Paraskevidekatriaphobics have the irrational fear of Friday the 13th! If you refuse to get out of bed, fly on a plane, or would never even consider getting married on any Friday that falls on the 13th of the month, then you may have this fascinating phobia. Learn more about the fear of Friday the 13th by reading one of these interesting articles on the subject. And by all means…avoid walking under any ladders or breaking any mirrors today!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0212_040212_friday13.html
http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th.htm
http://people.howstuffworks.com/friday-thirteenth.htm
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April Fool’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. While not an official holiday, many pranksters wait all year long for the opportunity to really get their friends, family, and coworkers good with a great hoax or practical joke. Many newspapers, television shows, and websites revel in trying to fool people with creative April Fool’s jokes, so beware! Below is a link to some of the most famous or infamous April Fool’s jokes ever played!
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, but what is it exactly that we’re celebrating with all that green beer, corned beef, and cabbage? Well, it turns out that St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and perhaps the most well-know of all the saints. St. Patrick was born on March 17th, 460 A.D. in Britain, but when he was 16 he was kidnapped and kept as a prisoner in Ireland. After six years, St. Patrick escaped and returned to Britain, but it is said that he had visions which told him to return to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. If you would like to learn more, check out the link below to find out all you ever wanted to know about St. Patrick’s Day!
It’s already that time of year when we turn our clocks ahead one hour in order to enjoy a little more sunshine throughout the day. It’s also a great time to remember to change the batteries in your smoke alarm and to flip your mattress! While you may be aware of the fact that we are changing the clocks this weekend, you might not know exactly why we do it or how it all began. So, here are a few links that will help you learn some interesting facts about Daylight Saving Time.
If you want to practice your English pronunciation skills, you need to listen to words and sounds closely so that you can understand those little differences between similarly sounding words. You can do this by listening to the radio, speaking with native speakers, or listening to pronunciation tapes. 
Do you like English idioms? Do you like crossword puzzles? Well, then you’ll love this English Idioms Crossword Puzzle! This game uses 32 common idioms that are used in everyday English and places them in a fun and easy to do crossword puzzle. Print out the pages, but don’t look at the third page because those are where the answers are. When you’re finished you can check your answers to see how well you know your English idioms!
The simple present tense form of a verb is used to express habits; repeated actions; general facts; and scheduled events that will happen soon. A simple present verb will either not change (I sing); will have an “s” added (she plays); or have an “es” added (he catches). This all depends on the subject form and what letters the verb ends with.
We use the Present Perfect to express an action that has happened at an unspecified or unknown time before now. You can use yet, already, ever, or before with the Present Perfect because it is not a specific time. You cannot use words like yesterday, last week, or when I was ten years old because this indicates a specific time in the past.
You can use the imperative to give direct commands, instructions, or advice. For instance, your teacher may tell you to “sit down” or “be quiet” or “open your book” or “raise your hand”. These are all examples of the imperative.
Adjective Clauses are dependent clauses that modify a noun. They are used to give additional or background information on the nouns they are describing. Adjective Clauses always follow the nouns that they are modifying, but they are not necessarily used directly after the noun. Most Adjective Clauses begin with a relative pronoun ”who, which, that” or a relative adverb “when, where, why” so you can easily identify them in a sentence. Check out some of the links below to learn how to identify and practice writing Adjective Clauses.
Whether you are writing an English essay for your class or for the TOEFL test, you will need to get organized before you ever put pen to paper. Outlining your essay topic, no matter how big or how small, can make the difference between a passing grade and a failing one. But putting together an essay writing outline can be confusing if you don’t understand how to do it properly. The key to any good essay is organization, clarity, and supporting facts, so outlining all of your ideas before you write your essay is essential to hitting all of these important points.
If you are using the NorthStar Listening and Speaking books, then you can access audio lessons that go with your book on-line. You will first need to sign up for a password and then log in to the NorthStar audio page. Choose the book number you are using, then the chapter you want to listen to, and you’re on your way! If you are using the computer lab, you will need to bring in your own headphones or purchase some from the front desk for just $1.00.
