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Transcript of "Do schools kill creativity?"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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EnglishTenses (Present, Past and Present Perfect)

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For Business English students, it's important that ESL lessons are based on the needs of their day to day work.

They want to practice situations taken from their real professional lives.

Some are: making phone calls, being able to hold and carry on conversations, and preparing and giving presentations.

Coming up with creative activities and finding good topics for your lessons can be tough and time-consuming.

The Business English activities in this post will save you time and effort in making quality content for your lessons.

About the Business English Activities

Lessons including well-designed activities will prepare your students for their professional lives and give them the necessary skills and vocabulary needed to communicate effectively in English.

The 20 activity suggestions you'll find in this post relate to the topics of business travel, commuting to work, big business, artificial intelligence, technology, and music.

The activities you can do on these business English topics are from specific lesson plans based on videos, which come equipped with a range of different printable Business English worksheets, conversation topics, speaking exercises, listening activities, and writing exercises for adults.

Below are some example activities from these lessons that can help your Business English students improve their communication skills.

Topic: AirBnB Business Travel

Airbnb has been expanding their services to open up the market for business travelers.

They are simplifying the process of booking and launched some tools which automatically organize your business trip expenses. This new business travel program is coming out strong.
Activities

Phone Calling

Writing Accommodation Descriptions

Leaving Reviews

Mobile App Concepts

Debate With Hotel Owner

Comparing and Contrasting

This topic works especially great with Business English lessons in the real estate, hospitality, or mobile app industries, but also in general for any businessmen or women who have to travel for their jobs.

This is an especially engaging Business English topic for a few reasons: it's controversial (hotel owners aren't happy about AirBnB) and it's a hot topic (more and more people are choosing Airbnb over hotels).

Airbnb is a relatively new global powerhouse, revolutionizing the hospitality industry the same way that Uber revolutionized the taxi industry.

Activity: Phone Calling

Put students in pairs or a group. Assign each student a different role from the roles below, or they can choose one.

Students have to imagine that they are Airbnb hosts who just hosted:

Students then 'call' their 'friends' (another student in the class) to either leave a voicemail or talk about the experience (or complain about the experience!).

They should describe how the experience was as the host for these types of travelers:

You could even have them imagine what could be a positive and negative experience for hosting these type of travelers.

You could even get a bit more creative with this one by assigning a pair of students a role from the list above, and they have to call the 'host' (their partner) and ask them questions or make special requests about their stay, e.g:

Even though with Airbnb, you would probably just message the host online, but in this case, you can make it a phone call to practice speaking.

Activity: Writing Accommodation or Property Descriptions & Reviews

Students work with a partner or group and imagine they are Airbnb hosts offering a special, exotic, or unique type of accommodation rental.

They should discuss and agree on the type of home rental they have to offer, where in the world it is, and create their own online listing for this rental on Airbnb.

In the listing, they should explain what type of rental it is, the location, the check-in and check-out procedure, a description and special features of the accommodation, and other housing details and rules.

Make students offer something different or special about their property - something they wouldn't get somewhere else. Remember, they want to sell the experience!

Students then present their accommodation profile description to the other students in the class and then give their listing to another student or group.

The other student or group then makes a detailed review for that listing, imagining they actually stayed there.

Activity: Creating Mobile App Concepts in the Sharing Economy

Put students in pairs and give them a list of other mobile apps in the sharing economy.

Examples:

Based on the name of the app, students have to discuss and explain what they imagine the concept of the app to be and how it works.

After students work together for a couple of minutes, go around the class and ask them to report their answers. If they're not able to imagine what it might be, you can just tell them.

Ask them questions like:

Would this type of app be useful for you? Why or why not?

Which app from this list would help you the most?

Try to create an in-depth class discussion about all of these apps.

For the apps listed above specifically, you can discuss things like:

Then, students can either work with the same or different partners to create their own concept for a mobile app in the sharing economy.

They should focus on things like:

An alternative to this one is I've also had students imagine that they were the founders of Airbnb, and they have to come up with their own detailed story behind the establishment of the company, which turned out to be a fun activity.

