International Study Centre @ University of Leicester

We've Moved

2009-04-22T15:54:00.001+01:00

We've moved to a new blog!

You can now find us here

Punctuation

2009-04-22T11:03:00.002+01:00

Having trouble with your semi-colons? Here's a useful guide:

Academic Word List

2009-04-21T14:09:00.002+01:00

The Academic Word List is a series of sublists of the most important vocabulary you'll need for studying. It's not a good idea to spend all your time on the list but it is useful to work through the lists a bit at a time. There are lots of example exercises on the internet to help you out.

Welcome Back

2009-04-17T11:43:00.003+01:00

Good to see everyone back and looking forward to a glorious British summer!!

Lets hope its not like 2007

End of Term

2009-03-24T08:36:00.002Z

End of term already! I hope the exams went ok. We look forward to seeing you all again next term .... and if you think you've already worked out the British then have a look at this:

Revising for Exams

2009-03-16T09:25:00.005Z

Some useful advice:

Dealing with Exam Stress

2009-03-12T08:32:00.003Z

The Student Learning Centre has lots of advice to help in your preparation for exams:

No Smoking Day

2009-03-11T11:49:00.003Z

Not of interest to everyone:

...and an interesting article:

Word Games

2009-03-10T10:20:00.002Z

Lots and lots of word games here for improving vocabulary:

Magic 8 Ball

2009-03-04T11:38:00.005Z

Do you need an answer quickly? Try the Magic Eight Ball.

Revision

2009-03-02T09:48:00.004Z

It's coming up to time for exams, and if you haven't started already, it's time to start organising your revision. Of course, there is lots of advice on the web. Here's one example:

Presentations

2009-02-26T08:24:00.003Z

As everyone will soon be making presentations, here are some presentation links:

Football

2009-02-25T10:38:00.002Z

If you like football, here's all the latest news and results.

Astronomy & Astrology

2009-02-20T10:22:00.007Z

If you have a hobby or interest, it can be a great way to explore and improve your English. Here's an example for astronomy:

Of course, if you prefer astrology, you can look here:

Shopping in Leicester

2009-02-18T08:38:00.003Z

Are you getting the most out of Leicester? Here's a link to help you discover a little more.

Writing an Essay

2009-02-17T08:20:00.003Z

Don't forget that there is lots of advice and support on the University website, especially for writing essays.

More Listening

2009-02-12T08:21:00.004Z

More listening here. These are particularly good practice for the the FES 1 and FES 2 exams.

Leicester Comedy Festival

2009-02-11T11:37:00.003Z

Need cheering up?

Business Podcast

2009-02-11T10:23:00.003Z

Although this podcast is mainly for business people who are learning English, there is lots of useful language for Business, Economics and Accounting students.

Longest Words

2009-02-10T10:29:00.001Z

Thanks to Chakib for this:

Podcasts

2009-02-10T08:51:00.003Z

Lots of listening practice to be found here

Wordia

2009-02-09T11:41:00.004Z

This is an interesting twist to the usual dictionary. Here you will find video definitions of words. A nice way to build vocabulary and practice listening.

Sharky the Snowman

2009-02-09T10:46:00.004Z

This is my snowman. He's called Sharky. Unfortunately, he's not feeling or looking too good these days. But this is how I like to remember him:

WE ARE OPEN

2009-02-06T07:08:00.001Z

The centre will be open today and classes will run as normal.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

2009-02-05T06:53:00.002Z

CLASSES ARE CANCELLED TODAY DUE TO THE WEATHER

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

2009-02-03T07:52:00.003Z

Classes will be running today as normal.

Please take extra care as you make your way in.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

2009-02-02T10:54:00.004Z

Classes this afternoon (after 12.00) are cancelled due to the weather and the subsequent problems with transport.

Please check back here for news about tomorrow.

I will post information on this blog.

Alternatively you can call me on my mobile.

Snow

2009-02-02T08:32:00.006Z

Check the latest weather here:

Snowy pictures here

And lots of interactive weather stuff here

More Quizzes

2009-01-30T08:29:00.002Z

Lots more quizzes here

Idioms

2009-01-29T10:27:00.002Z

Like idioms? Have a look here

The News (but weirder)

2009-01-28T08:41:00.005Z

Here's a link which is good for improving your reading. As well as all the main stories it also has some of the day's more odd news.

