Learning through media (movies, music, etc.) is one of the best ways to learn a new language. The exercises below use clips from the popular American TV show "The Simpsons" to help you to better understand spoken English.
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Whether you are looking for a new job or planning to travel the world, studying English can help you progress in life both personally and professionally. Here we are going to give you 5 websites that will help you improve the main four skills (reading, listening, writing, and speaking) and one that will allow you to find people from all over the world who are, like you, willing to learn another language. I am Jefferson and this podcast is brought to you by Sucre Language Center. Let’s begin
The fastest way to get great at speaking English is to make mistakes — tons of them. As long as you understand where you’re going wrong and try something different next time, errors are a language student’s best friend! However, you can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t know what they are…
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L1: an L1 is your first language, your native language, or your mother tongue. You are a native speaker of Spanish-so your L1 is Spanish language
L2: an L2, is a language that is not the native language of the speaker, but is learned later. If your native language is Spanish and you study English your L2 is English
Well, without further ado let’s get started…
Throughout the acquisition of a second language, there is always a background to the first language. As Bill Van Patten's podcast and his team say, there are four fundamental differences between the acquisition of L1 and L2. Motivation, quality and quantity of input, frustration, appearance.
Motivation is different between L1 and L2. For the acquisition of L1 there is no option to learn a language because children have no other choice. On the other hand, the acquisition of L2 gives the student the opportunity to choose which language to learn, either as a necessity or simply for the fun of learning. In this case, motivation is essential for the person who decides to learn a new language.
This motivation may be due to the need to keep a job, live in another country where the same language is not spoken (immigration), increase the level of their knowledge, etc. This answers the question why do people decide to learn another language on their own?
Currently, the Language Center of Instituto Superior Universitario was created to offer students the opportunity to study English. The aim is to achieve that students at the end of the study program attain a real A2 level, and can speak and communicate in English. However, from my point of view and experience, students have only one motivating factor: completing the English courses and obtaining the A2 level to graduate. That is, meet a requirement.
This creates a problem in learning English. Students attend English courses in a mechanical way, almost forced, with a single idea of meeting the hours of the subject, passing the semester, level by level. Faced with this problem, as teachers, we must motivate our students to change their minds to have a different exit profile. I definitely believe that the teacher has the responsibility to motivate in the classroom and make students aware of the importance in the professional, cultural and educational fields of acquiring a second language.
The second difference between L1 and L2 is the quality and quantity of the input. In the first case, children acquire it quickly up to 5 years (approximately) in a natural environment. In contrast, L2 is produced more slowly depending on the number of hours the person is in contact with the second language. In other words, to obtain optimal results, the L2 student should spend as much time as possible in an L2 environment. This would be favorable in migratory contexts.
Nevertheless, our reality is different. The students of the Institute receive 8 hours of English per week, 80 in total for each level, eight levels in total to get A2 according to the Common European Framework. However, this time is not enough to acquire a good level of English in L2. So, on many occasions, acquiring a second language can be frustrating. I’ll give some tips…
If I am not mistaken, following these tips help us to change our mind about the appearance to learn a second language and make us feel more comfortable with it. In a nutshell, it changes the frustration into a friendly way to acquire a second language.
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Ecuador is a very beautiful country. Here you will find coastal beaches and fishing boats, to the towering Andes mountains and volcanos, to the jungle - and then there are the Galapagos Islands with other tiny islands which is famous for wildlife animals and etc. It is basically located in the north-west region of South America, Ecuador has a population of just 15 million.
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Hi everyone, the next podcast is involved into the music, that is one of the best topics for me. In the next few minutes, I’ll try to explain something about the music and the different genres, but I would rather take two samples: Reggaeton and Rock and roll.
To state this podcast, I will mention several kinds of music, I mean genres, but to be involved in the music, we must bear in mind the evolution of music or “involution” in some genres. But, why do I say this? The main reason could be the new generation of music with no respect for the human being. I am concerned, as a father, specially with Reggaeton.
