Conditionals with "Unless"

The word unless basically means the same thing as if ... not. For example, "Unless you study, you will fail" means the same thing as "If you do not study, you will fail."

Unless is often used in conditional sentences. It can be used with the first, second, or third conditional. Here are some examples.

• First Conditional: "You'll be unhappy unless you break up with her" = "You'll be unhappy if you do not break up with her."
• Second Conditional: "I wouldn't ask her out unless you told me it was OK" = "I wouldn't ask her out if you told me it was not OK."
• Third Conditional: "They wouldn't have come over unless we'd invited them" = "They wouldn't have come over if we had not invited them."

Count and Noncount Nouns

Gerunds and infinitives are both verbal forms that act as nouns. Gerunds end in -ing, such as swimming, walking, or laughing. Infinitives are the basic verb form with the particle to, as in to swim, to walk, or to laugh. Sometimes it can be difficult to know whether it's best to use a gerund or an infinitive in a sentence. Here are a few rules:

Both gerunds and infinitives can follow a verb, as in, "I don’t like losing," or, "I don’t like to lose." They can also both be the subject of a sentence, as in, "Catching a speeding ball is hard," or, "To catch a speeding ball is hard."

But only gerunds follow prepositions. For example, it’s correct to say, "I can’t leave a painting without finishing it," but it’s not correct to say, "I can’t leave a painting without to finish it."

Gerunds vs. Infinitives

Gerunds and infinitives are both verbal forms that act as nouns. Gerunds end in -ing, such as swimming, walking, or laughing. Infinitives are the basic verb form with the particle to, as in to swim, to walk, or to laugh. Sometimes it can be difficult to know whether it's best to use a gerund or an infinitive in a sentence. Here are a few rules:

Both gerunds and infinitives can follow a verb, as in, "I don’t like losing," or, "I don’t like to lose." They can also both be the subject of a sentence, as in, "Catching a speeding ball is hard," or, "To catch a speeding ball is hard."

But only gerunds follow prepositions. For example, it’s correct to say, "I can’t leave a painting without finishing it," but it’s not correct to say, "I can’t leave a painting without to finish it."

Used to Do vs Be Used to

It's easy to confuse used to do and be used to. Both forms look alike, but they have very different meanings and structures.

First let's look at used to do, or used to + verb. When I say I used to do something, I mean that I did something regularly in the past which I no longer do now. For example, "When I was a child, I used to fight with my siblings, but now we get along." We can also use used to do to talk about something that was true in the past but is not true now, for example, "Drinking alcohol used to be illegal in the U.S." In other words, drinking alcohol was illegal in the past, but it is no longer illegal.

Be used to means something different. If you are used to something, you are accustomed to it. It is normal or usual for you. Be used to is always followed by a noun or gerund (verb ending in ing). For example, I can say I am used to the rain, or I can say that I am used to staying up late.

10 Idioms in English

The English language is one of the vastest and most vivid languages in the world. It is made up of over 1.5 million words. Over and above that, the same word can have a variety of different meanings depending on the context it is put in; two (or more) words can have the exact same spelling but are pronounced differently, depending on their meanings. Today's article will mainly focus on those combinations of words which are commonly referred to as idioms. It is important to point out that idioms use language in a non-literal (and sometimes metaphorical) way. This is the 10 idioms in English:

1. Piece of cake – No, when someone says that the assignment they just finished was a piece of cake, it does not mean that their professor gave them a red velvet cupcake for their midterm paper, what piece of cake actually means is that something is very easy to complete.

2. Costs an arm and a leg – It would be a strange world we lived in if buying that fancy shiny purse literally required us to chop off our body parts to give as tribute to the Louis Vuitton gods. When something costs an arm and a leg it actually means that something is very expensive.

3. Break a leg – Oh, look, another idiom about legs. You’re about to take your dreaded calculus final and before you head into your classroom your roommate texts you, “Break a Leg!”  Why, you think in your head, would he ever wish that upon me? I thought we were cool with each other. Well, your roommate surely doesn’t want your bones to break while walking to your seat in the exam room that’s for sure. Break a leg actually means good luck!

4. Hit the books – If you’re a student in an English speaking environment you’re probably going to be hearing this phrase a lot. Before you imagine students running into their campus library and punching, kicking and wrestling apart the complete works of Shakespeare, we would just like to say that hit the books actually means to study. There there, you can still punch books in your spare time if you want, we won’t judge you.

5. Let the cat out of the bag – Why would someone put their cat in a bag? What did the cat ever do to them? Our last idiom actually means to disclose a secret that was supposed to be kept, well, as a secret.  The next time someone lets the cat out of the bag do not immediately pick up your phone and call animal cruelty control.

6. Hit the nail on the head – This idiom has to do with doing or saying something that is precisely right. If you don’t understand this, just think about that sweet feeling you get when you swing a hammer at a nail and hit it perfectly.

7. When pigs fly – So, have you ever seen a pig fly before? Never? Me neither. This idiom basically means that something will never happen, like fat little pink mammals soaring toward the sun!

