English learning
Jul 11th , 2011
Your most frequent mistakes according to Ginger
I had a look at Ginger’s most frequent error report the other day and was quite surprised. Other than popular typos and your other usual suspects, the mistake that occurs most frequently is when users confuse ‘is’ with ‘are’ (and … Continue reading
Posted in Archive, English learning, English writing, Grammar | Tagged frequent errors
Jul 4th , 2011
What is up with English spelling?!
Ever wondered why you ‘speak’ but make a ‘speech’? Why the ‘t’ is doubled in ‘letter’? And why on earth do we need the ‘e’ at the end words like ‘have’ and ‘gone’? English spelling is known for being messed … Continue reading
Posted in Archive, English as a second language, English learning, Proofreading, Spelling | Tagged english spelling
Jun 22nd , 2011
Are you part of the English Mania?
If you are reading these lines then your English language skills are most likely quite good. You might be a native English speaker or someone who speaks English as a second language or as a foreign language. You might be … Continue reading
Posted in English as a second language, English learning | Tagged English language, mania
Jun 3rd , 2011
Ginger’s Online Grammar Book is finally here!
The very first topic out of the Online Ginger Grammar Book is out We’re super excited as we’ve been waiting for this for a long time now – our very own, cool and updated online grammar book. The thing is, … Continue reading
Posted in Archive, English learning, Grammar | Tagged online grammar book
May 3rd , 2011
Calling all beta lovers
All you Ginger users out there already know the famous Ginger drawer, F2 key and correction window. Behind the scenes, we have been working on creating a much lighter interface. Our goal was to develop a straightforward tool that will … Continue reading
Posted in English learning, English writing, Grammar, Proofreading | Tagged beta, seamless
Jan 9th , 2011
How to Improve Your English
Learning how to improve English is a dream shared by many English language learners. There are so many things to practice and improve while learning English: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, accent, the list just goes on and on. Many students will learn how to improve English by taking regular classes and using regular, traditional text books. Others will try to learn how to improve English by taking online courses that enhance grammar and vocabulary. We will examine another type of learning technique that will teach you how to improve English.
Let’s take a look at an automatic correction tool that can also teach you how to improve English. If we mark learning English through self improvement and enhancing grammar and vocabulary as our targets, we can try to define what we would like our automatic correction tool to include. In order to help us is our question of how to improve English; it must be able first of all to correct all our writing errors.
While you learn how to improve English you will have many grammar and spelling mistakes. Your software must be able to recognize all the grammar and spelling mistakes and suggest alternate, logical corrections. In order to teach you how to improve English effectively the corrections must also be context-sensitive. Corrections must be logical in the contextual sense or they may become useless. Comparing your sentence with a database that takes a look at English language sentences is then essential for your writing aid in order for it to be context-sensitive.
The next stage in our quest to answer the question how to improve English is to be able to learn from our mistakes. Your software must be able, not only to track mistakes, but also to monitor them. Such monitoring will enable it to produce reports and provide you with quizzes and tests. Learning English then becomes possible alongside the correction process and is integrated with your regular daily routine.
Text to Speech is another key feature that will help you in learning English. By listening to your own texts, as well as to other texts, pronounced correctly, you will be able to practice your own pronunciation and improve your accent. Text to speech will also help you in determining how to avoid repeating your mistakes in the future; as you are able to listen to the errors you have written and better understand what makes them erroneous.
Posted in English learning | Tagged improve english, improve your english
Jan 9th , 2011
Improve Your English
There are many ways in which teachers can help their students to improve English. English teachers will labor on creating detailed lesson plans for English language learning, assisting their students to improve English and English Grammar. But language learning cannot be done only in the classroom and no matter how detailed and successful your lesson plans are, your English students will need to practice their English skills outside of the classroom for their language learning process to be complete.
In order to be able to assist students to improve English outside of the classroom, teachers can use various computerized language learning enhancement tools. As virtually all students use a computer on a daily basis, integrating the English learning process with computer usage can be a successful way to improve English. English grammar mistakes, for example, may be recognized and corrected by an automatic correction tool. The learner is able to view mistakes and their possible correction while she is engaged in her daily activities, such as writing an email to a close personal friend or submitting posts in a social network or a blog. That way the task of seeking to improve English becomes natural.
