ESL Blogs

It has been a while since we've done a "getting to know you" exercise on MyEC. I hope you'll join me in this month's writing challenge! 

For this writing challenge, I will need you to reach into your purses, knapsacks, or coat pockets and grab your keys. Set your keys out in front of you and have a good look at them.

What does your keychain say about you? 

When we use the word "say" in this way, we do not mean to speak out loud. The word "say" can also mean "to reveal/show/prove/suggest". For examp

Are you an English learner? Do you like spending quality time on MyEC?

Do you have the following goals?

1. To be fluent in English.

2. To develop my confidence in speaking the English language.

3. To improve proper pronunciation.

If your answer is yes, then we have the same goals! I truly believe that learning a language involves commitment, hard work and patience. I would like to present to you some tips that I've been following to improve my English.

1. Set goal/s that you want to achieve.

    Your g

Learn English with Kaplan

From the infographic above, we can see that there are four main benefits from learning a language: love, travel, intelligence and money. And, it's interesting to see that being a bilingual person can increase our chances to get a better life. I remember I read research posted on an online news that bilingual students performed better in various tasks than monolingual students just like the result that was shown by the infographic.

If I was asked to determine, which is th

In the fast changing world,public teaching is also changing.As part of the changes the teachers role and authority in the classroom .

In the past teachers used to be the major source of knowledge ,the leader and educator of their students ,they used to be the authority in the class, but nowadays teachers need to teach their learners how to gain the information and how to select and use them,but the main problem is that the role of the teacher is changing day by day ,and  teachers face many proble

Some of you took part in Kaplan's blog competition a few months back. It was a great experience, wasn't it? Here is another opportunity to practise your writing. Kaplan is holding a new blog competition (Sept 28-Oct 26), and you are invited. It is called "Inspire Language Learning". Find the details on how to enter here. You can write your post on your MyEC Blog. Let me know if you need help embedding the infographic. Don't forget to vote for your favourite post. You may recognize one of the jud

This morning when I came from school I was thinking about how people behave when they are in public and when they talk in private! 

Sometimes You see in chat someone is very naughty and even rude sometimes, but when You talk to them in private You see completely different person. This new person can be very kind and friendly and may be even sensitive! 

So my question is why such difference? Is it some kind of protection? What do You think?

Have you ever wondered if you, your child, or a friend might be dyslexic? Dyslexia is a condition that is inherited, and ranges from mild to severe. A dyslexic person's brain does not function in the same way an average person's brain functions. The weakness is related to the processing of language. The word dyslexia comes from the Greek words dys (difficulty) and lexia (language). 

Dyslexia is not simply a reading disorder. Dyslexics may also have difficulty with writing, spelling, pronunciati

I always believe that the initial purpose why main room was created is that members have a place when they can learn English in fun ways. Well, of course the definition of fun is something constructive to build up people and not to destroy them.

Sometimes, it is boring to chat about serious topics on main room, especially when we have a boring day or just don't have a good mood for something serious. Well, then maybe we can play games on main room.

These last three months I have seen some members

For this month's writing challenge, Tara Benwell posted another educational blog about compound nouns. She is inviting us to participate on this challenge, and make our own compound noun list as well.

Here are some compound nouns that I'm not familiar with. Could you help me define these words? Please make sentences using the compound nouns that are listed below. You can write down your answers on the comment section. 

My Word List

1. blue-green

2. breakwater

3. spoonfuls

4. cheapskate

5. fire-fly

6. lo

Have you ever painted a music? The first artist who did that was Wassily Kndinsky. It is said that he once listened to music and was so impressed that he wanted to paint it. 

We, the painting students, had to choose our favorite music. The music must be plain music without any singer who sings a song. Even if someone sings, we must not paint the lyrics at all. We were supposed to pay attention solely to the rhythm and musical instruments translating them into colors and shapes. The Painting must

Some people assume that English teachers are wonderful spellers. This is not true! In fact, many of us have to review spelling rules regularly. We also have to review other aspects of the language before we teach a lesson. One thing I have trouble remembering is compound nouns. I often find myself looking up words just to be sure they are one word rather than two. Sometimes these words end up being hyphenated. I've noticed on MyEC that many other people have the same problem. This month, let's p

The following is an .assessment meant for MyEC  members

[Click on a  number to get an instant access to that study session]

Your task:

It's almost time for "Back-to-School" in many countries, including Canada. Many students are asked to write essays or paragraphs about their summer vacation. Here is an idea that is more interactive! It's a great way for students to get to know their teachers better. Create a Word Cloud (or have your students create one using something like Wordle that they can use to get to know each other better) with words that remind you of your summer vacation. Then have the students guess what the words mi

I hate cleaning! But what can I do. I have to do it time to time. I wanted to go to bicycling, but It was raining too much. Well, what else u can expect from those weather bureau forecasters. They are all in Tallinn. I think we only have  some automatic weather stations here in my town. That the evil weather forecasters from capital only use to forecast wrong, or bad weather to us.. From safe distance. :P

Anyways, I couldn't escape from cleaning to bicycling, because of this rain rain. So I escap

Consonant Sounds /k/ and /g/

[ Click on the image to see it on a large scale! ]

1. " A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."
- Arabian Proverb

 2. "A friend is one who walks in when others walk out"
-Walter Winchell

3. "Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends."
- Mary Catherwood

 4. "No love, no

Dear Readers,

I did not know the penguin's life before, because of my area. No penguins there. I just got information about it from magazine or news paper. When I visited Australia in 2004, I went to a place as a tourist spot in Sydney. The place is on the beach and I saw the penguin activity there. The activity is called " Penguin Parade". Readers, can you imagine what penguin parade  is like.

I went there by tourist bus. It was  sun set situation. wow it's very wonderful sight. I  saw  many tour

The 2012 London Olympic Games opened with a spectacular opening ceremony. For most of the MyEC members, however, the Games could be more of a chance to learn some English than just a sport meeting.

The Olympics are just taking place in an English-speaking country this time. So, English is everywhere. Chances are you will pick up some idiomatic expressions if you watch the Games on TV or in person in London. When the Queen opened the Games during the ceremony, MyEC members who were watching may ha

Hello, everybody!

It’s not a secret that EC is one of the best places not only to communicate but to improve your English. To do it we should develop different skills, such as  listening, reading, speaking and writing. It’s great that we have different interesting activities here to develop our written skills.  Our dear teacher Tara has a wonderful ability to find and give us various exciting tasks. We are very grateful to her for it.

But I noticed that only few members here try to improve their s