Improve your English skills

English speaking tips

Get over any fear you might have of making mistakes. You will make mistakes.

Be patient with yourself. Learning any language can be frustrating, but frustration won't help you, so let it go.

Grasp every opportunity you have to speak with people in English.

Talk to friends who are also learning English. Go out together for coffee and only speak English to each other!

Read short stories out loud and try to see, say and hear the words to reinforce your memory. Record yourself and play it back later, how does it sound? 

Find English speaking friends:-

• You might not be able to find any friendly native speakers where you live, but you can find English speaking people on the Internet! If you can't find anyone who'll actually help you, don't worry, you'll still be able to figure out if they can understand you.
• Get onto Second Life. It's the one place I've found where you're guaranteed a conversation - it's an adult environment, and you won't always want to talk to the people you meet, but for every blood sucking vampire who asks if they can bite you, there are at least ten, nice people who just want to socialise. If you want a list of nice places to go, just contact me on the forum.
• There are several internet based voice chat programmes out there:iVisit | Pal Talk | MSN Web Messenger | Yahoo! Messenger | Google Talk | Skype and I'm sure there are lots more.
• Look for people with the same interests as you. It's no good asking everyone you meet to help you with your English, rather develop natural friendships based on your hobbies etc. Eventually you will make friends and they will be much more likely to give you correction / guidance.
• Join an English club or conversation group. Around the world there are many English speaking clubs, these clubs aren't just for expats but for people interested in the English way of life. They can be friendly and fun. For a list of English clubs click here. Check magazines as well as your phone book, your local newspaper and your local university. Or if there isn't one in your area - start one! Place an advertisement in your newspaper for people interested in starting a group or go to Meetup.
• Visit an Irish/English/Australian theme pub or British food shop, you can usually find one in the larger cities. Often, the waiters and waitresses come from English-speaking countries, the menu is often in English too!
• Once your English is good enough, go shopping in some tourist areas. You'll find lots of shop assistants speak very good English.
• If you can travel to an English speaking country, do it.

Singing

Try singing along to English songs. With friends or in the privacy of your own bathroom. Lots of the major games consoles have karaoke games nowadays, like Sing Star on the Playstation.

!On the internet :- You can speak to me on Skype or in Second Life(see the forum calendar for times and dates) - you can also listen to or chat with other learners and native speakers there, or join one of the many social networking sites. They are all free, so there are no more excuses.

!On the network:- Use the pronunciation pages to improve your understanding. Use my Voice Thread to practise tongue twisters, introductions etc.

!On this site:- You can find some karaoke resources and ideas on thelearn English through songs page.

!On the Network: You can find the words to some popular songs on the English magazine.

Pronunciation skills

Accents really don't matter any more. You can spend a fortune and waste a lot of time trying to "get rid of" your accent, time and money that you could spend learning more English. So, unless you are up for a role in a film, don't worry about your accent too much. That said, people need to be able to understand you, so pronunciation and enunciation are important.

Be playful. Mimic famous people, play with the different accents in films etc. I do a mean John Wayne.

Learn the phonetic alphabet.

List words that have the same sound add to the lists as you learn more words.

For example words that rhyme with me:-

Work on one problem sound at a time. Read slowly concentrating on the pronunciation of particular words. Record yourself, keep the tape and record yourself later, have you improved? Don't be shy - ask a friend to listen to the tape too.

Don't worry about sounding like a native, it is more important to speak clearly and pleasantly than it is to sound like the Queen of England - Even the Queen of England doesn't sound like she used to.

The most important thing to think about is can people understand you? If you have a problem being understood then find someone who speaks English clearly and try to copy the way they speak. Pay particular attention to speed and enunciation.

English Grammar and Writing Tips: Using "Good" and "Well" Correctly

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"Good" and "well" are often misused. "Good" is an adjective (and a noun in some cases); "well" is used as an adverb unless used as an adjective meaning "healthy". If we need a word to describe noun or pronoun we use "good". If we need a word to describe verb (or sometimes adjective or other adverb) we use "well". For example:

Kate is a good piano player. (correct)
Kate is a well piano player. (incorrect!)

Kate plays the piano well. (correct)
Kate plays the piano good. (incorrect!)

