If you want to learn English on the go, here are ideas of apps for smartphone users:
Search through for them, pay for them or wait and see until they are downloadable for free and have fun! I don’t have a smartphone yet, so I can’t give you first hand info about them.
Please feel free to add and/or suggest other you might know as well. Let's make the list longer!
http://www.happycatstefl.com/general-advice/learn-english/
English grammar in use has itunes apps
Brainscape
Translators
Longman
The bbc has also apps for smartphones
These Pages Are Designed for Small Devices Such As the iPhone, not sure if they also work for android
• English Vocabulary Study on Web-Capable Cell Phones
www.manythings.org/i
(We've had this one online for a long time.)
• Some of Our Favorite Podcasts (iPhone Only)
www.manythings.org/ip
(This will not work on a regular computer.)
This Works on an iPad
The iPad can access videos from YouTube that are embedded in web pages.
• ESL Videos (A Blog of Videos on YouTube)
Listen and Read Along - Optimized for iPadThese will also work on an iPhone, but the MP3 player's "play" button is very difficult to click.
• Animals - About Animals
• America - This is America
• Health (Also For Medical Workers)
• How - How to Do Things / How Things Are Done
• History - American History
• Mosaic - American Mosaic
• People - Stories about People / Biographies
• Places - From Explorations, This Is America, ...
• Space - Explorations, Science in the News, ...
• Sports - About Sports
• Stories - American Stories
• Studying - From The Education Report
• Things - About Things
• Words - Words and Their Stories
• Selected MP3 Files for ESL Students - Currently Featuring "ESLpod"
• The Most Recent VOA 30-minute Special English Program - No Text
Friday, 10 February 2012
Monday, 19 September 2011
Monday, 5 September 2011
I have just spoken to one of my students. I dont know what i am doing wrong but there's no way she makes any any progress. and as nicely as i have the abiltiy to speak, I told her I was trying to find new ways to help her improve her language skills as i thought her progress was far slower than what it should be and that frustrated me as a teacher. I know that the bulk to the problem is that she does nothing, is careless when she speaks and doesn't try to use what has been seen in class. Lack of effort. But i needed to say it all as nicely as possible and that's being assertive and you are assertive by using 1st person singualar about things! the problem I see with this is that things are not as direct as they should be at times as the other party may not get the implicit message!
The answer i got was a very nice thanks and a comment about about how efficient I am (que soc molt professional). Curiously enough, last week, another student complimented my job with the same adjective!
Anna and D
The answer i got was a very nice thanks and a comment about about how efficient I am (que soc molt professional). Curiously enough, last week, another student complimented my job with the same adjective!
Anna and D
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
Nivel medio de inglés
http://www.lasexta.com/sextatv/elclubdelacomedia/luis_merlo__hablo_ingles__nivel_medio__pero_hablo_ingles/208511/5311
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Social Networks in our lives
I want share with you this video, use it how you like it. I'm astonished, at the design, the contents, the music. Just amazing! I have often thought about how the internet has changed my life and hard it would be to get back to a life without it but social networks, I thought prior to watching this video, didn't play that important a role in my life. But I saw this and I do have blogs, which i hardly ever write in, I do have facebook, which i hardly ever use, I do have a number of other social networks. And the truth is that your friends lead you to use them. Reluectantly I find myself little by little using fb more and more, little as it is still, because people dont use emails any more, other than work email! We learn of new bands, new intersting videos online, new venues, new everything on socialnetworks. The word of mouth is the word of social networks, whether we like it or not. How do we apply this to teaching: film what you do in class and post it on youtube, record stuff as podcasts, share pics of activities in class, set up blogs and post all the above there, set collaborative areas where students help each other with homework, set a class tweeter, introduce new tools via social networks, and discuss things online: films, books, activities in class. People are more likely to give their opinions via FB than in a class context.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Now me as an adult student of French
Now me as an adult student of French
I have writing about my students, about what I do to teach, giving some thought to how my adults learn. With this post I'll give this a different twist for a moment:
On how many occasions have I wanted to speak more languages! On how many occasions have I regretted not studying French and German when my mum was pushing me to! Yet, it's never too late! I envy those who speak three or four foreign languages and I have set out to learn French for once and for all!
Background:I am in my mid 30s and I took up French classes last September. I'd done French for one academic year when I was 15 at secondary school, with a really bad teacher. Nobody speaks highly of her, so it's not just my experience. Then, took a three-month course at uni as part of the Introduction to French and French literature, of which the language bit was an overall idea of how French works as a language and its phonemes as a means to distiguish sounds. Pronunciation is the hardest area of French learning for me, the switch between open a , e the neutral vowel, the nasal a, oe sounds etc is really hard! All of us who teach and learn and speak the gallic language know how important it is to get the sound right if you don't want to be ridiculised and laughed by Parisians.
