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CAE writing style guide: report
Part 4 of 5, you can find the other style guides by clicking here: CAE writing style guides. This is a short summary of some style points to keep in mind when attempting the tasks in the Cambridge English: Advanced writing section. Report Who is the audience? The audience for this question is usually your boss, a professional group, a school administrator or a group of your peers. What is the purpose of the writing? You need to summarise information and make a recommendation in a concise and well-organised manner. Your target audience...
read moreCAE writing style guide: proposal
Part 3 of 5, you can find the other style guides by clicking here: CAE writing style guides. This is a short summary of some style points to keep in mind when attempting the tasks in the Cambridge English: Advanced writing section. Proposal Who is the audience? The audience for this question is usually your boss, a professional group or a school administrator. What is the purpose of the writing? You are suggesting a solution to a problem. You need to support your suggestion with factual information and be persuasive. Is it formal? Yes....
read moreCAE writing style guide: letter
Part 2 of 5, you can find the other style guides by clicking here: CAE writing style guides. This is a short summary of some style points to keep in mind when attempting the tasks in the Cambridge English: Advanced writing section. Letter Who is the audience? This will be given in the prompt. What is the purpose of the writing? You are usually giving information or requesting action. You should be direct and get to the point quickly. Is it formal? This depends on the audience. Should I use headings or bullet points? No. How should it...
read moreCAE writing style guide: essay
Part 1 of 5, you can find the other style guides by clicking here: CAE writing style guides. This is a short summary of some style points to keep in mind when attempting the tasks in the Cambridge English: Advanced writing section. Essay Who is the audience? The audience is a teacher or professor. What is the purpose of the writing? You need to develop an argument or opinion. Usually this is done in 5 paragraphs: introduction, reason 1 (with examples), reason 2 (with examples), addressing counter-arguments (with examples), conclusion. Is it...
read moreShort films about global issues from the United Nations
The United Nations has short videos with transcripts on their UN in Action site.
read moreDocumentaries from Australia
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has some fantastic resources online: Catalyst is a 10 minute documentary programme with transcripts, and Foreign Correspondent is a 30 minute news documentary programme with transcripts. Both shows have a short introduction before the transcript begins.
read moreWatch the news in English
The news is a great learning resource because you usually already know the context. Just by looking at a few pictures, you can usually guess what the story is, so it’s easy to listen and connect what you hear with what you already know. Euronews provides a transcript with each video in their “OUR LATEST VIDEO NEWS” section so you can listen first and then read if you’d like.
read moreLearning with your DVDs
Practicing English by watching films is good for improving your stamina, but there are other things you can do as well. Take a film that you know very well from watching it in your mother tongue. Now watch this movie in English (with English subtitles if you like) and you will learn all kinds of language because you know what they will say so you can pay attention to how they say it. When you’re watching a film for the first time, after a conversation you understand that he’s mad at her, she wants a divorce, there’s not enough money… the...
read moreLearning can be inspriational
TED is an incredible organization that brings some of the most intelligent and passionate people in the world together to give lectures and inspire the rest of us with their ideas. They also have subtitles in many languages and an excellent interactive transcript tool for every video. For a taste of the amazing minds who participate in TED lectures, watch neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran talk about some very unusual things he has discovered while studying the brain, or watch Michael Pritchard explain his invention: a handheld device that...
read moreTrain your accent
It is possible to do some speaking practice alone, especially accent training. Choose a speaker of English who you like, someone who you think has a good accent. Try and find some videos of this person speaking on youtube or on DVD, and take a section that’s about 30 seconds long. Listen carefully to it: pay attention to the speed, the rhythm, the intonation and the pauses. Now go to Vocaroo (or use recording software on your PC) and record yourself saying the same lines. Now listen to yourself! Compare it with the original and record...
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