Do you know about the changes in TOEFL? Starting from July 26, the test duration will be reduced to under 2 hours. Instead of having 3 or 4 reading passages, there will now be only two. Additionally, the independent writing task that test takers previously had to complete will be replaced by a shorter writing task.

I want to share with you the best websites to prepare for your test. They are good in different ways, which I will talk about in detail. However, they all have one drawback in common: free content is limited, as is the case with almost any resource. Take that into consideration if you don't want to buy a subscription. Here's a way to work around it: use one site at a time. This way, you'll have three weeks to practice without paying! To establish the order in which you'll use them, decide on your preferences and the type of practice you want to do.

TestGlider (https://www.testglider.com): Their tests are the most accurate, and the format is almost identical to what you'll encounter during the real test. They check every part (AI). The website itself is very intuitive, modern, and visually appealing with vibrant colors. However, the pages might be too big, showing only a small part at a time.

Magoosh TOEFL (https://toefl.magoosh.com): This website is also very intuitive, modern, and visually appealing with vibrant colors. The page layout is not as zoomed in as the previous one, which allows for better perception of the whole information.

BestMyTest (https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl/toefl-instructor/overview): Although not as colorful, this website is easy to use and well-structured. The presentation of exercises is similar to what you will encounter in a test.

Happy practicing!

#resources

Listening 🎧

The key is to take notes while listening to grasp the information that can help you answer questions. The challenge here is that you don't know what they are going to be about. If you write down everything, you might not be able to see the whole picture because you were only writing and not paying attention to the meaning of the lecture or conversation. You need to employ your skills of prediction, analysis, and sorting out only pertinent information based on your previous listening experience and general knowledge.

Also, make your notes coherent so that you can use them to navigate through the text, find details, and establish order and relationships.

Write down words even if you don't know them, just spell them as best as you can. You will have time later to understand how they are connected to the main idea or a part of the text. In many cases, it turns out that these words are needed to answer a question correctly because they represent specific academic vocabulary. Sure, you don't have to learn biology or physics vocabulary in preparation for your exam, but be ready to encounter a lot of terms and figure out their meanings from the context.

Pay attention to intonation, subtle attitudes, changes of tone, pauses, and hesitation. This is all extra information that can be useful, especially when you are in doubt or lack some vocabulary. This way, we can understand the universal language of sounds, not just words, which often accurately conveys our ideas.
#lingvostrategies

Many are familiar with the word 'error', but did you know that this noun is a derivative of the verb 'to err', which is not used quite as often as the other one? I first encountered it in a psychology book and was surprised that a verb like this existed.

This is a great example of using morphology. The best way to learn more vocabulary with minimum effort is to learn cognate words (they have the same root). Like this, you don't need to learn, let's say, 5 unrelated words (because if you don't see the connection, you can even think of the words with the same root as unrelated). Instead, you only need to learn the meaning of one particular root, and using your skill of deriving words by using different prefixes and suffixes, you can create a group of related words. In case you forget one of them, you can use another one to remember the first.

More examples of pairs like this:

Wisdom - to wise (Note: "wise" as a verb is used but less commonly, mainly as a phrasal verb)
Example: "He wised up after learning from his mistakes."

Beauty - to beautify (Note: "beautify" as a verb is used but less commonly)
Example: "Money has been raised to beautify the area."

Hunger - to hunger (Note: "hunger" as a verb is used but less commonly, usually followed by for or after)
Example: "Many people still hunger for social justice."

Silence - to silence
Example: "The teacher asked the class to silence their cell phones."
#такойразныйязык

How long does it take to learn a language? The truth is that it very much depends on many individual factors, but..

Many people struggle with English and, at some point, become desperate because they have tried to learn it so many times but failed. This can happen due to various reasons, but the most frequent one is inconsistency in their efforts.

Let's imagine John wants to start speaking English. He has some experience from school, but his knowledge is basic and random. He can identify some grammar aspects but can't remember any rules. He also probably understands simple texts and audios but can't express his ideas when needed.

