Text Analysis Tool for ESL Teachers

I have just completed a nifty little tool for ESL teachers who enjoy using various texts with their students.

Using the he Text Analysis Tool (http://www.roadtogrammar.com/textanalysis), you can copy and paste in a text from a word document or webpage and the tool will analyse it for you. The tool will give the text a rating using both the CEF standards and the IELTS standards. At the same time, it will generate a vocabulary list of suggested words to review before reading. You can even click to get the definitions for words on the list via ninjawords.com, which will generate all the meanings on a single page.


The tool works by comparing each word in the submitted text to a list of the 10,000 most commonly used words in English. Based on each word’s position on the list, an algorithm is used to rate the difficulty of the text. The rating has been calibrated (roughly) against the CEF and IELTS levels.

English Conventional Usage

This is a topic I have been interested in for a while.

I've long understood that English works by 'conventional usage'. That is to say that a word means whatever everybody understands it to mean, as opposed to what some controlling body wants it to mean.

Hence, a word can change meaning. Something which goes 'against' English grammar can become acceptable, such as a split infinitive or using 'and' at the beginning of a sentence.

If everybody started using the word 'dinosaur' for breakfast (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordplay_(The_Twilight_Zone)), then dinosaur would become an acceptable word to use for breakfast.

The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing has this to say (page 243):

Words Are Not Endowed with Fixed and "Proper" Meanings

When people object to how someone else uses a word, they often say, "That isn't its proper meaning." The word disinterested, for example, is frequently employed in the sense of "uninterested," and those who dislike this usage argue that the proper meaning of disinterested is "objective, unbiased. "

In such arguments "proper meaning" generally signifies a meaning sanctioned by past usage or even by the original, etymological sense of the word. But the dogma that words come to us out of the past with proper meanings—fixed and immutable—is a fallacy. The only meanings a word has are those that the speakers of the language choose to give it. If enough speakers of English use disinterested to mean "uninterested," then by definition they have given that meaning to the word.

Those who take a conservative attitude toward language have the right, even the duty, to resist changes which they feel lessen the efficiency of English. They should, however, base their resistance upon demonstrating why the change does make for inefficiency, not upon an authoritarian claim that it violates proper meaning.

As a user of words you should be guided by consensus, that is, the meanings agreed upon by your fellow speakers of English, the meanings recorded in dictionaries. We shall look at what dictionaries do in Chapter 29. For now, simply understand that dictionary definitions are not "proper meanings" but succinct statements of consensual meanings.

In most cases the consensus emerges from an activity in which individual language users participate without knowing that they are, in effect, defining words. The person who says "I was disinterested in the lecture" does not intend to alter the meaning of disinterested. He or she has simply heard the word used this way before.

Uncountable Nouns

I've got a triple release for you today, original RoadToGrammar materials on uncountable nouns: an e-book, an e-learning module and an Android App, all free:


Part 1: Uncountable Nouns, free e-book:http://www.scribd.com/doc/56627819/Uncountable-Nouns 


Part 2: Uncountable Nouns, free e-learning module:http://www.roadtogrammar.com/uncountablenouns/


Part 3: Uncountable Nouns, free Android App:http://bit.ly/jpx3Kj

5 Useful Links for ESL Teachers

Here are some links that I have compiled recently that may be useful to ESL teachers:

1 A vocabulary profiler:

Dig out unusual words from a text

http://www4.caes.hku.hk/vocabulary/profile.htm

2 Tweet Speak

A site that has audio recordings of tweets so that students can hear 'real language':

http://tweet-speak.posterous.com/


3 This article argues against Chomsky's idea of a 'universal grammar' (which I also disagree with)

http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2011/05/more-evidence-against-grammatical-universals.html

4 A business English lesson on Brazil's economy (with video)

http://eltbakery.edublogs.org/2011/05/01/business-english-lesson-brazils-rising-star/

5 An English lesson based around Justin Bieber (if you happen to have teenage girls in your class!)

http://www.famouspeoplelessons.com/j/justin_bieber.html

Word List - Describing the Stock Market

Here is a short list of words I compiled from Google searches on describing the stock market.

http://www.roadtogrammar.com/wordlists/list2.html

Word List - Figurative Language

I'm going to start posting some word lists for ESL learners, beginning with this one:

http://www.roadtogrammar.com/wordlists/list1.html

This is a list of words and phrases connected to figurative language. I've always found that advanced learners have a lot of questions about these words. All definitions are from the open source dictionary (wiktionary.com). Please go ahead and use the list as you wish.

Grammar Nazi

An interesting new phrase that has appeared in the last couple of years is 'Grammar Nazi'.

A Grammar Nazi is a person who enjoys pointing out mistakes that other people make when writing messages on the Internet. Ironically, most 'grammar nazis' focus on spelling mistakes rather than grammar mistakes. For example, many people mistakenly spell 'grammar' with an 'e' (grammer).

