Hi guys!

2. When I was young, my mother told to me a history every night.

3. John felt down because the road was wet.

4. I going to see Francis on Friday. I’ll probably pay a dinner.

5. I’m worried about my best friend. She doesn’t phone me for a long time.

6. I became English student when I had 13 years.

7. Most of people don’t like the cold weather.

8. My daughter is so badly behaved. She never listens me.

9. We need to make her stop to play with her pen. It’s really getting on my nerves.

10. I forget my bag. Can you give me a paper?

Answers

1. I have a very difficult work job./I have some very difficult work.

Work is uncountable.

2. When I was young, my mother told to me a history story every night.

to tell sb. sth.

History is an academic subject.

3. John felt fell down because the road was wet.

fall fell fallen

feel felt felt

4. I am going to see Francis on Friday. I’ll probably pay for a dinner.

to be going + inf

to pay for sth.,  to pay sb. (for sth.)

We don’t say a before breakfast, lunch, dinner. e.t.c.

5. I’m worried about my best friend. She doesn’t hasn’t phoned me for a long time.

Present perfect with for to talk about something that started in the past and is still true.

6. I became an English student when I had was 13 years old.

Occupations need a determiner(a/the/my/that e.t.c).

I am 13.  - Correct.

I am 13 years old. -Correct.

I am 13 years. – Incorrect.

7. Most of people don’t like the cold weather.

Most X/ the majority of X for talking in general.

We don’t use the for generic things.

8. My daughter is so badly behaved. She never listens to me.

Always listen to.

9. We need to make her stop to play playing with her pen. It’s really getting on my nerves.

to stop + verb+ing =to stop the activity. E.g. She stopped smoking last year.

to stop + infinitive with to= to stop moving in order to… E.g. She was driving and she stopped to let

the children pass.

10. I forget forgot/have forgotten my bag. Can you give me a some/a sheet of /a piece paper?

Paper is normally uncountable. A paper = a newspaper

For English classes or courses, enrol here.

Do you really want to improve your English?

Many people have gym membership, but are still fat. They say they want to lose weight, get fit, or get muscles. Of course, they think they want these things. But do they?

In the same way, there are many people who join English schools, enrol on a course, but don’t improve. In my experience as an English teacher, there are a lot of students, perhaps 50%, who take an English course, but who get better very slowly. Some are too busy; others don’t come to class as often as they should. Some learn things and then forget them immediately.

The question is: are you really committed? Do you really want to learn English? If so read on:

The 10 best ways to improve your English language.

 1. Come to class every day. Obviously.

2. Be organised and respect your materials. Make good notes and write down new vocabulary. Keep the sheets that your teacher gives you in a file. If you have a text book, keep it in good condition. Use a good dictionary. Most electronic dictionaries are unreliable.  They are good at translating from English into your language, but not from your language into English.

 3. Do your homework. If your teacher doesn’t give you any homework, then do some anyway. Learn something, write something or watch something.

 4. Write every day. Most English students don’t write enough. You need to practise your spelling, because English is a very difficult language to write in. Also, writing a lot will improve your speaking, and give you confidence. It’s a very good idea to keep a diary. Write stories using new vocabulary. Write dialogues.

 5. Remember your mistakes. If you make a mistake and don’t write it down, you will make the same mistake again and again and again. The best thing that a teacher can do is correct you when you speak or write. If your English teacher corrects you in class, write it down.

 6. Learn the phonemic alphabet. This will take you about 2 or 3 hours. There is no better method of learning English pronunciation, and it is very easy. If you see a new word in a book, or a newspaper, you will not know how to pronounce it unless you know the phonemic alphabet because this is what dictionaries use.

7.  Use what you learn. Have you just learnt the past perfect? If so, you need to practise, or you will certainly forget it. Practise it in writing, and in speaking.

 8. Socialise in English. You remember things you say or write much better than things you hear or read. Do English outside class, Newspapers, radios, TV, dvds e.t.c.

 9. Give yourself realistic objectives. If you work hard, it is possible to go up a level every three months. From intermediate to upper-intermediate; from upper-intermediate to advanced. Do you have problems with reported speech? Give yourself a month to learn it.

