English learning tips

Enhancing your English skills

Guide on supporting and developing your English language skill

Advice and tips to improve your English

Using Google to aid your learning

AI & simple tools to develop your English

Helpful websites to develop your English

Click on "Advice" to learn tips on improving your English

I neeD TO TRANSLATE TEXT to understand

it takes me a long time to read articles in english

advice

advice

i don't speak in class because my english is bad

it's difficult to talk in english

advice

advice

i can't understand what the tutor is saying

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advice

Using Google to help develop your English

Typing in a word + meaning on Google gives you a definition and sentence examples. Typing in a word + pronounciation on Google lets you listen to how the word is pronounced.

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Simple online tools to help develop your English

You can use AI to help you generate ideas to practice speaking - not translation or grammar correction. You can only use them for specific tasks, so ensure you speak with your tutor if you plan to use AI to generate ideas. Please check out AI Guidance for students to better understand how you could correctly use AI. Using AI incorrectly can lead to academic misconduct.

Generative AI Guidance for Students

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Chat GPT (OpenAI)

Helpful websites

TedTalks

Short English presentations about new ideas that worth sharing. Help with listening skills and presentation skills

Click on the name of the website to check out these helpful resources for improving your English

BBC Learning English

Educational English learning materials: online lessons, practice exercises, downloads, and quizzes.

Dictionaries

Free online dictionary with definitions, pictures, example sentences, synonyms and quizzes.

English Language Apps

Free English courses with short vocabulary and grammar lessons.

Listening Exercises and Practice

High-quality language learning resources designed specifically for adult learners.

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Dictionaries:

Oxford Dictionary

Longman Dictionary of Contermporary English Online

If you need to use translators to understand texts, articles, e-mails, here are some steps to help you develop your English:Try to:

• Translate one word or phrase you don't understand at a time, instead of translating sentences.
• Try to find out the meaning of English words you don't understand on the Internet: example 'methodology meaning/ what does methodology mean'
• Print the articles you need to read, highlight the words you don't understand
• Write a list of the English words/phrases you don't understand and what they mean
• Try not to translate the entire text - this will not help you develop your English!

For a list of a lot of English language apps, look at these websites:

ESL Lab

Elllo

Many Things

English Listening

British Council

Sounds of English

For a list of a lot of English language apps, look at these websites:

Fluentu

Duolingo

Linguatics

Preply

Preply

Reading articles or long texts in a foreign language can be difficult! Here is some advice to help you: Try to:

• Read our 'I need to translate text to understand' section
• Try not to translate the entire article! Reading in English will help you develop your English writing & reading skills
• Don't overdo it! If you need to read 20 pages in 1 week, don't read 10 pages per day if you can't, try to read 4 pages every day.
• Take breaks! Reading in a foreign language can be tiring and difficult. If it stops making sense, stop, take a break, and come back when you feel ready.

It can be difficult to talk in English if you have never used it before coming to the UK. Here are some tips to help:Try to:

• Talk to people outside of the center. When you shop, try to talk to people/cashiers (talk about the weather, or ask how their day/weekend is!)
• When you are outside, don't listen to music! Listen to the people talking near you, this will help you with conversational English!
• Try to sit next to people from different countries in classes. If you sit next to people in your home country and they talk in your native language, ask them to talk in English!

It can be difficult to understand English in the UK - the accents you can hear can be very thick. Here is some advice:Try to:

• Instead of listening to music when you are outside, try to listen to an English podcast
• If you watch TV shows or movies, try to watch them in English (dubbed or with English subtitles)
• If you are finding it difficult to

It can be difficult to talk in academic English. Here are some tips to help:Try to:

• Read articles/text out loud. Reading out loud will help you get used to saying different words or phrases.
• When at home, you can search how to say difficult words online - on YouTube or Google, write down 'how to pronounce X' OR 'X pronounciation'
• When the tutor is asking a question in class, if you don't want to answer in class, try to answer it in your head in English
• Build up your confidence by talking in a small group, before talking in front of the class!