Spoken English

HERE ARE SOME TIPS FOR YOU FOR LEARNING OR IMPROVING YOUR SPOKEN ENGLISH

There is a free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation.

Just click over the pink words to hear them spoken at www.howjsay.com/index.php?word.

You can also go to: http://englishphonetics4u.blogspot.com

Learn English vocab for free online with sound and pictures

Click onto www.learnenglish.de/

Here is a friendly English native teacher for you to contact

http://www.italki.com/T008169345.htm

Apart from Italki you can find language partners to chat to at www.sharedtalk.com

You can chat with a robot on this site, but its replies may not be logical!!!

www.eslfast.com/robot

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN ENGLISH FOR ONE DAY

Immerse yourself in English for one whole day each week if possible. Listen to songs, watch movies and have a conversation with yourself as you do things, for example say to yourself: Now I am going outside and then I am going to walk to the bus stop. As you walk, describe the things you see: There is a cute dog , what a lovely coat, that tree has beautiful cherry blossoms, doesn't it? You can also keep a diary or post your thought in Notebook at the top of this page. Try this with a friend just for fun. Go to a cafe and talk in English the whole time.

Here is a free online translation service: http://free-translator.imtranslator.net

Italki member Retsam has developed a small program for helping learner to memorize the new words, This is for helping you to understand the idea of Splitting The Word. Just like breaking a big problem into pieces of small problems.

Click the first letter of the next part and the program will break up the word for you. Click the '-' symbol and the program will recover it.

http://www.dreamjourney.cn/WCARD/wcard/kc_word.asp?E1=creativit

HOW TO WRITE A TALK SHOW SCRIPT? Click onto the link:

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/blackboard/scriptsheet.html

FREE WEBSITES FOR LEARNING ENGLISH CONVERSATION PRACTICE

Learn American English for free Online

This website offers free instruction to people around the world who want to learn American English. www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/

For an American accent, have a look at this video:

www.videojug.com/film/how-to-do-an-american-accent3 min

This video gives you a brief overview of the "General American" accent. Important letters and pronunciation are emphasized .

English Daily - Learn American idioms, English conversation Learn English by conversation,common mistakes,exercises,slang. www.englishdaily626.com/

# Focus on English: ESL Conversation Online Listen to dialogues, learn idioms and everyday English, practice giving response to ... Online Learning. Everyday English in Conversation · English in Focus ... www.focusenglish.com/

# Everyday English in Conversation Enjoy learning conversational English online! ... In this section, we will focus on learning idiomatic and everyday expressions to help us deal with daily ... www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html -

# Learn English Free Online English Conversation · A chat room for live English practice. A chance to talk online with native speakers. ... Now with daily, weekly and monthly content. ... The Learn English Online site has free English lessons for beginners. ... www.learnenglish.de/

American and British English differences: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences

These are great websites for English pronunciation practice;

http://www.elllo.org/

http://shiporsheep.com

http://www.audioenglish.net/ can be found here at Italki.

If you want to record your own voice to send to someone, try using Audacity (download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) and 'export as mp3' to send.

There's a list of other free download programs here: http://www.mymusictools.com/free/voice-recorder.htm

If you want a British accent look at http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Listening/

http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Sp...Pronunciation/

To hear the English Alphabet and sentences go to:

www.smartcode.com/downloads/alphabet-english.html

To hear exactly how to say, 'What's your name?' go to; http://genkienglish.net/mynameis.

If you want a British accent practise speaking using different mouth positions until you can do it. Try recording yourself and comparing it to a British speaker on TV. Check these out for sources: http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Listening/

http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Sp...Pronunciation/

ITALKI SITES FOR CHINESE STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH

Hi. These sites will help you learn English. You can learn English using Chinese at Italki. go to:

http://www.italki.com/knowledge/learn-English-Chinese.htm

Here are the Italki English/ Chinese speakers. Email some of them and invite them to be your friend or language partner. Set up a time to chat on skype. Remember the time differences between countries, If there is a green light next to a person's name, it means that they are on line. Good luck! Click on here:

http://www.italki.com/partners/1-Chinese-English200-00-0.htm

There is a free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation.

Just click over the pink words to hear them spoken at www.howjsay.com/index.php?word.

http://www.taisha.org/ is recommended by other Italki members

Italki member Courtney recommends this voice chat study group for learning English

我看见有一个可以skype聊天的group,但是没什么人去，最好还是在语言伙伴里找人，然后加他再语音吧，祝你好运

Also for Chinese speakers learning English have a look at Quick Speaker

还在为去国外旅游无法独自开口表达而烦恼吗? 有了 QuickSpeaker 这一切将变得轻松简单!

