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Thanks Sam for your very useful thread. I just want to chip in with my two bits.

Alternate vs Alternative
I have come across many instances when people become confused about which is the right word to describe the situation, e.g., "To find an alternate route." The correct meanings are:

Alternate --- To describe a situation where two things keep on interchanging in a regular pattern, or, when something keeps on flipping between two different positions. Examples: (i) A chess board has alternating black and white squares. (ii) A sportsman's performance may alternate between good and lacklustre.

Alternate can also be used to denote a substitute for the main subject. Example: An alternate member in a committee.

Alternative --- This is used as a noun or an adjective to denote other possibilities and options that exist and that may be considered. Examples: (i) To consider alternative routes to a given destination. (ii) We need to consider alternative energy sources for a cleaner environment.

Another very common mistake I have noticed is the way people pronounce "detiorate" when they actually should be saying "deteriorate". This is a common elision and sometimes I wonder if the speaker is even aware of the correct spelling and pronunciation.

Sadly, Sam has not been with us for a while.
This is complicated. There are three words (at least?) there, not two.

Alternate is a verb. Alternate is an adjective.

I'm not sure that squares on a chessboard are alternating, because ease square does not change. I have to sleep on this. And see what others say.
If they swap regularly, that might be alternate. A substitute would be an alternative.
Alternative --- This is used as a noun or an adjective to denote other possibilities and options that exist and that may be considered. Examples: (i) To consider alternative routes to a given destination. (ii) We need to consider alternative energy sources for a cleaner environment.

Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquidalymistic.

Have at it :)

Cheers

Would fellow Bhpians be kind enough to direct me towards a few useful, open source softwares and/or free websites that could help small town youngsters in the age group of 16-20 pick up and hone their English language skills.

I think it is quite OK to say that the squares of a chessboard alternate in colour (alternating spatially), and that the venues of the Ryder cup alternate between US and Europe (alternating temporally).

One point. These two could mean the same in the "substitute" sense. Like: "I expected the toll booths to be crowded, so I took the alternate (or alternative) route via Rayakottai". See below.

From Oxford Dictionary Online (emphasis mine):

I have been wondering if there is a word which describes the pattern of a chessboard! One that takes taked into account the checkerboard pattern rather than just the....

Oh wait! :D

Software is like furniture, no 's'.

I'd suggest books, rather than software. English usage has to be caught as much as learned. Literature is the best way.

+1 for books.

In my teens, I signed up for Kev Nair's English fluency course thinking it would turn me into an Anglophile in a few weeks/months. I probably still have the books in mint condition neatly stored in a box somewhere, but I honestly realised very early that the key to fluency in any language is not knowing a lot of words but the ability to use them in context, something one can only truly learn with reading and practice, not from courseware. I had plenty of college mates who were champions at vocabulary prep during CAT exams and knew words nobody had heard of, but couldn't use them in a coherent sentence if their lives depended on it.

Plenty of times, one's able to deduce the meaning of an unknown word by association with the words around it, and that association, rather than the word itself, sticks in the mind and pops up in other situations.

Reading and practice, the slow but sure path to fluency.

Good fun too, if one reads interesting and/or exciting books. Enjoy while learning.

Noted, thanks a lot!
I understand.

But the target audience don't; nor do the regulators.

Reading as a hobby is no longer a fad among the rural and semi urban youth. The printed word is noticed perhaps only in a currency note and nowhere else. That's one reason why UGC & AICTE have started demanding setting up of what they call language laboratories. As is mostly the case in public institutions, funds are hard to come by - almost nil. But the government has been generous enough to gift laptops to students thereby solving the hardware issue. A good open source software or a free interactive website could help the book-lorn youngsters pick up bits and pieces of English.

Hence the query.

From the time I can remember, we always had the red covered, much used / abused "Wren & Martin" in our house.
It still is lying somewhere in our home.
This is the book most convent schools in Mumbai prescribed to its students.
It used to be just one book at my time. Now I think they have wizened up to economic realities and are even selling the Cliff Notes version of the same.
Look up Amazon India. It's available.

My father would try to get us to listen to BBC radio for the pronunciation but that experiment lasted maybe a week. Those days DD English news & AIR English News broadcast had much better spoken English than what I find nowadays on our private channels.

Try Wren & Martin. Easy explanation and reasonably priced on the Amazon site.

Link: Wren & Martin

In that case, check out offerings on Coursera and Edutube. Plenty of free basic courses.

This blog lists some good options. Both the British Council and the BBC Learning English sites appear to be free. Check them out.

I would recommend "Word power made easy" by Norman Lewis. The hard copy costs barely Rs.125/- on Amazon, and if you want a soft copy, there are lots of free downloads available on the net (in PDF form).

Cheers,
Vikram

Thanks. Hasn't helped.

As I said earlier, books aren't going to cut it here. We are looking at hundreds of teens who have never ever read a book voluntarily; neither their text books nor comics and magazines. Rote learning has been their best friend through the school days. They are accustomed to reading only their class notes and/or cheap aftermarket guides. They don't even glance at newspapers: film and sports pages included. You and I feel they need to read. They say they can manage well, without.

I sympathise with them. For, they are the children of an overloaded visual era. They can only see to understand; and sometimes listen. When I asked them to use their regular WhatsApp chat hours to check and correct their spellings, they went overboard and started voice typing! It is this kind of youngsters that we are trying to address.

The idea is to help them in a language and manner that they can understand, appreciate and adopt.

Now, many of you will say that I am spoiling them by playing to their rules. I am and I am not. As I mentioned earlier, we are looking at a laboratory - trying new things.

Let me also clarify that I am not looking for a spoken English module or some such purported panacea. I am trying to use audio visual aids as an assist in the process of learning English and learning through English.