Introduction

Hi,

My name is Alan. Thank you very much for downloading this ebook.

I have been a CELTA qualified English teacher here in China for the last

15 years and have taught English to many students at many levels from

Kindergarten to High School, from beginners to IELTS students to

businessmen. These days I teach online and have students from all

around the world.

I meet a lot of students who ask me the best way to study English by

themselves, so here is an e-book to give them some tips.

If you have time, checkoutwebsite - https://www.pronhelp.comFacebook page - pronhelp.comFacebook page - Alan TeacherFacebook Group - IELTS / Cambridge B2 & C1 Improve Your ScoreVK - Alan TeacherVK Group - IELTS / Cambridge B2 и C1 Улучшите свой счетAlan Teacher booking page

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Contents

Goals …………………………………………………………………… 4

Routine ……………………………………………………………….. 7

Stress ………………………………………………………………….. 12

Reading ……………………………………………………………….. 19

Listening ………………………………………………………………. 33

Speaking ………………………………………………………………. 36

Pronunciation ………………………………………………………… 45

Writing …………………………………………………………………. 50

Conversation ………………………………………………………… 56

Vocabulary ……………………………………………………………. 60

Grammar ……………………………………………………………… 68

Teacher …………………………………………………………………. 88

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………… 91

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1/ Goals

Having a long-term goal and setting easily achievable short-term goals to

get there is a great way to improve your chances of success.

How can you make a cake without knowing what it should look like? You

need the different steps to make it.

How can you know where to drive, if you don’t know where you want to

go?

Decide where you need to go, decide what you need to achieve. The

more detailed your goal is, the easier it will be to achieve.

If you just say “I want to improve my English” your results won’t be as

good as if you say “I want to get increase my IELTS score by one band

score in 6 months”.

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If you say “I want to improve my English for work”, then your results

won’t be as good as if you say “I want to participate more in meetings,

then improve my presentation skills”.

It’s not always easy to know exactly what you want to achieve, but if you

choose something, you will know if it is right for you or not.

For example, John wanted to improve his vocabulary for work, so he

could be more precise when talking to his colleagues. After he had

learned more vocabulary though, he realised that he needed to learn the

specific English he needed for all the meetings he had to attend in those

days. Once he was specific, everything became much easier. He knew

what kind of teacher he needed; He knew what was relevant and what

was not and so he learned much faster and more effectively.

Another example is Caroline. She wanted to improve her IELTS score to

study in the UK for her Master's degree in Biological Engineering. She

initially wanted to learn more vocabulary and grammar for Part 2. She

had a strategy that she could use for any topic, but she was still unhappy

with her mock test scores. Then her teacher told her to take the picture

she had of the person or the place in her mind and put it into the

listener’s mind. This needed much more detail than Caroline had been

using, so her new goal was to be more detailed in her descriptions. It

worked, she got a 7.5 for her speaking!

The more specific your goal is, the easier it will be to know exactly what

to study to reach your goal.

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This goal is your long-term goal. Usually it’s too difficult to reach your

long-term goal in one step, so you need to divide your long-term goal

into short-term goals which are more easily achievable. To improve your

grammar, then to improve your vocabulary, improve your pronunciation,

and so on.

Although you want to self study, it’s often helpful to get help to set out

your goals and needs, and to confirm that you have finished each step.

People often use SMART goals. The topic is too long for this book, but go

to

https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/essential-guide-writing-smart-goals t

o learn more about them and put them into practice.

SMART means:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Achievable

R - Relevant

T - Time-Bound

Try making a SMART goal, it will be worth it!

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2/ Routine

Learning a language is often more difficult than learning other skills

because there are so many parts. There is reading, listening, writing and

speaking, and these four skills also have many sub-skills.

One of the easiest ways to make the whole process simpler, is to decide

what you are learning English for.

It may be easier to explain from a teacher’s point of view. If a student

comes to me and says, ‘I want to learn English’. It’s almost impossible to

answer without asking more questions, such as

Why do you want to learn English?

A/ an exam such as IELTS, FCE, CAE, CPE, other

B/ so I can get a better job

C/ for travelling to other countries

D/ to emigrate to another country

E/ so I can speak to foreigners more easily

F/ for fun

How long have you been learning English?

Do you know your English CEFR level?

Which skill do you think is most difficult?

1/ Reading

2/ Listening

3/ Writing

4/ Speaking

How much time each week do you want to spend learning English?

Would you like classes with a teacher, or would you like to self study?

There are many more questions that could be asked, but these show you

what a teacher needs to know.

If you ask yourself these questions and answer honestly, then you will

know what you want to learn and how much time you can spend on it.

Some might say that they want to study for an exam for 16 hours a day,

while others may say that they can study for an hour on both Tuesday

and Thursday evenings to improve their English for work.

Routine

Whatever your reason for learning English, you must have a routine, and

try to make it a habit (there is a long list of how to make something a

habit in the reading section of this ebook).

Also remember you don’t always need to sit down with a book, these

days, you can study some things on your phone. New apps are constantly

being released to make language learning easier. Reading, listening,

vocabulary, and grammar are examples of what you could learn on the

bus, while you are eating your lunch on the toilet, or when you are

watching your son do his homework.

Saying that though, you still need to have a routine and to make them a

habit.

If you have to study at home and you live with your parents, or your wife,

husband, partner etc, you really need to explain to them about what you

are doing and why you are doing it.

Tell them, ‘Please don’t interrupt me between 6pm and 7pm this evening,

because I will be studying English. You know why I am doing it, so please

give me some peace and quiet for an hour. Thank you.’

If you are serious about learning English, and don’t just want to talk

about it, then turn off your phone, ask for no interruptions and learn it

step by step.

Remember: It’s a marathon, not a sprint! You can’t learn English in a day,

a week, or a month. It’s a long-term commitment!

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Exam Routine

If you are studying for an important English exam that could change your

life, then your situation may be different.

If you have taken time off after university, or are dedicating all your time

to studying, then you will have much more time to study and have

different problems with a routine.

These English exams such as IELTS, CAE, CPE and more, all have a

section for each of the four skills: reading, listening, writing, and

speaking.

Knowing how much time you should take to study each skill can be

difficult, so rather than asking yourself needs analysis questions, find a

teacher to give you a mock test, especially for writing and speaking. Most

students can test themselves well on listening and reading. Having a

class over the Internet on Skype or Zoom is fine, and the teacher will

highlight your strengths and weaknesses. You should try to build on your

strengths and reinforce your weaknesses.

Having a mock test like this will help you know what you should study

and how you can improve. If you know the problems, then you can

allocate time to practice and improve, and then have another mock test

at a later date.

When you are studying for an exam, you need to allocate time to each

part, but you also need to allocate time to have a cup of tea or coffee,

have your lunch, have your dinner, and especially, get enough sleep.

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How can you study properly if you are hungry and tired? Give yourself a

chance and keep your energy levels up, so you keep a positive mindset.

If you are tired and hungry, it’s very easy to feel everything is too difficult

and then give up!

I am thinking about creating affordable and personalised email courses

that will give you daily exercises to complete on the bus, on the train, at

your desk, while you eat your breakfast…… If you are interested, click the

image below and tell me what would be perfect for you!

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3/ Stress

Although many people take up learning English for pleasure, for others, it

can be very important. Sometimes too important.

For some school students it can mean the difference between going to a

good school or a bad school, whether you can go abroad to study or not,

or whether you can continue your education.

For adults, it can mean the difference between keeping your current job

and having your dream job, between promotion or failure, or between

staying in your country and being able to take your family to a safer and

more stable one.

Some of these reasons can understandably add stress to learning English,

so we will talk about how that can be managed.

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I know when I learn Chinese; I feel sometimes I am really making

progress, and other times when I seem to stand still.

Really, that is nothing to worry about and is natural when you are

learning anything, not just a language or English. I always think of it like

steps or stairs. You make progress (up) then you reinforce or consolidate

(along), you make more progress (up), then you reinforce or consolidate

it (along). So, as long as you don’t stop studying, then you make

progress up the stairs step by step.

For most, though, speaking is the essential part of learning English, but

also the most stressful. Opening your mouth and attempting to be

understood is a huge leap, especially for those who are naturally shy.

This makes practice important, so you can get used to speaking and

being spoken to, all while coping with your feelings of shyness.

Many students cope with this by becoming a different person when they

speak English. They become ‘their English me’. If this appeals to you,

then recording yourself (see Speaking section) can really help.

Some students, though, are not shy, but are worse, they are

perfectionists. They find it hard to speak because they need to work out

the exact correct thing to say before they open their mouth.

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Here is a Facebook post from pronhelp.com’s facebook page about this

problem.

Nobody’s Perfect

Sometimes I make videos about English or about my teaching, and afterI have recorded myself I need to edit out all of my mistakes. Yes, I am anative speaker, and I make mistakes! What makes it worse is that I reada script so I include everything I need. So I make lots of mistakes whenI’m reading!!! Think about that.

So when you take any kind of speaking test and you worry about sayingthe wrong word, or you worry about not saying the best word, or youworry that your grammar isn’t perfect. STOP!

You are not perfect. If you were perfect, you would get a 9 in your IELTStest, you would be classed as a native speaker if you are perfect and youtake CPE. You will make mistakes in your test, and the more you worryabout them, the worse your fluency will be. The more you try to think ofthe right word, the worse your hesitation will be. With all this, yourFluency & Coherence score will decrease steadily, just because you wantto be perfect.

There is another post somewhere on my page about what the Mexicanfootball team manager said after they beat Germany in the World Cup.He said ‘Play for the joy of winning, not for the fear of losing’. Think aboutthat.

