Index of Free ESL Lessons

This blog post features an index of free lessons and advice posts about learning English as a second language. Look through them and consider improving your English language skills so much more by signing up for Kingston University USA courses for any skill set.

The Basics of English Words


Practice: The Basics of English Words


Punctuation Marks


Educational Vocabulary


Singular and Plural


Practice: Singular and Plural Nouns


Pictures: Singular and Plural Nouns


Possessive Nouns


Introduction to Symbols


Possessive Pronouns


Symbols w/ Pictures


Possessive Adjectives


Pictures: Signs


Contractions


More Contractions

Even More Contractions

Asterisk


Formal English and Informal English


ESL Lesson: Tenses (Part 1)


ESL Lesson: Tenses (Part 2)


Practice with Pictures: Tenses


Writing Letters


Casual Letter Writing


Writing Business Letters


Internet Part I


Internet Part II

Do you have any questions or comments about any ESL subject? Leave them in the comment section and we will answer them. Stay tuned for more free advice on this and other subjects as well as promotions and news! If you want individual tutoring and help in learning English, contact Kingston University USA today!!

If you want individual tutoring and help in learning English, contact Kingston University USA today!!

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News: Online Education Industry in Australia is Riding the Digital Revolution

PRWeb published an article on the rising prominence of online education in Australia and how the online model for learning is helping people learn in the 21st century. Here is a snippet:

The Online Education industry in Australia is riding the digital revolution. Supporting this growth is the uptake of broadband internet services, technological developments, the trend of re-skilling, growing cultural acceptance of education delivered via the internet and a new approach to distance education. There is a strong market for courses that can be undertaken in addition to full-time or part-time employment, or scheduled around other commitments.

Read the rest at this link http://news.yahoo.com/online-education-australia-industry-market-research-report-now-200119752.html: 

News: How Competition Is Killing Higher Education

Mark C. Taylor of Bloomberg Views gives his opinions on how competition is detrimental to higher education. Here is a snippet of his article:

But in higher education, competition often discourages risk taking, leads to overly cautious short-term decisions, produces a mediocre product for the price, and promotes excessive spending on physical plants and bureaucracies. 

The construction arms race on campus is the most visible example of competition run amok. To become more attractive to potential consumers, many colleges and universities undertake overly ambitious expansions. In some cases, new facilities contribute to educational programs, but too often they are tangential and trap institutions in a costly cycle: The new athletic center, dorm or student center starts to look faded when competing schools open theirs, and it never ends.

You can read the rest of Taylor's writing here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/competition-is-killing-higher-education-part-1-.html

Education News: Russia's University Mergers Pit the Old School Against the New

Anna Nemtsova of the Chronicle for Higher Learning writes about how "bringing together Soviet-style instructors and Western-influenced researchers has led to impasse, not improvement." You can read more about how societal and cultural influences affects education by clicking the link below. 

http://chronicle.com/article/Russias-University-Mergers/131844/

MIT Names Its Provost, Who Led Online-Education Efforts, as New President

Jack Stripling of The Chronicle for Higher Learning wrote this article about the promotion of a new president at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) who happens to be an innovator of online learning. You can read more at the link below:

http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/131896/

Education News: Students Learning With Online Textbooks

Nicole Winters of Keloland Television wrote this news report about schools using online textbooks as tools for learning. You can read more about this educational tool at the link below. Here is a brief preview:

"We don't really use the textbook anymore," Harrisburg High School sophomore Taylor Mouw said.

Instead, the students log on to Math Excel. 

"I like this because you can see how to do it and you can see if you get the answer right, right away," Harrisburg High School sophomore Sommer Williams said. 

"It gives them that engagement. They like having their computer and being able to use those things," Harrisburg High School Math Teacher John Stearns said.

Stearns uses the program in two of his math classes. Besides engaging the students, it also makes teaching and learning more efficient.

"It grades it instantly for the students and instantly for me as well," Stearns said

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm/Students_Learning_With_Online_Textbooks_/?Id=131484

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News Column: Online Courses Could Lead to Big Changes

Peter Cohan wrote this article on the educational phenomenon of online learning. Here is a brief preview:

Online education is getting a sudden burst of media attention. That’s because the two biggest brands in the business — Harvard and MIT — announced a multimillion-dollar program to deliver some courses online. And since these schools are widely admired, other colleges and universities are asking questions about what they should be doing with online learning. But this leads to a fundamental question: Why do people go to college?

What’s all the online-education fuss about? On May 4, Harvard and MIT announced a $60 million online-classroom venture, called edX, that will launch in the fall. It’s a nonprofit enterprise that will deliver free courses in different academic disciplines to anyone who can get online. And edX goes beyond passive viewing of videos — it includes discussions, labs, quizzes and other so-called interactive learning techniques. Moreover, people who take the online courses and fulfill their requirements get a certificate of completion.

What do you think of online learning? If you are interested in learning opportunities and educational services, visit Kingston University USA at http://www.kingstonuniversityusa.com/

Online learning: Districts find strong interest from students

This article from MSNBC discusses the interest students in school districts such as East Valley prefer a hybrid of traditional schooling and online learning. You can read the article at the link below and share your thoughts in the comment section of the blog.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47356038/ns/local_news-phoenix_az/t/online-learning-districts-find-strong-interest-students/#.T7Vad-uCqSo

Are universities scared of the online learning movement?

