Hi!
My name is JC. I teach English at an undergraduate college in India. Language is my passion and phonetics fuels me! The colleges in most Indian towns are in a sorry state – teachers and students are more concerned with the exam syllabus and least bothered about ‘learning’ the language. My creative soul was feeling stifled in this environment and so I created this blog to provide me a creative outlet, to teach things outside the curriculum, to express myself freely …to do what I feel like doing!
In this blog I would provide you ways to improve your English skills – both spoken and written. The topics covered would include grammar, composition, writing skills, creative writing, phonetics, spoken English, poetry, reviews and much more. I hope there would be something for every language enthusiast. If you feel connected, follow my blog!
I have Keen Intrest in Phonetics.Is there any possibility to learn through Mails
Yes, it is possible to learn phonetics online. There are already a lot of pages on the internet both elementary and advanced. I am also planning a few chapters on English phonetics. Happy surfing.
Dear Colleague,
Here is a short excerpt from my new book aimed at helping students negotiate the difficult passage from high school to college. If after reading it you would like a copy for review, you will find contact information below.
Yours sincerely,
Philip Yaffe
Editor-in-Chief
UCLA Daily Bruin (1964-65)
During my senior year, I tutored writing to make a bit of much-needed cash. I remember one case in particular. A girl came to me with a note from a professor: “Young lady, I advise you either to drop my class immediately or prepare to fail it.” Obviously she was bright enough; after all she was a student at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). So where was the problem?
I read a couple of her essays that had gotten such poor marks. There was no question that she had a lot of interesting things to say. Equally, there was no question that she was saying them badly.
It very quickly became apparent where the problem lay. She simply was not fully using one of the fundamental principles of good writing, because she thought that consistently applying it was just too much trouble. It took a couple of sessions to convince her that it wasn’t too much trouble — in fact it was crucial. Her writing immediately began to improve. At the end of the term, not only didn’t she fail the class, she had pulled her grade all the way up from a certain “F” to a gratifying “B”.
This was not an isolated case. When students were having writing difficulties, it was generally because they were: 1) unfamiliar with a fundamental principle, 2) inconsistently applying it, 3) improperly applying it, or 4) not applying it at all.
I am not saying that to be a good writer, you should first study journalism. However, because it was the antithesis of the poor writing I had been doing previously, journalism gave me a flying start. Over the past four decades I think I have added some insights into good writing that I didn’t learn from journalism. Or at least I have made explicit certain key ideas which previously were implicit, and therefore poorly applied.
The title of the book is The Gettysburg Approach to Writing & Speaking like a Professional. To request a review copy, please contact me at: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com,phil.yaffe@gmail.com
Its so nice seeing your efforts, we really need to learn language for improving our skills not only for exams…….. I am also English Teacher at High school and want to still improve my teaching skills. Hope I learn from this site……… Plz keep it up.