100 Ways to improve your English

A few weeks ago Jeffrey Hill, the person behind The English Blog, started a number of posts under the title 100 Ways to Improve Your English.

Originally, Jeffrey intended to "post each 'way' to the blog as I finish it", having published six posts so far:

no 1 way was on Twitter.
no 2 way was on Podcasts.
no 3 way was on Language Exchange sites.
no 4 way was on Listening to the radio.
no 5 way was on BBC Learning English.
no 6 way was on Vocabulary.

At this stage the series of posts stopped because Jeffrey came up with new plans, which you can read about here.

Talking point: Learning English

This week's talking point is learning English. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

What foreign languages have you studied?
What languages do you know at least a few words in? What can you say? How did you learn these words?
Why are you learning English?
How long have you been studying English for?
What English courses have you done before this one?
Why are you studying English at this school?
Have you ever been to an English-speaking country?
Can anyone in your family speak English really well?
How is your English in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar?
How is your English in terms of speaking, listening, writing and reading?
What can you do to improve these different aspects?
What do you really do to improve?
What opportunities do you have to practise/use English outside the class?
When was the first time you used English outside a classroom?
How successful were you?
What’s been your best moment as an English speaker so far?

To illustrate the point, watch the Allegro Christmas ad.
Do you think this is a good way to study a foreign language?

Extensive listening: 4 reasons to learn a new language

English is fast becoming the world's universal language, and instant translation technology is improving every year. So why bother learning a foreign language? Linguist and Columbia professor John McWhorter shares four alluring benefits of learning an unfamiliar tongue.

You can read the full transcript here.

Extensive listening: The life-longer learner

Wofford College president Ben Dunlap tells the story of Sandor Teszler, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who taught him about passionate living and lifelong learning.

Ben Dunlap is a true polymath, whose talents span poetry, opera, ballet, literature and administration. He is the president of South Carolina’s Wofford College.

You can read the transcript here.

Talking point: Learning English

This week's talking point is learning English. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• In how many languages can you have a basic conversation in (to order a meal or to greet people)?
• What languages do you have a good grasp of?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning a language using these methods?

being immersed in the language/culture

studying grammar and vocabulary

attending a language school

keeping in touch with people who speak the language through social media and new technology

• Do you know any other ways of learning a foreign language?
• Which ones have you personally tried?
• Which one has really worked for you?
• How often do you hear foreign languages where you live?
• How important do you think memory is to learn a foreign language?
• What do you want to be able to do with English?
• How far away from that objective are you at the moment?
• Do you ever review what you have learnt?
• How often do you watch or read things in English?
• How often do you communicate with native speakers?
• Do you keep a small notebook to note down and revise new expressions?
• Are you subscribed to any podcasts that you listen to while you are doing housework or travelling or waiting?
• What are you doing to learn English at the moment?
• Are you having any problems with English at the moment?
• Do you enjoy learning English?

To illustrate the topic you can watch this video about Memrise, a new system to learn a foreign language.

Talking point: Life-changing experiences

This week's talking point is life-changing experiences. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

Can you think of a time when you made a mistake?
What did you learn from it?
Can you think about an experience you had when you were younger which have been useful to you in later life?
What is one of the most harrowing things you have ever experienced?
And your most rewarding experience so far?
Have you experienced any of these activities? Describe them.

• Driving very fast
• Staying out all night
• Sleeping under the stars
• Getting lost
• Doing a parachute jump
• Giving birth

To illustrate the talk you can watch Diana Laufenberg's talk at TED How to learn? From mistakes.You can read the transcript here.

Blind boy's life transformed by learning the echolocation technique

A blind boy from Doncaster has had his life transformed thanks to a pioneering technique that helps him to get to know his surroundings.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below. The activity is suitable for Intermediate 2 students.



1 What is ecolocation?
2 What has Mason learnt in ten minutes?
3 What are Mason’s parents feelings at their son’s independence?
4 What does ‘£500’ refer to?
5 Why is Mason travelling to US?