After that in about 10 years ago I took a summer refresher course for a month. So i've never learned more than what would be level 1, if this at all.
Last summer, I armed myself with old exercise books and online grammars and exercises and reviewed as much as my time allowed me to in order to be placed at level 2 of the school I was going to register for the course. I must say that I like languages, I teach English as a foreign language after all, and I've tried every single opportunity life has put before me to practise French, which has now had its rewards. I am a risk taker and thanks to my travelling to French speaking countries and possibly aptitude i secured i place in the level I thought corresponded to my knowledge or degree of command. I was not going to start all over again after all, i feel i've done level one two or three times in my life before, none of them being a proper level 1, just complete and false beginner!After the level test: written and oral, the oral examiner would have assigned me level 3, which I was not prepared for, hardly having a good command of the two most basic tenses but I felt very flattered. The fact that I had studied French over 10 years ago, practised it only when booking hotel rooms and ordering at restaurants and having limited conversations with people when travelling the country, astonished the examiner. The command i seemed to have for that limited input and output apparently was fairly good. I think it's more the risk-taking nature of mine in this case.
I can see the theory behind the endlessly repeated idea that if you do homework and review regularly you make quicker progress.
I learn by associating words or grammar items to English or to Catalan. We can't help using our mental patterns to learn new things, we compare to what we know, to what we are used to, to what we experience and to our standards and ideas, and I am stretching and extending the idea to not only language learning here. (the idea that it is very xxx or not very xxx is measured to our own idea of xxxx)
I am pro-active, and participate as much as my common sense allows for if/when interested in the subject we are dealing with. Common sense? I'd be interacting with the teacher and other classmates a lot more if I could but the nature of the situation prevents me from doing so. Not only because I am very much aware that one learns to speak by speaking (and listening too, no need to say) but because I, as a teacher as well, simpathise with the teacher when she wants one of us to step forward and say something and I may be more fluency-oriented than accuracy! (I wonder what she's going to react to this if she ever gets to read this bit! :-). It's not a matter of the less shy students dominating the "mis en commun" or plenary debates as it has been the cases on a couple of occasions! You learn to speak by speaking. You overcome the fear by fully being aware that you will make mistakes, that you will get stuck for a word or a tense or a sound mispronounced at times and that it's part of the learning process, not a weakness and it's ok if others laugh with you at a mistake you make. It's fine. That's my approach and that's the attitude I promote among my students.
It's 25-30 of us in a class and I don't want to manipulate the plenary speaking times. That is the risk-taking. I think in my L1, hard not to. I am even more aware of that.
I wonder how or to what extent does me being a teacher helps me in my learning of French.
not finished, more shortly
I have writing about my students, about what I do to teach, giving some thought to how my adults learn. With this post I'll give this a different twist for a moment:
On how many occasions have I wanted to speak more languages! On how many occasions have I regretted not studying French and German when my mum was pushing me to! Yet, it's never too late! I envy those who speak three or four foreign languages and I have set out to learn French for once and for all!
Background:I am in my mid 30s and I took up French classes last September. I'd done French for one academic year when I was 15 at secondary school, with a really bad teacher. Nobody speaks highly of her, so it's not just my experience. Then, took a three-month course at uni as part of the Introduction to French and French literature, of which the language bit was an overall idea of how French works as a language and its phonemes as a means to distiguish sounds. Pronunciation is the hardest area of French learning for me, the switch between open a , e the neutral vowel, the nasal a, oe sounds etc is really hard! All of us who teach and learn and speak the gallic language know how important it is to get the sound right if you don't want to be ridiculised and laughed by Parisians.
After that in about 10 years ago I took a summer refresher course for a month. So i've never learned more than what would be level 1, if this at all.
Last summer, I armed myself with old exercise books and online grammars and exercises and reviewed as much as my time allowed me to in order to be placed at level 2 of the school I was going to register for the course. I must say that I like languages, I teach English as a foreign language after all, and I've tried every single opportunity life has put before me to practise French, which has now had its rewards. I am a risk taker and thanks to my travelling to French speaking countries and possibly aptitude i secured i place in the level I thought corresponded to my knowledge or degree of command. I was not going to start all over again after all, i feel i've done level one two or three times in my life before, none of them being a proper level 1, just complete and false beginner!After the level test: written and oral, the oral examiner would have assigned me level 3, which I was not prepared for, hardly having a good command of the two most basic tenses but I felt very flattered. The fact that I had studied French over 10 years ago, practised it only when booking hotel rooms and ordering at restaurants and having limited conversations with people when travelling the country, astonished the examiner. The command i seemed to have for that limited input and output apparently was fairly good. I think it's more the risk-taking nature of mine in this case.