 10. Care about your progress. Learning is easy. Remembering is difficult. It is your responsibility to improve, not your teacher’s!

To enroll at ICE, sign up here for English courses.

AHHH!!!STOP MAKING MISTAKES WITH THE PAST SIMPLE!!!

It’s not called past difficult!!! It’s easy!!

Many English students, even advanced ones, make mistakes with the past simple, but it really isn’t that hard!!

The first thing to say about the past simple is that most verbs are regular.
When a verb is regular, you take verb and add -(e)d. For example, arrive-arrived attack-attacked.
A lot of students find it difficult to pronounce -ed. Here are the basic rules:
If the word ends in -ed, look at the stem. Does it end in -t or -d? If it does, you need to say “id”. There is an extra syllable. For example, hate-hated decide-decided paint-painted taint-tainted fit-fitted add-added. You need to add an “id” sound to the rest of the verb.
On the other hand, if the stem ends in any other letter (not -t or -d), don’t say “id”, say “t” or “d”. Don’t add a syllable. For example, wash-washed sunbathe- sunbathed play-played.

However, there are many verbs which are irregular. You have to LEARN them. The teacher can’t do it for you.
Use a good English text book, or look on the internet, and learn both the past simple and the past participles at the same time.
Some are very common verbs. E.g. eat ate eaten. Others are not so common. E.g. dig dug dug.
It’s very important to learn both the spelling and the pronunciation(use a dictionary or ask your teacher).

For English courses in Islington, London, enrol now.

Five useful IELTS exam tips from our resident IELTS expert, Jan Ball:

1. Make sure that you are comfortable talking about yourself and your life. In section 1 the IELTS examiner will ask you questions about your likes and dislikes, your hobbies, your family, why you are learning English e.t.c. For example, if you often go horse riding you should know how to describe it.
2. Don’t speak too fast. Fluency is important, but so is accuracy and pronunciation. IELTS examiners will be much more impressed by simple language used well than by complicated language used badly.
3. Make sure you know how to use the past simple. One of the most common mistakes that IELTS students make is that they use the present tense instead of the past. E.g. Yesterday I ride a horse. You need to learn the irregular verb forms, and pronounce the regular verbs correctly. Can you pronounce -ed correctly?
4. Answer the question. This is obvious, but if the examiner asks about television in your country, you will lose marks if you talk about television in the UK. In part 2, you must answer all the bits of the question.
5. Prepare to talk about problems and solutions. In part 3, the examiner will talk about more serious topics. He may ask you to think of measures for dealing with an issue, so it’s good to learn vocabulary that is relevant. E.g. solve, sort out, disaster, benefit e.t.c.

Stay tuned!  More next week!

Enrol in the Islington Centre for English IELTS exam preparation course.

IELTS vs Cambridge First Certificate and

Advanced Exams

A question I often hear from students; “I want to take an English Language Exam but which one should I take? IELTS or Cambridge First Certificate (FCE)/ Advanced (CAE)?”.  Well, there are many similarities and differences and I have put together what I think are the most important:

FCE and CAE

These are General English Exams. They not only test your General English, but a really good course should improve your all-round language skills.  They are a great way to develop your vocabulary, spoken fluency/ accuracy, writing and listening skills and your all-round confidence in English.  It’s like taking a General English course with an aim to help you focus and get motivated.  Topics covered are very wide and can include The Environment, Love, Literature, Finding a job, Owning a pet, for example.  Marking is pass or fail with an added CEFR result (Common European Framework for Language Reference) such as B1 (Intermediate) if you don’t get over 60% overall.  People consider the First Certificate as the level a student needs to function in an English speaking office environment.  First Certificate and Advanced Exams are valid for life and you can take an exam every 6 weeks.

IELTS

Conversely, IELTS is officially valid for only 2 years.  However, as an employer, I am always very happy to see a good IELTS result on an applicant’s CV, even if it is 10 years old.  It still demonstrates a the person’s language ability or, at least, their realistic potential. Naturally, a student isn’t IELTS 7.5 one day and then 5.0 in 5 years time, particularly if he or she has stayed in the UK.  On the other hand, most Universities tend to be stricter and only accept IELTS if it has been taken within the last 2 years.