This is the longest Mason has walked on his own without holding someone's hand. He's 6 years old, and he's blind.
You'll know where the sides of the path are, I'll let you go in front... cos you're so good at it!
His parents have taken him to meet Daniel Kish to learn echolocation.
(1) Echolocation generally speaking is the use of reflected sound. Any sound that reflects from any object is referred to as ecolocation. We use a specific kind of pulse of sound or flash of sound, which can be a tongue click that bounces off surfaces all around us and returns to us and an image can be constructed from the patterns of sound that reflect back.
(2) After only 10 minutes of teaching time Mason learned how to click and scan, meaning he can accurately locate objects.
It's going quite well actually...
For his parents the process of letting go conjured up (3) a mixture of pride and fear.
This is just going to transform Mason's life. It's going to give him the independence to travel alone, to go to school independently. Just to have a normal life.
Some sort of normal life.
His parents are stumping up (4) £500 a day for these contact visits, a price they feel it’s worth it for learning to decipher the shape of sound. Daniel has invited Mason to one of his (5) workshops in the United States, where he'll continue to learn from and be around others who are in a similar situation.

The benefits of a bilingual brain

In this TED-ed lesson Mia Nacamulli details the types of bilingual brains and the benefits of being bilingual. Drop by Ted-ed to watch the lesson, do some comprehension tasks, get ideas to explore the topic further and discuss the topic.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false. The activity is suitable for Intermediate 2 and Advanced students.



1 A bilingual brain and a monolingual one are different.
2 Most bilinguals around the world master the two languages equally.
3 If you are a coordinate bilingual, you filter the second language through the first.
4 Our emotional and social side lies in the right hemisphere.
5 The flexibility of their brain enables children to learn a language more easily.
6 If a person is bilingual he/she will not suffer from dementia.
7 In the past bilingualism was considered an obstacle for a child's development.
8 Bilingual people are cleverer.

¿Hablas español?
Parlez-vous français?
你会说中文吗？
If you answered, "sí," "oui," or "是的" and you're watching this in English, chances are you belong to the world's bilingual and multilingual majority. And besides having an easier time traveling or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends.
So what does it really mean to know a language? Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two passive parts, listening and reading. While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, most bilinguals around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions.
And depending on their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be classified into three general types.
For example, let's take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she's two-years old. As a compound bilingual, Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously, with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to process the world around her.
Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends.
Finally, Gabriella's parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learn a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.
Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language regardless of accent or pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to a casual observer. But recent advances in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain.
It's well known that the brain's left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split. The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization develops gradually with age, has lead to the critical period hypothesis.
According to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left.
If this is true, learning a language in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts. Conversely, recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than in their native one.
But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages. Some of these are even visible, such as higher density of the grey matter  that contains most of your brain's neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimer's and dementia by as much as five years.
The idea of major cognitive benefits to bilingualism may seem intuitive now, but it would have surprised earlier experts.
Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed a child's development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages, a view based largely on flawed studies.
And while a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors increase for some bilingual students in cross-language tests, it also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in, and potentially strengthened the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain that plays a large role in executive function, problem solving, switching between tasks, and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information.
So, while bilingualism may not necessarily make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy, complex and actively engaged, and even if you didn't have the good fortune of learning a second language as a child, it's never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, "Hello," to, "Hola," "Bonjour" or "您好’s" because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.

KEY:
1T 2F 3F 3T 5T 6F 7T 8F

Reading test: Learning a language, 10 things you need to know

For this week's reading test we are going to use The Guardian article Learning a language -10 things you need to know, which we will use to practise the heading matching kind of task.

Read the article and match headings A-L with their corresponding paragraph 1-9. 0 is an example. There are two headings you do not need to use.

Learning a language -10 things you need to know
Thinking about learning a foreign language? Our multilingual experts share their tips.

