How to Learn American English for Pre-Teens
The pre-teen years are not always easy times. It is important for pre-teens to feel like they fit in with their peers. A large part of fitting in with any group is being able to speak the same language. To a pre-teen speaking the same language does not mean speaking French to French friends or Spanish to Spanish friends; it means speaking the same style of language. In the United States, American English is the preferred variety of English in most societies. Pre-teens that are not native English speakers need to be able to learn how to speak American English.
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Instructions
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Visit ManyThings.org, a website with free online English language learning activities. It includes games and quizzes that teach vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. It also has lists of proverbs, idioms and slang expressions common to American English.
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Read conversations online on English Daily. There are over 900 conversations that put common American English expressions into context to help you better understand their usage.
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Watch television shows like "Zoey 101" and "Ned's Declassified" on Nickelodeon, or "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and "Wizards of Waverly Place" on Disney. These shows and other similar ones provide examples of pre-teens' and teenagers' dialogue, pronunciations and vocabulary.
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Listen to the radio and watch the news. Newscasters and other members of the media are known for having a neutral dialect and speaking grammatically proper American English.
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Check out and read a book about American English from your local library. "Do You Really Know American English?" by William C. Harvey and "McGraw-Hill's Conversational American English: The Illustrated Guide to Everyday Expressions of American English" by Richard Spears, Betty Birner, Steven Kleinedler and Luc Nisset are two of many American English books that are available.
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