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TOEFL iBT grammar

Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

One of the things that can help you to get a better score with the grammar in the TOEFL iBT  is understanding that it only tests American grammar.  This means that if you have been exposed to both American and British English dialects, it would help to know some of the differences.

There is no TOEFL iBT grammar section

Where the old Paper-Based Test (PBT) had a grammar section, the iBT does not.  The grammar is evaluated through the speaking and writing questions.

Here is a summary of some of the common differences between British English grammar and American English grammar to help you with the difference.

Differences in Tenses

  1. Americans tend to use past simple over present perfect more than the British.  This is true with words like yet, already and just.
    • AE- Did you eat breakfast yet?
    • BE- Have you eaten breakfast yet?
  1. Americans tend to use have more than have got and have to more than have got to.
  2. Americans use subjunctive mood (they recommended he go) where British use other forms such as (they recommended that he should go).

Other differences

  1. American English uses toward and forward as opposed to towards and forwards.
  2. American English adds an s to morning, day, night, evening, weekend etc to talk about activities that you do regularly at this time.
  3. American English tends to avoid adding –er to sports to talk about the people who play that sport.  Where BE speakers would say a footballer, an AE speaker would say a football player.
  4. Shall is used less in American English.
  5. When naming rivers, the word river usually follows the name in AE (Colorado River) but precedes it in BE (the River Thames)
  6. Americans use sat, seated and sitting where the British use sat in most cases (the bride’s family are sat (seated) next to the groom’s/I’ve been sat (sitting) here for 3 hours)

This list is to help you to get an idea of the kind of differences you will face.  If you know any more, feel free to add them in the comments below.

 

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Becoming more international

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Live-English.net is definitely an international school. When we started 5 years ago, most of our students were coming from France.
Now, we have thousands of students from many different countries in Europe like Germany, Italy, Spain or Russia but also from further away like Japan or Brazil (59 countries in total). Wherever you are located, mastering English is a priority shared by anyone who wants to expand his professional abilities.
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Latest Blog posts
Improving your listening skills will help your ability to have a fun and effective conversation but it is especially important if you plan to undertake the challenge of a listening test like the TOEFL iBT listening test. The secret to improving your listening skills is active listening and comprehension.
Have you ever noticed that we don’t always say what we mean? Sometimes we have two words that have two meanings but you put them together and they have a new meaning. Every morning I get up at 7 o’clock. What is get up? I know that get means receive and I know that up is the direction of the sky but get up is not to receive in the direction of the sky, right?
Because I am a car fan, here is a story about the car industry. Listen to the sentences and fill in the missing words. The missing words might be new to you but try to guess the word(s) and how to spell them. This is very good practice to help you deal with new words.
I would like to share with you the story of one bad job interview that I had a couple of years ago in the hopes that you can learn some things about what not to do at job interviews. I know that you might be thinking, “of course, everyone knows not to do that!” But this is a true story and you would be surprised how many people make similar mistakes.
When people learn another language, they make errors and mistakes. Mistakes are when you know the right answer but you misspeak or get nervous and say the wrong thing or just forget. Errors are when you say the wrong thing and don’t know that it is incorrect. You can correct yourself on mistakes but not on errors.
MBA’s have become very popular in recent years with the applications to the Harvard Business School almost tripling over the past few decades. They have become a sought-after commodity when recruiting but how do you choose the right program for you?
Think about how boring your language would be if everyone spoke the same way. If there were only one way of saying everything and if you didn’t say it that way, you were just plain wrong. People would not be able to express their personalities and conversations would be a lot more boring.

What is your body language saying about you in job interviews?

Posted by glenn in Job Interview in English - (0 Comments)

Recently there have been a few good TV programs about people who use people’s body language to tell what they are really thinking.  Programs like Lie to Me and the Mentalist.  Being interested in psychology, I love to learn more from programs like this that are based on real research.

Body language and job interviews

Here are a few things that we can take from these programs (all verified in other sources too) that will help us to project ourselves as honest, genuine, dedicated candidates in a job interview.

Open gestures.

When you are speaking, use wide, open gestures as these show that you are genuine and you have nothing to hide.  Holding your arms in front of you with the palms facing up is a good example.  Crosiing your arms will of course make you look defensive and hands in your pockets makes you look unconfident.