0. Example J
You have decided to learn another language. Now what? On our recent live chat our panellists first piece of advice was to ask yourself: what do you want to achieve and by when? Donavan Whyte, vice president of enterprise and education at Rosetta Stone, says: “Language learning is best when broken down into manageable goals that are achievable over a few months. This is far more motivating and realistic.” You might be feeling wildly optimistic when you start but aiming to be fluent is not necessarily the best idea. Phil McGowan, director at Verbmaps, recommends making these goals tangible and specific: “Why not set yourself a target of being able to read a newspaper article in the target language without having to look up any words in the dictionary?”
1.
It might sound obvious, but recognising exactly why you want to learn a language is really important. Alex Rawlings, a language teacher now learning his 13th language, says: “Motivation is usually the first thing to go, especially among students who are teaching themselves.” To keep the momentum going he suggests writing down 10 reasons you are learning a language and sticking it to the front of the file you are using: “I turn to these in times of self-doubt.”
2.
Often the discussion around how to learn a language slides into a debate about so-called traditional v tech approaches. For Aaron Ralby, director of Linguisticator, this debate misses the point: “The question is not so much about online v offline or app v book. Rather it should be how can we assemble the necessary elements of language for a particular objective, present them in a user-friendly way, and provide a means for students to understand those elements.” When signing up to a particular method or approach, think about the substance behind the style or technology. “Ultimately,” he says, “the learning takes place inside you rather that outside, regardless of whether it’s a computer or book or a teacher in front of you.”
3.
For many of our panellists, reading was not only great for making progress, but one of the most rewarding aspects of the learning experience. Alex Rawlings explains that reading for pleasure “exposes you to all sorts of vocabulary that you won’t find in day-to-day life, and normalises otherwise baffling and complicated grammatical structures. The first book you ever finish in a foreign language is a monumental achievement that you’ll remember for a long time.”
4.
Memorising lists of vocabulary can be challenging, not to mention potentially dull. Ed Cooke, co-founder and chief executive of Memrise, believes that association is key to retaining new words: “A great way to build vocabulary is to make sure the lists you’re learning come from situations or texts that you have experienced yourself, so that the content is always relevant and connects to background experience.”
5.
You are a monolingual adult: have you missed the language boat? Ralby argues “a key language myth is that it’s harder as an adult”. Adults and children may learn in different ways but that shouldn’t deter you from committing to learning another language. “Languages are simultaneously organic and systematic. As children we learn languages organically and instinctively; as adults we can learn them systematically.” If you’re still not convinced of your chances, Ralby suggests drawing inspiration from early philologists and founders of linguistics who “learned dozens of languages to encyclopaedic levels as adults”.
6.
Speaking your first language may be second nature, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you understand it well. Kerstin Hammes, editor of the Fluent Language Blog, believes you can’t make good progress in a second language until you understand your own. “I think understanding your native language and just generally how language works is so essential before you launch yourself at a bunch of foreign phrases.”
7.
Different approaches may be necessary at different stages of the learning process. Once you have reached a certain level of proficiency and can say quite a bit, fairly accurately, Rebecca Braun, senior lecturer in German studies at Lancaster University, says it is typical to feel a slowing down in progress. “Translation,” she says, “is such an important exercise for helping you get over a certain plateau that you will reach as a language learner ... Translation exercises don’t allow you to paraphrase and force the learner on to the next level.”.
8.
Many of the panellists were cautious of the F-word. Hammes argues not only is it difficult to define what fluency is, but “as a goal it is so much bigger than it deserves to be. Language learning never stops because it’s culture learning, personal growth and endless improvement. I believe that this is where learners go wrong”.
9.
It may not be an option for everyone but Braun reminds us that “if you are serious about learning the language and getting direct pleasure from what you have learned, you need to go to where that language is spoken”. Travel and living abroad can complement learning in the classroom: “The books and verb charts may be the easiest way to ensure you expose yourself to the language at home, but the people and the culture will far outclass them once you get to the country where your language is spoken.”

A - Be prepared to go back in progress
B - Find opportunities to practise the language
C- Focus on exactly what you want to learn 
D - Ignore stereotypes 
E - It’s not only about the second language
F - Never ending process
G - Read as a hobby
H - Relate what your study to your own experience
I - Remind yourself of what is driving you to learn English
J - Set realistic, specific objectives  Example 0
K - Set up study groups to develop fluency
L - What to do when you hit a wall in your progress

 

Photo: Holger Burmeister / Alamy in The Guardian

Key:

A - Be prepared to go back in progress
B - Find opportunities to practise the language – 9
C- Focus on exactly what you want to learn – 2
D - Ignore stereotypes – 5
E - It’s not only about the second language – 6
F - Never ending process – 8
G - Read as a hobby – 3
H - Relate what your study to your own experience – 4
I - Remind yourself of what is driving you to learn English - 1
J - Set realistic, specific objectives – 0 Example
K - Set up study groups to develop fluency
L - What to do when you hit a wall in your progress – 7

Madrid Teacher: The best way to teach English

After 87 weeks publishing Madrid Teacher videos on a weekly basis, the series comes to an end. There are not more videos available as far as I know, so this is it for Madrid Teacher.

