WEBSITES TO PRACTICE …
YOUR 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
> Then we have Duolingo which makes learning languages like a game on your mobile: Duolingo: Learn Spanish, French and other
languages for free with some reviews here DUOLINGO Review - What is
Duolingo and what do I think about it? - YouTube and
here: Learning
the Duolingo - how an app is speaking volumes | Business | The Guardian
> Don’t go to
school: Jay
Doubleyou: the purpose of education: from china to prussia to the united states Teach yourself: Sugata
Mitra: The child-driven education | TED Talk | TED.com
> 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
> And here, by making
life EASY for yourself! How To
Speak Fluent English Easily? Use Your Active Vocabulary! - 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
> And here are some more very good ways to use this technique: Speech
Shadowing Technique for English – English with a Smile and Improve
Your Pronunciation By 'Shadowing' Others and Speech
Shadowing Technique for English – English with a Smile
> Maybe this is grammar – the art of asking polite questions: Jay
Doubleyou: how to ask indirect or polite questions
> 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
> There are some very good sites for lower levels to help with speaking: Anglo-Link
- YouTube for example: Common Daily Expressions -
English Listening & Speaking Practice - YouTube ...
And Learn
English online for example: Asking
and giving directions in English … And Learn English Speaking and Improve your
Spoken English with Free English Speaking Lessons Online!
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
> And here’s an excellent place for free English video lessons: engVid For
example: How to
say the word ‘OF’ like a native English speaker · engVid and 15 ways
to improve your English pronunciation · engVid and Learn
English Tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, or Present Perfect?
· engVid
> 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 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 learn English when you listen to music: The
Best Music Websites For Learning English | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the
Day… and
BBC -
CBBC - Ten Pieces, Primary and Musical English Lessons
> Tom Scott is having fun teaching us stuff: Tom
Scott - YouTube - with some things looking at language learning: Tom'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
YOUR GRAMMAR:
> Forget it! Quiz:
Can you pass a primary school grammar test? - Telegraph and Gird
your fronted adverbials: 14 grammatical mistakes in the schools White Paper |
News
> 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
> 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
> Present perfect:
Goldilocks
And The Three Bears (39) - YouTube and Jay
Doubleyou: present perfect for experiences and Jay
Doubleyou: the use of tenses in the news
YOUR VOCABULARY:
> 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
> What sort of
words do you chose anyway? Lessonstream.org
by Jamie Keddie Owning English? - Lessonstream.org
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:
presentations: Melissa
Marshall: Talk nerdy to me | TED Talk | TED.com and Jay
Doubleyou: how to give a 3 minute presentation and Jay
Doubleyou: sound scripting
> Specific skills:
how not to give presentations: Life After Death by Powerpoint
2010 by Don McMillan - YouTube and Life After Death by PowerPoint
2012 by Don McMillan - YouTube
> Specific skills:
negotiating and persuading: BBC Radio 4 - The Human Zoo,
Series 3, The psychology of negotiation and Jay
Doubleyou: how to negotiate and Jay
Doubleyou: positive power and influence and Jay
Doubleyou: what motivates us
> Specific skills:
describing a process: Jay
Doubleyou: processes and procedures and Jay
Doubleyou: describing processes
> Some more help with your pronunciation: Jay Doubleyou:
business english: how to improve your pronunciation by watching youtube videos
.
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