If you go into your speaking test and speak because it gives you thechance to study at the world’s best universities, or if you go for aninterview for a great job at an international company and you give yourbest, you have to fly. If you keep holding on to your worries, you will fallbecause they are too heavy. Leave them outside when you go into the

examination room, or into your interview. Focus on your goals, focus onyour strengths and fly towards your dream. You don’t need to be perfectto do that. Do it!

If you accept that you will not be perfect, then you can prepare what you

will do when a problem arises. That means, when you are in your test, or

your interview, you don’t think ‘oh my god, oh my god, I’ve made a

mistake!!!!!!’ It means that you think ‘it’s ok, I just need to keep going,

and not let it bother me’

Tests

Which brings us to tests, what can you do to ease your stress if you are

going to take a test.

For many, the test is IELTS or one of the Cambridge tests such as First,

Advanced, or Proficiency (B2, C1, C2). If you think of the test as the

result of years of hard work and a chance to change your life, then you

immediately raise your stress levels.

If you think of your test as the first of many tests to get the result you

need, then it really reduces those stress levels so they can be managed.

You are worrying about your English-speaking test next week, and the

closer it gets, the more worried you become. You have worked

extremely hard, and you are sure that you can get the score you need.

The problem is that your stress levels will go sky high as soon as you walk

into the room.

When you are stressed, you can hear different questions from those that

are asked, you can believe that your answer was great, but really it’s

rubbish. You can believe anything.

I often record students answering questions, and they are shocked when

they listen back, not from their sound (they don’t like it though), but by

how they can make so many errors without realising.

A great way to deal with this is to treat your test as the first of many. If

you don’t pass this one, you will pass the next one. If you have six

months before you need an IELTS score, for example, then you should be

able to try at least 5 times to get the score you need.

Think of taking your test as a marathon, not a sprint

Here is another Facebook post about this

Keep going, don’t stop!!!

It’s fantastic when students get the scores they need. They can go to theuniversity of their dreams in their chosen country, or they can emigrateto a brighter and more stable future. Not every student passes the firsttime, some take a few tries, while others try repeatedly over manymonths, some for a year.

Financial resources are needed, as are mental strength and a totalcommitment to a brighter tomorrow. Test problems can be many andvaried. Speaking scores can improve from 5.5 to the required 7, but thewriting score falls slightly below the required level. The obvious thing isto practice writing, but it is common for that score to increase butanother to decrease.

Why does that happen? It takes a terrible toll on the test taker. I believethe reason is the time it takes for the results to be published. If studentsreally want to pass, they work tirelessly every day practising, again andagain, improving their test skills and their English often while also taking

course lessons or doing a final year project. They take their test, and thenwhat? They stop.

They stop because they are relieved, they stop because they are tired,they stop because they have too many other things to do. After waitingfor two weeks, they finally get their results, then find out they have tobook another test because they have a problem. Their new test is in amonth, and so they start studying again. But it takes a week or two forthem to get over the shock of the result, it takes a week or two beforethey study 100% efficiently again; it takes a few weeks for the mentalstrength to build again too.

If students treated their test as a marathon and not a sprint, it would bemuch easier. If they treat the first test as the first test of many ratherthan placing all their hopes and dreams on it, it would be much easier. Ifthey kept studying after the test, so they stayed at their peak until thenext test, it would be much easier. If they treat their tests like this, theywill reduce their stress levels significantly, and so have a much betterchance each time. Keep going, don’t give up, treat it as a marathon, notthe 100 metres, and it will help you.

Meditation

One of the ways to really overcome your stress is to meditate, or at least

practice Mindfulness, which is very popular these days.

The biggest problem with meditation is that people feel self conscious

about it. Don’t feel like that, try it. It has really helped me to stop

worrying, and it also played a major part when I stopped smoking.

It doesn’t mean that you need to sit on the floor with your legs crossed

wearing special clothes. This is something you can do on the bus once

you have learned what to do. Although you can meditate for hours, only

ten minutes is needed for you to relax and feel much more positive about

any situation. You don’t need to be in a quiet place, as long as you can

close your eyes and go through the steps, you will benefit.

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Here are some links to some YouTube videos about guided meditations

that you can do in about 10 minutes.

GUIDED 10-MINUTE MEDITATION WITH ANDY PUDDICOMBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVzTnS_IONU

Become Fully Present & Calm with this Guided 10 MinuteMindfulness Meditation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5tkqaKiryE

Daily Calm | 10 Minute Mindfulness Meditation | Be Present

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZToicYcHIOU

The first one is my favourite, and I used to do this on the bus on the way

to work when I felt under a lot of pressure, although it’s only

really possible if you have a seat on the bus :)

If you choose one of these exercises and do it every day, then when you

really feel stressed, you will easily be able to let go of your

worries whenever you need to. It’s a powerful habit!

Playing to Win

Another way to ease stress is to practice playing for the joy of winning.

Let me explain.

In the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia, Mexico beat Germany 1-0

which was a huge surprise because Germany were favourites to win the

whole competition. After the game, the Mexican manager was asked

what he had told his team before the game. He said

‘I told them to play for the joy of winning, not for the fear of losing’.

I have never forgotten that and repeat it to all my students before their

speaking test.

Go in to the room, do what you can do. Do it because you want to get

that score. Do it because you want to change your life. Do it because you

want your family to be proud. Do it because you want to fly!

Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes (although you

don’t want to), don’t be afraid to fall. If you are afraid, it will stop you

doing your best!

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4/ Reading

If you want to learn English really well, then you should read anything

you can. Read books, textbooks, social media in English, newspapers,

magazines, instruction manuals, anything.

If you want to learn English to pass an exam, then read more

newspapers and magazines with academic articles such as Time, The

Spectator, or The Economist. They will benefit you by using more

academic language.

Whatever, read, read, read, and read some more. When you read

authentic English, you learn an incredible amount about it. You learn new

vocabulary (more below), you learn sentence structure, you learn natural

word order, you learn referencing……. the list goes on.

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That doesn’t mean you have to analyse everything you read, it means

that as you read English regularly, you begin to recognise the correct

ways to write and speak.

As you read, you may need help with new vocabulary, or you may choose

to guess (see below), but the other aspects begin to come naturally.

When you read, it doesn’t just help you with the reading part of your

exam, it helps you with much more.

It helps you with your writing because you begin to understand how

books, chapters, paragraphs, and sentences are constructed. Also, how

they can affect you, when they are easy to understand, and when they

are not.

If you read regularly, grammar starts to make sense because you aren’t

so worried about using it yourself, you can see how others use it. If there

is a serious problem, then you just take your book to your teacher and

ask. It’s clear.

If you read regularly, you learn punctuation, about commas, full stops,

question marks and exclamation marks. You learn when, and when not to

use capital letters. You learn about quotation marks, colons, semi-colons

and so on, and on, and on……

If you read regularly, you also read the article topic, or the story in the

book, so you start learning about culture. If you learn the culture, then

you learn why people say things. If you know why people say things,

then it’s much easier to learn the language.

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And (I hate starting sentences with ‘and’) of course you learn spelling.

You begin to be able to correct your own spelling just because a word

doesn’t look right. It looks strange because of something. What is it? The

more you read, the more you will know.

Reading also helps speaking, because you become so much more

confident of your word order and grammar. Your vocabulary increases,

so you can talk in more detail about more topics.

Try it, read English to get ahead. Make it a habit, you will only get better.

Remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so a little every day, when you

are on the bus, eating your breakfast, waiting for the teacher in class, in

bed at night, anywhere, but try and make it a habit. You will need to do

this for over 6 months if you want to see a difference, but try and make it

a habit for life!

Here are 18 tips about to how to make something into a habit, from

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/18-tricks-to-make-new-habits

-stick.html

1. Commit to Thirty Days – Three to four weeks is all the time you need tomake a habit automatic. If you can make it through the initial conditioningphase, it becomes much easier to sustain. A month is a good block of time tocommit to a change since it easily fits in your calendar.

2. Make it Daily – Consistency is critical if you want to make a habit stick. Ifyou want to start exercising, go to the gym every day for your first thirty days.Going a couple times a week will make it harder to form the habit. Activities youdo once every few days are trickier to lock in as habits.

3. Start Simple – Don’t try to completely change your life in one day. It iseasy to get over-motivated and take on too much. If you wanted to study twohours a day, first make the habit to go for thirty minutes and build on that.

4. Remind Yourself – Around two weeks into your commitment it can be easyto forget. Place reminders to execute your habit each day or you might miss a

few days. If you miss time it defeats the purpose of setting a habit to beginwith.

5. Stay Consistent – The more consistent your habit the easier it will be tostick. If you want to start exercising, try going at the same time, to the sameplace for your thirty days. When cues like time of day, place and circumstancesare the same in each case it is easier to stick.

6. Get a Buddy – Find someone who will go along with you and keep youmotivated if you feel like quitting.

7. Form a Trigger – A trigger is a ritual you use right before executing yourhabit. If you wanted to wake up earlier, this could mean waking up in exactlythe same way each morning. If you wanted to quit smoking you could practicesnapping your fingers each time you felt the urge to pick up a cigarette.

8. Replace Lost Needs – If you are giving up something in your habit, make

sure you are adequately replacing any needs you’ve lost. If watching television

gave you a way to relax, you could take up meditation or reading as a way to

replace that same need.

9. Be Imperfect – Don’t expect all your attempts to change habits to besuccessful immediately. It took me four independent tries before I startedexercising regularly. Now I love it. Try your best, but expect a few bumps alongthe way.

10. Use “But” – A prominent habit changing therapist once told me this greattechnique for changing bad thought patterns. When you start to think negativethoughts, use the word “but” to interrupt it. “I’m no good at this, but, if I workat it I might get better later.”

