Golf the Game of Kings - The Game That Brings People Together

When Three Generations Play Together - The Game of Kings

With thanks to Phil Thorne for the photos

Golf is one of those games you either love or hate. It is one of those games that either fills you with excitement or sends you to sleep.  Here at LSI Portsmouth, we seem to have quite a few of the first camp; those who really love the game. The wonderful thing about golf, whatever your other feelings about it, is that it seems to bring the generations together.  There are not that many past times where you can find over 40 years of age between the youngest and oldest, with people who are still meeting each other as equals.

In the pictures above you can see Terry Thorne our lovely buildings manager, Alan Daysh one of our fab teachers and the delightful Melinda Vontobel who works with us as an Intern at the moment, they all went out for a day of golf very recently.

Melinda, as the youngest, came to LSI Portsmouth as an English student in October and is now working with us as an intern. As it is a little unusual to find such a young person who plays golf (and so well) we asked her to write a few words.  This is what she has to say:

‘I started playing golf when I was 9 years old. My parents played Golf before me and because of my sister, I finally started to play golf as well. My handicap is 0.4 and my best score up to now was 7 under par on a golf course in Switzerland. I did a sports apprenticeship which allowed me to practise next to my school every afternoon. I played every weekend, national as well as international tournaments. Unfortunately, I had to reduce the amount of time I was able to play due to my studies. Now I am an intern at LSI until the beginning of June. It is very nice to go out on the golf course with Terry and Alan from LSI Portsmouth and play.’

There are differing accounts as to the origins of the game, however, most seem to agree that modern golf was documented in a 1457 act of the Scottish Parliament, where King James II of Scotland prohibited the playing of ‘gowf’ as it was a distraction from the military practice of archery. A little more interesting is that after Mary Queen of Scots’ husband was murdered in 1567, George Buchanan wrote that she had been playing ‘sports that were clearly unsuitable to women’ – we’re not sure Melinda would agree ;-)

At LSI Portsmouth, we understand that in the world of business communication, in the corporate world, golf has a very important place. We know that for professionals, the golf course is where relationships are built, where deals are made and ideas are discussed.  We also know that English has a very important role in this, which is why we offer our students the opportunity to combine playing golf with improving their communication skills in English. What better way to have fun and combine practicing your professional English than on the golf course?  In Portsmouth, we are very lucky because we are very well placed for playing golf. As we are located on England’s beautiful South Coast, we are surrounded by some of the United Kingdom’s most renowned golf courses. 

Whether on the Solent coast or around the South Downs, the scenery is fabulous. Of course, we can’t guarantee the weather, but we can guarantee fun and you can be sure of a totally English speaking environment along with the perfect opportunity to combine the game you love, golf, with practising your Business or Social English.

So, if you are looking to improve your professional English, learn corporate English, network with other professionals from around the world, or just upgrade your everyday English and play golf, LSI Portsmouth has exactly the combination for you.

In addition to this, stay with an English host family, and you can have the complete immersive experience, combining a business English course, good company, a game of golf, fun and improving skills necessary for the workplace.

Click here to see brochure

For more details of a combined Professional English course with golf, see the brochure above or click here

The Simplest Ways To Make The Best Of English For Business Communication

How To Learn English For Business Communication 

We all know that there are so many Business English courses to choose from out there but how do you know that you are getting the best course available? Here are some ways to help you differentiate.

The first point is to make sure that the language school specialises in corporate English training. This means that you will be with professionals from different companies and countries who are your contemporaries. A good sign is to ask for a list of their clients and see how many names you recognise.

Another key to a successful business English course is that it is adapted to your professional needs. As an example, if you are a project manager who needs English for managing international teams, you will need English for meetings, English for presentations or English for negotiations; you will need exposures to different accents; you will need the intercultural awareness and soft skills to manage these international teams effectively. By analysing your needs before the business English course starts, and then during it and being able to react quickly and flexibly to those needs, the course will be adapted to your corporate English needs.

A company is only as good as its employees so look at the business English trainers at the centre: they should not just have teaching qualifications but real experience in the business world. A good corporate English trainer can put your language practice in contexts that you will recognise from your job – and this will make your course far more effective.

