English Lesson - learning styles and more

Why is English important?

In many other countries, they speak English.

Working today in business or science often requires us to speak English.

We need to speak English when we work with people from English-speaking countries.

Also, people from non-English speaking countries use English as the principal language of business today.

What countries speak English as their primary language?

America, India, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales (the UK). 

Some other examples are:

South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Ireland, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Wales is pronounced like the word for baleine - whales. You say it like: Way-ills

What non-English speaking countries use English as their international business language?

China, Japan, Germany, Scandinavian countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil.

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What are the five senses?

Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching.

Which senses do we use most when we learn? Seeing and hearing

Which sense do you use most to learn? Seeing

So, you are a visual learner. 

Visual learners learn best by seeing.

Auditory learners learn best by listening.

Visual learners need to work on their listening skills.

Skills = compétences

Visual learners are usually good at spelling in English.
This is because English spelling is strange. It does not always look the way it sounds.
For example, the word listen has a t, but you don't say it.
A visual learner would learn to spell this word by looking at it. So they would spell it correctly.
An auditory learner would hear the word and spell it like this: lissen. Because that is how it sounds. This spelling is incorrect, but it gives you a better idea of how to say the word that the actual spelling does.

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Laptops

Computers can help us to learn English in many ways:

• if we make a spelling mistake they underline the word in red
• they auto-correct typos
• we can save and edit our work 
• we can look up things on the Internet

One of the most useful tools on the Internet is a translation site.
Two of the best translation tools are:

and 

You should add these tools to your bookmark bar or favorites bar.

When in doubt, look up words with an online translation tool! It is fast and very useful.

Laptops have different keyboards.

English and international keyboards use QWERTY. They look like this:

French keyboards use AZERTY. They look like this:

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Infinitive verbs in English

In French, infinitive verbs are just one word. 

In English, they are usually two words - to + the verb.

For example:

to like = aimer

to be = être

to have = avoir

to make = faire

to break = casser

to look = regarder

But, it is very common in English to have a verb phrase using prepositions and other words.

For example, if you want to do some research on the Internet, we would say in English - I will look it up on the Internet. So the infinitive is:

to look [something] up = rechercher

For example:

Student: What does that word mean, Colleen?

Colleen: Why don't you look it up on the Internet?

This can be confusing, because a simple English verb can be used in many different verbal phrases and they all have completely different meanings. There is no connection between the verbs.

For example, the verb to give = donner.

But we can combine with other words to get new meanings.

to give up = abandonner

to give up [something]

= to give up smoking = d'arrêter de fumer

= to give up chocolate = d'arrêter de manger le chocolat, arrêter le chocolat, renoncer le chocolat...