Spoken English Learned Quickly (complete course with MP3 and PDF lessons)

Learning English and creative writing through photographs

Nouns

Pronouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Interjections

Idioms, phrasal verbs
and proverbs

Listening

Speaking and Pronunciation

Reading

Spelling

Vocabulary

Writing

"A picture is worth a thousand words ..." blog

ESL Tour Program (Department of Tourism): study English and visit the Philippines at the same time

Free English Proficiency Course (EPiC) for Filipinos (students, professionals, OFWs, etc), international students (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc) and expatriates in Metro Manila.

Time and venue: Saturdays, 3 to 5 PM at the Baptist Bible Church (3970 Sociego St. Sta. Mesa, Manila, near V. Mapa LRT Station and opposite SM Centerpoint. Other schedules may be arranged for interested groups on Tuesdays or Thursdays (6:30 to 8:30 PM or 7 to 9 PM). Classes begin on July 11, 2009.

For more information, please contact Atty. Gerry T. Galacio at gtgalacio@yahoo.com or call 716-0803.

Free ESL and EFL lesson plans, worksheets, flashcards, printables and downloads (PDF, video, MP3 and Powerpoint)

Common Errors in English, by Paul Brians

Sites For Teachers (Lesson Plans, Worksheets, Activities, Clip Art in subjects like Reading, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Writing)

Free online practice tests for learners of English, from Exam English (IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, Cambridge ESOL, LTE and others; also available in French and Spanish)

Text to Speech and Text to Speech Translator, from oddcast.com (available real time in over 60 various languages, accents and voices)

Ultimate Top 100 Kids Sites is for children, teens, parents, and teachers, with links to fun, games, education, coloring, poetry, stories, cartoons, worksheet creator or generator, game makers, printables wizard and on-line teaching materials makers with images. Some of the listed English resources are ESL-Kids.com, Tools for Educators, Have Fun Teaching, ESL PodCards, Free ESL Flashcards, Heads Up English (ready to use ESL / EFL news lessons based on world events with mp3 downloads)

WritingFix (a global resource for Writing teachers with hundreds of free interactive lessons and quality resources for classrooms where writing is taught, not just assigned; with interactive writing prompts and lessons for teachers, students and writers like Daily Writing Prompts, Interactive Writing Prompts for K-6th Grade, Right-Brained Writing Prompts using serendipity and creativity to launch a piece of writing, Left-Brained Writing Prompts, and Writing Lesson of the Month Network for teachers around the world.) Other valuable resources from the Mentor Text lessons created by Northern Nevada teachers for teachers everywhere are: Picture Books; Chapter Book Excerpts; Literary Excerpts & Poetry Classics; Poetry-Inspired lessons; Short Stories (designing skill-based writing lessons inspired by short story excerpts); Poetry and Writing Across the Curriculum Prompts (using iPod technology to generate excitement about writing assignments in all curricular areas).

Daily Writing Tips, simple yet effective tips to improve your writing. Categories include Book Reviews, Business Writing, Competitions, Expressions, Fiction Writing, Freelance Writing, General, Grammar, Grammar 101, Misused Words, Punctuation, Spelling, Vocabulary, Word of the Day, and Writing Basics. You can get DWT via RSS Feed, or by email, and stay tuned for your writing tips.

ESL Kids Lab offers free Printable ESL Worksheets and PDF Flashcards, Games for ESL Classrooms, ESL Video Lessons for kid Beginners, Interactive Students Vocabulary and Grammar Videos, and Powerpoint downloads for English teaching and learning.

MES-English.com by Mark Cox (free printables for teachers of young learners including Free Flash Cards for download; MES-Games: versatile communicative games; MES-Phonics: phonics flash card, posters and handouts for presentation; Projects and Lesson plans; Worksheets: talking worksheets, worksheets for introduction of grammar points, a phonics e-book series, award certificates, clipart to make your own worksheets, song sheets, nursery rhymes and chants cards, hundreds of color in sheets, teacher printables, and worksheets to match the MES-Flashcards, and Forums for games, activities, questions and feedback)

ESL Tower offers printable grammar and vocabulary exercises to make the lives of English teachers very easy like grammar worksheets for use in teaching by EFL, ESL, ELT and GSE teachers, vocabulary exercises to print and arranged according to topics, pronunciation printables to teach phonetics, connected speech and more.

