Academic Earth to help your Academic English

Students are often asking about lectures in English and it’s extraordinary what is available for free on the Internet. Regular readers will remember my post about TED.com a few weeks ago and I think it’s time to mention another site called Academic Earth. Academic Earth is a site dedicated to “extending high quality academic opportunities to people around the globe”. Follow the link and then choose a subject that you are interested in from the ’subject’ tab. The quality of the lectures is excellent. Enjoy Academic Earth here.

Linking words

One of the most important features of written academic English is the correct use of linking words.  Take this sentence as an example:

In contrast to the difficulties researchers faced in collecting the data, the analysis phase of the research project was straightforward.

The use of the linking phrase in contrast effectively joins the two ideas. This means that when you are writing you have to think of the relationship between your ideas.  These relationships are often categorised into functions such as:

contrasting

giving examples

summarising

the idea being that  you think of the relationship between the ideas you want to link and then join choose an appropriate linking word which performs that function.

I find it really hard to teach linking words in an interesting way! It’s almost impossible to explain which ones you can and can’t use. The fact is you have to look at lots and lots of examples of   linking words being used properly. Here’s a good page from Birmingham City University on linking words with examples and good exercises too. I have linked here before and will probably do so again one day! It’s here.

Suggestions for learning vocabulary

Oh dear. It’s that time of year – the clocks have gone back  which means that it’ll soon be getting dark at four o’clock in the afternoon. Of course, at this time of year it is traditional for everyone to complain about this. Every year the news programmes are full of people saying that we should stay on summer time throughout the winter. The official line (the argument put forward by the government) is that when we move the clocks back we have lighter mornings, which makes it safer for children walking to school. I heard one person on the radio complaining about the time change saying “We move from a nation of happy people to a nation of sad people when the clocks change!”

Vocabulary is definitely key to improving your language skills. Despite knowing this, students are often disorganised about their vocabulary learning. If you are serious about expanding your vocabulary then you need to have a strategy about how you are going to do this. Unless you are very lucky, it won’t magically happen on its own. You will need to think about which words you are going to learn, how you will record them, and how you will remember them. Probably you are going to need a note-book which you can write words in and revise from.  Here’s a very useful source indeed on vocabulary learning from University of Toronto, Scarborough.

Most common grammar mistakes

The rules are nearly impossible! Look at the noun. If it is a singular countable noun it usually needs an article.

WRONG:   I went to cinema yesterday.

RIGHT: I went to the cinema yesterday.

2. Plural  / singular nouns

Look at your noun carefully. Only one, or more than one?

WRONG:       Overseas students often have many problem.

RIGHT: Overseas students often have many problems.

3. Verbs: do they agree with the subject?

Circle the subject. Is it singular or plural?

WRONG:   Smith (2007) believe that….

RIGHT: Smith (2007) believes that…

4. Verb: is the tense right?

Look at your verb. Do you need present or past tense? Continuous or simple?

WRONG: Smith interview 300 overseas students and find that they have language problems.

RIGHT: Smith interviewed 300 overseas students and found that they had language problems.

5.  Word form

Do you need a noun, verb, an adjective, or an adverb?

WRONG: The new  car is very efficiently.

RIGHT: The new car is very efficient.

6.    -ing form

The    -ing form is often used to make a noun phrase.

WRONG: I don’t like get up early.

RIGHT: I don’t like getting up early.

7.   Active or passive verb?

If the verb is passive, make sure you use ‘be + past participle’

WRONG: Students were interview in pairs about their experiences.

RIGHT: Students were interviewed in pairs about their experiences.

8. Prepositions

Check them!

WRONG: This essay attempts for address this issue.

RIGHT: This essay attempts to address this issue.

How many mistakes can you find:

Many students come from all over world to study in UK. There is many reasons for this but usually they say that have a British degree will help them to find good job in their country later on. Study in UK can be hard work, but also very reward. Although experience can be difficult, student often look back at their university days with happy.

Answers in the next post!