I have been teaching adult English learners (intermediae level) this summer for some easy money. On Friday they will return to their native lands: Italy, France, Estonia, Turkey, Spain, Andorra, Vietnam etc. The question they have started to ask is: How can I continue to improve my speaking and listening when I return to my home country?
So far I have got:
Skype
Langauge Exchange
Listening to BBC radio programmes such as Just a Minute.
Bittorrent + some good torrent source. I use eztv.it for TV series (both from UK &US). It’s how I keep my english, and I think it works fine (someone might disagree, though).
Lack of immediate vocab recognition is one of the major causes of poor listening, and lack of repeated exposure to correct grammar in context is one of the biggest causes of breakdowns in speaking. Reading is input where the student controls speed, and you’d be surprised how much reading improves non-reading skills (in an even somewhat phonetic writing system at least).
No, bittorrent is not illegal. Downloading copyrighted content could be, depending on the country’s laws (from where you are downloading, that is). For example, in Spain downloading is not illegal unless you’re making a profit of it. I’m not very sure about Taiwan’s point of view, though. Maybe it’s something to discuss in another thread.
Many thanks for clearing that up for me. And thanks for the suggestion. I didn’t want to tell them something that could later get them in trouble, you understand.
