Perfect Phrases for ESL Everyday Situations
Appendix
Becoming an Active Learner in Your New Country
If you are a reader, it is going to be easier to read in your native language. However, now you are reading for different reasons, not only for content, so you have to read in the target language, English. You are now reading for English vocabulary, clues from context, word similarity to words in your language, grammar, idioms, and slang. Therefore, read whatever you can get your hands on. Start simple and build up: read captions under pictures, headlines, and ads in newspapers that are too difficult to read in their entirety now. Read children’s books, with or without children. All libraries have children’s sections, and their librarians are very helpful. Additionally, there are interesting and informative yet easy ESL newspapers. One such paper is Easy English News. This paper contains news stories, information about U.S. culture, stories about holidays and events, letters from ESL students, idioms, jokes, crossword puzzles with answers, and vocabulary words defined. Check out the website, www.elizabethclaire.com, and click on “Easy English News.”
When you are reading something, you may find words you do not understand. If there is time, resist the urge to pull out your automatic translator or bilingual dictionary. Use an English dictionary, but an easy one, which will define the word in English at your level. Getting the definition will take longer, but you will gain more vocabulary, perhaps see a drawing, and get a grammar explanation. McGraw-Hill offers many fine dictionaries of this type. Some may even have accompanying CDs so you may listen to the pronunciation of the words you are trying to define.
Always carry a small pad of paper and a pen or pencil with you in a pocket, a purse or pocketbook, or a briefcase. Write down anything you hear or read that you need to find out about later. You may hear unfamiliar idioms (“It’s raining cats and dogs today”) or slang (“I ate a humongous hamburger last night, so I don’t want any lunch”). This writing is for your eyes only to jog your memory, so you don’t have to make it perfect. Some of it can be in your native language.
Keep a journal in English. This can be in a larger notebook at home. Set aside a short time—at first, ten minutes—to write in your journal. Write in your journal every day, even if it is only a sentence or two to start. Write your thoughts about learning English, work, your new life, playing tennis. Write about your feelings, even if you have to write them in your own language, and look up the definitions for these feelings later.
Listen to the radio in the car, music lyrics, talk radio, the news. Watch TV, closed captioning, cartoons, and anything else. Even when you don’t understand, listening to the sound of the language is helpful. Call a telephone number where you know nobody will answer (a movie theater, a business closed on weekends, a utility company, the weather, the time), and listen to the recorded message. Try to understand the prompts. Think about which voices are pleasing to you and which are not and why. Try to pattern your speech after the pleasant ones.
Books on CDs are other good avenues to try; you may listen to only a few minutes to see what you understand or get the book and read and listen at the same time. You may find a book that you have read in your language so that you are familiar with the setting, the characters, and the plot. Immerse yourself in English as much as you are able to. This does not mean you have to deprive yourself, or your children, of the joy of using your language; it means committing yourself to learning your new language as well and becoming truly bilingual.
Crossword puzzles are a great way to work on vocabulary. Don’t start out with difficult ones; that could be frustrating. Try crossword puzzles for children or the ones in ESL books, magazines, or newspapers. There is much on the Internet, and a lot of it is very good and easily accessible. Check out Dave’s ESL Café, www.eslcafe.com, and click on “Stuff for Students.” This is only one of many sites, but an exciting one.
When speaking, always remember to speak English more slowly than you speak your own language. You will be surprised at the difference it makes in your intelligibility. Also, although you may be trying to hide your voice because you are insecure about your English, speak loudly and project your voice. If people can’t hear you, you’ll never really know if they could have understood you.
Idioms and Other Vocabulary
Briefcase: case with a handle used by businesspeople to carry papers
Clues: hints, information that helps you figure something out
Context: words that surround a word you are trying to figure out the meaning of (These words may help you to do so without having to look up the word.)
Crossword puzzles: forms in which you write the answers to questions or clues in a block pattern
Deprive: take something wanted away from someone
Entirety: complete form
Frustrating: making you feel upset because you cannot do what you want to do
Get your hands on: find
Handbag: see Pocketbook
Humongous: giant, very big
Immerse: put deep into
Insecure: without confidence in yourself
Intelligibility: ability to be understood
Jog: make you remember something
Jokes: funny stories that are supposed to make people laugh
Lyrics: words to music
Pocketbook (also purse or handbag): bag that ladies carry in which to put items they need, such as keys, money, cosmetics, and identification cards
Project your voice: speak so you are heard by everyone in a room
Prompts: what you hear when voice mail answers the telephone and tells you what to press or push to be connected
Purse: see Pocketbook
Resist: stop yourself
Set aside: plan for, schedule
Urge: strong desire or need to do something