Academic English: Top Tools for International Students

by Belinda, Insider Guides: https://insiderguides.com.au/top-tools-learning-academic-english/

There’s English, there’s Australian English and then … there’s academic English.

Just when you think you’ve mastered a language, you find there’s an entirely new kind of vocabulary and style used by textbooks and teachers.

But, you can easily improve your academic English by focusing on the two most important components: academic vocabulary and academic style.

TOOLS TO IMPROVE YOUR ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

The number one place to start to improve your academic English vocabulary is the Academic Words List (AWL). This handy list compiles the words that appear with the highest frequency in English-language academic texts. In total, the AWL has ten sublists of words, but the most important is Sublist 1,which contains the top 60 most common academic words.  If you can familiarise yourself with Sublist 1, you’re well on your way.

Where to find the AWL

• Vocabulary.com provides AWL Sublist 1, along with word definitions and spelling games.
• All of the AWL sublists are available here.

Where to test yourself

Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the words themselves, you should test yourself with games and exercises.  Some of the best exercises can be found at:

• English Vocabulary Exercises.com
• RMIT’s academic word list tool
• Exam English
• You can also subscribe to Wordsmmyth.net for an academic word of the day and many other tools.

Some apps for learning academic English (or just improving your general English vocabulary) are:

• The Oxford Learners Dictionary of Academic English available on iPhone and Android.
• A Word a Day on Android
• Word of the Day on iPhone

TOOLS TO IMPROVE YOUR ACADEMIC STYLE

Once you have the vocabulary, you still need to figure out the right way to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Academic English has certain styles and conventions and is much more formal that conversational English. The following resources will help to break down and learn how to structure academic English.

• Improving the Structure and Style of your Academic Writing from the University of Sydney.
• Pointers and exercises from Using English for Academic Purposes.
• Advice on Writing and Speaking Academically from The University of Melbourne (pdf)
• This guide from UniLearning explains the differences between academic and other writing styles.
• There’s a whole host of academic games and worksheets from the TEFLtastic blog.
• For those students who have to write up research reports, The Academic Phrasebook from The University of Manchester is organised according to the main sections of a research paper eg. Reporting Results and Writing Conclusions.
• And of course, there’s the IELTS Academic Writing Practice Tests.

Curious Kids: Why Does English Have So Many Different Spelling Rules?

by Kate Burridge, Monash University, The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-does-english-have-so-many-different-spelling-rules-98831

More spelling problems came in when French scribes introduced new spelling conventions — their own of course, and not always helpful. Shutterstock, CC BY

This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky! You might also like the podcast Imagine This, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen and The Conversation, based on Curious Kids.

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Why does English have so many different spelling rules? – Melania P, age 12, Strathfield.

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English spelling has been evolving for over a thousand years and the muddle we’re in today is the fall-out of many different events that have taken place over this time.

A bad start

It was a rocky beginning for English spelling. Quite simply, the 23-letter Roman alphabet has never been adequate — even Old English (spoken 450-1150) had 35 or so sounds, and our sound system is now even bigger.

More spelling problems came in when French scribes introduced new spelling conventions — their own of course, and not always helpful. Using “c” instead of “s” for words like city was messy because “c” also represented the “k” sound in words like cat.

William Caxton set up the first printing presses. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

And then printing arrived in the 15th century — and with it more mess. William Caxton (who set up the presses in the first place) liked Dutch spellings and so established the “gh” in ghost and ghastly. Some printers were European and they introduced favourite spellings too from their own languages. Not terribly helpful either!

Those pesky silent letters

One of the biggest problems for English spelling has always been changes in pronunciation. Printing helped to stablise the spelling of words, but then some sounds changed their shape, and others even disappeared altogether. Think of those silent letters in words such as walk, through, write, right, sword, know, gnat — these were once pronounced.

If only the printer Caxton had been born a couple of centuries later, or if these sound changes had occurred a couple of centuries earlier, our spelling would be much truer to pronunciation.

And now comes another little wrinkle in this story – there’s a bunch of silent letters that were never actually pronounced. They appeared because of linguistic busybodies who wanted to make the language look more respectable. This caused some serious mess.