In the majority of cases that I have encountered during my teaching experience with adults, this hypothetical student has a weak A2.1 level. After trying many times, he starts losing hope, fearing the tenses, thinking that those who have succeeded have a superpower or a predisposition to learning languages, along with many more ideas that, in his mind, prove that reaching a level where it's comfortable to express thoughts and emotions, conduct business meetings, or live in an English-speaking country is impossible.

What these Johns don't know or don't want to acknowledge is that learning a language is a long process where consistent studies throughout the entire journey are necessary. It takes years, yes, years, to progress from ground zero to B2 or even C1-C2 levels. Refer to the table from the official Cambridge website and the website itself (the link is provided below) to understand the amount of hours needed to achieve a certain level. This might be shocking, especially for those who have fallen victim to information products and all those promising YouTube videos that entice you to buy their supposedly magical courses, claiming you'll be speaking in a very short time.

The reality is that to learn a language, one needs to be diligent, consistent, and motivated, and ideally, to boost the results and see them sooner, to practice a lot outside of class so that the language becomes an integral part of their everyday life. Be curious about it, and your efforts will pay off tremendously.

Regardless of your current level, I wish you to find your own motivation to succeed in learning and to enjoy the benefits of speaking English!

https://support.cambridgeenglish.org/hc/en-gb/articles/202838506-Guided-learning-hours
#lingvostrategies

When can I start watching movies or series in English? 🎥

It surely depends on the type of content but generally speaking I would recommend to start at the B1 level if it's something simple, like a light sitcom where there isn’t much specific vocabulary or it’s not about a certain topic.
Understanding depends very much on how well you know the reality of life of the country of origin of the piece of work. Example: Barbie the movie is about real struggles of women in America and unless you are aware of the circumstances you won’t be able to see through the colorful picture and get the nuances, references, jokes, sarcasm and everything that’s not expressed explicitly. To see below the surface, you need to be in the context of the current situation, know how to connect one thing to another, have an adequate degree of critical thinking. And there are often certain movies, books, events, songs that can be mentioned and used as a base for jokes, conversation starters, witty replies, analogies, etc.
So yes, you can start watching series/movies if your level is B1, but choose wisely, ideally something on the topic that you know well so that you won’t have struggles about the subject itself above the linguistic ones and be ready not to understand everything as this content is not adapted to you level.

Tips:

1) Choose the variant of English you’re comfortable with (e.g. American, British).
Unless you want to have a challenge, minimize the amount of difficulties you will encounter.

2) Get rid of distractions.
It will be easier to focus and catch a flow if you’re not disturbed, which will increase the level of your satisfaction from watching.

3) Choose short episodes, the standard is about 24 minutes.
This is an optimal amount of time to comprehend the whole episode and not get bored/frustrated due to your lack of vocabulary.

4) Use English subtitles, not the ones in your mother tongue.
It eliminates translation in your head, which leads to faster processing and creation of neural connections in English.

5) Pause the video when needed.
Yes, you’ll do it very often at the beginning and it can be discouraging, but this way you make sure you understand what’s going on and give yourself space to learn new vocabulary.

Happy watching!

#lingvostrategies

Are articles really necessary? What if I don't use them? Will people understand me?

Sure, it seems that if you don't have such a thing as articles in your mother tongue, you might think that you can skip this part of English grammar as not to waste time. But you need to remember that ideas are expressed differently in languages through forms which might be new to you. You might not even realize that a certain idea is even present in your language, you just use it automatically. In a foreign language, though, you need to analyze what you are not used to. Words like articles modify and provide more information about the main words, but altogether can alter the meaning so that it becomes something else. If there are many 'insignificant' words in a sentence that convey a lot of meaning and provide clarity subtly, we can focus on the ones that convey the main idea.

