ESS is always keen to integrate both individual English language experiences and technology to improve the learning environment, what worked best for you? Leave a comment in the comment space and let us know!
Grammar
There are many grammar rules to follow and use in the English language, but can you avoid learning some of them.
Read this useful article
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/30/10-grammar-rules-you-can-forget
Speaking
Most of the commonly used English is in the spoken form. So how important is pronunciation?
Pronunciation is always important because you want someone to understand what you're saying, but listen to a range of native English speakers across the world, from the USA to Australia and the variety of spoken English is enormous. In the UK you'll find over 100 different forms of native English spoken.
What do you do to make being understood easier?
Keep your sentences short.
Don't try to be grammatically perfect.
Use simple ideas to make others understand you.
Use the information you understand in English, not your native language.
Speak clearly and slowly.
Remember words reflect and show your personality.
Always use your own voice, not a copy of someone else's.
A key to successful spoken English is to learn how to use your mouth correctly.
Don't speak quietly, speak with confidence.
Think about what you're saying, as you're saying it.
Have fun when speaking!
Reading
To help improve your reading skills the Internet is a wonderful source of free information.
For free ebooks visit Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/
For a selection of daily news subscribe to ESS Daily News for English Language Learners
Listening
Another useful free resource for listening is iTunes, where you can find free podcasts on a wide range of subjects. iTunes is available to download free for Apple products and PC.
Finally, ESS is offering a number of discounts to its standard lesson rates, get in touch to see how we can help you!
Welcome to the English Support Services blog! Here you will find a number of resources for the English language, whether you're an English language learner, or you are a company that uses the English language for business.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
ESS News
ESS has announced a range of discounts!
It has always been ESS's goal to price its English lessons at a price that enables the maximum access to its services.
In these days, where money is tight, every little helps, and one of ESS's main philosophies is to help the English language learner in every way it can.
Here's what Tony, owner of ESS, says about the business philosophy of ESS:
'Hi, yes ESS is a business that delivers online English language teaching. And with the technological advances that exist the online teaching experience gets better every day. But more importantly it offers a more flexible approach to the teacher/learner relationship. However, ESS is a business that wants to do things differently.
Yes, we have to run ESS as a business, there are costs involved, but we don't want to make it about money, we want to make it about access and providing the learner with the opportunity to succeed in their English language learning.
I've worked at many English language schools in the UK, Greece, Germany and Russia, all those were run by owners who were happy to take your hard earned money, but didn't really provide any support outside of their organisations. I want to move away from that kind of practice, and now the technology is available ESS can be more supportive in many different ways.
First, ESS has a standard lesson rate, but depending where you are in the world, ESS can actually reduce that rate by as much as 50%, when compared to a language school. We also offer a range of discounts based on the number of lessons you book e.g. book ten lessons and you automatically get a 10% discount, if you recommend a friend you can get a further 5% discount on the cost of your lesson for the length of time your friends are having lessons. It is possible to get a large discount on the original cost of your lessons.
Because I'm passionate about teaching, I'm also passionate about doing all that I can to help learners succeed. A normal lesson lasts 45 minutes, but if time is available I often teach for an hour. and don't charge for the extra 15 minutes.
Customer care is important to us, so if you book 10 lessons we also give free support via Skype or SMS for a total of 60 minutes per 10 lessons. We don't do what others do when the lesson is finished, and that is stop.
Finally, ESS offers a free 30 minute trial lesson. This enables you the opportunity to meet the teacher, decide if you can work with them, and discover if the ESS way is your way.'
ESS welcomes the opportunity to chat with you, and see if it can help you succeed in your English language studies.
Contact Tony at englishsupport.de@gmail.com
or use the links to English Support Services on the right of the blog page.
The latest ESS video
Monday, April 15, 2013
A New Look ESS Blog!
Finally!
Amongst the many things that seem to have dominated my life the past few months, the ESS blog has been the poor relation. But finally I'm able to sit down and write.
So what's new?
To cut a very long story short, so I don't bore you too much, ESS is now all over the World Wide Web on such sites as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, XING, and has a brand new website. All of this has taken time, but hopefully, it's done and dusted, finished, although from time to time there will be slight changes.
What can we expect from ESS?
As you can see on the right hand side of this page, you can find all of links to the various places ESS is on the Internet. Just click on the link and off you go! As you can also see, ESS has its own Daily Newspaper, where you can find news from around the English speaking world. In addition, the news headlines have been included at the bottom of the page. These particular changes are to help English language learners improve the English language skills.
The ESS YouTube channel has this in mind and there are a mixture of links to YouTube channels around the world, all using the English language. Some channels are for helping learners with the English language, and other channels that are about different kinds of subjects, e.g. making movies, painting, personal points of view concerning life. Both the ESS blog and YouTube channel I want to be interactive, and if you have any suggestions of what we could include please leave a comment in the comment boxes.