Take how we spell the word rhyme. When we swiped the word from French, it had a much more sensible look — rime. But this was changed to rhyme to give it a more classy classical look (like rhythm) – an interesting idea, but hardly helpful for someone trying to spell the word!

The 16th and 17th centuries saw many extra letters introduced in this way. Think of the “b” added to debt to make a link to Latin debitum. Now, the “b” might be justified in the word debit that we stole directly from Latin, but it was the French who gave us dette.
The “b” consonant was a mistake, and now we accuse poor old debt of having lost it through sloppy pronunciation!

Let’s make spelling more sensible

And so it is from this haphazard evolution that we end up with the spelling system we have.

But you know, there are in fact over 80% of words spelled according to regular patterns. So wholesale change is not what we want. However simple improvements could certainly be made without any major upheaval.

We could iron out inconsistencies such as humOUr versus humOrous. To introduce uniform -or spellings would be a painless reform (well, perhaps not painless, since many people are quite attached to the -our in words like humour).

We could also restore earlier spellings like rime and dette, and while we’re at it give psychology and philosophy a sensible look by spelling them sykology and filosofy.

So now, you can see the problem. No matter how silly spellings are, people get attached to them, and new spellings – even sensible ones – never seem to get a foot in the door.

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:
* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationEDU with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
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Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.

Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Get Your Tongue Round German to Master Speaking English

Knowledge of German language in EU and Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Switzerland & Turkey (Wikipedia)

by Jon Hughes, Royal Holloway

It has become commonplace to hear that English is now a sort of “global” language, or lingua franca. Although this might be partly true, is it right to draw the conclusion that native speakers of English have no practical reason to learn other languages?

As an academic who has chosen to specialise in German and the culture of the German-speaking countries, I find it hard not to get depressed at this line of reasoning.

The assumption that many Germans speak English so why bother with their language sits alongside the stubborn persistence of cultural stereotypes and prejudices dating back to the two World Wars, if not further.

Against this background, the case is now being made for the continued importance of having language skills beyond English, particularly for employment prospects.

I would argue that there is another good reason for learning a foreign language: it deepens one’s understanding of language in general and will improve your skills in your native language. Let’s consider the example of the “modern foreign language” that I know best - German.

Kindred words

It’s often overlooked that German is in one sense not a “foreign” language for English speakers at all, but a kindred one. The standard forms of modern English and German have shared roots in the family of western Germanic languages, along with Dutch.

This is fairly easy to spot in a lot of the core vocabulary: Mann (man), Mutter (mother), schwimmen (swim) and so on. These similarities can give you a head start as a learner - although inevitably there are a few “false friends” to watch for too: Gift for example is the German word for “poison”.

We even have equivalents to the famous German umlaut, the vowel shift common in plurals and irregular verbs.

So in English the singlular “man” becomes plural “men”, just as in German Mann becomes Männer. These are the words our Anglo-Saxon ancestors brought to Britain with their language, before the Normans further enriched the language with many words with their roots in Latin.

Grammar lessons

At a deeper grammatical level, English has visible Germanic roots. And the very things that beginners in German can find worrying often have analogies in English. By grasping them in a closely related language like German, a native speaker of English will often begin to appreciate the features of his or her own language.

Native speakers of English are notoriously prone to make certain grammatical mistakes in their own language. It nearly always reflects a lack of understanding of how languages work.

For example, the statement “If I was a rich man” might well be comprehensible. But it should of course - as in the famous musical song - be: “If I were a rich man”. This is an example of the subjunctive mood, in which a verb changes to reflect a theoretical or “unreal” situation.

It can be contrasted with the indicative, used to describe an actual situation: “I am not a rich man”. The confusion arises partly because “were” can indicate both tense and, in this case, mood. And in the indicative past tense, “I was” is naturally correct.

To add to the confusion, the difference between the imperfect past tense and the subjunctive is invisible with other verbs. So: “He spoke German” and: “If he spoke German” are both correct.

No confusion in German

In German, the subjunctive mood is much more visible and never confused with the indicative. “Wenn ich reich wäre” (If I were rich), uses wäre, the subjunctive form of sein (to be). It is what almost all German speakers would say, even informally.

