Environmental Vocabulary Set

Here is a set of environmental vocabulary (18 words) that you can present as a slideshow:

http://roadtogrammar.com/vocabulary/environment/

Samples:

Business English Presentation Skills: Ending with a Call to Action

Here is the first in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This first article is about ending a presentation with call to action. It includes three video examples and a quiz:

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres1/

 

Travel Vocabulary Activity

Here is a new activity for A2+ English learners to practice 20 words related to travel and airports.

You can try the quiz activity or just click 'briefing' to view the vocabulary with picture examples.

As always, it's great for use in the classroom with a smartboard.

Link: http://www.roadtogrammar.com/travel/

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ESL Article: My experience with the communicative method

Here is the first in a series of articles for ESL Teachers. It describes my experience with the communicative method, the suggested teaching approach of the 80s and 90s.

Read it here:

http://articles.roadtogrammar.com/teachertalk/communicative_method/

Complete Business English Course in Smartboard Format

RoadtoGrammar's free Serendipity Business English course is now available in HMTL format so that it can projected onto a smartboard for use in class, or accessed by students on their smartphones.

Course features:

• 20 units at intermediate level (B1-B2)
• answer key
• audio clips
• PDF version
• free to use, print out and distribute

Check it out at the following link:

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/serendipity/

When -ED Does Not Mean Past Tense

 “When you see the -ED ending on a word, it means that the sentence is in the past tense.”

But wait... that's not necessarily correct!

This is a topic that often confuses my own students, so I've written an article to clear things up in detail.

Click below to read it:

http://articles.roadtogrammar.com/nuance/3/

Articles on RoadToGrammar.com

I've just added a new section to the Road To Grammar website: Articles.

This section features short articles to help English learners with language points. There is a series called Nuance, which explores the subtleties of English. There is also a series called Exploring Words, which looks at common words and how they are used. Later, I'll add some articles aimed at English teachers.

As of now, there are five articles to read with more coming soon.

You can get to the section by clicking ARTICLES on the top menu of any page of Road To Grammar, or you can go there directly using this link:

http://articles.roadtogrammar.com/

RECALL: Practice grammar through reading

I have just posted a series of ten reading activities on Road to Grammar, called RECALL.

The objective of  RECALL is to get learners to pay attention to grammar and sentence structure while reading.

To do this, I have provided short texts, each of which are followed by simple questions on grammar and sentence structure.

These activities are suitable for CEFR level B1-B2.

Try RECALL here:

http://www.roadtogrammar.com/recall/

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The average speed that people read in English

What is the average speed that people read in English?

According to this website, it's 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 words per minute for fiction.

The average length of a novel is 90,000 words, according to this website, which means the average person would take 5-6 hours to finish it.

If you are learning English, even if you are at B2-C1 level, you probably read a little slower. Let's say that you read 180 words per minute. It would take you over 8 hours to finish a 90,000-word novel.

Hence, you can see the benefits of increasing your reading speed!

If you're interested in doing that, you can test your reading speed here. Be warned, you not only have to read a text, but also answer some questions on it!

Road to Grammar on Instagram

If you haven't followed RoadtoGrammar on Instagram yet, why not give it a try?

Every day, I post at least one "word of the day" for English learners, usually with several examples.

For instance, here is today's post:

Word Forms: Business Version

In my Business English classes, the most common question I get asked is the difference between "advice" and "advise". I also get asked about "confidence/confident", "difference/different" and so on.

There was already a word forms activity on Road to Grammar, but I decided to adapt it for business English - the words and sentences are in a business context and I have added extra notes and examples.

You can access this activity here:

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/biz23/

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Three Ways to Be More Expressive in English

When you learn English at a basic level, your goal is simply to understand what people say and engage in simple, everyday conversations.

As you move up to intermediate level, you gain the ability to carry out a range of functions in English. For example, you should be able to write a work email or give people instructions.

However, the jump from intermediate to advanced level is a little different. You need to learn the nuances of English. You need to express yourself naturally, like a native speaker. In short, you need to be more expressive.

One way to be more expressive in English is to learn and use idioms. An idiom is any word or expression with a special meaning, such as 'a piece of cake' (easy) or 'raining cats and dogs' (heavy rain).

Another way is to learn strong (emphatic) adjectives. A word like 'good' is a normal adjective. Words like fantastic, wonderful, terrific and excellent are strong adjectives. A word like 'scared' is a normal adjective. Stronger versions are terrified, horrified or petrified.

Just like we have strong adjectives, we have strong verbs and specific action verbs. For example, 'walk' is a general verb, but if we want to be more specific about how a person is walking, we can use words like stroll, amble, swagger, march or wander.

These are three simple ways you can boost your vocabulary into advanced level!

To practice idioms, click here.
To practice emphatic adjectives, click here.
To practice specific action verbs, click here.

Themed Business Vocabulary Sets

Here is a new activity in the business English section of Road to Grammar.

It features ten sets of ten words or phrases (100 in total) related to business.

Each set has a picture definition and quiz question for each word.

The index page is here:

http://www.roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/vocabularysets/

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Changes to MERGE Game

I took some time to redo the MERGE game on roadtogrammar.com to make it a little easier for English learners and, hopefully, more fun, too.

The object of the game is still the same, to change one word to another word, one letter at a time.

You can play the new version here: http://www.roadtogrammar.com/merge/

If you prefer the older version, you can find it here: http://www.roadtogrammar.com/merge2/

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New Game: Redoxx

Here's another new word game to enjoy.

The challenge is to fill up the board with words around the given letters.

How many can you solve?

URL: http://roadtogrammar.com/redoxx/

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