Randy the Raccoon has been a part of our family for one year now and he has lots of amazing adventures, being a curious and energetic little raccoon. Of course his adventures make for great stories. So I present the Randy the Raccoon ESL learning page for children or beginners who want to learn English. At the moment it's a bit sparse, with only a few stories.

Each story has a glossary, comprehension questions, grammar explanations and exercises and some fun follow-up questions. Kids can do it on their own or a parent or teacher can guide them through the process. Each page is also print-friendly so it can be used in a classroom.

Keep checking Randy's page because I'll be posting new stories and exercises as often as I can.
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The Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills was told by Parliament that its annual report makes no sense. Specifically, the report uses too much jargon and ambiguity to hide the fact that the Department has no idea what to do. Others One piece of bureaucratese was singled out as being completely incomprehensible, even to the Department itself:

"An overarching national improvement strategy will drive up quality and performance underpinned by specific plans for strategically significant areas of activity, such as workforce and technology. The capital investment strategy will continue to renew and modernise further education establishments to create state of the art facilities."

Even Ian Whatmore, the department's Permanent Secretary, could not explain what this meant when asked by MPs. The department itself refused to translate it to The Independent yesterday.

To be fair, the department is only one year old, and the main argument is not actually with the style of writing so much as the lack of clarity and allegations that the department is using complicated language to hide more serious issues. However the situation does demonstrate how important writing skills are. And one wonders what Parliament expected from a department named, "The Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills". Two ambiguous words (Innovation and Skills) and one concrete, but not clearly related word (University).

Next up, the Department for Health, Broccoli and Ethics will have its budget reviewed by the Committee for Finance and Technology.

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Obama still hasn't decided on a puppy, but hopefully he will be as good a press secretary as Clinton's cat, Socks

One day after his inauguration, Barack Obama has already brought change to the country, or at least to the White House website. It's a great resource for Americans and foreigners alike who want to learn more about the President, the Presidency and the Executive Office.

One of the new features that looks particularly promising is White House 101, an introduction to the White House and the Presidency. There are some interesting facts about Presidents and the Presidency and a full history of the White House itself.
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Some fun games from Games for the Brain. This site is a pretty good resource for webdesigners, blogs and of course English teachers because it has some pretty well-made little games, including word games. And they can be embedded in a website or blog. Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers for this link.

Some of my favorite games for English language learners after the jump:











And a few timed games, so I'll link to them instead of embedding them:
What Did I Search For: Based on search engine results, guess what word I searched for.



Speed Type: Type words before they fall to the bottom of the screen. Good practice for the TOEFL to get used to typing in English on a Latin Alphabet keyboard.



If you have a favorite game, let me know and I might put it in the sidebar of the blog permanently.

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I've put up a few sample TOEFL essays here, here and some tips for writing essays here.

Now I'm going to try something slightly different. I'm putting up a sample TOEFL writing test question and I encourage readers to try to answer. Email your answer to walton [at] englishadvantage [.] com (replacing @ for at, obviously) and I'll email you back comments and notes. I will also post the best essay up here, with a link of the writer's choice. I'll link to you blog, website, facebook profile, whatever you want.

Question:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Talent is something that some people are born with and cannot be taught or achieved by hard work.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.


Detailed directions after the cut.
Directions
For this task, you will write an essay in response to a question that asks you to state, explain, and support your opinion on an issue. You will have 30 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. Typically, an effective essay will contain a minimum of 300 words. Your essay will be judged on the quality of your writing. This includes the development of your ideas, the organization of your essay, and the quality and accuracy of the language you use to express your ideas. Typically, an effective response will contain a minimum of 300 words.

That's it. Write a response to the question ,email it in, and get free advice and help. Plus if I really like it, I'll post it up here and include some free link-love for you.

Looking forward to reading the responses.

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Barack Obama attended Columbia University and then Harvard. He is well-known for his eloquence and his intelligence. But it turns out he has a nasty habit of abusing personal pronouns. According to someone who worked for his campaign, the President-Elect likes to say "for Michelle and I".


