Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Make A Sentence Tool

Here is a simple tool that ESL teachers can use to generate random words for learners to form sentences with.

From a database of hundreds of words, it generates a random verb, noun and adjective. Project this on a smartboard and challenge your students to make a sentence using the words. It also works on mobile devices.

Try it at:

www.roadtogrammar.com/makeasentence


Monday, February 26, 2018

Rhyming Words

The Rhyming Words activity on RoadToGrammar.com has been updated so that it now works on mobile devices.

It is a great way to explore pronunciation issues and would work perfectly as a smartboard activity in the classroom.

Try it here:

http://www.roadtogrammar.com/rhymer/





Saturday, February 17, 2018

Military Vocabulary Quiz

Here is a vocabulary quiz for ESL learners interested in the military. The quiz has two parts with around 25 words in each part. The first part covers equipment and the second part covers personnel and strategy.

You can try the activity here:






Saturday, February 10, 2018

Text Analyser - Updated Version

The RoadToGrammar Text Analyzer is a free-to-use web app that will analyse the difficulty level of a piece of text.

To use it, simply go to http://www.roadtogrammar.com/textanalysis/ and paste in a block of text. Click SUBMIT and the app will tell you the difficulty level according to the CEFR framework. For example, a text rated B1 is most suitable for use with students at B1 level. It can help you simplify a text because it shows picks out the more difficult words, which you can then simplify.

The app will also give a list of suggested vocabulary items, and you can even see the definitions of the items.

The upgraded version features the following changes:


  • based on a larger corpus (200,000 words) than the previous version
  • better ability to ignore proper nouns and names
  • ability to show complexity word for word
  • other statistics now shown

Step 1: Paste a text selection and click SUBMIT:




 Step 2: View the results






Step 3: Get the definitions

 Step 4: View the advanced statistics

















Thursday, February 08, 2018

Kudos

Here is an interesting English word:

Kudos

It is interesting right away because, somehow, it does not even look
like an English word. In fact, it is a loan word from Greek.

It has a great sound to it; it is pronounced 'koodose'.

It is a way of giving praise or congratulations to someone. Here are
some sample sentences:

Kudos for losing so much weight.
Kudos to Tom for standing up to the office bully.
Lisa deserves kudos for getting a place at Oxford when everyone said
she wouldn't be able to do it.

How can this word help you as an English learner? Listen out for it
and when you feel confident enough, try using it in your own speech.
Your teacher will be impressed!

Business English Listening Activities

I have just uploaded a new listening section on Road to Grammar's business English page. It features 20 short conversations suitable for...