Do you need to explain that there’s about half the chance something happens? Use the auxiliary “could” or these adverbs: “perhaps, possibly, maybe.” The story behind this tip It was 1991. I was helping the financial manager of a German company with a presentation to his group director in Dusseldorf. It was an important meeting…

Better business English: Make sure people understand what is important Foreign language students sometimes find it hard to get listeners to comprehend everything they say. Here are some techniques you can use: Is it vital? Say so People are not listening all the time so introduce important points with the right words, such as “This…

If you are not sure whether your English is getting better, ask yourself three questions: Can I define what I learnt today? People should be able to remember exactly what they study in each class. If the answer is “We talked about many things but I can’t remember even one new word” something is not…

Writing what your teacher says is the easiest way to learn a language. Keep a notebook and record explanations, expressions, difficult sentences or anything else you find interesting. Writing improves your focus. When we take notes, we don’t have time to waste and lessons instantly become more effective. We need to listen to write what…

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