Category Archives: English resources

Free online ESL textbooks

By Salsita Says | Published: April 17, 2009

I just found this really useful website with lots of free books for learning English. Click here for a link to their TOEFL resources but take the time to look at some of the other books on their site as well. If you are not used to downloading large files from the Internet you might [...]

Also posted in TOEFL | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Practice English with Twitter

By Salsita Says | Published: April 7, 2009

To tweet, or not to tweet, that is the question…
If you don’t already know what twitter is, then here is a short video that explains what it is and how to use it. If you already know about twitter then scroll down the page to learn about how you can use twitter to learn English.

I [...]

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TED Talks with subtitles

By Salsita Says | Published: April 6, 2009

I just stumbled across an interesting video about a project to make sure that all new TED talks have an English transcript as well as subtitles for as many languages as possible. The project doesn’t seem to be completely up and running yet, but I will certainly be keeping my eye out for it. Don’t [...]

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Using RSS to practice English

By Salsita Says | Published: March 29, 2009

When I was talking to some students the other day I was surprised to find that some of them didn’t know or had misconceptions about what RSS is and how it can be helpful in their efforts to improve their English. I thought that I had better write a quick post explaining what it is, [...]

Also posted in English conversation topics, Reading | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

How to prepare for an English proficiency test

By Salsita Says | Published: March 24, 2009

Today in class we had an interesting conversation about the best ways to prepare for taking an English proficiency test such as the TOEFL iBT or IELTS. I asked the students what they thought was the best way to prepare for the test. Here are some of the things we spoke about:

You need to know [...]

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Reverse outlining to improve your writing and summarizing

By Salsita Says | Published: March 23, 2009

The OWL (online writing lab) at Purdue has a good resource page about the technique of reverse outlining.
Reverse outlining is a useful method for taking notes, analysing complex writing, or revising and assessing the quality of your written work.
Click here to read more about this very useful technique.
Can you find an online example of reverse [...]

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Writing practice using the OWL at Purdue

By Salsita Says | Published: March 22, 2009

The Owl at Purdue is a very useful resource for students who would like to improve their writing skills. Below is a summary, taken from their web page, of the services and information that they provide.
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a [...]

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TOEFL speaking tips

By Salsita Says | Published: March 21, 2009

Jason Renshaw from the Renshaw Internet School of English has prepared an excellent series of short video lectures that give a thorough explanation of the six questions on the speaking section of the TOEFL ibt.
The lectures are designed to give you an overview of the question types, some suggested approaches to time management and some [...]

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Airplane safety

By Salsita Says | Published: March 19, 2009

I recently flew with a rather cheap airline. Out of boredom I began looking at the emergency landing instructions. I’m glad that I was only looking at them out of boredom. I’m quite sure that if the airplane had crash landed in the ocean I would have had absolutely no idea what to do!
It seems [...]

Also posted in English conversation topics | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

60-Second Science podcasts for listening practice

By Salsita Says | Published: March 16, 2009

Do you need short lectures for practicing your notetaking and summarizing skills? Search no more! Scientific American now has a whole podcast dedicated to 60 second lectures about the latest news in the science world. The sound lectures include a transcript as well as a link to an article with more detailed information about the [...]

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