Thursday, October 8, 2009

General English Skills

Here we have yet another brilliant student podcast on helping with your English study. This podcast includes discussion from one of our students on general English skills. More fun while learnign English. Great tips and tricks!

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IELTS Band Scale

IELTS is scored on a nine band scale. Each Band corresponds to different English competence. The Band Scores are in either whole or half Bands. The nine bands are described as such:

9 Expert User

Has fully operational command of the language: appropriate, accurate and fluent with complete understanding.

8 Very Good User

Has fully operational command of the language with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriacies. Misunderstandings may occur in unfamiliar situations. Handles complex detailed argumentation well.

7 Good User

Has operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings in some situations.

6 Competent User

Have generally effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings. Can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations.

5 Modest User

Has partial command of the language, coping with overall meaning in most situations, though is likely to make many mistakes. Should be able to handle basic communication in own field.

4 Limited User

Basic competence is limited to familiar situations. Has frequent problems in understanding and expression. Is not able to use complex language.

3 Extremely Limited User

Conveys and understands only general meaning in very familiar situations. Frequent breakdowns in communication occur.

2 Intermittent User

No real communication is possible except for the most basic information using isolated words or short formulae in familiar situations and to meet immediate needs. Has great difficulty understanding spoken and written English.

1 Non User

Essentially has no ability to use the language beyond possibly a few isolated words.

0 Did not attempt the test

No assessable information provided. Candidate may fail to sit for test

How to pass IELTS

Here is one of our best podcasts which will help with your IELTS preparation. Here we have a 5 Steps 2 IELTS student telling us how to pass IELTS. Paul Brown is there to discuss as usual. Helpful audio resources for English language learning.

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Writing Essays

Here is another great podcast which will help with your IELTS preparation. Here we have a 5 Steps 2 IELTS student telling us how to write effective essays. Helpful audio resources for English language learning.

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Academic Reading for IELTS

Here we have another very good student podcast discussing IELTS and also how to be confient at academic reading. Very useful English language learning resources.

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General English Skills

Here we have yet another brilliant student podcast on helping with your English study. This podcast includes discussion from one of our students on general English skills. More fun while learnign English. Great tips and tricks!

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How to improve your vocabulary

Student podcast discussing how to improve your vocabulary. How can you do this? Listen and learn! Very good English language tips and technique to improve language skills.

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How to improve your English speaking skills

How can you improve your speaking skills? Here we have another student podcast by the 5 Steps Team to improve this important skill in your language progress. Speaking is the key to effective English communications.

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Problems with English Listening Skills

Do you have problems with listening in your English studies? Many students feel the same way. Please find here another student podcast discussing this important area of English language learning.

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Problems with English reading skills

For all of you with concern and problems with reading skills listen to our student podcast which discusses this important area.

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Problems with English writing

For those with English writing problems and for those wanting to hear how to improve your writing this podcast is very good support material to help with your studies. Listen to our great students talking about these issues and giving there ideas and tips!

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How to improve your motivation

Listen to another great podcast and hear how to improve your motivation. Good help with IELTS and English study. Here we discuss motivation.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

IELTS Speaking skills you need

Fluency and coherence

Fluency is the ability to be able to speak without too many pauses or hesitations. Coherence is the way that your speech is understood by the examiner, it is how well you stay on topic and how clear your arguments and ideas are.

Effective vocabulary

Lexical resource refers to how well you can use vocabulary and the range and accuracy of that vocabulary. As it is a formal interview, the language should be formal and not too casual.

Grammatical accuracy refers to being able to use a range of grammatical structures and being able to use the language appropriately.

Clarity

Pronunciation should be clear and this relates not only to individual words, but also to full sentences. It is not expected that the candidate sounds like a native speaker, but the pronunciation should be such that it is easy to understand.
The examiner will take all of the above criteria into consideration and award the candidate a band score between 0 and 9 based on the candidate’s performance.

More tips and techniques for your IELTS preparation

IELTS Writing Ideas

1. ‘Some people believe that they should keep all the money they have earned and should not pay tax to the state. Do you agree or disagree?

2. ‘What are the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones?’

3. ‘ Today, the advances in science and technology have made great changes to people’s lives, but artists, such as musicians, painters and writers are still highly valued. What can arts tell us about life that science and technology cannot?’

4. ‘In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing. Does this trend have more positive or negative effects on the society?’