IELTS is much more limited in subject matter.  Subjects are academic and can include Sociology, History, Literature, Sciences, Architecture etc.  In short, anything that you study at University.

IELTS is not pass or fail, it is a sliding scale of achievement from 0 to 9.  Most Universities want 6.0 or more for a course that is theoretical in nature and 5.0 for a very practical one.  Masters degrees generally require 7.0 or higher.

I only recommend taking IELTS if the student has a clear reason to take it such as:

1.  “My potential employer needs me to get a 6.0 to start work.”

2.  “My University needs me to get 7.5 for my Masters degree.”

..otherwise, my advice is, to improve your English in all areas, choose Cambridge First Certificate or Advanced.

Also note that IELTS exam courses tend to teach you how to get the best score possible in the exam, rather than making you a better English speaker, listener, reader or writer.

In summary:

First Certificate and Advanced Exams

• General English Exams.
• Better for your overall fluency and confidence in English.
• Pass or fail with a grade from A to C.
• Added CEFR level grade.
• Valid for life.
• Wider range of topics.
• An exam every 6 weeks.

IELTS exams

• Valid for 2 years for University but longer in reality for employers.
• Lots of exam dates – every 2 weeks.
• Academic language – the English you need for a University degree.
• Courses are very, very exam focused.

ICE is enrolling now for IELTS Exam Courses, Cambridge First Certificate Courses and Cambridge Advanced Exam courses for day and evenings.

Best of luck with your English!

Tim

At the Islington Centre for English, we always tell our students that their English courses do not stop when they leave the course or the classroom.  Indeed, much of the best vocabulary comes to students in their daily lives in London.  A typical English course takes 15 or 20 hours of your time per week only.  Don’t waste the rest of your day!

Here are a few useful tips to build your English vocabulary from Tim Shoben, ICE Director:

1. Carry a notebook with you and jot (quickly note) down any new words you see or need during the day.  Go back to the words at the end of the day and revise at the end of each week testing yourself by covering up the words and rewriting them.
2. Watch TV with the subtitles on so you can read and listen at the same time.
3. Listen to BBC Radio 4.  In our opinion, this is the best talk-only radio station and is particularly useful for those students studying for a Cambridge Exam or IELTS as there is a great deal of formal language.
4. Download podcasts and listen to them more than once so you can pick up on words that you didn’t get the first time.  I recommend learning passages by heart.
5. Making English friends can be difficult when English is your second language, so why not join a club in your area?  If you are good at sport or music, this is a great opportunity to make friends with real English people!
6. Subscribe to an English Language Learning Twitter feed such as ours.
7. Offer free language exchange lessons in a cafe with an English person.  There are many English people who want to learn or improve a second language and you will get good, focused practice as a result.

There are, of course, many other ways, but these are some of the easiest and quickest.

Best of luck with your English language!

Tim

Islington Centre for English’s Director of Studies and Cambridge Examiner, Vanessa Lister BA DELTA, offers the following advice for the Speaking part of the First Certificate English (FCE) exam:

“Students must remember to fully answer the question, otherwise they will lose marks.  For example, “What do you think the difference is between watching TV and going to the cinema?  The answer should be exactly what they have asked you! It does not mean, “Which do you prefer…?”  Many students make this mistake and give their preference and don’t compare the two.   Also note that the examiner is giving you the opportunity to demonstrate your comparative language in this case so make sure you use at least some of the following expressions:

“Compared to TV, cinema is a more exciting activity because…”

“TV is much cheaper than the cinema because…”

“While TV and cinema have many similarities, they are also different in many important ways, such as…”

“Watching a film at the cinema is not nearly as flexible an activity as watching something on TV.  By this I mean that…”

More exam advice/ tips every day from ICE.

First Certificate Exam preparation courses at Islington Centre for English in London.