Brian speaks good English, but he doesn't speak Spanish very well. (correct)
Brian speaks well English, but he doesn't speak Spanish very good. (incorrect)

My brother did well on the English test. (correct)
My brother did good on the English test. (incorrect!)

Do you think I'm doing well at school? (correct)
Do you think I'm doing good at school? (incorrect!)

After linking verbs such as be, taste, sound, smell, look, seem, appear we use the adjective "good" as we are describing the subject of the sentence, not the action of the verb:

The concert last night wasn't very good.
If the food tastes good, children will eat it.
Your idea sounds good and if it works would be great.
It always smells good after the rain.
The house looks good outside.

After the linking verbs "be", "feel", "look" we can also use "well" as an adjective meaning "healthy":

I am well. / I feel well. / I'm feeling well. (refers to physical state, health)
I am good. / I feel good. / I'm feeling good. (refers rather to emotional than physical state)
Jane didn't look well last night. (well = refers to heath)
The new dress looks really good on you. (good = refers to appearance)

Note: In the USA (conversational English) you can hear a lot of people answer "I'm good." in response to "How are you?" and it is very popular among young children.

Job Interview Skills

Adding Adjectives to Make Your Writing More Descriptive

If your English teacher wants you to make your writing more descriptive, you need to learn how to use adjectives. Adjectives add information about number, color, type, and other qualities about the nouns and pronouns in your sentences. Adjectives help your reader get a fuller picture of the things you are writing about.

Where do you find adjectives? In the adjective aisle of the supermarket. Okay, you don’t. Most of the time you find them in front of the word they’re describing. Keep in mind, however, that adjectives can also roam around a bit. Here’s an example:

George, sore and tired, pleaded with Lulu to release him from the headlock she had placed on him when he called her “fragile.”

Sore and tired tells you about George. Fragile tells you about her. (Well, fragile tells you what George thinks of her. Lulu actually works out with free weights every day and is anything but fragile.) As you can see, these descriptions come after the words they describe, not before.

Here are some different ways to use adjectives:

• Adjectives describing nouns: The most common job for an adjective is describing a noun. Consider the adjectives venomous, angry, and rubber in these sentences. Then decide which sentence you would like to hear as you walk through the jungle.
  • There is a venomous snake on your shoulder.
  • There is an angry, venomous snake on your shoulder.
  • There is a rubber snake on your shoulder.
  The last one, right? In these three sentences, those little descriptive words certainly make a difference. Angry, venomous, and rubber all describe snake, and all of these descriptions give you information that you would really like to have. See how diverse and powerful adjectives can be?
• Adjectives describing pronouns: Adjectives can also describe pronouns (words that substitute for nouns). When they're giving you information about pronouns, adjectives usually appear after the pronoun they're describing:
  • There’s something strange on your shoulder. (The adjective strange describes the pronounsomething.)
  • Everyone conscious at the end of Ronald’s play made a quick exit. (The adjective consciousdescribes the pronoun everyone.)
  • Anyone free should report to the meeting room immediately! (The adjective free describes the pronoun anyone.)
• Attaching adjectives to linking verbs: Adjectives may also follow linking verbs, in which case they describe the subject of the sentence. To find an adjective after a linking verb, ask the question what. Sometimes a linking verb joins an adjective (or a couple of adjectives) and a noun:
  • Lulu’s favorite dress is orange and purple. (The adjectives orange and purple describe the noun dress.)
  • The afternoon appears gray because of the nuclear fallout from Roger’s cigar. (The adjective gray describes the noun afternoon.)
  • George’s latest jazz composition sounds awful. (The adjective awful describes the nouncomposition.)

How to Speak Clear, Grammatical English

Of course you speak English—who doesn’t? But how well do you speak this international language? 

Are you clear, concise and grammatically correct? 

Do people talk about you and the things you say? And are they talking for the right reasons?  

It used to be that just speaking English (at any level) was enough to open the doors of opportunity, but times are quickly changing. Most recent estimates place speakers of English as a fluent second language or additional foreign language at over one billion. 

It is no longer an advantage to speak English, but a requirement! Just speaking English isn’t so impressive anymore—unless you speak it really well. 

Many talented and competent professionals who are doing their best to speak good English are left behind. Many don’t even realize why. How many times have you heard a colleague make the same mistake over and over again and never corrected him? 

