and for French speakers learning English:

Cours d’anglais, conseils, exercises, videos, etc

1. Lisez les conseils: http://www.anglaiscours.fr/conseils-pour-ameliorer-son-anglais + https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz3efoLoIqr81a0PDpu_pU5DXyhkATaUU

Examples que je trouve très utils:

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/les-bases-en-anglais.html

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/comment-apprendre-langlais.html

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/apprendre-langlais-comment-diminuer-ses-efforts-et-augmenter-ses-resultats.html

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/memoriser-rapidement-du-vocabulaire-grace-au-systeme-de-repetition-espacee.html

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/2-habitudes-pour-entretenir-son-anglais.html

2. Soyez curieux. Familiarisez-vous avec le site web. Cherchez d’autre materiel sur autres sites par example.
3. Familiarisez-vous avec la formation d’une frase anglaise, la fonction et utilisation des auxiliaires. Si vous avez les bases solides, tous les autres niveaux vont etres plus faciles à suivre.   http://www.anglaiscours.fr/construire-phrases-anglais.html

4. Annotez votre vocabulaire, lisez ce que vous faites souvent (révision espacée ci-desous). Ecoutez tout ce que voyez ou cherchez. La prononciation et l’orthograph sont un nightmare, alors faites attention!!  http://www.anglaiscours.fr/memoriser-rapidement-du-vocabulaire-grace-au-systeme-de-repetition-espacee.html

Le cours:

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/lecons-d-anglais

http://www.anglaiscours.fr/cours-d-anglais-en-video

en plus: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtWyH1MB_A3OggdzoGtkeQA - tout en anglais, mais elle est genial!

Advice for self-study for work

DRAFT

Despite there being tens of magic methods that promise to teach you English in 6 weeks or 6 months for that matter, I regret to say that this is just very unrealistic. That’s why we’ve compiled some tips and recommendations to help you make the most of your self-study, in a realistic way, provided you are self-driven, motivated and disciplined. Expect no miracles but reward guaranteed!

I am sure you’ve heard and seen all over the notion that in order to master anything, you need around 10,000 hours of doing it. For some people it’ll be more and for other a bit less, but that’s seems to be a fairly accurate number, according to experts. That means no quick methods. However, this also depends on your goals. When it comes to learning English, let’s first think a couple of things through:

-       Do you want to be accurate and fluent? Accurate meaning: no or very few grammar mistakes and fluent meaning that you aim at making yourself understood despite grammar mistakes

-       Will you be communicating with native speakers who are not used to speaking to non-native speakers, to native speakers who usually deal with non-native speakers, or to non-native speakers of various levels of command of command of the language?

-        How much of my time I am willing to spend exposed to English, with an active approach to learning out of this exposure? Watching a film in English for the sake of learning English won’t be very productive unless you are active in your learning (I’ll expand on this later)

-       How different is your mother tongue from English? What bad habits you have when it comes to communicating in English? – it’s often important to unlearn what you think you know and break this habit by bombarding the brain with the right expression / grammar structure / whatever you want to learn/...

-       What do I want to focus on: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, understanding native speakers of different nationalities?

-        

It’s never been easier to learn than now. With opportunities to spend time in countries where the target language is spoken, with mobile learning (apps, the ubiquitous availability of Wi-Fi, photo cameras to take photos of material and sheets and handouts, free online courses, free language exchanges online, online magazines, radios in English online and a longer list of options). Consequently, provided you’re motivated and disciplined, learning is at the palm of your hand and just one or two clicks away.

The way I interpret language learning is holistic. That means that ideally, when you’re learning a new vocabulary item, a new structure, it’s good to learn it as a whole, as a chunk and focus on pronunciation, connecting the words if they have to be connected, learning the words it usually is combined with. Like this, you’ll be easier to understand and you’ll understand others far more easily, you’ll be more efficient and gain fluency. English is complex in ways that you may never have been shown or told. That shouldn’t be a problem or put you off studying it, however, it’s good to be aware of that.  Yet again, this depends on your mother tongue in many ways and how you’ve learned whatever English you know.

