Lingofeeds - Putting English to Work

Presentation Skills - Dos & Dont’s

2009-09-09T18:17:34+00:00

There are a wide variety of presentation skills that you need to master to effectively speak at conferences, business meetings, etc. In fact, you can easily spend thousands of dollars perfecting your presentation skills. Non-native speakers can add the following points to the list of presentations skills that need to be developed: There are a wide variety of presentation skills that you need to master to effectively speak at conferences, business meetings, etc. In fact, you can easily spend thousands of dollars perfecting your presentation skills. Of course, that’s all on top of having to present in English! Non-native speakers can add the following points to the list of presentations skills that need to be developed: Pronunciation Skills: Let’s face it: Without good pronunciation, it’s hard to communicate your best ideas no matter how good your powerpoint presentation looks! Cultural Awareness Skills: Know your audience is the first and most important rule of good presentation skills. If you are presenting in English, you’ll not only need to know your audience, you’ll need to know something about their cultural background. Improving Pronunciation Skills: Tips Practice Makes Perfect Speaking in front of an audience is very different from speaking with your English teacher. You’ll need to get up in front of a class, in front of some colleagues, or at least in front of the mirror. Practice makes perfect. Your Friend Mike Make sure the microphone is your friend. What I mean by this, is that you need to work with a microphone on your presentation skills in English. Even if you feel comfortable speaking into a microphone, speaking a foreign language into that microphone can be a wholly different experience. Record Yourself This relates back to practice, practice, practice. Make sure to record yourself and listen back often. Even better, ask your teacher / colleague / helper to listen to your recording together with you to help point out difficulties. Keep Language Use and Pronunciation Separate Obviously your presentation needs to be as grammatically correct as possible. However, don’t get good grammar mixed up with good pronunciation. Each area needs work, focus on each separately so that you can focus on the specific steps you need to take to improve your presentation skills. Stay tuned for the next blogpost which will provide tips on cultural awareness.

Key Phrase Pages

2009-09-02T00:51:39+00:00

On the right hand side of the page you will find specific key phrases. The purpose of these pages is to provide specific phrases in a number of different contexts to help you with understanding, as well as pronunciation. Here’s an example: Cash flow Definition: A measure of a company’s financial health. Equals cash receipts minus cash payments over a given period of time. Example Sentences I’m sorry but we can’t approve a loan if your overall business cash flow is not in the black. On the right hand side of the page you will find specific key phrases. The purpose of these pages is to provide specific phrases in a number of different contexts to help you with understanding, as well as pronunciation. Here’s an example: Cash flow Definition: A measure of a company’s financial health. Equals cash receipts minus cash payments over a given period of time. Example Sentences I’m sorry but we can’t approve a loan if your overall business cash flow is not in the black. I must object to the cash flow statement. The positive cash flow looks like a result of borrowed funds. To maintain a positive cash flow, we must reduce expenditures as much as possible.

Understanding Collocations

2009-08-26T17:20:48+00:00

Understanding the use of collocations is essential to improving your professional English. Collocations are expected combinations of words. Often other words may be perfectly correct grammatically, however they are not expected. Understanding the use of collocations is essential to improving your professional English. Let’s start off with a definition of collocation: An arrangement or juxtaposition of words or other elements, especially those that commonly co-occur, as budding entrepreneur, uncanny knack, or manufacturing plant. Collocations are expected combinations of words. Often other words may be perfectly correct grammatically, however they are not expected. Here’s an example using a phrase from the example collocations in the definition. Jack’s a budding entrepreneur and I’m sure he’ll be successful soon. You could say: Jack’s a beginning entrepreneur .... However, it just doesn’t ‘sound’ right to someone who is fluent in English. Here’s another example: Alison has an uncanny knack for acquiring new clients. Alison has a strange knack for acquiring ... makes perfect sense, but a native speaker is much more inclined to use ‘uncanny knack’ because it is a strong collocation. Getting these word combinations right really makes all the difference. These expected phrases help listeners because they signal concepts understood by all.

Looking for Testers

2009-08-19T17:50:26+00:00

Lingofeeds is working towards the goal of providing English learning in specific, professional situations. The idea is that rather than learn grammar and usage in general areas, it’s better to focus on learning English in your chosen profession. Lingofeeds is also looking for a group of testers to help provide feedback on the site. In exchange for free access to the entire site, we’ll ask for simple feedback on what works and what you think we can do to improve our site. Lingofeeds is looking for English learners and teachers to make up a group of testers to help improve the site. In exchange for free access to the entire site, we’ll ask for simple feedback on what works and what you think we can do to improve our site. If you are interested please send an email to Lingofeeds stating your interest in becoming a tester. We’ll get right back with a free access username and password. There are limited free accounts available, so please sign up soon! Lingofeeds is working towards the goal of providing English learning in specific, professional situations. The idea is that rather than learn grammar and usage in general areas, it’s better to focus on learning English in your chosen profession. By focusing on key phrases and specific contexts, you can improve your English and put it to work right away. Instead of studying English and then trying to import the jargon for your profession into your studies, Lingofeeds is committed to incorporating professional context, and jargon into the English learning experience. Here’s an example: Let’s say you are working for an international bank. You’d like to brush up on your English. A standard grammar book you might find in class would provide an example like this: ‘Although’, ‘even though’, and ‘though’ all introduce a full clause that includes both subject and verb. The three expressions can be used interchangeably. Although Examples: Although it was time to go, Peter decided to stay another hour. Jane decided to move to Alaska, although the weather is very cold. Studying English with Lingofeeds resources you’ll find examples that are far more relevant to your professional and career goals: ‘Although’, ‘even though’, and ‘though’ all introduce a full clause that includes both subject and verb. The three expressions can be used interchangeably. Although Example: I decided to open a savings bank account although I wanted to open a fixed bank account. Although the stock is low, a new shipment has been ordered.

Wordmap

2009-08-17T23:12:58+00:00

Using http://www.wordle.net/ is a great way to visualize vocabulary. Here’s a tip: If you’re working on an important presentation, copy the text of your presentation into the box at Wordle.net to see which concepts are most important in your presentation. Next, ask yourself if these words accurately represent what you are trying to present. If not, it’s time to re-write that text! You may have noticed the wordmap on the homepage. This is far more than an interesting graphic - although I do think it’s pretty. Image by http://www.wordle.net/ This wordmap represents the degree to which these keywords play a role in Lingofeeds’ first course in English for Business and Commerce. I ran all the example sentences (more than 1,500) through http://www.wordle.net/ to get an interesting picture of key words and phrases found in the course. I’ll be doing this for future courses as well. In the meantime, this gives a great picture of the type of vocabulary and phrases you’ll be dealing with in the course. Using http://www.wordle.net/ is a great way to visualize vocabulary. Here’s a tip: If you’re working on an important presentation, copy the text of your presentation into the box at Wordle.net to see which concepts are most important in your presentation. Next, ask yourself if these words accurately represent what you are trying to present. If not, it’s time to re-write that text!

Lingofeeds Launch

2009-08-17T22:18:57+00:00

Lingofeeds launches with its initial offering of a course for English for Business and Commerce. Lingofeeds launches with its initial offering of a course for English for Business and Commerce. Each course includes: - More than 80 pages of grammar and English usage explanations - 1,500 example sentences for pronunciation practice - Each example sentence is accompanied by an audio example - Four native speakers providing audio examples - 300 Key phrase pages providing a wide variety of example sentences focusing on a given industry specific key phrase Other industries will be included soon (English for Information Technology, English for Medical Purposes, etc.) In this way, you can improve your English by studying specific examples in your chosen profession.