Finally, ask your friends, colleagues and HR personnel – have they done a business English course? What did they think was effective? A personal recommendation is worth its weight in gold, as we would say in English ;-) At LSI Portsmouth, we are happy to welcome many students who have been recommended to us as well as to welcome so many friends of friends; this creates a very unique atmosphere, professional but warm.

LSI Portsmouth is happy to provide potential clients with references from some of the biggest companies in the world who have chosen us as their preferred supplier for business English courses. They have chosen us because our experience in corporate English training over more than 30 years have made us one of the market leaders. Come and see why J

Our Fame has Spread - Portsmouth is well and truly on the Map

We were recently contacted by the company that made the video below because they loved some of the clips in our Portsmouth - A Day in Four Minutes video and wanted permission to use them.
The video they have made is to promote Portsmouth as a destination by Heart Radio and British Rail.
For fun; watch the first clip and then watch our video and see how many clips they have used from our video (there are quite a lot).

Video from Heart Radio and British Rail

Direct Link

Video from LSI Portsmouth

Direct Link

Why Our Students Love LSI Portsmouth

We asked our students what they thought of LSI Portsmouth and why they come here - and it sounds like they don't like LSI Portsmouth - they LOVE it! Do have a watch, it's really lovely.  

Thanks to both Melinda and Nicole who helped with the filming.
Look our for our next one about why students love Portsmouth.

Our Brand New Social Hub - the Place to be!

Welcome to our new Social Hub!

Until very recently Belle, our Social Programme Organiser, had her office on the third floor next to the Study Centre. It was good for our students, but we couldn’t help feeling that she might be better in the Student Lounge.

The Student Lounge is the busiest and liveliest area of the school. You can find a pool table, tennis table, piano, television and dining area. Most of our students spend their coffee breaks and lunch time there, talking to each other, enjoying a coffee or lunch and signing up to social activities.

We thought that Belle should be there too, so she can always be available for the students. In her new office you can come and pay for weekend trips, get help booking your own excursions or just come in for a friendly chat and a cup of tea. We call this area ‘The Social Hub’!

In the new Social Hub you can also find Nati and Diane, who are available to help the students with accommodation issues and anything to do with their homestay. It’s a very useful space and is always busy! There is also a small meeting area, if students need to discuss plans or itineraries with Belle and the office is too crowded. It’s a really nice area to relax with a cup of tea and listen to some music!

All the students have commented on how great the new social space is! We think it’s fantastic too, and we know that Belle, Diane and Nati are extremely happy in their new home!! 

We think the new Social Hub makes it easy for students to ask questions, sign up for more activities, and feel more relaxed and comfortable, what do you think?

Belle

8 Easy Ways To Improve English Speaking Without Even Thinking About It

How to Improve English Speaking

You are learning English, and you know it will help you in the future when you study or travel, possibly even if you plan to go to university or get a job. Many people however, do not realise how much effort is required to master a language.

It is not difficult to learn the basics of English quite quickly, but how to actually improve your English speaking does take some effort or at the very least some ingenuity.

Learning a language can either be a dull activity or a fun activity, and it isn’t always easy to know how to improve English speaking.

When you attend an English course to learn English in England, It is very easy just to go to school, come home and do your homework and then speak to your friends in your own language, you can put your ‘language learning’ away for the night. What you need are creative ideas which incorporate the language into your everyday life.

We asked our teachers for some ideas of how you could continue to improve your English speaking while you are studying in England or when you go back home. Of course the most obvious one is to use every opportunity you can find to speak English when you are at school; with your classmates, in class, during practices and during the breaks, but have a look at the following ideas and see if these can help you.

1. English conversation groups are always a great opportunity to practice your speaking. LSI Portsmouth runs a group every Tuesday after school in a local café. But if your school doesn’t have a group, why not start one yourself? Or if you would prefer to go to one that is already established, have a look in shop windows for notices, or in the local library, they often advertise there. In your own country try and find some other people who are also trying to improve their English, and start your own little group. It really doesn’t matter about level that is the wonderful thing, everyone can join in.

2. Ted Talks are a great way of improving your listening skills. But not only that, because you can see the tape script, you can also practice repeating what the speaker says. We recommend you find a talk with a subject that interests you. Before you click the link, try and imagine the language that will come up. Click open the tape script tab. Look through for any new vocabulary, and then go back and listen to the talk. Another fun exercise is to then try and read aloud the script at the same speed and time as the speaker.

