Have you ever attended lessons where the tutor invariably asks you to describe your weekend? Conversation in class should be varied because life is varied. There are more scenarios than weekends! Complaining, presenting information, discussing delivery terms, talking about finance, asking for a discount and many others. Unfortunately, classroom time is limited so it’s advisable…

Go for private classes or small groups There is an inverse relation between class size and learning speed. Conversation is essential to learn a language and speaking for more than just a few minutes is almost impossible in large groups. Also, it is difficult to get individual attention in a big class so problems that…

Errors and students go together. Otherwise, pupils would be teachers! Here you have a booklet with common mistakes English students make. It has two parts. The first includes correct and incorrect examples. The second shows which one is right. Yan can download it for free here:www.andymiles.com PS: if you find a mistake in my list of…

An easy way to improve your English is to make sure your reading, listening, fluency, writing, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are at similar levels. For example, if your grammar is worse than your fluency, your sentences will be too simple to transmit complex ideas. If your pronunciation is stronger than your listening, you’ll have trouble…

Record yourself reading your notes, going over main points or just repeating what you find hard to remember. Recording and listening to yourself helps you learn in two ways. Firstly, it makes you think about the pronunciation of a word or phrase before you say it; secondly, when you repeat something, it strengthens your memory. Recording…

I always try to do these things in my business English lessons: Read Andrew’s business English books here: www.anadymiles.com

Why Teacher, Why? As teachers, we know that people learn differently. Some students remember songs and stories. Others always ask for explanations. If there’s someone in your class who can’t really take things in until they’ve fully understood them, you might want to read about one of my students, Laura. Laura We had a class…

By Andrew D. Miles from www.englishforbusiness.es If you’re planning to provide language training to businesses in Spain, understanding FUNDAE is crucial. This government agency distributes funds to companies for employee training. Languages fall within their umbrella. Once registered, your school can use FUNDAE’s online platform to enrol courses in their system. When lessons finish, it…

Companies sometimes go bankrupt. Schools sometimes go broke. It’s hard to know exactly when (and if) this will happen, but there are three signs to watch: If any of these three happen, start looking for another job. If two happen, get out now. If it’s all three, contact your union! Read Andrew’s books on business…

Understanding oral English is hard. There are many accents and words that are written differently but sound the same. However, there are some aspects that affect comprehension but are not directly connected to pronunciation or accent. Gestures Fortunately, most gestures are international. Others, however, belong to more restricted cultures and can sometimes cause confusion. What…