Online Resources: English Grammar
Learning English now is very easy as there are many reliable resources on the web which will help us any student of English irrespective of their level. Some selected websites has been given here.
www.englishtown.com
Englishtown is a reliable source in learning English professionally. Their trainers will give the students a holistic approach to language learning. They are giving training on Business English, Industry specific courses, TOEFEL& TOEIC.
public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html
The site gives a comprehensive list of common errors in English, which has been taken from Paul Brians' "Common Errors in English Usage." It is a guide where we can see almost all the issues addressed. The highlight is that some other good sources are also mentioned at the end.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
Anyone who wants to get an overall picture about language and style, I would suggest owl.english.purdue.edu. Along with grammar, the site provides instructions on general writing, research, teaching, ESL etc.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
As we know, BBC is an authentic source regarding English language. For anyone who wants to learn Standard English, BBC is a must.
www.tolearnenglish.com/
Contrary to other language sites, what is attractive about this site is that it contains language games, jokes etc. Apart from that there is a discussion forum also.
www.drgrammar.org
The site, as the name shows is a doctor to treat our English diseases. It is maintained by UNI Department of Languages and Literatures.
grammar.quickanddirtytips.com
quickanddirtytips provides a lot of tips to improve English language skills. The site has a podcast version for all its lessons, which will help the learners listen and understand.
yourdictionary.com
yourdictionary.com is an authentic site on English usage. In this particular URL, the site is providing 5 most common errors in English. Correcting these errors will make ones writing perfect.
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/kids/animals/malefemalechild/
This section of the site would be good for early learners of English, especially children. It is specially designed for kids, so following the link will make learning an entertaining experience.
www.enchantedlearning.com
As the previous site, this also helps the kids to learn some basic ideas in the language.
http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/basic_sentence.html
This link will help the learners to master sentence structure.
www.english-the-easy-way.com
Learning English is always easy as the site promises. It has different sections such as Grammar, Writing Skills, Academic Writing, Punctuation, Speaking English, Proofreading & Editing, Reading, Job Hunting, Writing Resumes, Vocabulary and so on.
www.englishpage.com
englishpage.com is good for understanding almost all topics in English. However, I would suggest this especially to improve tenses. The exercises given are very good to master the basic ideas of tense.
grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
Referring different topics in different sites is always very monotonous, but if you check grammar.ccc.commnet.edu, then no need of another source at all.
www.world-english.org
If you are looking for activity oriented learning, there is no other best source than this. As they claim, it is "the one-stop resource for the English language and more..."
Monday, October 21, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Teacher- A Facilitator, or a Tuglaq?
Every language teacher will have faced a situation where he/she felt himself/herself as the Great Tuglaq. Muhammd bin Tuglaq was a great ruler in India who made many revolutionary administrative reforms and most of them turned out to be tragic due to poor implementation. He wanted to make his rule more effective and had an eye for future changes, for example, his decision to change the capital to Delhi. However, his reforms did not bring about the desired effects as he was too haste and didn’t think about practical problems. Language teachers who want to make a difference are often face similar problems. As ELT trainers, most of us wanted our students to speak English fluently within a short period of time. This will create a totally reverse situation than we have ever imagined. This is so because language learning requires a longer period of time different from other disciplines. The situation becomes more difficult when the teaching methodology adopted in institutions does not focus on this aspect and give less importance to language learning. In most of the universities in Kerala, now the duration of teaching English is two semesters; in these two semesters, little or no importance is given to developing English language skills.
Teaching language can be more difficult in most situations as the students may not have the interest to learn the language. When language becomes just one subject, and the focus is given in getting more scores than really mastering the basic concepts, learning process will be the last activity in the classrooms.
ESL activities can be a double-edged weapon in such classrooms. The activities can motivate the students to learn the basic concepts well. Besides, the students will get real-time experience in situational-language learning; whereas this can have an adverse effect if the students are not interested in the activities, or did not understand the basic idea behind the activities, or if the instructor conducts the activities without much planning. In other words, the teachers should not be Tuglaqs.
So, what should be the role of the teacher in the classroom? Should he be a dictator as in the olden times (at least in my student years)? Or a friend who will encourage, motivate the student through friendly gestures? Or should he be both? In one method, teacher is a ‘facilitator’ by which it means “An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work" – (Doyle, Wikipedia). How far this idea of ‘content neutral’ works in an ESL classroom? Here, being ‘neutral’ doesn’t mean being passive. Like any other place, a classroom also consists of different types of audiences, hostile, critical, uninformed and sympathetic. Here, the facilitator needs to change his teaching strategy according to his audience. In other words, the overall picture is important and also understanding each and every individual in the classroom.
