Adjective or Adverb?

Q1 - He works hard.

'Hard' is an adjective.
'Hard' is an adverb.

Q2 - She's a fast learner.

'Fast' is an adjective.
'Fast' is an adverb.

Q3 - Go straight down this road till you come to a crossing.

'Straight' is an adjective.
'Straight' is an adverb.

Q4 - That's pretty.

'Pretty' is an adjective.
'Pretty' is an adverb.

Q5 - It was pretty expensive.

'Pretty' is an adjective.
'Pretty' is an adverb.

Q6 - It's a straight road.

'Straight' is an adjective.
'Straight' is an adverb.

Q7 - She's a hard worker.

'Hard' is an adjective.
'Hard' is an adverb.

Q8 - Hold tight.

'Tight' is an adjective.
'Tight' is an adverb.

Q9 - I'm not well.

'Well' is an adjective.
'Well' is an adverb.

Q10 - She did well.

'Well' is an adjective.
'Well' is an adverb.

Q11 - My shoes are tight.

'Tight' is an adjective.
'Tight' is an adverb.

Q12 - Please don't drive so fast.

'Fast' is an adjective.
'Fast' is an adverb.

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7 Tips for speaking English Fluently

**RULE 1: Always Study and Review Phrases, Not Individual WordsNever study a single, individual word. Never.

When you find a new word, always write down The Phrase it is in. Always.

When you review, always review all of the phrase,.. not the word.

Collect phrases.

Your speaking and grammar will improve 4-5 times faster. Always write the

complete phrase.
Never again study a single word. Never write a single word in your notebook,

Learn Phrases Only.Phrases are GROUPS of words that naturally go

together.


**RULE 2: Don't Study GrammarStop studying grammar.
Stop studying grammar.

Right now. Stop. Put away your grammar books and textbooks. Grammar rules

teach you to think about English, you want to speak automatically-- without

thinking!

So Rule 2 is: Don't Study Grammar!


**RULE 3: The Most Important Rule-- Listen FirstWhat is the rule that Humberto found? Simple. The rule is listening.

Listening, listening, listening.

You must listen to UNDERSTANDABLE English. You must listen to
English EVERYDAY. Don't read textbooks. Listen to English.

Its simple. That is the key to your English success. Stop reading textbooks.

Start listening everyday.

**Learn With Your Ears, Not Your Eyes

In most schools, you learn English with your eyes. You read textbooks. You

study grammar rules.

Spend most of your study time listening- that is the key to great speaking.


**RULE 4: Slow, Deep Learning Is BestThe secret to speaking easily is to learn every word & phrase DEEPLY.

Its not enough to know a definition. Its not enough to remember for a test.

You must put the word deep into your brain.

To speak English easily, you must repeat each lesson many times.

You must learn English deeply.

Learn deeply, speak easily.
Learn deeply, speak easily.

How do you learn deeply? Easy-- just repeat all lessons or listening many

times. For example, if you have an audio book, listen to the first chapter 30

times before you go to the second chapter. You could listen to the first

chapter 3 times each day, for 10 days.


**RULE 5: Use Point Of View Mini-StoriesI call these stories "Point Of View Mini-Stories". They are the most powerful

way to learn and use English grammar automatically.

Use Point of View Stories for Automatic Grammar
Use Point of View Stories for Automatic Grammar

You must learn grammar by listening to real English. The best way is to

listen to the same story... told in different times (points of view): Past,

Perfect, Present, Future.

How do you do this? Easy! Find a story or article in the present tense.

Then ask your native speaker tutor to write it again in the Past, with Perfect

tenses, and in the Future. Finally, ask him to read and record these stories

for you.

Then you can listen to stories with many different kinds of grammar. You

don't need to know the grammar rules. Just listen to the Point of View

stories and you will improve grammar automatically!


**RULE 6: Only Use Real English Lessons & Materials
You learn real English if you want to understand native speakers and speak

easily. Use real magazines, audio articles, TV shows, movies, radio talk

shows, and audio books.

Learn Real English, Not Textbook English
Learn Real English, Not Textbook English
To learn real English, you must listen to English that native speakers listen

to. You must watch what they watch. You must read what they read.

Listen only to real English
Listen only to real English
Listen only to real English

How do you learn Real English? It's easy. Stop using textbooks. Instead,

listen only to real English movies, TV shows, audio books, audio articles,

stories, and talk radio shows. Use real English materials.



