Online Innovations Band Samples 创新口语在线分级参考

Thanks to Ray’s hard work, we now have innovations band samples up here. Click on the 耳机 to listen to a sample from each letter. We’d still prefer that you come in for a free placement test, but these samples can give you something to compare yourself to.

Just a reminder that a new round of our 创新口语 classes start this weekend. They meet each Saturday and Sunday for four hours each day for five weeks. Small classes with a foreign teacher and lots of chances to practice your speaking in a systematic way. For more information, click here.

My Book: 标准英语口语操练手册

speakingbook.jpgIt’s finally out! My handbook on practicing spoken English arrived today. The book describes a simple and effective way to practice your spoken English.

Thanks so much to 胡老师,蔡菁,and 郭霞 for all their help and support. Also thanks to David Hull, Connie Wu, Rob Neal, and Eric Jenican for allowing their articles to be included as practice materials.

(I’ll post a picture of the book once I can find one.)

Update: Thanks to Eric for finding a link to the book. I’ve posted a photo above. Eric also asked if I could provide a more detailed description of the book, which I will do soon.

Common Ground 国际双行线

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Last Saturday I had the opportunity to be a special guest BTV’s Common Ground (国际双行线) program. Three other guests and I talked about being foreign teachers in China.

The most exciting part of the program was that several of the students from my Culture Class had the chance to attend the filming. Did you guys have a good time? Victor (李鑫) from New Channel was also there. Thanks, Victor!

The show should be broadcast on or around September 10th, which is Teacher’s day in China. I’ll post the exact date and time here when I find out.

在新浪解析雅思评分标准和备考

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It’s taken me a while to take note of this, but Harvey (刘洪波), Larry(张皓), Victor (李鑫) and I went to Sina.com last week to answer questions about the newly released detailed band descriptors for the IELTS.

You can read the transcript here.

My favorite part was when I was talking about the importance of paraphrase in the interview but couldn’t think of the Chinese word for “paraphrase”!

Update: Here’s a transcript of the interview on our site, with a few more photos.