Hi all IELTS course in London students!  Here’s a word-or-two of advice:  always aim to book your IELTS exam place 5 weeks in advance.  Places get booked up very quickly and students can be disappointed when they can’t get the exam date they want.  Many times students arrive saying something like, “I need an IELTS exam result of 6.0 for next Monday.  Is that possible?”  The answer is often, no, I’m afraid for 2 main reasons:

1.  There are no places left at the exam centre of your choice.

2.  The student may be currently assessed at an IELTS score of 5.0.  We generally say that it will take an average student around 6 weeks of 15 hours per week study to improve by 0.5 overall on the IELTS rating system.  This is particularly relevant these days because the UKBA, for example, require a certain score in all skill areas for a TIER 4 visa as do many universities.

So, be prepared & be realistic!  Don’t rush the IELTS exam process if you can help it!

At the Islington Centre for English, we have experienced IELTS course tutors who will guide you through to exam success.  Let us know if we can help.  Tel: 0207 278 5553  enrol@letslearnenglish.org

We use Middlesex University for our students taking the exam and you can see what test dates are available here:  http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/services/ielts/index.aspx

Best of luck!

Tim

There’s more to an English School than just studying! Social and cultural events are a great way of improving your spoken English, making life-long friends and discovering London’s secrets…

The Islington Centre for English is about to run an experiment: a Social/Cultural Programme event every day for a month from February 6th!  If students enjoy it and feedback is good, we will continue (we are very hopeful about this and it seems likely).  New social events include club nights, Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, London walks, excursions to Oxford, Cambridge & Brighton and loads of other exciting London English experiences.  Here is a short video of some of our social events in the last few years:

Looking forward to an even bigger and better 2012 full of social and cultural London experiences.

Come and join us at London’s best value English school!

The mean average overall IELTS exam result in 2011 at ICE was an excellent 6.5.  Scores ranged from 5.0 to 8.0 and is based on scores from both evening and day courses.  This is a 0.5 increase on 2010′s average score of 6.0 and is great news!  Well done to our IELTS exam course tutors; Aviva, Jan and Heather for their hard work and excellent academic support and, of course, to all our  students.  Next year, Islington Centre for English aims for an average IELTS score of 7.0 on both day and evening courses.

Coming soon:  Jan Ball’s IELTS exam tip videos.  Watch this space!

More IELTS course information

Tara Laing is presenting two FREE one-hour Business English tutorial at the Islington Centre for English on February 24th at 12.30 and 3.30pm.  Students will see and experience an overview of areas covered in the course and also participate in a sample Business English lesson.  Email reception to reserve your place on enrol@letslearenglish.org We look forward to meeting you at London’s best value English School!

New, revised Legal English evening course for the ILEC exam start date is February 20th.  The course is 12 weeks in length and runs every Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6.30 to 8.30pm.  Class size is small, with a maximum of 6 students per class only.  Course tutor is both Law to degree level & CELTA (Cambridge English teaching Certificate) qualified.  This course has limited space, so do apply now to reserve your place!

ILEC exams run at the following dates:

If you would like further information on this course, contact Tim on tim@letslearnenglish.org.

Experience our Business English Courses for a free one-hour taster at 12.15pm and 3.30pm on the 24th January 2011.  Put your name down at reception to reserve your place on this free class with Tara Laing, our Business English trainer.  Students will learn the course contents and participate in sample activities in a variety of business contexts.  We look forward to meeting you!

New start date for Business English day classes at the Islington Centre for English from 3.30 to 6.30pm is now Monday February 13th.  Students can study 15, 20 (both pure Business English) or 25 lessons (Business English plus language skills workshops) per week.  Maximum class size is 8 students.

Students will practice English language in a variety of business contexts such as presentations, phone calls, emailing, pitching a business idea, discussing budgets and writing a business proposal.  All tutors for this course have specialist training and additional qualifications in addition to a CELTA to teach English as a foreign language.   At ICE, we believe this is the best value Business English course in London.  Come and take a trial lesson!  http://www.business-english.co/

The ICE Business English Evening course is now gearing towards the Cambridge BEC Higher & Vantage Exams.  The course runs every Tuesday and Thursday from 6.30 to 8.30pm.  Students can book 4, 8, 12, 16 or 24 weeks courses.  The exam dates can be found here: http://www.londoncrestopencentre.com/examinations/exams-dates-and-fees-professional-english.html

It has been a wonderful few months with some new teachers, some new students and some new courses (Business English and Legal English to mention two great developments).  Courses finish this Friday 16th December.  Looking forward to seeing you all in January.  For those who have finished their English courses; best of luck back in your home countries with improved language skills!  Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all!