**RULE 7: Listen and Answer, not Listen and RepeatUse Listen & Answer Mini-Story Lessons
Use Listen & Answer Mini-Story Lessons

In each Mini-Story Lesson, a speaker tells a short simple story. He also asks

a lot of easy questions. Every time you hear a question, you pause and

answer it.

You learn to answer questions quickly-- without thinking. Your English

becomes automatic.

How can you use Listen & Answer Stories? Easy! Find a native speaker tutor.

Ask him to use this method: Ask him to tell a story... and to constantly ask

you easy questions about it. This will teach you to think quickly in

English!

You can also find Listen & Answer lessons. They will teach you to think

quickly in English.

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3 Top Strategies to Alleviate Confusion About HOW MUCH and HOW MANY

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Teaching Countable and Uncountable Nouns is a grammar point that beginners will learn early on and it can take multiple activities to solidify the correct usage.

I have taught this topic hundreds of times and each time I learn something about how I could do it better.

Here are 3 strategies to alleviate confusion about using How Much andHow Many.

Making it Clear: How Much or How Many

1. 1

   Constantly Reiterate Countable/Uncountable Nouns Lesson

   Once you have introduced what countable and uncountable nouns are, you will need to constantly refer back to your explanation. Countable nouns are things with quantities that you see with your eyes. They can be counted easily. Uncountable nouns are things that are more general and cannot be counted. Great examples for each are
   • Countable: markers, pens, apples, hats, or anything you can point to in the classroom, pick up and count—countable nouns usually have an “S” at the end.
   • Uncountable: Water (my favorite example). How can you count water? Rice - Can you count each piece of rice? Time - another favorite - because you cannot clearly see it to measure it.
   When students come across the How Much or How Many question and it baffles them,refer back to these examples. “Is it like water or bananas?” What sounds right to you, “How much shoes or How many shoes?”
2. 2

   Use Food and Shopping as Your Main Practice Topic

   The best way to teach and to reinforce the How Much/How Many grammar point is touse food. Everyone loves food and the food lessons bring with them lots of new vocabulary. You can do any range of activities from shopping in the grocery store, to taking stock of what’s in the kitchen, to creating recipes. Because the students will naturally have to incorporate how much or how many into questions and answers, food is the way to go. Another way to do this is with shopping or restaurant role playsthat introduces ‘how much is it’ and ‘how many do we want/need’. There are innumerable food and shopping lesson ideas that can be dispersed into your lessons to practice how much or how many.
3. 3

   Give Concrete Examples

   One of the problems with practicing How Much and How Many is that it often feels so forced or unnatural. Utilizing classroom objects, pictures and everyday situations can help you get around that and expose students to naturally using muchand many. You don’t always have to force it with this point because we use much and many so often. We use it in telling stories, “There were many people at the mall.” We use it to talk about our time “I have too much homework tonight. I can’t go to the movies.” We use it to talk about money, “How much is the bill?” Look for ways that the students can draw their own conclusions and use error correction as a way to remind them why it one way and not another.

Teaching the grammar point of How Much or How Many is one of those points that comes up again and again.

Just keep giving great explanations and providing opportunities to refresh and practice! Soon students will begin using it without so much trouble.

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What Does She Look Like vs. What is She Like? Distinguishing Between Descriptions

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One of the topics ESL learners really enjoy is describing people. It is a universal need and want to be able to talk about the people close to us.

I adore teaching this topic because students are especially creative; it’s a great opportunity to get to know them better. Here are some basic guidelines to get productive results distinguishing between the two main description types.

Distinguishing Between Descriptions

You’ll want to start out with the easier of the two questions in order to build upon it. Begin with physical description and let them practice and arrive comfortably at natural usage before moving on to the more complex issue of describing personality.

1. 1

   What Does She Look Like?