ESL Printables, a website where English language teachers exchange resources like worksheets, lesson plans, activities, etc. Its collection is growing every day with the help of teachers from around the world. If you want to download any resource, you have to send your own contributions.

ESL Galaxy offers over 2,368 free printable worksheets for ESL lesson plans and ESL Activities and there are more additions every other day .The worksheets include: Board Games, Crosswords, Grammar worksheets, Vocabulary Worksheets, Theme or Topic lesson plans, Pronunciation and Intonation, Survival English and Business English, Song and Video Activities, Word Search Puzzles, Festivals and Holiday Worksheets, Prefixes / Suffixes Word Formation, Adult Communicative Activities Lesson Plans, Young Learners' Lesson Plans, Game and Writing Templates, Cloze and gap fill exercises, It also has ESL Games and ideas for ESL Classrooms, Powerpoint downloads, Matching and Collocations, Reading and Writing Exercises, Task-based Lesson Planning, Complete Lesson Plans (with video, ppt, worksheets). Free online exercises include grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, video slide lessons, and self-grading quizzes.

ESL videos: Real English (hundreds of free exercises using authentic and natural videos of people speaking real English on streets across the globe, rendering the spontaneity of normal speech understandable for all levels of students, every lesson has 10 to 40 exercises using the English Star player, with a choice of subtitles in English, French, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese); Hugosite (free 365 American accent English lessons);and The Daily English Show (the world's first daily online English language show with over a thousand videos; produced by studio tdes and presented by Sarah, a New Zealander based in Hokkaido, Japan; with YouTube channel; transcripts available in Japanese, German, Italian, Korean, Russian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Polish, and Ukrainian)

ESL Talk Time materials for conversation starters, independent speaking practice, debate clubs, discussions, lesson add-ons and more: ESL Discussions.com (currently with 642 discussion topics to choose from and 12,840 conversation questions on everyday themes and more controversial issues, in ready-to-print Word and PDF downloads); Speechtree (with dozens of conversation starters on themes such as abstract themes, academic matters, daily life, hobby topics, holiday related topics, nature topics, personal history, personal values, relationship topics, work topics, world and culture); and Road to Grammar (100 warm-up questions to turn your students into conversationalists, with topics on What-if questions, Learning English, Motivational, Likes and dislikes, Superlatives and comparatives, Social issues and opinions, and Business English).

Hot Potatoes from Half Baked Software Inc. (A suite of six applications which allow a user to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises and action mazes for the Internet. The software is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a license)

ICAL Online TESL / TEFL Training (largest commercial online teacher training provider where you can get qualified to Teach English as a Foreign Language or Teach English as a Second Language; free website resources include comprehensive online grammar of English, classroom techniques, linguistics, ESL activities and lesson plans, teaching FAQs, and ESL / EFL videos)

English - Spanish Language Dictionaries, from WordReference.com (free online Oxford Spanish dictionary, conjugator, audio pronunciations and forums for your questions; More Spanish dictionaries are Spanish - French, Spanish - Portuguese)

Hazar.com offers free online dictionaries for translating Turkish to and from English, German, Italian, Danish and Japanese; free resources for people of Turkish heritage

Yahoo downloads (the best free software for Windows like Firefox 3 and others)

Google Chrome (BETA) for Windows: Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

The English language: Gateway to the world

The English language in its different varieties (American English, British English, etc) is the gateway to the world of education, business, technology and inter-people communication. More than a billion people speak the English language, and there are only a few places in the world where English is not understood.

The goal of this website

If you are a teacher or student from grade school up to college, a professional, an entrepreneur, an employee in government or in the private sector, this website can help improve your mastery of the English language. Proficiency in English will help improve your grades and create opportunities for advancement in work and career.

The design of this website

The website is divided into the traditional classification of English grammar of the eight parts of speech, plus sections on idioms, vocabulary, spelling, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and writing. Based on these divisions, we have searched for and selected good discussions and interactive exercises from more than a thousand ESL (English as Second Language) and EFL (English as Foreign Language) websites.