The problem for many is that nowadays most people have learned a bit of English, most can perform at work with varying levels of fluency or accuracy but if you really want to improve and ... that’s hard work, when you can already communicate, ...

Failure to see that you learn a language not only to speak but also to be spoken, to understand others is crucial, too. It’s a two way thing. Don’t just set your goals like : I want to speak better English. Speaking is just one area you want to learn. To speak better English, we need to know what exactly you’ll be speaking about, you need vocabulary, this vocabulary maybe associated to a certain grammar and register, etc.  Learning a foreign language involves speaking and being spoken, so understanding and being understood. Also, be specific and realistic and invest time in learning the basics well as this will make it easier for you to pick up a bit more complex grammar. It’s key to understand the have as an auxiliary verb for example, to succeed at higher levels.

. Tip: watch videos giving you advice on how to learn and study. They’ll help you understand why it’s helpful to follow their advice

My favourites are:

Some people focus their teaching in themes, as it has always been done, the way I see it this method has pros and cons, ..experiment and find a way that resonates with you, that you identify that you learn the best..and by this I don’t mean identifying if you are visual, kinaestheic or audio learner, it’s beyond this. 

Repetition is key, go over exercises, videos, podcasts, a few times. You’re learning English, learning is exposure, you learn a word when you’ve seen it a meaningful, relevant context a number of times. Meaningful, relavant to you. You’re brain is lazy, help it learn by exposing yourself to what you want to learn. 

Get into the habit of using your resources actively, that is, if you’re at a PC, by default, open your howjsay (I’ll explain this later) google translate or equivalent and wordreference or any other online dictionary of your choice. Use their pronunciation icon, type and listen to words and expressions.  

Podcasts

Radios

Video channels on youtube

Pronunciation and fluency

Reading newspapers, watching short videos,

Youtube speed and subtitles, ted talks speed and subtitles,

Tips for learning vocabulary: https://edition.englishclub.com/articles/7-tips-for-learning-english-vocabulary/

+ videos

Recommended apps vary from website to website, from teacher to teacher so here is a list but do find out what you like best, go and explore itunes and google store to find others you might like. Some are for Android only, other of iOS, some are free others are not,... the list here if for free ones.  Apps: https://edition.englishclub.com/articles/top-10-apps-for-learning-english/

Common needs I have identified:

Improving email writing style

Insisting on present perfect for and since

lo único que puedo recomendarte para aprender rápido es motivación para estudiar, (usa métodos tradicionales con nuevos (apps, videos, podcasts, etc - experimenta hasta encontrar uno o varios métodos que te gusten) - y disciplina y que estés abierta a replantearte ideas / significados etc. Submérgete en la lengua que quieras aprender. Encuentra tu manera de aprender.
Pero no hay nada como motivación real (y que de te la creas tu des de dentro de tus entrañas - ya sea realmente querer x trabajo, querer ganar más dinero, viaje, necesitar comunicarte con una persona en tu vida)  y disciplina.

Pronunciation

Good pronunciation channels:

Christina Rebuffet - some videos on pronunciation - fab!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtWyH1MB_A3OggdzoGtkeQA

 engvid
http://www.engvid.com/english-lessons/ - choose the pronunciation ones

Oxford Online English  -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD6t6ckHsrubLp8Ia8duzu5fN4riM2-Bl

Rachel's English - American, but very useful and good stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvn_XCl_mgQmt3sD753zdJA

engfluent (two videos on pronunciation to date, but more on listening, etc)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiDuxHgWdcgyGRifUg0RaFG6Q1CPG1XrT

Doing English with Julian - long and blah blah but good advice on how to become more fluent
https://www.youtube.com/user/doingenglishDOTcom

Teaching adults with

More and more I become aware of how teaching English is changing as we teachers become increasingly aware of how confusing English is for students. Ok, no news but  over the past few yearsI have found myself trying to help students gain an awareness of the fact that words in English (or any other language for that matter, i'd dare to say) don't necessarily have a one word equivalent or meaning but rather one or more translations into another language. The way I see it, looking at words as concepts or metaphors should be encouraged when possible.