I have meant to leave the video on English learning until the very end, so after so many weeks keeping us company, here's the last piece of advice from these teachers. We'll miss you, guys.



What do you reckon the best way to learn a language… what do you think the… best thing you can do to learn a language is?
I think the… the main thing is students have to study. They have to dedicate some time to go into a class, or having a teacher or something and, besides that, just study. Two or three hours a week.
Yeah, there’s definitely a relationship between the amount of time you put in, and what you learn.
To be honest, I disagree. I think that the most important approach is, of course, the amount of time you put in, but I would say that studying… would be less effective than beginning initially with the language as it is naturally used. Listen to it as frequently as you can and speak it.
Well that’s what I mean. I mean, if you’re listening to it, you’re studying it. I mean…
Not necessarily.
...if you’re watching movies, watching TV series…
Yeah, I’m talking about films and music.
...listening to podcasts; I mean, you could be doing all that sort of thing.
I agree.
But, it’s a mass of noise to begin with.
Yeah, but…yeah. I mean, there’s two types of listening you can do. I… From my opinion listening is the most important thing, but there’s two types. Listening to stuff at your level… or slightly above or slightly below, which is good for, you know, understanding… and general listening like what you were talking about.
Listening to natural English, normal English. I think that’s good because it gets you… gives you an ear for the language. And it’s…
Yeah I think it’s kind of a roundabout way to go through things if you… for instance with English, if you start listening to “what is” for a long time so you understand it, and then all of a sudden you start hearing “what’s”. I mean, you could… one might say that you’ve wasted your time looking about… looking… listening to “what is”.
Yeah.
With natural English, you’re right it’s a mass of noise, but it begins to sort itself out, especially if you’re supplementing with vocabulary and reading.
Right. And you have to vocabulary, and grammar, and other things.
The best way to learn vocabulary is reading.
It’s not just one thing.
No, of course.
It’s a lot of different things.
Well I think… people tend to think grammar is a lot more important than it is. I think you can strip grammar down to its basics, it’s… there’s a few structures that are useful and if you learn them you can generate more language, but I don’t think you should be overly obsessed with grammar.
I think they need to be more obsessed with vocabulary. They need to…
Yeah. Without words you can’t say anything.
Right. And that’s…
Basic verbs, expressions, and vocabulary. That’s another interesting point, you know, I think you need to learn vocab. in… in… in expressions, rather than just individual isolated words.
Right, in chunks.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, there are obviously some words, you know, like “pen, paper”, that you can learn individually, but, most vocabulary is more useful if you learn it as an expression, you know, er, “have a bath”, “have a shower”, “have a drink”…
Yeah.
Rather than just, “drink”.
That’s when you’ll be able to communicate and express yourself.
Yeah.
Yeah, but the…but the main point here is with vocabulary. They need to spend some time memorizing it.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
And… students tend not to do this. I mean, they’ll spend more time with the grammar than with the vocabulary, at least here in Spain.
There are some… there are some words and expressions that you have to make a conscious effort to learn. But I… I’ve found that, with French and Spanish there are some words that I’ve found easy to remember. I don’t know why. But there are other words where you have to… you have to find a way to remember them. I used to draw pictures and things like that.
Yeah, there’s got to be something, some kind of drawn out repetition. If it… if it’s writing it down and referring to it every once and a while on an index card or a notebook, if it’s pictures like you say… You know, rarely you get this groundbreaking experience where you can associate a memory to a word. More often it’s the mundane… studying.
You’ve got to study, yeah.

Reading test -Wanting it enough: why motivation is the key to language learning

We are using the article Guardian article Wanting it enough why motivation is the key to language learning for this week's reading test. We'll be practising the typical multiple-choice reading comprehension task.

Read Alison Mackey's article by clicking here or on the link above. Then go over questions 1-7 and choose the option a, b or c that best completes the sentence or answers the question. 0 is an example.

