Ideas to Practice English

Ideas to Practice English

Laura Victoria Toro ZapataPrograma de Inglés para Ingenieros Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Antioquia

Last Update 02/2022

Why should you learn English?

English is the international language of communication for commerce, finances, and the scientific field.

It is very important for working in many national and multinational companies.

It is one of the most used languages around the world

Knowing English allows us to access more information. From scientific journals to movies and series in their original language.

We can learn about new cultures. From English-speaking countries to other countries, using English as the common language among different cultures.

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Why should you learn English?

"Knowing English could increase the salary of a professional in Colombia by a third and increases their chances of getting a better job by 50 percent."

Revista Portafolio

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Why should you learn English?

Source: Duolingo

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Ideas to practice each of the Skills

Reading

Writing

INFO

INFO

Listening

Speaking

INFO

INFO

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Reading

• Reading Activities: Beginner to Advanced level

Reading Exercises

• Reading world news

New York Times

BBC News

The Guardian

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Reading

• Improve your Vocabulary

Vocabulary app

• List of Proverbs, Idioms, and Sayings

Common Idioms

Food idioms

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Reading

• Practice reading along using Google (works on Android using your microphone)

Read Along - Google

• Stories / Audiobooks

Read stories to improve

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Reading & Listening

• You can read books from Project Gutenberg, and sometimes you can find the same version in an audiobook from Librivox, and read as you listen.

Project Gutenberg

Librivox

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Writing

• Reviewing GRAMMAR

BRITISH CONCIL

It has different levels. You could start with the beginner levels and move on to the more difficult levels.

Grammar Monster

Activities and games to practice grammar

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Writing

• Improve your writing by practicing different tasks, from beginner to advanced (it uses AI to check your writing)

Write & Improve(with Cambridge)

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Listening

There are many resources to practice Listening depending of your interests and available time.

Short < 30 min

ESL-Lab

Website to practice with short audios. It has different levels and inmediate feedback.

TED Talks

Mini-Conferencesabout different topics: Engineering, Science, Humanities, among others...

Big-Questions with Oxford Sparks

Podcasts about Engineering (and other topics). University of Oxford

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Listening

There are many resources to practice Listening depending of your interests and available time.

Short < 30 min

Lyrics Training

Website to practice with songs.

ESL Video

Short videos with fill-in-the-blanks and multiple-choice questions.

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Listening

There are many resources to practice Listening depending of your interests and available time.

Not so short (Long) > 30 min

MIT Open courseware

MIT courses, including course materials and class recordings.

Yale University Courses

Yale University courses, including course materials and class recordings.

Harvard University Courses

Harvard University courses, including course materials and class recordings.

Stanford University Courses

Stanford University courses, including course materials and class recordings.

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Listening

There are many resources to practice Listening depending of your interests and available time.

Podcasts

Environmental Engineering Podcast

Engineering Podcast

Civil Engineering Podcast

Renovable energies Podcast

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Listening

There are many resources to practice Listening depending of your interests and available time.

Podcasts

BioEngineering Podcast

Bioengineering Podcast

Bioengineering Podcast

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Listening

There are many resources to practice Listening depending of your interests and available time.

Podcasts

Managment and Productivity Podcast

Soccer Podcast

Math Podcast

Astronomy Podcast

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Speaking

Find an English conversation partner Look for a a person trying to learn Spanish, and you can practice your English skills.

Conversation Exchange

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Speaking

Practice Interview questions with an Artificial Intelligence site

Interview Warmup

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Speaking

Try to answer questions with your cellphone Works with Android). You need to activate it on your cellphone, after that, you can use it on your computer. - Open Google Chrome on your cellphone - Search: "traductor" or "traducción" - Find the option "Practicar". - After you activate it, you can use it on your computer on speak.google.com.

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Speaking

Record yourself on a cellphone or computer: - Talk about what you did yesterday, last weekend, your last trip (Past tense) - Talk about your plans for the future, what are you planning for the next weekend, next semester. (Future tense) -Give directions: to and from your home to different places. Then listen to the recording

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Speaking

Improving your pronunciation: Pronunciation

Elsa Speak: Cellphone app. It has a free option (that is the option I use). It works with the cellphone microphone.

Another idea: - Select English as one of your input Language for your cellphone. - Open Gmail and create a new message. - Select the microphone and start speaking (dictate) in English. In that way you can check the words you say and check your pronunciation PD: It is not perfect, but it helps.

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Challenge: Switch your Cellphone configuration and Google account to English Example: Every day, instead of... "Enviar un mensaje" you can... "Send a message"

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Remember that the best way to improve is to practice! Practice makes perfect

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