Lesson 1: Introduction + Double Trouble

Welcome to the Everyday English Speaking Course Level 2! This course will challenge you to take your fluency to the next level. In this video, I’m going to give you some tips for getting the most benefit out of the lessons.

Each lesson has four parts.

1. Listening comprehension

The first one is listening comprehension, where you will listen to the conversation and try to answer some questions that show that you understand. I suggest that you read over the questions first, so you know what to listen for. The questions will be multiple choice or true or false. After reading over the questions, then listen to the audio and try to answer the questions as you listen.

It’s okay to listen multiple times; it’s normal not to be able to understand everything on the first time. So listen as many times as you need to try to answer all the questions. Also, it’s okay if you don’t get all the questions right. Remember, I designed these dialogues to be challenging, they’re not going to be easy!

But the important thing is that you give it your best try. Try to understand, try to answer the questions, and then you can check your answers and learn more about the expressions used in the dialogue. Okay? So don’t be discouraged if you get the listening comprehension questions wrong. Or if you have difficulty, I want to give you a challenge so that in the next activities, you can really improve your English.

2. Read the dialogue and learn the expressions

The second step for each lesson is to read the dialogue and learn the expressions. This is where I will teach you all of the words, phrasal verbs, idioms, and expressions that you heard in the conversation. You can take as much time as you need to go through the conversation and learn all the expressions. And if you need additional clarification on something, if there’s an expression that you still don’t understand even after the explanation, please email me and I’ll try to explain a little better or give you some more examples.

3. Vocabulary quiz

The next activity is the vocabulary quiz. I’ll give you some sentences, and you’ll have to complete each one with the right expression. These are the expressions from the conversation. After completing the questions, click “Finish quiz” and “View questions” to check your answers.

4. Speaking task

The final activity is a speaking task. I’ll give you a question, and you can record an MP3 of yourself answering that question by speaking aloud – then send that recording in for feedback and correction from the Espresso English teaching team.

Now, I would encourage you to try to speak spontaneously. Imagine that I’m sitting in front of you and asking you the question. So take a moment to think, and then do your best to answer it spontaneously.

But if you feel that’s too difficult, and you feel you must write something down in order to be able to speak, then try to write down only a few main points. Okay? Don’t write down your whole answer word for word, because then you’re just reading off of the page – and that’s not as helpful in developing your spoken English. So if you really feel you need to write something down in order to be able to speak, then try writing only the main points, and then give more details as you speak.

That’s it! You can go ahead and get started with lesson 1. I’m here for you if you have any questions.