Things that articles make easier:

- We don't need to clarify information about the noun regarding its number if it's preceded by an indefinite article, and the category of the object or person if it's preceded by a definite article;
- We avoid misinterpretation of what we say and minimize the possibility of ambiguity;
- We make our speech concise, because otherwise what is expressed through articles would have to be expressed in a longer way.

Consider these examples:

I want to go to a store on the weekend.
I want to go to store on the weekend. (We might think that 'store' is a verb here and understand the sentence in a wrong way, and might want to ask for details like 'to store what?')

This is what he told the program.
This is what he told a program. (If we use 'a' instead of 'the' here, the listener might not understand what program we are talking about. When we use a definite article, we give a signal that the person listening to us knows what it is that we are talking about through the context or some additional information that we provide in our sentence.)

So yes, people will understand you if you don't use articles or use them incorrectly, but it will make communication slower and more difficult. To sound natural and be able to express your thoughts clearly, learn how to use them and practice more.😉

#такойразныйязык

A new way to practice speaking. ⚡️

Did you know that Chat GPT has an app? Its main advantage, in comparison with the online version, is the possibility to interact with it via voice. That means you can practice speaking at your level whenever you like, at no cost, and on topics of your choice.
Here are some ideas on how you can use it more effectively:

• Set the basic parameters of your conversation right away. Let’s say you want to talk about recycling. Establish your level, the vocabulary and grammar that you want to drill. You can also discuss specific events or cases.
• Be clear. The chat needs to understand your task to help you in the best way. Avoid ambiguity; instead, give simple, concise instructions. Add details on the go if it overlooks something, or you need to narrow something down or steer it in another direction from the general idea.
• Try to imitate a real conversation because, after all, that’s what you’re preparing for. It’s OK for both parties to misunderstand and ask to repeat, clarify some ideas, give examples, or try to paraphrase things to make it easier for the other person to understand based on their set of knowledge and experience.

Remember that the Chat can make mistakes (it was created by humans 😉), get confused and disoriented, sometimes give you back incoherent responses, but overall is a great tool to perfect your English speaking skills!

The easiest way to boost your English: watch series. A lot of them.

On the one hand, you just passively absorb information, which doesn't require a lot of effort. And even like that it can already be very beneficial because you can see how people communicate in real life, how they switch styles of speaking, use spoken grammar, connect words, highlight nuances using intonation and stress, make jokes, refer to something implicitly, and weave in hints and implications; you can get familiar with different accents and manners of speech, with the way people twist words to their liking for them to be concise and suitable for the particular situation. Enlarge your passive vocabulary on general topics and the ones that the specific series cover.
On the other hand, you can go beyond that and take the most out of it by methodically analyzing what you hear and see. The way I did it:

- Pause every time you hear a word or phrase you don't understand and check it in a dictionary;
- Pause to analyze scenes and particular jokes and sarcastic remarks;
- Look up cultural details that you don't know;
- Try to imitate caracters' speech, say the lines along;
- Adjust the speed according to your needs;
- Rewatch the same series, this way, each time you can understand something you didn't catch the previous time.

Choose a series that you're really into and enjoy your entertaining and learning!

#lingvostrategies

For many people, one of the most difficult things about English is to remember the past simple and past participle forms of irregular verbs. It sure is quite a task, but it can be easier if you know that there are certain clusters of irregular verbs that change the same way. Like this, you won't have to start this search for the right variant from scratch, you can just use a verb from that cluster that you remember the forms of and apply it to the initial verb.

For example: break-speak-choose

Let's say you forget the past simple form of the verb "to speak". But you can look at the infinitive of this verb and notice that it's similar to the verb "to choose". If you remember the past simple form for the latter one, you can infer the form for the first verb. So basically, you need to remember certain variations of forms and verbs that fall into each group.

Be attentive, as these clusters might have verbs that are not similar in the infinitive. If we continue with the cluster from our example, we can see that there are verbs that are quite different (speak-write), but they still change the same way as the three verbs from the example do. Compare: arise, dive, drive, write, ride, wake. But again, we can group the last ones together. So we might say that we can have several groups of infinitives that change in one way.