Matt the teacher recently did a little video explaining how to use TED talks to help with your English.
For more TED talks:www.TED.com/talks

(to see more tips from our teachers click this link )

3. Keep a diary. It is only for you, no-one else ever has to read it, but keep it in English. You will be amazed when you look back, many month from now, how much your English has improved. Try and record yourself reading from your diary (maybe on your phone) and see if your pronunciation is the same as you imagine.

4. Send Postcards. Try and make sure you have the address of some English speaking people. Your host family possibly, definitely the school you have been studying in, some of your classmates? When you leave make sure you send them postcards! Everyone sends emails now, or posts on Facebook, so it is quite unusual to receive a postcard. Maybe before you write your postcard, try saying aloud what you plan to write.

5. Shopping Lists. Shopping lists are always a good idea, they stop you spending money on things you hadn’t planned to buy ;-) Try writing your shopping lists in English, this will show you where some of your missing vocabulary is.

6. English Forums. There are so many places online that have forums. Try ‘Groups’ on Facebook. Find a subject that interests you and join the group and then try and post your opinions in English. Don’t be surprised if you have to start defending your idea, but that will help you build your argument – never a bad thing.

7. Leave Comments. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Instagram etc all of these are called ‘social’ media because you are supposed to interact with them. Try and leave an English comment somewhere at least once a day.

8. Watch films. Another great way to improve your English speaking; If you have Netflix or similar, you can turn on the subtitles. Why not try and be one of the characters, and read aloud their part, maybe get a friend to read another characters part? It is not easy and you have to be very fast, but it is fun and it will speed up your reading and speaking.

English speaking takes a lot of practice to get your mouth to move in the right way quick enough, so make sure you use some of these tips to give yourself the best chance of getting better.

LSI Has a Heart - The Shoe Box Appeal

Shoe Box Appeal

Christmas is usually thought of us a special time spent with family and friends, however, for homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless it can be particularly isolating and lonely.


This Christmas the staff at LSI Portsmouth decided to support The Society of St James’ Shoebox Appeal. LSI staff filled shoeboxes with small gifts such as warm clothing items, toiletries and food and wrapped them up to be given to homeless people across the city to show them love and support.


We managed to donate a total of 31 shoeboxes of gifts which were all gratefully received by the staff of the All Saints Hostel run by The Society of St James.

Thank you to everyone who donated!

Update May 2017.  LSI Portsmouth had a bake off last month (April) and managed to raise another £168 (because we are all greedy lol). Hopefully, there will be another one very soon. 

BRAND NEW - New Logo for 2017

LSI Portsmouth has decided to start the New Year with a new-look logo, just to refresh our brand image a little as we begin 2017.

So – why, you may ask, have we decided to do this? Well, firstly many of our students and also agency partners around the world having been telling us for some time that our old logo 

was old-fashioned and needed to change and that 3-dimensional logos are something rarely used these days if you want to appear modern. So, we wanted to appear as modern as we feel we are! Also, in the marketing world, experts often repeat the mantra that you should refresh your brand and image at least every 5 years or run the risk of not appearing current and up-to-date.

We realised we had two options if we were going to do this:

1. To get a totally new logo with no connection to our past in look or image

2. To base a new logo on the past logo, but change it in certain aspects

So we took advice from agencies and other schools and asked for tips and also contacts for who might be good at taking a fresh look at our logo. We were pointed towards a website where many designers would take your brief – what you were trying to achieve, who your business is, what the core values and ethos of the school is, etc. – and then create logos in competition with each other and the one you pick is paid once you’ve made your decision. Although there were many very nice designs, we didn’t feel that any of them was quite what we were looking for.

We then asked two companies who are already working with us and have done nice design work for us already to have a try and one of them came up with different colour versions of what would eventually become our new logo for 2017 – this one:

What we understood that we wanted to do through the process was to actually build on the past, not break with it, so this informed the final decision. LSI Portsmouth has a long and well-known history and also had a recognisable image, whether people liked the logo or not. So we wanted to keep that connection to the past, not say we are entirely different, but to show that we are evolving over time, modernising if you like, not rejecting the past entirely. I think it’s important to know not just where you want to go, but also where you’ve come from and to incorporate that thinking was the final inspiration for the decisions we took.

