english-at-home.com » English speaking

Taking part in English conversations

Clare — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:22:30 +0000

What's the most difficult thing when you have a conversation in English?

Is it…
- not understanding the other person?
- not remembering the right word to use?
- being too slow to reply – i.e. if you translate into your language before replying in English?
- feeling embarrasssed about speaking in a foreign language?

Or something else?

In How to keep a conversation going I gave some tips for taking part in a conversation by using only a few words. Is this advice helpful to you, or are there other, bigger problems with English conversations?

Do you dream in English?

Clare — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:58:09 +0000

Experts say that dreaming is our brain's way of ordering the day's events. So if you've been studying English during the day, do you ever dream at night in English? Can you have conversations in your dreams where you / others speak English confidently or without mistakes? Are your conversations simple or complex?

Greeting someone after a long time

Clare — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:08:45 +0000

Things you can say in English when you meet someone you haven't seen in a long time.

Some greetings
Long time no see!
Wow! Haven't seen you in ages!
I don't believe it! It's…. (name of person)

Complimenting the other person
I hardly recognised you!
You look well!
You look great!

Some questions you can ask
How's life treating you?
What have you been up to recently?
Are you still in… (name of town)
How's …. (name of mutual friend)

Tongue twisters

Clare — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:18:48 +0000

Try these tongue twisters to improve your pronunciation of vowels and consonants. (The article is about improving your singing.)

Pronunciation problems

Clare — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:24:17 +0000

The other day I was with a class of adult students who worry about their English pronunciation. We were doing an exercise to practise linking sounds. For example:

"My sister's son is seven years old."

I was trying to demonstrate that some of the 's' in the sentence are pronounced /z/ (as in "years old") and that when there are two 's' ("sister's son") we only pronounce one of them.

But then it struck me that a lot of correct pronunciation comes naturally. If you allow your mouth to "make the decisions", your pronunciation is correct. For example, it's almost impossible to pronounce the 's' in "years old" as an 's' without pausing the sentence – the mouth naturally makes a /z/ sound to make the sentence flow.

In some cases, I think that trying to remember pronunciation rules can be counter-productive. Instead, trust your mouth to find the right sounds!