The websites we have chosen are consistently good, fast loading, and generously offer to their users, free of charge, a wide range of resources. Besides the materials listed in this website, these excellent sites offer a tremendous range of valuable resources in learning the English language.

While broadband connection is becoming more accessible and affordable for homes, most of you probably still have online access either through slow dial-up connections or through rental by the hour services of Internet cafes. This website thus uses predominantly text links, with very few graphics.

The Filipino diaspora

Here in the Philippines, English is the language of government, education, commerce and industry. The Philippines has a population of around 78 million. As of December 2004, there were more than eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) employed in over 180 countries as nurses, engineers, doctors, entertainers, domestic helpers, seamen, business management experts, etc. The term "Filipino diaspora" has been used to describe this scattering of Filipinos all over the world. Foreign employers prefer Filipinos, not only for their industry and technical competence, but for their ability to communicate in English.

There are also thousands of Filipinos pursuing their studies in colleges and universities in English-speaking countries.

Exceptions rather the rule

Thousands of Filipinos are also employed in the call center companies here in the Philippines. Acceptable fluency in the English language by Filipinos is one big factor for the booming call center industry in our country.

However, Filipinos who can speak, read and write excellent English are the exceptions rather than the rule. Studies have shown that the Filipinos' grasp of the English language is slipping, and other Asians are fast catching up, thanks to their governments' aggressive English language training programs.

According to one media report, only two out of ten applicants in call centers eventually get hired, the rest having failed in the English proficiency tests. Those who do get hired are often required to undergo a rigorous review of English. The same report also stated that many graduates from our top universities have English language skills comparable only to 2nd grade children from Western countries. Another news item reported that out of 100 Filipino nurses who take the English proficiency exams abroad, only 50 percent or less pass.

To address this problem of decreasing competence in English among Filipinos, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directed in early 2007 the Department of Education to use English as the medium of instruction in all school levels.

In Congress, House Bill 305 or the proposed "Act to Strengthen and Enhance the Use of English as the Medium of Instruction in Philippine Schools" is expected to be passed in 2008. Under Section 4 of this bill, English will be the medium of instruction starting from Grade 3 up to high school. In addition, HB 305 will encourage the use of English in language interaction in schools and the organization of English-based clubs such as book, oratorical, debating, writing and related associations. Under Section 5 of the bill, the use of English will be required for government examinations and entrance examinations in public schools, state colleges and universities.

Differences between American English and British English; an emerging standard of Philippine English

Please take note that these websites either teach American English or British English. Although American English is the standard in the Philippines, we have included websites on British English since the countries Filipinos have gone to as workers or students include those where British English is the standard. For a better understanding of the differences between American and British English, please read the following articles : (1) American and British English differences from Wikipedia; and (2) Differences Between American and British English from About.com.

According to scholars (Dr. Teodoro Llamzon,1969; Bro. Andrew Gonzales, FSC of De La Salle University, 1981; and recently, Dr. Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista, Professor Emeritus, DLSU), there is now a brand of English known as “Standard Filipino English” or “Philippine English”. Dr. Llamzon described it as “the type of English that educated Filipinos speak and which is acceptable in educated Filipino circles.”

Except for three or four websites, the sites we have included here come from American, Australian, British or European sources. Thus, Filipinos may sometimes find it difficult relating with the situations or the contexts of the discussions and interactive exercises. As soon as we find online English lessons with an Asian context, we will include them here.

How to answer the interactive exercises

In answering the interactive exercises, you should follow carefully the prompts and directions. You should read each sentence or part aloud before clicking the answer you think is right. After the correct answer is displayed, think it over as to why it is the correct answer. (Please take note that the correct answer may depend on whether the exercise comes from an American English or a British English website.) After doing so, read the complete sentence again aloud with the correct answer.

To train yourself to think in English, try to recite the sentences with the correct answers from memory and at your full speaking volume. Or you can ask a friend to read out loud the sentences with the correct answers and you repeat them without looking at the computer screen.

