Improve Your English Communication Skills Specialization

Do you want to speak better English? This course will help you reach that goal. Speak English Professionally: In person, Online and On the Phone will boost your English speaking skills. In this 5 week course, you will learn how to identify and make a strong personal introduction. You will develop and demonstrate the speaking skills for group discussions: how to agree or disagree, how to clarify, restate and summarize. You will review and practice how to give information and respond to requests on the phone. You will study and role play effective interviewing. You will prepare and give a sales “pitch”, introducing a product or service. Throughout the course, you will adjust how you speak English and you will become more fluent and accurate when you speak. You will demonstrate culturally appropriate body language and tone. As you work through the course, you will complete self- and peer-evaluations. Through a combination of lectures, comprehension and vocabulary quizzes, practice and performance, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to communicate well in English, anywhere in the world.

By the end of this course you will: • Change how you speak English • Improve your pronunciation and fluency • Increase your English vocabulary • Identify how culture influences your speech • Use culture to help you speak correctly • Demonstrate the best body language for different cultural settings • Know statements, questions and responses for different settings and situations

Roughly half of the world’s population is already online and so setting yourself apart from the crowd is more important than ever before. One of the best ways to do that is by creating your own ePortfolio. An ePortfolio is a site that showcases or shows your background, your resume, and samples of your work. In this course, you will learn step by step how to build the site and you’ll learn the grammar, vocabulary and writing skills needed to create it. You will learn how to apply information from your ePortfolio to other online tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube in order to network with others so that you get a job or connect with other professionals. For each step in that process, you will listen to lectures, take comprehension quizzes, and learn how to use English appropriately to each part of your site. You will also complete self and peer assessments and gain the needed skills to make your ePortfolio a reality and establish yourself online.

By the end of this course, you will be able to • Write a proper headline or title for your ePortfolio • Describe your work in 1 sentence and in longer forms • Identify how to use hashtags effectively • Write an effective summary about yourself and your work • Apply appropriate vocabulary to write your education and professional experience for your resume • Understand how to write a tweet to get a job • Discover how to write specific comments and network work with others • Apply what you have on your portfolio to other tools like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

This Capstone builds on the communication and content skills you’ve acquired throughout the Specialization and develops them further. During course lessons and Peer Assessments you will practice and expand the language skills necessary for success in the professional world. Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to complete assessments relevant to the working world.

In this course, you will: * Study cultural influences on communication more thoroughly, identify key cultural influences in your own experience and compare your culture with a different one to identify ways to improve communication and decrease misunderstanding. * Develop your email accuracy and style and engage in email correspondence with potential employers, clients or investors to set up interviews and/or meetings. * Practice and Demonstrate fluent and accurate spoken English as you prepare and present a short talk about a personal accomplishment or “Sales Pitch” for a product or service. * Polish your pronunciation through more connected speech including use of through groups, contractions/reductions, and linking. Week by week, as you practice your language skills, make connections with people important to you and develop your network, you will increase your opportunities for success. Completing this Capstone Project will help you reach your English language and professional goals now and in the future.