I can see the theory behind the endlessly repeated idea that if you do homework and review regularly you make quicker progress.
I learn by associating words or grammar items to English or to Catalan. We can't help using our mental patterns to learn new things, we compare to what we know, to what we are used to, to what we experience and to our standards and ideas, and I am stretching and extending the idea to not only language learning here. (the idea that it is very xxx or not very xxx is measured to our own idea of xxxx)
I am pro-active, and participate as much as my common sense allows for if/when interested in the subject we are dealing with. Common sense? I'd be interacting with the teacher and other classmates a lot more if I could but the nature of the situation prevents me from doing so. Not only because I am very much aware that one learns to speak by speaking (and listening too, no need to say) but because I, as a teacher as well, simpathise with the teacher when she wants one of us to step forward and say something and I may be more fluency-oriented than accuracy! (I wonder what she's going to react to this if she ever gets to read this bit! :-). It's not a matter of the less shy students dominating the "mis en commun" or plenary debates as it has been the cases on a couple of occasions! You learn to speak by speaking. You overcome the fear by fully being aware that you will make mistakes, that you will get stuck for a word or a tense or a sound mispronounced at times and that it's part of the learning process, not a weakness and it's ok if others laugh with you at a mistake you make. It's fine. That's my approach and that's the attitude I promote among my students.
It's 25-30 of us in a class and I don't want to manipulate the plenary speaking times. That is the risk-taking. I think in my L1, hard not to. I am even more aware of that.
I wonder how or to what extent does me being a teacher helps me in my learning of French.
not finished, more shortly
new technology
I want to try podcasting with my students as a way to record their progress but the idea of buying all the necessary equipment and then not using it cos it's complex or not engaging is just too strong still.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Great videos to watch for teachers and students
These are two of the great Ted talks on www.ted.com.
The first is Sir Ken Robinson, not only an excellent speaker but his "Schools kill creativity" talk is awesome. After I watched this video I saw a short bit of a Hannah Montana episode by chance where she was studying for an anatomy exam, singing and dancing. When doing the exam, she kind of needed to sing and dance to remember the names and stuff and she failed because of that. I couldn't help but thinking of Sir Robinson's video.
No room for creativity. Creativity is often punished or frowned upon, which means descreasing the inventiveness of younger children as they grow older.
The second video is from Patricia Ryan, who states that unless you speak English your potentially very good ideas will not reach out to as many people as they'd deserve reaching out.
The first is Sir Ken Robinson, not only an excellent speaker but his "Schools kill creativity" talk is awesome. After I watched this video I saw a short bit of a Hannah Montana episode by chance where she was studying for an anatomy exam, singing and dancing. When doing the exam, she kind of needed to sing and dance to remember the names and stuff and she failed because of that. I couldn't help but thinking of Sir Robinson's video.
No room for creativity. Creativity is often punished or frowned upon, which means descreasing the inventiveness of younger children as they grow older.
The second video is from Patricia Ryan, who states that unless you speak English your potentially very good ideas will not reach out to as many people as they'd deserve reaching out.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
When is the right moment to teach pronunciation? Is there "a" right moment to do so?
