VOA · Ask a Teacher
Beginner · A2learner speed4:122024-07-24public domain
In Ask a Teacher, real learner questions about English grammar and usage get short, clear answers. Episodes are only a few minutes long and use simple classroom English — a gentle entry point if you are new to dictation practice.
Hit "Start dictation practice" — all 4 minutes are already sliced into sentences, so practice starts immediately. No wait.
Replay each sentence as many times as you need — beginner episodes use short sentences and simple vocabulary.
Switch to Dictation mode, type each sentence, and get a word-by-word diff with your accuracy score.
01Hello!
02This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Bassam in Yemen about the usage of three words connected with project management.
03Dear Teacher, In project management, we face three confused terms – methodology, strategy, and plan.
04Could you please help me to know how to differentiate among them and use each one in a correct way?
05Thank you for writing to us, Bassam.
06I'm happy to answer this question.
07The main difference between these words is how general or specific they are.
08Plan usually has the most general meaning, strategy tends to be more specific, and methodology is the most specific.
09In its most general sense, plan means the same thing as goal.
10For example, a company may have a plan or goal to expand its business into more countries.
11And the company's strategy is the specific steps it takes to reach that goal.
12However, we sometimes use strategy in a general way.
13We could say the company's strategy is to expand its business into more countries.
14But when we use strategy in this general sense, we tend to express the reasons for the strategy.
15So, we might say, The company hopes its strategy to expand into more countries will lower production costs.
16Note that plan can sometimes be specific.
17For example, if police need to catch a criminal, They can list the things they need to do to catch that person.
18The police can call this list their plan.
19Now, let's look at the most specific term, methodology.
20This word often refers to the details of how people do research.
21For example, when scientists write research papers, They include a section called methods, or methodology.
22This section explains exactly how the scientists did their experiments, or other research.
23Project management methodology can differ, Depending on the goals or kind of research needed.
24For example, marketing researchers study what kind of products people want to buy, While companies study manufacturing costs to help them set prices.
25So, it is important to remember that the words plan and strategy can be general or specific.
26And methodology is the specific method we use to help our strategy, or plan, be successful.
27We hope today's lesson is helpful, Bassam.
28For our readers and listeners, Do you have a question about American English?
29Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com And that's Ask a Teacher.
30I'm Andrew Smith.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
Practice it by ear