Please also visit all of the ESS links and let us know what you think about the new sites by writing to englishsupport@icloud.com. And don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to both this blog and the YouTube channel.
Enjoy!
Many thanks for reading!
Tony
So what's new?
To cut a very long story short, so I don't bore you too much, ESS is now all over the World Wide Web on such sites as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, XING, and has a brand new website. All of this has taken time, but hopefully, it's done and dusted, finished, although from time to time there will be slight changes.
What can we expect from ESS?
As you can see on the right hand side of this page, you can find all of links to the various places ESS is on the Internet. Just click on the link and off you go! As you can also see, ESS has its own Daily Newspaper, where you can find news from around the English speaking world. In addition, the news headlines have been included at the bottom of the page. These particular changes are to help English language learners improve the English language skills.
The ESS YouTube channel has this in mind and there are a mixture of links to YouTube channels around the world, all using the English language. Some channels are for helping learners with the English language, and other channels that are about different kinds of subjects, e.g. making movies, painting, personal points of view concerning life. Both the ESS blog and YouTube channel I want to be interactive, and if you have any suggestions of what we could include please leave a comment in the comment boxes.
Please also visit all of the ESS links and let us know what you think about the new sites by writing to englishsupport@icloud.com. And don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to both this blog and the YouTube channel.
Enjoy!
Many thanks for reading!
Tony
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Learning English...easy or hard?
One of the many questions I get asked by learners of the English language, is whether it is possible to learn English to the same fluency they have in their own mother, native, tongue, or MT1.
Such a question is difficult to answer, for any number of reasons, not least trying to understand what the goals and objectives are of the learner and the way the learner wants to use the English language.
Here we can divide learners into two groups, those who have a natural ability to learn a language, and those who have to work hard to acquire a learned language. In the first group of learners they have the ability to quickly learn the learned language in the same way they learned their own MT1. It comes naturally to them, as does their level of fluency. Equally helpful to them is their innate ability in understanding that language is both natural to its own particular environment, and doesn't reflect their own cultural and historical identities. As a good friend of mine, who speaks three languages, says 'when I'm using a particular language, I'm reacting to that language and no other.'
This brings us to the second group, those who have to work hard to improve their language level in the language being learnt. These learners can struggle and the reason is very often simple, they depend on their own MT1 language structures to define the language structures of the language being learnt. Because they have a good command, and can successfully manipulate their own MT1, then it follows that by following the same rules they should be able to do it in the learned language. Yet they struggle, when they don't have to, and learning the new language is a very frustrating experience.
One of the first things I ask new English learners is 'How perfect they are in their own language?', which they will answer by often saying 'Perfect', although many will immediately grasp the point I'm making and saying 'I'm not perfect but I have a very good command of my own language.' To these learners I go on to say 'Well if you're not perfect in your own language, why are you trying to be perfect in English?'
The key to learning English successfully, and by extension becoming more fluent, is 'to keep it simple, but use it well!' which is the number one rule we have at ESS. As teachers we should be teaching English in an holistic way, coupled with as much realism as possible so that the concepts we teach are wholly based on the learner's own experiences.
What do you think?
Such a question is difficult to answer, for any number of reasons, not least trying to understand what the goals and objectives are of the learner and the way the learner wants to use the English language.
Here we can divide learners into two groups, those who have a natural ability to learn a language, and those who have to work hard to acquire a learned language. In the first group of learners they have the ability to quickly learn the learned language in the same way they learned their own MT1. It comes naturally to them, as does their level of fluency. Equally helpful to them is their innate ability in understanding that language is both natural to its own particular environment, and doesn't reflect their own cultural and historical identities. As a good friend of mine, who speaks three languages, says 'when I'm using a particular language, I'm reacting to that language and no other.'
This brings us to the second group, those who have to work hard to improve their language level in the language being learnt. These learners can struggle and the reason is very often simple, they depend on their own MT1 language structures to define the language structures of the language being learnt. Because they have a good command, and can successfully manipulate their own MT1, then it follows that by following the same rules they should be able to do it in the learned language. Yet they struggle, when they don't have to, and learning the new language is a very frustrating experience.
One of the first things I ask new English learners is 'How perfect they are in their own language?', which they will answer by often saying 'Perfect', although many will immediately grasp the point I'm making and saying 'I'm not perfect but I have a very good command of my own language.' To these learners I go on to say 'Well if you're not perfect in your own language, why are you trying to be perfect in English?'