With a new logo and also a new website, which is coming soon in 2017, we hope to attract more potential students and clients to our website and to encourage more people to come and study at LSI Portsmouth. These days, in times of increased competition and tougher market conditions for attracting students to come and study in the UK, it’s not enough to be a great school, which I know we are, we have to get people to know about us and be attracted to finding out more about us in the first place. A rebrand and new website will, we hope, put many more students in touch with us, who will then want to book a course with us.

The new logo we have chosen will, we hope, connect those that have known us a long time with our long-standing reputation, but also show we are moving forward, not standing still. We retain that symbolic link in our logo with speech marks to encapsulate in essence what it is we do, which is facilitate better communication. At least – that’s what we hope we do, amongst many other things. We hope you like it! Please ‘like’ it below if you do J’

Best wishes to you all

Andrew and the team at LSI Portsmouth

Come and Work with us in 2017 - New Teaching Positions available

It's 2017 and we are ready to hit the ground running.  We are looking for enthusiastic, experienced and qualified new teachers to join us for this new and exciting year.
More details here

We really want to hear from people with great organisational and communication skills, who love working in a team, who are flexible and good with time management.  They will also love social media and be keen to engage with and contribute to LSI Portsmouth's social media presence.  In return we offer opportunities for professional development in a brilliant environment on the south coast of England.

Happy New Year - 2017

It's Holiday Time

2016 - What a Fabulous Year You Were, Thank you.

We've had another bumper year for brilliant blog posts.  Ranging from happy, sad, interesting, funny and informative.  Below is a quick round up and reminder of some of the things we have experienced this year.  

January:

We started the year on a really high note - we realised that we had had a 100% pass rate on the Cambridge Proficiency exam which was down to our fabulous students but also down to some pretty amazing teachers. We also became a BULATS testing centre - which has proven very popular with us having students taking the test here at LSI Portsmouth most weeks.

See stories here

February:

In February, we started our superb Pre-Sessional Writing Tips videos, with Robyn (the Pre-sessional Director of studies) presenting ideas from the team of teachers. They really are an incredibly helpful range of videos, perfect for anyone who wants to improve their writing skills.

See stories here

March

This month saw our 'Best Reasons to' videos, with all our Directors of studies and the Principal and Vice Principal describing all the great reasons why someone should study with us at LSI Portsmouth. Also, we had three of our staff; Lea Brophy (the Vice Principal), Lewis Richards (the Director of Studies for Exams) and Sue Hodgson (the Asst. Director of Studies for Executives and Social Media Manager) graduate after 18 long months of hard study with their DELTM (Diploma in English Language Teaching Management).  Also, we had another one of our super fun activities on the social programme highlighted - 'Mug Painting'. which is very popular each time we run it.

See stories here

April

The lovely Carlos, our student from Venezuela, made a little video for us to explain how joining the student union at Portsmouth university had helped him so much to improve his English as well as feel part of Portsmouth. We published an article showing some of the other courses that LSI Portsmouth teaches. One of these is off-site and teaches military English. Some lovely photos of the staff and teachers over at the other site. 

A student who visited us on the Executive side was a professional photographer, who took some incredible pictures, which he gave to us to use. A really different view of Portsmouth through his eyes.

See stories here

May

A lovely Executive student made a little video for us showing a day in the typical Executive experience. Two of our teachers went over to the Philippines to run a teacher development course and then wrote a lovely article describing their experience. Finally we said a very sad good bye to two popular much loved teachers - Nick and Yvonne.

See stories here

June

We were very excited to launch our new general English course for adults over 30, which has since proven to be very popular.  There was a little insight into our Conversation club activity that we run weekly. And we finally, to much fanfare, were able to show our superb brand new Executive Centre. Mark and Rick, the builders, showed what great craftsmen they are, and we had a lot of photos to show the before and after pictures leading to a completely revamped and renewed area.

See stories here

July

July was an intense month for the blog, with stories coming through left and right.