Perfecting the way you speak is challenging, but by applying these tips and tricks, you will ease communication, speed up your work flow and become a more effective business leader. 

Speak Clearly

Since English is being used as a lingua franca by more and more non-native speakers, clarity should always be your first priority (whether English happens to be your native language or not). There are a number of things you can do to improve the clarity of your speech.

• Slow down

We all speak too fast. It’s a terrible habit! And the faster we speak, the more mumbled our speech becomes. 

Slowing down the pace of your speech is vital in situations where visual communication is lacking, for example an international conference call. It is just as important however, while running a meeting or delivering a presentation. 

Make sure everyone can follow what you are saying at all times. Otherwise, what’s the point of saying it?

• Enunciate

Colloquial speech is littered with signs of laziness. We drop word endings, run our words together and create sentences that never seem to end. 

Sometimes it is too easy to take this style of speech into the boardroom. 

Be sure to enunciate your words. Put a special focus on word endings such as ‘ed’ and ‘s’ that act as grammatical markers.

If you leave the ‘ed’ off of a past tense verb (“Our profits increase last year” instead of “increased”) it sounds as though you are making a very basic mistake in English. 

Your education, aptitude and credibility could be questioned. 

• Practice vowels & consonants

An additional challenge in English is that we have so many words that are identical except for the vowel. 

Take this string of words for example: mat, met, mitt, mutt, mate, might and moot. Do they all sound different when you say them? They should! 

Read the words in random order and have someone write down what they hear. Did they hear what you said? Create other lists of words like this to identify your problem sounds and practice, practice, practice!

Consonant sounds can be just as tricky. Be sure you differentiate between voiced and unvoiced sounds, for example, ‘d’ and ‘t.’ The words ‘bed’ and ‘bet’ should sound different. You should be using your voice to make the ‘d’ sound, whereas the ‘t’ sound only uses air. 

You can create word pairs similar to the vowels above to practice these sounds and others like ‘v’ and ‘f,’ ‘z’ and ‘s,’ ‘b’ and ‘p’ and ‘g’ and ‘k.’

Speak grammatically

For most, grammar lessons are thankfully a thing of the distance past. Although lessons usually weren’t fun or interesting, there was a reason why we were drilled in English grammar.

Have you ever thought about what your grammar says about you?

Proper grammar signals a higher level of education, professionalism and, in many cases, success. 

Breaking grammar rules can signal a lack of attention to detail, laziness and can be a general irritant and distraction for those who do observe grammar rules.

Not to mention the miscommunication that can happen in written correspondence like email. Think how much time is wasted clarifying the meaning of mails where the structure is so mangled that the message is lost.

If you feel like you never really learned grammar properly or think you might be making mistakes, but don’t really understand why, seek out answers to your questions. 

• Ask a colleague whose language skills you admire to proof-read some of your written work. Ask them to be honest with you about your mistakes. If you’re making the mistakes in your writing, you can assume that you are making the same mistakes (and then some) in your speech. 

• Have a grammar reference on hand at all times—right next to your English dictionary. Local book stores have plenty of references in the language and linguistics sections. 

• Enrol in a refresher course in English. The right teacher can make the subject interesting and enlightening. And speaking better English is definitely worth the investment! Your colleagues and clients will thank you!

Tips On How to Build Up Your Confidence When Speaking English

TalktoEveryone.com

Did I fool you?  I don’t think there really is a website by this name. But “talking to everyone” is one way to gain confidence in speaking English.  As an English as a Second Language teacher for over 3 decades, I hope to share some confidence-building skills with you. Thanks to the many students (and my husband who is a non-native English speaker) who gave me these insights through these years. If you make small goals and accomplish them, it gives you the confidence to go on to higher goals. – John H. Johnson, Founder of Johnson Publishing, Co., 1^st African-American to appear on Forbes 400 (the top richest 400 people in America), author of his autobiography that states, “If a poor boy from Arkansas can succeed, then anyone can.”

Speak as Much as Possible

Earning a language is just like learning about anything else.  The more you practice, the better you get. That’s worth repeating.  Learning a language is just like learning anything else.  The more you practice, the better you get. There, that’s more like it… Maybe you can still remember what it was like to ride a two-wheeler for the first time or to swim your first lap. Stop to think about the first time you got in a car to drive, when you cooked a favorite recipe, or skied down that slippery slope.

