(BE3) This dictionary described below is very useful to discover related words:

http://exploreourpla.net/languages/english/

" 203,147 English Words

WordNet is a semantic lexicon for the English language. It was created and is being maintained at the Cognitive Science Laboratory of Princeton University under the direction of psychology professor George A. Miller.

The purpose is twofold: to produce a combination of dictionary and thesaurus that is more intuitively usable, and to support automatic text analysis and artificial intelligence applications."

I personally like it because of its unique features. You may perform wild card searches (Put in part of a word and put an asterisk in the word which means replace the asterisk with any set of letters). For example, enter into the search box:
abbreviat* and these are the results you will see

abbreviate, abbreviated, abbreviation, abbreviator,

This shows you words that are spelled similar and thus often may be related to your search word. Additionally, you can click on the linked word (when you actually use the dictionary)

This dictionary can also perform other searches. Search for three letter words (use m?n) that start with "m" and end with "n" and you'll get man, men, Min, Mon

That is for an example to point out its flexibility. Try it, you'll like it.

Language help is out there

(be2)
The BBC web site contains many resources for learning so many languages. This site below is very intriguing. Where else can you quickly see essential phrases in 36 languages? They have extensive information for the core languages. I have improved my Spanish and Chinese by using the BBC web site. This site also has wonderful pictures for each geographical location. Please take a look:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/



Here are a couple of interesting language facts from the site. I never knew Urdu was such a widely used language with almost a half billion speakers, including a million in the UK.

Why learn Urdu?

It is a living language spoken by 490 million people around the world.

The Urdu community in the UK numbers about one million speakers.

It is not just a practical language spoken on a daily basis, but one that produced great scholarships and poetry.

Learning Urdu will also help you recognise words in Arabic and Persian since many words are common in all three languages.

People will respect the fact that you make an effort to speak to them in their language, whether abroad or in the UK.

How to Help English Learners Overcome Pronounciation Difficulties

It is common for some English Learners to pronounce words so different from their generally accepted pronunciation that they will be misunderstood when they speak.

The issue can be greater than just speaking because English learners may write words based on their incorrect pronunciation. If they are students, this causes them to miss test questions because they write "rock" instead of "lock" or they write "lead" instead of "read". I have personally confirmed this phenomena with students during tutoring sessions.

This following link will present you with a well designed pronunciation guide that shows how English speakers should form the mouth, and provides a large list of words for each English sound. http://esl-online.net/probook1view.pdf

Read through the guide yourself and get familiar with it. Then come up with a plan on how to use it. I sit down with students, and based on how they have spoken, spot check various words throughout the guide.

You can get a feel for what the English learner needs in a relatively short period of time. The question of how long it takes to correct a pronunciation problem varies with the learner. Feel free to post a comment on your experiences.

(If for some reason the guide gets moved, search for it via Google or your favorite search engine.)

Thanks to Dr. Richard R. Lane, Phd (Lane Press) for making this guide freely available. Please read page 2 of the guide for copyright and address information.