Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
Susanne: Hi, Mario. Can you help me prepare some things for the next month?
Mario: OK, sure. What can I help you with?
Susanne: I need to visit the customer in Germany. It's important.
Mario: What can I do to help?
Susanne: Can you send an email to the customer? Ask them when I can visit them next week. Please do this first. It's a priority and very urgent.
Mario: Right. I'll do it today.
Susanne: Thanks. This next task is also important. Can you invite everyone to the next team meeting?
Mario: Yes, I will.
Susanne: But first you need to book a meeting room. After that, please send everyone an email about it.
Mario: Yes, of course.
Susanne: And finally, can you write a short report about our new project? I have to give a presentation to our managers next month. Please do it when you have time – sometime in the next two or three weeks. It's not too urgent.
Mario: Sure, no problem. I can do it this week.
Susanne: There's no hurry. Take your time.
Hello Mahbuba,
We have a couple of pages with advice on learning English and on using the site. You can find them here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/frequently-asked-questions
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/getting-started
To improve you need to practise, practise and practise some more!
Below are a few tips that might be useful:
To improve your vocabulary:
The more you read - magazines and newspapers, journals, short stories, novels, poems... in fact, whatever genre or kind of writing interests you - the better, and you can find an inexhaustible supply on the internet, of course.
We also recommend very strongly that you start (if you haven't already) a personal vocabulary book. Organise it by topic (sports, work, appearance, finance etc) and add new words and phrases to it as you listen, watch and read in English.
Once you have built up a small collection of items in your vocabulary book, you can use it to test yourself so you can see how well you memorise the items. Cover the meanings and/or examples and try to recall them, or to translate the words and phrases into your own language.
To improve your speaking and listening:
The most important thing you can do is to speak English as often as possible. To do this a partner is very helpful, so think about the people you know and consider if any of them could be a practice partner for you. It may be that you know someone else who is also learning English and who would like to practise with you, or perhaps you know some people who do not speak your language but do speak English.
However, if you do not have a practice partner it does not mean that you cannot practise because it is possible to practise alone. Just speaking English to yourself while you are at home, going about your normal daily activities, can help a great deal with your fluency and can help you to feel more confident, which will help you to cut down your hesitating.
You can also use the audio and video materials here on LearnEnglish to improve your fluency. After doing the exercises, try listening with the transcript (listening and reading). Then try saying the text yourself, and finally try saying it with (and at the same speed as) the recording. This will help you to develop speed in your speech, which is a key component of fluency. You'll also pick up a lot of language as chunks - words which are often used together in set phrases - which you can use to communicate with less hesitation.
How can I improve my writing?
How to write depends upon what kind of writing you want to do, for what purpose you are writing and who the recipient is. Different kinds of writing require different language and different ways of organising the text, so the first thing to do is to take a look at as many different texts as you can. In general, to improve your writing it's important to read and write as much as possible, so keep an eye out for good examples of letters, articles and so on. Using the internet to read magazines, newspapers and other text-types from online media is a good idea.
Whatever you do, try to spend at least 15 minutes several days per week reading and/or writing. Remember also that written texts are usually well organised - unlike a lot of speech, which can often be haphazard and disorganised. Therefore it's important to write in an organised way: start by collecting your thoughts, then plan how you are going to organise them, then write a first draft. After that, check (or get someone else to check) your draft before writing your final version. Research shows that good writers constantly review their work and amend it, so this is a good model.
It's hard for us to give individual advice to you without knowing your strengths and weaknesses and your goals, but I hope the tips and suggestions above are helpful.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Asif Nawaz,
You can find the answer to this question on our page about the past simple:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/past-simple
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello zabiullah
I would recommend you listen to a variety of audio resources in different ways, and that you also work to improve your pronunciation and speaking fluency.
Most people find it useful to sometimes listen in a more relaxed way (where you just listen and try to understand) and at other times listen more carefully (where you listen and read the transcript at the same time, and then do exercises). It's also best to choose listenings that are at your level or a little bit too hard, but not too hard. You can find plenty of resources in this section and also in General English, where there are hours and hours of audio and video you can listen to.
To improve your speaking and pronunciation, after you've listened to a page carefully, I'd encourage you to choose eight to ten sentences from pages that you think would be useful in your speaking, either because they are difficult to pronounce or because they could be useful in different conversations. For example, 'What can I do to help?' or something similar could be useful in many places.
Practise saying that phrase over and over again until it's easy to say. Check your pronunciation with the recording. Then do the same thing with the other phrases or sentences you've chosen. Do this a couple of times a day for several days, until you can remember and say them all confidently.
Write them down in a notebook and then choose another set of sentences from another listening and follow the same procedure. Gradually, you will build up your speaking fluency and vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation and listening.
Let us know how you get on with that!
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team