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June 30, 2014 Blue Level students take two tests today. This is Test #1. This is Test #2. Check your answers here. If you were studying in the Orange Level during the month of June, you can advance to the Violet Level after you take the Orange Level test. There’s a new conversation listed in the Conversations section: asking questions in the grocery store The word of the day is "challenge." Tomorrow’s soccer match against Belgium will be a challenge for the U.S. team.
June 29, 2014 Today’s lesson: Blue Level Review. Tomorrow there’s a test for Blue Level students. If you do well on it, you can advance to the Red Level. The word of the day is "loan." June 28, 2014 The verb "need" is used when something is necessary or imporant. Learn how to use tthe verb "need" in the present tense in Blue Level Lesson-Twenty-eight. Students who have been studying in the Orange Level and have completed all of the lessons can take the Orange Level test. If you don’t do well on the test, you might have to review the lessons in this level again. A poor performance on the test might also indicate that your knowledge of basic English grammar isn’t very good. In that case, I would recommend that you go back to the Blue Level and work through all of the lessons, then continue to complete lessons in the Red, Yellow, and Green Levels. This takes a long time to complete; however, learning English isn’t easy. Don’t let anyone tell you it is. It isn’t. The word of the day is "drought." June 27, 2014 Today’s lesson for Blue Level students is on the words "would like." Use "would like" when asking for something or when describing something that you want to do in the future:
The word of the day is "mean." Did you get the email I sent out this morning? If not, sign up for emailed lessons and updates on the Home page. Keep in touch with your teacher and visit the website every day. This is how my students improve their English. It’s not easy to do, but if you are willing to work hard, you can achieve your dreams. June 26, 2014 Blue Level students learn how to use the verb "want" in the past tense today in Blue Level Lesson Twenty-six. Orange Level students practice listening and writing in the dictation section. There’s a new video on YouTube. I made this video in answer to a question from a student. This might become a regular feature for the website. You ask a question and then I answer it in the form of a video. The word of the day is "bother." June 25, 2014 The word of the day is "worth." Blue Level students study the verb "want" today. Use this word to express desire:
If you are studying in the Orange Level, Lesson Twenty-five helps you with punctuation used in English.
June 24, 2014 In Blue Level Lesson Twenty-four, you’ll learn how to use "have to" when describing an activity that is necessary or important.
This lesson is in two parts. The first part shows how to form affirmative and negative sentence. The second part shows how to make questions. After you complete the lesson, you can take this quiz. The word of the day is "frustrate." Orange Level students study appositives today. This video explains what appositves are. June 23, 2014 The word "can" is a modal verb used to describe ability or possibility. This is your Blue Level lesson for the day. Blue Level reading exercise #23 is shows how the phrase "work as" is applied to a person’s job. This is common in English. I work as a teacher. He works as a chef. They work as accountants. When she lived in Germany, she worked as a doctor. Orange Level students study the subjunctive mood today. There’s a new reading exercise for the Yellow Level: Miguel moved to the United States. The word of the day is "scare."
June 22, 2014 The word of the day is "absorb." The Blue Level Lesson for today is on basic math: addition and subtraction. The most important thing about this lesson is that you learn how Americans talk about basic math. Here’s Blue Level Reading Exercise #22: Mr. Jefferson is a math teacher. Orange Level Lesson Twenty-two is on forming questions with "have to." June 21, 2014 The word of the day is "ambitious." How ambitious are you when it comes to learning English? The Blue Level lesson for today is on numbers. Have you seen this Blue Level exercise yet? Blue Level exercises are found on the Blue Level page. The Orange Level lesson is a review of question words. Beginning students might find this useful as well. June 20, 2014 Blue Level students: Learn how to pronounce the days of the week. Here’s Blue Level reading exercise #20: Patricia and Graciela are returning to school. The word of the day is "surround." Orange Level students learn how to embed a question within a sentence or a question in Orange Level Lesson Twenty. I added an audio track to this lesson today. June 19, 2014 Blue Level students: There are certain parts of the website that you should consider going to on a daily basis. The lesson and the reading exercises match the day of the month, so…. Today’s lesson: Blue Level Lesson Nineteen – count and noncount nouns Today’s reading exercise: Blue Level Reading Exercise Nineteen – Tony surfs all summer. There are also many pronunciation exercises that will help you. You can complete these in any order; however, most people begin with the vowels. The word of the day is "awesome." Orange Level students learn about tag questions today in Orange Level Lesson Ninetheen. June 18, 2014 The word of the day is "flip." There’s a new Word of the Day quiz for June 2014.