5. ‘Some people believe that air travel should be restricted because it causes serious pollution and uses up the world’s fuel resources. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

6. ‘More and more measures to improve the security in large urban areas have been introduced in many countries because of the increased crime. Do the benefits of these measures outweigh the drawbacks?’

7. ‘ In many countries more and more young people are leaving school but unable to find jobs. What problems do you think youth unemployment causes for individuals and the society? What measures should be taken to reduce the level of unemployment among youngsters?’

8. ‘ Some people think that teachers should be responsible for teaching students to judge what is right and wrong so that they can behave well. Others say that teachers should only teach students academic subjects. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

9. ‘One long-distance flight consumes fuel which a car uses in several years, but they cause the same amount of pollution. Some people think that for the sake of the environment we should discourage non-essential flights, such as tourist travel, rather than to limit the use of cars. To what extent do you agree?’

10. ‘ A century ago, when man landed on the moon, many people thought that it was the great step of mankind and a great contribution to man. However, space travel has made little difference on people’s lives. To what extent do you agree?’

Download our Top 40 Writing Ideas !

IELTS level for entry to academic study

IELTS minimum levels required by institutions depend sometimes on particular college or school and country. As a rule, institutions from English spoken countries require a higher level of IELTS than those from non English spoken countries. According to IELTS official site the highest IELTS level required by a University is 8.5, only two institutions are included here, both from the U.S.: the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University. In addition, the higher IELTS level required by institutions from the United Kingdom, where the IELTS had been originated, is 7.50.

Most IELTS requirement by Universities are between 7.00 and 5.50. For example, the Liverpool University required 7.50, the Cambridge University 7.00 and the Birmingham University 6.0 as the minimum levels, Essex University requires minimum 5.50. In Germany, the Stuttgart University requires an IELTS minimum rate of 6.00.

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Online English learning course

Want to learn English online? We have a dedicated subject areas and many members who are updating content everyday. Learn English online with our forums for ESL learners and have fun and join this growing community.

Living abroad: Asking for directions, making a doctor’s appointment or talking to your teacher can all be hard in English if you are not confident. Our forums can give you confidence you need to make your day-to-day life speaking and using English more fun.

Some key things you might want to do when going through your day speaking and listening in English might be:

  • Understand instructions
  • Give information in English
  • Answer questions in English
  • Ask questions and find out information
  • Fill in forms

Finding an online English learning course is difficult! Many people try and probably waste a lot of effort. In our forum we hope to offer you the chance to learn English online by using some of our tips and techniques offered by other learners as well as qualified English language professionals.

You can also ask questions and get answers to your English language problems.


IELTS Preparation

It is normal for anyone to feel nervous while attending the test. Always carry a positive attitude to avoid tension in the test center. If you feel you are not comfortable with anything in the examination hall make sure you tell the examiners there for a change of seat.

On the IELTS test day

Don’t forget your breakfast on the IELTS test day morning. Keep yourself cool and don’t panic seeing others reading their material outside the IELTS test center. Get some snack for yourself if you are going to attend the speaking test session the same day later on. Wear a watch to keep a track of time you are taking for each section. Reach the IELTS test center much before the test time to avoid any unpredictable delay. Check for the timings before hand from your test center. The candidate needs to verify his passport at the IELTS test center before entering the test hall. Late comers are not allowed so it’s better to be early than late.

Also check out Forums for up-to-date advice on IELTS prepration especially for Asian and Chinese and Thai or Cambodian learners. Also find there information on exams, TOEFL, speaking, reading, listening and writing.

The night before the IELTS test

Keep all the things required for the test ready a night before itself. Important things like passport, test number, pencils, pens etc should be arranged for a night before. Don’t forget to set an alarm clock to wake you up in the morning. Never sit back and read your material late night just before the test day. This will only confuse you.

Days before the IELTS test

A few days before the IELTS test should only be used for reviewing what ever you have studied earlier. Try to locate the test center and if possible try visiting it too if you are free. This will avoid the hassle of searching for the IELTS test on the test day.

Examination technique

Some points on how to attend the IELTS test

  • Never judge your performance by yourself. You may never know that you would have done a particular section much better than you expected to do it.
  • Finish what you know first rather than wasting time with unknown areas.
  • Stick to time limit for each section.
  • Never leave an answer blank, because you don’t lose anything if you answer any question wrong.
  • Never leave a question to be answered later. At the end you might miss it.