Teaching language can be more difficult in most situations as the students may not have the interest to learn the language. When language becomes just one subject, and the focus is given in getting more scores than really mastering the basic concepts, learning process will be the last activity in the classrooms.
So, what should be the role of the teacher in the classroom? Should he be a dictator as in the olden times (at least in my student years)? Or a friend who will encourage, motivate the student through friendly gestures? Or should he be both? In one method, teacher is a ‘facilitator’ by which it means “An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work" – (Doyle, Wikipedia). How far this idea of ‘content neutral’ works in an ESL classroom? Here, being ‘neutral’ doesn’t mean being passive. Like any other place, a classroom also consists of different types of audiences, hostile, critical, uninformed and sympathetic. Here, the facilitator needs to change his teaching strategy according to his audience. In other words, the overall picture is important and also understanding each and every individual in the classroom.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Obama's Gandhi- A Blood Thirsty Devil?
The railway station with its colored bricks and people from various classes seemed as the mirror-image of everything the country was at that time; the white masters, their servants, the zamindars, and so on. An elderly lady was sitting anxiously in one of the compartments. She was alone and she couldn’t find anyone to help her buy some drinking water. Though there were so many other passengers in the same cabin, she couldn’t find any innocent faces there. Then, she saw a young man outside; she called him and gave some money and the bottle she had with her. As she waited for him, the train started moving. The fellow passengers started criticizing her for giving money to a completely strange man. However, she looked so calm. When the train moved a bit, the young man came running and gave her the bottled water and the remaining cash. He waved his hands as the train left. Then, the fellow passengers asked her, “How did you trust that completely stranger so much?” With a smile, she replied, “He was wearing khadi.”
I heard this story in a speech by Prof. Muhammad Ahammad. He was referring the trust people had for the Gandhians during the time of India’s freedom struggle. The people who were named as Gandhians were not just workers of Indian National Congress, but those who follow certain kind of lifestyle such as complete simplicity, vegetarianism, adherents of ahimsa, truthfulness, and always felt that serving fellow beings irrespective of caste, religion, race, nationality and so on is their duty. It was not limited to the followers of Gandhi in India alone, but all those who were influenced by his ideas such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Ki and so on. However, in the present day, Gandhians are people who wear khadi, except that nothing is similar with the old values and ideas. Politicians know the market value of Gandhi, but never take any care to follow the footsteps of Gandhi. Though it became a standard practice in India for politicians to wear khadi and conduct special programs on Gandhi Jayanthi, only to woo the people, it became a phenomenon outside India.
Barack Obama, for example, during and after the presidential election, shared how the ideas of Gandhi such as Satygraha influenced his life. Those who observed the way he is running his country will have to find a new meaning for the word “influence.”
The basic principle in which Gandhi built his political philosophy is ‘ahimsa’. Though ‘ahimsa’ is somewhat similar to non-violence, it is not as simple as that. Anyone who is following ‘ahimsa’ as his basic ideology can’t even think of violence. Further, Gandhi maintained the view that ‘both end and means should be pure’, contrary to the long-held view that ‘end justifies the means.’ 
In other words, in order to fight terrorism, a person influenced by Gandhi won’t send his army to kill people. He will not introduce a motion in the Senate to get permission to attack Syria. In other words, the policies of Obama clearly show that he does not have any respect for Gandhi or the ideas of Gandhi.
It is clear that Obama got elected as the president of the USA by creating an image about him- a black, influence by civil rights movement of Martin Luther King, ideas of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, the reason for his success is mainly the ‘hope’ he tried to sell to the voters. The point is, if ‘hope’ was the commodity he tried to sell, Gandhi, Mandela, and King were the selling strategies. Later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Alas, what is the meaning of peace then?
Image Courtesy:
exposing the truth
Google Images
Barack Obama, for example, during and after the presidential election, shared how the ideas of Gandhi such as Satygraha influenced his life. Those who observed the way he is running his country will have to find a new meaning for the word “influence.”
It is clear that Obama got elected as the president of the USA by creating an image about him- a black, influence by civil rights movement of Martin Luther King, ideas of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Of course, the reason for his success is mainly the ‘hope’ he tried to sell to the voters. The point is, if ‘hope’ was the commodity he tried to sell, Gandhi, Mandela, and King were the selling strategies. Later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Alas, what is the meaning of peace then?