Language learning through the use of text to speech technology can also be very useful for students that seek to improve English. Learning how to speak clearly and with correct pronunciation is something that can be practiced again and again in the classroom. But no matter how much you will practice with your students, during their language learning classes, and how much you integrate speech practice into your lesson plans, it is not enough. Daily practice of speech and pronunciation is necessary to achieve great results with speaking and accent, in the same way that daily writing practice is essential for improving English Grammar. Text to Speech can aid your students with that essential daily practice, as they can listen to their own texts read by male, or female, realistic voices with British or American accents. Every time they write a letter or an email or want to submit a post on a social networking website, they can actually listen to what they wrote. They can practice by repeating the sentences that they hear and by playing and re-playing them until they achieve perfection with their pronunciation and accent. The trick is to encourage your students to improve English by practicing on a daily basis.
Posted in English learning | Tagged improve english, improve your english
Jan 9th , 2011
Learning English
Learning English and mastering English language usage are gradual and progressive processes. Self improvement is possible through daily practice. The more time you take learning English every day, the better is will become. It’s as simple as that! The thing is, learning English on a daily basis is not always simple if you have a job, if you are a parent, a university student etc. In the daily struggle to find time for all your occupations you will not always be able to find the time for learning English. A lot of people just give up because of time constrictions; they don’t have time for daily English learning and just can’t see themselves mastering the English language. It’s quite sad actually, because daily practice does not have to be two, or three hours long, you can invest as little as thirty minutes a day for a gradual improvement process to take place. Some people will try e leaning, taking English online courses in order to compensate for their lack of time. Because many of these e learning online courses do not adapt themselves to the specific needs of the user and are ready made, a lot of English language learners will stop using them or not use them on the day to day basis that is necessary for effectively learning English.
The solution is quite simple: if you don’t have time to learn English in your day to day life make your day to day life about learning English. If you find that the e learning English online tools do not answer your English learning needs, you need to select a tool that can be integrated with your daily writing. Using a software that is able to correct mistakes with context sensitivity and also analyze them and provide you with frequent error reports will allow you to do just that. You just need to continue with your daily activities: writing emails, posting on the internet and writing letters and documents. While you work, your context sensitive correction and learning tool will teach and instruct you. It will offer you correction suggestions, correct all spelling and grammar mistakes, and also monitor all your mistakes and provide you with a learning course that is tailored to fit your specific needs. Learning English and the progressive improvement that is necessary to master the English language will simply become part of your routine.
Posted in English learning | Tagged e learning, English language, English online, learning English
Jun 17th , 2010
Using Grants to Fund Innovative School Programs & Services
Brian S. Friedlander, PhD
To say the least, these have been challenging times for schools. Schools across the United States are feeling the impact of the recession and the tough economic climate. This has had a significant impact on budgets; schools are in a position where, unfortunately, they have had to cut teachers and services to students in their school districts. It would seem that just as we are about to round the corner and are making strides in improving the achievement of students in our schools, the rug has been pulled from under us. Schools will have to do more with less. Many institutions who find themselves in this position have been looking for grants and foundation money to help support their programs and provide quality education services to their students.
During this
past year, I have been able to provide assistive technology consulting services to many schools under President Obama’s, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. One of the priorities under this Act was the purchase of assistive technology and professional development to insure the equipment was being used properly. Many schools that I have worked with have budgeted for the purchase of assistive technology software and services which truly support students in the classroom. While many schools have already planned how they will be spending their grant money, there is still one more year under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for schools to invest in assistive technology and professional services. Now is a great time to sit down with your stakeholders and look to see how you can support students in the mainstream with assistive technology. Using programs like Ginger can help support students in the mainstream and assist them in their written language skills. Teachers who are using Ginger in the classroom could use the Frequent Error Reports to easily track students’ progress and the errors they make. Having a snapshot of each student’s errors is a great way to chart their progress and provide them with the personalized instruction that they need. The reports also provide great visibility to the levels of writing of all the students in the school, providing principles and administrators with valuable statistics on the amounts of text written, the kinds of errors all students are making, and their progress. Administrators can identify effective instruction methods which may be adopted school wide. In order for schools to become more efficient, they will need to look to instructional and assistive technologies that can provide students with the support they need and educators with the data to support it.
As school budgets continue to shrink, it will become more important for schools to take advantage of grant and foundation money they can use to support their assistive technology programs. In recent months, many states have applied for the Phase 2 of Race to the Top Funds, which was designed to promote State Departments of Education to adopt new policies and practices for school wide reform. Phase 2 of Race to the Top Fund is a $3.4 billion dollar grant that will be awarded at the end of the summer. It is important for educators to be aware of these programs and start a dialogue as to how this money will be spent for new and innovative educational practices. Some schools will be using this money to purchase computers and software- a great way to support students in the mainstream. To keep abreast of grants and other funding resources you may visit: http://www.eschoolnews.com/funding/
Posted in English learning