English Recordings

Here is an interesting article which shows that grammar correction is not very effective in improving language skills.

My own experience does not entirely agree with this article. I have found that some feedback on my writing and speaking can be helpful. It is not so much the explanations, but the constant reminders of my mistakes, which gradually help me to notice things in my listening and reading. It also seems to me that the acts of writing and speaking are in themselves beneficial to learning,with or without correction. But for improvement to take place,the learner has to start noticing what is happening in the language. In this regard, correction as a form of feedback can be useful, as long as there is no expectation that correction will lead to mistakes disappearing as an immediate result of the correction.

In short, teachers need to train themselves to set aside their red pens and examine ideas and see what students are trying to say instead of simply looking for grammatical errors.

If ESL/EFL writing teachers are really concerned with improving their student's grammatical competency, they should, in lieu of offering grammar correction feedback, constantly stress in their classes the importance of outside reading. Studies have shown that voluntary, 'light,' authentic reading (graphic novels, comics, the easy section of newspapers, popular literature) in the target language greatly helps the overall writing and grammatical skills of second language students.

Teaching writing can be a very taxing and time-consuming process. Minimizing grammatical error feedback has the advantage of greatly simplifying teachers jobs, giving them needed time to spend on concentrating on other important elements of the writing process, while also removing a significant impediment to their students learning how to effectively write.

Everyone agreed to the proposition bar old Mr.Thompson

Nothing barring a major catastrophe can prevent Brazil from winning the World Cup

Some insects hide themselves beneath the surface of the soil

The restoration of the church was carried out circa 1845

This car will be yours for only 800 dollars down plus twelve installments of 185 dollars