Example:
0 Which sentence is true, according to the text?
a) Learning a foreign language after childhood is virtually impossible.
b) Finding the right motivation is the best way to learn a foreign language.
c) Falling in love is the best way of learning a foreign language.

1 Having to pass a test in your academic or professional life…
a) is not a real motivating factor to learn a language.
b) is an intrinsically motivating factor for some people.
c) is a good reason as any other to learn a language.

2 Professors Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert found out that…
a) intrinsic motivation and integrative motivation are the same thing.
b) motivation might not be enough to learn a new language.
c) practical reasons to learn also have powerful results in the learning process.

3 If we follow Professor Zoltán Dörnyei’s theory, our level of proficiency in a new language…
a) may get worse as time goes by.
b) will always get better.
c) will depend on the people you know.

4 Which sentence is true, according to the text?
a) Communication is a key factor in language learning.
b) Having high self-esteem is a key factor in language learning.
c) Students who devise a good training plan for their learning process are more likely to succeed.

5 Which sentence is true, according to the text?
a) Some people are lacking in natural ability to learn a language.
b) Some people’s feelings towards the new language make it hard for them to learn.
c) It is not uncommon for learners to sound like native speakers.

6 Which sentence is true, according to the text?
a) Students who poor memory can’t learn a language.
b) Aptitude skills on their own won’t bring success.
c) A teacher who caters for your interests and abilities is essential.

7 Which sentence is true, according to the text?
a) We are all genetically prepared to learn a new language well.
b) Learning a new language well is not within everybody’s reach.
c) The true reasons why some people learn a new language well are unknown.

Photograph: Michael Regan/The Fa/Getty Images

Key:
1C 2B 3A 4A 5A 6B 7B

Reading test: How many hours does it take to be fluent in English?

This school year we are starting off a new section in the blog which focuses on reading. Every other Saturday, we will be publishing reading comprehension and vocabulary activities on an online article. This way we intend to come full circle in the activities My That's English! offers students, especially those at an intermediate level and those who have to sit an official exam like the EOI exam, by providing activities in the four skills through (mainly) internet-based material.

I came across today's article, How many hours does it take to be fluent in English?, through Patrick McMahon and his excellent English for University.

Before you read the article, think about these questions.
Do you consider yourself to be fluent in English?
What is the best course of action to become fluent in a foreign language?
How long does it take to speak good English?

Now you can read the article and find out about the answer to questions two and three above. You might come across some vocabulary difficulties, just ignore them the first time you read the article.

Reading comprehension
Say whether these statements are true (T), false (F) or the information is not given (NG), according to the article.
1 The majority of immigrants in the UK don’t speak English well.
2  It might take 360 hours to achieve citizenship in the UK.
3  Immigrants who don’t speak English won’t be allowed to ask for benefits.
4 One week is enough to learn very basic conversational English.
5  How fast you learn a language changes from one person to another.
6 Immersion is the only essential factor for immigrants to learn the language well.
7 Having a very good command of a foreign language is not always possible.

The article, How many hours does it take to be fluent in English?, is quite lengthy, so we've taken some sentences out of it to work on vocabulary:

In sentences 1-5, find the verbs with these meanings:
a) establish residence; b) learn; c) reduce; d) run away from; e) throw forcefully.
In sentences 6-10, trying to explain the words in red in your own words.

1. But even with classes, it can be a long process to pick up the language.
2. But many of the people who attend courses are visiting students rather than people settling in the UK. 
3. School plunges them into the new language.
4. Every (UK) government has been trying to bring it down (it=the number of hours necessary to move up a level).
5. Thura (...) fled Burma for political reasons and arrived in the UK in 2009.
6. George Osborne said (...) that welfare claimants who don't speak English will have their benefits cut
7. It will vary from illiteracy to degree level.
8. ...and have a large bearing on how they can learn in the classroom.
9. ...exposure to hearing English is crucial.
10. ...immigrants arriving on a spouse's visa are not eligible for free English classes.

Learning eight, ten or twelve vocabulary items whenever we do a reading activity is a sensible target we can set ourselves, as long as we know how to fully use the new vocabulary, revise it and use it regularly and know how to pronounce it. Remember that howjsay is an invaluable online pronunciation dictionary that can help you with pronunciation issues.