When the phrase Grammar Nazi first appeared, it was always used as an insult - 'Don't be a grammar nazi!' However, more recently, people are proud to be grammar nazis. Just search for the hashtag #grammarnazi on Twitter (or click here) and you'll see what I mean.

Is RoadToGrammar run by a Grammar Nazi?

No, I'm happy to say. I have always maintained that good grammar is a tool for ESL learners. If your grammar isn't perfect, you should just do your best to communicate. I'm also not in favour of teachers who spend too much time teaching grammar. That's one reason why I made this site, so that learners can practise grammar outside the class and focus on conversation practice inside the class.

I do wish Americans had better spelling skills, though!

Linking Directly to a Quiz

Road To Grammar is a Flash-based website, meaning that to navigate you don't need to go from one webpage to another. You'll notice that the URL at the top of the page is www.roadtogrammar.com, no matter which quiz you are doing. Hopefully, this makes the site faster and easier to use.

Now, what about a situation where you want to ask your students to do Quiz #3, for example. You don't want to have to tell them to go to roadtogrammar.com and then click on quiz number 3. You want to give a direct link.

Simple. Just give them this link: www.roadtogrammar.com?3 to go directly to quiz 3. To go directly to any quiz, just add a question mark and the quiz number after the URL.

A really fast dictionary

I recently found this excellent site:

http://ninjawords.com/

Ninja Words claims to be 'A really fast dictionary... fast like a ninja.'

However, it's not the speed that is interesting, but the ability to generate word lists very quickly. Let's say that you want to get the definition of 'geography' but without using the search function, you can just type the following in the address bar:

http://ninjawords.com/geography

So far so good? Now to generate a list of definitions, we just need to add commas. Try this link:

http://ninjawords.com/geography,physics,algebra,anthropology,ethnology

So you could use this to generate a word list, copy, paste and print it out or pass the link on to students. Don't forget to use a service like http://bit.ly if you need to shorten it.

A great new quiz

Here's a quiz that will come in handy for advanced level ESL students or ESL students struggling to read novels because they don't understand the specific action verbs:

www.roadtogrammar.com/specificactionverbs

There are over 200 verbs to practise.

Upcoming stuff on R2G...

Just a quick note to say what's coming up on Road to Grammar.

1 An interactive exercise on specific action verbs (like 'shrug', 'stagger' or 'twitch')

2 A selection of Android Apps featuring some of the games and activities on Road to Grammar

Idioms Galore

A new activity is available on RoadToGrammar.com

This idiom quiz lets you practice 150 commonly used idioms. The questions come up at random and you get a running total of your score.

The URL is: www.roadtogrammar.com/idioms

What is an idiom?

An idiom is any phrase where the words themselves do not convey the actual meaning. For example, we can say that a job is a 'piece of cake'. We are not talking about dessert! 'Piece of cake' is an idiom for 'easy', so when we say a job is a piece of cake, we mean that it is an easy job.

Into it, over it, with it, done with it

It’s not the long words in English that are confusing, it’s the short ones:

Example 1:

Jack: What kind of stuff are you into?

Jill: I’m really into kickboxing.

(If you’re into it, it means you enjoy it as a kind of hobby.)

Example 2:

Jack: Are you still upset about me breaking your mug?

Jill: No, I’m over it.

(If you’re over it, it means you have stopped being upset about it. Sometimes we say, ‘gotten over it’)

Example 3:

Jack: Fred told me he didn’t know what an MP3 was!

Jill: He’s not really with it, is he?

(If you’re not with it, it means you are not very clever or up-to-date. This phrase is most often used in the negative.)

Example 4:

Jack: Can I borrow your iPad?

Jill: Sure. I’m done with it for today.

(If you’re done with it, it means you are finished with it. We sometimes say, ‘through with it’ as an alternative.)

.

Suppose and Supposed to

Here's an odd phrase: 'supposed to'

Have you ever wondered what it means?

When we use the word 'suppose', it means 'think':

I suppose so = I think so (but I'm not sure)

However, when we use it in the phrase 'supposed to', the meaning changes and, in fact, there is more than one meaning.

1 A rule which is often broken

Example: We are not supposed to bring our cellphones to class.

This means the rule is often broken - student often disregard the rule and bring their cellphones to class

2 Reputation

Example: He is supposed to be the best runner on the team.

People say that he is the best runner on the team

3 A rule, commitment or appointment that has been broken

Example: He is supposed to be here. Where is he? (He didn't show up)

Student Questions: Pronunciation or Pronounciation?

One of my students asked which is correct: pronunciation or pronounciation?

The answer is 'pronunciation'. And it is pronounced the way it is spelled.

Did you know that 'misspelling' is one of the most misspelled words?
And mispronunciation is one of the most mispronounced words!