It is true, however, that not all words lend themselves to this sort of interpretation but many do. Traditionally schools gave a  translation of a word, taken as its only meaning, to students and learners only to find themselves confronted to the word in another context and causing confusion. The last decade there's been an emphasis on collocations, great, that was an improvement, and a more real English as opposed to textbook English. Real English is not easy to acquire in places where English is a foreign language with no contribution from the "system" to actually learn it and use it but it's what should be taught.

I have noticed that just like i have been doing, teachers in online videos teach words and collocations and expressions. I think it's the way to go. It doesn't ensure they'll learn and remember all the translations but I hope this will contribute to a more open-minded approach to vocabulary and lexis learning little by little.
The example I often give them is the word meet translated into Spanish: quedar, encontrarse, ir a recojer, conocer (a alguien - primera vez), satisfacer, cumplir, entre otros. And the Catalan/Spanish word "deixar/dejar": leave, let, stop ing, lend, borrow.

There is also the fact that every single adult who studies English in Spain nowadays has studied English in the past, with little success in most cases. This means we don't have to go through teaching English as if they know nothing, our role is to tackle the very well-identified problem areas in their language if necessary and help them retain, activate and create new words. By creating I mean word formation, which luckily for them, just happens to be just like they do in Spanish. Adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Most are unaware of the potential language they can understand and produce once they develop an understanding and an awareness of this fact.

Again, the example I usually provide in Spanish is acto, actuar, actuación, actor, actriz, activo/a, activamente, acción, accionar, etc. They all have the same root. We should aim at developing their intuition to learn to create adjectives, for examples with lots of input.

So let's all  teach the differences but also the similarities...their prejudices, their prior knowledge, often weak but there, force us to have to teach them a different way of looking at language, and teach them based on what they know, which makes teaching English in Spain different from teaching a new language from scratch.

Confident presentations

Now I am going to post a compilation of links and phrases i have found which give very interesting advice on giving presentations. This is going to be of use for those whose confidence is a bit shaky when having to prepare for and give presentations.

The piece of advice i, as a teacher, would give you is that preparation is the key to success and that it's normal to be nervous, very few people do not get nervous when having to speak in public. The other big piece of advice is not to panick when you you find yourself in a sticky situation, like not remembering how to say something in English or if you realise you've forgotten to say something important or any these little glitches and problems. These can happen to absolutely every person on earth, ok some more often than others but hey!, whether it is giving presentations in a foreign or in your own language. The key is to be prepared. This posting will give you the resourses for many of the potential situations you may face when presenting.

Good reading and watching!

The following is taken from:

http://www.effective-public-speaking.com/starting/menu.php
More links below

In modern English, presentations tend to be much less formal than they were even twenty years ago. Most audience these days prefer a relatively informal approach. However, there is a certain structure to the opening of a presentation that you should observe

1. Get people's attention

2. Welcome them

3. Introduce yourself

4. State the purpose of your presentation

5. State how you want to deal with questions

Get people's attention

If I could have everybody's attention · If we can start. · Perhaps we should begin? · Let's get started

Welcome them

Thank you for coming today. · Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. · On behalf of our company, I'd like to welcome you.

Introduce yourself

My name's Jane Shawre. I'm responsible for travel arrangements.

· For those of you who don't know me, my name's Tom Strwotter.

· As you know, I'm in charge of public relations.

· I'm the new Marketing Manager.

State the purpose of the presentation

This morning I'd like to present our new processor.

· Today I'd like to discuss our failures in the Japanese market and suggest a new approach.

· This afternoon, I'd like to report on my study into the German market.