Special features of this website

The section on "Spoken English Learned Quickly" is a complete course in English excellent for self-study or classroom instruction and with enough mp3 and PDF lessons for nine months of study (two hours a day. five days a week). You can easily download the mp3 lessons, the Instructor's Guide and the 450-page Student Workbook in PDF format.

Another unique feature is the section on "Learning English and creative writing through photographs". While the primary intended beneficiaries of this website are OFWs, professionals, teachers and students from the Philippines, everyone (from any country) is welcome to make use of this feature of the website.

Testing your level of English proficiency

Before browsing the other sections of this website, it is a good idea to first test your level of mastery of the English language. Listed below are some online diagnostic and assessment tests. Clicking the blue link will take you to the specific page where the diagnostic and assessment test is located, while clicking the website name will bring you to the site's home page.

[01] Free Online TOEFL, English and Multi-Language Vocabulary Test, from FreeTOEFL.net

Designed for multi-language vocabulary tests (Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, etc) and for English exams like TOEFL, iBT, GRE, SAT and TOEIC

[02] Online Assessment Tests, from World English

Diagnostic Grammar Test
English Grammar Placement Test
English Language Assessment Test
Online English Assessment Tests

[03] Diagnostic tests / Assessment tests on English grammar, from www.english-at-home.com

[04] Assessment Tests, from Churchill House School of English Language

Elementary Level
Intermediate Level
Upper-Intermediate Level (FCE)
Advanced Level (CAE)

[05] Test your English now (vocabulary, grammar, listening and reading (cloze test)

[06] 365 various quizzes to test your English knowledge, from Road to English Grammar

[07] Free online, interactive exercises in grammar, vocabulary and discourse, from Language Project (approved by the British Council)

Elementary English Practice Exercises
Intermediate English Practice Exercises
Advanced English Practice Exercises

[08] Free online practice tests for learners of English, from Exam English (managed by Steve Chadwick); also available in French and Spanish

English Exam Level Test (find your level and what exam to take)
International English Language Testing System (IELTS): academic reading, general reading test, listening, writing, vocabulary
Test Of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL): reading, listening, grammar, vocabulary
Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC): Reading tests, Part 5 incomplete sentences, Part 6 error recognition
Cambridge ESOL exams:
Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) C2 grammar, vocabulary, dictionary
Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) C1 use of English, listening
First Certificate in English (FCE) B2: reading, use of English, listening, writing
Preliminary English Test (PET) B1 reading, writing
Key English Test (KET) A2 grammar, vocabulary
Business Language Testing Service (BULATS): reading
Michigan Tests
Examination for the Certificate of Competency in English (ECCE) B2: grammar
Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) C2: grammar
London Tests of English
LTE level 5 (C2) listening
LTE level 3 (B2) listening

News updates as of June 19, 2008

“PGMA : The sooner deficiencies of RP education system are fixed, the better” (www.gov.ph)

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stressed that English proficiency should be “universal” among Filipino teachers.

She said that “in-service training” in English should be held on weekends in order that teachers will continue to hold classes during regular school days.

Malacanang had earlier earmarked P500 million for English training.

The President made no bones about her concern over the current state of the state of English teaching, as she recalled a comment by Sen. Richard Gordon that many of the semi-finalists in an English competition could not “verbalize” their answers to the interview questions.

“We have to make sure their (the teachers’) English is good. Really, English is not proceeding anywhere as fast as Math or Science… It is deteriorating. Something must be wrong with the educational system,” she said.

Filipinos’ proficiency in English up – Social Weather Stations survey, by Shianee R. Mamanglu

The proficiency of Filipinos in written and spoken English has improved in the last two years, the Social Weather Station (SWS) said.
The survey, conducted from March 30 to April 2, indicated that the ability of Filipinos to write English recovered from 48 percent in March, 2006 to 61 percent in April, 2008, while their proficiency in spoken English improved from 32 percent to 46 percent for the same comparative years.

Decline of English, by Adrian Cristobal (Breakfast Table)

There are a great number of people, from politicians to prelates, business executives to journalists, who speak and write English but who, by a certain measure, can hardly be called proficient. They do get by with their English, at least in bamboozling people who have less English, but they’re not quite in their element when faced with their counterparts in the United Kingdom and the United States. This is probably one reason we are so poor in negotiating for our own interests in trade and diplomacy.