8. You can’t judge a book by its cover – How many awesome books do you think you’ve never read in your life just because the cover did not catch your eye? This idiom does not only apply to books however, but can be used for everything in general. Essentially it means that you should not decide upon something based just on outward appearances.

9.  Bite off more than you can chew – Imagine your waiter brings you the biggest juiciest hamburger from your favorite American restaurant. In your hunger, you grab it quickly and take a giant bite out of it. Unfortunately, the bite you’ve taken is too big, and you end up looking like an idiot trying to shove this bite down your throat while drinking water and trying not to choke. That is the most literal sense of the meaning, but in general it just means to attempt to take on a task that is too much for you to handle.

10. Scratch someone’s back – We all know how difficult it is to scratch that itch on your back that your hand just aren’t flexible enough to reach, so why would you want to scratch some random person’s smelly back? Because if you do, they may eventually be willing to scratch your own smelly back when you need it! What this idiom means is to help someone out with the assumption that they will return the favor in the future!

Strategies of Listening

Supporting Good Strategy Use

As with all skills, teachers should help students talk about the listening strategies they are using so that they can build an awareness and more intentionally choose when, where, and how to draw upon their repertoire. Once a strategy has been introduced look for other ways for students to use it. Present a real or imaginary task and ask students how they would go about doing it.

Applying Listening Strategies

Pre-listening

You might get ready to listen by thinking about:

• the speaker and the speaker’s purpose
• your purpose for listening: to learn specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message, etc. What do you want to find out?
• your knowledge/experience with the subject: think about what you already know about the subject and predict the language and information you might expect to hear, including specific words and phrases. For ESOL, learn new vocabulary relevant to the subject that you are likely to hear.

Based on these clues, predict what you will be hearing:

• the format (how the message is organized and in what sequence)
• key words or phrases
• the information or opinions

Talk about the process and strategies you might use for listening effectively

• Determine the combination of strategies that will be useful in this situation
• If listening in a non-native language, think about how you would listen in your native language; clarify any cultural information that may be necessary to comprehend the message.

While-listening

While you listen you’ll need to monitor your comprehension:

• Use visual clues to help you understand: the setting, the interaction, facial expressions, and gestures
• Check the accuracy of your predictions
• Decide what is and is not important to understand
• Ask for help if you do not understand
• Ask for clarification or repetition from the speaker or ask if what you understood is correct
• Ask additional questions to flesh out your understanding

Post-listening

After you listen these strategies might help you synthesize, interpret and evaluate what you’ve heard:

• See if you can paraphrase what you heard
• Consider what you heard and how it fits with what you know
• Discuss or respond to what you heard through writing, drawing, drama, etc.
• Identify facts vs. opinions, more and less important details, supported vs. unsupported ideas
• Discuss the process and strategies you used to listen – which worked well?

Factors That Influence Listening Abilities

• physical factors (e.g., hearing loss, limited attention span, etc.)
• emotional factors (e.g., conditions of trust that exist, level of listener's confidence)
• fluency in English
• clarity of the speaker’s speech
• perception of the importance of the message
• attitudes toward the speaker
• difficulty making connections between new ideas and prior knowledge or constructing meaning

Top-down strategies are based on the knowledge the listener brings - background knowledge of the topic, the situation, the speaker, and the language. This prior knowledge helps the listener activate a set of expectations, interpret what is heard, and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include:

• predicting
• summarizing
• distinguishing fact from opinion
• interpreting tone
• drawing inferences

Bottom-up strategies are based on the information coming from the message itself. The listener relies on the language in the message - the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that helps the listener create meaning. Bottom-up strategies include:

• listening for specific words
• recognizing cognates
• recognizing word-order patterns
• recognizing prefixes, roots, and suffixes

Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.

• They decide which listening strategies will best serve a particular situation.
• They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies.
• They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening goals.

10 Reasons Why We Must Learn English

There are many reasons to learn English, but because it is one of the most difficult languages to learn it is important to focus on exactly why it is you want to learn English. Here we will look at ten great reasons why English is so important. Post this list somewhere you can see it and it will montivate you to keep going even when you are tired of trying to figure out which witch is which!

1. English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. Throughout the world, when people with different languages come together they commonly use English to communicate.


2. Why learn English when it is so difficult? Well, knowing English will make you bilingual and more employable in every country in the world.


3. Despite China, the United States is still a leader in technical innovation and economic development. English is used in the United States and in each of these fields.


4. English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britian’s expansion during the colonial age. People in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. English is the commonly adopted second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Speaking English opens these countries and cultures up to you.


5. Another reason why English is so important is that it is the language of science. To excel in science you need to know English.


6. English is based on an alphabet  and, compared to Chinese, it can be learned fairly quickly.


7. English is also the language of the Film Industry and English means you no longer have to rely on subtitles.


8. In the United States, speaking English immediately opens up opportunities regardless of your ethnicity, color, or background.


9. Learn English and you can then teach your children English -- or if they are already learning, you can now communicate with them in English.


10. English speakers in the United States earn more money than non-English speakers. Learning English will open your job prospects and increase your standard of living.

Resource : http://www.5minuteenglish.com/why-learn-english.htm