Feet first

The way you sit at the interview table tells the interviewer a little about where you want to be as your subconscious will often point your feet in the direction that it wants to go.  So if you sit with your legs crossed and they are pointed towards the door, you look uncomfortable.  You look like you want to escape this situation.  The same is often true with your eyes glancing at the door (or a clock), and the direction of your shoulders.

Smile with your eyes

The way to tell if someone is giving you genuine smiles is to look at their eyes.  When you offer a fake smile, you use all of the muscles in the lower part of your face but your eyes do not smile.  Try this in front of a mirror.  Cover the lower half of your face and give a fake smile and the upper part of your face will not change.  Now, think of something that amuses you and you will see how your eyes smile when you are genuine.

Seasoned interviewers know to look for the smiling eyes.

Nervous legs

If you do cross your legs in the interview, be aware of your feet and legs.  If you shake your foot or bounce one leg on top of the other, you look nervous.  Interviewers are usually looking for someone who looks confident that they can do the job without looking arrogant.

Why your body language is important in job interviews

Keep in mind that first impressions are made in the first 7-10 seconds of an interview and that 55% of communication is through body language (38% through the tone of your voice and only 7% through the actual words that you choose).  So, if you are not sure about what your body is saying to interviewers, practice in front of a mirror.

If you have been following this blog, you have already written a resume that stands out and a good cover letter.  But make sure that hard work does not go to waste, interviewers will judge candidates on the their feeling about the person as much as or more than their qualifications. Read about some other things to avoid in a job interview at Top six interview faux pas.

 

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Asking questions in English

Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

Think about how boring your language would be if everyone spoke the same way.  If there were only one way of saying everything and if you didn’t say it that way, you were just plain wrong.  People would not be able to express their personalities and conversations would be a lot more boring.

So, we have a few different ways to ask for or check information.  Here  are a few of the different ways that you can ask questions in English.

1)      Inversion for asking Yes/No questions in English

Inversion means to swap the order of two things in a sentence.  To make a question, we often swap the subject and the auxiliary verb.  This makes a closed question so the answer is likely to be yes or no.

For example, I should go to the party becomes Should I go to the party? when you swap the subject (I) and the auxiliary (should).

If the sentence has no auxiliary such as I work hard, just add the correct form of “do”.  Do I work hard?

2)      Using question words to get the information you want

We use words like who, what, where, when, why, how, whose (+noun), which/what (+noun), how much/many (+noun) with inversion to create open questions.  Open questions are questions that ask for more information than just yes or no.

3)      Using intonation to ask questions in English

You can make just about any sentence into a question just by using the correct intonation.  Try saying, He is a doctor with standard intonation.  Now, try adding extra stress to doctor and raising the pitch at the end of the sentence and it becomes He is a DOCTOR? (sounds like he doesn’t look smart enough to be a doctor).

4)      Using tag questions to check information

We use tag questions to check information.  If I am meeting someone for the second time, I might casually say, Your name is Megan Fox, isn’t it?

To make a tag question, just add the inverse form of the auxiliary verb and the appropriate pronoun (he, she, it, they, etc).  The inverse form of the auxiliary means that if the auxiliary is positive, add the negative, but if it is negative, add the positive.  Don’t forget to use intonation on the tag to make it sound natural.

5)      What are rhetorical questions?

Rhetorical questions are questions that don’t need an answer.  When you stand in front of a large crowd and start your speech with,  Man is truly a remarkable creature. Have you ever seen a monkey programming a computer to fly a space rocket? You don’t actually expect anyone to say, Well, no, I haven’t.

A common example is, What do you think I am, stupid?  Best not to answer this question.  Ever.

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Choosing the right MBA program for you

Posted by glenn in Business English - (0 Comments)

MBA’s have become very popular in recent years with the applications to the Harvard Business School almost tripling over the past few decades.  They have become a sought-after commodity when recruiting but how do you choose the right program for you?

There are many factors that you need to consider when you make this decision because it is a decision that could have a major impact on your future.  In the video, Craig Hubbell, Associate Director of MBA admissions at UCLA Anderson School of Management talks about some of the things that will influence your choice.

As you saw in the video, he discusses geography.  Geography means where the school is located.  Is it in the right area to make the contacts that you want to make in order to achieve the success you are after?  He says that the location of the school may well be the centre of your career in the future so geography is an important consideration.

Also, you need to consider how far the school is from your home and family and what the lifestyle is like in that location.  Will you be happy studying there for a couple of years?

Cost is another consideration.  But as Mr. Hubbell suggests, it is not just about the price of the course but also the cost of your effort and your time.  The cost to your “soul”.

