The other day I was teaching an upper-intermediate student who had difficulties presenting her ideas about a process. She said she finds writing much easier than speaking. “You should start an audio diary,” I suggested. “What do you mean?” she asked.
A lot of advice about how to get better at English listening says that students need to understand almost everything in their independent study materials. I disagree with it because this is a useful guideline but it is not a rule; it is useful for a lot of people, but not everyone. Think about this: … [Read more…]
One of the things a lot of students worry about is making English-speaking friends, or how to find them. It is much the same as finding friends that speak your own language. Don’t look to people just because they are native English speakers This is a big one. Nobody wants to feel used but this … [Read more…]
I’ve written about learning new skills such as cooking and learning the specialist vocabulary can help you get great English. How about computer programming? You like computers and the internet because you’re using a computer now (even a phone is a computer nowadays) unless you had someone print out this page for you. Why not … [Read more…]
“I want to use English,” my students say, “but I don’t have anyone to talk to apart from you.” “What about writing a diary?” I suggest. “I never keep to it. I always abandon it after a week or so.” In which case, here are some other suggestions. The first one is from my student … [Read more…]
I always recommend my students to write an English diary. The reason is simple: you should write every day because you need to practise as often as you can. It doesn’t need to be long; a few sentences is fine. It’s an easy way to write about things you have learned. It is also a … [Read more…]
To develop fluency in your speech, there is only one way: speak. To improve you must practise. Practise any way you can. Read aloud, repeat along to podcasts or videos (using the pause button to help you), talk to yourself. Do anything to speak English. To check you are getting better, record yourself speaking English … [Read more…]