds that the vast majority of paper money has trace amounts of cocaine. Cynthia Graber reports'.
You can read the text and listen to the podcast.

Thanks to Richi I have found out that 'Scientific American (SciAm) is a popular science magazine since 1845. It is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.It brings articles about new and innovative research to the amateur and lay audience.

SPOTLIGHT - global life, clear english

SPOTLIGHT -
The site for developing Listening skills for intermediate students or lower with words list and scripts, resources for further studies

Walter Lewin Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I could never have thought of studying Physics in such a way.
Good practice for iBT TOEFL Listening and Writing (Integrated essay).

MITOPENCOURSEWARE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Watch some of Walter Lewin's greatest moments. To see more, check out Professor Lewin's classes, Physics 8.01

Stanfor's University Mobile Orchestra

you might like it - watching and listening. It is surprising, fun and...a good Listening exercise - Stanford assistant professor and entrepreneur, Ge Wang makes music with a mobile phone orchestra and iPhone ocarina.

writing, introduction

have found some more teaching video materials

Marina Petrovic, Serbia

Please don't forget to subscribe to Marina Petrovic's blog (one of many) - my big friend and guru in e-learning / e-teaching, you will find loads of extremely useful materials on both subjects.
Marina is from Serbia, she is the owner of her own English Language School,computer specialist, translator and interpreter.
Here is some info about Marina-
"About Marina
I have been teaching English and managing a private language school for 13 years now. This dual aspect of my work gave me invaluable insights into language school dynamics and enabled me to comprehend and empathize with students', teachers' and school owners' problems, needs and aspirations. Currently, I see the concept of E-learning, in its broadest meaning, as the means of providing quality teaching/ learning en masse."
the link to the site - http://educo11.com/news.php

english, video, listening, skydiving

an exciting activity and listening exercise expanding your vocabulary as well
http://video.about.com/gonewengland/Flying-Without-Skydiving.htm

3D art

my French friend Brigitte sent me the letter where she wrote about a 3D street artist Julian Beever. It is so unusual, I have never seen and heard anything of this kind. You can see his works here in this clip. Fantastic! Later I went to Fabiana's WIzIQ slass on Listening, Singing and Speaking, I 'discovered' a new name - Don McLean (singer), 'Vincent' (Starry starry night)- a wonderful song. So, it helped me to get the idea of my first class for my new students at school on 1 September - I am so happy. Watch the song and the video about Julian's work and enjoy these with me!

Kevin McCaughey

when he worked in Belarus he wrote this song about boots on Belorussian women - it's fun. I like it =)
Watch and enjoy!

Kevin McCaughey

Kevin McCaughey is an English Language Fellow in the English Language Office (American Embassy in Moscow). He worked in Vladivostok and other Russian cities as a university lecturer, presenter, volunteer and so on. He is a great fellow, teacher, songs writer, author and musician. Here is his song he created for FEELTA - I think it is thrilling
the link to his site - http://www.kevinmccaughey.com/bio

eSingularity

Imagine a world where every kid participates on a flat education system, challenging themselves and others, and winning prizes for applying themselves, no matter what their social, ecomonic, geographic disposition is...we can and we will build it.
http://www.eduit.org/

remember everything

Remember everything.
Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Did we mention that it's free?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ncr1Ee9e8

the official site here - http://www.evernote.com/about/what_is_en/

MIT video

lectures in English

A College Education for Free:
OpenCourseWare
In April 2001 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proposed something unheard of in the pages of the New York Times. They said that they would begin putting their entire course catalog — some 2,000 courses — online, for free, over the course of an ambitious ten year initiative at the cost of up to $100 million. The following year, in October 2002, the first fifty courses went up on their OpenCourseWare site. Nearly 7 years later, MIT is nearing its goal, with about 1,900 free courses available through the OpenCourseWare program, and materials now routinely posted on other social media sites, including YouTube , Flickr , and iTunes U.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

humour english american

English (Am.English) humour - the youtube site of the American comedian Tim Lee, good Listening practice

english podcasts

Easier News
News English Lessons
FREE Handouts, Listening & Quizzes in Simple
English
Read About the Latest News and Learn English
It's Easy.



http://www.newsenglishlessons.com/

LANguage learning with CErtified Live Online Trainers

LANguage learning with CErtified Live Online Trainers
LANCELOT learning is a new way of learning a language in a virtual dassroom, live and online with qualified and certified teachers.
LANCELOT School GmbH is a training center for language teachers and we offer the accredited LANCELOT course as well as live online workshops, a newsmaster program and events.
The LANCELOT course was developed by a total of 23 European partners in 6 countries during the European funded development project LANCELOT which took place from 2005 to 2007. This website also lists the results of the LANCELOT project.

http://lancelotschool.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91&Itemid=1

visual video dictionary

i have found the video dictionary on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQhsfge8t7I

useful video resource

here is the link for a very useful resourse - TED ideas worth spreading - http://www.ted.com/themes. 

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

TED makes the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 450 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

my ppt presentation

here is the link for downloading and viewing my ppt presentation on my country, moscow, city - http://ifile.it/paxk70m

the link to slideshare (for downloading and viewing)- http://www.slideshare.net/nadiasol88/russia-geography-culture

a joke

A blonde and a brunette are skydiving. 
The brunette jumps out the plane and pulls the cord -- nothing happens. 
She pulls the emergency cord and still nothing. 
The blonde finally jumps out of the plane and yells "Oh! So you wanna race, huh?"

learning english with

here is the link on the most typical 'false' friends of a translator. the words sound similar in English and Russian, but have absolutely different meanings =) - http://www.study.ru/support/translate/