June 17, 2014 The word of the day is "heat." Blue Level students click here to learn how to talk about time, day and date. June 16, 2014 The verb "be" takes two different forms in the past tense: was and were. There are two parts to this lesson. Here’s the first part. This is the second part. New students: I recommend that you do some listening exercises in the Listening Lab. Listen to the recordings and write what you hear. Listening is the most important skill for new students to develop. This exercise matches today’s Blue Level lesson. The word of the day is "tiny." Orange Level students learn about the difference between the words "so" and "too" today. June 15, 2014 The lesson for the day in the Blue Level is on possessive pronouns. These words look a little like possessive adjectives, but don’t confuse the two. They’re very different. The word of the day is "honor." In Orange Level Lesson Fifteen, you’ll learn how to use the word "wish" when describing things that you want. June 14, 2014 The lesson for today is on possessive adjectives. These are words that go before nouns and indicate who the owner is, or who possess a particular thing. The word of the day is "provide." Orange Level Lesson Fourteen shows how to form past conditional sentences. June 13, 2014 Blue Level Lesson Thirteen provides basic vocabulary for making questions for information. The word of the day is "crispy." Orange Level Lesson Thirteen explains how to form present conditional sentences. Use these types of sentences to describe situations that are not true or contrary to present fact. Here are some examples:
June 12, 2014 Today’s lesson for the Blue Level is on the past tense. This video is part of the lesson:
Take this quiz after you complete the lesson. The word of the day is "mushy." The Orange Level lesson for today is on future conditional sentences. These sentences are formed when talking about the possible outcomes of future events. These kinds of sentences are very common in English. Here’s an example:
Notice that the verb "work," is in the present tense after the word "if." Why is that? Go to the lesson to find out. June 11, 2014 Are you new to this website? How are you doing on the lessons so far? Most students who work on this website print out a checklist of lessons so that they can keep track of their progress. Here’s the checklist for the Blue Level. Today’s Blue Level lesson is on prepositions. These are those little words that students have so much trouble with. When do you use this or that preposition? It depends on the situation. In addition to the lesson, you can click here for a list of prepositions and examples of ways in which they are used. The word of the day is "back." This simple word has many different meanings and applications. It’s an important word to understand. June 10, 2014 Articles are those little words, such as "the, "a," and "an" that students either forget to use or use in the wrong place. Why are articles so difficult? Learn about articles in Blue Level Lesson Ten and then take this quiz. Orange Level students study the sequence of tenses. Knowledge of the sequence of tenses will become necessary when you learn about conditional sentences, which you will study this week, and reported speech, which you’ll study tomorrow. The word of the day is "dozen." June 9, 2014 Blue Level students study the verb "have" in the present tense. Take this quiz at the end of the lesson. If you are going through the reading exercises in order, today we’re on reading exercise #9, Jim and Darryl work together. The word of the day is "rinse." Orange Level students learn about adverb clauses today. There’s a new video for the verb "choose."
June 8, 2014 There are two lessons for the present continuous tense in the Blue Level. This is the first part. This is the second part. It’s important to know the differences between the present tense (yesterday’s lesson) and the present continuous tense. Look at the sentences below:
For beginning level students, it’s not always easy to know which tense to use, the present tense or the present continuous tense. This video might help:
The word of the day is "water." This is basic English vocabulary, but what many of my students don’t realize is that "water" can be used as a verb:
Orange Level students click here to learn about adjective clauses. June 7, 2014 The present tense is one of the most confusing things for beginning level students to learn. We use this tense to describe daily activities. What do you do every day?
What does he do every day?
Do you notice the way the verbs change? Blue Level Lesson Seven is all about the present tense. The Blue Level reading assignment for today: Tom has a question. The word of the day is "thrill." For students who have trouble pronouncing the unvoiced "th" sound, I recommend you complete this exercise. June 6, 2014 Blue Level Lesson Six is on the word "there." it’s important to consider the different situations for using this word. I find it’s necessary for beginning level students to understand the difference between "it" and "there." The reading assignment for today: Jack and Matt are studying. The word of the day is "choose." Students studying in the Orange Level learn about noun clauses today. June 5, 2014 Lesson Five in the Blue Level explains some of the differences among the pronouns this, that, these, and those. It’s extremely important for you to understand how they are different. Take this quiz when you finish the lesson. This is reading exercise #5 in the Blue Level. If you are studying in the Orange Level (intermediate to advanced students), your lesson for today is on compound-complex sentences. The word of the day is "soak." June 4, 2014 Blue Level students learn about nouns and pronouns today. These are words that represent people, places, and things. Are you practicing your reading in the Blue Level? There are enough exercises in this level for you to complete one reading exercise per day. Today is the fourth day of the month. This is the fourth reading exercise in the Blue Level. The word of the day is "enough." Orange Level students study complex sentences today. This is a very common sentence formation. It has one independent clause and one dependent clause.
Put a comma (,) after the dependent clause if it begins the sentence.
June 3, 2014 Students in the Blue Level study present tense questions with the verb "be" in Blue Level Lesson Three. The word of the day is "ain’t." Orange Level students learn about compound sentences today. The featured sound of the day is the "p" sound. I’m changing the audio so that the files can be downloaded to your mobile device. June 2, 2014 The first few lessons for the Blue Level are on the verb "be" in the present tense. This is the very first thing you should learn when you study English. Notice how the verb "be" changes with the subject.
To make the verb "be" negative, just add "not."
Learn more about making the verb "be negative in Blue Level Lesson Two. Orange Level students who are studying sentence formation this month learn about clauses and phrases in Orange Level Lesson Two. The word of the day is "off." There’s a new reading exercise for the Blue Level Reading Room: It’s the end of the school year. June 1, 2014 Today students begin the Blue Level. Visit this website every day and follow the schedule as it appears on the home page. That’s where I list the lessons and exercises and post new material. Print out the Blue Level checklist and keep it by your computer to track your progress. Here’s the overall schedule for the next seven months.
The word of the day is "chirp." Click here to go to May 2014 Click here to go to the LAEO Blog Archive. o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