British English Pronunciation guide.

This list contains the main sounds of standard British English. This pronunciation guide can be very helpful for Asian learners and those in Thailand, China and the region. For those studying for speaking exams it may also be useful. Of course it is mostly extra material for IELTS exam and TOEFL exam students are the regions including Asia.

CONSONANTS

The following letters have their usual values in English:

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z.

IPA Text Examples
IPA Text Examples
ɡ g get, go, guard
tS chip, chin, nature
dZ judge, soldier
x x Scots loch
ŋ N sing, ring, finger
θ T thin, thick, strength
ð D then, bathe, lather
ʃ S she, sugar, machine
ʒ Z pleasure, vision
j j yet, use, beauty

SHORT VOWELS

IPA Text Examples
IPA Text Examples
æ a cat, bad, trap
ɛ e bed, net, dress
ə @ about, comma
ɪ I kit, bid, hymn
i i happy, glorious
ɒ Q hot, odd, wash
ʌ V dug, run, strut
ʊ U book, put, foot

LONG VOWELS

IPA Text Examples
IPA Text Examples
ɑː A: cart, arm, father
i: meet, see, fleece
ɜː 3: her, nurse, learn
u: boot, too, group
ɔː O: port, saw, thaw

DIPHTHONGS/TRIPHTHONGS

IPA Text Examples
IPA Text Examples
aI bite, my, price
aU brow, how, mouth
eI fate, day, break
əʊ @U goat, show, no
ɪə I@ pier, near, weary
ɔɪ OI boil, choice, boy
ʊə U@ tour, poor, jury
e@ hair, dare, various
aʊə aU@ sour, cower, flour
aɪə aI@ fire, buyer, liar

OTHER SYMBOLS

IPA Text Purpose
ˈ Precedes the syllable which has the primary stress
ˌ , Precedes a syllable which has a secondary stress
( ) ( ) Surround an optional sound
ʔ ? Glottal stop

SOME FRENCH VOWEL SOUNDS

IPA Text Examples
IPA Text Examples
ø 2 jeu
ɔ O bottes, bol
œ 9 oeuf, soeur
y y sucre, tu
ɑ̃ a~ banque, sans
ɛ̃ e~ cinq, saint
ɔ̃ o~ bonbons, son
œ̃ 9~ un, lundi, brun










































IELTS Test Structure

Reading section- Academic - for learners and IELTS preparation students around the regions, including Asia, Thailand and China.

Cambridge IELTS. The reading section lasts for about an hour and is divided in to three sections of forty questions. If the candidates write on the question paper they cannot take it outside the exam hall. No extra time will be provided for the candidates. Mostly the questions are based on

* multiple choice
* short answer
* sentence completion
* notes/summary/diagram/flow chart completion
* choosing from a heading bank to identify paragraphs or parts of the text
* identification of writers opinions/ideas - yes/no/not given
* yes/no/not given OR true/false/not given
* classification
* matching lists or phrases

The tests given in the IELTS test are taken from books, local newspapers, magazines and journals. No specific preparation can be done for this section. One logical argument text will surely be given. One text will have a diagram or illustration. A short glossary will be provided for texts that are given with technical nature.

Writing Section- Academic

Two tasks are to be completed in a span of one hour in the writing section. Task 1 expects the candidate’s view on a picture given. The picture might be anything from a line graph to a bar chart or a pie chart or just a table or even a picture describing any process. A minimum of 150 words should be used to write this task. Task 2 comprises of

Speaking section-Academic

Both Academic (AC) and General Training (GT) have a similar Speaking module. It is a recorded test which lasts for about one hour and one candidate per session is tested. This section is divided in to 3 sub sections as follows.

Sub-section 1 comprises of introductory question followed by questions relating to personal information. This is followed by four to five minutes of questions on topics of general interest.

In Sub- Section 2 the candidate is provided with a card with a topic mentioned in it. The candidate must talk for 1 or 2 minutes on the given subject. The Candidate can make brief notes about the topic in the minute given before the real talk starts. After the candidate finishes his talk the examiner will ask a few questions and this finishes the section. Overall this section lasts for about 3 to 4 minutes.

Sub- Section 3 is a continuation of the second sub-section. A few questions based on the topic spoken in the second sub-section are asked. The questions are usually more demanding and need a lot of critical thinking.