11. Remove Temptation – Restructure your environment so it won’t temptyou in the first thirty days. Remove junk food from your house, cancel yourcable subscription, throw out the cigarettes so you won’t need to struggle withwillpower later.

12. Associate With Role Models – Spend more time with people who modelthe habits you want to mirror. A recent study found that having an obese friendindicated you were more likely to become fat. You become what you spendtime around.

13. Run it as an Experiment – Withhold judgement until after a month haspast and use it as an experiment in behaviour. Experiments can’t fail, they justhave different results so it will give you a different perspective on changingyour habit.

14. Swish – A technique from NLP. Visualize yourself performing the bad habit.Next visualize yourself pushing aside the bad habit and performing analternative. Finally, end that sequence with an image of yourself in a highlypositive state. See yourself picking up the cigarette, see yourself putting itdown and snapping your fingers, finally visualize yourself running andbreathing free. Do it a few times until you automatically go through the patternbefore executing the old habit.

15.Write it Down – A piece of paper with a resolution on it isn’t thatimportant. Writing that resolution is. Writing makes your ideas more clear andfocuses you on your end result.

16. Know the Benefits – Familiarize yourself with the benefits of making achange. Get books that show the benefits of regular exercise. Notice anychanges in energy levels after you take on a new diet. Imagine getting bettergrades after improving your study habits.

17. Know the Pain – You should also be aware of the consequences.Exposing yourself to realistic information about the downsides of not making achange will give you added motivation.

18. Do it For Yourself – Don’t worry about all the things you “should” have ashabits. Instead tool your habits towards your goals and the things that motivateyou. Weak guilt and empty resolutions aren’t enough.

If you need books, then get a Kindle app for your phone, or buy a Kindle.You can buy books on Kindle on Amazon really cheaply.

If you don’t know which books to read, then go towww.goodreads.com and you can look at reviews for books that othershave read. Take a look!

If you have no money, and want to become a criminal, then you candownload books from groups in Facebook or VK.com. This is against thelaw, and I would never recommend it, but they are there. I don’t know ifthere is spyware when you download, so if you must do this, be careful!

Newspapers - The Guardian, the Independent, The New York Times

Magazines - Time, The Economist, The Spectator, The New Scientist

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Vocabulary

One of the biggest problems my students have when they read anEnglish book or article is that they say they keep needing to look at adictionary.

One of the best ways to solve this problem is to try to ‘read through’ the

word so you can guess from the context, from the words and sentences

surrounding it.

But first, there’s the word itself. You need to ask yourself:

Does it start with a capital letter? If so, it will probably be a name if not at

the start of a sentence.

Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb? Does it have ‘a’, ‘an’ or

‘the’ before to tell you it’s a noun. Does it have ‘ed’ or ‘ing’ ending to tell

you it’s a verb? If it’s before a noun it may be an adjective. Does it have

an ‘ly’ ending to tell you it’s an adverb?

Does it mean something good (positive) or something bad (negative)?

Does it have a prefix that can help you? For example ‘un’, ‘dis’ or ‘im’ if it’s

negative.

A superb exercise is to just read and not look at the dictionary at all. Only

read. Often, you will discover later in the text whether the word with the

meaning you guessed is correct or not.

This way also gives you more self confidence, which will make you try

again.

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The other great way to study vocabulary is to regularly use an advanced

monolingual English dictionary, not only to clarify the meaning of

new words but also to extend knowledge of collocations, fixed phrases,

and features such as dependent prepositions.

Here is a list of prefixes, their meanings and examples from

www.myenglishteacher.eu

PREFIX MEANING EXAMPLES

ante- before antenatal, anteroom, antedate

anti- against,opposing

antibiotic, antidepressant, antidote

circum- around circumstance, circumvent,circumnavigate

co- with co-worker, co-pilot, co-operation

de- off, down, awayfrom

devalue, defrost, derail, demotivate

dis- opposite of, not disagree, disappear, disintegrate,disapprove

em-, en- cause to, put into embrace, encode, embed, enclose,engulf

epi- upon, close to,after

epicentre, episcope, epidermis

ex- former, out of ex-president, ex-boyfriend, exterminate

extra- beyond, morethan

extracurricular, extraordinary,extra-terrestrial

fore- before forecast, forehead, foresee, foreword,foremost

PREFIX MEANING EXAMPLES

homo- same homosexual, homonuclear, homoplastic

hyper- over, above hyperactive, hyperventilate

il-, im-, in-,ir-

not impossible, illegal, irresponsible,indefinite

im-, in- into insert, import, inside

infra- beneath, below infrastructure, infrared, infrasonic,infraspecific

inter-,intra-

between interact, intermediate, intergalactic,intranet

macro- large macroeconomics, macromolecule

micro- small microscope, microbiology, microfilm,microwave

mid- middle midfielder, midway, midsummer

mis- wrongly misinterpret, misfire, mistake,misunderstand

mono- one, singular monotone, monobrow, monolithic

non- not, without nonsense, nonentity, nondescript

omni- all, every omnibus, omnivore, omnipotent

para- beside parachute, paramedic, paradox

post- after post-mortem, postpone, post-natal

pre- before prefix, predetermine, pre-intermediate

re- again return, rediscover, reiterate, reunite

semi- half semicircle, semi-final, semiconscious

PREFIX MEANING EXAMPLES

sub- under submerge, submarine, sub-category,subtitle

super- above, over superfood, superstar, supernatural,superimpose

therm- heat thermometer, thermostat,thermodynamic

trans- across, beyond transport, transnational, transatlantic

tri- three triangle, tripod, tricycle

un- not unfinished, unfriendly, undone,unknown

uni- one unicycle, universal, unilateral,unanimous

Here is a list of suffixes, their meanings and examples from

www.myenglishteacher.eu

SUFFIX MEANING EXAMPLE

NOUNSUFFIXES

-acy state or quality democracy, accuracy, lunacy

-al the action or process of remedial, denial, trial, criminal

-ance,-ence

state or quality of nuisance, ambience, tolerance

-dom place or state of being freedom, stardom, boredom

-er, -or person or object that doesa specified action

reader, creator, interpreter, inventor,collaborator, teacher

SUFFIX MEANING EXAMPLE

-ism doctrine, belief Judaism, scepticism, escapism

-ist person or object that doesa specified action

Geologist, protagonist, sexist,scientist, theorist, communist

-ity, -ty quality of extremity, validity, enormity

-ment condition enchantment, argument

-ness state of being heaviness, highness, sickness

-ship position held friendship, hardship, internship

-sion, -tion state of being position, promotion, cohesion

VERBSUFFIXES

-ate become mediate, collaborate, create

-en become sharpen, strengthen, loosen

-ify, -fy make or become justify, simplify, magnify, satisfy

-ise, -ize become publicise, synthesise, hypnotise

ADJECTIVESUFFIXES

-able, -ible capable of being edible, fallible, incredible, audible

-al having the form orcharacter of

fiscal, thermal, herbal, colonial

SUFFIX MEANING EXAMPLE

-esque in a manner of orresembling

picturesque, burlesque, grotesque

-ful notable for handful, playful, hopeful, skilful

-ic, -ical having the form orcharacter of

psychological, hypocritical,methodical, nonsensical, musical

-ious, -ous characterised by pious, jealous, religious, ridiculous

-ish having the quality of squeamish, sheepish, childish

-ive having the nature of inquisitive, informative, attentive

-less without meaningless, hopeless, homeless

-y characterised by dainty, beauty, airy, jealousy

ADVERBSUFFIXES

-ly related to or quality softly, slowly, happily, crazily, madly

-ward,-wards

direction towards, afterwards, backwards,inward

-wise in relation to otherwise, likewise, clockwise

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Some Reading Strategies to help you in different situations

1/ Prediction - Try to get an idea of the topic from the title.

2/ Visualisation - Can you ‘see’ the people in the article, or ‘see’ the

situation. If you can do this, it makes it much easier to give explanations

or even propose a future result or solution.

3/ Skimming - This involves running your eyes over it quickly to get the

main idea. It also allows you to identify which parts of a long text to read

more closely. This skill is useful, for students so they can follow the gist

and stop when they find something of particular interest to them.

4/ This allows you to quickly search a text for a particular piece of

information. Scanning is ideal when students need to find a phone

number in a directory, the date of a historical event or the time their train

is leaving.

In a Test

When you are in a test, read the text before you read the questions, then

you will have a better understanding of which answer is correct. After

that first reading, read the questions and go through the text to find the

answers.

If you look at the questions before you read, you are looking for too

many things at once, so it takes much more time.

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If you really want to practice for a test, then download authentic answer

sheets to use.

IELTS Reading answer sheet download -

https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/general-reading-answer-sheet.ashx?

la=en

All Answer sheets for the other Cambridge exams -

https://aglikapastras.com/answer-sheets/

Word Spotting Beware!

Be careful about answering the questions too quickly, it is common to

find an answer that has a word from the text, but it has a different

meaning from the answer you need. If you find a word easily, then check

it fits with the meaning of the question before you fill in the answer on

the answer sheet.

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5/ Listening

Some would say this is the most difficult skill because you don’t know

what the other person will say.

When practising, always try to listen without looking at the script first,

that way you will notice the differences between what you hear and what

you read more quickly.

When I learn Chinese, I don’t always hear all the words in a sentence, so

I have to make a calculated guess at what they are by the overall topic

and the other surrounding words. This is a great skill, but requires

confidence and practice so you don’t stop listening when you hear a word

that you don’t know.

Practice jumping over words you have missed, the more you practice, the

more words will join to make sentences you understand. Be careful not to

become too confident, that’s when mistakes are made!

