As our site grows every day we want to share some information with you on the way we are operating the project. We call this section «Business Blog» as it is similar to doing a log book where data is recorded in a chronological order. «Blogging» is gaining popularity with more and more people picking up the habit of publishing their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Our Blog covers various topics — from TOEFL, TOEIC, MBA, GMAT, ESL/EFL test preperation to cultural traditions and current political events.
There will also be some Internet marketing terminology and if you have any questions regarding the information simply let us know.

The Business Blog is written by Torsten Daerr and edited by Alan Townend.

2005 — January 17
One of the threads started recently on our forum is about the Pimsleur method of learning languages. According to the official product description «the principle of anticipation and graduated interval recall» serves as the basis of Pimsleur. Now, that's quite a mouthful, isn't it? Reading the information about the Pimsleur method on various websites triggered a lot of questions some of which we are going to deal with on the forum. For example, I'd be interested to know how many people who purchase Pimsleur products really understand «the principle of anticipation and the graduated interval recall». Do you? The Pimsleur promoters claim that their method contains unique components such as the «theory of a core vocabulary». Well, would you rely on a theory when it comes to a evaluating a learning method? I think it's common knowledge that in any language there are a certain amount of words and phrases that are used much more frequently than the rest. If Mr Pimsleur called those expressions «core vocabulary» than that doesn't necessarily constitute a breathtaking scientific breakthrough in the field of linguistics, does it? The Pimsleur description reads on: «... but extensive research has shown that we actually need a comparatively limited number of words to be able to communicate effectively in any language...». Common. Does it require extensive research to find out that you only use a rather small stock of words and expressions in your day-to-day communication? All you would have to do is just sit down and make a list of those phrases you speak several time a day. Dr. Pimsleur also claims to have found a new way of learning grammar. He calls his discovery function words the idea being that any language can be divided into two distinct categories: «grammatical structures (function words) and concrete vocabulary (content words)». Again, I can't see why this separation should be new and unique. At any rate I'm looking forward to sharing ideas and experiences on how to learn languages here on the forum: ESL Forums / Experiences with learning methods and materials?.

2005 — January 16
Internet forums are seeing an increasing popularity — you have clearly signed up with several of those places yourself. When it comes to learning English, interactive message boards, chat rooms and discussion sites play an important role for students and teachers alike. There are some forums where you can get free advice on almost any vocabulary or grammar question within minutes after you have posted your request. I personally attend a number of those discussion boards and one of my favourite places is wordreference.com which at this point has almost 7000 members and an impressive number of moderators who respond to any question almost immediately. Wordreference basically consists of two parts — the website itself and the forums. Michael Kellogg from Virginia, USA is behind this project. He provides free web-based language translation services — you can use www.wordreference.com to access online dictionaries that contain more than 120.000 words. Just type in the word you want to get a translation or definition for into the appropriate box on the left hand side of the website and hit «go». You'll have the results within seconds.

Our forum might not be as active as the one at wordreference.com yet but it's unique in its own way too because instead of just offering free discussions we have created an online learning and teaching tool. Alan Townend has written more than 300 ESL tests each of which contains at least 10 sentences. When you take one of the tests you can contact Alan and his team on any phrase, word or other language item by just one click because every test is connected to our forum. Sounds complicated? Well it's simple just English Teacher Explanations (ESL Tests).

2005 — January 07
As of today you can read an interesting e-book that contains funny stories about different people. The book is called «A day in the life of....» and it's written by Alan Townend. It was originially published in the UK in the 60ies and last year we had the idea of making it available again to people from all around the world. «A day in the life of...» illustrates in an amusing and informative way the happenings in the lives of 6 different people on one particular day. There is a parliamentary candidate, a flat hunter (a person who is persistently looking for a flat), a student teacher, a policeman, a stately home owner and a driving instructor. Would you like to meet those characters and get to know them better? Here is the full story «A day in the life of .....».

2005 — January 03
OK, 2005 is already 3 days old — time to start our blog. We at english-test.net wish all our users and friends a successful and peaceful New Year. Have fun, meet lots of interesting people and learn many useful things. Come back to our website often and speak your mind. Make sure this year will be a good one...