Activity: Debate Between AirBnB Representative and Hotel Owner

Put students in pairs or two small groups and they prepare for a debate.

One student or group takes the position of an AirBnB company representative and the other takes the position of a Hotel Owner.

Each side must prepare, defend, and present their positions to the other groups, presenting information about...

You can refer to this article to help students talk about Airbnb versus hotels if they are having trouble coming up with ideas.

Your role as the teacher will be the moderator during the debate - generating follow-up questions for the students or groups when they present their sides. Keep the debate clean and flowing smoothly.

Activity: Comparing and Contrasting (Hotels vs. AirBnB, Uber vs. Taxi)

If for any reason you don't want to make this an official 'debate,' another thing you could do is just make it a general, in-depth class discussion, conversation, or compare & contrast about the advantages and disadvantages of staying in Airbnb in comparison with hotels.

Make sure students talk about their own experiences.

Transition the discussion to the conflict between Uber and Taxi, because they are facing a similar conflict for similar reasons.

If your students enjoyed the discussion about AirBnB and hotels, an interesting follow-up lesson topic for you might be about a businessman who is building hotels designed for outer space.

Topic: Commuting to Work

Many businessmen and women in the modern world have to commute for hours and hours per week to their jobs or for work purposes. Sitting in the car or public transit like this can really have a negative impact on one's overall lifestyle.
Activities

Telling a Story

Commenting on YouTube

Expressing Frustrations or Complaining

Talking About Lifestyle & Daily Routines

The reason this topic works so well in Business ESL lessons is that it reaches such a wide spectrum of people.

Everyone who has a job as an employee in a company, a school, a factory, etc has a unique situation. All Business English students usually have a lot to say about their experience commuting (or home office if they have that privilege!).

Activity: Telling a Story

Students work in pairs.

Student A: This student imagines that he/she spends a lot of time commuting and is very pessimistic about the situation.

This student believes that they have the worst commute in the world. Describe the situation in detail. The student should complain about it as much as possible and why they hate it so much.

They should take notes on:

The student then has to tell one negative story that they have had during their commute.

Student B: This student imagines that they spend a lot of time commuting but is very optimistic about the situation.

This student loves the situation that they have. They should discuss and explain in detail why they have the best commute in the world, talk about it as much as possible and why they enjoy it.

Also, they take notes on:

They tell one positive story that they've had during your commute.

After the students write notes for their roles (give them a few minutes), have them describe their situations to their partner.

They should listen to their partner's situation carefully because they should then report the details of their partner's situation back to the class!

At the beginning of the video, the reporter complains about her long daily routine and commute, and then she says to the audience:

"Before you go and post that comment telling me to 'move closer', you need to see that I'm not the only person doing this."

In pairs, students should come up with a response that the following type of people would write or say to the reporter in the YouTube comments section, e.g:

Another activity you could do is give students some imaginary comments to that video, and then the students have to write responses to these imaginary comments. You can make it a speaking or writing activity.

For example, here are a few possible comments to that video:

Comment #1:

"Americans are completely crazy and lazy. You drive these huge cars to work and in reality, you don't need to. Look at the Netherlands and Denmark - they have very efficient bicycle transport systems and bicycles are much more environmental. It's stupid to drive everywhere."

Comment #2:
"The best solution to this problem is self-driving cars. Our tax money should go more to support the production of self-driving cars. That way when people commute they can do productive things. The solution to public transit is getting better wifi connections on the subways and buses."
You can instruct one student to write a response which agrees with each comment, and the other student to write a response which disagrees with each comment, something along those lines.

Activity: Expressing Frustrations & Complaining

Put students in pairs, or in two groups. You'll distribute to each student pair or group two cards which read:

A: Riding on public transport

B: Driving in a car

Students must work together to come up with a list of all the things that frustrate them, annoy them, stress them out, or make them angry while (1) riding on public transport and (2) driving a car.

The group which comes up with the most things in the time limit (3 minutes should be good) wins.

This activity usually works really well because everyone gets angry, stressed, frustrated, etc. at some point while driving a car or riding public transportation.

