Thursday 10 March 2016

Add Some Colour To Your English


Adjectives are what put colour into your language. Some of the most confusing adjectives are the ones that are actually past participle verbs (mostly ‘ed’) and present participle verbs (’ing’).
The applicable grammar rule for these adjectives is that we use the past participle to describe how something or somebody is making us or somebody else or something else (an animal) feel. So for example, if you are not interested in the thing that is happening to you, you might say 'I am bored'. 
We use the present participle to describe the person or thing that is causing the feeling. So if you are not interested in a movie you are watching you might say 'This movie is boring'. 
These adjectives can follow the verb to be as in the examples above, in either the 'ed' or the 'ing' form. 

 They can follow the verb feel in order to express the feeling being expressed. This of course means that only the 'ed' form can be used this way. For example, you might say, 'I feel bored' or 'I am feeling very bored right now'. 

 They can also follow the verb found plus subject noun with or without the verb to be. For example, 'I found the movie very confusing' or 'I found the movie to be very confusing'. Here the speaker is always talking about the cause of what is being felt, so only the 'ing' form can be used with this verb.
Like other adjectives, many of these 'ed' and 'ing' adjectives can be put before a noun in order to describe it. For instance 'bored housewives', 'bewildered spectators' and 'confused students' or 'a boring movie', 'a bewildering array of choices' and 'a confusing lecture'.
Most learners of English get these frustrating and confusing adjectives mixed up, using the 'ed' form when the 'ing' form is needed and vice versa. Whereas for native speakers they present very little problem. The reason for this is that like all other uses of language this is just habit. Native speakers have been using these words in this way for so long they don't need to think about what they are saying and why, they simply open their mouths and speak, or pick up their pens and write.
For new learners of English habits can and should be acquired by repetition. 
Apps are a good way of creating language habits as they allow you to practice regularly, anytime, anywhere. The Using 'ed' and 'ing' Adjectives app has been designed to help you to recognise when to use the verb, the noun and the two adjective forms of these words. There are many questions with varying sentence structures to help ESL students get familiar with the way that these confusing adjectives fit into everyday language. This should improve both your writing and your speaking and help with various ESL test such as IELTS and TOEFL. 
So, don't be concerned. These tricky words can be learnt and mastered. Click and give the free version of the Using 'ed' and 'ing' Adjectives app a go. 

 You can download it from either Apple or Android.


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Wednesday 2 March 2016

Shakespeare's English


This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the man who is widely acclaimed as the greatest English writer - William Shakespeare.

This has inspired a lot of online teaching material where the words of Shakespeare are used as a platform for learning and improving English. Whether you are a native speaker trying to get your tongue around Shakespeare's poetry, or an English as a Second Language learner looking to pick up new vocabulary and expressions, there's plenty to take a look at.

BBC Learning English has a course dedicated to the Bard entitled Shakespeare Speaks which features many of his expressions which are still in use. It is broken up into a number of sessions, with each session containing various activities.

FutureLearn, a MOOC platform, has several courses on Shakespeare, either as a tool for learning language or for learning about the plays themselves. The British Council have a number of FutureLearn MOOCs, one of which features Shakespeare. The University of Birmingham also have several literature courses focusing on Shakespeare's plays. All these courses have run previously and get rerun in due course.

The British Council also have the 5 play summary video's from their MOOC posted on their Learn English Teens Literature UK page. These videos are accompanied by worksheets and online activities.

On Coursera, the University of Wisconsin has a MOOC entitled Shakespeare in the Community. It is scheduled to run again in April 2016.

On eDx, Wellesley College has a MOOC entitled Shakespeare: On the Page and in Performance. This course is currently archived but may run again.

Shakespeare is very quotable. For the marketing of my apps I use the following quotes which matched with pictures from Unsplash using Canva.



Hope you have plenty of fun learning about Shakespeare and improving your English.

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Tuesday 1 March 2016

Much and Many


It’s one of the simplest rules in English grammar - use ‘much’ when the noun is uncountable and use ‘many’ when the noun is countable.




So why do so MANY people have so MUCH trouble with these terms. Simply put, English speaking and writing is not about remembering rules, it is about habit. So if you get into the wrong habit when using ‘much’ and ‘many’ you can go a lifetime repeating the mistakes.




This app contains over 600 sentences. Learn to recognise when ‘much’ is correct and when ‘many’ is correct. Also learn common adjectives which support the use of these terms such as ‘so’, ‘too’ and ‘very’ as well as common English sentence structures.





Practice with the app regularly when you have spare time and you will start to remember the correct use of ‘much’ and ‘many’ without trying. 





Try it in either the Apple iOS or Android formats.


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