Prepositions of time and place include words such as: in, on, at, to, since, for, from, above, below, behind, under, over, near, and between…to name just a few.
In order to help you write good persuasive essays, it is helpful to read other persuasive essays written by other authors in order to recognize specific essay writing styles. Essay writing for academics is written in a very specific and well-organized way. The standard essay for most academic tests that are common in the United States (TOEFL, GED, GRE) use the five paragraph style: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each essay must have a clear thesis statement, transitional statements, supporting and/or contrasting ideas, and each body paragraph should be written in a parallel manner. Take a look at the following persuasive essays written by ESL students just like you and see if you can recognize these typical essay traits and decide if they were successful or not.
ManyThings.org is a great ESL website that has “many things” for you to do to help with your English studies. On their Daily Page, they have new things every day that you can use to practice your English. Each day you will find a new slang term, grammar quiz, listening exercise, and pronunciation practice. This is a great way to start off each day with a little English practice!
The General Educational Development Diploma (GED) is a good option for international students who want to take college course in the United States. Many times international students find that it is extremely difficult and often very expensive to have their transcripts translated and transferred to colleges in the United States. In addition, many students did not graduate from a high school in their country and are now too old to enter a high school in the United States.
Practice spelling verbs that end in a consonant when adding -ed or -ing to the end by taking these quick quizzes.
ESLvideo.com has free videos you can watch and listen to while answering questions about what is happening in the video clips. They have videos grouped together for beginning, low-intermediate, intermediate, and high-intermediate ESL students, so there is something for everyone. Try it out and see how you do!
When you’re ready to finally take the TOEFL test, you can easily register online with the official ETS testing site. The test is offered at multiple locations across the state of Georgia (and the world) and is given multiple times each month. The fee for taking the TOEFL test is $170 and you can choose from a paper or computer based test.
Ask anyone who grew up in the United States during the 70s and 80s about Conjunction Junction, and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about! As children we grew up watching cartoons that taught us common grammar rules and Conjunction Junction was one of the most popular ones…teaching us how to use “and/but/or” correctly. So, check out the video and then practice your conjunctions to see how well you can hook up words, phrases, and clauses!
Check out the new Azar Interactive website that offers online access to additional lessons and learning activities to go along with your Fundamentals of English Grammar and Understanding and Using English Grammar books. The website offers more than 500 new interactive exercises, including listening, speaking, and reading. You can sign up to try it out for free for 30 days.
Looking for a new job? Then you might want to brush up on your business English vocabulary in order to make the best impression possible on your next job interview. Learning the most accurate business vocabulary, phrases, expressions, and jargon is very important if you want to find a job in the English speaking world. At this website you’ll find exercises that will help you learn the vocabulary most commonly used in the medical field, information technology, accounting, sales and marketing, as well as general business terms.
Songs are a great way to learn and practice English, especially if you can see the written words at the same time that they are being heard. At ELLLO, there is a song page that has several different songs to choose from and when you click on it the words appear on the screen Karaoke-style as the music plays. This is a fun and entertaining way to improve your grammar, pronunciation, reading, and idiom skills.
The apostrophe is often misunderstood and generally misused by both native and secondary English language writers. If you are preparing to take the TOEFL, GED, or other college entrance exam, you will need to know how to use the apostrophe correctly in order to gain a passing score on the essay portion.
Well, it just might be a snowy day in the south tomorrow, but luckily classes don’t start until Monday, January 11th, so you won’t have to brave the icy streets to get here! However, this is the perfect opportunity to give you some important information in case there’s more inclement (bad) weather in the coming weeks. Whenever there is extremely bad weather (snow, ice, or tornados), please make sure the school is open before you leave by checking the Gwinnett Technical College main website or one of the local TV news channels listed below. You can also practice your English by reading the local news while you’re there!
Have you read a good book lately? What about an interesting magazine article? Or maybe you just have time to catch up on the daily news. No matter how much time you have to spend, you need to make a habit of reading something every single day if you want to improve your English skills. This website has links to full-length books, online magazines, and different newspapers from around the world. You will be amazed at how quickly your understanding of English improves once you start reading a little bit of English every day.