Another good point that he brings up is what do you want from the school?  What specialty are you after and does this school do that better than other schools.  Do not just go for the highest ranked school but go for the school that has a high rank in the areas that you are planning to study.

And finally, choose a school that is the best fit for you.  Research is the key here.  The more you know about the schools that you are considering, the easier it will be to make the right decision.

Top 5 common errors in English

Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

When people learn another language, they make errors and mistakes.  Mistakes are when you know the right answer but you misspeak or get nervous and say the wrong thing or just forget.  Errors are when you say the wrong thing and don’t know that it is incorrect.  You can correct yourself on mistakes but not on errors.

The best way to improve your English is to correct mistakes for yourself.  Ask your friends or teachers to tell you if you make a mistake but not what the correct sentence should be.  If you correct yourself, you will learn and get it right next time.

If you make an error, you probably don’t know how to correct it so the solution here is to find the grammar that caused the error and to study how to use that grammar or that word.  This is where a teacher is helpful.

Most common type of error in English

One of the most common types of errors are when we assume that English is the same as our first language.

Top 5 common errors in English

Take a look at the 5 top errors/mistakes that I hear as a teacher from students from all over the world.  Can you find what’s wrong with these and correct them?

  • I am going to shopping.
  • He like to go to the movies.
  • You really should to fix your car.
  • I am go to the ski resort on the weekend.
  • I will go to upstairs.

Even students who know the correct way to say it still make these mistakes.  This means that you have a habit of making the sentence incorrectly even though you know the correct way.  In this case, you need to change your habit by saying the correct sentence more times than you say the incorrect one.

For example, if you say he like, say it correctly 5 times each time you say it incorrectly. Make 5 different sentences that use he as your subject.  Do this each time you say it incorrectly and you will change the habit.  I always tell students that it is better to speak first and then correct than to try to construct a correct sentence by applying all the rules of grammar (there are a lot).

Answers

Going shopping/he likes/should fix/I am going/go upstairs

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Bad job interview

Posted by glenn in Job Interview in English - (0 Comments)

I would like to share with you the story of one bad job interview that I had a couple of years ago in the hopes that you can learn some things about what not to do at job interviews.  I know that you might be thinking, “of course, everyone knows not to do that!”  But this is a true story and you would be surprised how many people make similar mistakes.

The interview did not start well as while the candidate was waiting in the waiting area, he was listening to his iPod.  This is already bad because candidates appear to be uninterested and selfish.  But soon, he closed his eyes and started tapping his feet to the rhythm.  That’s not so bad I hear you think but then he started singing.  It was just a couple of lines before he caught himself and looked around to see if anyone had noticed.  He thought no one had but the centre that I managed was made of glass.  Someone notices everything in a centre made of glass.

At one point during the interview, I asked why he left his customer service job and he replied that he didn’t like working with people.  I asked if he knew that teachers need to work with people too.  He changed the topic.

The worst part though is that the candidate chewed gum throughout the entire interview.  Maybe he thought he wanted to have fresh breath but when that gum fell out of his mouth while he was speaking, it became the nail in the coffin.  It was at this point that I decided that I could not possibly offer this person a job based on his performance in this interview.

After the bad job interview, I was in the staff room and one of my staff asked me if he would be getting a call-back.  I never answer this question as you never know what will happen but in this case I gave a confident no.  The staff member asked me if I had noticed that he had been wearing white socks with black pants and black shoes.

The moral of the story is; if you want the job, be interested, don’t chew gum, dress properly and choose a job that suits you.

  • Candidate- a person who is being interviewed
  • Slumped posture- he did not sit up straight
  • His true colors- his real personality
  • The nail in the coffin- the last chance is gone
  • Get a call-back- to be invited back for the next round of interviews

 

Business English: Chinese cars to enter European markets

Posted by glenn in Business English - (0 Comments)

 Because I am a car fan, here is a story about the car industry.  Listen to the sentences and fill in the missing words.  The missing words might be new to you but try to guess the word(s) and how to spell them.  This is very good practice to help you deal with new words.

Listening practice

China’s Chery Quantam auto has _____1______  the design of its first car which it hopes will ______2_______  in Europe.

The model, Qoros, is the result of a _______3_______  between China’s biggest car manufacturer and investment firm Israel Corp.

The makers aim to ________4________  and export Chinese cars to Western Europe.

It will ________5__________  markets by late 2013.

