Individuals: learning English
57 posts
Op het HBO krijgen studenten in jaar 1 en 3 Engels over het algemeen. In jaar 1 krijgen ze vaak een Nederlandstalig lesboek met uitleg over Engelse grammatica regels en een woordenlijst met Nederlandse vertaling en vaak alleen een Q&A tijdens sessies. Doel: het verwerven van B1 van het ERK. […]
Business English workshop | meetings | Via Start-Up Nijmegen. Op 15 september a.s. zal LSA LINGUA een online workshop geven aan (jonge) startende ondernemers die met internationale klanten willen gaan werken. Binnenkort meer informatie via startupnijmegen.nl Meetings bij Start-Up Nijmegen! 15 september | 16:00 – 20:00 | voertaal Engels | […]
Effectiever communiceren op de werkvloer | Het effectiever in banen leiden van bedrijfsprocessen, het sneller komen op woorden die passend zijn voor de situatie en precies zijn in betekenis, weten hoe je bijvoorbeeld kunt structuuraanduiders kunt gebruiken, kunt speculeren, iemand sneller over kunt halen, iets krachtiger naar voren kunt brengen […]
Imagine you are in a public space together with someone else. Instead of just grabbing your phone, you may want to start a casual conversation to break the ice. In such moments, small talk is used to connect with strangers and thus to break the ice. Such ice-breakers are also […]
Erin gaan met een gestrekt been. Handig? Waarschijnlijk niet. Wat nou als jouw communicatiestijl zo voelt door je woordkeus?
Steeds vaker bereiken verhalen mij over mensen die door bepaalde ervaringen op school vroeger zich niet zo prettig voelen bij het communiceren in het Engels. Herkenbaar? Jammer, want vaak moet je er wel iets mee later in je leven.
Here you can find a part of the late George Carlin’s comedy show who, clearly, was not a fan of euphemisms being used at all. It is a controversial but entertaining video that illustrates why language matters.
If English is not your native tongue, and you want to find the right words to express gratitude or something or just want to express wishes for co-workers, I am here to help you strike the right tone and wording. For this purpose, I have listed some for you to use. I hope this will help you to start well!
Many non-native speakers don’t know when it is and isn’t polite to interject and jump in to ask for clarification, offer their opinion or express enthusiasm, which tends to lead to feelings of discomfort and even insecurity. This series is focused on the types of settings and covers everything you […]
Why you should care about becoming more aware of how meaning is shaped in interaction Vocabulary and grammar most important? Most clients and course participants of language & communication courses are mainly focused on using the right words (i.e. in terms of semantic meaning and meaning you can find in dictionaries) and verb tenses when communicating in English - completely valid and understandable. Language use, however, is more complex and extends to higher levels. Continune reading.
You are in a meeting and you disagree with the representative of the client on what was previously discussed. It seems as though s/he is not about to honour the agreement that was in place, which may, in turn, have detrimental consequences for internal processes involving multiple teams in the organisation you have been working for quite some time. It is one of a great many instances you have faced with this stakeholder and you're starting to become a little annoyed by it. How will you proceed? How will you approach this while using English? Here's how. Continue reading.
Want to start expanding your mental lexicon? Two support series on YouTube to help you start doing just that.
This video series discusses the types of dictionaries you can start using to accomplish just that. A mental lexicon is defined as a mental dictionary that contains information about the meaning, pronunciation, syntactic characteristics, and so on about lexical units (words). The mental lexicon is a construct used in Linguistics and Psycholinguistics to refer […]
You might be about to lose your job, or you may have lost it already due to Covid-19, resulting in having to find another one. As we sympathize, wish to help you get a new one as soon as possible, and want to set you up for success, we have created […]
In this video, two types of questions are explained and many examples are given to help you prepare for job interviews.
Three types of style exist roughly speaking, which are high, medium and low style. Continue reading.
Have you ever wondered why certain speakers include so many rhetorical figures, while others only seem to use a few of them? Wondered about the communicative effect such choices have on audiences? Ever heard of register and other topics in vocabulary acquisition, like the connotation of words? In this part […]
Want to be able to make a case that aligns with your agenda more effectively? Want to be seen as a strong communicator or someone who is reliable and assertive? Well, you may want to work on your persuasion tactics. In my previous blog post, I already explained that appealing to the three classical modes of persuasion, which were introduced by Aristotle, would be a good idea. Remember that they are part of the five parts of rhetoric? In this one, I explain which ingredients to use to set the stage well.
Interested in persuading others of your stance? Want to be able to communicate more effectively and with more impact at work? Want to get the job done to the best of your ability? If you do, you should not just focus on the content of your job, but also on being persuasive while communicating with others. In this blog series, I will explain the five parts of rhetoric, and this first part is about 'invention'.
