Methods to Improve English Speaking Skills

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them maybe first

question comes from do we sit again hi

again Dewey Dewey says what’s the

meaning of for good I’ve heard stay for

good here for good nothing for good but

I didn’t clearly understand them yeah

great question for good means forever or

it means for a very long time so like

he’s here for good or we’re gonna stay

for good your last example nothing for

good I’m not sure I’ve never seen that

expression before so I’m not quite sure

about the meaning of that but for good

means forever so I hope that that helps

you thanks for the question ok let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from byron hi Byron Byron

says hi Alicia my question is do you

recommend using apps to practice

speaking I was using this method and I

just found people from another country

whose accent is different from the

American accent Thanks

I think that this kind of thing really

depends a lot on the app you’re using

there are many different apps that you

can use to study many different things

so I don’t know that I can suggest like

apps are great or apps are bad it really

depends on the app that you’re using so

if you’re not happy with the

conversation partners that you found on

the app you’re using now try a different

app if you’re having trouble finding a

partner that you really connect with or

that works really well with you another

thing you can try doing is just

recording yourself speaking and

comparing that to a native speaker so

you could use just your phone to do this

like record yourself saying the same

thing as a native speaker said so if you

watch our videos for example you could

listen to something I said

or something like Davey or Michael said

and then try to say that again and

record yourself saying it and then

compare it just to kind of get an idea

of where you can improve this is

actually a really interesting exercise I

think because when you are speaking

you think you sound a certain way and

then when you hear yourself you sound

really really different so this can

actually be a really good way to

practice another thing I know that on

our website we have another voice

recording function where you can compare

yourself to a native speaker and that’s

specifically on the English class 101

website so that’s another tool you can

check out but for apps yeah like I said

I think it really depends on your

conversation partner and what other

services the app might offer you so you

could just try out a few different

things and see what you like so I hope

this answer helps you and I hope maybe

you found another technique you can use

to work on improving your speaking

skills thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move along to your next

question next question comes from Henry

K Ferrera

hi Henry K Henry K says hey Alicia I

love your videos

today my question is about chatbot in

the beginning I was very shy about

chatting with other people in English

I’m not anymore but I want to know if

chatting with chatbots

is a good tool for improving your

speaking skills what do you think um I

think something like this could be good

maybe for improving your basic like

sentence building skills I’m not sure

what kind of chatbot you’re talking

about to my knowledge I’ve seen chat

BOTS

where you can type things to a chat bot

and the computer will return an answer

to you maybe you’re talking about a

speaking kind of chat bot so that could

be possible I don’t know but I would say

that these sorts of things could perhaps

be useful for like making basic

sentences or making very simple

conversations so perhaps in the very

beginning something like that could be a

nice addition a nice supplement to

whatever you’re doing but I think you’re

going to miss out on a lot of other

really important stuff if you only use a

robot to practice a robot is not going

to do the arms and us and use

interesting vocabulary words the robot

is just programmed to do one thing so if

can remember that and maybe use it as

like a method of refreshing yourself

every once in a while perhaps but I just

think that you’re missing out on a lot

of things if you’re only using a robot I

think as soon as possible you should be

practicing speaking with other real

people so that you understand really and

truly how people use the language and

then you can also be learning from them

so I would probably not recommend

relying too much on a chat bot for your

studies I think the purpose of learning

a language is to be able to communicate

with someone else in that language so if

you only use it to communicate with a

robot then it’s kind of defeating the

purpose of your studies so I would say

use it with other people as much as

possible and try not to use a chat bot

that much so I hope that that helps you

thanks for an interesting question okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Alisha hi Olesya

Olesya says hi Lee show what future

forms should we use when arranging

official appointments or events in the

future for example which is correct the

interview will be held on August 9th at

10:00 a.m. Moscow time right or the

interview is on August 9th at 10:00 a.m.