English lessons to form part of RP tourism package

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Tourism (DoT), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) on the "English as Second Language" Program (ESL), which aims to make the Philippines not only a tourist destination but also a destination for learning the English language.

Practice makes perfect!

Founding members of the English is Cool Coalition, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), Hands on Manila and EON, The Stakeholder Relations Firm, held the pilot English Camps at the Far Eastern University, Manila Doctors College, Fort Santiago, and Central Colleges of the Philippines to encourage the Filipino youth to learn and practice English.

Improve English education, US envoy urges RP government

(DPA) -- The US ambassador to the Philippines urged yesterday the government to improve English education in the country or lose foreign investments to other countries.
re browsing the other sections of this website, it is a good idea to first test your level

Women Today Magazine
Femmes Aujourd'hui
Chinese Women Today
Relationships; Sex & Love; Advice; Beauty; Fashion; Food; Money; Work; Chat; Online Studies; Life Stories; Wellness & Spirit; Self-Esteem; Family & Home; Health & Fitness; Wit & Wisdom

SOON Online Magazine
Learning English Index
free world-wide easy-English literature programme; free hard copies available on request

Men Today Online (A high adventure magazine for men)

Free vocabulary test for TOEFL, GMT, SAT, GRE and VOA Special English, from Vocaboly

Pictorial Vocabulary Guides, from LanguageGuide.org
Learn the pronunciation and spelling of thousands of words using an image based interface, with supported languages as English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Chinese (traditional characters), Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian

Read 6000+ Online Newspapers @ ThePaperboy.com

The Reading Room - English Comprehension, from English The International Language

Practice your reading skills and improve your vocabulary through selected Articles and Stories, with instant feedback in the True/False questions

English for Special Purposes

English for Business, Work and other Special Purposes, from about.com ( Adult Education English for special purposes including Business, commercial, financial, legal, insurance and human resources sectors as well as help with resumes, job interviews and cover letters; resources include Business English Writing for esumes, letters and documents, Business Reading comprehension exercises, Business Speaking Skills for the workplace, English for Medical Purpose, Business English Vocabulary, Business Meetings and Presentations, Business English Lesson Plans for ESP and Vocational English, Job Interviewing, and Business English Role Plays - Dialogues, and Business English Level Test, a 100 question test to discover your business English mastery level)

Postcript is a self-study magazine for learners of Business English by Marcus Evans Linguarama with exercises on reading, writing, grammar, pronunciation, style, vocabulary and usage. Each exercise has an answer key so that you can correct your work yourself online. Each issue has a theme on which many of the exercises are based, for example, Sales, Personnel or Banking.

Free resources from englishmedialab.com include the following: Business English ESL Quizzes and Business English Listening (business meeting and interactive listening quiz for job interviews); Online Grammar Exercises; Vocabulary Videos; Pronunciation; Quizzes for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Level English Learners.

English for the medical professional, from HospitalEnglish.com (free resources for medical professionals like doctors, nurses, physical therapists, radiologists, physician assistants, pharmacists, etc, studying English and medical printables for teachers; with medical vocabulary builders and pronunciation guide, patient counseling activities, disease state directors, healthcare professional articles, medical flashcards, hospital lesson plans, and ESP worksheets)

Typical English mistakes by speakers of other languages, by Language Project, (approved by the British Council; more examples available upon registration): Arabic speakers; Chinese speakers; Japanese speakers; Korean speakers; Portuguese speakers; Spanish speakers; Czech speakers; French speakers; German speakers; Greek speakers; Italian speakers; Polish speakers; Russian speakers; Swedish speakers; Turkish speakers.

Handheld English is a complete English course with MP3 lessons downloadable directly to your mobile phones; This course can be used by university students, professionals, and others who want to speak English well. If you practice one or two hours each day with the audio lessons, you should be able to speak simple English within six months. However, learning English fluently will require hard work each day. This course can be used by both beginning and advanced English students. The lessons are neither too difficult for a beginning student nor too easy for an advanced student. They can be used in an established school or when studying alone.