Accessing English around you

perspective (noun)
point of view.When we describe something from the learner’s perspective, we look at it from his or her point of view.

subtitles
The text of a film or TV programme written on the screen.
So, you can listen to the film and read the subtitles at the same time.

Setting goals and seeing your progress

to motivate someone to do something
to give someone the encouragement to complete a task

to give someone a boost
if something gives you a boost, it makes you feel happier and more optimistic

Planning your vocabulary learning

to learn something by heart
to learn something by saying it to yourself over and over;
to memorise

criteria (noun: plural)
the principles or standards you use

criterion (singular)
making a judgement about something. For example, your main criterion for choosing to remember a word might be ‘Is it useful for me?’.

stair rods
metal strips which attach a carpet to steps or stairs.
‘It’s raining stair rods’ gives us the idea that the rain is so heavy that it looks like long pieces of metal.

an idiom
a phrase or saying which you cannot understand by looking at the individual words. ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ is a very old-fashioned British idiom meaning ‘It’s raining very hard’.

something is worth doing (to be + worth + verb + ing)
when you tell someone that something is worth doing, you are recommending it to them. For example, you can say that a book you like is worth reading or that your favourite film is worth seeing.

to crop up
to appear unexpectedly

Making the most of your dictionary

to look up a word } (phrasal verb)
to look a word up } (phrasal verb)
when you look up a word, you consult a dictionary to find the meaning.You can also look up an address in an address book or look up a telephone number in a telephone book.

bilingual dictionary
a bilingual dictionary is one where the word to be explained is in one language and the explanation is in another. So if your English dictionary gives explanations of English words in your own language it is a bilingual dictionary. From ‘bi’ meaning 'two' and ‘lingua’ meaning ‘language’.

Improving your pronunciation

cluster
a group of things which are closely connected. For example, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which appear together in a word – and can sometimes be difficult to pronounce!

Making the most of the books you have

monolingual (adjective)
single language. For example, a monolingual group of students is one where everyone has the same first language or mother tongue.

Using the internet to improve your English

trash (noun)
rubbish

to weed something out (from)
to look for and find something from among other items.
For example, you can weed out vocabulary which is useful for you by going through your dictionary. It can also be used to describe the process of identifying and pulling out negative things from a positive group.