more in www.howadultslearn.wikispaces.com
Earlier today I was telling Ester, my student who has written the "essential grammar" wiki around in my wikis, that I think that generally speaking, I find myself thinking that openly and explicitly teaching pronunciation can not be done until students/learners are ready for and open to it, much as this idea is wrong.This tends to happen when they have gained fluency enough to use English in a real life situation, and they themselves realise that yes! pronunciation matters. A lot. My adults were not open to learning (about) pronunciation when they started English with me, it was and is not until a couple of years have elapsed that now they truly understand and see for themselves the need for improving this often "scary" area of the language learning process. Now that they have gained confidence, have a better command of the language and actively use it in their day to day that they see how important pronunciation is. But then again, it's worth "playing with" it early enough to raise a consciousness of the different sounds, so dominoes and quizzes and words-with-the-same-sound competitions may be the way to go with the unacquainted students! By pronuciation I mean knowing how a word or a phrase or a sentence is pronounced, the sounds. Gaining an awareness of the different sounds of English, the distinction about the number of vowel sounds in particular and how using a different vowel sound or dropping the final consonant can affect the message when speaking to an uncooperative native speaker as some can be (or at least that's the students' perception!). You may add and argue to this, that pronunciation is pitch, intonation and all this hard-to-change aspects. Of course it is, but I am going to delve into this now, as i give it fairly little focus in class myself, much as it can hinder understanding or lead to misinterpretations of the message passed on! On how many occasions have I been told that Spanish sound as though they were angry and shouting at each there when speaking! Often I find that they know every single word of is said to them but still can not understand. They don't understand because in their heads there's "their" pronunciation of the words, which often doesn't match with the correct pronunciation. That's why they don't understand. It's obviously not as simple as that but I can vouch this is a very important part of their lack of understanding skills. In addition, there's some kind of mental blockage that prevents them from understanding, plus the sound simplification, the so-weak forms, of auxiliaries, prepositions, etc. To help them gain an understanding of these issues and to "train their ears to catch these little sounds" the teacher comes into play. It's hard for many to reach this goal overnight. Awareness of how slow this can be can be discouraging for some but it works. I can vouch for that. And, to go one step further, it's not only their understanding oral input skills but also their ability to produce understandable output. Before, they lacked to knowledge, they didn't use English. Now they use it, with native and non-native speakers. So it's now it's the right moment to go more in depth. I use a lot material from the bbc.co.uk learning english, as i said in How Adults Learn, a wiki I have, plus books and plus brainstorming and providing examples for them to discover some kind of rule.
Another issue that often takes them by surprise them is that spelling things out in English is so common between native speakers because pronunciation doesn't always correspond to what it may appear from spelling and the other way round. We teach them the alphabet and to spell when they start learning but again, we never put enough emphasis on how an essential and active part of the use of English in English-speaking countries this is. Eureka, now they understand! All those homophones which can be so confusing if they are different word categories! so and sew rite and right pear and pair The above takes to what i said in an earlier piece of writing of how helpful it can be to learn what other words the word goes with .. the rite of , it is right , our rights, you are right, a pair of.. the pear, I sew sth, etc. or the baffling pronunciation of -ough, our the different spellings for the sound of earn, and the different pronunciatins of the letters ea/ear, etc. No wonder our students get mixed up and mispronounce words! who wouldn't?! (will expand) Their own mis pronunciation of words they own -----------------> they don't understand the word when pronounced correctly (and fast and within connected speech) correct pronunciation= easier to be understood easier to understand Spelling is important in English because pronunciation is sometimes arbitrary and unreliable to pronunciation patterns.
Continue writing about:
Earlier today I was telling Ester, my student who has written the "essential grammar" wiki around in my wikis, that I think that generally speaking, I find myself thinking that openly and explicitly teaching pronunciation can not be done until students/learners are ready for and open to it, much as this idea is wrong.This tends to happen when they have gained fluency enough to use English in a real life situation, and they themselves realise that yes! pronunciation matters. A lot. My adults were not open to learning (about) pronunciation when they started English with me, it was and is not until a couple of years have elapsed that now they truly understand and see for themselves the need for improving this often "scary" area of the language learning process. Now that they have gained confidence, have a better command of the language and actively use it in their day to day that they see how important pronunciation is. But then again, it's worth "playing with" it early enough to raise a consciousness of the different sounds, so dominoes and quizzes and words-with-the-same-sound competitions may be the way to go with the unacquainted students! By pronuciation I mean knowing how a word or a phrase or a sentence is pronounced, the sounds. Gaining an awareness of the different sounds of English, the distinction about the number of vowel sounds in particular and how using a different vowel sound or dropping the final consonant can affect the message when speaking to an uncooperative native speaker as some can be (or at least that's the students' perception!). You may add and argue to this, that pronunciation is pitch, intonation and all this hard-to-change aspects. Of course it is, but I am going to delve into this now, as i give it fairly little focus in class myself, much as it can hinder understanding or lead to misinterpretations of the message passed on! On how many occasions have I been told that Spanish sound as though they were angry and shouting at each there when speaking! Often I find that they know every single word of is said to them but still can not understand. They don't understand because in their heads there's "their" pronunciation of the words, which often doesn't match with the correct pronunciation. That's why they don't understand. It's obviously not as simple as that but I can vouch this is a very important part of their lack of understanding skills. In addition, there's some kind of mental blockage that prevents them from understanding, plus the sound simplification, the so-weak forms, of auxiliaries, prepositions, etc. To help them gain an understanding of these issues and to "train their ears to catch these little sounds" the teacher comes into play. It's hard for many to reach this goal overnight. Awareness of how slow this can be can be discouraging for some but it works. I can vouch for that. And, to go one step further, it's not only their understanding oral input skills but also their ability to produce understandable output. Before, they lacked to knowledge, they didn't use English. Now they use it, with native and non-native speakers. So it's now it's the right moment to go more in depth. I use a lot material from the bbc.co.uk learning english, as i said in How Adults Learn, a wiki I have, plus books and plus brainstorming and providing examples for them to discover some kind of rule.