The key to learning English successfully, and by extension becoming more fluent, is 'to keep it simple, but use it well!' which is the number one rule we have at ESS. As teachers we should be teaching English in an holistic way, coupled with as much realism as possible so that the concepts we teach are wholly based on the learner's own experiences.
What do you think?
Sunday, June 17, 2012
What are your thoughts about the move towards greater online learning?
A few guiding thoughts about the move towards greater online learning?
As a provider of online English language services, ESS took the decision to make the maximum use of Web2.0 and everything that it has to offer.
Such an approach offers ESS and its customer base a great deal of flexibility in how and when those services are delivered. Consistency in the level of quality was also important, along with the ability to offer the extra 'added value' long missing with the more 'traditional' form of business model offered by English language service providers.
Whilst this is good news for the company who uses such services, there is even more scope in the provision of online training, both from the variety of learning packages that are potentially available, but also from the wealth of information the Internet.
Admittedly, when ESS looked at the range of learning management systems (LMS), from 'Moodle' to many others the end user, the learner, had to be able to use it with the same ease as 'plug and play' when attaching an external disc drive. I've no doubts that Moodle is a well thought out LMS, but I experienced nothing but problems in trying to set it up. ESS finally adopted the European Union's LMS, Web2.0ERC for its simplicity for all concerned.
The whole point about online learning is that it should be easily available to all those who access it. It should be about choice, and nowhere is this more evident in the ESS Basic and Premium online learning packages. The ESS - Basic package allows for the traditional form of a 45 minute lesson, whilst the Premium package gives the learner access to a wealth of learning tools. ESS allows the customer to choose what they need.
As a provider of online English language services, ESS took the decision to make the maximum use of Web2.0 and everything that it has to offer.
Such an approach offers ESS and its customer base a great deal of flexibility in how and when those services are delivered. Consistency in the level of quality was also important, along with the ability to offer the extra 'added value' long missing with the more 'traditional' form of business model offered by English language service providers.
Whilst this is good news for the company who uses such services, there is even more scope in the provision of online training, both from the variety of learning packages that are potentially available, but also from the wealth of information the Internet.
Admittedly, when ESS looked at the range of learning management systems (LMS), from 'Moodle' to many others the end user, the learner, had to be able to use it with the same ease as 'plug and play' when attaching an external disc drive. I've no doubts that Moodle is a well thought out LMS, but I experienced nothing but problems in trying to set it up. ESS finally adopted the European Union's LMS, Web2.0ERC for its simplicity for all concerned.
The whole point about online learning is that it should be easily available to all those who access it. It should be about choice, and nowhere is this more evident in the ESS Basic and Premium online learning packages. The ESS - Basic package allows for the traditional form of a 45 minute lesson, whilst the Premium package gives the learner access to a wealth of learning tools. ESS allows the customer to choose what they need.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Welcome to English Support Services!
Welcome to the official English Support Services blog, where our aim is to provide information relating to the English speaking world, for both English language learners and companies. At ESS we pride ourselves on adopting the best in technology, bringing together many different ways of exploring the English language that are available.
As a company, ESS provides a number of services, from English language training to numerous business services, all of which are delivered online as we believe this is the most effective and efficient way of delivering services to our customers when they want them and where they want them. We would like you to be a part of the ESS partnership, and you can visit the ESS by clicking on the webpage link on the right-hand side.
A part of ESS' philosophy is to make accessible information available to English language learners, and businesses, which they might never find, adding links within the blog post or in the sidebars. We appreciate how busy you are and where possible each linked site will be one mouse click away.
In the coming weeks there will be new developments in the kind of services we offer, at present we're working on a project that is in the testing stage and if the technology works, promises to be exciting for ESS and its audience.
ESS further believes that it works in partnership with its customers and readers, and we welcome any comments you may have about this and our other sites, links to our other sites can be found on the right. ESS looks forward to hearing from you.
All the best
Tony Gough
Owner, English Support Services
As a company, ESS provides a number of services, from English language training to numerous business services, all of which are delivered online as we believe this is the most effective and efficient way of delivering services to our customers when they want them and where they want them. We would like you to be a part of the ESS partnership, and you can visit the ESS by clicking on the webpage link on the right-hand side.
A part of ESS' philosophy is to make accessible information available to English language learners, and businesses, which they might never find, adding links within the blog post or in the sidebars. We appreciate how busy you are and where possible each linked site will be one mouse click away.
In the coming weeks there will be new developments in the kind of services we offer, at present we're working on a project that is in the testing stage and if the technology works, promises to be exciting for ESS and its audience.
ESS further believes that it works in partnership with its customers and readers, and we welcome any comments you may have about this and our other sites, links to our other sites can be found on the right. ESS looks forward to hearing from you.
All the best
Tony Gough
Owner, English Support Services
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