A lot of good vocabulary can also come out of this one. You can even teach a couple of fun phrasal verbs related to driving when you talk about this topic:

Cut (someone) off - "I hate when I'm driving and someone cuts me off and then I have to slam on my brakes."

Pull (someone) over - "I hate when I'm driving only a little bit above the speed limit and a police officer pulls me over."

Freak out - "I hate driving with my father. He always drives aggressively and freaks out about small things."

Run over - "I hate when I run over a nail or a sharp object and my tire goes flat."

Hold (someone) up - "I hate when traffic holds me up and makes me late for work."

You can use this activity for teaching students other terminology that is useful for expressing complaints or frustrations:

I get frustrated when...

I get all stressed out when...

It gets me so worked up when...

It pisses me off when...

I totally freak out when...

I lose my mind when...

It drives me nuts when...

Have students then use these expressions to talk about their frustrations commuting or about their job in general.

Activity: Talking About Lifestyle, Commuting, and Employment Situations

Spending hours commuting and then hours at the office has become so integrated into the modern working world that it can have quite a profound impact on our quality of life and lifestyle, which is why it's good to talk about in a language lesson.

Here's an activity you can do that will give your students a good opportunity to talk about their lifestyle, commute, and employment situation.

It's also simple, easy to prepare, and generates quality conversation.

Print a number of statements on cards and give them to the students or write them on the whiteboard in class.

Put students in pairs or groups. Have them discuss if they think the following statements are generally true or false and why:

Put students in pairs or groups. Have them discuss if the following statements are true or false for them personally and have them explain why:

There is a positive working atmosphere at my job.

I am satisfied with my work-life balance.

Every day I eat a balanced and healthy breakfast before work.

When I commute to work I try to be productive on the way.

I prefer working from home rather than going to an office.

I spend too much time at work socializing with my colleagues.

Speaking about daily routines is also a great activity if you'd like to focus on the present simple as a grammar point for your lesson.

Topic: Big Business (Amazon, Coca-Cola, Netflix, etc.)

Using big companies and corporations as a topic in your Business English lessons is practical for obvious reasons and you can make it fun too for your students.

It's especially great to use big business as a topic if you actually have adult students who work in big companies, but they're also applicable topics for students who have their own business or who work in smaller companies.

Activities

History & Fun Facts

Developing a Product

Making Slogans

Analyzing the Impact of Technology on Jobs

Activity: History & Fun Facts About Big Companies

As a lead-in or warm-up exercise to a lesson about big business, you can search and find some fun or interesting facts or history about the companies.

One quick activity you could do to lead to a topic is a simple fill-in-the-blank that looks something like this:
Amazon
Below are 5 interesting facts about Amazon. Let the students fill in the blanks with words that they think fit.

1. The founder Jeff Bazos wanted to name the company Amazon which has products from 'A to Z' symbolizing a large size, just like the Amazon ________________________ .

2. Amazon.com started as a bookstore in Jeff Bazos' ________________________ .

3. The combined ________________________ of Amazon's warehouses is enough to hold more water than 10,000 Olympic pools.

4. Today Amazon has more than 350,000 ________________________ .

5. One of Amazon's first offices had a ________________________ which employees would ring every time a sale was made.

Coca-Cola
Below are 5 interesting facts about Coca-Cola. Fill in the blanks with words that you think fit.

1. The Coca-Cola ________________________ is recognized by 94% of the world's population.

2. The word "cola" is derived from the kola ________________________ , which contains caffeine and can have medicinal value.

3. Coca-Cola can be a good ________________________ for insect bites on your skin.

4. Coca-Cola spends more money on ________________________ than Microsoft and Apple combined.

5. A few people once tried to sell the Coca-Cola ________________________ to Pepsi, but they were reported to the FBI.

A fun activity you can follow up with this one is instruct students to research any big business they have in mind and search for some fun facts about that company or the story behind how it started.

If they can't think of one, you can give them a list of the biggest or most well-known companies in the world.

Have them give a few-minute presentation in the following lesson about the start or history of the company and a few fun facts about it. This is also good for developing presentation skills for adults in English.