Here's an example:

Pub locals spot UFO

A group of drinkers who claim to have spotted UFOs as they came out of their local pub were also plunged into darkness.

Lord Nelson pub landlord Keith Gelderd and his locals watched the shapes glowing in the sky but were then greeted by house alarms going off as the whole village suffered a blackout.

Keith from Poppleton, near York told The Sun: "If I live to be 100 I'm sure I will never see anything like it again. At first there were two spheres hovering in the distance. When they started to move they made no sound.

"There were seven or eight of us watching. As they moved towards us two more appeared.

"They were all in a line, then one moved 180 degrees around the one next to it. As they left all the electricity went off and you could hear alarms. Then it came back on again.

"None of us was drunk. What were they? Flying saucers? "

Bricklayer Jason Mitchinson, added: "It was the strangest thing I've seen. They were an orange flame colour with an outer ring that glowed.

"They just cruised along. They stopped over the pub, then headed for Scarborough. When they turned it was tight, at 90 degrees, not like a plane."

Short Story Radio

2009-01-27T08:42:00.002Z

Lots of short stories to listen to here

Pronunciation

2009-01-26T08:18:00.002Z

Type in a word and this online dictionary will give you the pronunciation with a 'human' voice.

Games

2009-01-23T11:01:00.004Z

Here are some more straightforward games for learning and practicing English, which you can find here.

Questionaut

2009-01-22T08:20:00.006Z

Here's an interesting quiz. There are eight levels to complete. It will test your English skills and your science knowledge as well as your imagination. Click on the picture above to start the quiz.

Reading Faces

2009-01-21T11:58:00.004Z

How good are you at reading faces? Are men better judges of emotion that women? Find out here

2009-01-20T11:30:00.005Z

Welcome back. I hope you all had a great holiday. For those of you who went home, I look forward to hearing about what you got up to on your blogs.

For business students, here's a link for Marketing vocabulary:

Jango

2008-12-10T08:26:00.009Z

This is a great site which plays all your favourite music. You create different stations by selecting bands you want to listen to . There's also links for you to check the lyrics (so you can practice your English as well). Here's my station:

www.Jango.com - Internet Radio

Research Channel

2008-12-09T08:32:00.002Z

Today's link is called The Research Channel. If you need practice of listening to academic English then this is a good place to start. From the start page make sure you select a subject area which is relevant and interesting for you. At the top you will see that you can select subject areas such as Business and Economics or Science.

Once you find a video which interests you, think about what you are going to do. Remember that the best way to learn is to be active - that means do something! If you sit back, relax and chill out then you will obviously be asleep by the first minute. Remember this is Academic English! Obviously the best thing to do is to practice taking notes, but keep them structured and organised. A good way to see if your notes are any good is to look at them the next day and see if they make any sense. If you have nothing but doodles, you might want to rethink your strategy.

Vocabulary

2008-12-05T09:37:00.003Z

This site doesn't look very exciting but it's a very effective way to check your vocabulary level. Start with Version A at the 1000 level. Remember your aim is to get a high score at the University Word List level.

And here's something for Apple fans:

Mapple - The Simpsons
Uploaded by aarplane

Referencing and Bibliographies

2008-12-04T08:53:00.004Z

As you are now finishing your Writing Project, here's a reminder of how to properly reference your work. These are the guidelines set out by the University of Leicester, so it's a good idea to follow them carefully. Click here and enter your Leicester Log In details.

UK International Student

2008-12-03T09:03:00.003Z

This site is called UK International Student. There is useful everyday stuff, like how to get good prices on international phone calls, as well as a discussion forum and blogs.

The News (but better)

2008-12-02T07:47:00.002Z

Here's a link for CNN Student News. It features all the main stories of the day, but also has extra features such as a transcript. Try watching the news stories without the transcript first. Then if you're not sure of a word or phrase, you can use the transcript to check.

Once you've watched an episode there are 'Top 10 Questions' for the day and a news quiz at the end of the week.

Welcome to Leicester (again)

2008-12-01T21:01:00.000Z

Dialang

2008-12-01T13:03:00.006Z

"DIALANG offers carefully designed and validated tests of different language skills, together with a range of feedback and expert advice on how to improve your skills.

DIALANG also offers scientifically validated self-assessment activities, because it is now widely recognized that being able to judge your own language proficiency is an important part of learning a language.

DIALANG does not issue certificates. It allows you to find out what level you are at and where your strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can decide how best to develop your mastery of a language.

