Introduction

It is very important to learn English as a second language. While we were surfing many English sites, we found that the Tower of English was outstanding, because it is very unique and convenient. This site looks like a building, in fact, an eleven-floor building. The home page is designed with the logo of a company and an elevator. It is a fun place for ESL students to use and practice English. If you visit this site, you'll find a lot of interesting activities and projects. You just click on the elevator to get around the tower. This site has various materials and many sections, such as Lobby, Academy, Post Office, Library, Study Hall, Game Room, Movie Theater, Music Room, Mystery Room, Debate Hall, and Project Gallery. Among these sections, we visited The Study Hall on the fifth floor, which is a nice, quiet place to study English, with useful and interesting activities for English learners. They will help you to improve your English. It consists of Reading, Grammar, Quizzes/Exercises, Listening Activities, Pronunciation & Vocabulary/Idioms, and so on.
 

The Study Hall

Reading

The Reading section is made up of Jan Brett's Home Page, Learning Resources, Literature, It's-online, and The Case.com. Among these, we were impressed Jan Brett's Home Page and Learning Resources. Jan Brett's Home Page is very unique and exciting. This section has a lot of interesting stories, and the visitors can study math, science, and social studies as well as English. Of course adults can use this section for themselves and their children. English beginners are able to study English in an easy and fun way.

The Learning Resources section provides Web-delivered instruction using current and past CNN San Francisco News Bureau stories. It develops an on-line literacy site that benefits all learners and teachers. This material is intended for adult literacy and educational purposes. Though the intended audience is adults, instructors and learners (of all ages) are encouraged to use this material to promote better literacy. But this section is very difficult for non-native speakers to understand. There is no feedback and no quizzes about the story, so it is very boring.

Grammar

The Grammar section has three parts, including Guide to Grammar and Writing, On-line English Grammar, and Wordwatch. The Guide to Grammar and Writing part is very easy, clear and well-arranged. It is very easy to access what you want as if you were using an English grammar book, because this part was made for all English learners of the world, and the main home page provides a lot of grammar content for us. If you have information to find, all you do is click a subject. Besides, use of the colon or the semicolon is explained with some examples in detail.
 Most English learners think that English grammar is very difficult. But if you visit this section, you will find out grammar isn't difficult. In addition to that, if you want to improve your writing skills, you can practice writing in this section and send your composition or     opinion to the company. While you are studying English grammar, you can have a lot of fun because of the quizzes. All visitors can take part in the constructive activities about grammar through quizzes.

Quizzes/Exercises

The Quizzes and Exercises section is very interesting. The WordDragon of all parts is a very large collection of quizzes for students of English as a second language. If you get tired of studying English, you can use this section, and take break. The quizzes are very easy and useful. For example, to the question is "A lemon tastes _____,"  you have to choose the answer from among five examples. You can select the contents according to your English level. In this section, you can find lots of puzzles: word scramble, sentence scramble, and word match. It is possible for you to create your own puzzles for your friends, students, or classmates and add to the collection. It is easy. Just choose the type of puzzle, fill in a form and your puzzle. You can forget the time! Beginners think this section is a little difficult, but if they make effort steadily, they can improve their English ability.

Listening Activities

Takako's Great Adventure in the Listening Activities section is very interesting. There are several episodes about a Japanese girl, Takako, when she  visits Canada to meet her pen-pal friend. You can listen to those stories and play games like crossword puzzles and vocabulary exercises. And if you visit ESL Wonderland Listening, you can listen to the most interesting current issues, for example, "Alien Abductions" or "Human Cloning." At the same time, you can read those stories directly. Because familiar words that we know appear suddenly, you can pay attention easily if you visit it. While you are listening to a story, words that you don't know emerge abruptly on the screen, too. So if you visit this section. You can improve your listening ability amusingly and easily. We were thinking that even children would enjoy surfing this part, even though they can't catch exactly what the story means.

Pronunciation Vocabulary/Idioms

All parts in this section are very useful and have many merits. So we want to recommend that you visit all parts. In Tongue Twister Database, you can practice pronunciation of tongue twisters. This part gives a good group of tongue twisters to people who need speech therapy, to people who want to work on getting rid of an accent,  or to people who just plain like tongue twisters. In Common American Slang, you are able to solve several riddles pleasantly and study idioms and different meanings that American people use very often. In Book of Cliches, you can learn suitable expressions related to various situations which you have not seen in the conversation books. For example, if you choose "For when you are afraid," you just click, and then an expression appears like this: "No guts, no glory; I have to face my fear." There are lots of pictures in Easy Vocabulary Quizzes. You have to choose one of the several pictures as an answer. It is a very interesting and worthy section to study English.
 

Conclusion

We are very glad to introduce the Tower of English site. This site is interesting and useful so that people might learn English as a second language. If you were thinking that English grammar is very difficult, you will have to break your prejudice, because the grammar section is easy to understand and amusing. You can study English, enjoying puzzles. This will overcome your difficulty and fear toward English grammar.

Although English is a foreign language to Korean people, we have to learn it, because it is an international language. Especially, those who work in occupations related to computers have to study English. In spite of this requirement, if you do not have enough time, use this site. If so, your English ability will improve much more quickly than before. You can practice writing skills, and even create your own puzzles. Moreover, you will able to realize that English is very interesting while having a good time with quizzes and fun activities. If you lack reading comprehension, read some mysteries. And then, confront several quizzes about them and solve them. These activities will improve your understanding of the stories.

Besides, this site will advance your listening ability, if you make effort steadily. You can listen to various voices through Real Player, because native speakers describe the situations directly. It is very useful to Korean people who can't get many opportunities to meet native speakers. Above all, if you visit this site, you will able to learn lots of valuable expressions and idioms that native speakers use very often. We hope that you will visit the Tower of English by all means.