Introduction to Writing

We are confronted with writing something every day. It could just be a short message to a friend or a letter to your grandma (or, considering the times, an E-mail). But you also need to write reports or essay in school or at university. A lot of people also write diaries. 

Concerning English, writing and speaking are very different. And also when you write something in English, you need to be careful who you are writing to or what are you writing about.

But first things first. 

What is the difference of written and spoken language?

We all know (or should know) that the difference between written and spoken language is the permanence of written texts. When we write something, we need to be careful not to make mistakes. We also have more time to think about our writing as well as the organisation and structure. When we chat, we usually use emoticons to express our emotions. And, once our text is written and sent, there is not turning back.

When we talk, everything is a bit more relaxed. We are allowed to make mistakes because this also happens when we speak in our mother tongues. While talking, we usually forget most of the information, which is not necessary for us, after a couple of seconds. So, if we do make severe mistakes, they might be forgotten after a minute. The best part of spoken language is our non-verbal communication. This often helps us out, if we do not know a word or want to emphasis something. Our conversation partner can also read emotions which we send while talking.

What is the difference between a formal and informal text?

An informal text is for example a text you send to friend. It usually does not contain a greeting formula, but goes straight to the point. Sometimes we also do not use a verb or subject, but the other person understands us anyway.

I will give you an example (just imagine two teenagers texting):

A: “What’s up? :)  ”

B: “Notting much. U?”

A: “Bored. Wanna watch a film?”

B: “Yeah sure, Ill drop by later. C U!”

As you can see, while using informal language we can also use abbreviations to express ourselves. “C U” stands for “See you”. So, in conclusion, when we write an informal letter or text, we are allowed to neglect the rules of grammar and orthography. 

If you write a formal text though, you need to be very careful. Your text should be well-structured, well formulated and should contain clear points. You always need to start with a greeting and a complimentary close at the end of your text, if you write a formal letter. You need to know to structure your text in several passages and to structure these paragraphs. Do not use emoticons and abbreviated words. Check your orthography and grammar!

In my following posts I will give you more tips about formal writing!

Resources: Listening

Now I will give you some helpful links to improve your listening skills!

http://englishteststore.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11388&Itemid=389 (This homepage offers many, many different listening exercises. You can choose if you want to listen to short or long conversations. Afterwards, you will be asked to answer questions about the topic of the conversation. You can also do exercises where you need to fill in blanks. Furthermore, it offers listening exercises about pronunciation and stress.)

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm (Here you will find many conversations about different topics. Those topics are from everyday life, so you might find something you can relate to. Afterwards, you will be asked to answer questions for comprehension.)

http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/ (This homepage offers many links for further exercises and listening resources.)

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/videos2.html (Do you like “The Simpsons”? Well, here you have an exercise with watching clips of the show and the answer questions about the clip! Ay, caramba!

But you do not need to answer questions every time you listened to something. How about some good old radio listening? While listening to the reporters and the music, it will help you a lot to improve your listening skills.

Check out the BBC for improving your British accent and knowledge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ Here you have the chance to choose between several radio stations and interest. Radio 1 is the “young” radio station, playing the latest music. BBC Radio 4focuses more on stories and documentaries.

Or, if you are more into American accents, try out on of the links on this homepage:  
http://www.usliveradio.com/

If you want to listen to Podcasts, try out this homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/tae . Podcasts are an episode of audio or video which are published on the internet.

If you like music, you should exercise your listening skills on this homepage: http://www.lyricstraining.com/ . Here, you will be asked to fill the gaps of music songs. You can choose between several levels. The easiest is with only a couple of words missing and the hardest level does not provide any text; you need to write down everything in time.

Have fun!

Learning different listening strategies

After you learned about Active Listening, I will now present some more listening strategies which will help you enhancing your listening skills.

There are two different main strategies: top-down and bottom-up strategies.

Top-down strategies

People who follow these strategies are listener based. Listener will examine the background knowledge of a topic, situation or the context. They will focus on the type of text and the language. This method will help the learner to set up certain expectations. This will help the listener understand what he or she is listening to and also what to expect. 