QuickSpeaker 根据在外国旅游或生活中常遇到的不同场景，分为20大类，超过3000条日常用句，每条句子都包含专业的翻译及纯正的英语发音，通过您的手机,让您真正做到随用随学，沟通随时随地 !

http://www.quickspeaker.com

HOW TO GREET PEOPLE IN ENGLISH From Italki member Cherry

Hi / Hello How are you? I am fine thank you

What's up? (very informal, probably with close friends) How are you doing? (very informal) Very well, thank you. And you? (formal) Fine / Great (informal)

Good morning / afternoon / evening. It was a pleasure seeing you. Goodbye / Bye. See you (later). Later (very informal )

Another way to put it : How are you ? "Fine thanks, and you?" "Fine thanks, what about yourself?" "Not bad." Or "Can't complain."

When meeting people for the first at work for example ,which is quite formal , you can say: I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Antman from --* Company's name for example* Nice to meet you . I 'm Peter M from - ~~Pleased to meet you. I'm Peter M from~~ ----

Introducing a friend to a work colleague: * a little formal as well* "Sarah, have you met my colleague Antman?" or "Sarah, I'd like you to meet my colleague Antman "Pleased to meet you, Antman." Or "Nice to meet you, Antman."

See you ;)

For conversation practice , go up to Italki's home page and click onto Language Partners to find a native speaker. If the chat system doesn't work go onto to MSN on Yahoo or Hotmail. Try the free SKYPE program www.skype.com

Other Italki members have also suggested: http://www.mebeam.com and www.paltalk.com

You can improve your spoken English in the following ways.

1. Read a lot and in a loud voice.

When you find that there is a word and you don't know its right pronunciation, you can go to www.webster.com and you can check to see if you have the right pronunciation.

Here a variety of sites provided by Italki member Cherry to help you speak better English:

- http://www.englishryan.com/ ( this is an audio video supported site for learning English , it helps you to listen and speak better ). - http://www.english4today.com/usr/video/ytv/. - http://www.englishpartneronline.com/ - http://freelanguage.org/learn-english/goals/speak-better-english. Start reading simple children's books or fairy tales as they are the easiest to understand.

2.Talk with English native speakers near your home / at your work place or via Italki . Ask them that if they notice that if you say something wrong or pronounce a word in a wrong way to please correct your pronunciation.

3.Concentrate while you are talking and use the the correct tense (past or present or future) eg I AM pleased to see you today. present Yesterday I WAS pleased to see you. past Tomorrow I WILL BE pleased to see you.future

4, Improve your listening skills, because listening will help you to imitate English speech patterns and to speak correctly. Please refer to my other post 'Improving your listening skills' for more tips.

Italki member Cherry has provided the sites below on how to use idiomatic expression in your speech. Be careful, as sometimes they can sound quite strange coming from a non native English speaker!

Here are some sites including English idiomatic expressions:

http://www.english-test.net/esl/english-idiomatic-expressions.html

http://www.englishdaily626.com/slang.php

http://esl.about.com/library/glossary/blglossary_a.htm

5.You can watch English movies with subtitles in your own language so that you can listen to speech patterns and pronunciation.

As inspiration, have you looked at The Daily English Show? Italki member Froopy wrote that it is a short video made by a New Zealand woman living in Japan, and is for language learning.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=thedailyenglishshow&view=videos&sort=v

6.Vocabulary is always the most important thing, so improving your vocabulary should always be your highest priority. If you know the words, you are going to have it much easier to understand what people are saying, otherwise it can get very frustrating.

So for example, http://www.flashcardexchange.com/ or www.byki.com are two valuable sites.

Expose yourself to the spoken language as much as possible by watching dvds or television or radio, it is very useful, even if you might not understand what they are talking about at all, over time it usually gets easier. From Italki member Olli

BE AWARE OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES E.G. BODY LANGUAGE ETC. THAT MAY DIFFER FROM YOUR OWN CULTURE: CHECK OUT THESE WEBSITES

http://www.amazon.com/Taboos-Around-World-Roger-Axtell/dp/0471595284/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231102134&sr=8-1and the sequel called Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language around the World http://www.amazon.com/Gestures-Taboos-Language-Around-World/dp/0471183423/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231102235&sr=8-2by Roger E. Axtell.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS/ DEBATES/IMPROMPTU SPEECHES/ORAL BOOK REVIEWS

Pronunciation in Spoken English is very important. Students can learn Phonetic Symbols as each one has a special sound. Once you learn them you will be on your way to correct pronunciation. Unfortunately there are no set pronunciation rules for English.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ to learn Phonetic Symbols and all about Pronunciation.

