The ESL market is slow to catch on with all new technology.  If you do a quick search on the Itunes store, you’ll find some apps for the Iphone, Ipad, and Ipod touch.  The thing is that most of these apps have been made by people who want to take advantage of this great new market, rather than by people who actually want to make quality products.  Often, being there first gets you money in the business world.  It is unfortunately often more important than content quality.

The good news is that there is more and more competition and new apps coming out all the time.  Eventually, the good ones will win over the bad ones.  There are ESL apps for kids, (children’s games, puzzle’s etc) as well as ESL apps for intermediate and advanced students.

I believe that the best kind of English learning app is one with good audio content that is matched with the written stuff.  The quality of the material is more important for learning than how cool the app looks.  This will be more of a functional type app rather than a flashy one.

For obvious business reasons, podcasts seem to be less important on the new app store.  They are free and Apple makes a % of each app sold.  The kind of app we are making is a free one with many podcasts and learning material.  It’s easy to navigate and you can learn on the go.  The first reason we wanted to enter this market was to get more exposure to our podcast.  We wanted to find new customers that would otherwise not have found us.  Since then, we’ve realized that we can actually improve our product and make English learning that much easier.

If you can actually read this article, even if it’s a bit difficult for you, than it means your English is already good enough for you to really benefit from our fun English learning free app.  Listen to 1 lesson per day for 30 days and you’ll find that your English will have improved more than it would have in a whole year of school classes.  Check it out!

Improving your Ielts, Toeic, and Toefl scores just got a lot easier thanks to the Iphone and other smart phones.

Most people have a lot of dead time during a typical day.  They ride the subway to work, take long lunch breaks, walk around the grocery store etc.  This time that most people waste is a perfect chance to put your new Iphone to work.  You can download MP3s and other cool apps.  If you use your “dead time” wisely, you can improve your test scores during a time that you would usually just waste.  Listening to ESL podcasts is an amazing way to improve your listening.  If you want to pass the Toefl or any of the other tests, you need good listening skills.  This only comes with putting in the necessary time.  This improved listening will allow you to learn English more passively.  Your speaking will become better as a result.  You may not notice a huge improvement at first, but try this method for 1 month and you won’t believe how much better your test scores and general English has become.  Most people are still wasting all this precious time instead of putting their Iphone to use.  The other cool thing is that if you study during times when you can’t do anything fun, you will have a lot more free time to do the stuff you want to do instead of feeling guilty for not studying enough.  Download some of our ESL podcasts to your Iphone and listen for 20 minutes a day for the next month and see for yourself.  We’ve literally had thousands of people email us from all over the world telling us how much their English improved from doing this.  If you can read this article, your English is good enough to listen to our show.  Just don’t blame me when you become addicted to it!  It’s a lot of fun.

English learning is going to get a lot easier, cooler, and cheaper, thanks to products like the Iphone 3 and Iphone 4. English lessons have always been behind technology but things are going to be a lot different now. Traditional schools are still a huge business, so they like to make people believe that school is necessary, but honestly, it’s really not anymore. I learned Chinese through podcasts and Apps. Actually, millions of people are doing this all over the world. Large companies are going to pay attention to this so they will make a lot of Iphone Apps for learning English vocabulary, slang, Toeic, Toefl, writing, and pretty much anything else you can think of. This smart phone revolution is here to stay. The problem is that most of what will be offered will be of poor quality. Successful companies are good at marketing and earning money. It’s not really necessary that they make a high quality app. Think about it. If they can make one quickly that looks good on the Itunes store, people will use it because it’s what they see first. As long as the quality looks “ok” many people will buy. I still can’t believe that airports still sell books for learning English. Have you ever seen one of these? They are terrible and could have been written 50 years ago. The point is they know people will be bored in airports and want to buy something. If the cover looks fine, people will buy.

We are taking a totally different approach. We don’t have a huge marketing budget and don’t really care. We believe in making cool English learning apps and ESL lessons for the Iphone and giving them away for free. We know from experience that if the quality is good, friends will tell friends.

We’re a couple of Canadian brothers living in Shanghai China. We’ve been making cool English lessons for the past several years. Our goal is to make you speak like a real native speaker in a fun and easy way. We won’t email you a bunch of garbage. We treat our users as real friends. Sign up for our free VIP lessons below and experience for yourself why our method of MP3 mobile English learning is awesome.

The first part of the IELTS test is the introduction part which is discussed at Sample Questions in IELTS Exam

The second part of the IELTS test is the presentation.

Speaking practice for IELTS Presentation

For this section of the IELTS test, your examiner will give you a topic, and you will then have one minute to prepare for the presentation.  You can make notes for your presentation.  Then you will have to talk about the topic for between 1-2 minutes.  The examiner won’t ask you any questions while you are presenting, but may ask one or two about your presentation after.

How to prepare for the IELTS Presentation?

