Effective Communication Blog
Collocations Convey Competency and Fluency in a Language
English language learners are often challenged by collocations and tend to avoid using them. Using collocations is a key indicator of competency and fluency in a language. Speaking without collocations is like talking without idioms or phrasal verbs. The message may...
How to Use Intonation to Boost Intelligibility
Intonation is the Rise and Fall of Your Voice at the Right Time Intonation is what native listeners need to recognize vocabulary words, grammar, and syntax. If your intonation is off, vocabulary words will not be understood or recognized. There are several intonation...
Intelligibility and How to Say It Right
Learn English and conduct conversations with confidence. What do you do when others can't understand what you are saying? Do you raise your voice? Do you speak at a slower pace? Does this help? Many native speakers resort to repeating what was not understood in the...
How to Reduce the Fear of Public Speaking
Learn English and develop the skill of public speaking. Fear of public speaking is not uncommon and can be managed. Don't let fear compromise your effectiveness as a performer on the job. How to Perform Your Best When you are under stress, you probably experience...
When Word Stress Prevents Others from Understanding You
ESL speakers who stress the wrong syllable in a word are perceived as more accented. Word Stress Linked to Comprehension Word stress is the syllable stressed within a word. Learn English prosody and boost your spoken skills. Prosody refers to the stress and rhythm of...
Can You Deliver a Speech with Great Pronunciation?
Your English pronunciation should convey a message that is easy to understand. If you are addressing native listeners, and notice looks of confusion on their faces, you may need to improve certain aspects of your spoken English. But which aspects of your speech need...
When, How and Why to Use the Future Continuous Tense Part 2
Why Use the Future Perfect Continuous? The future perfect continuous is a convenient way to convey the ongoing nature of an action in the future. It is rarely used and considered very advanced level English. However, it is a precise way of conveying the nature of the...
When, How and Why to Use the Future Perfect Continuous Part 1
When You Should Use the Future Perfect Continuous Use the future perfect continuous to project yourself into the future for the duration of an ongoing activity from now up to a point in the future. The ongoing activity will be completed by a certain point in time (in...
Future Perfect Is Easy to Understand
Future Perfect We use the future perfect to talk about an event that occurs before another event finishes. The future perfect lets you talk about the past in the future. ex I will have finished my homework by dinner time. When to use the Future Perfect Use the...
When, How and Why to Use the Future Continuous Tense
Future Continuous Tense The future continuous is made up of two parts: ‘will’ and a verb in the present tense. I’ll see you tonight. We’ll talk later. The future continuous tense is not discussed a lot in grammar classes, but is used a great deal in speaking. It is...
Say it right the first time, every time!