Hi everybody!
Here's an interesting writer, probably one of the very first who used the stream-of-consciousness technique (modernist writing). The story, however, is not one of my favorites. I chose it because it's got good language material for English learners! So, I had a hard time recording it because I'm no actress and although I had a similar experience when I was young-younger that seems to be so far away from my emotional life today, that I think I didn't manage to read well. Anyhow, I did my best! :)
Listen to Dorothy Parker's "A Telephone Call"
Read the story and also my language notes, which are an example of how to use literature to review some language points and become more fluent and correct while using your English! This story is very useful to review hypothetical language, the language functions "will" has, the modals in general, indirect speech and various verbal phrases. Feel free to comment here and pose your questions on the TP forums.
More about Using Literature to learn English at the TP section How to Learn, especially
here.
Listen to the poem or lyrics of this song (which I've never heard!), from her album “not so soft” (1991).
brief bus stop
by ani difranco
Read the lyrics
here Language notes: “to wane” is something the moon does, because the moon waxes and wanes! “To toe the line” is ‘to conform to a rule or standard’.
More on Ani Difranco at the
Talking People Website (Music)
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?
With this audio we're pushing our section of Useful Language a bit further, to include... letter-writing!
Why record audios of that? Well, you can learn to read the language we may use in letters. In this way, you'll remember it better. You'll probably consolidate your speaking skills and you are likely to improve in terms of not making certain kind of grammar mistakes -- those "silly mistakes" you always make and that you keep not fixing because you insist in NOT proofreading your work!!! ;D
Listen now to this sample letter of someone trying to find out some information about language courses abroad. You can find this letter on our website:
here.
If you want me to read your own sample letters, just tell me!
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).
Hi everybody!