• Do you remember how you felt?  
• Do you remember when it “just clicked”?
• Perhaps, you felt a little scared. 
• Perhaps, you were a little doubtful. 
• Perhaps, you even wanted to q-u-i-t!

But, do you also remember that each time you continued that you got better and better until finally it became a habit?  How did you feel then?

• I bet you felt proud. 
• I know you felt confident. 
• I think you probably wanted to go and do whatever it was, over and over again.
• You probably even told someone, or maybe more than one person, about it.

Well, that is the same with speaking another language.  The more you speak, the easier it will be to speak.  The more you speak, the better your English will become. The better you speak, the more confident you will be at speaking a second language.  This will be an incentive to encourage you to speak even more. Before you know it, speaking English will be as natural as riding that bike or swimming a lap, driving a car or skiing down that hill. Let’s think of some of the natural ways you can speak English in your day.

So then, make it your goal to speak to one or two new people each day.

• Speaking on the phone

Listen to those telemarketers and then respond. Ask them a question or tell them you are not interested in their product or service.

• Repeating television or radio lines or songs

Turn on your favorite English station and try to mimic what you hear.  This will help you with proper pronunciation, grammar, understanding various phrases, and to practice the speed of everyday speech.  You might even become a better singer!

• Reading out loud

Find something you enjoy reading.  By reading out loud, you will develop fluency, which is the art of speaking smoothly and having the words, phrases and sentences flow. It’s okay to stumble on a few words or have to look a word or two up in the dictionary. Hey, you can even skip a few words. Just continue to read.

• Chatting with people on-line

Find opportunities to chat.  You will use many literacy skills. This is a great way to practice listening and visual attention, speaking and comprehension.

• Talking to people while doing errands (grocery store, post office, library, gas station, bus depot/bus, taxi, theater, department store, etc.)

You probably encounter more people in more situations than you realize.  So that means more opportunity to speak.  For example, you could ask a question to the grocery clerk or ask how she/he is doing.  You could ask about a product or the cost of something.  You could ask the hours that the store is open. You could talk to people in line.  Anything to give you practice with general English conversation.

• Volunteering

Volunteer to say something. Maybe you raise your hand in class and offer an idea or an answer.  Maybe you help a classmate understand something better.  Maybe you sign-up to help with some event at school, at church/mosque/synagogue etc, in your neighborhood. Is there some community facility that needs help?  How about an animal shelter or a hospital?  Maybe there is a place for those less fortunate so you can help with preparing food, clothing or toys.  Maybe you can talk to elementary students about your country?  Or if your native language is taught at the local high school, you can volunteer to talk to the class one day about your country and culture.  Any of these will get you out of the office or house and meeting people to talk more. And, in turn you will gain confidence.

Practice with a Friend

I found the ELL (English Language Learner) students who were the most successful and the most confident in speaking English were those students who became engaged with other English-speaking students.  Join a class or a club.  Go to some community event to meet people.  Join a gym.  Cultivate friendships.  Then practice English with this friend.  You will learn so much more about the culture and you will learn the language much faster. This was the best advice I used to give parents.  When they asked what more they could do for their children to be successful in another language, I encouraged them to sign their children up for something they liked.  Maybe a sports team or scouts. Maybe a camp or lessons in something.  Maybe playing an instrument in a local band or an art class. Maybe a chess club or dance club.  Maybe an exercise class or karate.  The sky is the limit. You just need to do a little looking at what is out there in your community. Read the local paper.  Pay attention to local advertisements.  This will help so much.  You will meet other people, use English, most likely enjoy the activity, feel confident in the activity especially if it something you have chosen to do or already know how to do or it is something you like, increase your confidence in English, begin to understand more of the culture and the language, feel a sense of belonging and assimilation, etc.  I guarantee you, that from this experience your knowledge will build and help you to gain even more confidence.

So then, make it your goal to join one activity this week.

