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Pronunciation
YouGlish
Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation. With more than 100M tracks, YouGlish gives you fast, unbiased answers about how English is spoken by real people and in context. Highly rated!
Sounds of English
Pronunciation pages - pictures, sounds, and videos to help you with English pronunciation.
The Speech Accent Archive
Presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Speakers of various World Englishes read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. Good site to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers.
Goal setting
How SMART Goals Can Help You Improve your English
SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Thesis Writing Goals that work
A video on setting SMART goals for scientific writing.
Writing a Paper: Examples of Effective Writing Goals
Neuroscience and learning
Neuroscientifically Challenged
2-Minute Neuroscience videos will help you learn the basics of neuroscience in short, easy-to-understand snippets.
Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing
A comprehensive toolkit consisting of behavioral and supplement-based tools that you can customize to enhance the quality, duration and impact of your sleep.
Harnessing the Brain: The Neuroscience Behind How We Learn
Language for presentations
Language for presentations
An infographic that presents language and phrases you can use when making a presentation. The phrases and tips provided will help set expectations around how your talk will proceed.
Presentation Language Phrases
1. Opening a Presentation
- "Good [morning/afternoon], everyone. My name is [name], and today I’ll be talking about..."
- "Let’s start by looking at..."
- "I’d like to begin with a question: Have you ever wondered...?"
2. Structuring Your Talk
- "First, I’ll discuss... then I’ll move on to... and finally, I’ll conclude with..."
- "Now let’s turn to the next point..."
- "To summarize what I’ve said so far..."
3. Emphasizing Key Points
- "This is a crucial point because..."
- "What’s really important here is..."
- "Let me highlight..."
4. Concluding
- "To wrap up, let’s go over the main points..."
- "In conclusion, I’d like to leave you with..."
- "Thank you for your time. I’d be happy to take any question
Academic writing
Academic Writing Skills-The University of Queensland
The Academic Writing Skills resource is an interactive guide that helps students develop essential writing and presentation skills for academic success. It covers topics such as interpreting assignments, structuring essays, using sources ethically, and improving critical thinking and oral communication.
They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing
This resource offers a comprehensive guide to mastering the essential rhetorical strategies and techniques necessary for effective academic writing, emphasizing the importance of engaging in meaningful dialogue with existing scholarly texts.
Provides examples of some of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation. Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative functions of academic writing. The resource are particularly useful for writers who need to report their research work. The items are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people’s ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism.
Sending Email to faculty and administrators
Grammar and vocabulary
The Academic Word List (AWL)
Describes the Academic Word List (AWL), (570 headwords and other forms, by level), giving information on what the AWL is, as well as a complete list of all words in the AWL.
Visuwords
Visual online graphical dictionary. Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts to produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net and learn to associate words.
Englishpage
Learn English grammar through in-depth tutorials featuring dozens of interactive exercises.
Onscreen Academy
Developed by SFU’s Dr. Steve Marshall, OnScreen Academy offers 35 short videos (most under 5 minutes) on English language and academic writing, which include clear description of rules and forms, practice tasks, and a summary.
The Five Grammatical Moods
Learn how to convey your tone and message to your reader and make a lasting impression in your writing.
Listening
5 Ways To Improve Your Listening Skills At Home
Learn how to be an active listener to improve your listening skills
Randall’s Cyber Listening Lab
Everyday conversations with adult and children’s voices.
British Council
Practise and improve your listening skills for your school studies and English exams.
Reading/current events
The New York Times Learning Network
Daily resources for teaching and learning with The New York Times, including lesson plans, questions for writing and discussion, quizzes, monthly contests and more. Join the conversation by commenting on any post.
Breaking News English
Interactive and printable English lessons; 26 page handouts, 2-page mini-lessons, and more tan 30 online activities
Speaking
Thought Groups Change How You View English Sentences
This Fluent American English pronunciation video takes a look at the Big Bang Theory to study a concept known as thought groups to speak English. Thought groups are groups of words that go together in a sentence, usually before a breath or pause. English sentences can have one thought group or several; in each thought group, one word receives heavy stress. This word is called a focus word. With audio from the Big Bang Theory, see if you can identify where the thought groups are in English pronunciation, as well as which words are stressed.
Conversation starters
1. Introductions and Backgrounds
- Can you tell me a little about yourself?
- Where are you from, and what brought you here?
- What’s your background or what do you do for work/study?
2. Interests and Hobbies
- What do you like to do in your free time?
- Do you have any hobbies you’re passionate about?
- Have you picked up any new hobbies recently?
3. Travel and Experiences
- Have you traveled anywhere interesting recently?
- Where is one place you'd love to visit and why?
- What’s the most memorable trip you’ve been on?
4. Food and Dining
- Do you have a favorite type of cuisine?
- Have you discovered any good restaurants or cafes lately?
- Do you like cooking? What’s your favorite dish to make?
5. Current Events or Pop Culture
- Have you watched any good movies or shows lately?
- What’s a book or series you’ve really enjoyed recently?
- Are you following any interesting news or trends?
6. Shared Environment or Context
- What made you join this group/meeting?
- How did you hear about this event or opportunity?
- What are you hoping to get out of this experience?
7. Light-hearted and Fun Topics
- If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead), who would it be?
- What’s something on your bucket list?
- What’s a fun fact about you that most people don’t know
8. Future Aspirations
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- What’s something you’re working towards or excited about in the future?
9. Cultural or Artistic Interests
- Do you follow any particular music genres or artists?
- What’s the last concert or event you attended?
- Do you enjoy any type of art, like painting, photography, or theater?
10. Wrap-Up and Next Steps
- It’s been great talking with you. Is there anything you’d like to discuss further?
These questions are designed to spark natural conversation and allow both parties to share more about themselves. Feel free to adapt them depending on the context of the meeting.
DEBATE LANGUAGE: Professional Speaking Skills
Dr. Tim Mossman offers these strategies for improving comprehensibility and intelligibility by speaking in thought groups, pausing, and stressing key words.
Speaking clearly: Thought groups change how you view English sentences
Great Youtube video that uses dialogue from The Big Bang Theory to demonstrate how using thought groups, syllable Stress, and pausing can enhance intelligibility in oral communication.
21 Idioms for Academic English
This video shows the 21 most common idioms used in academic writing in English, most of which are also common in academic speaking. They can be used to enrich vocabulary for university English, or for the TOEFL or IELTS writing and speaking exams.
Learn English through movies
Speechyard
Full length movie with English subtitle. Click on any word in the subtitles and get a translation via Google translate.
Lingualnet
Learning English through media.
Learn English Feel Good
Movie clips to improve your listening comprehension skills
Library resources
Resources for EAL and English Language and Culture students
Tips and links for finding books and online resources for grammar, writing, IELTS and TOEFL tests, and other topics at the SFU Library.