Using the internet

I'm a fan of Google, as I've said before. Their search engine almost always pulls up the results I'm looking for. The internet is a fantastic resource for language learning, as you can find free courses, dictionaries, chat-rooms to help you. When learning vocabulary and expressions, though, a single dictionary definition can be a bit limited. Here's what I do when I want to fully understand a word or phrase that I've come across, but am little uncertain as to its use:Simple type the word or phrase into google in speech marks (guillemets ""). Google will pull up not only dictionary definitions but examples of the word or phrase in various contexts - something that is essential in language acqisition. Have a look a five or more of these references and you will have a good idea of how a native speaker uses it.Try it out: do a search for "brown nosing"; "takes the biscuit" "parrot-fashion" and see what results you get!