First our teacher Jon D had students from his class interview some staff and then they wrote up in the style of a magazine.  The English was so good.  A superb video from Fabian, a Swiss student, showing the day in the life of a typical general English student. Then we had the Americas cup again, and then... Farringdon Bear from Business English UK came to visit us.  We decided to show his visit with postcards, to show some of the activities our Executive students can join.

See stories here

August

The height of the summer and two very exciting things happened.  Firstly we were thrilled to launch our new 'Everyday English' videos, showing activities that you may not find in a course book, but with the English explained.  The videos had subtitles in English and many of them had extra vocabulary sheets to download as well. The second event to happen was our brand new self catering student accommodation opened. Not only is it beautiful, but it's also right next to the school, so students can wake up in the knowledge they only have a 2 minute journey to school in the morning!

See stories here

September

More videos of the Everyday English range were launched, as well as a month of very helpful articles on all different aspects of learning English; why learning English is so useful, how the language developed and how to speak like the Queen.

See stories here

October

October was all about language! This month's articles were about working on your English Grammar and a lot of information about exam English. Then just for fun we had a quiz on the language that is specific to Portsmouth.

See stories here

November

Magical Autumn arrived in all her glory, the trees changed colour, and as October changed into November a lot of people also changed colour with their Halloween costumes.  Fireworks made everything go with a bang.  At the end of the month the students rose to the challenge and did the Mannequin challenge, showing once again that LSI Portsmouth is usually the first (and best) with most things ;-)

See stories here

December

Once again we are here at the end of the year. We have had a happy and sad time. The Uncountables - the LSI teachers' band played an amazing gig, and then we started to say goodbye to our students as they leave LSI Portsmouth to return to their countries.  It's been an amazing year, and we hope that we have helped entertain you in some small way throughout the year.

See stories here

See you next year.

Sad Farewells - Really Lovely Students Say Goodbye

Just about 100% of our students are the loveliest people in the world.  This really is one of the absolute best jobs in the world for meeting such interesting, funny, sweet, kind people from all over the world.
Two of these students left today after quite a considerable time with us.

Hani Almeghem who has been with us since March. Hani has been on both the General English courses and the Executive courses.
Today he brought in the most amazing chocolate cake with white chocolate (instead of marzipan) and icing on top of that. The cake had photos all over it of the people he has had the most contact with while he was here.  Such a lovely kind gesture, and it was VERY much appreciated by all who were there ;-)

Next is Severin Hug from Switzerland.  Severin left to go elsewhere to study but decided to come back because he just wasn't enjoying it as much as he had when he was here.  He did a little video interview with Csili to explain why he made that decision.

Sadly, today was the last day for both these guys.  Our lives have been richer for knowing them, and we will really notice them not being here.

All the very best Hani and Severin (and all the other lovely students who left today).

The Gig - The Uncountables Return

Continuing from yesterday's blog about our annual ‘Great LSI Bake Off’ to raise money for a local charity called ‘Home-Start’, the day continued with the charity theme when the FANTASTICAMAZING Uncountables played their gig at the Edge of the Wedge with DJ Hugo.  Another £300 pounds was raised, and a night of fun, music, singing and dancing ensued. 

The gig was sold out with all 100 tickets being sold (and lots of blackmail going on).  The Band: Lewis Richards, Alan Daysh, Tom Easey and Will Munroe played two sets to an incredible audience of teachers, students and friends of the band and LSI. DJ Hugo played between the sets and then kept the crowd happy until closing time at 1 am.  All in all, Thursday 1st December was a highlight of the year and all in a good cause.

 

The LSI Portsmouth Bake Off - Super Yummy

 

At LSI, we are really passionate about fundraising, and have held many charity events over the years to help raise money for some wonderful causes. From fun runs to parties, we have organised many events, and on Thursday 1st December, we held our annual ‘Great LSI Bake Off’ to raise money for a local charity called ‘Home-Start’

We decided that as it’s the first day of advent, we wanted the cakes to be Christmas themed! We were completely overwhelmed with the effort that was put into the cakes and pies! There were Rudolph the reindeer cupcakes, Christmas Dinner Pie, snow-covered banana loaf and a strawberry Santa tiramisu (to name a few)!!! Three members of staff were lucky enough to be the judges of the baking competition, and got to try a piece of every single one! They certainly weren’t disappointed! The entries were judged on both taste and appearance.