Another issue that often takes them by surprise them is that spelling things out in English is so common between native speakers because pronunciation doesn't always correspond to what it may appear from spelling and the other way round. We teach them the alphabet and to spell when they start learning but again, we never put enough emphasis on how an essential and active part of the use of English in English-speaking countries this is. Eureka, now they understand! All those homophones which can be so confusing if they are different word categories! so and sew rite and right pear and pair The above takes to what i said in an earlier piece of writing of how helpful it can be to learn what other words the word goes with .. the rite of , it is right , our rights, you are right, a pair of.. the pear, I sew sth, etc. or the baffling pronunciation of -ough, our the different spellings for the sound of earn, and the different pronunciatins of the letters ea/ear, etc. No wonder our students get mixed up and mispronounce words! who wouldn't?! (will expand) Their own mis pronunciation of words they own -----------------> they don't understand the word when pronounced correctly (and fast and within connected speech) correct pronunciation= easier to be understood easier to understand Spelling is important in English because pronunciation is sometimes arbitrary and unreliable to pronunciation patterns.
Continue writing about:
Explain how brain and phonological system work, ages...
If they don't hear it they don't use it, etc.
Add ted videos (see newer entries).
Extension: on 21 April 2012, months after writing this, I went to an Oxford seminar and Robin Walker gave a talk named Pronunciation Matters. Fab. Eye-opening, inspiring and realistic. I was glad to see what I am doing well, and go home with ideas on how to continue tackling this issue with my learners! Thanks Robin.
Thursday, 7 April 2011
I set up a wiki a month about teaching and a half ago as a way of familiarising myself with the tool as I don't use the blog too much. http://howadultslearn.wikispaces.com/ There I have developed a piece of text that i started a while ago here in blogger about how adults learn English according to my experience, then I went on putting info about what i think are good ways to improve the students listening skills as well as speaking and other ideas and experiences from my teaching.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
està incompletoooo!
Hay que dejar de estudiar y hablar palabra a palabra. Es mucho más rapido y a la vez parecereis más naturales si os aprendéis el vocabulario junto a otra/s palabras:
ejemplo: cuando aprendais que make significa hacer, aprendedlo con todo lo que podéis "make", make a call, make coffee, make a mistake, make a change, make a difference, make me do sth, I can't make it, etc
Otro ejemplo muy interesante es con el verbo meet. Yo lo que recomiendo que no os miréis las palabras como "una palabra, un significado" para los que no podéis evitar traducir. Una palabra se puede traducir de muchas maneras.
I first met him at a party a while ago but i started to get to know him better when we happened to be in the same English class. Now I have known Micheal for a few years and I can say that he’s a great guy to meet up with!
(First) meet somebody – se usa para describir la situacion en la que hablas con alguien por primera vez.
Get to know somebody – Start to become friends with someone, by speding time or doing things together, more personally.
Know someone – conoces (des del momento que os conocisteis/ hablastéis por primera vez a menudo). Sabes bastantes cosas de él, quizás hablais a menudo (no necesariamente), quizás soys compañeros de trabajo, amigos, ...)
Meet somebody – quedar con
I am meeting my friends for a drink at 7pm
I meet my friends on the weekend cos i work till late during weekdays
I first met Peter a few years ago. Since then, we've met a few times but we've never had the chance to get to know each other.
When i went to Romania, my friend met me at the station.
Know se traduce:.. (incompleto)
Know somebody- conocer
Know something- saber
Ojo! Meet tiene muchas traducciones segun lo que lleve detrás!
Tambien tenemos el meet sth, as oposed to meet somebody, como veíamos arriba.
Meet your deadlines, meet the need for... , meet the demand, meet my objectives, meet the target, meet the expectactions, meet the standards, etc....
Cumplir o satisfacer ....
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
I have been discussing fluency with one of my students today. She felt confident that her speaking skills were becoming better, and they are but at such a slow pace that i would hardly call that progress. How do you react when a learner wants to hear positive feedback when it's not that positive? Well, I have acknowledge that there is indeed some progress but I have also said there ws a long way to run still as she pronounces each single word as clearly and as "isolated" as she does in Spanish. She says she feels very confident when she is with me but when it comes to speaking to others she regards as having a higher level or better command, she goes very shy and gets things wrong. Others are in the same boat! But they find it reassuring to hear that not everybody has as high level as they (the students) think they (others) have.
