American English Language School

  In the English language, we use the word “must” or the phrase “have to” to describe things that are necessary for us to do. The word “must” and the phrase “have to” are both modals in English which are verbs that combine other verbs to tell the speaker the mood or tense of the sentence. A lot of English language students are confused about when to use “ must ” and when to use “ have to .” To native English speakers, the word must is much stronger than the phrase have to .   When using the word must, it not only expresses an obligation to do something, it also expresses the speaker’s feelings and a specific thing.   For example, when you say, “You must come to my party,” the speaker is requiring that person to come and is inputting their feelings or necessity in the statement.   The word must also indicates something is against the law or not allowed.   For example, “You must not drink and drive,” says that you are not allowed by law to drin...

  Each week, students focus on a different topic. Last week, students learned about trying to find balance in their lives. Students analyzed and created schedules, created goals, created solutions to overcome obstacles, identified good and bad study habits, and went over time management strategies.   A major focus of the unit was goals. Goals are things that you would like to achieve in the future. Teachers went over three different types of goals: personal, educational, and occupational. Personal goals are short or long-term goals related to your lifestyle or living situation such as buying a new car, moving to a bigger house, or learning a new skill. Educational goals are goals related to school, like going to a university to get your degree. Occupational goals are goals about your job or position at work. Students thought of their goals and made new goals with their classmates. However, sometimes when you create goals, you run into some obstacles. Obstacles are anythi...

  Looking to save money on your purchases? Our language students learned about how to form a budget and how to make a smart purchase last week. These apps are some great ways to further help you budget and watch your spending every day.   1.     Honey   This app is available to use with your internet browser and your smartphone. Signing up for this app and using it is absolutely free and allows you to see any discount you might have missed while you were online shopping.   Every time you make an online purchase, the app will scan the website to make sure that you are getting the best deal available on the website. This app is extremely easy to use and can help users save so much money.   2.     Fetch Rewards   This smartphone app allows you to earn points on purchases that you already make every day. The app is free and easy to use for any person with a smartphone.   This app allows you to scan yo...

  The speaking section of the TOEFL takes around 17 minutes. Although this section is the shortest, it is often the more feared among students. To help ease your panic, you should know the structure of the speaking section and what type of questions you will be asked. The test will ask you to respond to four different types of speaking questions. One of the questions will be an independent question and the other three will be integrated.   Here are the different types of speaking questions you will find on the TOEFL:   Question #1 (Independent)   The first question asks you to draw on your own thoughts, ideas, and experiences. You will be given a statement and you will need to state your opinion and defend your choice. This question will allow your 15 seconds to prepare what you are going to say. After the 15 seconds have passed, you will have 45 seconds to respond to the question.   Question #2 (Integrated)   This is the first type of...

  Learning vocabulary is an extremely important part of learning any language. However, there are so many strategies on how to learn and retain vocabulary. Check out these different strategies and see which one works for you!   1.     Read a book   This is a common strategy and works well with people that enjoy reading. Also, keep in mind that the book doesn’t even have to be educational. Sometimes when you are reading for pleasure, you might encounter a word that you don’t know. When this happens, you can either use context clues or look up the word in the dictionary.   Using context clues is a strategy that uses the words around the unknown word and makes you formulate a definition based on how the word is used.   Looking up the word in the dictionary works too and if you are reading from an e-reader or kindle, even better! E-readers have a dictionary installed into it so you can highlight the word you don’t know and it will give y...