Here you can find everything related to learning and revising different topics of English language and study skills. Some entries will be text, others video or audio recordings, that give you an overview of the language point. If an exercise is available as well to practice that point, you will find a link directly from the Learn post, or you can go straight to the Practice section first.
You can scroll down to see everything in this section so far, or click one of the links below to get to a post about a specific topic immediately.
Learning Strategies
Tips and ideas for learning effectively
Improving your listening skills
Learning from your mistakes
Expanding your vocabulary
Individual learning types and styles
Learn with online audiobooks
Learning collocations
Learning by watching with subtitles
Voices from campus as well!. Get perspectives from University members here. The Home Editions offer some ideas on keeping your active language use fresh and up to date in difficult socially and physically distanced times.
Vox Pop: Home Edition #1: watch/listen!
Vox Pop: Home Edition #2: speak!
Vox Pop: Home Edition #3: write!
Vox Pop: Home Edition #4: read and listen!
Vox Pop: Home Edition #5: all the skills!
Vox Pop: Advice for first years 2019
Grammar
Lessons on various grammar points relevant to English for Academic Purposes
Conditionals
Passive forms
Stative verbs
Rules for Comma Usage
He said; she said: Reported speech and tense backshift
Vocabulary
Lessons on vocabulary points, especially for academic English
Neologisms
Expanding your vocabulary
Collocations
Learn vocabulary by watching with subtitles
Writing effectively
Strategies for Writing under COVID-19 conditions
Writing an abstract: disambiguation and introduction
Writing an abstract: when and how
Academic writing is critical writing
Academic Writing: writing a literature review
Academic Writing as Storytelling
How to Express Your Personal Opinion
Creating textual cohesion
How I almost failed my bachelor’s thesis
Comparing: How to Describe Similarities
Contrasting: How to Describe Differences
Gender-inclusive Language in Academic Writing
Writing Introductions
Citing and referencing sources
Quoting and paraphrasing
Do’s and Don’ts of Direct Quoting
Academic Reading Skills
Tips and strategies for improving your skills in reading, especially with those demanding academic texts.
Reading poetry: Rhyme and Meter
Finding sources: Doing Research in Times of Covid-19
Effective reading: understanding texts
Critical reading: assessing reliability
Finding and identifying rhetorical devices in literature
Pronunciation
Here you will find a number of video lessons and information about the phonetics, phonology and pronunciation of Standard American English.
Basic concepts of phonetics and pronunciation
Vowels are not absolute
Vowels 1: Front and Central
Vowels 2: Back vowels
Vowels 3: Diphthongs
Vowels 3: R-colored vowels
Pronouncing consonants 1: basics
Pronouncing consonants 2: aspiration and other features
The many sides of the English ‚r‘
Pronouncing consonants special: that pesky ‚th‘
Pronouncing connected speech: liaison
Pronouncing connected speech: rhythm
Pronouncing connected speech: elision
How I Managed to Write My MA Thesis During COVID-19
As university students, most of us have to submit academic papers at some point and all of us experience some form of struggle in the writing process. During the ongoing pandemic with its necessary restrictions…
Continue Reading How I Managed to Write My MA Thesis During COVID-19
How to improve your English skills with drilling techniques
Drilling in language learning simply means listening to a language model and repeating what is heard. The language model (or structure or pattern) can be provided by a teacher, a friend, another student or a recording.…
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Order of adjectives
A few years ago, a tweet addressing word order went viral. It is rare to see Grammar resonate with so many people, so let us have a look at what was going on:
Vowels 3 – r-colored vowels – definition and examples and explications
Another area of pronunciation in which varieties of English can be distinguished is in the phoneme /r/. This is not only true between nations like Great Britain and the U.S., but also within them. Within…
Continue Reading Vowels 3 – r-colored vowels – definition and examples and explications