Friday, 19 November 2010
Yesterday i decided to post stuff which tends to pose some kind of difficulty to Spanish speakers learning Englihs. I bet that if you follow my advice you'll surely make a step forward or at least become more realistic and less frustrated if progress in your learning curve is not as quick as you would expect. As I always say to my students the teacher or trainer feeds you with the language but it's you who has to chew it and digest it!
Yesterday I published stuff on presentations skills for those brushing up their business English and the never-properly learned present perfect and the often hated conditionals. In older postings there's info on the use of say and tell and similar verbs, which i am sure you'll find very very helpful! Enjoy your learning!
Yesterday I published stuff on presentations skills for those brushing up their business English and the never-properly learned present perfect and the often hated conditionals. In older postings there's info on the use of say and tell and similar verbs, which i am sure you'll find very very helpful! Enjoy your learning!
Thursday, 18 November 2010
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
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.
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!
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 attentionIf 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 endMy 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
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.
The Infamous Conditionals
Lots of people seem to have problems with conditionals. I think it's because the basic tenses have never been learned properly, students have never been told how to really really use them so it drags to the conditional use. So it's not your fault if you still have problems using them. The not exhaustive posting here should help you have a clearer idea on how to use the infamous conditionals!
(Below you'll see the word likely, what does it mean? something is likely to happen= es probable que ...)
Something that is very important to bear in mind when choosing what conditional type to use is what you have in mind , what you want to convey/express. Think about:
How likely is it?
a. it’s always like this!
b. it’s very likely (if the condition happens and it probably will)
c. not likely / impossible (that's why we always give the example of the lottery, cos it's almost impossible to win the lottery!)
d. impossible now because you are going to say something about / in the past
and When , the moment in time it happens/ will happen / would happen…
a. I am talking about sth that is always like this
b. Refers to now , It will likely happen in the future
c. It refers to now, a present situation (but hypothetical condition)
d. It refers to the past (recent or far)
Each of these options will , or should, help you choose between a combinations of tenses to for the most suitable conditional type depending your message.
Besides, the tense combination can not be altered.
____________________________________________________________________________
The so-called first conditional:
It’s not a true conditional, because the IF is not exactly a condition. It’d be better to use WHEN instead.
The two events happen. It’s a FACT, A UNIVERSAL TRUTH, SOMETHING GENERAL.
The present simple tense is the one which describes facts and truths and permanent things. So it makes sense that both clauses are present simple.
If present simple > present simple
If you heat water to 100º C , it boils.
when i finish early , i (always) go to the libary for a little while.
It refers to likely events in the (near) FUTURE if the condition is met (if sth happens).
VERY LIKELY TO HAPPEN.
If / unless / providing … present simple /, future
If I finish early , I will pick you up.
The second:
It refers to unlikely / impossible or almost impossible situations NOW. It’s an unreal current situation.
This is where the I wish could come into play… (Remember: I wish SVO … means “Ojalá”)
If past simple , conditional (would , could…+infinitive)
If I finished early , I would come and pick you up
If I could ski, I would go skiing often.
The third conditional:
It refers to a completely hypothetical situation because you are saying it now but it refers to PAST condition and past outcome. There is nothing you can do about it now. You can not change the past. So it’s unreal too.
If past perfect , would have participle
If I had known this (but i didnt know it), I would have asked to lead the project (now it's too late).
And there's still the mixed conditionals, to be posted later!
Present perfect and Past Simple for Spaniards
Learning a foreing language as an adult is like learning to drive a car. There's lots of different little but important actions to take into account: sit on the seat, fasten your seatbelt, check the rear-view mirrors, the ignition key, wait till the light goes off, turn the key, push the clutch and the gas pedal, you release the handbrake, and long etc of little actions that first are a list of things that little by little become mechanical. By repetition, we stop thinking what and how to do them. Learning English is very similar, from my way of understanding the process. When we build a sentence we have to "think" what we are going to say: present or past, finished or unfinished, is it a he or she or an it or a there or is it plural? is there a time reference, was this for a finished or unfinished action, the object goes immidiately after the verb, not after the time reference, etc. But it all should become more unconscious step by step.
Again, like in many other verb structures in English, we not only have to look at whether the action is finished or unfinished but also if there is any kind of time reference. A finished action does not necessarily refer to a recent past, as many of you often think.
So let’s look at what should be considered:
- finished or unfinished?
- is there or am I using a time reference (adverb or adverbial phrase)?
- is there an impact on the now, the present?
- Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)
These are clues to help us choose what verb tense to use, present perfect or past simple.