Learn to recognise speaking noises such as emm, ah, mmmm, and so on.

Listen to real conversations and presentations, try to make the words you

can hear into sentences, then check the script. Just like reading, it’s very

easy to stop listening when you hear an unfamiliar word. Just like reading,

you have to guess and keep listening to establish the overall meaning.

This skill takes practice, practice and more practice. elllo,

breakingnewsenglish, voa are just a few of the websites that have

huge amounts of listening material. Some of them let you listen using

different speeds. Very useful.

Here are nine great tips for improving your listening

1/ Listen to what is stressed (the words that carry the message) rather

than trying to identify every word.

2/ Sometimes, read a summary of what you will listen to before you

listen.

3/ Be aware of what you bring to the listening task. For example, think

about what you could expect to hear, such as names and places if you

listen to the news, or numbers and times if you listen to railway

announcements.

4/ Read the questions before you listen to the recordings, then you

should know what you are listening for.

5/ The information on the question paper is there to help you

6/ In some questions it is vital that you understand the whole message,

so don’t listen for individual words and phrases.

7/ Know when to stop concentrating on a difficult question, so you don’t

miss the next one.

8/ Practice spotting mismatches, that is words that appear in a wrong

answer that also appear in the listening text.

9/ If there are simple gap-fills, know your weaknesses. For example,

Russian students who are quite advanced can still have problems with

numbers.

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6/ Speaking

For many students, speaking is the hardest English skill. It is difficult to

practice and much harder to know when you are doing something wrong.

You can’t check pronunciation in the same way you can check spelling,

can you?

If you are new to an international company, or have just arrived at a

company in an English-speaking country, try these tips.

1/ Become more confident by starting to speak to people such as the

cleaner, the receptionist, the servers in the canteen, drivers and so on.

You can confirm your basic skills with them whenever you meet them.

There is no need to talk to them for a long time, but a little every day will

make you know that you are speaking well.

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2/ Talk to colleagues in the same position as you. In a big company,

there is usually more than one ‘new guy’. Make that a plus by combining

what English you know to improve.

3/ Listen to how colleagues talk to each other and try to imitate them.

You don’t need to do it today, you can wait until you are ready. Make sure

you can speak to only one person in the beginning, then making a

mistake won’t be so embarrassing, which leads on to the next point.

4/ You WILL make mistakes. Deal with it, do not think you will be perfect,

so learn to live with the fact that sometimes you will be embarrassed, and

sometimes you will wish you hadn’t opened your mouth. That’s life! Get

over it!

5/ Nobody is perfect. You will make mistakes, but so will other people.

Don’t think you are the only one to have trouble listening to someone

who speaks quietly, or someone who has a very strong accent.

6/ Try recording what you want to say, then listening to it again. That

way you know what your listener is listening to. That way, you can

change how you sound and become clearer. Little by little, this way is

great to improve. Listen one time for each of the following mistakes:

Fluency, how often do you stop or hesitate? Does your speaking sound

smooth? Grammar, is your simple grammar correct? In China getting

gender correct is difficult. Have you got it right?

7/ Life isn’t the same as an English exam. It doesn’t matter if you hesitate

or repeat yourself so much. Keep trying and you will get better.

8/ Try to socialise with your colleagues, not only so you can practice your

speaking, but so they can get used to the way you speak and either help

you or at least understand you.

9/ Practice small talk. Read this Facebook post on my page pronhelp.com

I have friends in the UK, who I love very much. There is just one problemwith these friends such as Derek, or Emmy, they don’t stop talking,especially about themselves. After I meet them or start talking to themon the phone, they just start talking about all the things they have beendoing, and what they think about what is happening in the world. I don’tmind very much, I have known them for years and know that they aregreat people at heart. To other people, though, they are boring.

Which leads me to some students of mine, who are, like Derek and Emmy,nice people, but all they do is talk. Students such as Walter from China,or Roberto from Brazil speak all the time because it’s easier for them. Ifthey have to take part in a normal 2-way conversation or even worsewithin a larger group, they can hardly communicate at all.

Yes, they have done well to push themselves to speak out. Yes, itimproves their speaking, but it doesn’t make them very popular asconversation partners. Why? Because they are boring!

A much better method for them would be to stop being afraid of makingmistakes and to have conversations like playing tennis or ping-pong. Thatway the conversation goes backwards and forwards from A to B to A to Bcontinuously. That way things can be added to the conversation and so itcan take unexpected directions and is much more fun for both speakers.

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a/ ask a question

b/ answer the question, add a little information, turn that informationaround and ask.

a/ answer the new question, add a little information, turn that infoaround, and ask.

For example -

a/ How are you?

b/ I’m good, but I’ve been very busy. Have you been busy recently?

a/ Not really, I even went to the beach today. Don’t you miss everyonethere?

b/ Of course I do, I really miss hanging out with you guys, but I have toomuch to do. You could help me if you want, earn a little money. What doyou think?

a/ Wow, thanks, that would be great. I need to pay my rent soon. Whatdo you want me to do?

b/ ...........

Now you try!

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10/ And another!

Language Partner

A great way to practice your English and meet interesting people is to geta language partner. There are several sites these days that ease the wayfor you to find such people who want to communicate in your language inreturn for doing the same in theirs.

This can be great fun, but it can also have its pitfalls regarding culturalissues. Some think this contact is the same as teaching each other andwonder why you haven’t prepared. Others seem curious in the beginning,then seem to interview you, and end up interrogating you on every facetof your personal life. These same people can be extremely offendedwhen, for example, you ask how their son is doing.

It’s a good idea to find common ground before getting in touch with alanguage partner. Choose topics before speaking, then try to use bettervocabulary. Give each other mock speaking tests if you are studying forthe same exam. Help each other realise the mistakes you makerepeatedly, but so the conversation suffers. You could even make notesabout them and put them in an email later, although this could beconsidered rude, so agree what you will do before you begin.

Whoever you meet, enjoy it and make the most of the experience. It willbe another step towards your goal.

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11/ One more

When some of my students learn English, they have a really tough timewhen they speak because they can’t ‘hear’ themselves when they aretalking.

So, I change the online platform I am using, then record them chattingwith me. We listen to it all, and I point out the parts that sound good, andthe parts that sound not so good.

They hate it; they hate listening to themselves and often think it is verydifficult. After we have done this exercise a few times, though, they heartheir errors, hear how it could be better.

I then give them an article as homework. Their task is not to answerquestions, remember words, or to improve their grammar, their task is totry to make themselves sound more fluent.

Many people wonder exactly what fluency is, but at this point I just tellthe student that they should try to relax. If they relax when they speak,their listeners will relax when listening, so it will be a pleasurableexperience for them.

If they are making progress when they have their next class, I willchange the task. Try to put your listener to sleep when you read this newarticle, I say. The time after that, it may be to make their listener excited,or sad, or like they are listening to the news.

Once they have improved at these skills, then I encourage them to soundlike the person they want to be. When other people listen to themspeaking English, what kind of person are they going to listen to?

Who would you like to be when you speak English? Why not try thismethod so you know who your listeners are listening to? It’s great forthem, and it does wonders for your confidence! Try it!

Speaking for Tests

I could write a lot about this, but have covered most of the points in myFacebook page posts, so here are the most relevant ones.

Comments I’ve heard about examiners - He was lovely, really friendly,then he gave me a terrible score. She hated me; she kept stopping meand asking me another question. He didn’t let me finish my answer; Ihadn’t answered all the questions on the topic card.

Who are these examiners? Do they hate you so much? No, they’re justpeople doing a very difficult job. When they do these speaking tests, theyhave a queue of people waiting for their tests, so they need to finish yourtest in the allotted time. To make things easier for you if you want yourtest remarked, they record everything, but they record the examiners too.How would you like everything you do at work recorded? I wouldn’t.

So, if they are friendly, they are trying to make it easier for you to feelrelaxed, trying to calm you down because they know it’s very stressful.

If you they stop you and ask another question, it’s because you sound asif you have memorised the answer or you are really struggling. If you arestruggling, they will want to help you by moving on to a differentquestion.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t finish answering the bullet point questionson the topic card, that’s not the task. It’s an English test, not a timing test.If you get stopped, you are taking too long, and they need to be carefulabout their time (see above).

So when you go in, try to be nice to the examiner, they are having a verybusy day and someone who smiles and is polite will make them relaxmore too. It will also relax you, which is more important.

Decide who you are.

In part 1 of the Cambridge tests, the examiner will ask you questionsabout yourself, where you live, what you do, your likes and dislikes andso on.

I don’t want to suggest that you memorise answers, but I really think youshould make some decisions before your test. For most students, at leastone of these questions can cause a problem. An extreme example that Iuse with my students is if they are asked what their favourite food is.

Inside the student’s head, the argument starts. ‘Hamburger or pizza?Hamburger or pizza? Hamburger or pizza?’ But while this is going on, theexaminer hears nothing and only sees a conflicted and confused studentwho isn’t giving a very good first impression. This will make it harder toimprove the examiner’s opinion later in the test.

If you decide who you are BEFORE the test, then most of these littledilemmas will be solved. I lived in Atown until I was a teenager thenmoved to Btown. I was studying mechanical engineering until I changedmy course to Psychiatry. I would say pizza is usually my favourite foodunless I can have a double bacon cheeseburger from McKing’s BurgerHeaven with extra pickles on the side. These are all much, much betterways to begin your answer than ‘eh, eh, eh’.

I repeat that you shouldn’t memorise answers, it’s so easy for theexaminer to tell. Practice as many Part 1 questions as you can and if youhave any conflicts, decide before the test what you will choose, ratherthan exactly what you will say. Good luck!

