Sunday, September 16, 2007

Toastmasters for ESL Speakers

When my private ESL students tell me that they want to improve their speaking skills, I always ask how they use their speaking skills and/or how they plan to use their speaking skills in the future.

Some ESL students just want to improve their general English speaking skills. Some want to work on making small talk. And many want to improve their presentation skills. They want to feel comfortable making presentations on the job or in the classroom.

For my ESL students who want to improve their speaking and presentation skills, I always recommend Toastmasters. It's a great organization and not very expensive. There are meetings all over the place. All an ESL student has to do to find local meetings is Google "Toastmasters meetings" and their location. I encourage students to try more than one meeting, as they are all a little different. They do all follow the same basic format, but some might be large, some small, and just have different "personalities."

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