English Support Luxembourg

Irregular Verbs

2009-12-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

Let's have some grammar practice: irregular verbs.

Identify if the verb in question is the infinitive, past simple or past participle.

This exercise is a little bit academic, but it's a good way to check your basic technical knowledge.

At the end of the day it's application that counts, but you can't use it properly if you don't know it.

Listening / Reading Comprehension: Oprah's Show to End

2009-11-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

Reading & listening comprehension for today: Oprah's show to end.

This article really does represent the end of an era. Oprah absolutely changed and dominated daytime television in America and around the world.

As usual, you have choices of both audio file and text. You can also find a collection of useful vocabulary definitions at the bottom of the page.

Long live the BBC!

BBC's The Reading Group

2009-11-20T06:36:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting page on the BBC's website: the Reading Group.

The page brings together students & teachers, as they share their love of reading.

There's some text for you to read, and an audio file to practice your listening comprehension.

Reading is a great way to learn English. It's a fantastic way to sharpen your grammar and learn new, interesting vocabulary.

However if you don't enjoy reading in your own language, don't do it in English. You'll find it far too frustrating. You can learn a lot of English by watching TV & movies etc.

Remember, the most important thing is that you enjoy your learning experience!

Video Interview with Luxembourg's Top Ranked Chef, Lea Linster

2009-11-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

Practice your English by watching this video interview with Luxembourg's top ranked chef Lea Linster.

There is also a text article that accompanies the video interview, that you can use to practice your reading.

The video and article come from Station.lu, which is a great source of English language news and information for Luxembourg.

Crossword Puzzle: Movies, Hollywood & Bollywood

2009-11-16T00:20:00.000-08:00

Start the week with a crossword puzzle about Movies, Hollywood & Bollywood.

Instructions are at the top of the page, in the scroll down menu. You have to click on each number for a clue to that word. Then fill in the spaces with the word you think fits best.

The quiz is quite hard. I had to check the Words in the News link for numbers 1 & 9. Number 1 is a particularly obscure word! (that is my excuse, anyway)

English Grammar: Adjective Or Adverb

2009-11-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

We haven't had any grammar exercises here yet! Let's start now: Adjective or Adverb.

Do I need to explain? Adjectives connect to nouns, Adverbs connect to verbs:

My new car is a quick car. (adjective)
I drive quickly. (adverb)
I drive my quick car quickly. (adjective & adverb)

Typically in English, adverbs end in a 'ly'. BUT there are exceptions:

My new car is a fast car. (adjective)
I drive fast. (adverb)
I drive my fast car fast. (adjective & adverb)

- In the case of 'fast', the word is the same in both its adjective and adverb forms.

Listening / Reading Comprehension: Monty Python in US Election Row

2009-11-11T03:58:00.000-08:00

Monty Python? In a US Election row? It must a listening / reading comprehension from the BBC.

Once again you can work through this exercise in different ways: you could try just listening first; then try only reading, and finally listening and reading.

Perhaps read it first and then listen to it; see if you can pick out the things you read, when you listen to it.

The exercise also comes with a useful list of vocabulary definitions at the bottom of the page.

BBC's Country Profile of Luxembourg

2009-11-09T02:20:00.000-08:00

Practice your English by reading about Luxembourg: the BBC's country profile of Luxembourg.

It's a good idea to read about things you know, when practicing your English. It'll help to make the English more tangible for you, and more applicable to your life.

This will help you remember the English.

Online Dictionaries: wordreference.com

2009-11-06T02:31:00.000-08:00

Something different for today: www.wordreference.com

Wordreference.com provides, in my experience, reasonably reliable translations for a range of European languages, including English.

At the bottom of each page, you can find examples of specific words in use - this is particularly useful for foreign speakers trying to find the 'cultural equivalent' of a word or expression.

It also has an online interactive help forum, where speakers of all the languages come together and help each other. This is a great way of checking what you're saying is really what a native speaker would say.

English Language News for Luxembourg: Station.lu

2009-11-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

For people who live and / or work in Luxembourg, a good place to practice your English is here: the Station.lu website.

If you don't have time to visit the website, you can subscribe to a daily email that will arrive in your inbox filled with interesting stories based in Luxembourg.

From time to time, I'll post links to interesting stories here on this blog.

Listening / Reading Comprehension: Social Notworking

2009-11-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

Let's kick the actual blogging off with a link from the excellent BBC World Service site: Social Notworking.

There are a number of different ways you can approach this exercise: you could try listening to the audio without looking at the text. You could read the text without listening to the audio. You could then try doing both at the same time.

It's also very useful to read as you listen and just concentrate on the pronunciation of the different words. The connection between English spelling and pronunciation can be very confusing, even for native speakers!

Finally, don't worry if you don't understand every single word. You can, of course, go through the whole article with a dictionary, if you want to. But the most important thing is to understand the article in general: small steps every day are better than large steps once a week.

Welcome to English Support Luxembourg!

2009-11-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hello & Welcome to English Support Luxembourg!

I'm starting this blog to do two things: Firstly, to specifically target people who live and / or work in Luxembourg. Secondly, to post all my General English links.

For Business English links, visit my OnDemand English Support Blog. My TobytheTeacher blog will continue to host my own original postings and, in addition to that, pop culture links to help encourage English leaners (movies, music etc).

In addition to my 'passive blogs', I also have an interactive blog entitled English Language Answers: You can ask any type of English Language question you like here: Grammar, Vocabulary, Business or General English.

For information about my services, feel free to visit my websites: OnDemandEnglishSupport.com & TobytheTeacher.com.

Or email me directly: lux@ondemandenglishsupport.com