Keep in mind that considering the size of vocabulary, grammar and other aspects of a language, it's best to use techniques that can make your learning efficient and minimize the amount of time you spend memorizing something and recalling it when necessary.

I hope this can help, and you will discover more ways to simplify this process on your own!

#такойразныйязык

The thing most people are confused about and overwhelmed by is English tenses. The sheer volume makes people afraid of this aspect of grammar, let alone understanding the meaning of all of them.
As is the case in many situations in life, it's much easier to understand all of that by dividing it into categories and seeing similarities and parallels.

Basically, we have three time divisions: present, past and future. Then, in each of them, we have 4 aspects: simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous. That gives you a total of 12 tenses that you've always heard of. Understanding that you don't need to learn 12 different tenses, just these four aspects applied to each time division, can significantly help you in the learning process.
Imagine you forgot how to make the past continuous form of the verb. As you already know how to make the present continuous form, you'll just use that knowledge and save energy and time instead of focusing on the first one.
Sure, these combinations are not always the same in meaning, as with
present perfect and past perfect, for example, but it's still very convenient to think of the tenses in these categories, at least for the forms.

Look at the table below that provides a structured view of all the combinations and explains what each combination means and when it's used.

Leave a comment if you would like me to cover any of the tenses in detail.

As always, happy learning!

#такойразныйязык

When you don't understand something that a person says or something in a film or series, it doesn't necessarily mean that your vocabulary is weak or that your language skills are not strong enough to understand it. Very often it's about the lack of knowledge about cultural realities and the way things work in that country.
There are so many aspects of culture that can be the cause: books, films, series, events, famous people, great inventions, places, peculiarities of people from different regions, politics, the way the society is organized — the list can go on and on.

Think of it like this: you don't get a joke in your own language about '____'. It can be a specific field, let's say, medicine, or a joke within a group of people. It doesn't mean that you can't speak and understand the language well, right? The same here.

Take a look at some examples from my favorite series:

1) Watch from 0.25 to 0.44
You won't understand Chandler's joke if you don't know this

2) His sarcasm here without that

3) Rachel's suggestion here from 0.46 to 0.52 if you don't know that ESPN is a channel for sports and E — for entertainment

So, next time you don't get a line, assume it's just a piece of information you don't know and look it up.

#такойразныйязык
#context

One of the greatest ways to enhance your pronunciation and understanding of spoken language is shadowing . As it's clear from the name, you repeat what you hear, but there are many nuances that make this process interactive, fun and effective.

First, choose a video clip that you are passionate about, because you need to really like it to be able to repeat it many times and still enjoy it.

Second, watch the entire clip. Make sure you understand everything, including the stress and intonation of the people talking.

Next, start rewatching it, this time pausing after each line, and try to slowly repeat what a character said, paying attention to how they spoke. Try to imitate their manner of speaking. Then, if you feel ready, attempt to speak at the same time as the character. Don't be discouraged if you don't get it right the first time — you might just pronounce a few words at the right moment, but this will give you the confidence to continue.

Finally, polish it to the point where you are comfortable saying it with the character, and where it feels natural.

Believe me, it's pure joy when you can speak along with the character, at the same pace and with the same intonation!

Benefits of this exercise:

• You learn new vocabulary in context and understand how it's actually used in spoken language;
• You learn to actively listen;
• You force yourself to pay attention to nuances, allowing you to fully understand what was said;
• You develop a more authentic accent.

Feel free to ask questions about this technique in the comments!

#lingvostrategies

If you want to understand a word or a phrase, you need context. One way is to read those examples in dictionaries that are given below all the definitions. It's enough for the time when you check the meaning, but you need something more powerful to be confident with a word. As associations are key to remembering, it's quite effective to use videos to attach a certain detail/emotion/attitude to it that can help you keep that meaning in your memory.

