4 Inspirational Speeches

1. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Get to know the story of the very first U.S. Supreme Court female justice, the obstacles she overcame, and what you and she have in common.

2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: My Life on the Supreme Court

Learn about the professional and personal life of the notorious RBG and how you can make a difference.

3. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Listen to this heartwarming story told by the current Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor and the advice she gives us.

4. Oprah Winfrey's Speech at Stanford University

Live in love and not fear, become more of yourself, stay present, and achieve your fullest potential. Oprah's message is so uplifting and so genuine.

Learn about the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Civics

https://www.icivics.org

Explore iCivics.org, a free resource featuring 19 great games that will teach you about the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the U.S. election process, the U.S. immigration laws, and many other critical areas in a fun and interactive way. The games would be appropriate for ESL students of various proficiency levels and age groups.

Here are my personal favorites:

1. Win the White House

Run your own presidential campaign, raise funds, learn what issues each particular state most cares about, and win  as many as  270 electoral votes or more! You'll realize how challenging it is, even if it's just a game. (Upper Intermediate - Advanced language proficiency levels)

2. Do I Have a Right?

Open your own law firm, hire attorneys, and educate your  clients  about their rights. You'll have to think really fast whether the U.S. Bill of Rights protects this right,  which amendment spells out the right your client claims is being infringed upon, and quickly send your client  to the attorney taking such cases. (Upper Intermediate - Advanced language proficiency levels)

3. Immigration Nation

Become  an immigration officer and determine which boat passenger can be admitted into the  U.S. and which must be denied entry.  Practice your knowledge of the U.S family based and employment based immigration as well as U.S. refugee laws. (Low Intermediate to Advanced language proficiency levels)

iCivics was founded by the legendary first female Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. It's a true gem for both learners and educators. Please check it out!

Top 10 American Movies to Learn American Culture

We all know that learning a foreign language by watching movies in the original is a very effective way to learn the language. However, when such movies also teach the history and culture of the target language, the benefits are multiplied, and we kill two birds with the same stone, so to speak.

I have been teaching American Culture to ESOL learners for a few years, and watching the following movies has worked wonders: the confidence of the students has improved, and they have realized they can watch American movies and understand %70-80 per cent, while learning new vocabulary words, improving their listening and pronunciation skills, and, equally important, getting to understand American history and culture.

Here is a list of our favorites:

1. Constitution USA – is a four-part PBS documentary series. Learn about the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and how the U.S. government got its shape. These documentaries are fun to watch and are a great learning tool. All the documentaries are available for free here under Watch Online.  

2. We Shall Remain - is a five-part, 7.5-hour PBS documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning the 17th century to the 20th century. You will learn about the relationships between Native Americans and first European settlers and how their relationships got sour over the years. All the documentaries are available for free here under The Films.

3. Dances with Wolves – A soldier sent to a remote western Civil War outpost makes friends with wolves and Indians, eventually falling in love with a white woman raised by the Indians. This movie will allow you to understand the relationship between Native Americans and Americans in the midst of the American Civil War. This is also a love story, so you will enjoy the movie on different levels. The movie can be rented or purchased on Amazon here.

4. Not for Ourselves Alone – is an outstanding PBS documentary about the professional and personal lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Track the key events of the American suffrage movement, learn about the gender inequality of the mid 19^th- early 20s century, and ponder over the position of women in modern days. This three-hour documentary can be purchased here for $4.99.

5. Iron-Jawed Angels - tells the remarkable and little-known story of a group of passionate and dynamic young women, led by Alice Paul and her friend Lucy Burns, who put their lives on the line to fight for American women's right to vote. This movie will allow you to learn about the hurdles courageous women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns had to face and overcome to get us the long-postponed voting rights. You can watch the movie for free on YouTube. Simply click here.

6. The Great Gatsby – a romantic drama film based on the world-famous F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel of the same name. Learn about America of the roaring 20s, Prohibition with its bootleggers and speakeasies, the ever-evading us American Dream, and the social inequality persisting on the land originally created based on equal rights and justice for all. The 1974- movie-version is available on Netflix. The 2013 version with Leonardo DiCaprio is available on Amazon.