They can use the questions below to help them give their presentation:

Activity: Developing a Product

Amazon launched a prototype store called 'Amazon Go' in December of 2017 - it's a type of grocery store where you can go shopping and add things to your virtual cart so that you don't have to wait in line or check out.

You add the products to your shopping cart and you can just leave the store, and Amazon will automatically charge your account.

They have developed other types of products and services over the years that have been successful, such as the Amazon Kindle (E-Reader) and Amazon Echo (voice-controlled smart speaker/personal assistant).

In this activity, what you do is have students work together on product development for Amazon or for another big company.

Students work with a partner or group. They imagine to be product developers for Amazon and create two of their own products, or services provided and sold by Amazon.

They should discuss and create names for the products or services, which industry the products or services are in, and then write a description for each explaining how it works, what problem it solves, what's so special about it, as well as what problems they have experienced in the development.

It can be a special kind of mobile app, tech gadget, clothing item, or something else.

Of course, it doesn't necessarily have to be from Amazon. You can have students choose another company.

One way you could get your students to come up with a good idea is instruct them to think of some brands that they generally buy, and then brainstorm what products they think would be cool to have from those brands.

Or you can have them think of some problems or frustrations they have in their daily life and what product or service would solve those problems for them. In the case of Amazon Go, the problem was that people hate waiting in lines at supermarkets.

Remind students that it doesn't have to be realistic, it can be something imaginary.

Most of your students who will do this activity probably haven't developed a product before. Keep it basic, simple, and fun, and it should go ok.

You just want students to be creative and work together to make something special.

One time I had a group who made a personal assistant who did all of his presentations for him because he hated public speaking, which I thought was pretty funny.

Students should then present their new product to the other students or groups.

Activity: Making Slogans

This is a straightforward activity and easy to assign and it works great with any student who is in marketing. Students also tend to have fun with it.

Basically, all you need to do is assign students to make a slogan for whatever company or brand you're discussing.

One thing I've done to make it interesting and add a little twist to it is to have students make a list of good and bad slogans for one company.

That one has definitely brought a couple laughs to the lesson, especially for the bad slogans.

Here are a few examples I've gotten from students for bad company slogans for Coca-Cola:

Anyway, give them some examples of some real slogans that have already existed for the brand before they make their own.

A few actual ones for Coca-Cola are:

The advantage of having students make their own slogan or quote is that it lets student use creativity. When students have to think creatively, they're forced to use important vocabulary terms and language structures in a special kind of way.

In any case, have your students share and present their slogans and quotes to the other students in the class.

Activity: Analyzing the Impact of Technology on Jobs

Another great theme and activity that comes from a discussion about companies like Amazon, is analyzing the impact of technology on jobs.

That's one big criticism of concepts like Amazon Go that I've discussed with my students. The more jobs that robots do for us, the more jobs they take away from humans (Amazon Go takes jobs away from cashiers).

One activity you could do on this is to have students brainstorm and come up with two more jobs, companies, or businesses that have been taken over or lost to technological advances.

Students should specify the name or type of the technology, which industry it is in, and three general impacts of this technology (can be positive or negative impacts).

Two examples I remember hearing from students was about VHS and video rental stores being lost to online streaming services like Netflix, and driving jobs being lost to self-driving cars.

Technology: Online streaming

Industry: Entertainment

Impacts:

Technology: Self-driving cars

Industry: Automotive

Impacts:

You can give these examples to your students if they don't think of them.

You can also give students the task of coming up with two jobs where it could be very difficult for technology to take over. Which jobs do you think technology couldn't do in the future? Students should specify why it would be difficult to take over these jobs using this technology.

Topic: Artificial Intelligence and Future Technology

Doing an ESL lesson activity about the impact of technology on jobs leads us to the next point: Artificial intelligence and future technology, which has its feet in many industries and certainly draws interest from Business English students.
Activities

Interview With a Humanoid Robot

Making a Sci-Fi Film Plot

Forming Opinions

This topic works especially great with Business English lessons in the IT or programming industry, but also in general for any businessmen or women who use technology regularly for their jobs.