Listening section-Academic

This section remains the same for both the Academic and General modules. Questions have to be answered after listening to a tape. The tape will not be played more than once. This section is further divided in to four sub-sections with 10 questions each. Overall this section has 40 questions. About 30 minutes are given to complete this section. A bonus 10 minutes are given to copy answers from the question paper to the answer sheets. There is no fixed type of questions that candidates get to appear in this section. Multiple choice, sentence completion, brief answers, diagram or flow charts to complete etc.

Coming soon: TOEFL practice tests help.

IELTS Test Results

IELTS marking is carried out at the test centre by trained examiners
whose work is closely monitored. This ensures that test results
are available without any administrative delay.

See more English language help and exam or ESL advice and tips,
including our English discussion on our forum

Results are standardised and usually available within two weeks
of the test, and Test Report Forms are sent to the candidates
and to the sponsor(s)/receiving institution(s). Test centres are not
permitted to give results out over the phone, nor by fax or e-mail.

Test Scores
IELTS provides a profile of a candidate’s ability to use English.
Candidates receive scores on a Band Scale from 1 to 9.
A score is reported for each module of the test. The individual
module scores are then averaged and rounded to produce
an Overall Band Score according to a confidential band score
conversion table. Overall Band Scores and Listening and
Reading scores are reported in whole and half Bands; Writing
and Speaking Band Scores are reported in whole Bands only.

Test Report Form
An example of the Test Report Form can be downloaded here.
Each module is reported separately as a Band Score, together
with an Overall Band Score reported as a whole band or a half
band. A descriptive statement giving a summary of the English
of a candidate classified at each band level is provided below
and is included on the reverse of the Test Report Form.
The completed Test Report Form bears a centre stamp, a
validation stamp, the candidate’s photograph and the authorised
centre representative’s signature, and the authenticity of any
Test Report Form can be verified by means of the Test Report
Form Verification Service located at https://ielts.ucles.org.uk.
British Council, IDP:IELTS Australia and Cambridge ESOL
reserve the right to cancel any Test Report Form in the event
of any attempt to tamper with or misuse the information
contained in it.

IELTS Test Format

Candidates are tested in listening, reading, writing and speaking.
All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking Modules.

There is a choice between Academic and General Training in the
Reading and Writing Modules.

The tests are designed to cover the full range of ability from
non- user to expert user.

The first three modules – Listening, Reading and Writing –
must be completed in one day. There is no break between the
modules.

The Speaking Module may be taken, at the discretion
of the test centre, in the period seven days before or after the
other modules.

A computerised version of IELTS Listening, Reading and Writing
Modules (CBIELTS) is available at selected centres, but all
centres will continue to offer paper-based IELTS and candidates
will be given the choice of the medium in which they wish to
take the test.

Top 3 tips for IELTS exams - Dos and Donts

Here are the Top 3 Tips for your IELTS Exam in the areas of Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. Come back soon for Top 10 Tips! Or join our Forums

LISTENING

  1. Don’t just glance at instructions; read them carefully. They can vary considerably.
  2. It often happens that the speaker will give you an answer and then correct what s/he has said - watch out for this ploy.
  3. Try to anticipate what the speaker will say. This requires concentration - easy in your own language, but more difficult in English !

READING

  1. Leave a question for later if you can’t answer. Spending a long time on one answer is not ideal. Go back later if you have time and guess if you have to.
  2. Don’t panic if you don’t know anything about the subject of the passage. All the answers can be found in the passage and you don’t need any specialist knowledge.
  3. Remember, unlike the Listening section of the exam, you have no extra time to transfer your answers at the end of the Reading section.

WRITING

  1. Highlight or circle key words.
  2. Clearly divide paragraphs.
  3. Don’t repeat ideas using different words.

SPEAKING

  1. We want to test your ability to communicate effectively, and not just your grammatical accuracy.
  2. Don’t learn chunks of answers. The examiner is trained to spot this and will change the question.
  3. Develop your answers as much as possible.

Steps to improving speaking

Tips and advice in learning English as well as for IELTS preparation. Here we have a podcast of English from our radio show.

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Speaking tips

Here we have the second installment of our English language podcast. Here you can listen to Paul on radio with listeners and guests talking about English and IELTS as well as TOEFL or other English exam learning techniques and tips. For those seeking English language help and to improve their speaking and listening then this [...]