Image Courtesy:
exposing the truth
Google Images
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Alarm Bells on Indian Democracy
Whether India ever had a good diplomatic stand on national and international affairs is a question that should be addressed. It can be argued that India had had a good reputation among the other countries during the time of Nehru as he envisaged NAM. Even later, India continued to go on in the same path.
However, on close scrutiny of whether it served any purpose to the nation, the uselessness of the entire affair will be revealed. While analyzing some of the recent instances, with India on the one side and some prominent or lesser prominent nations on the other, would show how poorly the nation’s interests have been served. We can see “nation’s interest” in its broad sense, but the narrow sense has never been served in certain cases, ranging from Italian Mariners’ eventful act of killing Indian fishermen in the Indian Ocean, Sarabjith Singh’s case in the Pakistan prison, the border disputes with China, and the surveillance of USA over other nations and the subsequent request of Snowden for shelter in India. These issues raise certain serious questions on whose interest is being served.
Still, the burden is on the White Man’s shoulders.
Two fishermen were allegedly killed by the Italian mariners from the ship, which anchored in the Indian coast. The Kerala Police arrested the mariners alleging them with the direct involvement in the incident. This had resulted in a serious diplomatic conflict between India and Italy.
When Italy firmly argued that the incident happened in the international waters, and subsequently held the view that the issue should be treated in the International Court, India theoretically defended the argument while bending in front of the white men. From the archbishop of one church to most senior members in the cabinet show their allegiances to Italy. Even now, no fair conduct has been taken on the matter.
Sarabjith Singh: A Victim of the Cat and Mouse Game called India-Pak Relations
Who was Sarabjith Singh? How did he reach Pakistan? What did India do for saving him? These are the questions, for which we may get innumerable answers. Right from the beginning, India and Sarabjith’s family held the view that he was a poor farmer from India who mistakenly crossed the border, and Pak army arrested him mistaking him to be a spy. However, he was charged for some of the blast cases in Pakistan and convicted for capital punishment. Later, he requested for President’s mercy. By this time, a cry for his safety started in India, but nothing happened until he was subjected to capital punishment. Here, also the nation failed to protect its citizen in other countries and it has been reported that thousands of Indians live in Pak prisons and other countries in the world, and the only information our country has about the matter, is their number, not their names, or any other details. And the nation is not trying to procure the details, either.
Border ties: Xenophobia?
It has been observed by political philosophers that the national identity of Canada is shaped by their constant fear of their Big Brother, the US. As there are no real markers in the border between Canada and the US, the Canadians always fear a probable annexation by the US, which is termed as ‘garrison mentality’. Similar fear can be seen in the case of India and China also, but not without reasons. Though the present dispute deals with Arunachal Pradesh, India has problems with China over a long time. The Chinese still occupies some geographical areas of India under their control and nobody in India even bothers about this. The irony is that India is doing nothing to take back the occupied land, and is acting ignorance when similar cases are reported in the border area.
Edward Snowden, a Messiah of anarchy?
When India was labelled a third world nation, it had the guts to stand against the power blocks such as the USSR and the USA. During that time, India was the mediator among other third world nations. Together with Sukarno, Nasser, Tito, and Nkrumah, Panditji wrote a new chapter in the history of the world. However, when India became one of the potential members among power centres on the globe, it lost its influence among ‘small’ nations in the world.
Now, India is a mere puppet in the hands of the USA. This is evident when Snowden, a former employee of the USA hacked the security system of the country, and declared the country’s long term project to surveil the activities of other nations, including top diplomats to the common man. This project is known as “PRISM”. India is one among many nations, which was subjected to this constant surveillance.
When the leaders of the country heard about this, they expressed their “shock” and extreme “anguish”, but that’s all. Nothing was heard about India’s stand regarding this issue. Not just that, later, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told the international media that India did not respond to the request from Snowden to get asylum in India.
These instances, of course there are many more similar cases, raise the question against the diplomatic policies of the country. Since the purpose of having diplomatic relations with other countries is to safeguard nation’s interest, in other words the interest of the people of the country, these recent developments are alarming.
PS:
This article has been formerly published in the college magazine "Framilothungatha Chithrangal", EMS Memorial College of Applied Science, Iritty.