This is an especially engaging Business English topic for a few reasons - it can get a little dark (a humanoid robot which can communicate freaks people out a bit!) and it's also relevant - artificial intelligence and machine learning is making its way into a lot of industries, products, and software these days.

It's interesting when the stuff that used to be sci-fi stuff turns into reality, and that's what you want to focus on in your Business English lessons.

Activity: Interview With a Humanoid Robot

Watch the video about Sophia the robot with your students.

Basically, what students do is make an interview with her.

Sophia the robot makes for a great English lesson, period. Students are usually quite intrigued by "her" and there are so many different directions you can take this lesson.

After watching the video, instruct each student to create and write five extra questions that they would want to ask Sophia. (Questions which are not in the video interview).

After they are finished making their questions, they ask their partner the questions they made. Students then answer their partner's questions from the perspective of Sophia the robot.

Here are some words or topics students could either use in their questions or use just as general topics to help them make their questions:

After a student answers each question, their partner should try to ask a follow-up question or two - a question you ask on the spot based on the answer you get.

Explain the concept of a follow-up question to your students and show them examples:

Original question: "What emotions do you feel?"

Answer: "I feel curious."

Follow-up question: "Why do you feel curious?"

Answer: "I feel curious because I want to know why I was created and why I'm different than normal humans."

Follow up question: "Can you imagine why you were created?"

Having students ask follow-up questions is great practice for developing interview and conversational skills because they have to think on their feet without time to prepare.

Activity: Making a Sci-Fi Film Plot

Watch the sci-fi short film about 'Sight Systems' which forecasts the evolution of 'Google Glasses' and Virtual Reality (which are also great topics to discuss in your Business English lessons).

After you watch the video with your students, a fun activity you could have your students do is to imagine that they are directors creating the next scenes to the short film they just watched about Sight Systems.

They should work in pairs and discuss and write what the next five scenes will be. Have them describe the scenes in detail and explain what happens in each scene.

Students then share what they came up with the other students in the class.

After this, put the students back together and they should come up with a short plot for a similar type of short film that they saw.

The plot must focus on the dangers of future technology. Alternatively, you could give them the option of creating a movie plot focusing on the bright sides of technology.

Activity: Forming Opinions and Interview Quotes

This activity can actually be applied to a range of different topics.

Put the students in pairs and have them imagine to be speaking from the perspective of the following companies or people.

Students have to make an opinion from the standpoint of each company or person.
Companies People
For the people above, you could have students imagine they were interviewed about their thoughts on electric charging highways.

What do they think about electric highways? Do they support or oppose them? Let them explain their opinion.

Then they have to agree on what would be the most important quote or statement from that interview.

Give students some useful phrases for expressing opinions to help them make their opinions or quotes, which are at least three sentences long and they explain their opinion.

You could give students an ideal example quote from an interview with an Environmental Activist:
"In the long-term, electric charging highways will be a great solution for decreasing pollution because it promotes the consumption and usage of electric vehicles, which are much better for the environment than gas-powered vehicles. However, in the short-term, electric charging highways could produce a negative impact on the environment because of the intense construction work that will be needed to create these highways all across the country. Therefore, I see a positive long-term effect and a negative short-term effect."
You want your students to form something similar for each of the roles, then students should present the opinions or quotes they made together to the rest of the class.

Topic: Music

Doing ESL lesson activities about music is fun and there's a lot of different directions you can take this topic in a lesson.

Music is also a big business with all of the jobs in music production, sound technology, festivals, online streaming services like Spotify, and these days even vinyl is making a comeback.
Activities

Organizing an Event

Making a Business Plan

Giving a Presentation

This topic works especially great with Business English lessons in the music industry, but also in general for any businessmen or women who use are interested in music.

This is an especially engaging Business English topic for a few reasons - people love music and it's a big part of life for many people.

Activity: Organizing an Event

Have students work with a partner. They should imagine they are event organizers and are planning a festival concept for next summer.

They want to make it even better than the Belgian festival "Tomorrowland" and the most luxurious festival in the world.

What luxuries will there be? What special things can be added, implemented, planned, organized, or done in order to create a better festival experience for the guests?

