How To Use Google+

August 10, 2011

August 2011

Welcome to EnglishClub ESL Progress

Josef Essberger Welcome to this edition of ESL Progress for learners and teachers of English. This month we have a new page about Google+ and how you can use it. You’ll also find a lesson on the difference between the sounds /b/ and /p/. Check out our new Vocabulary Games and the latest EnglishClub Site of the Month (which gives you lots of help with vocabulary). Hear our latest audio news about the USA losing its AAA rating, as well as a completely new set of Zodiac pages. For teachers there are some useful new worksheets. And as always you can try our Quick Quiz.

Good luck!

Josef Essberger, Founder
EnglishClub

Lesson Of The Month
Minimal Pairs /p/ and /b/

Below are lists of words that vary only by one having the sound /p/ and the other the sound /b/. You can use this to practise the sounds or as a list of words to be careful to pronounce properly.

The main difference between /b/ and /p/ is that /b/ is a voiced sound, whereas /p/ is just produced by the puff of air. Also, /b/ is pronounced with less air released than /p/, and this can sometimes be a more useful distinction as it is difficult to feel the vocal cords vibrating when making the /b/ sound.

Elementary
B P
bar Pa
bay pay
be P
bear pair
berry perry
bet pet
big pig
blaze plays

learn more…

Quick Quiz "Do not mention my name" means

a) don’t say it
b) don’t forget it
c) don’t recall it

answer at end

EnglishClub ESL Site of the Month

Word Hippo is a simple vocabulary resource that can help you when you have a quick question. If you need to find a synonym of a word, simply type it into the field "What’s another word for…". Looking up a word in this way is similar to checking an online dictionary. If you want the antonym, choose "What’s the opposite of…". You can also find example sentences that use your word in context…

News and Links Things you don’t want to miss…

Listen to Weekly News
Now you can listen to a selected news story every Tuesday. Each week we have a top international story, with audio, transcript, wordchecker and gapfill exercise. This week the USA loses its AAA credit rating.

Listen To the Signs Of The Zodiac
Text and audio for each sign of the zodiac – with personality adjectives and other vocabulary.

New Vocabulary Games
New free, online Crossword Puzzles and Gap-Fill (cloze) Games for you to practise your English vocabulary online. All with answers.

How To Use Google+
Why use Google+? 1. convenient for gmail users 2. share content and thoughts with specific circles of people 3. try something new 4. have group video chats What is Google+? Google+ (spoken as Google Plus) is a social network (SN). Some people call it Google’s answer to Facebook…

New pages for Teachers

ESL Worksheets: Many new worksheets with answer sheets, all printable.
This Week In History Archive: Now you can access the entire year so you can plan ahead for lessons based on This Week In History.

Answer to Quick Quiz