After you get your topic, write down key vocabulary that you think will be important to talk about for your presentation.   DO NOT write full sentences down and try and write the entire speech.  You won’t have enough time to do this.  After you write down some important vocabulary, try and make a brief outline for your presentation, with a few simple questions and points you will want to make.  Do this as concisely as possible as you only have one minute for preparation.  If you have any remaining time after this, add anything else you think might be helpful for your IELTS presentation.

These topics are very general so you should be able to talk for much more than 2 minutes if you wanted to.

An example preparation for the IELTS presentation

Here is an example of a topic you might receive.

Topic:  Career

Here might be how you would want to prepare on your paper:

Job, Occupation, Salary, raise, rewarding, vacation, challenging, education

Outline:

What?

Why Choose?

Where School?

How Long?

Future?

IELTS Presentation:

After your minute is up, you will be required to present.  You can look at the information your wrote down on your paper while presenting.   It is good to use some of the phrases and vocabulary that you thought of if you can, but don’t worry so much.  Try and answer the brief questions you made on your outline, and think of any other questions that should be answered about your topic.  Always be trying to answer questions with who, what , why , where, when or the 5 W’s and you should easily be able to talk about this general topic in detail for 2 minutes.

Tips for the IELTS Presentation

If you get stuck at anytime try and answer briefly and move on.  Don’t get stuck on one detail and ruin your entire presentation.  Also, if you get stuck on a detail about your topic, remember that you are being scored on how you speak, and not on the accuracy of the content.  So if you are talking about a topic, or are trying to express your opinion, it is important to try and speak well and “sound good” rather than having really good arguments.

If your presenter asks you a few questions at the end of your presentation, don’t worry too much about these and you can give short simple answers.  If you struggle on this part don’t worry, as it won’t really affect your IELTS score.

Every ESL teacher knows that some questions stimulate great conversation, while others just get blank stares. How to ask good ESL questions to stimulate conversation in the ESL classroom:

1.  Make sure the question is at the appropriate level.

It’s tempting to want to ask questions that you personally find interesting, but if your questions are at a higher level than your students, you won’t get a good response.

2.  The question needs to be something that the student has an answer for.

If you ask a student a question about the economy for example, they might not even know how to answer the question in their own language, let alone in English.

3.  Make sure that your question isn’t culturally sensitive or something that may cause embarrassment.

These questions can be fun to ask, but without the right class, you won’t get the response you are hoping for.

4.  Your question should be one that the student finds interesting.

You will have to play around a little bit to see where your class is.  Pay attention to what seems to get them excited.  Remember that the same things you find interesting could very well not be the same as what the students find interesting.  I used to run into this problem a lot.

In the IELTS Exam, the first part is the introduction.  In this section, the examiner will greet you, and ask you a few simple questions about you and your life.  They may also ask you a few follow up questions and get you to describe a few details as they come up in conversation.  Even if your spoken English level isn’t really high, you should do well on this part of the IELTS exam if you practice answering questions about yourself.

You cannot know exactly what the IELTS examiner will ask, but you can practice answering general topics.  You can use these answers on the IELTS exam.

Here are some practice topics for the introduction part of the IELTS exam:

• Job
• Family
• Education
• Hobbies
• Hometown
• Lifestyle
• Spare time activities

Sample Questions in IELTS Exam - Introduction

You should prepare possible questions and answers for each of these topics. Here are some sample questions for the IELTS Exam that you should know for your introduction.  Let’s choose one of the topics to show how you might prepare some sample questions.

Let’s choose “family” as a topic.  If you want to describe your family or talk about them, you should think of all the words you might need to describe them.  Start by brainstorming a list of words relating to family.  It is important to develop a good list of vocabulary because your IELTS exam score is related to you giving clear quick answers, and showing your ability to communicate topics using a variety of vocabulary and phrases.

brainstorm some words relating to family:

• father
• step-mother
• cousin
• uncle
• immediate family
• extended family

You will also want to be able to describe people in your family so you should have vocabulary prepared for that.

• retired
• outgoing
• stressed
• single
• engaged
• married
• jobs

Think of some practice questions that an examiner may ask you relating to these. Think of as many questions as you can and make answers to them.

• Is your dad retired?
• What kind of family do you have?
• What do people in your family do?
• Tell me about your brother
• Has your family always lived in the same place?

It is also a good idea to prepare a sample paragraph describing your family.  Don’t memorize this!  Practice using the vocabulary about your topic in full sentences.  Also, if you can, get a partner to ask you questions about your family.  Repeat this process for all topics relating to your introduction, and you should be ready for the first part of the IELTS exam.

Online teaching opportunities for ESL are popping up all the time as technologies like Skype get cheaper and faster. Teaching online has several advantages over traditional teaching:

1. No commute - this obviously saves a lot of time and money

2. You can wear what you like - no one will know if you are teaching in your underwear; another time and energy saver.

3. Flexible hours - Since neither you nor the student needs to commute, you may be able to arrange a deal where you teach spontaneously. If you happen to both be online and free, you could agree to teach right then and there.

