Manual concebido para las necesidades específicas del inglés oral con fines profesionales

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

This study explores the field of EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom learning within a formal learning institution. Drawing on theories and methods from various disciplines, this book explores the question which has been frustrating language teachers: why do so many students remain reticent and anxious in language class? Based on a large-scale survey and a more focused case study, the book argues persuasively that reticence and anxiety in formal EFL classrooms are important factors in determining the outcome of language learning. By means of a triangulated research method, this book examines various aspects of reticence and anxiety in EFL classroom learning situations. The author analyses causes and consequences, differences in terms of gender and proficiency level, and coping strategies.

How Chinese characters triumphed over the QWERTY keyboard and laid the foundation for China's information technology successes today. Chinese writing is character based, the one major world script that is neither alphabetic nor syllabic. Through the years, the Chinese written language encountered presumed alphabetic universalism in the form of Morse Code, Braille, stenography, Linotype, punch cards, word processing, and other systems developed with the Latin alphabet in mind. This book is about those encounters—in particular thousands of Chinese characters versus the typewriter and its QWERTY keyboard. Thomas Mullaney describes a fascinating series of experiments, prototypes, failures, and successes in the century-long quest for a workable Chinese typewriter. The earliest Chinese typewriters, Mullaney tells us, were figments of popular imagination, sensational accounts of twelve-foot keyboards with 5,000 keys. One of the first Chinese typewriters actually constructed was invented by a Christian missionary, who organized characters by common usage (but promoted the less-common characters for “Jesus" to the common usage level). Later came typewriters manufactured for use in Chinese offices, and typewriting schools that turned out trained “typewriter girls” and “typewriter boys.” Still later was the “Double Pigeon” typewriter produced by the Shanghai Calculator and Typewriter Factory, the typewriter of choice under Mao. Clerks and secretaries in this era experimented with alternative ways of organizing characters on their tray beds, inventing an input method that was the first instance of “predictive text.” Today, after more than a century of resistance against the alphabetic, not only have Chinese characters prevailed, they form the linguistic substrate of the vibrant world of Chinese information technology. The Chinese Typewriter, not just an “object history” but grappling with broad questions of technological change and global communication, shows how this happened. A Study of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute Columbia University

PLEASE NOTE - this is a replica of the print book and you will need paper and a pencil to complete the exercises. Puzzled by past tenses? Confused by comparatives? This clearly structured and beautifully presented workbook includes grammar practice activities that make learning English grammar incredibly easy. The English for Everyone English Grammar Guide Practice Book is an essential companion to the English for Everyone English Grammar Guide, a comprehensive reference book that makes even the trickiest grammar rules clear and simple. The Practice Book mirrors the unit-by-unit structure of the Grammar Guide. Each Practice Book unit is full of carefully graded grammar exercises to drill and reinforce the grammar you have learned in the corresponding English Grammar Guide unit. These exercises will help you build up your confidence and become more fluent, giving you the chance to practise using the most important English grammar constructions again and again. Ideal for learners at all levels, and covering CEFR levels A1 to C1, the English for Everyone English Grammar Guide Practice Book presents basic (beginner), intermediate, and advanced English grammar in one easy-to-navigate book. Like all books in the innovative English for Everyone series, it uses a visual learning method: many of the exercises are accompanied by attractive illustrations that put grammar practice points into context and give you visual cues to help you understand the exercises. Whether you want to improve your grammar for work, study, travel, or exams, the English for Everyone Grammar Guide Practice Book offers you a simple way to learn English grammar, remember it, and use it with confidence.