The -ing form of a verb is called “the gerund”. There are just three rules of using the gerund:
Comma usage is definitely a big problem for all learners of English. Although, comma usage has nothing to do with your English abilities (here I am talking about speaking and listening skills because this is what every English learner cares about), it is of a real help when it comes to writing. Most of the English learners (at least here in Vietnam) use English at work for communication purposes, especially written English (in form of emails, reports etc) with their business partners or foreign managers.
Pronouncing the suffixes (also known as word endings) -s and -ed are usually a big problem for learners of English, particularly for Vietnamese (and probably other Asians). Using and pronouncing them don’t make sense for Vietnamese learners since their language doesn’t use such features. Here you have a short simple guide on pronunciation of the -s and -ed suffixes.
How many times have you said: “On Monday I will start studying English”? How many times have you planned to pay more attention to English? I am sure many times. Maybe you have spent a lot of time going to school but you are still not able to speak English. You learned a lot of vocabulary but now you just remember a small part of it. You have been studying English for ten years now but you can’t understand a word when you are watching an American movie. Sounds familiar?!
When it comes to joining clauses, mistakes are almost unavoidable by learners of ESL/EFL. There are three ways of joining clauses correctly.
Many times in your life as an English teacher abroad it happens to have a new class and of course you have to introduce yourself. You can very well tell your new students what your name is and a few more details and then you are good to go. But, why not make an entire lesson out of this must have introduction. Here is how I do it and students always like it.
It is well known that utterances may be formed by one or more sentences and somebody can determine where one sentence ends and another begin. In the same way, in phonology, utterances can be divided into tone-units. Someone can determine where these tone-units begin and where they end.
If you live and work in Vietnam then you probably need a motorbike driving licence. The bad news is that the driver licence from your country of origin is not valid in Vietnam (Update: Now, in 2015, it should be fine driving a motorbike in Vietnam with the driving licence issued in your country of origin). The good news is that based on your driving licence from your country of origin you can get a Vietnamese driving licence.
“Finding a teaching job in Saigon is not a difficult task!” Many people will say this but I do know that finding a job is a difficult task, not only here, in Vietnam, but everywhere in the world.
According to my knowledge, there are two big categories of teachers of English: teachers of English who are native speakers of English and teachers of English who are non-native speakers of English. These two categories can be divided into subcategories as well but that is not necessary here. Let’s just consider that teachers from both categories are well educated with a good command of English.