After the judging took place, all the staff and students were invited to buy all the cakes and pies! A really fun and exciting experience. Some students even bought 5 different things to eat!


The winners to be announced during the weekly leavers’ ceremony, with Anna Rita’s Santa Strawberry Tiramisu winning the top prize on both taste and appearance! Well done Anna, your tiramisu was AMAZING!

We are so impressed with all our staff for baking such wonderful cakes, and we are also extremely grateful to our students for helping us raise so much money! By lunchtime, we had raised over £150!

As well as our bake sale, the school is also organising a charity night at The Edge of the Wedge, with live music and DJs. Four of our incredibly talented teachers are in a band ‘The Uncountables’ and will be performing tonight for staff and students. We have sold all 100 tickets, so we know it’s going to be a crazy and amazing night. 

Mannequin Challenge from LSI Portsmouth - We are the BEST ;-)

Are these not the BEST students in the world?
The Mannequin challenge filmed yesterday with some amazing students and Belle behind the camera.

Portsmouth - Oh how we love you, all of you

At the last count, we came up with another 11 different places called Portsmouth.  Probably one of the more famous ones is the Portsmouth in New Hampshire.  Recently on Instagram, someone posted a video of Portsmouth, and when watching, it was very much a case of 'how lovely ... hold on a minute ... that's not...'.  It really is extraordinary how similar the two places are.  Check below and see if you agree.

1)

Video from instagram by: @lilyhairullina

2)

Video from instagram by: @LSIPortsmouth

So of course, video number 2 is the Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, the top video is Portsmouth New Hampshire, USA.

In case you are interested here are the other 11 places called Portsmouth:

Other Portsmouths in UK:

Portsmouth - Calderdale

Places called Portsmouth in America.
Portsmouth - Virginia
Portsmouth - Rhode Island
Portsmouth - Ohio
Portsmouth - North Carolina
Portsmouth - New Hampshire
Portsmouth - Kentucky
Portsmouth - Iowa

Others in the world:
Portsmouth - Saint John, Dominica

Portsmouth - Ontario, Canada

What Experts Are Saying About The IELTS Exam Preparation

IELTS Exam Preparation Material: The Dos and Don’ts

So, you need to pass IELTS, maybe for university, maybe to show employers in a job interview, or just for your own personal satisfaction.  How do you get the best IELTS exam preparation?

Well, it’s certainly possible to study by yourself, and there is lots of IELTS exam preparation material out there that you can use.  For instance, the Cambridge books of exam preparation material (there are 11 versions so far) are good for looking at past papers, and contain reading, listening, speaking and writing past exams from real tests, so you can test your level, and see where you are.  Especially for reading and listening, these books are great – when you’re doing any English exam preparation material, what you want is the real thing, and these tests are authentic past papers, which gives you an idea of what’s in the exam.

However, when it comes to speaking and writing, it’s hard to see beyond getting a teacher to help you out.  To pass IELTS writing, for example, with a high score, not only do you need to learn English to a high level, but also you need to learn the strategies of writing, the different writing types, and what IELTS examiners are looking for.  Many people who take the IELTS exam are not really aware of what the writing questions types are, and this can mean scoring badly in the exam, just because of a lack of exam preparation.

For task 1 writing, for example, there are a whole range of different types of questions, including graphs with a trend, graphs and charts and tables which ask you to compare data, maps, processes, and questions with a mix of question types (e.g. a line graph and a comparative pie chart in one question).  Without having specific IELTS exam preparation by an experienced and knowledgeable IELTS teacher, it will be very difficult to know how to answer all these different types of question.  Similarly, task 2 writing has very specific criteria – the examiner is looking for not only your level and range of grammar and vocabulary, but also how well your answer addresses the task, and how well your answer is constructed and organised.  This requires either a really good self-study writing book, which goes through the writing step-by-step (one recommended book here is ‘IELTS Advantage Writing Skills’, published by DELTA, 2011), and/or a teacher.