Your oral presentation depends on your audience!

What is your audience looking for?

What is the topic on which you will speak?

Is it meant to be serious or humorous?

Make sure that whatever the subject and whatever the audience, talk to them as if to an individual...

Look them in the eyes and make them listen by using persuasive words/phrases e.g. I am sure you'll all agree with me, how would YOU feel if......etc to get to their emotions.

Be sure that you are aware of what your body language is saying at all times.. be careful how you act, stand, hold your notes/cue cards. Your body speaks the loudest and can be understood by everyone in any language.

HELP IS AVAILABLE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS.

There are 2 DVDS available for purchase for English teachers who want their students to enter Public Speaking contests. One DVD is the 2007 Victorian State final and the other provides professional development for teachers & students.

The cost is $AUS20 including postage and the order form is available from the VCAA website VICTORIAN CURRICULUM and ASSESSMENT AUTHORITY Go to: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/excellenceawards/plainenglishspeaking/index.html

TIPS FOR MEMORIZING VOCABULARY USED IN DEBATES/TALKS/IMPROMPTU SPEECHES.

Use Mnemonics, which are techniques to encode the information in your brain through the use of; brightly coloured index cards,eg oral presentations, speeches etc formulas to remember that Gallipoli is in Turkey, write GT & association of facts with vivid or weird images.

AN EASY LESSON USING SPOKEN ENGLISH- INTERVIEWING EACH OTHER

For example tell the class that today we are going to be journalists & practice interviews they can use a pen as a microphone Divide the students into pairs.Write the interview questions o the board that you want the students to ask each other, depending on their level of vocab, eg what's your name? where do you live? How many brothers & sister do you have etc. Each pair interviews each other and then writes down their friend's answer. Give them 10 minutes. Then each pair comes up to the front of the class and interviews each other. The class can vote for the best interview. That pair can leave class 2-3 minutes early as a reward.

ITALKI HELP IS AVAILABLE FROM NORMAN TO IMPROVE STUDENTS' SPOKEN ENGLISH.

Students can join Norman's forum: "The English Reading Club" http://onemansword.com/simplemachinesforum/ Just click on "Register" and fill in the information. There are also other Italki members there, he also runs a "live classroom" where he teaches English. Norman also recommends a couple of good websites where you can hear them pronounce the words you want to learn in English: http://www.elllo.org/ and http://www.howjsay.com/ and http://shiporsheep.com

USING MOVIES TO IMPROVE SPOKEN ENGLISH

This is an excellent site full of useful suggestions on how to Use Movies to Improve Your English Language Speaking Skills.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Movies-to-Improve-Your-English-Language-Speaking-Skills-in-One-Week-

LANGUAGE GAMES AS A WAY OF LEARNING SPOKEN ENGLISH

1. Games- pair work- elementary and intermediate for learning English

http://www.italki.com/files/doc/f3aac893-0f32-402e-aae3-62eca86bbf80.htm

2. Games and Activities for learning English

( http://www.italki.com/files/doc/43202c55-8231-4200-8350-6deb5ea82b19.htm)

3. ENGLISH BRAIN STORMERS!

(http://www.italki.com/files/doc/49712d2c-9f1a-4ce2-9802-e3f2874915d5.htm)

4. ALOUETTE- Lyrics and Music to a game learning parts of the body for BEGINNERS.

English Translation: Alouette means "Lark", so you will find it is much harder to sing this song in English since "lark" has only one syllable, ... just sing Aloutte & then say the part of the body , as in the song. You might find this translated on the net in your mother tongue.

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/alouette.htm -

5. You can play SIMON SAYS which is similar to Alouette . eg the teacher stands in front of the class & says: Simon says put your hands on your HEAD. If anyone gets it wrong they have to stand to one side. then you go through most parts of the body. The teacher can alter the pace of the game depending on the ability of the students.

6. You can also visit http://esl.about.com/od/advancedenglish/Learning_English_for_the_Advanced_Level_ESL_EFL_Advanced_English.htm http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/headway

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

Here's a good site that has listings for both dialects: http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/usgbdiff.html#b2a

MORE WEBSITES FOR LEARNING ENGLISH RECOMMENDED BY ITALKI MEMBER SOPHIE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/  http://www.elllo.org/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.usingenglish.com/  http://www.englishpage.com/  http://www.tolearnenglish.com/  http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/headway/  http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/  http://wordweb.info/free/ 