7. Eleanor and Franklin – a stunning 1977-2-part movie series chronicling the lives of Franklin and Elizabeth Roosevelt. You will learn about their childhoods, school years, courtship, and all the events that led up to FDR’s election. The second movie will focus on their lives when FDR was in office. Highly recommend for everyone interested in the U.S history. You can watch both parts on YouTube for free. Click here to watch the first part, and here – the second one.

8. The Butler – Filmmaker Lee Daniels tells the story of the life of an African-American butler who served eight presidents through the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s and the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. This is a great way to learn about the milestones of the American Civil Rights Movement. The movie is easy to follow and interesting to watch. It is available on Netflix and Amazon.

9. The Help – is a movie adaptation of the novel of the same name. The movie brilliantly depicts all the realities of racial inequality of the American south in the 1960s. Full of humor, it has all the potential to become a new favorite of yours. The movie can be rented or purchased here.

10. Spotlight – the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church all over the world. The movie portrays the events that unrolled in Boston prior to and in 2001-2002. The movie is a great evidence of the power of free and independent press. It is available on Netflix and Amazon.

The Big Picture: Idioms as Metaphors by Kevin King

This year Santa generously left this treasure under my Christmas tree: The Big Picture: Idioms as Metaphors by Kevin King. (By the way, Kevin is my co-worker, who used to teach at Harvard. I know. I never seize to admire my co-workers at the Intensive English Program of Souther New Hampshire University. )

The book explains the origins of most popular American idioms, their meanings, and offers a variety of practice activities. Honestly, I've worked with several books of idioms, but this one by far is the best one I've ever seen.

The Big Picture consists of 15 chapters, each grouped by their metaphorical meaning.
I loved the book so much that decided to upload all the idioms and their meanings on Quizlet. I'm sure you will also find this helpful. Enjoy! These Quizlet sets will make studying American idioms easy and fun. However, having the textbook in front of you, will only add to your knowledge.

Chapter 1: Ideas are Balls. Ideas are Food 

Chapter 2: Ideas are Sharp Instruments. Ideas are Commodities

Chapter 3: Knowledge is Light. Knowledge is Territory. Knowledge is a a Path

Chapter 4: An Argument is a Vehicle. An Argument is a Construction. An Argument is a Battle

Chapter 5: Emotions are a Force. Emotional Trauma is a Storm. Extreme Emotion is Death. Anger is Explosion. Emotional Normalcy is Togetherness

Chapter 6: Money is Blood. Money is Food

Chapter 7: Money is Dirty. Bottom is Source (of Money)

Chapter 8: Control is Contact. Control is Hand Contact. Control is Contact via Strings 

Chapter 9: People are Food. People are Animals

Chapter 10: Life is a Journey

Chapter 11: Life is a Journey

Chapter 12: Life is a Race. Problems are Constraints on a Traveler. Problems are Barriers on a Journey

Chapter 13: Life is a Game

Chapter 14: Life is a Game

Chapter 15: Life is a Game

TOEFL Idioms

Chances are you will never ever encounter a single idiom in your academic textbooks. Here you have nothing to worry about. That said, the problems of understanding your professor can start as early as when he or she says, "This semester your hands will be full, and I want to make sure that no one here cuts corners. " Your puzzlement might continue when the professor apologizes to your for accidentally"putting you on the spot", and you might get even more confused when, towards the end of the class, your instructor will say, "Let's wrap it up".

Moreover, I can guarantee that as long as you daily study or work with native English speakers, you will keep learning idioms after idioms and will never stop wondering about the wealth of the American idiomatic language.  Thus, for instance, you will here them say that someone is totally up their alley, that they want to set the record straight, and that particular question was outside their wheelhouse.

At times you might end up feeling like the character in the cartoon Symphony in Slang.

That is why studying English idioms should go hand in hand (haha) with practicing academic vocabulary, which you can find here, here, here, and here.

The TOEFL Idioms book is my favorite. I often have my students practice some of the most frequently used idioms from it and then review them with our old friend Quizlet.

Here you can find dozens of practice sets of all the taught idioms together with their definitions from this book. Enjoy!