 

The answers are listed below.

Sounding good

Now, use these sentences to practice your intonation. 

  •        Make sure that you say the words correctly and stress the words in the same place as the speaker does.  (pronunciation and word intonation)
  •        Try to stress the same words as the speaker in each sentence.  (sentence intonation)
  •        Try to break the speech in the same places as the speaker in the video does. 
  •        Now, try to match the speed of the speaker.

This is the best way to improve your speaking so don’t give up until you are happy with it and if you need some advice, contact one of our teachers.

  

Answers

  1.        unveiled
  2.        break new ground
  3.        joint venture
  4.        reverse a trend
  5.        hit European and Chinese

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Introduction to idiomatic expressions

Posted by glenn in Improving your English - (0 Comments)

Have you ever noticed that we don’t always say what we mean?  Sometimes we have two words that have two meanings but you put them together and they have a new meaning.  Every morning I get up at 7 o’clock.  What is get up?  I know that get means receive and I know that up is the direction of the sky but get up is not to receive in the direction of the sky, right?

What is an idiom expression?

When you put words together to create a meaning that is different to the meaning of the individual words, we create what we call an idiomatic expression or an idiom.  Idioms come from spoken language and they are basically new vocabulary that we create using old vocabulary because we are too lazy or unimaginative to think of new words.  Or perhaps because by using words that already exist, we can give a clue to the meaning.

Understanding idiomatic expressions

Some idioms are easy to guess because of the words that make them.  For example, get up (get out of bed), look around (browse), eat out (eat at a restaurant).  But beware; they may have some hidden meaning that you cannot guess.  Eat out means to go out (to a restaurant) and eat but it does not mean to eat outside (you don’t have to be under the stars).  If you eat at a table just outside your house, we say eat outside not eat out.

The meanings of other idioms are harder to guess.  For example, work out (exercise), kick the bucket (to die), give up (quit).

Idioms are usually unique to a language so it is important that you do not try to translate an idiom into your first language or you will get confused.  Try it.  Translate kick, the and bucket into your own language.  Do you get the meaning of to die?

Idioms are fun to learn and they make the language much more colourful so if you are interested to learn more, I recommend picking up a good dictionary for idiomatic expressions or Googling every time you hear a combination of words that seems to make no sense.  Enjoy.

Mastering the TOEFL iBT listening test

Posted by glenn in English Exams - (0 Comments)

Improving your listening skills will help your ability to have a fun and effective conversation but it is especially important if you plan to undertake the challenge of a listening test like the TOEFL iBT listening test.  The secret to improving your listening skills is active listening and comprehension.

Comprehension

Communication is the sharing of ideas between two people and this goes through three steps.  The first is identifying the sounds into units that you understand.  When you listen, you are hearing sounds and connecting these sounds with words that are already in your vocabulary.  This means that if a word is not in your vocabulary, it is much harder to identify. 

The second step is being able to catch the rhythm of the speech and, in English, the rhythm is created not only by the breaks in between words and parts of sentences but also by the stress that we put on words.  This tells us which parts of the sentence are really important and which parts are just there to satisfy grammatical rules. 

The breaks help us to create blocks of language that are easier to understand than a lot of individual words.  When you do a jigsaw puzzle, it is easier to imagine where the pieces go if you focus on one area (a corner for example) rather than just finding the piece that goes next to this one.

The third part of comprehension is attaching the connotations and context to the words.  When we hear a group of words we bring to our interpretation of those words our thoughts, opinions, feelings and culture.  The same group of words can mean different things to different people.  

Also we need to apply the words that we hear to the situation in order to completely understand it.  The words “it’s your shot” have a completely different meaning if you are standing in front of a pool table than if you are standing in front of a gun.

How this helps with TOEFL iBT listening

If you are studying well already, this should all confirm what you are already doing.  If you are listening to different accents and listening for new vocabulary when you practice, you are helping to build your comprehension. 

If you listen and imitate the rhythm that people use when they speak including the breaks and the stresses, this will help you think in blocks rather than words.

If you understand that words can mean different things and that we need to understand the situation (and sometimes detect what that situation is when there are no visual clues), this will help you to avoid costly misunderstandings that lead to confusion.

Remember, in the TOEFL iBT listening test, you will be listening to identify the situation as well as get the meaning of the words and if you can do this in blocks, it will be much easier for you.  For tips on listening sections for IELTS and TOEIC, click these links.

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