Peter G. Klein of The Christian Science Monitor wrote this article about online learning and how traditional universities are reacting to it. You can read a preview of it here:

As Morgan Brown wrote earlier this year, universities are guilds, and it’s this organizational structure, not bad leadership or the wrong ideology, that underlies the universities’ hostility to markets. If there is fundamental reform, it will surely come from outside the guild system, not within it. It’s great that Harvard and MIT and other elite universities are offering some classes online. But look instead to bolder experiments like the Mises Academy — not a duplicate of the standard degree program, but a modular, flexible, focused approach to teaching Austrian economics and related subjects. Call it guerrilla teaching. Let’s see where this new movement can go!

News: Creating a Genuinely Sustainable Higher Education System

This article from The Guardian by Matt Grist discusses the future of higher education in the United Kingdom and some possibilities for improvement. Follow the link below to read more about some of the opportunities that are being proposed for students and future students at universities in the United Kingdom.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/16/financial-sustainability-universties

Education News: Reform in Washington

This special opinion article by Rosemary McAuliffe of the Seattle Times discusses the educational reforms in Washington state. Here is a brief preview:

Gov. Chris Gregoire recently said Washington cannot fulfill its education responsibilities without new revenue. I couldn't agree more. No amount of shifting state dollars or slashing health and human services will free up the kind of money needed to fully fund the reforms our kids deserve.

 Unfortunately, our state has a chronic history of passing reforms, without funding them. With education as our paramount duty, we need the public's support of new funding to achieve full implementation.

Education News: The Presidential Campaign And Latino Education

This article by Gabriel Sanchez Zinny of the Huffington Post discusses the relation of education, politics and demographics in the USA. It is entitled "The Presidential Campaign And Latino Education." Here is a brief preview of his reporting:

The achievement gap between Hispanics and other ethnic groups in standardized testing and overall education is significant. The U.S. Department of Education found that the average SAT scores of Latinos lag behind the U.S. average by 100 points. Additionally, 13.9 percent of the Latino population holds a bachelor's degree, whereas 29.9 percent of the total U.S. population does.

The reasons for this are related not only to lackluster education policies, but also to other factors such as poverty, language skills and school attendance. The 2010 Census found that 35 percent of Latinos were living in poverty, compared to 12.4 percent of Caucasians; Latinos typically attend schools where a higher percentage of students speak English as a second language, making instruction more cumbersome. In addition, Latinos drop out of high school at a 17.6 percent rate, compared to the 8.1 percent rate of the entire U.S. population.

Education News: Education Protests in Chile

This article by the Associated Press discusses the Chilean education crisis and the protests in response to it. Here is a brief preview:

The march, organized by the Confederation of University Students of Chile, was the second of its kind this year.

Thousands of protests were held last year by high school and college students demanding an end to for-profit education and the implementation of free higher education.

The Santiago Times said President Sebastian Pinera has proposed ending reliance on student loans from private banks, which made an estimated $500 million last year off of government-backed student aid.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/17/Chile-Students-protest-education-system/UPI-43161337270383/#ixzz1v9QlyGJU

Education News: Course Era Offers New Opportunities

This article by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times discusses new developments in online education. Here is a short preview:

Andrew Ng is an associate professor of computer science at Stanford, and he has a rather charming way of explaining how the new interactive online education company that he cofounded, Coursera, hopes to revolutionize higher education by allowing students from all over the world to not only hear his lectures, but to do homework assignments, be graded, receive a certificate for completing the course and use that to get a better job or gain admission to a better school.

"I normally teach 400 students," Ng explained, but last semester he taught 100,000 in an online course on machine learning. "To reach that many students before," he said, "I would have had to teach my normal Stanford class for 250 years."

Education News: ESL Conference

Alleen Brown of TC Daily Planet discusses a recent ESL Conference in Minnesota. Here is a preview:

The winner of this year’s ESL Advocate Award, Denise Harlos, described an experience many of the ESL teachers attending last week’s Minnesota ESL, Bilingual and Migrant Education Conference seemed to relate to.
She recalled starting as an ESL teacher in Shakopee 12 years ago, when she said there were 75 EL students speaking 10 languages. There was no English learning program. The schools couldn’t communicate with non-English-speaking parents, and they couldn’t find licensed ESL teachers...

Educational News: ESL Students Using I-Pods

This article by Brittany Cooper of KMVT of Idaho discusses the use of Ipods by ESL students to improve their English language skills. It is very interesting. Here is a brief preview:

Currently there are I–Pods in a couple of specialty classrooms and one general class in the school, But the overall goal is to expand this technology.

"Today we're doing Hot Timing and they've practiced that. And they'll chart it," says ESL Teacher Loretta Crockett.

These ESL students are recording passages into individual I–Pods.

Crockett tells the students, "you're the teacher...Now listen to yourself."

The use of I–Pods in the ESL classroom provides a way to improve fluency among english language learners. They can read, record their passage quickly And then check themselves again.

Principal Matt Seely says, "it helps them self–correct so the teacher isn't always correcting them and I think it's a powerful tool."

Educational News: Horry Adult Education Director Tapped for National Board

This article by Myrtle Beach Online is about updates to educational boards. A sample can be read here:

Virginia Simmons, director of Horry County Schools Adult and Community Education, was recently elected board member at large for the Adult Education Interest Section (AEIS) of TESOL, the global education association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and has been accepted into the TESOL certification program, according to a news release from Adult Education.

As a voting board member, Simmons will serve with the AEIS to develop an awareness of the needs and role of adult education, address current priority topics, advocate on adult education issues, collaborate with other TESOL groups to serve common needs of students and their families, and expand knowledge and understanding of adult education and ESL through research and intercommunication.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/05/14/2827001/horry-adult-education-director.html#storylink=cpy