However, on close scrutiny of whether it served any purpose to the nation, the uselessness of the entire affair will be revealed. While analyzing some of the recent instances, with India on the one side and some prominent or lesser prominent nations on the other, would show how poorly the nation’s interests have been served. We can see “nation’s interest” in its broad sense, but the narrow sense has never been served in certain cases, ranging from Italian Mariners’ eventful act of killing Indian fishermen in the Indian Ocean, Sarabjith Singh’s case in the Pakistan prison, the border disputes with China, and the surveillance of USA over other nations and the subsequent request of Snowden for shelter in India. These issues raise certain serious questions on whose interest is being served.
Still, the burden is on the White Man’s shoulders.
Two fishermen were allegedly killed by the Italian mariners from the ship, which anchored in the Indian coast. The Kerala Police arrested the mariners alleging them with the direct involvement in the incident. This had resulted in a serious diplomatic conflict between India and Italy.
When Italy firmly argued that the incident happened in the international waters, and subsequently held the view that the issue should be treated in the International Court, India theoretically defended the argument while bending in front of the white men. From the archbishop of one church to most senior members in the cabinet show their allegiances to Italy. Even now, no fair conduct has been taken on the matter.
Sarabjith Singh: A Victim of the Cat and Mouse Game called India-Pak Relations
Who was Sarabjith Singh? How did he reach Pakistan? What did India do for saving him? These are the questions, for which we may get innumerable answers. Right from the beginning, India and Sarabjith’s family held the view that he was a poor farmer from India who mistakenly crossed the border, and Pak army arrested him mistaking him to be a spy. However, he was charged for some of the blast cases in Pakistan and convicted for capital punishment. Later, he requested for President’s mercy. By this time, a cry for his safety started in India, but nothing happened until he was subjected to capital punishment. Here, also the nation failed to protect its citizen in other countries and it has been reported that thousands of Indians live in Pak prisons and other countries in the world, and the only information our country has about the matter, is their number, not their names, or any other details. And the nation is not trying to procure the details, either.
Border ties: Xenophobia?
It has been observed by political philosophers that the national identity of Canada is shaped by their constant fear of their Big Brother, the US. As there are no real markers in the border between Canada and the US, the Canadians always fear a probable annexation by the US, which is termed as ‘garrison mentality’. Similar fear can be seen in the case of India and China also, but not without reasons. Though the present dispute deals with Arunachal Pradesh, India has problems with China over a long time. The Chinese still occupies some geographical areas of India under their control and nobody in India even bothers about this. The irony is that India is doing nothing to take back the occupied land, and is acting ignorance when similar cases are reported in the border area.
Edward Snowden, a Messiah of anarchy?
When India was labelled a third world nation, it had the guts to stand against the power blocks such as the USSR and the USA. During that time, India was the mediator among other third world nations. Together with Sukarno, Nasser, Tito, and Nkrumah, Panditji wrote a new chapter in the history of the world. However, when India became one of the potential members among power centres on the globe, it lost its influence among ‘small’ nations in the world.
Now, India is a mere puppet in the hands of the USA. This is evident when Snowden, a former employee of the USA hacked the security system of the country, and declared the country’s long term project to surveil the activities of other nations, including top diplomats to the common man. This project is known as “PRISM”. India is one among many nations, which was subjected to this constant surveillance.
When the leaders of the country heard about this, they expressed their “shock” and extreme “anguish”, but that’s all. Nothing was heard about India’s stand regarding this issue. Not just that, later, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told the international media that India did not respond to the request from Snowden to get asylum in India.
These instances, of course there are many more similar cases, raise the question against the diplomatic policies of the country. Since the purpose of having diplomatic relations with other countries is to safeguard nation’s interest, in other words the interest of the people of the country, these recent developments are alarming.