Students should discuss these points together. They can use the discussion questions below to help them:

Students should then give a presentation about their festival concept to the other groups and describe in as much detail as possible what the festival will be like.

After hearing from the other groups, students can discuss which festival concept was the best and why and give advice about what might help their festival to be better.

Activity: Making a Business Plan

Students work together with a partner or group. They imagine that they are opening a vinyl store in their town. They must make a business plan and a to-do list.
Watch the video "Czech businessman leads vinyl revival" here.
They can answer these questions in their business plan:

1. What is the name of your vinyl shop?

2. Other than vinyls, what will you need to get started?

3. How will your vinyl shop stand out from the competition?

4. Describe what kind of theme or atmosphere the shop would have. How would you decorate the shop/front window?

5. Describe your ideal kind of customer or target market.

6. Describe your ideal kind of employee or shop assistant.

7. What could be some clever ways to advertise your shop?

8. What will be the biggest challenges of opening the shop?

Students can then present their business plan to the other students in the class.

Activity: Giving a Presentation

Students work with a partner or group. They imagine they are giving a presentation to a group of vinyl fanatics.

They should choose from one of the topics below they'd like to do a presentation about, or they can also make their own topic.

They should prepare and give a one-minute presentation to the other groups on their chosen topic.

Even if they don't know much about the topic, you can just instruct them to be as creative as possible and come up with some interesting things to talk about.

Here are the topics they can choose from:

You can have students do research on the internet if they have access.

You can also give students the choice to also come up with their own idea for a presentation, anything in the music sector. It doesn't have to be specifically related to vinyls.

The most important thing is that students have a structure for their presentation, have researched important information about it, and teach the class something interesting.

You can also have students include one of each of the following things in their presentation:

Bonus Activity

This one last bonus activity you could do will help your students develop the skills they need for business and professional reasons.

Have them give a "show and tell" presentation or just simply talk about three gadgets, tools, products, services, etc they've bought in the recent past related to one of their personal interests.

Have the students teach the class either how to use this product or service, how it works, why they bought it, what the features are, what problem it solves for them, etc.

Here are some actual examples from my students, which you can show your students to give them an idea of what you're looking for:

Conclusion

All of these activities referenced are meant to be engaging for your adult students in Business English lessons, but the most effective way to do them is with the full lesson plans via the links above.

Watching the videos with your students should generate extra discussion and give you extra content to work with.
Find more resources and ideas for your ESL lessons here.

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20 Engaging Business English Activities and Lesson Topics

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For Business English students, it's important that ESL lessons are based on the needs of their day to day work. They want to practice situations taken from their real professional lives. Some are: making phone calls, being able to hold and carry on conversations, and preparing and giving presentations.

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CONNECT WITH US:

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Please place a pin on the
guestmap to show where you come from.

Many thanks for all your encouraging messages.

CONVERSATION TOPICS - Business English

A list of conversation topics suitable for students of Business English.

:
It's a good idea to pre-teach essential vocabulary before beginning a discussion.
This will help students feel more comfortable and encourage them to participate.

♦ A CONVERSATION CLUB is a way for students to get speaking practice.

BUSINESS ENGLISH TOPICS:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Explain why.

1. It doesn't matter whether you enjoy your job or not as long as it's a well-paid job.

2. Self-employment is more stimulating than working for a large organisation.

3. Working from home makes life easier for employees.

4. Social networks have rapidly become communication tools for many companies.
They will be further developed for business in the future.

5. Innovation is different from invention.

6. In the future most companies will be online companies.
There will be fewer offices and more call centres.

7. Anyone who has contact with a customer is a salesperson - and that includes the person who answers the phone!

8. Small companies can adapt more quickly to changes in the market place than large corporations.

9. Companies become more efficient as they grow in size.

10. More time is wasted during meetings than during any other business activity.

11. It is impossible to have a successful career and a happy family life.
You have to choose one or the other.

12. It is impossible for young people to find a (good) job today without help from someone.

13. Qualifications are more important today than ever before.

14. A successful salesperson knows the strengths and weaknesses of competing products.

15. Small companies cannot offer employees opportunities for promotion.

16. There is more creativity in multinational companies than in small firms.

17. Some companies do not adhere to proper rules of conduct.

18. It is dishonest for companies to avoid paying income tax in the countries where they are established.

19. Men and women are not always treated equally in the workplace.
Women often face discrimination.

20. Whenever possible, employees should be allowed to choose their own working hours.

21. Technology has changed business methods to the detriment of human relations.

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Resources teachers: Conversation topics - Business English | Learn English Today

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Resources for teachers: conversation topics for students of Business English.

