American English Language School

  Although practicing your English every day can often seem monotonous and boring at best, there are several ways to make practicing it more interesting and fun. Simply stated, one must intuitively tap into his own creative juices by exploring the fine art of using his imagination. To begin, the most obvious mode of practice is to read, read, and read.  For, as you know, practice makes perfect…the more you read, the likelier you will expand your vocabulary and improve your spelling.   A 2 nd means of practicing English is finding a friend to keep score with in a flashcard contest of vocabulary words. Winning at something always stirs up motivation and provokes learning. A 3 rd way to stimulate your interest in practicing English is playing your hand at the age-old game of scrabble.  That is most always methodically challenging because it causes you to think.   Even a simple conversation with a good friend on currently held hot topics can be a challenging and...

Americans are well-known for making New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the new year. A resolution is a promise to oneself to do or not to do something that will benefit the person, making the year better than the previous one. About 74 percent of Americans will make a resolution at the beginning of the year. It has become part of the tradition of the holiday. However, people would say that failing the resolution is also part of the tradition. There are a few resolutions that are repeated and recycled every year. 1.       Exercise more Exercising more has been one of the top five resolutions for many years. After all the holiday business and falling out of a workout routine around the holidays, many people vow to get back to the gym. In fact, it is common to find the gyms suddenly packed with many non-regulars all through the month of January. People’s drive to exercise more starts to dwindle mid-February and by March the gyms are not as crowded as th...

  The first quarter of the new year is about to start at AELS, do you feel prepared? Getting ready for a new quarter can be exciting, but also a little distressing. If you are feeling a little anxious about this new quarter, check out these tips to better prepare yourself for days full of study and less stress.   1.     Read a Book or Watch a Show on Your List   Before the chaos of assigned reading material, new vocabulary words, and study dates, pick a book to read or a show you would like to watch. By doing something that you enjoy prior to the craziness of the new quarter, you are more relaxed, happy and ready to start class. You also will have something to talk about with your classmates during break time!   2.     Clean Your Space and Check Your School Supplies   Starting off the new quarter is stressful enough, just imagine if your homelife was just as distressing! Make sure that you choose a clean and quiet ...

After you have completed the reading section of the test, you will need to complete the listening section. The listening section consists of listening to conversations between two students or a student and teacher. Along with conversations, you will hear lectures from teachers. The conversations and lectures are generally between four to five minutes each. After each listening, you will be asked questions based on what you heard. These questions are meant to check your understanding of the listening, not just to test your memory skills.   There are eight different types of listening questions. These are the eight types:   1.       Gist-content questions The gist of something means the main idea or theme. These types of questions check your understanding of the main idea of the lecture. You will need to ignore minor details and focus on the overall idea or theme.   2.       Gist-purpose questions Rather than...

  Every year on January 1st, people around the United States make New Year’s resolutions to bring in the New Year.   History tells us that people have been making New Year’s resolutions since the days of Babylon, 4,000 years ago. The ancient Babylonians celebrated the coming new year with a 12 day celebration. They would make promises to the gods, pay off their debts, and return any things they borrowed during the celebration. If they did as they said they would do, they would receive good luck from their gods during the new year. This is considered the first New Year’s resolution.   Although most Americans make New Year’s resolutions, only 7% of them will actually keep up with them. Check out these tips to stick to your New Year’s resolution this year!   1.       Be Practical   Most people will make resolutions about either eating better or exercising more. However, they will make resolutions that they could never possibly meet.   Setti...