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How to improve your memory

Our third installment of our podcasts for English language learning. Our podcasts are proving to be very popular, just like those offered by the BBC. We hope to reach a wide audience with these radio shows and to offer audio for English learning that will be very easy to understand but will allow listeners to [...]

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How to be an effective listener

The fourth show in our IELTS and English language radio show which we have used for podcasting and using English as a podcast subkect area to help listeners with their studies and their exams. We cover a range of topics for learners of English and other areas such as ESL and TESOL topics. Our podcasts [...]

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Podcast of our show, Monday 21May 2007

Heh guys, here is the Very Good Feeling, 5Steps2English.com Love FM 97.5 show from Monday 21 May, 2007, enjoy!
Guests were Mr Huj and Mr Meng.
Mr H

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Podcast of our show, Wednesday 16 May 2007

Heh guys, here is the Very Good Feeling, 5Steps2English.com Love FM show from Wednesday 16 May, 2007, enjoy!
Our guest was Richard of Usingenglish.com
More soon!
Mr H

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Podcast of our show, Wednesday 09 May 2007

Heh guys, here is the Very Good Feeling, 5Steps2English.com Love FM 97.5 show from Wednesday 09 May, 2007, enjoy!

Our guest was Christiana from Italy.
Mr H

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In Afghanistan, Preparing for a Threat to Wheat Plants

rust_usda.jpg

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers in Afghanistan already struggle with the effects of drought and years of conflict. Now there is worry about a new threat headed in their direction in the wind -- a fungus that destroys wheat crops. The disease is a form of stem rust named for its discovery in Uganda ten years ago. Ug99 is now in one of Afghanistan's neighbors, Iran.

The disease kills wheat plants by robbing them of water and nutrients. Stem rust produces reddish-brown spots on the stems of infected plants. The weakened stems break easily. The world's last major outbreak of stem rust took place in the nineteen fifties.

Agriculture -- excluding opium production -- represents about one-third of the Afghan economy. But agriculture employs eighty percent of the country's workers. And almost all Afghan farmers grow wheat to feed their families or to sell. Afghanistan has a population estimated at almost thirty-four million people.

Mahmoud Solh directs the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, or ICARDA, in Aleppo, Syria. He says it took a few years for Ug99 to show its destructive power. Then, in Kenya, it destroyed anywhere from twenty to eighty percent of wheat crops.

And before long, he says, winds carried the disease from Kenya to Ethiopia. Ug99 has also affected Sudan and more recently has moved into Asia, spreading to Yemen and Iran.

Mahmoud Solh says the disease now threatens Afghanistan and South Asia. But he also calls it a global threat to food security. Most of the commercial varieties of wheat are at risk from Ug99, he says. These include varieties grown in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The expert urges Afghan farmers to tell agriculture officials immediately if they suspect stem rust in their fields. He says the fields will be treated to kill the fungus and to stop it from spreading. Farmers will get new seeds that resist Ug99.

Researchers have developed these seeds for the conditions in Afghanistan. Organizations of village farmers are working to expand the supplies of the improved seeds. They are receiving guidance from ICARDA and money from international groups.

The goal is to replace at least ten percent of Afghanistan's wheat fields with the new seeds each year. The effort will begin with areas along the border with Iran.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Steve Baragona. I'm Faith Lapidus.

'Non-Formal' Schools Aim to Fill Need in Kenya's Slums

This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In two thousand three, the government of Kenya established a program of free primary education for all children. But there are not enough public schools for all the children who live in the crowded slums of Nairobi.

Instead, some of these children attend what are known as non-formal or informal schools. These are supported by communities, religious groups and other organizations.

Informal schools use the national curriculum taught in public schools. But they operate largely with limited resources and without trained teachers. Education activists say the Ministry of Education rarely inspects their teaching quality, lesson notes or examination records.

They say the presence of informal schools means that Kenya has two levels of education: One for children from the slums, another for children from better conditions.

Activists say Kenya has at least one thousand six hundred of these non-formal schools. Susan Munuhe is an Education Ministry official. She says only about two hundred informal schools across the country receive money for materials under the free primary education program.

She says one slum in Nairobi, Mathari, has only about three public primary schools nearby. These can serve two thousand children at most. But she says the Mathari slum alone has more than three hundred thousand children of school age.

