Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[renecohrt]

Perhaps we could discuss our choice of aids studying english.

What kind of dictionaries, grammars, grammatical exercises.

Audiobooks, radio, IT, television.

Literature, papers and magasines.

how to obtain living english contacts.

Please contact me how to obtain results, being most of the time autodidact, then I will present you for my choice of aids.
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Ren� Cohrt

[asterix]

The Oxford English Dictionary.
There are grammar exercises available on the Internet. Just google English grammar.
The BBC and VOA have shortwave broadcasts for people whose mother tongue is not English.
Audiobooks are good, particularly if you have the original book in your own language to refer to. DVDs and films are good too.
Read anything and everything that interests you in English. For instance The Lancet might be of interest.
Or even Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Whatever interests you.
You can go into internet chat rooms and write or speak to people in many languages.

Please note that this forum is not a structured class in English. There are some teachers here, who drop in now and then, but mainly, we are native English speakers who are willing to help.

[renecohrt]

I got a lot of them specially books recently yet a grammar by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffry K. Pullum The Cambridge Grammar Of The English Language. 1500 pages.

Would someone like to comment or make a citation.
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Ren� Cohrt

[asterix]

I would say that a tome of 1500 pages should cover every aspect of English grammar in sufficient depth for even the most advanced student of English.

[coffeedecafe]

i would reply that a tomb of 1500 pages should bury every aspect of english grammar in sufficient depth.


when there is some technical aspect you need to check this could be helpful. for the average usage a 1200- 3000 word vocabulary should be adequate most of the time.
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coffeedecafe

[newstar]

Hi,i am Vietnamese student.So i have many problems in learning English,espcially listening.Can you help me to find out some kind of tapes which are useful to me.
Thanks !

[coffeedecafe]

i don't know where you are in vietnam, or your what you are able to get. since you have a computer, i guess you could do a web search with the topic books on tape and see what pops up. if you find a book on tape in english which you already know the story in vietnamese, that could be very helpful and entertaining. also movies in english with your language subtitles could be fun, whether the translation was always accurate or not.
i remember 2 people i knew who knew japanese copying the japanese voice-over for the american program the lone ranger and tonto and laughing. it was great. of course direct conversation with someone who lives nearby over coffee or on work break who you see face to face and can speed up or slow the speech rate, or stop to ask what an unfamiliar word is would be quicker learning, i think.
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coffeedecafe