This PowerPoint provides 5 tips for supplementing English learning outside the classroom: 1. Put English "Post-it notes" around your home with vocabulary words to remember them without effort. 2. Watch English movies and TV shows, especially with subtitles, to observe language use and pick up new words. 3. Read books or listen to audiobooks to learn spelling, pronunciation and see words in context over time. 4. Listen to podcasts on various topics that are always free to improve listening skills. 5. Listen to certain English music styles clearly spoken to learn without strange vocabulary or fast singing.

1. Ryan's English
Learning
Supplementary
Resources and
Recommendations

2. Hello
If you want to study
English to supplement
what you learn in
Class…
This PowerPoint is for
you!

3. 5 tips
There are many, MANY ways to improve your
English.
A great way is ‘immersion’. Surround yourself
with the English Language as much as possible.
In the following PowerPoint I will give you 5
useful tips to help you do that.

4. Tip 1: English Post-it
notes
One of the easiest, “passive” ways to learn
and remember furniture/ household
objects in English, is to put a ‘Post-it’ note
on that object in your house/apartment.
You will see the note multiple times every
day and will remember the word without
no effort!

5. You can post ‘target-words’ that you’re trying to
remember around your house/apartment as well.
That way, every time you see the word, you’ll be
reminded what it means!
Your vocabulary will expand in no time.

7. Tip 2- Watch some TV
Watching English Movies or TV shows is a great
way to improve your English. You’ll learn new
words, can observe natural grammar and see
the way language is used in context. The best
part is--- it’s fun!

8. It’s even more useful to watch with English
Subtitles, as they will show you the spelling of
the word, and help you remember it.
BUT- Don’t watch the movie with subtitles in
Chinese! If you do that, you’ll ignore what the
characters are saying and just read the
Mandarin at the bottom of the screen!

10. Recommendations
I recommend the following movies.
They have lots of speaking, don’t
use super-complicated vocabulary
and are actually pretty good
movies!

11. Pre Intermediate and Intermediate level movies
• Back to the future
• Ghostbusters
• Karate kid
• E.T
• The sandlot
• Mean girls
• Trains Planes and Automobiles
• Christmas vacation
• Friends (TV show)
• Ferris bueller's day off
• bill and ted's excellent adventure
• Home alone
• Seinfeld (TV show)

12. Upper Intermediate
12 Angry Men
The Devil's Advocate
Before Sunset
The Breakfast Club
Tape
Glengarry Glen Ross
Clerks
Network
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Misery
Doubt
Judgment at Nuremberg
the king's speech
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Hard Candy
Inherit the Wind
Sideways
to kill a mockingbird

13. Step 3- Read Books or
Listen to Audiobooks

14. Step 3- Read Books or
Listen to Audiobooks
Another great way to improve English is to read or
listen to books.
In some ways books can be better, as they teach
you the way words are spelled and you see it the
words used in clear context. You’ll also have more
time to look up words that you don’t know.
But, Audiobooks have the advantage of
demonstrating how a word is pronounced and also
are more convenient when commuting to work, or
listening to as you fall asleep!

15. Ryan’s Recommendations
Pre-Intermediate- Intermediate
Ernest Hemingway (author)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Angela’s Ashes
The Giver
The Great Gatsby

16. Tip 4- Listen to
Podcasts
Podcasts aren’t very popular in China. Perhaps
that will change in the future.
Podcasts are like TV shows--- that you can listen
to! They exist in every imaginable format and
topics
ex- true crime, news, entertainment, comedy,
history, travel, culture, trivia, science, computer
programming etc.
Bonus: Podcasts are always free!

18. Ryan’s recommended
Podcasts
• ESL news
• Radiolab
• This American Life
• Science vs
• Hardcore history
• How stuff works
• Freakonomics
• Radiolab
• Tedtalks

19. Tip 5- Listen to English
Music
• Listening to music can also be a good way to
learn English.
• But, not ALL music is useful as an English
learning tool!
• A lot of English songs use horrible grammar,
unnatural speaking, very weird or difficult
vocabulary and are very difficult for even
Native Speakers to understand!

20. • So be careful! I recommend songs in
which the singer speaks clearly and
doesn’t sing too fast or in a strange way.
• ‘country music’ or ‘folk ’ music can be
good to listen to.
• ‘Rap’ music is probably the worst!

22. Ryan’s music group
recommendations
• Johnny Cash
• Hank Williams
• The temptations
• Ray Charles
• Willie Nelson
• Elvis Presley
• Taj Mahal
• The rolling stones.
• Eddie vedder
• Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeros
• Stompin tom

23. That’s it!
Good luck and
happy learning!