Sunday, January 6, 2008

Useful Language. Talking about your winter holidays

Listen to lots of questions which will help you to make small talk! Read them on the TP website.

Send in your answers, or post them here, so that we can do a second recording with that, too!

This audio includes some language tips, too: on the New Year’s Resolutions I mention one of the uses of “will” and the good context for practicing comparatives here, then I comment the use of the present perfect + “ever” in the UK and of the past simple + “ever” in the USA. Finally, there’s this language note, on the use of How …? &What … like?

2 comentarios:

A student said...

For New Year's Resolutions, you use "will". Shouldn't we use "going to"?

Thanks

Best wishes

The TP webmistress said...

Hello there!

I just got your message! Your question is great. I actually recorded an episode on the futures, but then didn't publish it! Pops I should!

You're right. You can express a resolution with "to be going to" instead of with "will". If you do, you are highlighting intentionality. You are saying you've got that (strong) intention, and/or that (strong) plan.

It is so different to say "I'm going to quit smoking" (I'm determined to do so) to "I'll quit smoking", which sounds more like wishful thinking.

As you noticed when I recorded those sentences, I used "will" instead of "be going to". You see, I never make resolutions, and if I did, I'd probably view them as predictions, unlikely events! hahahahah... When I recorded those sentences, I had not made any resolutions and I just said something I had not thought of before, so "will" for spontaneous decisions came out! But we could also explain that by saying I was just practicing some wishful thinking.

Language, as you know, is very influenced by the subjective!

Hope this is useful.

Thanks for posting.

Best wishes

Quiénes somos

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A project by the Talking People Website. For more info on the TP Podcast see below. The TP Website is a free resource for life-long English learners and people interested in sharing their knowledge and skills. Among its sections, the 4 skills (Speaking, Listening, Writing, Reading), Audios, How to learn (techniques), Literature... El sitio web Talking People y este podcast asociado (ver abajo de página para más detalles) son un recurso gratuito para quienes deseen aprender o mantener su inglés y para quienes deseen compartir su conocimiento y lo que saben hacer.
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What we publish here / Lo que publicamos aquí

The episodes to learn English (EFL) that TP publishes include useful language (lenguaje útil) which you can listen to and repeat, to improve fluency and correction (fluidez y corrección), poems (poemas), which you can learn by heart, and stories (historias), which you can learn to read out loud. More key words we use (más palabras clave que usamos): life-long learning (aprendizaje permanente), communicative methods (métodos comunicativos), communicative strategies (estrategias comunicativas), language functions (funciones del lenguaje), functional grammar (gramática funcional), textual analysis (análisis textual), textual structure (estructura textual), nonviolent communication (comunicación noviolenta), inclusive language or non-sexist language (lenguaje inclusivo o lenguaje no machista), literature (literatura) including experimental literature (literatura experimental).