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It doesn’t matter if it is in Business English or a speaking test, sometimesyou are asked a question, and you have no idea about the topic.

A foreign visitor could ask you about a landmark, or you could get a Part2 topic or Part 3 question about how xyz has developed in your country inthe last decade. What the f***!!!! I can’t know everything, and I’m nearly60 years old, how can a school-leaver or a recent graduate know about awide range of topics and their related vocabulary!

So try this, just say what’s on your mind (as long as it’s polite!), and usethe speculative language so popular in CAE Part 2. I’m sorry, but I haveabsolutely no idea how to answer this question, but I imagine that xyzhas developed incredibly slowly because the overall economy has beendeteriorating for several years.

I’m sorry, but I know nothing about it, but I guess that this landmark hassomething to do with our town’s founders. It seems to me that xyz mustdo very well because I see them advertised in the papers all the time.

When you do this, when you admit that you don’t know, it unblocks yourmind and lets you speak freely. If you think Oh my god, oh my god, whatdoes this mean? I’m so stupid! Why don’t I know this? You don’t speakand your visitor or your examiner thinks less of you.

Try it, it takes some practice to make it sound good, but it definitely helps!Good luck!

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7/ Pronunciation

It is all very well saying that you would like to have a British accent or anAmerican accent, but being understood is the main thing.

There are several common problems related to pronunciation, so if youmanage to work on them, there should be no problems.

StressThis surprising for many students. It’s not the pronunciation of manywords that makes understanding difficult, it’s the word stress that isimportant and the main cause of problems.

Of course in English, there are no reliable rules for students to follow. Forcompound nouns, though, the GENERAL rule is that the stress is on thefirst syllable, or even on the first part.For example,Homework, classroom, headmaster, football, sports car, balletdancer

Changing the position of the stress in a word can cause big problems forthe listener, and sometimes it actually means something different whenthat position changes.record does not mean recordAugust does not mean august

combine does not mean combineproduce does not mean produce

Anyway, you get the idea, if you are interested, there is a big list here

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/heteronym.html

Another problem with stress is for some words it changes as the form ofthe word changes.

photograph - photographer - photographic

politics - political - politician

Knowing that there can be problems is the best thing. Just keep trying todo your best and you will only get better.

The SchwaI live in China, and this is the biggest problem by far. In fact, although Ilive in China, I also teach students from around the world, and this is ahuge pronunciation problem in many countries.

The schwa is the name given to the extra vowel sound, usually at the endof a word giving it an extra syllable.For example,Start becomes startehVillage becomes villagehTop becomes topehBack becomes backehAnd so on

It is still quite easy to understand people who do this, but it is almostimpossible for them to improve and become fluent because it addsanother syllable so the ‘music’ of English changes.

If you have this problem and want to stop it, it isn’t easy.Record yourself on your mobile phone and try to stop yourself. Do a littleevery day and you will improve slowly. Keep doing this, because for mostpeople this mistake was learned from their teacher, so it is difficult tochange. Keep trying!Ed endingsWhen you add the past simple ending ‘ed’ to a word, it changes thepronunciation.

The biggest problem is, many people add a syllable on every word thatthey add an ‘ed’ ending to.Soplease becomes plea sedscream becomes screa medwork becomes wor kedpull becomes pu lled

This really makes your English sound poor. It sounds really bad to nativespeakers and more advanced speakers. If you want to improve, you haveto know this.

You only add a syllable to an ‘ed’ ending if the word ends in a /d/ soundor a /t/ sound.want becomes wan ted = correctcomplicate becomes complica tedneed becomes nee ded = correctdecide becomes deci ded = correct

This is the most important thing. If you remember that if theword ends in a /d/ sound or a /t/ sound, then you add a syllablewhen you add an ‘ed’ ending.

If you look at the table below, there are other pronunciations dependingon whether the final sound is voiced or unvoiced. These are importanttoo, but not as obvious as the problem above.

If you would like to watch a video and read some more information onthis, go to

https://www.pronhelp.com/pronunciation-of-ed-endings/

Final SThe letter S needs to be added to some words when they

a) Are pluralb) Are verbs in the third person

Although many students know to add the S when they spell the word,many don’t realise that it can also change the pronunciation.

This is very similar to ‘ed’ endings, there are three differentpronunciations, but only one adds a syllable. It is this one that soundscompletely different, so speakers should be more careful with it.

If the original word ends in a sound that is sibilant, or has a hissing orbuzzing sound, then a syllable is added.

See the table on the below for details

/i/ v /I:/

This is the most common problem regarding single sounds. Although thisis easily understood, the problem comes with the different sound makinga different word.So

Ship (a large boat) becomes sheep (an animal)

Pill (medicine) becomes peel (to take the skin off of something such asfruit)

Hill (a very small mountain) becomes heel (a part of a foot)

There are some very funny and very rude examples of this, but these arefor another time.

The first step to correcting this problem is to recognise it. Once you knowyou speak like that (many students don’t know) then it takes time andeffort to force yourself to stop doing it. Good luck!

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8/ Writing

If you practice your writing, whether it’s for an exam, Business English,

or something personal, it is best to use good materials. For example, if

you want to practice your writing for an exam, then use official exam

questions, either from the official exam books or other recognised

textbooks. Do NOT use any random question from the internet. If you

practice answering the wrong kinds of question, then it will badly affect

your score.

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Corrections and Feedback

If you would like corrections and feedback on the essays you have

written, click below.

IELTS Essays -

https://www.pronhelp.com/ielts-essay-correction-feedback/

Cambridge B2, C1 & C2 Essays -

https://www.pronhelp.com/cambridge-essay-correction-feedback/

Read the Question

Each test, each letter, email, memo and so on have different types. Make

sure you answer the right question. Don’t just look quickly and answer

the one you think is obvious, read the question carefully. What structure

should you use? What tone? Should you give an opinion? If so, where?

Formal or Informal?

Regardless of what you are writing, you need to be absolutely clear why

you are writing it. Is it a letter, a review, an essay, an article…… If it is a

letter, for example, who is it to? What is it about? Do you know the

person? All these things determine the register, which is the tone you

should use. For example, you would use a different tone writing a letter

to your aunt thanking her for your birthday present than you would

writing to a company complaining about late delivery of an item you had

bought.

Coherence & Cohesion / Planning

Your ideas should flow together, so the reader knows exactly what you

are writing about and why. This is coherence.

Coherence and other aspects can be vastly improved by planning. If you

spend 5 or 10 minutes planning an essay or a few minutes planning an

email, then it will make it much quicker to write and be much clearer.

On a computer, this is easy because you can cut-and-paste ideas in the

right order if you make a mistake. If you are writing by hand, this is not

so easy, so planning is essential.

Punctuation

A very common problem is that many learners aren’t taught anything

about punctuation. Using capital letters, full stops and commas are

essential for readers to understand what you have written. Even putting

capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and at names makes a big

difference.

If you look at an essay question, for example, many will have the correct

capital letters. Use them. If something is labelled ‘Other workers’, don’t

write ‘other workers’ or ‘Other Workers’. They are giving you the answer,

use it.

Structure

For more advanced writers, essay structure is a simple and effective tool

that makes it much easier for the reader to understand. Having an

introduction, two or three body paragraphs, and finishing with a

conclusion sets out your ideas. Remember, if you don’t have a conclusion

in an IELTS Task 2 essay, the task will not be complete, so you will get a

lower score. If you are running out of time, then stop writing your

paragraph and write a quick conclusion!

Conciseness

This leads me to another common problem, especially here in China

where good writing includes lots of description and flowery adverbs.

Essays in exams like IELTS and TOEFL are marked by foreigners who

appreciate clear and concise writing. Clear and concise writing is also

easier to understand if mistakes are made, whereas flowery writing with

too many adverbs and adjectives can lose the meaning easily, and

so lower their score.

Synonyms / Referencing

Rather than trying to use other words (synonyms) to describe something,

try to use phrases, it is much easier. You can also use referencing, which

is describing something as it, them, both, all….. and so on. This saves

time and is much more natural. Changing one word for another with the

same meaning does not always work and can be unnatural. If you use

referencing, however, be accurate, or it becomes confusing!

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Tips

Read the questions carefully, underline the most important parts, andthen plan an answer which addresses all the points required by the task.This will help to produce well-structured and appropriately balancedanswers which deal adequately with each point you need to address.

Practise developing points as fully as possible to show a range ofstructures and vocabulary and to communicate more complex ideaswhere appropriate to the task

Linking ideas effectively is also something you should practise. The flowof ideas in your writing should be logical and easy for the reader to follow.At the level of the Cambridge English: Advanced Writing paper, this caninclude, but should not be limited to, overt linking words and phrases.Using a variety of cohesive devices and organisational patterns is alsoimportant.

Use a range of complex language where appropriate. If you makemistakes when using complex language, the examiner will give credit forthe attempt, provided that the mistakes do not impede communication!

Read the question very carefully in order to perform the task seteffectively. Practice identifying what the task is and what needs to beaddressed

You should get into the habit of planning your answers thoroughly beforeyou write. This will encourage an organised and coherent approach andprevent irrelevant digression. Practice in writing to time will help prepareyou to answer the question under examination conditions and producethe number of words required in the time set and avoid the possibility ofrunning out of time.

Familiarity with the assessment criteria can be another useful part ofpreparation. For the Cambridge exams, candidates are assessed on ascale incorporating four analytic criteria: Content, CommunicativeAchievement, Organisation and Language. For IELTS the criteria are TaskAchievement/Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, andGrammar & Accuracy.

Leave time to proofread what you have written after you have finishedwriting. Also, know which errors you usually make, then correct themfirst before you look for anymore.

