Saturday, 26 August 2017

websites to practice your english

Here are some recommendations:

WEBSITES TO PRACTICE …


YOUR ENGLISH:

> This is the number one place to go for quality learning: BBC Learning English - Learning English

> The Americans are quite good at it too, with this general website of activities: VOA - Voice of America English News

> But you don’t have to go to UK or US places for good English: why not look at English-language websites from your own country? The Local - Spain's News in English or TOP STORIES | DW or Radio Prague - news from the Czech Republic or NHK WORLD - English or Corriere della Sera - International

> Robbie is Polish and has lived in Ireland for some time now: listen to how he’s taught himself English and pick up some really useful tips to help you do the same: EnglishHarmony - YouTube

> Here’s another guy from Poland who’s taught himself: Tomasz has a very interesting website full of practical ideas on what you can do to help yourself: Antimoon: How to learn English effectively

> Here’s the website from a school in England with links to lots of resources for kids (and you!) to improve their vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and spelling:  Woodlands Literacy Zone - Interactive English Games –

> This piece is fun and interesting – and has some very practical links if you scroll to the bottom: 34 Unobvious Benefits of Learning a Second Language

> Can we learn from bilingual or even polylingual/polyglot people? BBC - Future - How to learn 30 languages  And here are some tips on how to learn a language from a polyglot: 10 Tips And Tricks To Learn Any Language - Babbel.com And some inspiration on learning languages from this TED Talk: How to learn any language in six months | Chris Lonsdale | TEDxLingnanUniversity - YouTube



> And here’s a lot of lessons on this free site: ESOL Courses - Free English Lessons Online



YOUR SPEAKING:

> Robbie shows us how you can improve your fluency here – by just talking to yourself anywhere at any time: Speaking With Yourself to Improve Your Spoken English - YouTube and Practicing English with Yourself - Part 1 - YouTube


> Julian Kitagawa is British but lives in Japan: this is how he learnt Japanese – by ‘shadowing’: English Speaking Practice: How to improve your English Speaking and Fluency: SHADOWING - YouTube


> Learn the art of conversation: Jay Doubleyou: taking turns in conversation

> Maybe this is grammar – the art of asking polite questions: Jay Doubleyou: how to ask indirect or polite questions

> Here’s a list of phrases for conversation: ENGLISH CORNER: CONVERSATION GAMBITS

> It’s all about how you say it: the context, the use of your voice, avoiding double meaning: Jay Doubleyou: pragmatics: it ain't what you say it's the way that you say it




YOUR PRONUNCIATION:

> Here is very specific method to improve the way you speak and to make it sound much more natural. With ‘sound scripting’ you need to focus on the stress, the rhythm, the tone and the pauses when you speak: Jay Doubleyou: sound scripting

> Learn to ‘speak like a native’ from Loay Al-Shareef: his English really shows how excellent a method this is (but you don’t need to watch from 1.50 to 3.40 minutes): ( @Fallimha 106 Speak like a native | #فلمها 106 ) - YouTube

> Here are some nice free apps for your smart phone: Download free of english pronunciation software



YOUR LISTENING:

> Watching films is an excellent and fun way to improve your language: Watching movies in English | Antimoon  And it’s clear how it can really help your English: Jay Doubleyou: why do scandinavians speak such good english?

> Should you watch films with or without subtitles? If you have the words on the screen The Godfather opening scene english subtitles - YouTube then you are listening to something the director did not want you to listen to: The Godfather - First Scene - YouTube (when the undertaker whispers into the ear of the godfather)

> Here are a few film clips with some listening comprehension exercises: Oral comprehension skills (free practice quiz) - Exercise 1 - E-learning

> And here are some more listening comprehension exercises on every aspect of real life: Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - For English as a Second Language

> This is more for teachers – but follow the lessons around a video and learn! Lessonstream.org by Jamie Keddie Lessons - Lessonstream.org

> Here are some great stories told by real people: Animations – StoryCorps for example: Sundays at Rocco’s – StoryCorps  And these have the texts too: Stories – StoryCorps

> Can you learn English from watching TV? Yes and No: Jay Doubleyou: how to learn english from watching tv


> With a very good website of news stories at different levels: Breaking News English Lessons: Easy English News Materials | Current Events | ESL Materials

> For lots of different accents in excellent English – with different topics in authentic dialogues: English Listening Lesson Library Online

> Luke’s English Podcasts are full of great things – for example: 331. How’s your English? (and why speaking is so important) | Luke’s ENGLISH Podcast

> For more authentic English on the streets – with lots of vocabulary and grammar: ESL - Real English Videos & Lessons. Completely Free!