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Coolenglish.net is your source for interactive English learning material. Games, grammar, and vocabulary for ESL classes, teachers, and students. ESL games and activities, ESL classes.

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Vocabulary learning tips

Read as much as possible. If you come across a word you don't know, write it down or look it up.

Use a dictionary. Many browsers include dictionaries. If you are reading online, you may be able to right-click on a word to look it up.

Sign up for a 'word a day' email.

Think of ways of remembering words. Do they sound like a word in your own language?

Remember words are often used together with other words. Try to learn these 'collocations'.

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pet b1 vocabulary ielts exam practice english language elt efl grammar writing structure teofl toeic ket pet fce cae cpe

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Practice Vocabulary tests using topics from the Cambridge PET word list

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If the vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar weren't hard enough, this table sheds light on just how difficult it can be for a foreigner to understand what the British really mean when they're speaking. A very important lesson not taught at school.

The author of the table is unconfirmed, although it is thought it may have originally been drawn up by a Dutch company as an attempt to help employees working in the UK.

What the British Say

What the British mean

What others understand

18. Cheers

Not only used when clinking glasses in a pub,but also used instead of "thank you", and signing off a phone call or an email.

To your good health

What the British Say

What the British mean

38. Meanings of "I beg your pardon"

1. I didn't hear you

2. I apologise

3. What you're saying is making me absolutely livid

Related

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48 Things British People Say And What They Actually Mean - angmohdan.com

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If the vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar weren't hard enough, this table sheds light on just how difficult it can be for a foreigner to understand what the British really mean when they're speaking. A very important lesson not taught at school.

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IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive | free dialect and accent recordings for the performing arts

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Welcome to IDEA. The International Dialects of English Archive was created in 1998 as the internet's first archive of primary-source recordings of English-language dialects and accents as heard around the world. With roughly 1,700 samples from 135 countries and territories, and more than 170 hours of recordings, IDEA is now the largest archive of its kind.

IDEA's recordings are principally in English, are of native speakers, and include both English-language dialects and English spoken in the accents of other languages. (Many include brief demonstrations of the speaker's native language, too.) The archive also includes extensive Special Collections.

Paul Meier is IDEA's founder, director, and principal contributor, personally collecting nearly 20 percent of the archive. He established IDEA to provide actors the real-life models they need for their characters' accents and dialects; many actors use his Accents & Dialects for Stage and Screen in conjunction with IDEA. But IDEA has proved invaluable in many other fields too; for example, it's a favorite tool of international business, helping personnel become familiar with their customers' accents and dialects.

HOW IDEA WORKS

To find an example of an accent or dialect, use the Global Map, or the Dialects and Accents tab on the menu bar. The site is also fully searchable, not just by country, state, and province, but also by characteristics of each speaker, such as ethnicity, age, and occupation; even single phrases from transcriptions and phonetics can be searched online. You may conveniently listen to the streaming audio while reading the accompanying transcription and commentary. All samples have one-line descriptions (gender, age, year of birth, ethnicity, location). Submission of new samples by the editors and other contributors is done entirely online.

At the heart of IDEA are its Senior Editors and the Associate Editors, forming a global network of contributors. They record the subjects, transcribe the recordings, and, in many cases, write scholarly commentaries that often include phonetic and cultural analyses. Many editors are professors at major universities, or are members of The Voice and Speech Trainers Association ( VASTA).

Cameron Meier is IDEA's executive editor and chief sound and copy editor, and also vice president of Paul Meier Dialect Services.