The supply of online teachers will soar because many native English speakers still living in their home countries will be competing for jobs. This excess supply will dramatically lower the price that ESL teachers will be able to charge. If you want to earn a reasonable salary teaching online, you need to differentiate yourself from the less experienced teachers. You will also want to look for opportunities where the students are less price sensitive. Some students will be learning online to save money. If that’s the case, they will be more likely to choose lower priced teachers. Other students will be learning ESL online in order to save time. Business executives may be in this boat for example. These students will likely be looking for better teachers regardless of the price, within reason of course.

As a teacher, you should be well prepared and have excellent ideas planned in advance. Many online teachers just log on and hope for the best. A good online teacher will be able to stimulate conversation and also give homework. It’s a great idea to give your student something to practice on their own time so that you have something to talk about when you meet online. Designing a good program will allow the student to improve much more quickly, without adding to your workload. A little thought will go a long way. If you do a great job, it’s quite likely you will get good referrals from their friends. Discussing the free podcasts offered on this website, including the business English ones, is an excellent way to teach online. Get your students to download and listen to a podcast 3-4 times. Then ask them to write down any questions that they have about the lesson. When you meet online, be prepared to discuss the episode and ask the student some thought provoking questions about it. Both you and the student will enjoy the session and the time will fly by.

Good listening skills are essential for any ESL learner. Here are some tips for an ESL teacher to keep in mind when teaching their students listening skills:

1. Make sure the listening material is at the right level

If the material is too difficult, students can spend hours listening without making any improvement at all. They won’t just “pick up” the language if it is too hard. Imagine yourself listening to native speakers talk in a language you don’t understand at all. It just sounds like noise and you won’t learn much if anything from it. Many expats who have lived in China for over 10 years can barely utter a few sentences in Chinese even though they hear it all the time. If the material is too easy, students won’t learn much either. Their listening speed might improve a bit, but that’s about it. The key is to teach students to listen to something that challenges them but doesn’t overwhelm them. The first time through, understanding the general idea is great. After the second time, they should be able to understand more than the first time. After listening 3 or 4 times they should be able to understand about 70-90% of what is being said. That level will allow them to get the gist of new words in context.

2. Make the enjoyable and interesting to listen to.

Listening to sentences like, “Today is a beautiful day. I feel so happy when it is warm and sunny” is boring. No one talks like that anyway. Just because the students aren’t great English speakers yet, doesn’t mean deserve to be bored to death. Sentences like “That girl is really good looking. I always get nervous when I see her” is more interesting but no easier. You should make things age appropriate of course, but just remember that easy doesn’t mean boring.

3. Teach students to discuss what they heard

After getting the students to listen to something 3 or 4 times, ask them some questions about what they heard. You can start by asking some simple content questions to give them some confidence and make sure they understood the main idea. Then slowly add more thought provoking and opinion type questions. You can ask ask the boys if they get nervous around pretty girls for example. Then you can ask they girls why they think the boys might be nervous. Again, you need to know your class and what kind of content they would like. Just make sure you are providing interesting and relevant material to listen to. Don’t forget that we are in the 21st century. Listening to old fashioned language and opinions is not a great way to teach.

Try listening to some of the podcasts on this website and give your students a chance to hear them too. They are designed with all of the above points in mind. Tens of thousands of students from around the world listen daily. The talk show style of each show makes the listening experience enjoyable, and the students soon forget that they are even learning.

English is the international language of business and in today’s global economy, it’s becoming more and more important to understand the English in business.

Becoming a good speaker in business English is a lot more than simply knowing the English phrases used in business. If you just know the English terms for business, but don’t practice speaking and listening on many topics, your English will sound slow and choppy. I’ve heard several speakers with an excellent vocabulary for business English, but they sound really boring to listen to.

You’ll find a lot of useful English in business if you watch business TV or read the business section of English newspapers. This will give you the English in context, which is much better than memorizing a list of business English terms.

Another great way to improve your English for business purposes is to take advantage of this free ESL website. We provide a lot of useful podcasts you can download for free and listen to on either your computer or mp3 player. We have a business English section as well as a weekly show for daily spoken English. Both of these sections are extremely useful for improving your English for business. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the Discussion forum. Good luck!

Learning business English online has 3 major advantages over learning Business English from traditional schools.

1. Learning online is more convenient than learning offline since you can study by yourself anytime of the day. You don’t have to work around your English teacher’s schedule. You also don’t have to waste time and money driving to the school.

2. Business English online programs are usually much cheaper than traditional business English schools. This website for example allows you to learn both business English and regular spoken English for free.

3. Learning business English online allows you to learn at your own pace. You can spend as much or as little time as you like with each topic. It also gives you the freedom to choose only the business topics that apply to you.

There is also one drawback to learning business English online.

1. You need to make sure you stay motivated while learning online. You won’t have the class or the teacher to motivate you. If you slack off, then no one will know but you. You need to have the self-discipline in order to succeed.