The tableware is in the third drawer down

• ♥♡♥♡This /(or The/) entry below is from yesterday English entry/(= my English entry yesterday) , and now I am rewriting it according to one of my friend’s correction. And also I will record in Korean too. If you find my other mistakes(= any other mistakes ) , please correct them .

~~~WooOOoooh~~I am so tired that I am dozing off sitting at my desk.
• Oh, I can’t stand it any longer/(=any more/ .) So….I will talk about two topics very briefly.
• The first one is 'last night`s meeting' and the second topic is 'today’s visit to my son in the army.

---<Firstly:: about yesterday’s meeting.>---------------
• Yesterday evening I attended my husband's friend`s family meeting, and had dinner.
• It has been a long time SINCE we last met./= It had been a long time SINCE we (last) met./
• One of the families at the meeting will go to Sao Paulo Brazil next week.
• They aren't emigrating, they're just planning to stay for about 2 years.
• They said, they would like to experience (IN A new living environment. /)/(living in a new environment.)
• Isn `t that brave? What do you think about this?
• WHAT`S MORE that couple has two teenage boys.
• I hope they will be able to breath fresh air there.
• •And the other family has a special child.
• In fact, as a family who has a exceptional child, it is very difficult to live in Korea.///It is very difficult to live in Korea with an exceptional child. ///It is very difficult to live in Korea with a special needs child.
• .They have suffered many difficulties .( had = past only. have suffered = past continuous.)
• On the one hand I hope they will overcome these difficulties, and on the other hand, I hope Korean society will improve for disabled people.////
• I hope they can overcome these difficulties, and I also hope Korean society will improve its facilities for disabled people
• Oh, there is another good news! Two girls are going to college this spring.///Oh, there’s more good news! Two girls are starting college this spring.
• This is the best news to a Korean family.//This is great news .This news made all of us relieved.
• Usually, getting into a college is the most important thing to normal Korean family.
• .Yeah~ This is just our reality in today’s Korean society.
• • Well……anyway, I ate so much. We were on a family buffet/ =We went to a buffet , so I ate my fill of seafood=so I had a plate fulled of seafood , ate super sweet desserts, and chatted with them heartily.
• We were welcoming this Korean traditional New Year, and I hope we can love ourselves, hugs our families with love.
• Everyone knows while we live in this world the most important thing is ‘love’.

•--<The second thing: My visiting my son in?/at?the?military >---
•Today my husband and I visited [went to see] my son who is in the army. We went because our son wanted to see us.
• Oh,no~~!To tell you the truth, We knew preferred to see his stuff instead.
• So my husband and I went to the military base with a soondae;( a kind of blood sausage ) and his big mug-cup and a big bottle citron tea base. (*bottle of tea = drink now. bottle of tea base = mix with water to make tea)
• Last week when my son returned to the military army base , he seemed that he was a little( bit )nervous. I feel it was caused by his memory of when he first joined when he was a private (a common soldier). But today when I met him he seemed very relaxed. Haha^_^/ ~~ Probably because during his absence almost 10 months he became a superior. Time is passing, so when he returned, after 10 months in Afghanistan, he found there’s some changing. Time is passing, so when he returned, after 10 months in Afghanistan, (/he found some anging changes..)(/=things had changed.) He said it felt really good to take a hot shower. n Afghan there`s a time limit for using hot showers , so he had to shower very quickly. Sometimes he had to take a shower around dawn.
• And about ‘citron tea’!^^ Today he said to me this story, when he was private, he had envied that his superior drank that tea using his own /private big mug-cup.
Hahaha~~~ ^__________^)))))Now,, he would like to drink citron tea using his own big mug-cup , and besides he would try to share it with his all subordinates . Isn’t it fun? They are all kids!

• Em…. well now I am not sleepy. But I’d better go to bed. Sorry this got so long @.@/)))^^// See you soon !Have a good night!

Apparently, the size of dinosaurs changed along with vegetation

Don't forget to take your rain coat along

The four survivors of the blaze left hospital amid emotional scenes

No one had ever seen the list apart from the family lawyer

'It won't work' Mr Travis remarked apropos of the government's latest initiative to review pension plans

The view from atop the Empire State Building is fantastic!

My grandma put her arms about me and started to cry

By midnight there were only twelve guests and they were scattered about the gardens of the manor house

The plank on the kitchen table was about one meter across

I can't do 6 across

He told the police he had seen the woman slowly walking along the aisle of the church

What is fluency? When does one become fluent in a language? The only experience of fluency I have, is that of my mother tongue, which is English. I like to think I am
very proficient with the language. When I meet other native speakers who are less loquacious, and especially those with poor vocabulary, I find myself having to dumb down my lexis, simply because I might use words they have never heard, thus ending up seeming pompous, arrogant etc, etc. So are these people 'less' fluent? Or does it simply come down to me having a more varied vocabulary and thus being better equipped to convey ideas? I'm not trying to say I'm the most intelligent person I've ever met, there are one or two who are moreso

Is fluency actually ever achieved? Is it just close to the top end of an sliding scale of language proficiency, where the top is perfection, and therefore unattainable? Is intelligence a pre-requisite of fluency in a second language? Or vice versa even?

What I really want to know, is how did you know you were fluent? At what point did you take the plunge and say to friends and family, 'I am now fluent in x.'? What was the exact moment you realised you had advanced proficiency? I am much more
interested in hearing your personal perspectives, than being referred to information regarding philosophy/linguistic abstractions.

Any light shed on this will be most attentively and gratefully received.

I do think there is a link between reading and listening comprehension. In my experience of learning Arabic I have noticed that my listening and reading comprehension seem to improve almost exactly in parallel with each other.

However, I would prefer to put the emphasis the other way round, i.e. I think listening improves reading more than reading improves listening. This is because with listening you are always getting a consistent and accurate input, whereas with reading, you might not be pronouncing the words (in your head) consistenly or accurately, which will make it harder to learn.

Some people swear by the immersion (or artificial immersion) technique but I tried something similar with Mandarin and it didn't work for me either. I agree with everyone else, get a good grammar/work book to teach you the grammar and basic phrases and vocabulary. After that, put some focus on the aspects of the language that still confuse you or are difficult. A little extra drilling on these concepts will go a long way.Additionally, other than tons of exposure, what helps me is using the language a lot, even at a basic stage. If I can use a word/grammar point/phrase/etc. I rarely ever forget it.

Hello Everyone. I started studying my first foreign language several months ago and as to be expected, there have been ups and downs in this quest. Today however has been a good day, and on reflecting, it seems like I've gotten better at this whole language learning business than I was even a month ago.

For all you accomplished polyglots out there:

When did you begin to feel like you've hit your stride in language learning? I know that learning a new language never becomes easy, but when did you feel like you had a pretty good system worked out and felt confident when approaching a new language, or improving an old one? Is there improvement in learning ability followed by
a plateau, or do things get continually easier as time goes by?

Stories and reflections are what I'm looking for here, but of course a tip or two for us beginners couldn't hurt.

Thanks.