IELTS Writing Task 1 Band Descriptors

IELTS WRiting Task 2 Band Descriptors

Cambridge First Writing Assessment criteria

Cambridge Advanced Writing Assessment criteria

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9/ Conversation

When you go to another country, most people are friendly and like to askyou questions about your country and where you come from.Unfortunately, if your English isn’t that good, that’s all you will do, answerquestions. So you have to do two things.

1/ Decide who you are

2/ Be more open

Decide who you are

What does that mean exactly? Well, decide what answers you will give.You can’t tell everyone your life story each time they ask you a question.Are you going to tell them about every single member of your family backhome? Are you going to tell them you used to be married, but are singlenow? Maybe leave that until later.

If you know which questions people are, more likely to ask you, then youcan prepare your answers, so a) your answer is correct, b) you knowwhich information you will give, and c) you know what you want to say, ifyou don’t want to tell the full story.

Be more open

If everyone has to pull information from you, then they will soon tire oftrying, but if you tell them some things, then they will be happier to replyand start a conversation with you.

For example,

A/ I went to see a great movie last night. It was really exciting, and it wascalled The Fast and the Furious 8. Have you seen it yet?

B/ No I haven’t, but I want to. I’ve seen all the other ones. What otherfilms do you like?

Prediction

Prediction is also a good way to control a conversation at first.

You can practice your English conversation with your language partner oronline language partner. But you can also practice your conversationstrategies. These need not be 15 or 30 minute conversations, you canstart with between 1 and 2 minutes.

For example:

A/ Hi Jenny

B/ Hi David. How are you?

A/ Oh not bad. How about you?

B/ I’m OK.

When Jenny asks David “How are you?” she knows David will saysomething like “I’m great”, “Not bad”, “OK” or “Terrible”. She knowsDavid will not answer “Green” or “Aeroplane” or “Hamburger”. She isready for David’s answer, so it’s easy to continue the conversation.

This is a very simple example, but it works for most conversations. Thereare other strategies for ‘surprise’ answers and different circumstances,but there’s not enough room for that here.

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It doesn’t matter if you are at work, school, or just on holiday talk topeople like the cleaners, the doorman, the canteen lady, and so on.

Practice

Start by saying hello, then gradually week by week, add more into yourconversation. Talk about the weather, the football, the news, last night’sTV (if you still watch TV) and so on. Start slowly and it will give you moreconfidence and a lot of practice. Think about it as building yourconversation skills.

Talk to people in shops, at the coffee machine, in class, and it will grow.

Talk to your colleagues or classmates, but listen more. Find out whatthey talk about, but also how they say it. What expressions do they use?What is their intonation like? What is the difference between the waythey talk to their boss and the way they talk to each other?

And through all this, regardless if you are in your own country or anotherone, there are many people in the same situation as you. Talk to themand help each other. It will save a lot of time and money if you do it thisway, and if you are still worried, then get a teacher who can help youevery week/two weeks/month and they will keep you going in the rightdirection.

Think of your self study as being in a classroom. In English class, theteacher will often put you in pairs to practice, so you are talking tosomeone in the same position as you. Sometimes the teacher will comeand help only you. It’s the same idea.

If you are in a meeting, or in a strange situation, speak clearly, don’t beafraid to be open a little, smile, and try to keep your tone friendly.Listening to the way others do this will help.

The most important thing to remember throughout all of this is

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You are not perfect

You will make mistakes, you will make another mistake, and another! Ifyou are afraid of mistakes, then you will learn much more slowly.Mistakes mean you are trying and learn from them. Mistakes are good,and you know, everyone isn’t an English teacher. You won’t get morehomework just because you have made a mistake.

If you want to be perfect, then you will probably find it much harder tospeak because you want to know what you will say is correct before youopen your mouth. That is no fun for you or for your listener.

Sometimes I make videos about English or about my teaching, and afterI have recorded myself I need to edit out all of my mistakes. Yes, I am anative speaker, and I make mistakes! What makes it worse is that I reada script so I include everything I need. So I make lots of mistakes whenI’m reading!!! Think about that.

So when you take any kind of speaking test and you worry about sayingthe wrong word, or you worry about not saying the best word, or youworry that your grammar isn’t perfect. STOP!

You are not perfect. If you were perfect, you would get a 9 in your IELTStest, you would be classed as a native speaker if you are perfect and youtake CPE. You will make mistakes in your test, and the more you worryabout them, the worse your fluency will be. The more you try to think ofthe right word, the worse your hesitation will be. With all this, yourFluency & Coherence score will decrease steadily, just because you wantto be perfect.

Lastly for this section, if you have someone to practice with, a greatwebsite for conversation topics and starter questions ishttp://iteslj.org/questions

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10/ Vocabulary

Some people seem to be obsessed with vocabulary and others just don’tcare. Vocabulary, though, causes several problems. The main one is thatmany students don’t realise that if they want to improve their level, theyalso need to improve their vocabulary. It’s not as easy as you think.

Vocabulary Problems

1/ Middle School Vocabulary

Changing the vocabulary you learned in middle school. Many peopleassume there is only one word for each action or object. Unfortunately,that isn’t true, so there are many words that mean more or less (but notexactly) the same. How can you expect to get a good score in anadvanced English test such as IELTS or CPE if you use words you learnedin middle school? You need to change these words to form noun phrasesor collocations to improve.

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2/ Formal or Informal

Knowing when to use formal or informal words. English learners learnEnglish, but most of them don’t learn the way native speakers speak andwrite. Native speakers use two or three-word phrases all the time whenspeaking or writing, and students learn these as phrasal verbs orcollocations. Although the vast majority of phrasal verbs are informal,collocations aren’t, so it’s vital to know what your task is EXACTLY. Thatway, you will use the correct register you will know when to use formal,semi-formal, or informal. IELTS essays are ALWAYS formal academicessays, for example.

3/ Overuse

Many good essays or speaking tests are spoiled because the student haslearned ‘better’ words, but they either use them poorly, or try to use somany that their reader or listener do not understand what they are tryingto say. Although you must try to use better vocabulary, you MUST beunderstood, otherwise your score will drop, or your partner will findsomeone else to communicate with.

4/ Word Forms

Using the correct form of a word. Here is one of my Facebook postsabout this.

My students are like most others and love to learn new vocabulary.Learning new words in English can let you express yourself in new anddifferent ways. Well, some of the time.

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Learning new words is fine, but to benefit fully, students must learn thedifferent form of the words, noun, verb, adjective, maybe evencompound noun.

Let’s use the adjective ‘free’ as an example. As well as being an adjective‘free’ could be part of a collocation such as ‘free ride’, ‘free speaking’, or‘free wheeling’. It could also be part of a phrasal verb such as ‘free up’.

But to get the full benefit, you need to use the other parts of the word too,such as ‘freedom’ (noun) or ‘freely’ (adverb). If you have someknowledge of changing the form of words, then it should prevent youfrom getting stuck and becoming confused, especially in your speaking orwriting test.

The best way to do this is just to practice. Listen to how native speakersspeak and make reading a daily 15 minute habit and it will surprise youhow simple it is when different words are linked by a common meaning.I’ve said this before, but regular reading is the best solution for learningEnglish in the long term. Make it a habit and the things you learn willsurprise you.

Tip

An excellent way to practice using the correct form of words is to practiceUse of English questions from the Cambridge First (B2), Advanced (C1),and Proficiency (C2) tests.

These can be found in the Cambridge books for these tests and also inforums and Facebook pages related to these tests.

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How to improve your vocabulary?

As usual, if you want to improve any English skill, the best way to do it isto read.

Reading is a great way to improve, but it is really a long-term strategy. Ifyou want your kids to learn English well, for example, read to them whenthey are young, and teach them to enjoy reading English as young aspossible. That will give them a great start on the road to consistentEnglish learning.

Learning vocabulary is not a competition, you need not learn every word,it’s almost impossible. The secret is to learn them so you can use them.There are a few ways to do that.

1/ Love & Hate

Which words do you love? Which do you hate? These are the words thatwill be easiest to remember and easiest to use.

2/ Heard or Read

Which words have you heard or read? These too will be easier toremember because you have used them in a context already.

3/ Topic Vocabulary

Learn topic vocabulary so you can talk about different subjects. This isespecially useful in IELTS Writing because some topics are used morethan others, such as government, health, education, tourism, technology,and crime.

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What kind of vocabulary to learn

There are various kinds of words and phrases to learn;Here are some ofthe most useful ones.

One means two:

For example

Light brown = tan

Very loud = deafening

Poor person = pauper

A little funny = amusing

Extremely big = huge

Not as good as expected = inferior

Gentle rain = drizzle

Smile widely = grin

Very boring = mundane

Learning words such as these is an excellent way to improve. Think offirst words, such as very, big, small, light, dark and so on to give youdirection. Remember, practising them is important too.

Collocations

Collocations can be very hard to learn because it is so difficult to knowhow native speakers speak naturally. You really need to learn them anduse them as you go.

Examples

Have a cold

Pose a problem

Create jobs

Happily married

Struck up a friendship

Casual acquaintances

Reach a verdict

Suffer the consequences

Take your time

There are thousands of collocations, so just do what you can, and try touse them as you learn. That way you’ll be more confident and they’ll alsobe easier to remember.

Phrasal Verbs

They are informal, so you can use them with informal writing andspeaking, but not in IELTS essays or other formal writing. There are somany of them, it’s difficult to know which ones to learn, and the problemsreally start if you get the parts mixed up, because the meanings aredifferent!

Phrasal verb = verb + preposition

If you know what the preposition means, then you can usually guesswhat the phrasal verb means.

