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There are a lot of words in English! In fact, English has more words than most other languages, although there are languages with more, like Chinese and Arabic. This makes vocabulary learning quite challenging for English learners. But how many words are there in English and how many do you need to learn?
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I’ve been having some interesting conversations on Facebook over the last few days about mistakes in English and who makes them. Do native speakers make mistakes when they speak English? And what about English teachers?!
Whenever I give advice on how to improve speaking skills, the most common response I get is “But I have nobody to talk to.” So what can you do if you're in this situation? In this post, I’m going to give you some possible solutions.
People ask me all the time how they can improve their English speaking skills. I’ve also noticed that some people think they are working on their speaking but actually, they are not doing the right things. That’s what today’s newsletter is all about.
I’ve had some interesting conversations on Facebook recently about accents, standard English and whether it is or isn’t OK to use “ain’t”! So today’s newsletter is all about what standard English is and what learners should learn and use.
One of my favourite things about teaching English is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and learn about different cultures. I’ve been teaching English for 23 years now and I wonder how many nationalities I’ve met! Over 50 face-to-face, I think, and maybe 100 if I include conversations on social media!
I told one of my one-to-one students recently that she has a Turkish accent and she was really embarrassed. I had to reassure her that her pronunciation is good and that I can understand everything she says!
Also, I see so many people on my Facebook page saying things like “I want to speak like a native speaker!” or “I want to have a British accent!” But why?! What’s wrong with having a non-native accent? I’ve seen some interesting conversations about British and American English on social media recently, including on my Facebook page, so I thought I would put all my thoughts together in a post, along with some answers to common questions, which you can find at the end.
When learners ask me for advice about how to improve their English, I often tell them to read. In fact, I think reading is one of the best things you can do. Today, I want to tell you a bit more about why, what and how you should read!
I want to talk to you today about positive thinking. Did you know that the way you think, and the things that you tell yourself, can have a big effect on your learning?
I’ve chosen three things that students often say to me, both in our one-to-one lessons and on my Facebook page. Maybe these are things that you say or think too. I want to help you change the way you think about your learning so you have more success with your English! I recently posted something on my Facebook page about Google Translate and about why I don’t recommend using it. This started an interesting conversation and lots of people asked me what they should use instead. Keep reading to learn more!
How do you feel about learning idioms? Sometimes I post idioms on my Facebook page and somebody asked me recently if it was important to learn them. So I’ve been thinking about this question over the last few days and here is my answer.
How often do you use Google? I use it so many times a day that I can’t count! I’ve been using Google for many years, since before smartphones and apps came along, so it’s still my first choice for finding information. Some of the questions I’m asked by my online followers make me wonder if perhaps they don’t know how to find the answers for themselves using Google so I decided to make this post to show you some different things you can do.
I’ve been working on my Facebook page quite a bit recently and I’ve been happy to get lots of followers, likes and lovely comments! One thing I’ve noticed is that people are very interested to know how they can learn or improve their English on their own for free. This post explores how easy or difficult it is to do this.
Do you need a native speaker to practise speaking with or is it possible to make progress with a non-native partner or even on your own? How would you even find a native speaker to talk to anyway? Keep reading for some answers to these questions!
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