2014’s Most Popular Posts for English Language Learners
I’m finally getting around to writing a “Year in Review” post. I know, it’s already March, but I just had to share the excitement of everything that happened this past year. It was a great year for ESL Basics, as we gained more followers than ever, and were able to share more English with more people.
What posts were most popular in 2014? Let me tell you.
#1 Voiceless Sounds vs. Voiced Sounds
This post is far and away our most popular post of 2014. Why do people love it? It hones in on a specific set of terminology, and aids in pronunciation. If you have never heard of the concept of voiceless and voiced sounds, you should check it out now.
#2 Who is one of your state’s U.S. senators now? – Number 20
You may or may not know that I have a set of videos that help people practice for their U.S. citizenship test. Those 100+ videos help prospective U.S. citizens with their memorization and pronunciation of the answers to the naturalization test. The number one questions that is on everyone’s mind is #20.
#3 15 Rules for Using a Comma
In this post, I lay out the rules for using a comma, along with examples of each rule. It’s a great post for developing your writing skills.
#4 Significance of Error Analysis
This guest post by Neha Joshi of EnglishTeachingDaily.com is a teacher post that gives an overview of how teachers should analyze and address errors made by language learners. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us, Neha.
#5 Idiom Meaning – Face the Music
Idioms are a mystery to many second language learners. This post highlighted one of the business English idioms from my brother’s book, 15 Essential English Business Idioms.
#6 5 Tips for Speaking English with Confidence
This post was published only 9 days before the end of 2014, but ended up in our 2014 top 10 because it had so many views in such a short amount of time. It highlights the best advice I have for you on how to speak English with confidence.
#7 3 MIT Open Courseware ESL Opportunities
This classic was a guest post Katheryn Rivas, who writes for the online universities blog. In this post, Katheryn introduces us to 4 courses that are available for English language learners. Thanks again, Katheryn.
#8 Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
Looks like we have some Taylor Swift fans among us! If you haven’t seen Taylor’s music video, Shake It Off, check it out. Plus, I talk about what the lyrics mean for second language learners.
#9 How to Pronounce Countries in English
This audio post is a great way to learn how English speakers pronounce the countries of the world. You can play it again and again, so you can really get the pronunciation correct.
#10 5 Tips for Non-Native English Speakers in Customer Service
This practical post helps inform those non-native English speakers how best to deal with native English speaking customers. My brilliant brother and business partner Josh wrote this post, and I personally think it’s incredibly insightful when it comes to helping you deal with an often unforgiving public.
There you have it! Our 10 most popular posts from 2014. What kind of posts do you want to see in 2015? Comment below to let me know.