Diana Atieno Tujuh volunteers as a teacher at the Saint Christine's Community Center in the Kibera slum, one of the largest in Africa. She says the government has provided books for her school only one time during the past few years. Many parents do not have the money to buy books, so sometimes the teachers pay for them.

She says many students are sleepy and unable to pay attention in class because there is not enough food for them at home. For the children at Saint Christine's, the mid-day meal they are served might be their only meal all day.

A government spokesman says the government is trying to discourage informal schools. Alfred Mutua says every child in Kenya has the ability to get the same education. The government, he says, has never rejected a child from a public school. He also says the government is building more schools, but it will take time.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Cathy Majtenyi in Nairobi. Transcripts and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

Microsoft, Google Take Aim at Each Other

google-microsoft.jpg

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Google, the Internet search leader, will now offer a free operating system for personal computers. The company hopes to loosen Microsoft's hold on the market. Microsoft Windows is on more than ninety percent of PCs.

Google is basing the new product on its Chrome Web browser and the Linux open-source operating system. The Google Chrome OS is expected to be available in the second half of next year.

At first, it will be aimed at netbooks. These are smaller, simpler machines designed mainly for Internet use.

Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, says Chrome will pay for itself. It will do that, he says, by reducing the cost of computers and increasing the number of people who search the Internet. Google earns most of its money from sales of advertising on its search engine.

But the recession has hurt the advertising market. And now Microsoft has targeted Google's main business. Microsoft says its new Bing search engine offers a better way to search the Internet. Ads for it make fun of how Web searches often give people a lot of useless results.

COMMERCIAL: "Find a cure at bing.com. It's not just a search engine. It's the first-ever decision engine. From Microsoft."

A Web traffic report last Friday from StatCounter said Bing twice passed Yahoo in usage in the United States in its first few weeks. Yahoo is the second biggest search engine.

But no one has the answer to how much market share Bing will claim from Yahoo or Google in the long term. Microsoft, in its struggle against Google, tried unsuccessfully last year to buy Yahoo for more than forty billion dollars.

Google and Microsoft are also competing in business software. Google offers Google Docs. These applications are free and on the Web. They compete with Microsoft Office, a hugely popular product. Next year, Microsoft plans a new version of Office that is both Web-based and free.

Also, Microsoft plans to launch its seventh version of Windows this October. And the company is preparing to open its own stores, like its competitor Apple. In fact, some Microsoft stores could open right next to Apple stores in the coming months.

The recession has cut sales of PCs and software. But there may be hopeful signs for the industry. Intel is the leading maker of computer processors. This week Intel reported that its results for the past three months were better than expected. And it predicted more good news in the current quarter.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and MP3s are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

Authors of Medical Studies Not Always Who They Seem

doctor.jpg

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Medical journals are an important part of continuing education for doctors and other health providers. Journals say they do their best to publish high quality studies by trusted authors.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors says: "An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study ... "

In other words, someone who did much of the work.
Credit is to be based on three conditions. The first involves designing the study and gathering and analyzing the data. The second involves preparing the article. And the third involves final approval of the version to be published.

Readers may have no way to know who did what when studies list several authors. And not all studies list all their authors.

The Public Library of Science, or PLoS, is a nonprofit organization based in California. Its journals are available free online. The editors of PLoS Medicine ask authors if anyone from a company or public relations agency suggested or paid for their article.

They also ask if a professional writer helped with the article and to what extent. And they ask if the article is similar to articles published in other journals.

By asking these questions, the editors try to guard against the use of ghost authors. A ghost author is someone who had a lot to do with an article but is not given credit.

Drug companies have been known to pay researchers to place articles in journals to support their products.

Not all ghost authors, though, are paid. And there may be nothing scientifically wrong with a study involving paid authors who are not identified. But journal editors say everyone who worked on a study needs to take responsibility.

Another issue is the honorary author. Unlike a ghost author, an honorary author gets credit in the article but had little if anything to do with it. Authors sometimes add a well-known name to increase the chances that an article will be published. For example, the person may be the head of the university department that did the study.

The chief editor of PLoS Medicine says honorary authors are a more common problem than ghost authors. Virginia Barbour says the pressure in higher education to get published may be responsible for some of this. But she says any kind of dishonesty can shake people's faith in the medical profession.

We'll have more on this subject next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

Click here to listen!