DIALANG will help you to take control of your language learning and it will increase your awareness both of what you can do at the moment, and of what it means to know a language.

DIALANG has been developed by more than 20 major European institutions, with the backing of the European Commission.

DIALANG is the first major language assessment system to be based on the Council of Europe's "Common European Framework of reference", which has become established throughout Europe as the most widely recognized frame of reference in the field of language learning. "

NOTE: In order to use the DIALANG test, you will need to download a programme.

iPlayer

2008-11-28T10:02:00.009Z

The BBC iPlayer allows you too watch or listen to anything that has been on the BBC over the last week. If you like you can download the programmes so you can watch them again. It's free and has something for everyone.

Here are some of the programmes which are running at the moment.

Survivors

"Britain is in the grip of a deadly flu virus, which is now spreading throughout the world. When people start dying in their millions, a handful of survivors are left struggling to stay alive as society crumbles around them. Abby Grant is a housewife and mother who begins the desperate search for her son. On her journey she meets a variety of people whom fate has spared. The new world could be a dangerous place, and their only hope is to stick together."

Top Gear

"Motoring news and views from the usual team. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are challenged to drive from the heart of Switzerland to the North Western coast of England on just one tank of fuel. As an incentive, the first one to arrive gets to turn on the Blackpool Illuminations. Back at the track, James tackles his first ever power test in the amazing Pagani Zonda F Roadster and, after years of waiting, The Stig finally gets to set a lap time in the remarkable Bugatti Veyron."

That Mitchell and Webb Look

"Off-beat comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Features a car boot sale where you can buy a wardrobe that's also a gateway to Narnia; a laboratory full of lethal poisons where a practical joker cheers everyone up; and an explanation of what happened to all the avocado bathroom suites."

Newspapers

2008-11-26T10:26:00.012Z

As you will have noticed there are lots of different newspapers here in Britain. And all of them are available to read online. There are national newspapers and local newspapers. The national newspapers can be serious (known as broadsheets) and not so serious (known as tabloids).

Here are some examples of national newspapers. Can you tell which are the tabloids?

The Sun

The Daily Mail

The Independent

Local newspapers can also be interesting. They obviously contain news about what's going on locally.

The Leicester Mercury

...for Chinese learners of English

2008-11-24T10:40:00.007Z

The British Council has a special website just for Chinese learners of English. There's a good variety of resources including listening. Also there's a lot of useful IELTS practice which is good for improving your Academic English.

At the bottom of the page there are some quite good "How to..." videos.

Soap Operas

2008-11-21T10:54:00.009Z

Watching soap operas can help improve listening skills, build your 'everyday English' vocabulary and give you an insight into British culture.

A soap opera is a TV or radio programme which just keeps going and going and ... In fact, Coronation Street is over 40 years old.

The most popular soap operas in the UK are Coronation Street (ITV), Eastenders (BBC1), Emerdale (ITV) and Hollyoaks (C4).

Eastenders is a good one to follow because you can watch episodes online. The storyline is famous for always being miserable but it is easy to follow.

Karaoke

2008-11-20T12:56:00.010Z

Like singing? Want to improve you English. Why not try Karaoke Part y? If you register it will even score your singing!

Researching

2008-11-11T10:18:00.004Z

In order to get the most out of the library make sure you check the library catalogue online first.

Another useful way to search for acadmic books and articles is Google Scholar.

Study Skills and Academic English

2008-10-31T10:44:00.008Z

There are loads of sites out there to help with university study skills. Some of them are better than others, so why not start with Uuniversity of Leicester's very own Student Learning Centre?

You will need your university log in details. Once you are in you will find the link to resources in the best place to start. In here you can find resources not just for writng and presentations but also for IT skills such as getting more out of MS Office.

Of course other universties have equally good websites to help their students. One of the best is Using English for Academic Purposes from the University of Hertfordshire. This has lots of advice, practice exercises and tests. Have a look here, if you want to practice your note taking from reading or from listening.

And then there are also sites which are based in other countries. Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Centre for Independent Language Learning is interesting because it has audio and video to help you practice.

Wikipedia

2008-10-23T12:24:00.004+01:00

Wikipedia is a probably the world's most famous online encyclopedia. Wikipedia is interesting because it is written and edited by volunteers. Wikipedia is a great website for helping to practice your English reading skills. One idea is to use the random article button on the side bar.