> Here’s a list of YouTube channels to learn English: 10 Awesome Channels to Learn English on YouTube | FluentU English

> You don’t have to go to YouTube to watch videos: Videojug

> You can watch the radio with these excellent little animations: BBC Radio 4 - A History of Ideas - A History of Ideas With some more here: Jay Doubleyou: more animation at ted talks  and here: RSA Animate - RSA

> As well as movies, there are lots of excellent documentaries out there – many with subtitles: Jay Doubleyou: documentaries

> You can move when you learn English: Jay Doubleyou: learn english through dance


> Tom Scott is having fun teaching us stuff: Tom Scott - YouTube - with some things looking at language learningTom's Language Files - YouTube

> The Khan Academy has been incredibly successful helping us learn on-line: Khan Academy | Free Online Courses, Lessons & Practice through the use of video: Let's use video to reinvent education | Salman Khan - YouTube



YOUR READING:

> Reading can really help your vocabulary, grammar and even your speaking fluency – but you need to do it in the right way to feel a sense of progress: How to get the most out of English texts | Antimoon  plus some more ideas on this approach: Is “pause and think” worth it? « The Antimoon Blog

> Do you know about ‘narrow reading or listening’? Narrow Reading and Listening: How to Get Natural Repetition in English - To Fluency Here’s a four-page article if you are interested: The Case for Narrow Reading

> And here is Prof Krashen telling us why we should be reading more: Jay Doubleyou: the importance of reading

> There are several places for easy English texts with lots of help: Easy English Reading and www.simpleenglishnews.com and English Online - Articles in Easy Understandable English for Learners and English news and easy articles for students of English 

> There are now lots of ‘easy-readers’ on the market – now with CDs: Welcome to Penguin Readers and Graded Readers | Oxford University Press
> And here is the ultimate place to go for ‘easy reading texts’: Simple Wikipedia



YOUR GRAMMAR:


> Do you agree with Robbie who tells us “Don’t study English Grammar”? What Exactly I Mean By Saying “Don’t Study English Grammar” - YouTube

> Or ‘Don’t improve your grammar’? Jay Doubleyou: don't improve your grammar

> But there are some very good places to practice grammar: Advanced English lessons and Learning English - Exercises, Grammar, Vocabulary, Tests, Games and Perfect English Grammar and



YOUR VOCABULARY:

> What is a ‘chunk’ and why is it such a useful tool? Jay Doubleyou: chunking

> This might be for teachers, but it questions a lot of myths around how to learn vocabulary: Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research To Classroom Teaching

> There are some very good dictionaries: An excellent free English dictionary with lots of example sentences - and different levels: Cambridge Dictionary | Free English Dictionary, Translations and Thesaurus Also very good: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries and Macmillan Dictionary And for a bit of fun: Urban Dictionary

> Find your own language for a translation - plus lots of example sentences: English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com This also has lots of real examples from the internet: Linguee | Dictionary for German, French, Spanish, and more This is excellent for professional and technical terms: IATE - The EU's multilingual term base




YOUR BUSINESS ENGLISH:

> If you need some help with general business English, this site has everything – including a lot of fun activities and games: Businessballs free online learning for careers, work, management, business training and education

> And BBC Learning English is always good, with their general business English pages, including specific skills telephoning, emails, small talk: BBC Learning English - English at Work (new version) and Learning English - English At Work (old version – also very good)





> Specific skills: job interviews: Get that Job - bbc learning english


> Specific skills: managing people? Jay Doubleyou: psychology at work


> And some more help with your grammar: Jay Doubleyou: business grammar

> Finally: don’t use this bad business vocabulary!  Jay Doubleyou: meaningless corporate speak



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