Have fun learning new vocabulary and remember: the more you expose yourself to the target vocabulary,  the better you will retain (AKA "remember") these words). Thus, for instance, you can upload any vocabulary of your choice at a bingo card generator and compete with your classmates or friends. You will see how many new words you'll be able to remember in no time!

To give you an example, I've uploaded 20 idioms from the above mentioned book so that you can have 10 ready-made bingo cards, enough for an entire language class. I usually use them together with paper flash cards, on which both the idioms and their definitions are given. One student draws one flash card with a definition, and the others are to find out if the target word is given on their bingo cards. (By the way, you can  print out such flash cards from Quizlet in no time by hitting Print and then Index Card.)

You can find the bingo cards by simply clicking here.

All the best,
Yulia

Advanced Vocabulary Sets for the SAT, TOEFL, GMAT, and GRE

I am back in the blogging world. These past few years have been really crazy (but in a good way). I've been busy raising my toddler  and teaching students all over the world. I've also developed a wealth of materials for college preparation and passing such tests as the TOEFL, SAT, GMAT, GRE, and PRAXIS I.

Today I would like to share with you the wonderful vocabulary resources developed by Townsend Press and adapted by me with the help of Quizlet: Vocabulary Basics, Building Vocabulary Skills, Improving Vocabulary Skills, Advanced Word Power, and Advancing Vocabulary Skills.

These textbooks present and teach academic vocabulary in an easy-to-digest way and offer a variety of nicely-scaffolded exercises. You can also practice these vocabulary words online for free by creating an account in their Learning Center.

I generally recommend Vocabulary Basics, Building Vocabulary Skills, and Improving Vocabulary Skills for the TOEFL and SAT preparation, while Advanced Word Power and Advancing Vocabulary Skills are more appropriate for the GMAT and GRE tests since they present by far more advanced vocabulary.

I use most of these textbooks weekly, and they have proven terrific tools for both me as a teacher and my students. That is why I have uploaded all the words from the textbooks with their definitions on Quizlet so that my students and anyone who might find them useful can further practice the words in a fun way. Since I uploaded them, I have received numerous thank you messages from the Quizlet users. And today I am uploading the links to all these sets here.

Building Vocabulary Skills on Quizlet 

Advancing Vocabulary Skills on Quizlet

Advanced Word Power

(I haven't created any sets for Vocabulary Basics since none of my students has ever needed this level.  - I'll gladly do so if you need. As for Improving Vocabulary Skills, I am currently working on adding these vocabulary sets on Quizlet.)

I hope you have found these resources useful and would love to hear back from you. Any comments, suggestions, questions, and requests are very welcome!

Next time I'll talk about the fantastic TOEFL preparation course I took on my favorite EDX.ORG and will share with you the videos and other materials I found most useful in this course.

Free Online Dictionaries

Monolingual Dictionaries

1. Longman English Dictionary

2. Merriam-Webster Dictionary

3. The Free Dictionary by Farlex

4. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

5. Macmillan Dictionary

Illustrated Dictionaries

1. Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary

2. The Visual Dictionary

Slang Dictionaries

1. Slang City

2. Urban Dictionary

3. Dictionary of Playground Slang

Dictionaries of Idioms

1. http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/c.html

2. http://www.idiomeanings.com/idioms/

Dictionaries of Phrasal Verbs

1. http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/phrasal-verbs/

2. http://englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html

Dictionaries of Proverbs

http://www.syvum.com/proverbs/

Websites to Prepare for the U.S Citizenship Test

1. USCIS Study Materials for the English Test

2. USCIS Study Materials for the Civics Test

3.  Interactive Materials developed by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for the U.S Citizenship Test

4. AnimatedAtlas.comGrowth of the U.S. Nation

5. 100 Civics Questions on Quizlet

6.  70 Citizenship Reading Words on Quizlet

7. 80 Citizenship Writing Words on Quizlet

Other Free Websites for ESOL Students

Please feel free to share in comments your favorite websites for teaching or learning ESOL. 

1. http://www.rachelsenglish.com/ 

This  is a website for individual study/practice of American English pronunciation, with video to watch and imitate-everything from individual sounds through sentences from TV shows.