For example,

Pick up

Follow up

Stick in

Stand out

Put up

Give over

Idioms

I really enjoy teaching idioms because they are good fun and students tryto use them all the time. The problem is, the idioms that are fun alsohave a story and are usually long, such as.

The grass is always greener on the other side

Once in a blue moon

To sound like a broken record

To give someone the cold shoulder

They are great, but when a student speaks, then uses an idiom, it’s as ifthe idiom is pronounced completely differently and it really soundsunnatural. This may be OK in the classroom, but in a test or speaking tosomeone important, it’s terrible!

So the best idioms to use are the short ones. They are easier toremember and sound much more natural when a language learner usesthem.

For example,

On the fence

A far cry from

A blessing in disguise

To miss the boat

Idioms like these sound much more natural, but they should be usedsparingly. If you have to answer five questions, for example, only usetwo or three idioms. If you use too many, that will sound even worse!

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How to learn new vocabulary

There are many ways to learn English these days and many ways to learnvocabulary, you could keep a notebook for new words or you could usean app on your mobile phone. There are pros and cons about both.

Keeping a notebook

It’s quicker and easier to write a new word in your notebook than turn onyour phone, open an app, and type the word in.

Apps

Most people carry their phones with them wherever they go, so you canlearn new words anywhere: on the bus, while you eat your breakfast,watching TV, in bed even.

If you use an app, you don’t need to sit down with your book and studythe same words again and again.

Although, sometimes it’s much easier to find a word in a book than in anapp.

Best Apps for vocabulary

Search for the apps on Apple or Android

Quizlet - https://quizlet.com

This is the one I use for my students and for the blog posts I write. I thinkit’s easy to use, easy to find existing material, and easy to make yourown.

Memrize - https://decks.memrise.com/

Although Memrise also teaches you a language, this is the link forlearning vocabulary.

Anki - https://apps.ankiweb.net/

There are many great features with Anki, but sometimes it's tricky to use.

11/ Grammar

Grammar is not essential for meaning in most very simple English, but itis necessary for accuracy, especially if you want to take an English test.Most English tests have a grammar component and it is an important partof improving your test score and consequently your English level.

Often, the biggest problem for English learners is the simple grammar.They know it in their tests, they know it if they are corrected, but far toooften, they forget it when they speak. In the student’s head, they havelearned this, so it should be easy. They often concentrate on moreadvanced grammar, trying to push themselves forward to the next test,and a higher level. Unfortunately, they usually get the harder grammarcorrect, but make too many errors using the simple stuff. Here are someexamples of that more simple grammar that makes up most errors inboth speaking and writing.

1/ subject-verb agreement

The most common error comes from

I have, You have, We have, He has, She has, It has, They have and so on

I am only using the verb ‘have’ as an example here, it could be do, play,go, fly or any verb

When you use pronouns, it’s easy enough to remember, so many of uslearned it at school when we were young.

But when you use another subject, it becomes harder. Know whether thesubject is singular (one) or plural (more than one).

For example:

The man is driving the car - correct

The men are driving the car - grammar is correct, but only one personcan drive a car!

Here are some rules from dailywritingtips.com that you can use to helpyou. As ever, practise using them when you are speaking, and you willremember them more easily.

1. Use verbs that agree with a subject, not with a noun that ispart of a modifying phrase or clause between verb and subject:

“The pot of eggs is boiling on the stove.”

2. Use singular or plural verbs that agree with the subject, notwith the complement of the subject:

“My favorite type of movie is comedies,” but “Comedies are my favoritetype of movie.”

3. Use singular verbs with singular indefinite pronouns — each,the “-bodies,” “-ones,” and “-things”(anybody, everyone, nothing), and the like:

“Neither is correct.” (And, just as in rule number 1, the presence of amodifier is irrelevant: “Neither of them is correct.”)

4. Use plural verbs with plural indefinite pronouns:

“Many outcomes are possible.”

5. Use singular verbs with uncountable nouns that follow anindefinite pronoun:

“All the paint is dried up.”

6. Use plural verbs with countable nouns that follow anindefinite pronoun:

“All the nails are spilled on the floor.”

7. Use plural verbs with compound subjects that include and:

“The dog and the cat are outside.”

8. Use plural verbs or singular verbs, depending on the form ofthe noun nearest the verb, with compound subjects thatinclude nor or or:

“Either the dog or the cats are responsible for the mess.” (“Either thecats or the dog is responsible for the mess” is also technically correct butis awkward.)

9. Use singular verbs with inverted subjects that includesingular nouns:

“Why is my hat outside in the rain?”

10. Use plural verbs with inverted subjects (those beginningwith the expletive there rather than the actual subject) thatinclude plural nouns:

“There are several hats outside in the rain.”

11. Use singular or plural verbs with collective nouns dependingon meaning:

“His staff is assembled,” but “Staff are asked to go to the conferenceroom immediately.” (In the first sentence, the emphasis is on the body ofemployees; in the second sentence, the focus is on compliance by eachindividual in the body of employees.)

12. Use singular verbs for designations of entities, such asnations or organizations, or compositions, such as books orfilms:

“The United Nations is headquartered in New York.”

13. Use singular verbs for subjects plural in form but singular inmeaning:

“Physics is my favorite subject.”

14. Use singular or plural verbs for subjects plural in form butplural or singular in meaning depending on the context:

“The economics of the situation are complicated,” but “Economics is acomplicated topic.”

15. Use plural verbs for subjects plural in form and meaning:

“The tweezers are in the cupboard.”

16. Use singular verbs in constructions of the form “the only oneof those (blank) who . . .”:

“I am the only one of my friends who does not tweet.”

17. Use singular verbs in constructions of the form “the numberof (blank) . . .”:

“The number of people here boggles the mind.”

18. Use plural verbs in constructions of the form “a number of(blank) . . .”:

“A number of people here disagree.”

19. Use singular verbs in construction of the forms “every(blank) . . .” and “many a (blank) . . .”:

2/ Countable and Uncountable Nouns

As you may have noticed above, often subject-verb agreement dependson whether the subject is countable or uncountable.

This is a very useful info-graphic from 7-esl.com about countable anduncountable nouns, but the biggest problem with them is

Things that are uncountable have countable parts

For example:

Bread - uncountable

A slice of bread - countable

Rice - uncountable

A grain of rice - countable

Hair - uncountable

A hair - countable

Water - uncountable

A bottle/glass of water - countable

Grass - uncountable

A blade of grass - countable

Gold - uncountable

A bar of gold - countable

Physics - uncountable

A physics book - countable

Snow - uncountable

A snowflake - countable

Rain - uncountable

A raindrop - countable

Jewelry - uncountable

A piece of jewelry - countable

The list is very long, but you just need to remember

An amount of an uncountable noun makes it become countable

Also, here is an interesting extract from George Mason University WritingCentre that is adapted from Grammar Choices for Graduate andProfessional Writers by Nigel A. Caplan.

Here count = countable, noncount = uncountable

Before forming plurals correctly, it is important to understand thedifference between count and noncount nouns.

Count nouns are the nouns that we can physically count (e.g. one table,two tables, three tables), so they make a distinction between singularand plural forms.

Noncount nouns are the nouns that cannot be counted, and they do notmake a distinction between singular and plural forms. Although thesenouns may refer to large quantities of things, they act like singular nounsgrammatically.

Noncount nouns:

· Never take the plural ending “s”· Always take a singular verb· Cannot be used with the indefinite article “a/an” and are frequently

used with no article at all

· Are used with collective quantity words like “a lot of,” “some,” “any,”“much,” or “more,” instead of count words like “many,” “several,”“two,” or “few.”

If you work on an academic paper, keep these noncount nouns in mindbecause they are often misused: money, research, advice, knowledge,information, and evidence (NOT moneys, researches, advices, etc.).

The following categories of words frequently contain noncount nouns:

Category Words Examples

Abstractions Beauty, revenge,knowledge,progress, poverty

Ignorance causes poverty.

Liquids and gases water, beer, air,gasoline, milk

Gas is cheaper than oil.Wine is my favoritebeverage.

Materials gold, silver, wood,glass, san

He had a will made of iron.Gold is more valuable thansilver.

Categories of food rice, flour, cheese,salt, yogur

Bread is delicious.Meat and cheese are sourcesof protein.

Languages French, English,Korean

Navejo is a complexlanguage. Do you speakGerman?

Academic fields physics, astronomy,music

Philosophy is a difficultsubject. My brother ismajoring in biology.

Sports and games tennis, golf,basketball

Do you play chess? Soccer isbecoming more popular inAmerica.

Weather fog, wind, snow Severe drought can causefamine.The city of Buffalo gets moresnow than most cities in NewYork state.

Naturalphenomena

gravity, nuclearenergy, magnetism

Electricity is a form ofenergy. Newton discoveredthe principles of gravity.

Gerunds (verbalnouns)

running, singing,smoking

Swimming is excellentexercise. Sleeping duringclass is not recommended.

Groups of things ofvarying size andshape

jewelry, garbage,luggage, equipment

Fine jewelry is expensive.Trash was throwneverywhere i the room.

More rules for noncount nouns:

Rule Explanation Example

How do youdenote aspecificnumber orquantity ofnoncountnouns?

Use count nouns such as piece,ton, cup, etc. paired with of and aplural verb.

Ten pieces ofjewelry werestolen.

What aboutgeneralquantities?

Use general words such as more,much, a lot of, less, and a largequantity of, but keep yournoncount noun singular.

We need to domore research.

A lot of valuableinformation iscontained in thispaper.

What if thenoncount noun

As soon as you specify a noncountnoun by attaching a defining

The beauty of thenight was

is definite? phrase to it, you must use the justas you would with any other noun.

overwhelming.

The informationthat you gave mewas valuable.

(VS. Informationis valuable.)