Here, though, are a few general tips for IELTS exam preparation:

1. Familiarise yourself with the different types of reading questions, and try to formulate strategies for each one. Is it a type of reading question which requires general understanding (e.g. paragraph headings)? If so, practice skimming and extracting the general meaning of the paragraph quickly. Is it a type of question which requires detailed analysis of certain small parts of the text (e.g. True/False/Not Given)? If so, you’ll need to focus on the details, and identify the key words in each question on which the answer can turn. 
2.  Practice your listening as much as possible, and make sure you are familiar with how each section works. Think about, for example, the distractors in part 1 of the listening, and read tape scripts to see exactly how they work. 
3.  For speaking, remember that examiners value risk-taking and range of language as much as they do accuracy. As part of your IELTS exam preparation, try to expand your range of grammar, and try to work on trying out new vocabulary when you practice the speaking. 
4. When you’re writing, remember it’s an academic test, so don’t write contractions, informal vocabulary, or spoken language. Look at model answers from IELTS books, and make a note of the key phrases and linkers used, and try to use them in your writing.

 So, make your IELTS exam preparation efficient by making note of these tips, getting hold of good books to work with, and if you can, find an experienced teacher who can make your preparation work effectively.

Good luck!

6 Reasons Why Your Company Will No Longer Survive Without Outstanding English Business Communication

Learning English For Business Communication

Why learn English for business communication?

Well, if you do not, you will be at a serious competitive disadvantage in the international global market. For better or for worse, English language has become the global language for business and professional communications and the standards are changing. Today, small, medium and multi-national companies, educational establishments and even governments are investing heavily in increasing and accelerating their staff’s knowledge and communication skills in this area. It is a game-changer. Why? Because even if you are excellent in your work and offer products and services of the highest quality, it may not be enough! Experience shows that someone who is not as good as you but can communicate his or her message more effectively in business or professional English, has a greater chance of winning international business, defending a budget or perhaps even gaining promotion instead of you. 

Is it best to do this training in my own country or go to an English speaking country to do it?

Ideally both. Extensive training can happen in your own country through in-company or private lessons, telephone English classes and on-line learning. Then a visit to a specialist Business English training centre in an English speaking country is highly recommended. An intensive course for at least one week and, if possible, up to four weeks or more can facilitate a tangible increase in your levels of confidence and speaking, listening, reading and writing fluency and enable you to be much more effective in your work.

A specialist centre? So is English for business and professional communication training different from general English training then?

Yes, definitely. It is more intensive and tailored to your specific business and professional needs. Often teaching takes place on a one-to-one basis or a small group basis (or a mixture of both) and focuses not only on your specific language and work-related vocabulary requirements, but also soft skills, cultural awareness and situations relevant to your present and future work needs.

But how do I know what is the best business communications course or training centre for me?

Ask for recommendations from people you know who have done training like this before. Speak to agents or your HR department, look on-line, in the UK look at BEUK or EL Gazette recommendations. When you find a potential centre, look at the listed companies and clients they deal with and how long they have been teaching Business English courses, too.

Another key indicator to consider when looking at a specialist centre’s web-site is the actual training process. Is there a detailed needs audit? What types of courses do they offer? What is the experience of the teaching team, the course content, flexibility, range of nationalities in groups, ages of students, the resources & facilities available, the price and the after course service.

Is there anything else you should consider?

Yes, the location. Do you want to study in a large metropolis where there are many distractions, many people who may speak the same language as you? Would a quieter place, with a slower pace of life, a more relaxing environment perhaps by the sea or in the country be more suitable for your Business English studies?

In addition to this, hotel or executive host family accommodation, the cost of living, the centre’s after class social programme, places of historical and cultural interest, transportation links to airports and places of interest should also be considered carefully before making your decision.

If you had to summarise the importance of learning English for your professional communication needs in one sentence, what would you say?

In these increasingly challenging and globally competitive times, We’d say invest in your future; invest in learning English for Business and Professional Communications now.

Magical Autumn - Portsmouth in all its Glory

Here in Portsmouth, we love Autumn, it is such a special time. The clocks go back at the end of October, the partying starts with Halloween, then Bonfire night and before you know it the early Christmas festivities will start. And nature starts to paint the day with an array of beauty, either from the leaves changing colour or from the stunning sunsets.  The days are getting colder, so boots and coats are coming out of hibernation, the heating has been turned on, soups and stews are being put on the menu to warm us up. This is Britain, this is what is wonderful about changing seasons. Autumn - Magic!