2. www.eslcafe.com/ 

This is a valuable website for both ESL teachers and students. For ESL students, there are a lot of information available such as idioms, phrasal verbs, slang, pronunciation and others. 

3. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary online with pronunciation

4. www.real-english.com 

This website contains lots of educational videos with English speakers.

5. http://eleaston.com/materials.html

This website includes a variety of English teaching materials organized by target skill and content categories, as well as tests 

and quizzes.  It is a great site for both learners and teachers.

6. www.englishlistening.com/ 

This website helps learners to Learn English by listening. It offers the learners to study any time, any place. You can listen to real people speaking real English .  

7. www.esl-lab.com/

This website includes many practice exercises and quizzes for listening comprehension.

8. http://www.manythings.org/el/ 

Learners will be asked to fill in the blanks while listening to the songs.  This is another way to practice for listening learning.  

9. www.english-4u.de/ 

This site helps learners to improve their reading comprehension. It offers many games, crossword puzzles, grammar explanations, etc.

10. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/  

This website offers help with the writing process including research and citations.  It also helps learners with grammar, professional and technical writing. 

11. http://www.ohio.edu/linguistics/esl/ 

Ohio University has provided this great site for ESL students and teachers.  It offers interactive activities for writing, as well as a list of writing topics for students at all different levels. 

12. a4esl.org/ 

ESL students can learn vocabulary and grammar through quizzes and crossword puzzles. This site also provides some bilingual quizzes such as Chinese-English, Japanese-English etc. 

13 www.manythings.org/ 

This is a fun study site for ESL students with different levels, which provides word games, puzzles, slang and others.  It is not only focus on students' reading comprehension but also on students' listening ability.

14. www.englishclub.com/learn-english.htm 

This English Learning Center provides English Language Skills and Special Interest ESL (Business English, English for Work...).  It is a useful website for students who are interested in learning English. 

15. http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

A variety of podcasts for learning English.

16. http://www.elllo.org/ 

Listening samples of English speakers from around the world with transcripts and interactive quizzes.

17 http://www.talkenglish.com/ 

Lessons on various topics for people living in the US or planning on moving to the US.

18 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml  

BBC Learning English

19. http://privateenglishportal.com/ 

Free lessons, including for TOEFL preparation

20. http://www.rong-chang.com/ 

A great starting point for ESL/EFL learners who want to study English through the Web. The site is updated constantly.

21. http://www.sozoexchange.com/ 

A fabulous website for Adult ESOL learners.

22. http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/

Free audio books.

23. http://www.usalearns.org 

U.S.A. Learns is a free web-based multimedia system for adults learning English as a second language.

24. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/ 

Use the radio transcripts and audio files on this site to improve your American English

25. http://www.speakingyourbest.com/freevideolessons.html 

Accent Reduction

26. http://oyc.yale.edu/ 

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials 

for all who wish to learn.

27. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/ 

Free Course Materials of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

28. http://www.engvid.com/

Free English video lessons

29. http://www.china232.com/ 

Advanced fantastic audio English lessons!

30. http://testyourvocab.com/ 

Test your English vocabulary size, and measure how many words you know. For children, adults and EFL/ESL learners.

31. http://quizlet.com/ 

Quizlet is a lightning fast way to memorize vocabulary lists. It's like flashcards, but much more fun and interactive.Create your own flash cards or use the given ones, play games, and have fun while studying.

32. http://esl-voices.com/students/listening/

The listening activities are divided into two categories. The Basic Listening Practice  part has various news stories from National Public Radio (NPR), and  Voices of America (VOA). There are questions with levels for easy, medium, and  advanced for each listening section.

33. http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=3 National Public Radio: audios and transcripts

NPR: audios and transcripts

34. http://pulseplanet.com

Pulse of the Planet
This site has short audio recordings which are accompanied by the complete text with pictures on one page. These programs are created by Jim Metzner For PULSE OF THE PLANET and include customs and traditions from around the world.

35. http://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/index.html

Lost and Found Sounds: The Stories
This is a wonderful collection of sound documentaries which provide fascinating cultural history collected by the Kitchen Sisters. These programs are presented on All Things Considered on NPR (National Public Radio). Each recording is connected to a page which includes pictures and a detailed summary of the recording.