Let’s look at them in more detail:
a. Finished/over or unfinished/not over action or event or situation:
Time references like for , since, how long, so far, until now, over the last few weeks, recently, these last few days if the action started in the past and it is still valid now, you are still doing it.
The tense here, Has worked, have known, indicates that she stills works for XXX . And that she still know Sara (Sara nor I have died and there’s some kind of relationship) That, if now is 2010, she started to work for XXX 9 years ago. *
Starting is one specific moment in the past, from the moment you start, you are/ you work.
The idea of working in a certain place can be expressed in a number of ways DEPENDING ON THE TIME REFERENCE and the TENSE you use.
Do we know when she started to work there?
Do we know if she still works there?
Finished action, she doesn’t work there anymore because we use the verb in past tense, which means the working there is finished. Then, what’s the “for 9 years” if we’ve seen that for is commonly used in the present simple? For expresses duration of an action or situation or state. Many Spaniards would say “during”.
The most appropriate answer is .. I have been…. For a few hours/a few days/ a week/ two months/ a long time/ ages…or since Monday last week/ 2001, I was a university, etc the specific moment in the past the action/situation started
So we can see that for to express duration can be used for a finished action and for an unfinished action! That is a lot of information here!! So watch out.
b. Past (=finished) action is there an impact or results on the now, the present?
I have washed my hands (so now I can cook, now they are clean and ready to touch food), I have sent the email (so this is done, we can now forget about this)
It’s usually a recent past, but not necessarily. Here we can also use time references like just and already or yet or today, this morning (if still in the morning), this afternoon (if still afternoon),etc
c.
d. Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)
I have studied at university and I have done many different jobs so I have acquired many skills. I have also travelled a bit and I have studied photography to make the most of my trips. I have lived in a few countries…. IN MY LIFE and my life is not finished so present perfect, when I did all this is not important, if when was important, I would use the past simple. You can also use before here to justify your experience in sth.
I first went to England as a young teenager, when I completed my secondary school, in 1994 I went to university and after that I moved to Scandinavia to learn Swedish. In 2005 I studied photography. AS soon as I finished, I started to work for an art gallery.
You are talking about your life experiences, and your life is not finished! There’s plenty more to do and experience, isn’t there?
Sample sentences:
Llevo días haciendo...
Hace mucho que…Hice (past) / Hago...(present perfect) Watch out, do not "trust your spanish present simple of hago)
Hace muchos días que no vengo a clase.
Hace mucho tiempo que no hablo en inglés
I haven’t spoken in English for a long time /for many days.
Anna has been to Rome. She went there a few months ago (different from Anna has gone to Rome!)
She has worked with msf for over a year
She has just started her English class
Carla and Eric have known each other for years/since they worked together in the field.
etc
As you can see Spanish often uses the time reference at the begining of the sentence, whereas in English we tend to put it at the end (depending on how we word the sentence).
This is not an exhaustive explanation but sorts some of the problems you might have.
hope it's useful!
Again, like in many other verb structures in English, we not only have to look at whether the action is finished or unfinished but also if there is any kind of time reference. A finished action does not necessarily refer to a recent past, as many of you often think.
So let’s look at what should be considered:
- finished or unfinished?
- is there or am I using a time reference (adverb or adverbial phrase)?
- is there an impact on the now, the present?
- Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)
These are clues to help us choose what verb tense to use, present perfect or past simple.
Let’s look at them in more detail:
a. Finished/over or unfinished/not over action or event or situation:
Time references like for , since, how long, so far, until now, over the last few weeks, recently, these last few days if the action started in the past and it is still valid now, you are still doing it.
Mary has worked in XXX since 2001
She has worked in XXX for 9 years
I have known Sara since we were at university
since I started to work here
for many years.
She has worked in XXX for 9 years
I have known Sara since we were at university
since I started to work here
for many years.
The tense here, Has worked, have known, indicates that she stills works for XXX . And that she still know Sara (Sara nor I have died and there’s some kind of relationship) That, if now is 2010, she started to work for XXX 9 years ago. *
Starting is one specific moment in the past, from the moment you start, you are/ you work.
The idea of working in a certain place can be expressed in a number of ways DEPENDING ON THE TIME REFERENCE and the TENSE you use.
Now compare it with:
Mary worked in XXX for 9 years
Mary worked in XXX for 9 years
Do we know when she started to work there?
Do we know if she still works there?
Finished action, she doesn’t work there anymore because we use the verb in past tense, which means the working there is finished. Then, what’s the “for 9 years” if we’ve seen that for is commonly used in the present simple? For expresses duration of an action or situation or state. Many Spaniards would say “during”.
So when you want to know the duration of a certain thing you use:
How long have you worked…?