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Having a pet is not an easy decision. There are many aspects you should consider before getting a new one to your life, say, space at home, time to spend with them, the resources for food and medicine, etc.
I used to think that having a pet was an easy business. Just feeding them and letting them go out on their own. At least, that’s what I was used to seeing, not only with the pets I had at home, but also with the ones in the neighborhood.
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MUSIC AND THE CONFINEMENT
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” Plato
As we are all aware, it has been a difficult year for artists and other people involved in the music industry due to coronavirus.
The near collapse of live shows affected not only singers or musicians, there are thousands of people who work alongside them, sound engineers, security guards, make up artists,etc.
Basically there are four scenarios, the biggest stars in the global music business, lesser known artists, some artists not very known and the new talents.
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If you're hoping to stretch your retirement dollars farther, moving abroad may be the answer. Living in a foreign country offers a chance to see more of the world and can offer you a lower cost of living. This podcast is brought to you by SucreLanguage Center. I am Jefferson and today we'll be talking about the benefits and challenges you may face if you're thinking about retiring abroad, welcome and enjoy.
I'm here with David and Deb they are a lovely couple from the United States but currently living hearing Ecuador and they’ll give us insight into livingin Ecuador as a retiree, welcome Deb and David it's nice to have you guys here. Thank you, Jeff thank you thank, you how, have you been? we're just doing fine living life in paradise, great okay.First of all can you tell us a little bit more about you maybe where you are from a which city you are from, about maybe your family and things like that? sure before we moved to Ecuador our last home of 20 years was in southern New Mexico in a small town called Las Cruces and Las Cruces is about 30 miles from el Paso Texasand Ciudad Juarez. We have 2 daughters -1 is 28 and 1 is 32 and they both live in the United States 1 in San Antonio on 1 in Sacramento. And they've come to visit us several times here in Ecuador and I absolutely love coming to visit. I'm a retired teacher and a retired lawyer.
Okay you I'm a retired telecom and advertising sales person it was great. Okay, when you think about retiring, including me, I think about like enjoying time with my family, doing things I love you know things like that but in my home country doing that in my home country and when I found out that more and more people are deciding to retire abroad that blew my mind, David why retiring in a foreign land?. Well there's an adventure side of it mmhm there's also a very practical cost of living side. IfDeb and I had stayed in the United States we would never have been able to retire because what we expected standard of living, we could never get with our retirement paychecks but here in Ecuador our retirement checks go very far and we can live very well.
Let´s listen this mini PodCast where Juan David explains, how important is to include English language in your life!
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We offer you the transcript of this PodCast. Enjoy it!
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was a Polish scientist - and is probably one of the most famous scientists of all time.In France, she met her husband - a man called Pierre, who was also a scientist. They discovered two new chemical elements - polonium and radiumand for this great discovery they won a NobelPrize in 1903. As if that wasn't enough, Marie went on to win another Nobel Prize in 1911. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize twice. Marie Curie was the first female professor at the University of Paris and she founded the new science of radioactivity.
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stayand The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism.
Gabriela Mistral
Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, known pseudonymously as Gabriela Mistral, was a Chilean poet and diplomat whose works often explore morality and motherhood. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1945, becoming the first Latin American author to receive the honor.
Nadezhda Krupskaya
Nadezhda Krupskaya was a significant figure in the radical movement that made the Russian Revolution a century ago. She was an important pedagogue, created the new Soviet educational system and set up the workers' state libraries by boosting the Soviet library system, gave lectures and wrote extensively on the importance of a new education in the socialist society.
Frida Kahlo
Artist Frida Kahlo was considered one of Mexico's greatest artists who began painting mostly self-portraits after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954.
Grace Hopper
When electronic computers began to revolutionize society, Grace Hopper was one of the leading players, having already become the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics from Yale University in 1934. First at Harvard, and then in the US Navy, Hopper worked on the very earliest computers and later developed COBOL, the commercial programming language that enabled a military innovation to transform the business world.