PS:
This article has been formerly published in the college magazine "Framilothungatha Chithrangal", EMS Memorial College of Applied Science, Iritty.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Arjun, Phaalgun, Jishnu, Keeriti, Shwetvaahan....... and Srinivasan
I may agree with the conclusion and enjoyed the bitter satire also. But I have some differences with some ideas expressed, and also how Malayalies responded. Except Shashi Tharoor, and Srishanth's family, nobody openly or indirectly supported him during his bad days, because it is in the blood of Malayalies to feel jealous in the success of others. We never encourage individual success, whether it is Srisanth, or Prithviraj or Ranjini Haridas. These are the common targets of the virtual malayali, see FB posts about them. What they did wrong? They know what they are, what they want, how they can get it and that they have the ability to get it. It means Confidence, but Mallus( of course not Malayalis) consider it arrogance. I didn't react to the arrest of Sreesanth in the beginning time, but had doubt. Still I had doubt. I don't know whether he is engaged in the crime. If yes, hang him, no objection. But criticizing him for conducting Thulabhara in Guruvayour, for wearing some "sacred threads" in the hand, and criticizing his mother for conducting poojas when he played in the matches are irrelevant things to be talked about. As if, none of the Malayalis go to Guruvayur and do Thulabhara. Those who come to Guruvayur are from other planets. As if those who visit Shabari Mala are not at all Mallus. As is the one who conduct Poomoodal is not a Progressive Politician, as if the Mosque which is built for honouring the hair of the prophet is not in Kerala. If these things are done by the virtual Mallu alone, it can be forgiven, but the so called "revamped" police also doing the same thing. Evidences given to the press: Condom( as if having safe sex is bad), Ladies were with him ( as if it is a punishable crime to be with ladies), laptop ( as if only Sreesanth is having it), Smartphone( as if he is the one who invented it), money( he is a beggar arrested from the street), and hotel rooms allegedly booked in metros( oh my god) and he is said to have connections with the all powerful Davood (The Maharastrian Messiah of Indian cricket Almighty Sarath Pawar haven't even heard of Davood), and that too without evidence. So, Sreesanth is arrested, and then "evidences" are found, not in the other way, that too the POlice have been observing Sreesanth and his company from the beginning of the IPL( and now they got condoms, so what, you may say). And tell me, if I feel Sreesanth is a scapegoat, is it wrong?
I re-post the comment I have given to one of the posts soon after Sreesanth being arrested for spot-fixing mainly to show the continuous neglect of Southern players in India and also to highlight the prevalence of total corruption in the sports administration in India. It is not just that Sreesanth being denied justice and Srinivasan being escaped, but also include rejection of Arjuna Award to the prominent players such as Tom Joseph and Renjith Maheshwary. It is reaffirmed that sports in Indian sub-continent is only for the North Indian baboos and multi-millionaires, but not for players. When Sreesanth got life-time ban, Srinivasan is still controlling the board.
Tom Joseph has been nominated for Arjuna for nine times and rejected.
Renjith Maheshwari’s nomination was rejected because he had indeed failed a dope test in 2008 during a national meet in Kochi. In other words, even if he got an Olympics prize in future, he will not get any national recognition only because he failed a test in the past.
Sports Minister Jitendra Singh acted so well in the case of Tom Joseph, protecting the vote bank of Kerala. Though he is supposed to clean sports sector from the Kalmadis, he is singing in tunes with people like him. He has protected all the evils of India so well.
Anyone who observes these developments will see one point clearly. The rejection of nominations citing technicalities happens only in the case of Malayali sports stars. Why this happens?
Postscript:
In fact, Arjuna award is not at all suitable for us Malayalis. As per one story, the predecessors of most Malayalis fought in the Mahabharata war against Arjuna, and left North-India after the defeat of Duryodhana to escape from Arjuna. In other words, it is an epic-war!
I re-post the comment I have given to one of the posts soon after Sreesanth being arrested for spot-fixing mainly to show the continuous neglect of Southern players in India and also to highlight the prevalence of total corruption in the sports administration in India. It is not just that Sreesanth being denied justice and Srinivasan being escaped, but also include rejection of Arjuna Award to the prominent players such as Tom Joseph and Renjith Maheshwary. It is reaffirmed that sports in Indian sub-continent is only for the North Indian baboos and multi-millionaires, but not for players. When Sreesanth got life-time ban, Srinivasan is still controlling the board.
Tom Joseph has been nominated for Arjuna for nine times and rejected.
Sports Minister Jitendra Singh acted so well in the case of Tom Joseph, protecting the vote bank of Kerala. Though he is supposed to clean sports sector from the Kalmadis, he is singing in tunes with people like him. He has protected all the evils of India so well.
Anyone who observes these developments will see one point clearly. The rejection of nominations citing technicalities happens only in the case of Malayali sports stars. Why this happens?
Postscript:
In fact, Arjuna award is not at all suitable for us Malayalis. As per one story, the predecessors of most Malayalis fought in the Mahabharata war against Arjuna, and left North-India after the defeat of Duryodhana to escape from Arjuna. In other words, it is an epic-war!
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