Just a quick one to tell the world about IELTS exam preparation courses at Islington Centre for English.  We will have just a few spaces in the 3.30 to 6.30pm (Monday to Friday) and 6.30 to 8.30pm courses (Monday and Wednesday evenings), so hurry if you want to start in January.  We are back on the 3rd Jan, and we expect an increase in the number of students taking the course at this time of year for University entry. Maximum class size if 15 students.   Here’s a good IELTS exam sentence for you:

We expect a significant increase in student numbers for the IELTS exam preparation course in the early part of next year.

Looking forward to meeting you in the new year!

Here’s a great IELTS link for all you need to know about the exam:  www.ielts.org

English Schools all over London and the UK say that numbers of students applying for General Student Visas for English courses fell anywhere between 50 and 95% since the latter part of 2011.  This trend is set to continue with the withdrawal of work rights for non-EU students taking English courses at ‘lower than degree level’ (i.e. at Private English Language Colleges) that was introduced last summer showing no signs of reversing.

So, such schools have lost the revenue generated from the long courses favoured by non-EU students, the majority of whom wanted to work and study benefiting from the financial support and the enhanced cultural experience of being part of a English-speaking company.

An unwelcome side-effect of this for specialist English schools is what is seen by many as the unfair skewing of the market in favour of government institutions (Universities) who retained work rights for their students & are now profiting from the wholesale movement of non-EU English language students to their on-campus courses.  The student must weigh up his priorities: spend double the amount to study English at a University and work for 10 hours a week or pay for a cheaper course and have no work entitlement.  Unsurprisingly, the lure of work & its exciting potential wins out for many and again, specialist English schools (and, of course English school students) are the losers.

To add to their woes, schools are facing yet another severe financial penalty: to retain HTS status and issue General Student Visa compliant courses, they are now required by law to be inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) who commonly charge three to four times the amount previously charged by the British Council for an equivalent inspection.  This cost, frequently over £12,000 is prohibitive for a great many language schools, a large proportion of whom have now chosen to opt out of the General Student Visa market altogether.

What to do?  English Schools are, of course, re-focusing on the EU.  Alongside this, higher value, shorter and so less visa-restricted courses such as Legal English & Business English are proliferating.  Many are increasing prices dramatically.  From our side, at the Islington Centre for English, we are opting to keep prices low as this is central to our market identity and to lose this would be to lose our defining characteristic.

What else can be done?  Hold on to your hats! From a school owner’s perspective; keep finances sound & hope that in the not-too-distant future the Government will decide, as in the US, that students should not be defined as immigrants.  Indeed, the vast majority of students return home after contributing to cash-strapped local businesses who are in dire need of their foreign money, so they should be viewed both in economic and social terms very positively.  They are a win win for this country – bring in money, enhance the reputation of the UK global brand and then go home again. Foreign students are a great bonus for the local homestay families, hairdressers, cafes, clothes shops and pubs all over the UK – and even utterly crucial in English seaside towns like Brighton & Eastbourne and so, the political will to reclassify students will hopefully emerge.  Fingers crossed.

What should the Govt be doing to regain control of our borders?  In my view, they should target countries with terrible track records of playing the visa system. The cliched spam email senders or the ‘schools’ above a shop in Manchester or Luton offering low quality or non-existent tuition quite openly ‘for a visa’ with little pretense of education being on offer. Why not stop families switching their houses into each member’s names in order to bring non-English speaking wives and husbands into the UK and other openly discussed scam techniques?

Sadly, the government’s late efforts to rid ourselves of this particular bathwater has sent the baby flying out of the window and good English schools with high educational standards suffer enormously for the immoral acts of a few.

Looking forward to a more enlightened 2012!

Islington Centre for English’s next First Certificate in English (FCE) paper-based exam is Tue 21 Feb for the 4 main papers.  Cambridge Advanced English exam is on the 17th February.  Vanessa Lister, our Director of English Studies and resident Cambridge examiner, is on-hand to guide you through the speaking sections of the exam.