Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / January 2004

I am studying the definite article "the"
Why is it wrong to say
The people watch the news on TV in Canada.
It would be more correct, I think to say

friends,
i'll shortly be taking a TEFL course and then continuing on to work as
a teacher and would like to familiarize myself with the basic
rules/issues before leaving (i don't leave for months) and am

From exercises (7a-7i) in "The Random House Handbook," 5th Ed.
by Frederick Crews:
Each of the following sentences needs improvement on grounds of
insufficiently distinct expression.... rewrite the sentence to

Hi group,
I'm a teacher of English in the Netherlands and I have just discussed the
question of abbreviations in formal letters with a class. Of course
abbreviations like don't and won't are forbidden, but one of my students

Two key books on education(a third book needed);
What Diane Ravitch's book, 'Troubled Crusade' did for public schools,
and Alan Bloom's book, 'Closing of the American Mind' did for
colleges, a 'landmark publication' is necessary for vocational and

Im not very good english speaker....
I'm looking for help from someone who can help me with technical english
(sewing machines).
There is a thing called 'thread lift' or 'thread take-up'. Is the 'thread

What does "Hit me baby one more time" mean?
This is a title of a song by Britney S.
T. D.

I ran across this sentence in a movie and according to what I've
found, it's an adaption from Shakespears' Hamlet. The original
sentence is "What a piece of work is man!"
But I still can't grasp what the meaning is. Could anyone tell me?

I look to the following statemants the dramatic contrast. Hope somebody can
help me there.
Example:
As not waht your country can do for you. Ask waht you can do for your

I need some opinions on the following sentences.
Could anyone tell me if they are correct, natural and make sense.
I don't think there's anything wrong with them but I'm not sure.
Thank you in advance.

Dear ppl
I  am translating my undergraduate transcript. In our education
system, the undergraduation study (5 years) is divided into two stage
(stage 1: fundamentals

Wow, I'm deeply touched to get all of your help, esp by Franke's
reply. He's so detailed. Actually that helps me learn English. So
thank you, Franke (or CyberCypher)!
For no. 16, what I really wanted to say is that "The principal was at

Again, I have trouble with a phrase in a british book. This is a book of
self-help, and the chapter talks about how women sometimes give men a chance
because they believe that, although he is not exactly everything they want,
there is room for improvement.

Hi, I'm Marco, I'm italian and I'm looking for someone interested in an
e-mail exchange to improve my english.
I'll give you some advice to learn italian and you'll do the same with me.
Is there someone interested in?

Dear ppl:
I wrote  some sentences but it seems too long. I want to apply
ellipsis into the second sentence. I don't know whether or not I am
correct since the ellipis s always difficult for a non native speaker