How long did you work…?
(how long are you going to…?)
How long have you worked…?
How long did you work…?
(how long are you going to…?)
The most appropriate answer is .. I have been…. For a few hours/a few days/ a week/ two months/ a long time/ ages…or since Monday last week/ 2001, I was a university, etc the specific moment in the past the action/situation started
So we can see that for to express duration can be used for a finished action and for an unfinished action! That is a lot of information here!! So watch out.
b. Past (=finished) action is there an impact or results on the now, the present?
I have washed my hands (so now I can cook, now they are clean and ready to touch food), I have sent the email (so this is done, we can now forget about this)
It’s usually a recent past, but not necessarily. Here we can also use time references like just and already or yet or today, this morning (if still in the morning), this afternoon (if still afternoon),etc
c.
d. Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)
I have studied at university and I have done many different jobs so I have acquired many skills. I have also travelled a bit and I have studied photography to make the most of my trips. I have lived in a few countries…. IN MY LIFE and my life is not finished so present perfect, when I did all this is not important, if when was important, I would use the past simple. You can also use before here to justify your experience in sth.
I first went to England as a young teenager, when I completed my secondary school, in 1994 I went to university and after that I moved to Scandinavia to learn Swedish. In 2005 I studied photography. AS soon as I finished, I started to work for an art gallery.
So when you ask about
Have you ever been…? (in your life)
No I have never been
The most fascinating person I have ever met…
Have you ever been…? (in your life)
No I have never been
The most fascinating person I have ever met…
You are talking about your life experiences, and your life is not finished! There’s plenty more to do and experience, isn’t there?
Sample sentences:
Llevo días haciendo...
Hace mucho que…Hice (past) / Hago...(present perfect) Watch out, do not "trust your spanish present simple of hago)
Hace muchos días que no vengo a clase.
Hace mucho tiempo que no hablo en inglés
I haven’t spoken in English for a long time /for many days.
Anna has been to Rome. She went there a few months ago (different from Anna has gone to Rome!)
She has worked with msf for over a year
She has just started her English class
Carla and Eric have known each other for years/since they worked together in the field.
etc
As you can see Spanish often uses the time reference at the begining of the sentence, whereas in English we tend to put it at the end (depending on how we word the sentence).
This is not an exhaustive explanation but sorts some of the problems you might have.
hope it's useful!
Thursday, 16 September 2010
words words words in our brains!
Adults, at least mine, store words in their brains as opposed to storing preffixes, suffixes, roots and then playing with them to form new words, to help them understand "new" lexical terms. Much as I encourage and help them work out the meaning of derivates, they only get there if you help them break down the word into smaller bits of meaning. With help. They don't do it autonomously.
I have noticed too that their brains take the words the know of something they are familiar with but is not a cognate. Let me give you an example:
I was doing a listening to Susana and the man said " trusting staff to..." and my student said "she says something about confidence" as in trust in Spanish is confianza, a cognate but a false friend somehow. Another example is Carmen understood strange when the listening man said strain. The word strain is not part of their active, nor passive in her case, vocabulary so their brains searched for whateve was most similar to the sound of strain that she knew. So the more active vocabulary and their very correct pronunciation or at least familiarity of how the word sounds in English is important if they want to improve their listening skills. In one word, input input input. Repeated input, revision, revising, rereading, listening, etc.
I have noticed too that their brains take the words the know of something they are familiar with but is not a cognate. Let me give you an example:
I was doing a listening to Susana and the man said " trusting staff to..." and my student said "she says something about confidence" as in trust in Spanish is confianza, a cognate but a false friend somehow. Another example is Carmen understood strange when the listening man said strain. The word strain is not part of their active, nor passive in her case, vocabulary so their brains searched for whateve was most similar to the sound of strain that she knew. So the more active vocabulary and their very correct pronunciation or at least familiarity of how the word sounds in English is important if they want to improve their listening skills. In one word, input input input. Repeated input, revision, revising, rereading, listening, etc.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
grammar grammar grammar
Three out three people i have asked, so far, agree on what helped them most in their learning in class was that they learn best when doing grammar classes dealing with one grammar area: ie present perfect and past simple. Pure grammar, comparing, talking, correcting, translating, contrasting... They need to understand and contrast. They want to understand the rules. This goes a bit against the sort of teaching some methods encourage: eliciting, integrating grammar in a given situation, etc. According to their feedback, I reckon they think they will be able to integrate this whereever it is needed if they know how to produce the sentece, if they know the equivalent: in Spanish we say xxx whereas in english to communicate this idea we say yyy or xxx. It's important to know when translating word by word can be done and when can not.
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