We all know that speaking is the most challenging skill of all in a second language. We get nervous and block and cannot get the words out. As a result we lose confidence and give up. But to learn we have to get over our nerves and say what we mean to say even if we get the ending of the verb wrong or we err on the pronunciation. Making mistakes is all part of learning a language.
Wherever we go, wherever we look, we are always in a rush! We are either going to work, or dropping the children off at school or both! We never seem to have enough hours in the day to get everything done.
One of the classes I enjoy teaching most is young children. They have boundless energy, and no challenge is too much for them. They arrive to class all smiles and eager to learn. The trick is keeping their attention. With practice I have tweaked my lesson plans around their short attention span. We start with ten minutes vocabulary learning either through a song or video and then we practice with a game such as four in a row. Here the children aim to win four cells in a row by matching the cell´s picture to the correct item of vocabulary in the list. This is a sure guarantee that they retain something.
The Oxford Languages Dictionary explanation of alliteration is using the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Using alliteration in class is one of the challenges I give my advanced ESL students. I always find it to be a very effective way of extracting vocabulary
As tourism is the primary industry in Mallorca, young people are learning languages to increase their career opportunities when they leave school. For that reason, English and German are the second languages on the curriculum. Over the past decade I have seen the demand for German rise exponentially. As Germans are the majority purchasers of property here, Mallorquins have been obliged to learn and speak German proficiently.
Many students ask me if exams are important to measure their level of language. It is a good question and one which I will endeavour to answer. If you have managed to command a language to the extent that you can make yourself understood by a native, you have done well. But notice the word ´well´. Why didn´t I use very well or proficiently? Because making yourself understood doesn´t mean that you speak the language grammatically correct or use the most up to date vocabulary
There is no doubt that learning a new language has its complications. The main one being that we can never directly translate from our native language into the second language. For example, we say in English I am hungry but if we make a direct translation in Spanish Estoy hambre, it doesn´t make any sense as the verb they use is Tener (to have) not Estar (to be) = Tengo hambre.
We describe a trend as the way a situation develops or changes. Since COVID-19, Language Schools have had to adapt their styles of teaching. Classroom sizes have become smaller to allow for 2 metre distances between desks and students are obliged to wear masks and frequently wash their hands with hydroalcoholic gel.
We use the past simple for finished actions in the past e.g. We watched a good film on TV last night/I lived in Barcelona last summer.
Jordan Friedman, a prodigious Stress Coach from New York has been developing stress management programmes for over 20 years. Some of the main stressors his clients talk about are money, commuting, and too much to do in too little time. He believes that we are more stressed today than we were 20 years ago.
There is no question that working and learning from home is the new era we live in today. Covid-19 has caused us to close the doors to our businesses and schools and those of us who remain open are obliged to follow strict norms so as not to infect or be infected.
Are you someone who gets up in the morning with the intention of learning something new in your day? Or are you the opposite? You get up in the morning, immerse yourself in your job or studies without giving a single thought to learning something new?
The Japanese zodiac calendar is an integral part of Japanese culture and is based on the interpretations derived from the 12 animals of the zodiac which include the rat, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, the pig, and the cow.
Apart from the daily topic of Covid-19, a typical news story will start with a crime of some sort. It may be petty, stealing someone’s handbag or it may be more serious i.e. killing a person in a bar fight. Each crime carries a punishment which can be serious depending on the level of the crime.
A company has key performance factors that it needs to achieve to remain viable. These are specific and measurable and can indicate the success or failure of a company. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be accountable for the following eight factors.
The word and is said to be the most common word in English to add information both for natives and non-natives alike. We see it in schools ´Read and Write´, we see it in car magazines ´Buy and Sell´, we see it in bars ´Gin and Tonic´, we see it in condiments ´Salt and Pepper.´ So how can we add information to avoid having to monopolise this little three little word and?
Error correction is a well-worn topic and much has been written about it. In this blog, I don´t intend to reinvent the wheel but maybe throw some fresh light on it. In truth nobody likes to be corrected but unfortunately in language learning it is all part of the process. It is impossible to advance without learning from our mistakes.
There is no doubt that we can all identify with this need after so many weeks of confinement! Our hair has become unmanageable with blonde highlights turning dark and tints turning grey. Once Phase 1 came into operation, the hairdresser became the priority of the day!
The word ‘collocation’ sounds like a clumsy word and sometimes hard to pronounce for non-natives but unfortunately in English we cannot get away from them as they come up everywhere! Simply put, collocations are words that are found together.
Language is simply a means of communication. It is our way of conveying what it means to be human.