Ever read an advertisement and have been surprised by how language was used it the ad? Or perhaps you were not really aware of what the advertiser did exactly. But did you understand the message instantly anyway? Perhaps even wondered why certain stylistic choices were made in such ads? There’s a reason why advertisers, for example, make such decisions regarding language use.
In the professional domain just doing your job by focusing on content and being a friendly co-worker usually is not enough. At some point, you must at least attempt to convince others to accept your plan or proposed course of action to avoid becoming redundant, and you will have to make sure that you’ll remain relevant to the company you work for or to your clients for survival. Getting the desired promotion, expanding your clientele, or just getting the job done requires persuasion. This is a practical skill that is about using language more effectively and thus to your advantage.
Combining leadership and empathy is always important but in times of crisis showing sympathy can make a real difference. This series is developed for those in managerial positions, who are responsible for a team and the well-being of staff in their teams.
The YouTube playlist includes idioms professionals can use directly on the job in situations when they need to be fluent and confident. Research in the field of Linguistics has shown that the use of idioms decreases cognitive load - allowing you to focus on things that matter. Using idioms also increases fluency and demonstrates competence. In this list, it is demonstrated how the idiom is used in real life, how to look it up in different dictionaries (i.e. dictionary definitions are included in these videos), and what to do next to be able to acquire them. Please note that you would need to use them at least 7 times afterwards to make that happen.
Veel mensen vinden presenteren in het Engels best lastig. Niet alleen vinden ze het lastig om te bepalen wat ze moeten zeggen, maar vooral hoe ze iets moeten vertellen voor een groep. Dit is vaak toch wel een dingetje. We hebben het dan nog niet gehad over alle ogen die op je gericht zijn of dat publiek waarvan je weet dat er redelijk wat weerstand te verwachten zal zijn, omdat je misschien een boodschap te delen hebben die nogal wat impact zal hebben op medewerkers of een andere groep belanghebbenden. Een goed gegeven presentatie kan dan veel doen. Wil je weten hoe je dit effectiever kunt doen? In deze post geef ik je een aantal tips in het Nederlands, zodat je er zelf beter mee uit de voeten kunt en een effectieve presentatie zult kunnen geven in het Engels.
Zakelijk schrijven in het Engels wordt onderschat, behalve door professsionals die bids en andere proposals schrijven en hiermee direct verantwoordelijk zijn voor omzetgeneratie en dus een hard bedrijfsdoel, waarop ze direct worden afgerekend. Buiten dit soort rollen wordt zakelijk schrijven onderschat en gezien als iets dat je erbij doet en niet te moeilijk over moet doen. Een goed geschreven Engelstalige brief, rapport of reactie op een online review kan maken of breken. Heb jij dit ook door en wil je weten hoe je dit beter zou kunnen doen? Hoewel het in mijn vakgebied niet gebruikelijk is om in het Nederlands iets over het Engels uit te leggen, weten ik ook hoe druk je het hebt. In deze post geef ik je hierom zeven tips in het Nederlands en laat ik je zien hoe je effectiever in het Engel kunt gaan schrijven.
Engels spreken op de werkvloer kan toch lastiger blijken te zijn dan aanvankelijk gedacht. Herken je één van de volgende reacties van je gesprekspartner? Misschien is het dan toch goed om te kijken naar manieren om je interactiezetten effectiever in te zetten. Hier kan ik je bij helpen.
Leesvaardigheidsproblemen onder de aandacht in Televisieprogramma ‘Nieuwsuur’ In Nieuwsuur (NOS-NRT) is vanavond (15-2) te zien geweest dat laaggeletterdheid een groter probleem is geworden in onze samenleving, vermoedelijk veroorzaakt door een sterke afname aan interesse in lezen onder jongeren. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) onderzoekt regelmatig ‘reading literacy’ onder jongeren […]
What is perhaps less known is that argumentation can be analyzed using tools developed in more recent scientific work. One of the tools to analyze argumentation has been created by Jean Wagemans (2019) and this is the 'periodic table of arguments', or the building blocks of persuasive discourse. Continue reading
Interested in learning how to start beating the 15-second rule to ensure that your work product gets read? This post covers the aspects of writing to consider first.
Are you currently using English professionally and are you a non-native speaker of English? Are you currently using idoms in your speech at all? In this article, I explain why it would be useful to start acquiring and using idioms in a professional domain.
At an advanced level of English, language is used in a more complicated way, which may seem rather obvious but can be somewhat difficult to attribute that fact to something specific. so 'more complicated language use may not say anything to you. Please note that I have communicated earlier that learners of English tend to have difficulty with listening and reading for detailed information as opposed to gist (i .e. general idea), which is relevant if you want to understand how meaning is given to turns in interaction and how it is inferred by speakers in conversation. In this post, I attempt to explain how meaning is inferred and presupposed by interlocutors, using a short interaction taken from a popular North American TV series on Netflix.
