Welcome again!
Welcome to the TP Podcast!
Welcome!
Here is some useful language for making requests and responding to requests. You should combine this with our episode devoted to saying thank you.
Welcome again! 
Welcome again!
Welcome to the TP Podcast!
Listen to Part 1
Read the thank you sentences on this TP link
Read the thank you notes on this TP link
In this episode devoted to useful language we can use in letters (but also when we speak, sure!), I’ll change the procedure. Because it contains mostly drilling (the same structure with changes in some words), I won’t be repeating each sentence twice, just once. However, so that you can practice Functional Translation the second time you listen to this episode, supposing you’re a Spanish speaker, I’ll be saying a similar sentence in Spanish before saying the sentence in English.
This episode has two sections: first, a one-page list of useful sentences to thank people different kinds of things. Then, 6 different thank you notes or letters you could learn to be fluent in! If you wish to write Thank You Notes and Letters please, post them on the TP Forum for corrections or feedback, and let’s see if we can publish them later. Some other day, we’ll publish Part 2 of the Thank you recording (work issues).
This episode is devoted to communicative strategies, fluency and correction in conversations. Sentences are taken from the TP section called “Useful Language - Conversations”. We will deal with all of this parting from the different language functions we need to perform while communicating, such as clarifying and the like. This episode is divided into 3 parts.
Listen to Part 2
Read Part 2. Agreeing, Sitting on the Fence, Showing You Follow and Making Comments to accompany the person who is speaking, Inviting People to Speak
Welcome to the TP Podcast! A few weeks ago, CPG, a fifth year (Y5) student at the state-run language school where we meet up, gave me a little present – The New York Times Magazine, the 15th of jan issue, 2006, which is where I found the story I’d like to read today to you all. It’s called “House of Light and Shadow” and it was written by Nicholas Gage, an author I don’t know and who I had never read before. So it’s been a discovery, and a pleasure! I like the story because it includes childhood memories, dreams, a house in an open landscape, which I imagine very beautiful because it’s in Greece, and it also includes thoughts and feelings you get throughout your life, as you grow older. I really like that.
I hope this inspires you to write about your own childhood memories, so you can practice using the past tenses, including the modals! You could just write short 150-word pieces, and send them to the Talking People Website for publication! (Check out the TP section Your Stuff to read some!) If you do, remember to type in the subject line “TP contribution”.
So, here it goes. Enjoy!
Listen to the story. Read the article.
This episode is devoted to communicative strategies, fluency and correction in conversations. Sentences are taken from the TP section called “Useful Language - Conversations”. We will deal with all of this parting from the different language functions we need to perform while communicating, such as clarifying and the like. This episode is divided into 3 parts.
Listen to Part 1
Read Part 1. Asking for Clarification and Getting More Information, Checking for Comprehension
If you’re interested in improving your ability to discuss ideas with people who do not think like you do, please check out this TP website section: Speaking – Discussions. It is true we cannot do much when people refuse to listen or insist in interpreting we’re hurting them with our words, especially when these are critical thinking. We cannot do much in what does not depend on us. But we can try to develop a constructive attitude and approach to discussions, and also some useful skills. These notes are based on workshops on problem-solving, negotiation and nonviolent communication, and on the application of their contents in communicative language lessons.
Our upcoming episodes are:
Part 2. Agreeing, Sitting on the Fence, Showing You Follow and Making Comments to accompany the person who is speaking, Inviting People to Speak
Part 3. Defending a Position, Disagreeing & Challenging a Position,
Problem-solving, reaching an agreement, moving on, recapitulating
Post your questions and comments here, or on the TP Forum. Thanks for listening. Have a nice day!
Hi everybody!
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
I put together some useful language for grammar teams. Send in your sentences, so that we can expand this list. I am going to read each sentence twice, so you can listen first and then join me saying the sentence!
You can listen here, and you can read the sentences in the audio here, at the TP website.
Hi there!
If you haven't subscribed, listen here.
This is the Talking People Podcast, which we will devote to audios and their transcripts on useful language, or with poems and stories.
Here is our site, Talking People.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy!