Benefits of looking up words in videos:

- You get a better picture of how it can be used, as there are many variants that are not always shown in dictionaries;
- You understand the style in which it's applicable to use it;
- You memorize it faster because of the listening practice;
- You see different situations where it is usually used and why.

So imagine that you laughed at a joke, or related to something, or felt sorry for somebody in a video that contained a new word, the chances you are going to remember it are pretty high because of the connected emotions.

There are probably more websites where you can search for specific words, phrases or sentences, but here is my favorite:
https://www.playphrase.me

Hope this helps with learning vocabulary;)

#context #lingvostrategies #associations

Accents

There are so many of them! First, there are big well-known variants of English: British, American, Australian. Then, within each of them, there are countless dialects and varieties of accent that sometimes you're not sure if they're speaking the same language🙈

This is especially challenging as, for a lot of people, English is not their native language, and they just pick up whatever they might hear from natives with different accents and end up with this kind of 'a little bit of here, a little bit of there' thing going on with their pronunciation.

There are so many videos where people compare accents, talk about differences in pronunciation, mock how somebody says something. Let me share with you some of my favorite ones😃

People reacting to a fake British accent
Faking a British accent
Natives comparing their British accents
The most hilarious video about accents I've seen! A regional British accent.
Natives not understanding other natives
How native languages influence people's accents in English

#такойразныйязык

I was trying to come up with an opening for this text and found out there's a special word for what I'm going to talk about.

Charactonym! Recently, it struck me that Dudley in Harry Potter is a derivative from dud (a person or thing that proves ineffectual or a failure). And I've always liked spotting these hidden meanings that authors intentionally put in characters' names. My examples are from one particular author, though 🙈

Severus Snape (read: severe snake), Dolores Umbridge (dolor is pain from Spanish, take umbrage: to feel upset or annoyed, usually because you feel that someone has been rude or shown no respect to you), Voldemort (flight of death in French), Peter Pettigrew (petty: not important and not worth giving attention to), and many more.

Plus, for those of you who are not familiar with Latin, it might not be obvious what spells, names of magical objects, places, or abilities mean just by looking at their names. So, if you read a translated version of a book, all of it gets lost in translation, leaving readers with meaningless names that don't make you think, analyze, wonder. And that's one of the reasons why it's so great to know languages and be able to read in the original. You understand the details, hints, and nuances — you are closer to what the author meant to convey through all of that.

Just food for thought and something to be inspired by when learning languages 😉

Check out this great article on real words from the Potterverse and share your favorite charactonyms in English in the comments!

#такойразныйязык

I've always been skeptical of intensive courses and marathons, mainly because of the idea behind most of them — that it's sort of a magic wand that will help you learn something in a short period of time, and that'll be enough. That was the case until last week, when I participated in my first acro intensive course. Oddly, I remembered that even before that, I'd participated in sports marathons — but at that time, it was just an addition to regular training. The perfect ratio: regular practice with some extra work.
This time, though, it was an attempt to get back in the game and see if I could still do it.

On the one hand, it's different, because it's a sport, not a language. On the other hand, they have a lot in common. The idea of consistency and prolonged effort accumulating over time is still there, but this gave me a new perspective. In my case, I just wasn’t able to do acro for some time for different reasons, even though I'd attended classes regularly before that. So I embraced the current situation and the fact that it was going to be different. And now I have a new motivation to continue despite the difficulties and lack of opportunities.

In a perfect world, we do what we want to do here and now, but life throws all kinds of situations at us. So maybe sometimes it’s good practice to let yourself do just enough to keep the spark going. It’s better than nothing. If that’s the only way you can do it now — do it. But keep in mind the ideal approach, which is far more efficient and practical in the long term: a little bit, but often — not a lot and rarely.

Wishing all of us the capabilities and opportunities we consider ideal!🙏

#aboutme #lingvostrategies

Try to find a spelling error in one of the verbs in the subtitles (said twice)