Resources

Well, where to start:

1. There’s ME!   I’m English!  I am also a creative writer:  songwriter, poet, musician (guitar)…. and sometime Senior Lecturer in Business Management and English.
2. There’s YOU!  We all have strengths and weaknesses…. so what we need to be is, if you like, ‘trade-able options’, that is to be in a position to help others with your strengths and for them, in turn, to help you with your weaknesses.
3. There are no end of direct and indirect English-learning resources:
   •  films, TV, internet etc in English with (if necessary) English subtitles… The British Broadcasting Corporation, for example:
     • BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
     • BBC Radio Programmes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/a-z
     • BBC iPlayer (archive of most past BBC radio programmes) http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio*
     • BBC Future http://www.bbc.com/future
     • BBC Sport: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/
     • BBC Technology: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology/
     • BBC Entertainment and Arts: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment_and_arts/
     • BBC Science: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/
     • BBC Environment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment/
     • BBC Business: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/
     • BBC Learning: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/
     • BBC Languages: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
     • BBC English Language Learning: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
   • There’s TED!  This is where the most engaging short talks 8 – 18 mins are to be found: the most engaging, interesting and brilliant speakers you will ever have heard. TEDs come with English subtitles (and French translations if you are desperate, but I would not advise it!)
   • English test store: www.englishteststore.net  and http://www.english-test.net/toeic/for basic grammar, vocabulary exercises and tests leading to recognised exams such as TOEIC (Many employers ask, not for CLES qualifications but for more widely-recognised ones…for TOEIC the basic target employers expect is 750/990 …no, don’t ask me why 990 and not a round 1000!)
   • Novatris.  This is a programme available from the UHA via http://www.uha.fr/novatris/formation. If you enrol on the Novatris initiative early enough you may be able to find yourself a buddy-buddy situation in which you are paired with a person for whom English is the native language and for whom your mother tongue is the language they are trying to learn: a win-win situation for both parties.  You both learn from native speakers and you ‘pay’ in time rather than financial investment.  If you are serious about improving your English – enough to want to work outside class and beyond doing just your homework, then this is for you.  Native English speakers are in relatively short supply, so it is a first-come / first-served deal!  You have been warned!
   • The CLAM language learning centre.  It is still there. It is ‘under new management’. It offers you a facility to learn English at your own pace and it IS on the Illberg campus.  Again, if you are serious just go and sign up!
   • FLSH Friday Noon.  Look for the posters around the building!  The English Club (i.e. students not staff) put on a film or an event just about every week on Fridays between 1200 and 1400 (in 001 in all previous years, but as yet I don’t know about this year!).  Go.  Take your sandwiches and watch a film in the English language for free (usually with subtitles) and chat in English.  You don’t have to be a member of the English Club…. but the Club runs a snack bar with prices which are MUCH cheaper for members and membership is only a couple of euros for the year…  It’s not just films, there have been poets, musicians: all sorts.  Make it your business to be there!
   • Memrise.  A new way of learning which seems to make it easier and quicker to acquire, retain and recall learning.  Although it covers all sorts of subjects, there is a lot of attention to languages.  Some schools in England report 25% better language learning results in less than half the normal time.  I’l going to have a go at learning German this way…. it might work for you in English.  The majority of courses are free.  See http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/english/ You will find courses of all types at all English levels.
   • ‘Go for the burn’, as we say.  Maybe go to England – it is just 90 minutes or less away by easyJet from Basel: http://www.easyjet.com/ (of course there are other airlines, but this is the one I know most about (timetables / routes etc).  If you fancy London on a budget, then it may surprise you: there are a number of great hostels right in the centre of the city very close indeed to the national museums (all free entry last time I looked). We have taken staff and students to one such establishment belonging to the Aster Hostels group http://www.astorhostels.co.uk/our-hostels/ where prices in a dormitory can be as low as 20 Euros per night and you can also book family, double or private rooms at a slightly higher price.  One can perhaps find cheaper on the outskirts of London, but then you would have to find money for bus/train/ tube which would more than offset the saving.  They also run parties most nights to help people meet up and they have huge kitchens where you can save lots of money by cooking for yourselves.  Just promise yourselves this: from the moment you set foot on the plane – you speak English …. otherwise you will spend the whole time in England inside a French language bubble which won’t help you at all!  A tip from our son: if you want to impress the opposite sex over there, do keep your French accent when you speak English – they think it’s sexy and cool (apparently!)!
   • You all love music!  Well take your music in English: look up the lyrics (http://www.songlyrics.com/) for example and sing along with then in English using YouTube maybe…. you will find when you copy someone singing you tend to have virtually no trace of a French accent at all!!!