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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