Target an Area

If you think a bit, you probably can come up with an area of the English language that you need help with.  Maybe it is the use of articles, an idiom you just can’t figure out, or a question of how to use a particular word correctly.  Look at one of these each day, and see if you can improve your English in this area.  Learning new skills, vocabulary and concepts, and applying these to your everyday language will build confidence.  Make a goal to look at one of these areas today and to understand it better. I’ll never forget my husband’s first day in the US.  He took a bus to his language classes at a local college. When he came home, he alerted me that he followed my map and instructions and got on the bus, paid his fare, got off the bus, got to class, and he was able to get home safely and pretty much on time.  But, he had this strange look on his face.  He then asked me, “What’s a pen handy?” I did not know what he was talking about.  But, then he told me this lady who sat next to him on the bus asked him if he had a pen handy.  It was then that I smiled and realized this was just the beginning to a quest to learn another language and to live a life in another culture.  When I slowly explained that this meant “did he have a pen for her to borrow”, my husband was overjoyed that he had learned a new idiom. When he came home the second day, he could hardly wait to tell me that he asked the bus driver when he got on the bus. “Do you have a pen handy?” he grinned.

So, then make it your goal to target an area each day.  Remember, it can be just one simple thing, but bit by bit these simple things will grow into so much more.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  I remember giving a lesson on how to buy gas at the gas station to someone who just moved to the US from Korea.  His first question to me was that he had a rental car and he needed to know what to do to buy gas.  He was afraid the gas was going to run out.  The next class period, this student was very late.  When he finally made it to class, he seemed overjoyed that he was late for my tutoring session. He excitedly told everyone that his warning light went on in the car and he was so happy because he knew what to say at the gas station to put the gas in and to pay for it. You could make a list of what you would like to learn and then see how you can go about learning this.  Practice asking questions you want answered.  Are there any situations that you anticipate being in?  Do you need help with something right away?  Then when you are in those situations, you will know just what to do and just what to ask.  You will feel immediate success just like the student who could fill up his gas tank and pay for the gas.

So then, make it your goal to ask for help to someone for something this week.

Believe it!

Remember, you can do it.  Say it with me:  I can do it!  You can speak with more confidence.  You can learn English and become a better speaker.  Believe in yourself. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I have the belief that I can do something, I shall acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have had it in the beginning. So then, make it a goal to start today.

10 tips to improve your English pronunciation

There are a lot of techniques you should do in order to improve you English pronunciation:

Everyone can speak English clearly

The first thing you should know is that everyone can speak English with a clear pronunciation, everybody has a mouth, a tongue and lips. Everyone can speak every language because there is no difference between human; we are all born with the same mechanism.

English environment

If you really want to improve your English pronunciation, you should be surrounded by English everyday, which means the best thing is to be in a place where we talk only in English, like the USA or Britain or Australia...
If you can't have this situation, you can do it by listening to English everyday, you can listen to English radio, or TV, you can also have some CDs in English...

listen and don't speak

This is one of the biggest differences between children and adults, you should find the solution to this problem to not only improve your English pronunciation but also your global English learning which means English grammar, English speaking...
When someone talks to you or to someone else in English you should not speak at the same time, you should listen, focus on his speaking, his English intonation, which words he stress, which words he doesn't stress...
Never speak when listening to English, always focus on listening first, speaking will come later!

Learn English subconsciously

You must know that you will learn English if you try, you will speak English like a native speaker if you don't stop, but the problem is always the time.
Never try to learn English in a short time, listen always to English and be sure that you will speak it one day, you don't know exactly when but you will learn it. 
Always listen to English and don't try anything else, you will learn English subconsciously, believe me!

Focus on listening

If you want to learn English or to improve you English pronunciation without listening to English pronunciation, stop right now!!
You can improve your pronunciation without knowing what is really pronunciation, and you can't know what is English pronunciation if you don't listen to English.

speak slowly

Never try to speak fast, always try to speak English slowly at the first time, you will get faster subconsciously without doing anything, you should pronounce each word correctly, that's the goal!

Practice English

Always practice your English, read out loud, speak English with your friends, practice English everyday, this will help you to know the correct way to stress syllables.

Speak out loud

Never be quiet, always speak out loud, this helps you a lot if you are shy when you speak English.

Record yourself speaking English

And compare your speaking with a native speaker, you will see the mistakes you've done, you will improve your English pronunciation.

Have some English friends

You should have some friends with the same goal as you, friends trying to learn English, you should practice your English with them, tell them if you find something useful to improve your English or if you find a new method, they will also tell you, they help you when you get bored, it's really one of the best things to improve your English.