· What I want to do this morning is to talk to you about our new mobile telephone system.

· What I want to do is to tell you about our successes and failures in introducing new working patterns.

· What I want to do is to show you how we've made our first successful steps in the potentially huge Chinese market

State how you want to deal with questions.

· If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them as we go along.

· Feel free to ask any questions.

· Perhaps we can leave any questions you have until the end?

· There will be plenty of time for questions at the end


My recommendation is to learn the couple of expressions in each section you fell more comfortable with by heart.

You'll notice or have noticed that Let's and I'd like to, I am going to... come up very often, these are what you want to start using!

http://www.business-english.com/signposting/exercise1.html

http://www.effective-public-speaking.com/

GIVING PRESENTATIONS: USEFUL LANGUAGE

1. If you get your facts wrong.

I am terribly sorry. What I meant to say was this.
Sorry. What I meant is this.

2. If you have been going too fast and your audience is having trouble keeping up with you.

Let me just recap on that.
I want to recap briefly on what I have been saying.

3. If you have forgotten to make a point.

Sorry, I should just mention one other thing.
If I can just go back to the previous point, there is something else that I forgot to mention.

4. If you have been too complicated and want to simplify what you said.

So, basically, what I am saying is … this.
So, basically, the point I am trying to get across is this.

5. If you realize that what you are saying makes no sense.

Sorry, perhaps I did not make that quite clear.
Let me rephrase that to make it quite clear.

6. If you cannot remember the term in English.

Sorry, what is the word I am looking for?
Sorry, my mind has gone blank. How do you say ‘escargot’ in English?

7. If you are short of time. Time is running out.

So just to give you the main points.
As we are short of time, this is just a quick summary of the main points.

8. When you want to make your next point, you ‘move on’.

Moving on to the next point.

I’d like to move on to the next point if there are no further questions.

9. When you want to change to a completely different topic, you ‘turn to’.

I’d like to turn to something completely different.

Let’s turn now to our plans for next year.

10. When you want to give more details about a topic you ‘expand’ or ‘elaborate’.

I’d like to expand more on this problem we have had in Chicago.

Would you like me to expand a little more on that or have you understood enough?

I don’t want to elaborate any more on that as I’m short of time.

11. When you want to refer back to an earlier point, you ‘go back’.

Going back to something I said earlier, the situation in Chicago is serious.

I’d like to go back to something Jane said in her presentation.

12. When you want to refer back to an earlier point, you ‘go back’.

Going back to something I said earlier, the situation in Chicago is serious.

I’d like to go back to something Jane said in her presentation.

13. To just give the outline of a point, you ’summarize’.

If I could just summarize a few points from John’s report.

I don’t have a lot of time left so I’m going to summarize the next few points.

14. To repeat the main points of what you have said, you ‘recap’.

I’d like to quickly recap the main points of my presentation.

Recapping quickly on what was said before lunch, ……

15. For your final remarks, you ‘conclude’.

I’d like to conclude by leaving you with this thought ……

If I may conclude by quoting Karl Marx …….

I always recommend taht you learn the expressions and phrases you feel more at ease with and that you personalise them, study them by using your name, your company's name, etc.

Links and resources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/unit3presentations/1opening.shtml it has several links within the same tab

http://www.business-english.com/signposting/exercise1.html

http://www.effective-public-speaking.com/

www.Ted.com as examples of fantastic presentations: visuals, warm-ups, jokes, tone of voice, emphasis…

English 365 (CUP) purple and bluish book both have material and listenings

In company (MacMillan), unit 12

Business Vocabulary in Use (CUP) written by Bill Mascull has also material on that.

Videos on www.youtube.com :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjGz4PS6sI&p=CBC9B0E3479C39F4&playnext=1&index=44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-z_yBrS3s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdGgDEjmGhM&NR=1

speak slowly video (not only for presentations):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttDTszXG4M

among many others…

I think i have provided references of all the material i have used. Any question, leave a comment and i'll get back to you.