As everyone knows, or should know, prepositions take the object form of pronouns. It should be "for Michelle and me." Many people do have trouble with the point when there is a proper noun (someone's name, for example) between the preposition and the pronoun. So if you have doubts, imagine it without the pronoun. "For me" sounds right and "for I" sounds wrong. So it should be "for Michelle and me"

Also note that in cases where you use a proper noun and a pronoun, the pronoun always goes last. "I bought the gift for John and her," Not "I bought the gift for her and John." And when you use two pronouns, the pronoun referring to the speaker (I or me) comes last: "Bob and I went to the movies." Not, "I and Bob went to the movies."

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On director and writer Kevin Smith's Facebook page I noticed a comment and I couldn't tell if the poster was joking or not: "Love you films let me know if you need and editor..." I'm not sure he'd make a great editor.

1) you should be your
2) This is a run-on sentence. Try: Love your films. Let...
3) and should be an
4) It is unclear why the sentence ends in an ellipsis. A simple period would do.

I suspect the poster was making a joke, but possibly not.
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Entrecard, as I've mentioned from time to time here, is a great way to get free advertising for your blog and generate traffic. If you have a blog and you're not using it, your missing out. The community is also great and one of the benefits is contests. This month one of the biggest contests in Entrecard history is being run.

There are two ways to enter:

1. Write about this contest and just mention the one prize you want to win. Then leave a comment here with the link of your post. 1 ENTRY

2. Write about this contest on your blog, mention the prize you want to win and copy ALL of the sponsors. Then leave a comment here with the link of your post. 3 ENTRIES

This contest will end exactly at 12:01 AM on 1/31/09 and winners will be chosen at random.

The full list of sponsors after the jump:

SPONSORS (In order of mostest credits. Natch!)

Games, Downloads, Walkthroughs - 25,000ec

Google Stalking - 20,001ec

Fragile Heart - 20,000ec

Atlanta Realtors - 10,000ec

The Beauty Denominator - 5,000ec

Norwegian Programmer - 5,000ec

nuke it dot org - 5000ec

Lofty Matters - 3000ec

Random Detox - 3000ec

Guilty Pleasures - 3000ec

Freebies - 3000ec

Project Kickass - 3000ec

Total Web Review - 3000ec

Realm of Prosperity - 2000ec

Fantasy Baseball Rankings - 2000ec

Webbiestuffs - 2000ec

Tazdog - 1500ec

Niacin Flush - 1000ec

Reading Lounge - 1000ec

Fendi Bags For Sale - 1000ec

Michael Aulia - 1000ec

Fish Oil Benefits - 1000ec

Better Interpersonal Communication - 1000ec

Singaporean in London - 1000ec

Diva Fabulosa - 1000ec

Expat wife blogging - 1000ec

Baby Frog Gifts For The Princess In Your Life - 1000ec

Health and Beauty Diva - 1000ec

Certified Pinoy Blogger - 1000ec

Make Money Online With Makoy - 1000ec

Versace Designer Sunglasses - 1000ec

Botany Extracts Aromatherapy Massage Oils - 1000ec

Makoy’s Take On The Arts And The Entertainment - 1000ec

Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff - 1000ec

PRIZES THAT ARE NOT CREDITS, BUT STILL SPECTACULAR

Total Web Review - 1 month text link ad, 1 month 125x125 ad and a Blog Review (that's three separate prizes)

Momma Wannabe - 1 month text link ad

Charcotrip travel blog - 1 Month 125×125 ad.

Celebrity Pics - A mousepad.

Each prize goes to a different winner, so there's a lot of winning to be done! Personally, I'd love to win the ad, link and review from Total Web Review. That would be some good publicity for this blog, hopefully kick up my ad revenues and also drive more intelligent and interesting readers to this lovely little blog. But even a thousand Entrecard credits would be awesome. I might even use them to launch a small contest of my own.

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A couple more sample tests I made. These are listening tests featuring yours truly on vocals! These are designed to be similar to the iBT TOEFL listening section but they are also great practice for general listening comprehension and understanding in English.

If you like these, check out my otherTOEFL resources

• The English Language: An academic lecture
  
• Changing Classes: A dialogue between a student and the registrar
  

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An amusing little interview about university students. Acclaimed saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis occasionally spends some time in the classroom. Here's what he had to say about a lot of his students:

Read a transcript at: Rate Your Students.
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