When you need to check that you understand what someone said it is useful to paraphrase them. There are several ways to do it and I’ll provide some examples that are simple enough for you to try next time you speak English.
I posted about describing medical problems earlier this week. Here are some links to deeper subject matter.
I know that the books are no longer new but there are still ways that Harry Potter can help your English study. You can learn new words and get familiar with different styles of English.
Speaking speed is one of the things most students feel nervous about at one stage or another. What is the right speaking speed? How do you get it? What do we talk about when we talk about speaking speed? I think I have all of your worries covered.
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…]
Understanding some native accents and dialects and also foreign accents takes effort and time. Find out how you can build up your skills to understand a wider range of people and their English.
When you listen to people speaking it is easy to misunderstand if you are not aware of homophones (words that sound the same). This is especially true in standardised tests like TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS but also in everyday situations as well. Some common homophones and near homophones are: ate eight blew blue check Czech … [Read more…]
Here are two of my favourite sites about letter writing, which is a fantastic way to practise your English. However, you can’t really reply to these letters, but you do get to read them. The first, Letters of Note, is a high-quality collection of letters by famous people. Some of the world’s greatest writers and … [Read more…]
So many of my students, mainly college students, keep reaching for dictionaries. Every time they see a word they don’t understand or get into a situation where they don’t know the perfect word in English like they do in their first language out comes their smartphone for the dictionary or their Casio Ex-Words. Every language … [Read more…]
Today’s video is about books, and more specifically about how to choose English books that are right for you. Related posts: How to Talk About Movies and Books Use Kindle and Kobo to Study English