Do somenon-countnouns take theending –s?

Yes, some noncounts nouns, forexample news,physics, andspecies, end in –s.This ending, however, is not aplural ending – this is simply theway a noun ends. These words willtake a singular verb as any othernon-count verb.

This news isimportant.

Physics is myfavorite subject.

Note: Some nouns can be used as either non-count or count nouns, andthe meaning of these nouns changes slightly depending on the formbeing used. The non-count form refers to the whole idea or quantity,whereas the count noun refers to a specific example or type.

Noncount Count

(1a) Linguistics is the studyof language.

(2a) To paint requires a lotof work.

(3a) This wine is delicious.

(1b) Some languages, like English andSpanish, are international.

(2b) This painting is a work of art.

(3b) The wines of France are famous.

Adapted from: Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writersby Nigel A. Caplan

3/ Articles

Articles are another tricky aspect of grammar. You can have no article, a,an, or the. Which one do you use? Here is another huge list, this timefrom grammarbank.com

Table of Articles

NUMBER INDEFINITE DEFINITE

Singular a / an the

Plural nothing the

Non-Count nothing the

Quick Hints

a before consonants (a book)an before vowels (an exam)

Pronunciation is what matters.an hour ('h' is silent and it's pronounced: an our)

Temporary illnesses: (I have a headache, a cold, a fever, abackache)

"The" with superlative forms (He is the smartest kid I haveseen.)

Some Rules using Articles

Singular count nouns:

· indefinite: use 'a'· definite: use "the"

My daughter wants to buy a dog this weekend. (Indefinite-Could be anydog)The dog in the backyard is very cute.(Definite-The one in the backyard)

He requested a puppy for his birthday.He wanted the puppy he played with at the pet shop.She ordered a hamburger without onions.

Did you drink the coke I just ordered?

Plural count nouns:

Use "the" or Nothing, never 'a'.

Come and look at the children. (definite)Children are always curious. (indefinite)She loves flowers. (indefinite)The flowers in her garden are beautiful. (definite)Do you like reading grammar rules?Do you like reading the grammar rules on this page?

Non-count nouns:

Use "the" or nothing.

He has experience. (if indefinite or mentioned for the first time)He has the experience necessary for the job. (if definite or mentionedbefore)

The medicine the doctor prescribed had unpleasant side effects.Writing in a second language is especially challenging.Have you studied the history of South Africa?History reminds us that events repeat themselves.

Definite Article THE Rules

Adjectives as Nouns

When referring to a group of people by use of an adjective rather than anoun, use "the".

the elderly the disabled the unemployed

the rich the sick the needy

the homeless the young the restless

Names of Countries

Some countries are preceded by "the", usually if the name is plural,contains an adjective, or includes "of".

The United States The Soviet Union The Republic of Congo

America Russia Spain

Japan China Mexico

Cities and Streets use nothing

Chicago Fifth Avenue San Francisco

Highway 5 London Kennedy blvd.

Rivers, Oceans, Seas, Groups of Mountains & Islands use "the"

the Amazon the Atlantic the Mediterranean

the Cascades the Hawaiian Islands the Bahamas

Numbers

Cardinal numbers(1,2,3) use nothing

World War 2 Page 7 Chapter 1

Mission 1 Paragraph 5 Channel 6

Ordinal numbers (1st,2nd,3rd) use "the"

The Second World War the seventh page the first chapter

the first mission the fifth paragraph the sixth channel

Titles of People

When a title is given with a name, use nothing

President Mitchel Queen Mary Professor Scott

When a title is used without a name, use "the"

The president the queen the professor

Schools

When a school has "of" in its title, use "the"

The University of Arizona The University of London Chapter 2

When a school does not have "of" in its title, use nothing

Lincoln HighSchool

Arizona StateUniversity

Liverpool John MooresUniversity

Location versus Activity

When referring to an activity, use nothingI am going to school now.(activity-study)He is always on time for class. (activity-learn)

When referring to the location, use "the"

The meeting is at the school. (location-campus)They are remodelling the movie theater. (location-building)The new student had trouble finding the class. (location-classroom)

Unique Objects - Use THE

the earth the human race the world

the moon the sun the universe

Part of a larger group, Use THE

-One of the students-None of the students-Both of the students-All of the students

There is a great site called www.breakingnewenglish.com whichpublishes two or three texts each week. Each one has several exercises,and there is always one on a, an, the, or no article.

See the picture on the next page to see how to get the link each time. Goto www.breakingnewsenglish, click on a headline for an article, go to thegrammar section in the top bar, then click on The / An / A to go to theexercise. It’s a great way to practice regularly. Good luck!

4/ Proper NounsIn writing it is often difficult to know when to use a Capitalletter and when not to. This table extracted from The GeorgeMason university Writing Centre explains.

Proper nouns refer to particular persons, places, and things by name.They are always capitalized.

Category Examples

Geographical names France, the Atlantic Ocean, Chicago, theAmazon River, the Rocky Mountains

Religions andnationalities

Catholicism, Buddhists, Chinese, Islam,Muslims, North Americans, Christianity

Historical or artisticperiods and events

World War II, Impressionism, the Middle Ages,the Civil War, the Renaissance

Days, months, orholidays

Labor Day, Thursday, April, New Year’s Eve, theFourth of July, Easter

Brand or companynames

Pepsi-Cola, Sony, the Bank of America, AmericaExpress, Quaker Oats, Cadillac

Titles of publicationsor published work

New York Times (newspaper), War and Peace(novel), “Stopping by the Woods on a SnowyEvening” (poem)

People (includingtheir titles)

Mr. and Mrs. Bob Jones, Lord Byron, PresidentLincoln, King James, Senator Black

Course titles (but notfields of study)

He is taking Philosophy 101. He is studyingphilosophy.

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Articles and Proper Nouns

You use no article withsingular proper nouns, and“the” with plural ones. Forexample, France vs. theUnited States; MountEverest vs. the Himalayas;Cuba vs. the Bahamas, etc.However, there are manyexceptions. Here are somesub-rules that may behelpful:Rules

Examples

Any name with aprepositional phrasecontaining "of" will take“the”

the Republic of....the University of Michigan (vs. HarvardUniversity)the Gulf of...the Straits of...the Isle of Wight (vs. Paradise Island)the Fourth of July (vs. Thanksgiving)

Oceans, seas, and riverstake “the” Lakes and streetstake zero article

I live near the Atlantic Ocean, the HudsonRiverI live on Lake Ontario, Mulberry Street,Route 64, Fifth Avenue.

Exceptions: the Pennsylvania Turnpike,the Bro River Parkway

General regions take “the”the South, the Riviera, the East Side, theArtic, the Western Hemisphere

Nouns of nationality use noarticle when referring to alanguageNouns of nationality take“the” when referring to apeople group

Chinese is a difficult language.The Chinese are an industrious people.Note: The Chinese language is difficult.(Here “Chinese” is acting as an adjective.)

5/ Prepositions

There are prepositions for many things but mainly place, time anddirection. Most of them are self explanatory, but time can be very tricky.Here are two info-graphics from Woodford English to show you what tosay regarding time.

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Another common error is the difference between the prepositions ofplace - in and on. They are at the bottom of the picture.

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As mentioned in the section on articles,www.breakingnewsenglish.com has lots of quizzes, there are alsoquizzes about prepositions for each text they publish. The link is alwaysright under the link in the Grammar section for The, An, A.

Please remember that English differs from other languages in that mostof its rules have exceptions, and even now, professors are arguing aboutwho is using correct grammar. Do your best and keep practicing!

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12/ Teacher

Having a teacher to help you means different things to different people.

For many, it will be the teacher they have when they attend their English

class each week at a local language school, for others it may be their

English teacher at school or university.

These days, however, many English students find their teachers online,

which is much more convenient for everyone concerned. It cuts out

travel time, and in most cases, the student has their own personal

teacher without sharing them with other students in the class. This

makes most of the classes more meaningful and the student learns more

quickly.

However, there are some drawbacks to this arrangement.

Online teachers teach for money, it’s their job. They have to pay tax, and

either pay commission to a website that finds students for them, or they

have to market their own services so students can find them.

It’s not an easy life, but it’s very interesting work.

If you don’t have much money, then it would be best for you to find a

local class if you want to take an exam such IELTS or CAE. If you try to

find a free or very cheap online teacher to help you, it is likely you will

waste your money.

It’s ok to study on your own, but sometimes it’s good to have someone

to help you keep doing the right things.

Although it’s ok to study on your own.it’s even better to have someone

you can talk to if you find the work difficult, or if you need to reassure

yourself that you are on the right road to success.

I remember many years ago being on a train in China speaking to one

steward; he had learned all of his English by himself. I knew he was

trying to speak English, but I couldn’t understand him very well. After a

few minutes, I realised he was pronouncing every syllable in each word.

His grammar and vocabulary were actually very good, but his English

would have been so much better if he had had a teacher to help him.

I have students who learn by themselves and then come to me for a class

or two so they know they’re going in the right direction and then move on

and learn more by themselves again. These students are self motivated.

I help them with their speaking and often correct and give feedback on

their writing be email.

Go here for details.

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Conclusion

All these methods help each other, as one method improves, others will

too.

The method for routine will help you organize yourself

The method for reading will help your writing

The method for writing will help your speaking

The method for speaking will help your listening

The method for listening will help your conversation

The method for conversation will help you reach your goals

Reaching your goal can mean a new life.

Sometimes it’s easy to work alone, but sometimes it isn’t. If you need

someone to help you or guide you through your self study, contact

alan@pronhelp.com and book a trial lesson to plan your studies.

Thank you again for downloading this ebook and thank you for reading.

Alan

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