New recordings, their accompanying transcriptions and scholarly commentaries are added frequently (see What's New). Each recording includes both a reading (Comma Gets a Cure, or, on our earliest recordings, The Rainbow Passage) and some unscripted speech - about four minutes in all.

The Global Map quickly reveals which countries/states/provinces have a representative sample, and those that still lack one. As you see, IDEA continues to grow, aspiring to provide a recording from every corner of the world. Please join us in this ambitious project by becoming an associate editor, or contributing your own voice to the archive.

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IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive

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Welcome to IDEA, the internet's best source for primary-source recordings of English-language dialects and accents as heard around the world.

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Listen to a text spoken by different English speakers

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Listen to a text spoken by different English speakers

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IELTS Listening uses a variety of native English accents: British English, North American English and Australian/NZ/South African English. Before taking IELTS, make sure you feel comfortable listening to these different varieties.
Listen to the ten samples below of people with different accents reading the same story. These are all English accents you can expect to hear in the IELTS Listening test. The ten samples are divided by region as follows:

UK (Southern England, Northern England, Scotland, Wales)

North America (Northern USA, Southern USA, Canada)

Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)

Try to notice any differences in pronunciation. Vowel sounds are especially likely to differ. Don't overanalyse! - that's a job for a professional linguist. Your goal should be to get comfortable with each accent so that you aren't surprised or distracted when you hear it in the IELTS test.

Before we begin, here's the story delivered in a standard 'received pronunciation' accent, the kind you might find on your textbook CDs or when listening to the BBC:

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/england63.mp3

The full text of the story is further down the page. Each speaker also talks a little about his or her life after coming to the end of the story. Now here come the ten different accents.

Ten English Accents You Will Hear in IELTS Listening

1. British English - Southern English Accent

Speaker: Female, 24, London, UK

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/england72.mp3

2. British English - Northern English Accent

Speaker: Male, 39, Manchester, UK

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/england71.mp3

3. British English - Scottish Accent

Speaker: Female, 52, Glasgow, UK

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/scotland15.mp3

4. British English - Welsh Accent

Speaker: Female, 20, Wales, UK

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wales6.mp3

5. American English - Northern US Accent

Speaker: Male, 30, New York, USA

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/newyork13.mp3

6. American English - Southern US Accent

Speaker: Female, 50, Alabama, USA

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/alabama3.mp3

7. Canadian English Accent

Speaker: Female, 25, British Columbia, Canada

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/britishcolumbia1.mp3

8. Australian English Accent

Speaker: Male, 28, Sydney, Australia

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/australia21.mp3

9. Kiwi English Accent

Speaker: Female, 46, Christchurch, New Zealand

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/newzealand7.mp3

10. South African English Accent

Speaker: Female, 38, Durban, South Africa

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/southafrica29.mp3

Listening Sample Text: Comma Gets a Cure
All the speakers read the text below. Note that this is NOT the kind of story you will hear in the IELTS listening test, but it does allow you to follow each speaker's words and compare their pronunciation. If you listen to the end of each sample, each speaker also tells a unique story about their life.
Well, here's a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on her first morning, she felt stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain yellow dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work.

When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the beautiful bird.

Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The goose's owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, "Comma, Comma," which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First she tried gently stroking the goose's lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her. Finally, she administered ether. Her efforts were not futile. In no time, the goose began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath.

Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid her on her right side. Then Sarah confirmed the vet's diagnosis. Almost immediately, she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive-either five or six times the cost of penicillin. I can't imagine paying so much, but Mrs. Harrison-a millionaire lawyer-thought it was a fair price for a cure.
Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved. Listening samples are taken from IDEA - the International Dialects of English Archive. The IDEA website includes many more samples of native and non-native English accents from around the world. The accents featured here are the ones you can expect to hear in the IELTS Listening test.

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Listen to ten samples of people with different English accents reading the same story. These are all accents you will hear in the IELTS Listening test.

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Facilitate professional discussions

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Clarifier, expliquer, donner des exemples, convaincre

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Clarifier, expliquer, donner des exemples, convaincre

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Clarify, explain, illustrate, convince

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CHANGE GENERAL ENGLISH TO BUSINESS ENGLISH