Do You Avoid Contact With Your Native Language When Learning English?

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When learning English, some teachers advise that students should avoid using their native language and interact primarily with those who speak their target language. The idea is that by practising total language immersion and by avoiding contact with your native tongue, you will get used to speaking your target language and will improve more quickly.

This technique could be applied for all language learners – but is avoiding your native language a practical way to learn a new language or even a good idea? Should you avoid your native language when learning English? Continue reading →

Is it Ever Too Late to Learn a Language?

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Learning a language is often thought of as the preserve of the young, the adventurous, children at school or travellers looking to broaden the mind by journeying to exotic new destinations. But language is a special part of being human and learning a new language can be as thrilling and rewarding for an octogenarian as for a teenager.

Some people think that it can sometimes be too late to learn a language. However, others believe that a greater age can help someone appreciate the subtleties of language.  In fact, older people often have better pronunciation skills and usually a stronger motivation. But can it ever be too late to teach an old dog new tricks? Continue reading →

What is Proper English?

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The call for immigrants to learn ‘proper’ English is commonly heard from natives wanting to help preserve their country’s linguistic heritage. But what is proper English? The language of English is rich in borrowed words and foreign phrases, and the language continues to grow and evolve thanks largely to the influx of foreign words brought over by immigrants. This leads us to ask, with such a mingling of languages in the world today, can a ‘proper’ language ever really exist?

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Amazon Publishes Cornish Language Book After Pressure from Publisher

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Amazon has recently published a Cornish language children’s e-book after pressure from Diglot Books, one of a number of small publishers fighting to preserve minority languages. There are an estimated 7,000 languages in the world and 40% of them are in danger of dying out – this is why some publishers are supporting the Catalogue of Endangered Languages’ appeal to preserve the world’s linguistic heritage. News of Amazon’s decision has brought delight to linguists and the 500 Cornish speakers of the world! Continue reading →

Bingo Your Way to a Fun and Innovative Vocabulary Lesson

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Using bingo to teach English might sound like a strange idea. However, using games in EFL lessons is a great way to make classes more fun and keep students entertained. Games are useful for introducing vocabulary in context, in an innovative way. There are many ways to use bingo to teach English.

Bingo is one game everyone has heard of and a fun game that can be used to teach new vocabulary, numbers and grammar points, depending on how you create your bingo cards.

It is easy to use bingo to teach English. All you need is paper and a pen – so grab your bingo dabbers and let’s prepare an innovative bingo game for EFL learners! Continue reading →

St Patrick’s Day EFL Lesson: Visiting the Emerald Isle!

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Happy St Patrick’s Day! This special day is celebrated every year on 17th March and it is a great time to present some new vocabulary relating to Ireland and Irish folklore. Our St Patrick’s Day lesson includes interesting words and phrases relating to Ireland along with lots of interesting facts about this Irish holiday. We have even prepared a tasty recipe for making your own traditional ‘boxty’ – Irish potato pancakes! Read on to discover more about St Patrick’s Day. Continue reading →

What Motivates You to Learn English?

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Are you intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated when it comes to language learning? Everyone studying English has their own reason for learning the language. Maybe it is for work, to pass an exam, to communicate more easily when travelling: there are many possible motivations for language learning. If you identify your type of motivation, you can learn how to enhance your progress.

Some motivations will help you reach your goal standard more quickly than others and some could keep you at a level of fluency forever. Other reasons for motivation will have you forgetting what you learnt a few months previously. So let’s pinpoint the types of motivation for learning a language and use this knowledge to improve your language skills. Continue reading →

German President Calls For English To Become the Official Language of Europe

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German Official Language of Europe - Germany Flags

The President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, last week called for English to become the official language of the European Union. He insisted that, as English is the most commonly shared language across the European community, more effort should be put into teaching English as a second language in order to improve communications across the continent and bring together a united Europe.

Although greeted with approval by many, there has been opposition to President Gauck’s proposals, most notably from French diplomats, who feel their linguistic heritage is under threat.  Continue reading →

Movie Vocabulary: And the Oscar goes to…

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Hollywood Sign - Movies Vocabulary EFL LessonThe glitz and excitement of The Oscars is upon us again! The 92nd Academy Awards will take place on February 9th 2020 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. We can’t wait to see who will walk away with the coveted awards!

To join in the cinematic fun, we’ve prepared some English film vocabulary and phrases related to the world of movie-making. These will be great to use for an Oscars-themed EFL lesson. The vocabulary can be used to create gap-fill exercises, right or wrong answers, and question and answer sessions. So prepare the EFL stage: Lights, camera…. action!
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