   To us native speakers it feels quite obvious what this question is asking, but for ESL students it may be easily confused with the more idiomatic question of What is she like?
   What does he or she look like is a question that is a perfect jumping off point for some combined grammar practice. At once, you will teach and practice new vocabulary, subject-verb agreement, adjective placement, and question and sentence formats.
   You can break this all down if you would like or try a more combined method. I find it easiest to start out by discussing the meaning of the question and providing some concrete examples weaved in with explanations. Keep excess language to a minimum and describe the concept of appearance and describing people and objects. You can use students in the class as examples and begin with basic appearance subjects such as: hair color, eye color, height and weight, and then move into the more general subjects that describe overall appearance withopposites. You’ll want to draw out from the class what they know and then build on it with more information. Here are some examples of what you’ll want to include:
   • Blond hair
   • Blue eyes
   • Mustache/beard/goatee
   • Wears glasses
   • Bald/balding
   • Long/short hair
   • Straight—curly
   • Shapes: circular, round, square, rectangular, oval, big, small
   Also some opposites to include:
   • Tall—short
   • Handsome/beautiful/attractive/lovely—ugly/unattractive
   • Pretty/cute—plain
   • Young/old
   • Heavy-set (a better option than fat)—thin/slim/slender
   You can continue to add to this list and split it up into different lessons if need be. Once they have some of the basic vocabulary they can begin practicing usage in any number of ways. You could have them do question and answer in rounds aboutfamily members or people in the class. You could also have them play guessing games like 20 questions or I spy. There are lots of interactive ways to practice describing objects and people, and you can be the best judge of when they are ready to move on to further descriptions.
   You may also want to review the basic grammar of subject-verb agreement using the usual example for “to be” which is as follows:

   I am	They are
   You are	We are
   He/she/it is
   She is tall	They are bald.
   Is she tall?	Are they bald?

2. 2

   What Is She like?

   This question sounds similar to the one above but has a totally different meaning.Explain to students that we are no longer focusing on physical appearance, but character. This is referring to someone’s personality. Ask the students for examples of personality traits they already know. Some of their examples may resemble states of being (sad, happy, tired), so be sure to point out that while describing someone as happy is not incorrect, it means that the person is generally happy all the time, not just at that moment. Here are some good adjectives to start with and add to. As always provide clear definitions with concrete examples:
   • Confident
   • Smart/intelligent/clever
   • Silly/funny
   • Nice/lovely/cute
   • Sweet
   • Generous
   • Honest
   • Friendly
   • Shy/quiet
   • Outgoing
   • Polite/rude
   After comprehension checks, you’ll want to begin practicing, utilizing the same subject-verb agreement example from above. 
   
   Some ideas for practicing describing personalities are: - Have students answer questions about their best friends or family members (Does your friend work hard); 
   - Give them a list of several of the new adjectives and have them describe how someone they know shows that characteristic or more simply, come up with a list of (famous) people that has each particular trait; create some worksheets or matching activities; 
   - Have the students describe a famous person and have everyone guess who it is. There are numerous ways in which you can practice this point that can really get students interacting and sharing.
3. 3

   Distinguish Between the Two Descriptions

   The last step in solidifying the use of these two types of descriptions is to distinguish between the two of them. Do some activities that combine the two points together in order to compare and contrast. Give them opportunities todescribe people they know both by how they look and how they behave. You can do more surveys here to reinforce the language and to add to the ever-growing list of new vocabulary. One of my favorite activities to practice the two together is by providing the students with a blind date scenario. Put them in pairs and tell them that they are going to match up one of their friends or classmates with their partner. The partner can ask questions about the friend/classmate and can then decide if they would like to have a blind date. You can take it one step further and do a dating role play or get into discussions regarding meeting new people and relationships.

Distinguishing between physical appearance descriptions and personality traits are entertaining and often enlightening lessons for everyone involved.

It’s also a topic that can be re-visited often and offers innumerable opportunities for practice and discussion.

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Dealing with TOEFL and IELTS

These kinds of English tests are required when you are willing to continue your study abroad.
So if you are interested in registering yourselves for the test, make sure that you have made enough preparation, cause you have to spend money quite a lot--I mean, it would be a great loss, if you simply join the test without preparation, then....( no wonde)get failed.


It's not only about making yourselves learning English in tight schedule before "the day", but also about knowing THE STRUCTURE of the test. You should realize that those two tests have their own characteristics. So, actually this is also the key to pass the test successfully, besides your English competency (indeed).


But no worries...
in this era, you don't have to spend much money for expensive course--especially if your English is not "too bad". You can use the advantage of the internet. There are lots of free websites that will be helpful in giving you samples and also simulations (online), either TOEFL or IELTS.
So please, just take your time to browse. However, you should remember, you will need intensive practice, so make sure to manage your schedule for that need.

Happy learning and good luck with the test.

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