ESL
Tutoring
English as a Second Language tutoring is a big part of VCC's Learning Centre. Our English tutors help with all of VCC's levels of English language studies.
We help students
- understand and practice grammar
- improve pronunciation and speaking skills
- develop vocabulary
- find, understand and avoid errors in speaking and writing
- and more.
For students in ESL courses or students with an ESL background in career courses, we recommend face-to-face tutoring. Just drop into your campus Learning Centre and find out how to get help. We frequently offer workshops on many ESL topics. Our online writing tutoring is also available for advanced students with an ESL background who are able to find and correct their own grammar and spelling mistakes.
Study Resources
The Learning Centre has a good environment for independent study with practice worksheets, textbooks, reference books, listening materials and computer language study programs. We also have Listen and Learn exercises available online for your practice. Our books, tapes and CD's are for use only in the Centre, but they have VCC Library call numbers that make it easy for you to find library copies that you can borrow. We have audio and video players and computer stations. For more resources, check out the Library's ESL subject guide.
Links
| Dave's ESL Café | The famous ESL website - phrasal verb info, quizzes, and chatrooms. |
Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions |
An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. This can make idioms hard for ESL students/learners to understand. Here, a searchable dictionary of 3,440+ English idiomatic expressions with definitions is provided. |
| English for My Job |
English practice exercises for hospitality industry workers. If you work in a hotel, a restaurant, a travel-related industry, etc ..., you will have to use English for work. This site will teach you how to speak English to some of your customers. |
| English Idioms and Proverbs |
Illustrated English idioms and proverbs ... from BYU |
| GoEnglish - English Idioms (Index) | Index for English idioms |
| Info Squares |
This is very cool ... you will like this. Watch movies clips and TV clips ... pay attention ... then answer questions. |
| Learn English Feel Good |
One-stop site for ESL resources. Whether you're studying English, or looking to download worksheets/handouts for class, this website will provide you with the resources that you need (e.g., grammar, pronunciation, spoken English, etc ... |
| Legal Glossary |
Multilingual Legal Glossary designed by VCC |
| List of Activities for ESL Students | VCC's ELSA Department Web Page with annotated list describing on-line activities for ESL students |
| Visual Dictionary Online | Understand words visually with images ... using Merriam Webster's Visual Dictionary. You can also click the speaker symbol next to the word to hear its pronunciation. |
Links (Pronunciation)
| How To Say That Name |
Teaches you how to pronounce the first names of your classmates, your teachers, etc ... |
| Names in The News - How to Pronounce | MP3 files to help you pronounce difficult names in the news |
Worksheets
| Topic | Worksheet Title | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listening | Listening and Speaking - Tips on Test Taking | Downtown | |
| Listening | How to Improve Your Listening Comprehension | Downtown | |
| Lower Advanced | 01 - Exclamatory Sentences | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 02 - Adjective Clauses | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 03 - Noun Clauses | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 04 - Subjects | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 05 - Adverbial Clauses | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 06 - Gerunds | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 07 - Participles as Adjectives | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 08 - Passive Voice | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 09 - Word Forms | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 10 - Infinitives and Gerunds | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 11 - Conditionals | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 12 - Verbs of Perception | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 13 - Perfect Tenses | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 14 - Adverbial Clauses | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 15 - Verb Tense Review | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 16 - Coordination and Subordination | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 17 - Error Recognition | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 18 - Punctuation | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 19 - Sentence Combining | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | 20 - Conditionals | Broadway | |
| Lower Advanced | Grammar Preview Quiz | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 01 - Possessives | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 02 - Subject Pronouns | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 03 - Be: Present and Past | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 04 - Object Pronouns | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 05 - Prepositions of Place | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 06 - Singular and Plural | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 07 - Word Order With Simple Present - "Be" | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 08 - Question Words 1 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 09 - Question Words 2 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 10 - Word Order With Simple Past - "Be" | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 11 - Verb Tense Review 1 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 12 - Do, Does, and Did 1 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 13 - Do, Does, and Did 2 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 14 - Verb Tense Review 2 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 15 - Verb Tense Revies 3 | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | 16 - Past Tense Review | Broadway | |
| Lower Beginner | Grammar Preview Quiz | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 01 - Adverbs of Frequency | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 02 - Past Continuous and Simple Past | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 03 - Adjective Word Order | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 04 - Present Perfect | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 05 - Two-Word Verbs | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 06 - Perfect and Past Tense Review | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 07 - Time Expressions | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 08 - Prepositions of Time | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 09 - Comparatives and Superlatives | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 10 - Irregular Verb Forms | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 11 - Gerund or Infinitive | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | 12 - Present Perfect / Continuous | Broadway | |
| Lower Intermediate | Grammar Preview Quiz | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 01 - Prepositions of Time | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 02 - Word Order: Too/Enough | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 03 - Tag clauses | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 04 - Modals | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 05 - Indirect Commands | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 06 - Word Order With Adverbs | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 07 - Adverbial Clauses: So and Because | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 08 - Too / Very | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 09 - Verb and Gerund | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 10 - Adverb Clauses of Reason | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | 11 - Dummy Subjects - "It" and "There" | Broadway | |
| Pre-Intermediate | Grammar Preview Quiz | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 01 - Participles as Adjectives | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 02 - Adjective Clauses with Prepositions | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 03 - Causative Verbs | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 04 - Articles | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 05 - Passive Voice | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 06 - Participle Phrases | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 07 - Subjunctive in Noun Clauses | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 08 - Verbs of Perception | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 09 - Noun Clauses | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 10 - Adverbial Clauses | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 11 - Use/Lose/Choose | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 12 - Dangling Modifiers | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 13 - Infinitive | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 14 - Conjunctive Adverbs | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 15 - Error Recognition and Corrections | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 16 - Sentence Combining | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 17 - Error Recognition and Corrections | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | 18 - Error Recognition and Corrections | Broadway | |
| Upper Advanced | Grammar Preview Quiz | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 01 - Nouns: Count and Non-Count | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 02 - Reflexive Pronouns | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 03 - "-ly" Adverbs | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 04 - Prepositions | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 05 - Verb Tense Review (Present Simple, Continuous, Past, Future) | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 06 - Articles and Superlatives | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 07 - A, Some, Any | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 08 - Objects: Direct and Indirect | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 09 - Verb Tense Review (Simple Present, Future) | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 10 - Comparative and Superlative Adjectives | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 11 - Whose/Who's Contrast | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 12 - Question Tags | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | 13 - Verb Tense Review 2 (Present Simple, Continuous, Past, Future) | Broadway | |
| Upper Beginner | Grammar Preview Quiz | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 01 - Articles | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 02 - Simple Past and Past Perfect | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 03 - Perfect Tenses: Present and Past | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 04 - Adverb Clause of Purpose | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 05 - Be Used to | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 06 - Reported Questions | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 07 - Causative Verbs | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 08 - Adverb Clause and Contrast | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 09 - Modals | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 10 - Passive/Active Voice | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 11 - Passive Voice | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 12 - Conditionals | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 13 - Participle Adjectives | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 14 - Gerunds/Infinitives | Broadway | |
| Upper Intermediate | 15 - Adjective Clauses | Broadway |