Moscow time right yeah this is a

fantastic question so actually both of

the example sentences you sent are

polite and they are correct however if

you want to always be sure to sound

professional and polite use the passive

form so you use the interview will be

held that sounds a lot more professional

so the reason that a passive form is

preferred when making arrangements in

like formal events or like in an

interview situation is because we don’t

always know exactly the person who’s

going to be doing that event so in the

case of an interview for example you may

not know exactly who is going to be

giving the interview who is going to

lead the interview so instead saying the

interview will be held is much better

it’s much softer remember we use passive

voice when we don’t know the person

doing the action or when the person

the action is not important so this is

really useful in like business

situations and other formal events when

the activity is the thing that needs the

focus not necessarily the person or the

people doing the activity so it’s better

to use the passive form here you can use

the active form so like for example

you’re having the interview at 9:00 a.m.

right so there’s nothing incorrect about

that but using you can sound really

direct there and you might run into some

problems where maybe the person you’re

contacting is not the person giving the

interview so using the passive voice

avoids that

so in conclusion for this really if

you’re ever kind of in a formal

situation or a business situation and

you have this kind of question try to

use the passive voice instead of the

active voice that’s a pretty good rule

of thumb to follow I hope that this

helps you thanks very much for an

interesting question let’s move along to

your next question next question comes

from Carlos Cordoba hi Carlos Carlos

says I always struggle with the use of

in and on for example when I’m referring

to a quote that I read in a book should

I say you can find it on page number or

in page number also how do I use it for

locations for example when should I use

in or on or at yeah prepositions are

always a tough point as a quick regular

reminder we do have a couple of

prepositions videos on the channel these

are good introductions to prepositions

of place and prepositions of time

regarding your question your specific

question though when you’re talking

about books

we’ll say read it in a book in a book

when you’re talking about something

that’s on a page we use on on a page if

you want to get even more specific and

talk about a line of text we say in a

line of text so the reasons that we use

these prepositions first the in

preposition for a book when you imagine

a physical book like a cover two covers

and then the contents are inside it the

contents of the book are enclosed by the

covers so we imagine we have to open a

book

and go inside the book to find things so

we use in for the contents of books we

use on for pages so you can kind of

imagine a book as being like two layers

almost there’s the paper and then there

are the words so the words are on top of

the paper kind of like on the surface of

the paper so we use on to talk about

things that are on the page the things

that are above the paper then we use in

to talk about lines because we’re

looking for something like specific

inside one line or two lines of text so

it’s within like line number three or

line number four so some examples in the

book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s

Stone there’s a mistake on page seven in

line five that’s not true so I hope that

this helps you understand when to use in

and on and again I would recommend

starting with the videos on the channel

for information some more information

about other prepositions thanks very

much for the question okay let’s move on

to your next question

next question comes from nhi me hello hi

nee nee says do wild animal and wildlife

have the same meaning no they have very

similar meanings though so first

wildlife is one word it’s a noun it’s an

uncountable noun wildlife means all the

living things that are not humans so

that’s like animals and fish and lizards

so it’s like all the creatures in an

area that are not human that’s the

wildlife in an area examples let’s go to

the wildlife park we need to protect the

wildlife in this area wild animal

however is a phrase wild is an adjective

animal is a noun so a wild animal is an

animal that has not been domesticated

domesticated means trained so for

example a pet cat or a pet dog is a

domesticated animal that’s an animal

that has been trained so a wild animal

is something that does not have training

some examples did you see any wild

animals on your camping trip The News

said a hiker was attacked by all

wild animal so thanks very much for the

question I hope that that helps you

alright that’s everything that I have

for you for this week thank you as

always for sending your questions

remember you can send them to me at

English class 101.com slash ask - alicia

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for some other things that can help you

with your English Studies thanks very

much for watching this week’s episode of

ask Alisha and I will see you again next

week

may my bears wolves antelopes lions

tigers Cougars Jaguars rats mice a whale

a crab is a wild animal deer rabbits

coyotes squirrels want to speed up your

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