English Grammar

Ever since its publication, the book has been used in many countries in South America,
the Middle East and Europe, including of course Spain, to whose tertiary education
systems both authors devoted the majority of their working lives. Downing and Locke’s
grammar, while clearly rooted in Hallidayan linguistics, also responds to a number of
other influences, including the grammars of Quirk and his colleagues. However, it also
made its own important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of many
points of English grammar, and has been widely cited by scholars working within
functional linguistics.


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What is Pronunciation?

pronunciation (noun): the way in which we pronounce a word
pronounce (verb): to make the sound of a word

"Pronunciation" refers to the way in which we make the sound of words.

To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up through our throat and vocal chords, through our mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth and lips. (Sometimes air also travels through our nose.)

To change the sound that we are making, we mainly use the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips to control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air. If we can control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air correctly, then our pronunciation is clearer and other people understand us more easily.

Speakers of different languages tend to develop different muscles of the mouth for pronunciation. When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be well developed for that language, and we will find pronunciation more difficult. By practising the foreign language pronunciation, our muscles develop and pronunciation improves.

As well as creating correct vowel and consonant sounds using the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips, there are other important aspects of pronunciation, including:

• word stress - emphasis on certain syllables in a word
• sentence stress - emphasis on certain words in a sentence
• linking - joining certain words together
• intonation - the rise and fall of our voice as we speak

Note the spelling of the noun pronunciation and the verb pronounce.

Why is it important to learn English?

There are many reasons why learning a new language is a good idea. It allows you to communicate with new people. It helps you to see things from a different perspective, or get a deeper understanding of another culture. It helps you to become a better listener. It even has health benefits, as studies have shown that people who speak two or more languages have more active minds later in life!

Those are all reasons to learn any language – but did you know that there are 6,500 languages still spoken in the world today? With such an enormous number to choose from, why pick English?

Here are five big reasons that learning English can improve your life.

• It’s the Official Language of 53 Countries

400 million people around the world speak English as their first language. Not only that, but English is listed as one of the official languages in more than a quarter of the countries in the world. That’s a lot of new people you can communicate with just by improving one language!

• It’s the Most Widely Spoken Language in the World

What’s more, English is the rest of the world’s “second language”. While Chinese Mandarin and Spanish are the mother tongues of more people overall, most people in the world choose to learn some English after their native language. In fact, one in five people on the planet speak or understand at least a little bit of English.

This makes English one of the most useful languages you can learn. After all, you can’t learn all 6,500 languages in the world, but at least you will be able to communicate with people from all different countries using English.

• It Can Help You Get a Better Job

Reading Skills and Strategies for Students

One of the things students soon realize about college is that they must learn most things on their own, and often, this requires them to locate resources outside the classroom. This is not a foreign idea for those accustomed to finding a tutor in working math problems or writing essays; but, when it comes to asking for help in reading and comprehending a textbook, students are sometimes hesitant to reveal any difficulties they may be experiencing.

We all know how to read, right? It’s just a matter of concentrating and re-reading until we get it, right?

Wrong. This is a misconception, and it is common. When it comes to reading, we may have little idea of what we know and what we don’t know. In other words, we lack metacognitive skills. Something we must all remember is that most people, no matter how much practice we have had, can improve in reading. This is particularly true when we must read about an unfamiliar topic, and this happens frequently in college.

Becoming acquainted with the academic resources of a campus is vital to one’s success, and self-study is key. Take the time to browse and study the information in this site. Students who know how to assess their understanding, apply fix-up strategies, access information, develop prior knowledge, determine main ideas, build vocabulary, draw inferences, and ask critical questions are better prepared to cope with the rigors of psychology, biology, and history.

The following links can get you started, but the more you learn, the more you will want to know. Learning is a life-long process. Enjoy!