Discussion
After reading the article, how do you view your own English language learning?
What should you do more of that you don't?
How can we get immersed in the language we are learning without living in the country?

Writing
The son of your English friend is coming to your country to study a year of his degree within the Erasmus project. Write an email to your friend giving him/her some advice for their child on how to best learn your language in the area where you live. Write around 170 words.

For how to write a letter of advice you can visit on this blog: Writing workshop 22

Key:
1NM 2F 3F 4F 5T 6F 7T
a) settle b) pick up c) bring down d) flee (flee-fled-fled) e) plunge
6 claimant: someone who claims (asks for) a benefit or right
7 illiteracy: not being able to read and/or write
8 bearing: influence
9 exposure: the condition of being exposed to something, ie, have direct contact with something
10 spouse: your husband or wife

Improving your listening

A few months ago a post by MCargobe under the title Improving your listening drew my attention. In that post, she mainly went over another post from PhraseMix with the title How to improve your English listening comprehension.

The short PhraseMix article touches on the reasons why English is so difficult to understand, to go on to give some practical advice for students to improve their listening skills.

Please, do make a point of going over the PhraseMix article. It's very short and you'll find valuable advice.

Along these lines you can also find the video below really interesting. It is from Anglo-Link  and MCargobe included it in her above-mentioned post. The video mainly goes over the same ideas set out in the PhraseMix article, but much more thoroughly and with many more examples. It is quite easy to understand, and viewers get a lot of help to understand with lots of on-screen information. The YouTube captions are also really accurate.

The many reasons why we don't succeed in learning languages

This is the list Irish Benny Lewis, the person behind Fluent in 3 months, has compiled about the excuses learners come up with for not learning a language.

Drop by Fluent in 3 months, and read the reasons underlying each excuse and the way we can overcome each of them.

1. I’m too old to learn a language
2. I don’t have any time to learn a language
3. I can’t travel to the country
4. I can’t afford it!
5. I’ve got no language gene!
6. I haven’t found the right language learning technique for me yet!
7. I’m not ready to use it yet, and may not be for years
8. I don’t want to
9. This language is too hard
10. I’m not even sure which language I want to learn, or I want to learn several and can’t!
11. My memory is terrible for learning new words
12. I’m going to frustrate native speakers!
13. They only speak English with me when I try to use their language!
14. The entire world speaks English, so why bother?
15. I’m too shy to approach people for language practice!
16. I will never be able to learn that foreign pronunciation
17. I’ve tried X and it didn’t work, so I’m a bad language learner!
18. I still can’t decide which course to invest in
19. I have a particular problem with a specific aspect of this language
20. I did get somewhere, but am stuck at a plateau now
21. Fluency seems just so out of reach, and I’m so far away from it. Why even bother continuing?
22. I’m just not confident enough to use my language
23. I get sidetracked too easily with vaguely similar tasks every time I try to work on my language skills!
24. No one around me (friends/family/significant other) supports or encourages my language learning endeavours
25. I have a learning or physical disability others don’t have
26. I’m not sure how or where to start – if I start wrong, I’ll sabotage the entire project!
27. I’m too negative / lazy
28. I won’t understand people when they speak back to me!
29. What I am doing in the language is too boring, and I lose interest quickly
30. With technological advances, within a few years learning a language will be obsolete and automatic
31. When I compare myself to other learners, I feel too inadequate
32.I’ve been exposed to the language since I was a child and STILL don’t speak it!

Benny Lewis explains his attitude to language learning and his story as a language learner in this TED talk in Warsaw.

Volunteering at university

One of my favourite all-time sites for English learners is English for University, written by Patrick McMahon, a lecturer in the UK teaching on a variety of Academic English courses and teacher training courses at Plymouth University. English for University is meant for international students who want to improve their English while studying in the UK.

The site is packed with learning resources, although the bulkiest part of it is oriented towards the development of the writing skills.

It seems that a very common question students ask their teachers all over the world is "How can I improve my oral English?". In a great post in mid-September, Volunteering at University, Patrick dealt with this question. The video below is part of his post. Please drop by English for University and read Volunteering at University, it will only take you a few minutes.