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Do you have a hard time pronouncing certain sounds in English? Do you believe that it’s nearly impossible to improve your accent? I´m here to tell you that you can drastically improve your pronunciation in a short amount of time.
It´s going to take an open mind, consistent effort, and experimentation with new strategies, but it’s not as hard as you may believe. With pronunciation, a little effort goes a long way.
Listen to this interesting interview with Lisa and Ade. Welcome to this PodCast: TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION.
You can listen to us on your favorite platform.
https://anchor.fm/sucre-language-center
Falling in love is easy, if you meet the right person… But what if Mr or Ms Right doesn’t speak your language? From asking someone out and going on a date to falling in love, romance and more, this bookPODCAST gives you all the English CONTEXT you need to speak the Language of Love.
Is English the language of love? 98% 63% 52% 37% of EFL speakers think that having language skills is attractive of EFL speakers have dated someone who speaks a different native language of EFL speakers have used an English language dating website of EFL speakers have learned a language to impress a loved one 52% of EFL speakers have learned English to understand a celebrity 55% of EFL speakers have serenaded someone with an English language love song.
Hey Everyone, and welcome back to Sucre Language Center Podcasts.
This time, we bring you: 12 Myths About Learning English! Yes: If someone says, “I can’t learn English,” they’ll often explain by giving a reason that is actually a MYTH (a myth is something that is False). In this two-part series, we’ll debunk all these common myths, and give you tips to help you get past the different obstacles that you might face.
Myth 1:
I’m Not Good with Foreign Languages The mind is a powerful thing. The fact is, our brains can absorb new knowledge every day, yet if we let them, our brains could also trick us into thinking we can’t (and we don’t want that). THEREFORE, by changing your mindset, you get the best chance to learn something new! Myth 2: I’m Embarrassed to Speak English The famous poet James Joyce said, “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” That means, you need to see every mistake as an opportunity to learn! Accepting that you’re a learner will help you to be less critical about yourself, and teach you to actually enjoy the mistakes you make while learning. And this positive attitude might even make others want to help you.
Myth 3:
I’m Too Old to Learn English
Yes, younger people easily learn new languages, but that doesn’t mean older people can’t learn English. An adult has more experience and focus to solve problems, and is more able to introduce some changes in order to make learning easier, and a lot more pleasant.
Myth 4:
I Don’t Have Enough Time We get it, you’re busy…. The whole world seems to be busy. Everyone is moving so fast. Nevertheless, believing that you need a lot of time to learn English is actually false. You simply need to identify the time your brain is working at its best, when your focus is sharp, and learning feels easier. And organize yourself around that time.
Myth 5:
I Need to Visit an English-speaking Country In the past, learning a new language was difficult because it was harder to travel to other countries. But thanks to -you guessed it- the Internet, we can now bring foreign languages into our homes with the click of a button. Plus, you can discover ways to learn and practice English in your own life, without the need for a plane ticket…!
Myth 6:
I Can’t Afford It Money is a common excuse that many easily use to explain why they can’t do something. With the help of tons of free English resources online though, you’ll be improving your English without even spending a dollar. Remember: The best learning experiences are the most memorable, not the most expensive. Wanna know what the other six myths on Learning English are all about? Stay tuned for the second part of this podcast 😊 See you there!
Hello! Welcome to the Sucre Language Center Podcasts. We're opening with an exciting topic on 5 Interesting Facts about English (that you didn't know). Are you ready? Let's begin:
Medieval manuscripts reveal that some of the oldest words in English are “I,” “we,” “two,” and “three.” This makes “I” one of the shortest and oldest words in the English language. It is also the most commonly used word in English conversations.
That's right! Such words are called ambigrams.
During the course of the year, almost 4,000 new words are added! So, the next time you try to catch the attention of your Teacher and classmates, try adding some new words to your Speaking exercise ;).
This means that all pilots have to identify themselves and speak in English while flying, regardless of their origin and nationality.
So there you have them: 5 Interesting Facts about English. I hope you enjoyed this podcast; make sure you join us next time. Bye!