Some people have questioned whether you can trust Wikipedia. Here's an article on this subject called Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth.

Vocabulary

2008-10-14T10:08:00.003+01:00

Here are some ideas for praciticing and developing your vocabulary. First of all you should get yourself a good Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The dictionaries from Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan and Collins are all good. The reason you should use an Advanced Learner's Dictionary is because they contain so much more information about each word or phrase.

If you just have a few minutes to spare the vocabulary quizzes on the BBC are a good way to learn everyday and idiomatic language. There are loads to do and they are organised by topics.

If you are interested in the meaning and origins of English phrases and idioms then this is worth checking out. For example do you know where OK comes from?

And finally here's a different way to see the vocabulary of a text or website. Paste in some text or just a website and Wordle creates a word cloud. Here's a word cloud for this blog. The word which appear a lot are the big ones.

Some Other Blogs I Recommend...

2008-10-06T20:39:00.003+01:00

Here's the first one you should have a look at - it's Sky's blog. Apart from having a cool name, Sky has a cool looking blog!

Another one is by a young Chinese rapper. Find out who it is - here! And here's one from a guy called Ricky - why not have a look and leave him a comment? Check out Adrain who is happy to be home! Pamela tells us about herself and her family here. Shirley has just started her blog here.

These are two of my favourites - one is by Kevin and he tells us about one of his friends from home. In the other, David tells us about someone you might know!

This one has just been started. We're just waiting for Bill to make his first post.

Practising Pronunciation

2008-09-30T21:33:00.010+01:00

So that's the start of term. Everyone seems excited to get started and it's good to see that the umbrella sellers are doing good business!

Here are some suggestions for practising pronunciation. I'll start with the pronunciation part of the BBC website. There are lots of videos, quizzes, activities and downloads.

Similar to this is Phonetics Focus. This is a good site for helping you to learn the phonemic alphabet. It has lots of games to practice the sounds. Also, there is a function for recording your own voice so you can compare it. A good feature of this is the entry and exit tests. Take the entry test before you start, and then when you finish. It measures how much you learn!

Welcome to Everyone at the Leicester International Study Centre

2008-09-28T18:53:00.001+01:00

Hi - I'm Dan and this blog is for anyone interested in using computers and the internet to practice their English.

I hope you find some of the ideas and links useful. Let me know what you think and feel free to send in suggestions.

First of all, I'll tell you a bit about me. As you know (I hope!), I'm an English teacher. It's a really cool job because you get to meet people from all over the world.

Before I started working at Leicester, I was in Tripoli in Libya. I had a great year helping to set up a new college. It's a really beautiful country (though the desert gets a bit boring) and the people are really friendly.

This is my friend Tarik. We went to see Libya and Ghana in a World Cup Qualifying match. Amazingly Libya won 1-0. As you can see Tarik was getting very nervous in the last 5 minutes!

This is Bashir, one of my old students. He's the first one to dive. This was on a trip to Brighton. I don't recommend trying this!

Finally I'd like to recommend a website for improving your English. You probably know this one already... it's the BBC Learning English website. There's loads to explore on this one. If you don't know it have a look around and then let me know what you think.
>

International Study Centre @ University of Leicester

We've Moved

Punctuation

Academic Word List

Welcome Back

End of Term

Revising for Exams

Dealing with Exam Stress

No Smoking Day

Word Games

Magic 8 Ball

Revision

Presentations

Football

Astronomy & Astrology

Shopping in Leicester

Writing an Essay

More Listening

Leicester Comedy Festival

Business Podcast

Longest Words

Podcasts

Wordia

Sharky the Snowman

***WE ARE OPEN***

***IMPORTANT INFORMATION***

***IMPORTANT INFORMATION***

***IMPORTANT INFORMATION***

Snow

More Quizzes

Idioms

The News (but weirder)

Short Story Radio

Pronunciation

Games

Questionaut

Reading Faces

Jango

Research Channel

Vocabulary

Referencing and Bibliographies

UK International Student

The News (but better)

Welcome to Leicester (again)

Dialang

iPlayer

Newspapers

...for Chinese learners of English

Soap Operas

Karaoke

Researching

Study Skills and Academic English

Wikipedia

Vocabulary

Some Other Blogs I Recommend...

Practising Pronunciation

Welcome to Everyone at the Leicester International Study Centre

WE ARE OPEN

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

IMPORTANT INFORMATION