36. http://www.npr.org/about/programs/talk.html

Talk Programs (NPR)
This site includes programs like Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered. Another good choice is Fresh Air which has wonderful interviews of famous people!

37. http://www.esl-lab.com/

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
At this site, you can choose from a list of listening assignments that vary in length and difficulty. The conversations are created for second language learners to test their listening and you can read the transcripts and get help with vocabulary at Randall's place too.

38. http://www.voanews.com/index.cfm

Voice of America News
You can hear the news from around the world and read the transcripts while you listen. Choose the current affairs topic you want to learn more about.

39. http://www.englishelearning.com/en/index.html

English Learning
For an introduction to the pronunciation software, ENGLISH POWER 1 and 2, go to this website. In the end, however, this is primarily an advertising site...

40. http://www.eflclub.com/2songs/songs.html

EFL Club Songs
Listen to the Beatles and other popular singers and improve your vocabulary. For a little more of a challenge, some of the words are missing from the lyrics for you to guess! This website is lots of fun!

41.http://eleaston.com/listening.html

E.L. Easton-English Online
There are all kinds of listening activities listed at this site and links to other languages as well.

42. http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/english/listening.html#Other

Ohio ESL
Ohio University offers an excellent reference list of listening practice sites. The list is well organized and descriptions include degree of difficulty.

43. http://www.elllo.org

Ello
Todd Beuckens designed this excellent site for beginner and intermediate learners of English. The audio clips are one to two minutes in length, use natural and informal English, and come with quizzes and dictionary links. Todd features interviews with speakers from all over the world.

44. http://broadcast-live.com/

Live Radio and television from Around the World
No matter what you are looking for, whether it's music or international news, this is a great resource!

45.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/default.stm

BBC News from our own correspondent
Personal reflections by BBC correspondents around the world. This is a very nice news and information site. You can research countries around the world in addition to getting the latest news.

46. http://www.fancast.com/

Fancast
Watch full TV shows and movies at this site.

47. http://www.history.com/media.do

History Made Every Day
Watch full TV shows and movies at this site.

48. This I Believe
You can listen to and read people's philosophy of life statements on this National Public Radio site.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138

The Power of Hello
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93536198
Making It Up as I Go Along
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16357141
Living What You Do Every Day by Yolanda O'Bannon
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6431548
Telling Kids the Whole Truth
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88241635
The America I Believe In
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=27

49. http://www.manythings.org/
Interesting Things for ESL Students
There are many useful links to improve your listening skill and pronunciation ability on this Charles Kelly website. You can listen and repeat all those irregular past tense verbs too!

50. http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/
Learn English - Feel Good
Among other things, you can improve your ability to understand popular movies and improve your listening skills on this site.

51. News Websites
On these sites you can watch video clips from ABC, MSNBC or CBS news.
http://abcnews.go.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8004316
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/?tag=main_home_Navigation

52. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/
National Geographic
This website has a lot of educational videos about nature, animals, cultures, science, and more.

53. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/
Discovery channel
This website is similar to National Geographic and includes full TV episodes of popular shows from the Discovery channel.

54. http://www.eslnotes.com
The English Learner Movie Guides
Movie summaries, vocabulary and cultural references, and other resources to support language learners going to the movies.

55. http://www.englishbaby.com
English, baby
There are some good audio and video clips here that replicate authentic speech and provide a good focus on vocabulary. You are also encouraged to pay for the more advanced features of the website and there are way too many ads to navigate.

56. http://www.englishcentral.com/en/videos
English Central
Learn English while watching videos. You can record your voice and get feedback on this site. One of my students recommended it, so it's definitely worth exploring if you want to improve your speaking. You have to join the site but it's free.

57. www.gcflearnfree.org
Goodwill Free Computer Training
This website provides free online courses that teach Word, Excel, Power Point, math, reading, vocabulary, everyday life skills, etc.


59. www. freerice.com
Learn English vocabulary and grammar, literature, sciences, math, geography, etc. For your correct answers you will receive points that will be transferred into grains of rice to be donated throughout the world. 

60. http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/index.html#
 Pronunciation resources from Iowa State University