The top-down strategy includes:

Listening to the main idea. You listen to a person in a general way and you will get the rough meaning of his or her message. You do not need to pay attention to all the details.

Predicting. If you know what the conversation is about, you are more likely able to predict the way of the conversation. For example: Someone explains the preparation of a dish. Now you can predict the vocabulary the speaker is about to use.

Drawing inferences. It helps if you use your prior knowledge while listening. Pay also attention to the tone, expressions, and body language. This will help you to understand the message better. By examining gestures and facial expressions, you can usually tell if the person is trying to be funny or serious for example.

Summarising. Try to summarise what you just heard. You can either summarise everything in your head or ask summarising questions, like “By saying … do you mean … ?”. You can also make a summary together with the speaker by saying something like “As far as I understood, you said that…”.

Bottom-up strategies

There strategies are text based. That means that the listener relies on the language. They focus on the meaning and everything that will lead to this meaning. These listeners will focus on sounds, words and grammar.

The bottom-up strategy includes:

Listening for specific details. While listening, you are looking for specific information. You will listen very carefully to key words and details. In classrooms, when you are asked to answer question about a text you listened to, you can use the following strategies: underline key words in the question; think about which words could be used and listen to them; try to think about other ways of expressing something.

Listening to words with cognates. Cognates are words which sound the same in two different languages. This will help you to identify and understand some words. But be careful of false friends!

Listening to word patterns. While listening, you will come across word patterns. This will help you to understand everything better.

Introduction to Listening

In my following blog updates I am going to write about listening skills and strategies.
Here is a quick introduction to the topic of listening:

(source: http://erinsumm.com/
mindset-monday-a-lesson-in-listening/)

Listening is most likely the most important language skill. When we learn a new language we listen to it whenever we learn it. We listen to it on tape or recordings, we listen to the language in the streets (when we are in the country), and we listen to ourselves when we read (because when we think we hear our inner voice).

Therefore, it is necessary to develop and train your listening skills.

Active Listening

The first step to become a better listener is to learn to listen actively. With this method, you do not only listen to the spoken words in a more attentive way, but also try to understand the whole meaning of the sent message. This of course means you need to pay your full attention to the person speaking to you the whole time.

Here are some tips to help you become an Active Listener:

Pay attention! 
Show your speaker your undivided attention and listen very closely. Moreover, look at the speaker and try not to be distracted by other thoughts or the environment. Pay also attention to the body language of the speaker because non-verbal communication is a very important part of speaking.

Show interest!

You need to show your conversation partner that you are listening to her/him. This is actually quite easy: use your body language. React to the person’s stories. Nod, smile, and “uh-huh” every now and then. This shows your conversation partner that you are actively following her or his speech.

Give feedback!

This is connected to the tip before. If you give feedback to your conversation partner, he or she will know that you following the conversation. The feedback should not be about the way the speaker is talking to you, but about the content. Try to ask questions about the content or try to give short summaries.

Do not interrupt!

This is a very impolite way to hold a talk. Wait for your conversation partner to finish the point he or she is talking about, then try to ask or comment on what is said. Sometimes it helps to show your intended interruption with your body language. If you raise your hand (in an appropriate manner of course) or if you inhale, the other person will realise that you want to say something, too. But do not bring up counter arguments as long as the other person is talking!

Respond appropriately!

When you listen to someone you should always be polite, respectful and understanding. But still try to be open and honest about your opinion. But there are nice ways to respond and give feedback. And, most important of all, treat the person in a manner you want to be treated if it was you speaking.

At this point I want to provide additional information about feedback because I think that feedback is usually applied in a wrong manner. But it is actually so easy to provide feedback.

Just think about these points if you have to give feedback either in a conversation or in class.

To give feedback:

• Use “I” and “me”.
• Say something positive first; it is impolite to start a feedback with something negative.
• Do not use general terminology; give concrete examples.
• Do not talk for others; they might have a different opinion.
• Do not repeat what is already said and only give constructive feedback

To receive feedback:

• Listen to everything carefully.
• You are not allowed to say anything until the end of the feedback.
• Do not start a discussion; it is the opinion of the others – and it is a personal opinion.
• Thank the others for their honest opinion.