If pressed for time, just watch this short video and answer the questions below about it. It is suitable for (strong) intermediate students.



1 What does Charlie study at Plymouth University?

2 What year is he in?
3 Charlie is in charge of logistics in the VIP Moor Trees project. What does he organise?
4 How many people are involved in his project?
5 What is Moor Trees dedicated to?
6 Why did Charlie first start in the project?
7 What sorts of students volunteer for the Moor Trees Project?
8 What benefits does volunteering bring to people?
9 Why is Charlie pleased that he came to Plymouth and he became a volunteer?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript here.

Talking point: What can other schools learn from your school?

This week's talking point deals with the positive side of your school, and it is taken from The New York Times Learning Network.

Think about your [language] school –its routines, timetables, teachers, facilities, even traditions and unofficial habits that are all part of the average day.

How does it work?
How many teachers have you had?
How much time do you spend in class?
What's your favourite place at school?
Which room(s) have you discovered recently?
What happy (and not so happy) moments have you lived in your school?
What successful aspects of your school could other schools learn from your school?

To gain some insight into this topic before you get together with your conversation group to discuss your school, you can read David Brooks article in the in the Op-Ed piece of The New York Times “The Relationship School”.

What type of learner are you?

It is well-known that people learn in different ways. Identifying and understanding the way we learn best can help us make the most of the time and effort we invest and, consequently, help us get better results.

There are three main types of learning styles:
Visual learners
Auditory learners
Kinesthetic learners

Read the infographic below from Online College, a blog devoted to keeping students informed about the latest higher education and online learning issues in US, to find out more details about learning styles.


Compiled By: OnlineCollege.org

H/T Educational Technology and Mobile Learning 

Talking point: The best teacher

8 May was National Teacher Appreciation Day in US. The celebration is a bit far-off now, but the topic has a universal value and can be useful for this week's talking point.

Get together with the members of your conversation group and discuss the questions below, some of which are taken from The New York Times learning blogs.

What teacher, or teachers, do you appreciate, and why?
Who was the most important teacher for you?
What did he or she teach you?
How did he or she do that to make it so memorable?
How important do you think teachers are?
What problems do teachers face as a profession?
What can we do as a society to show them they are appreciated?
Are teachers highly respected in Spain? Are they well paid?
What do you learn from a teacher that you don't from your parents?
Do/Did you prefer to be taught by a male or female teacher?
Should teachers express their political views in class?
Do you prefer strict teachers or easy-going ones?
What subjects are the easiest and most difficult to teach?

In preparation for the topic you can read these two articles: The first one, “Teaching Me About Teaching,” by Charles M. Blow, comes from The New York Times, where Mr Blow writes about the teacher who taught him the most. The second article comes from The Guardian, How Finnish Schools Shine, and was written by Adam Lopez, who tells us about the success of Finnish schools.

Photograph: www.alamy.com

Age and language learning

Does age affect language learning? I am sure it does for young children, but beyond that I think we can learn languages at any age.

Here is a video by Steve Kaufmann, the person behind The Linguist blog and Lingq, explaining why we should never give up trying to learn a new language however old we are.

There is not a transcript available, but if you activate the CC option on the YouTube screen you will get a fairly accurate transcription of everything Steve says.

Learning English in Cambridge, again

Almost one year ago we published the post Learning English in Cambridge, about the experience of foreign students who have made up their mind to stay with a host family in Cambridge to learn English. Here comes the full video, this time with some activities, which I have taken from English Club.





How does homestay help learners with their English?
1. In what ways does James think that homestay helps learners with their English?
2. How does Silvia think the homestay family can help learners?
3. What does Carol say about students who stay in a dormitory?
4. In what ways does Christina think her host family helps her?
5. In what situation does Joy think a lot of learning takes place?

What advice do you have for future homestay students?
1. David says it is important to give as much ...................... as possible.
2. Carolina says it's important to .................... to different situations.
3. Silvia says it's not necessary to be ................... because the family know how to deal with you.
4. Michaela says the two worst things are to be too ............. and too ......................... .
5. Michaela says you should always have a ............................ in your pocket.
6. Joy says it is a great experience, not only in terms of learning English, but in learning about ....... .

Here's the same video with English subtitles.