This means that, as the learner of German becomes more familiar with the natural way to express such conditional situations in German, he or she will become sensitive to the equivalents in English. With English using words such as “were” in so many grammatical contexts, it’s no wonder that many native speakers of English aren’t sure what is actually correct.

Me or I

Here’s another example. One often hears sentences such as “He gave a present to my husband and I”. This reflects a fundamental confusion about subject and object words in English. German has retained a case system that makes it very clear whether a noun or pronoun is the active subject or passive object of a sentence. It’s a key difference and the system is still embedded in the language.

In English we tend to rely on word order to make the difference clear, as well as prepositions. But we do make the distinction in pronouns: “I”, “he”, “she” and “they” are always active subjects, whereas “me”, “him”, “her” and “them” are objects, being acted upon. So we say: “He gave a present to me.” Including the additional information about “my husband” changes nothing, grammatically speaking it should be: “He gave a present to me and my husband”.

In German, because prepositions are strongly linked with a particular object case it would be inconceivable to use the active “nominative” case after a preposition or a transitive verb like “give”.

Likewise any confusion between “who” and “whom”, the latter being an object form (“to whom am I speaking?”), wears off once one is used to German’s cases. Again, it’s highly unlikely a German would confuse wer (who) with wen or wem (whom).

Not “foreign”

These are just a few small examples. The plea I’d like to make, ahead of the European Day of Languages, is that rather than thinking of a language like German simply as “foreign”, speakers of English might start to view it as the neighbour and relative that it is.

And far from it being pointless to learn other languages, if you take the leap and start to learn another language you’ll discover it’s not as hard as you might think. In the process to improve your command of language in general, you could become a more sensitive and precise user of your own language.


Jon Hughes does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Studying Abroad with IELTS Courses

Twitter.com

by Frankie D Wilson

If you want to study in an English speaking university, it's vital that you have a good grounding in the English language.

Without this you will struggle through lectures and seminars, and find writing essays near impossible.

One of the credentials for many courses involves spoken presentations which means that you will need to be able to write and speak English well to get your points across and to achieve good results.

In order to prove your ability to speak, write and read academic English to a high enough degree for study at a university, you will need to take and pass an IELTS course.

Depending on the course you take you will need different levels of proficiency, but obviously the higher your result the better, and the more courses will be open to you.

IELTS courses are not for everyone

If you don't have a basis in the English language you will really struggle to get anywhere, and an IELTS course will be a waste of time and money for you. You won't be able to pass the examination unless you have got a good grounding in the language.

These examinations aren't for general use. This is not a qualification which will help you with getting a job or proving your understanding of the language for a visa application. There is no point taking the course or the examinations unless you want to study in an English speaking university.

What you need to know

IELTS courses are internationally recognised and therefore you're able to study in any English speaking university regardless of whether that is in the UK or elsewhere.

Each course has different requirements, and if you're trying to get onto a particular course it might be useful to speak to the person running the course about what you're trying to get from it.

If you wish to study a linguistic course, obviously your degree of English will need very high results. This is because of the course you'll be studying, and the chances are you will already have a very good understanding, it will just be a case of refining your academic language.

Other courses, in particular those which are maths or science based, will not need quite such a high standard.

English is the universal language of science and therefore anything which you've learn to that point is likely to reflect this, so again you will just need to work on the language slightly more to bridge the gap.

Consider IELTS courses like a foundation degree. They are designed to help you make the transition between your higher education so far, and the course which you want to be on.

The courses will prepare you thoroughly for the exams, to make sure you're able to get on the courses you want to be on.

Frankie works for New College Manchester and has a passion for teaching and education.

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Are Youse Using English Properly - Or Mangling Your Native Tongue?

Geoffrey Chaucer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Rob Pensalfini

Languages evolve and transform. If that weren’t the case, the only word in the previous sentence that would be considered English is and (which in any case used to mean if).

The English we speak would not be remotely comprehensible to Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote The Canterbury Tales some 600 years ago.

Contemporary accents in particular would sound very foreign to Shakespeare’s ears, and the grammatical structure of the language has changed in subtle ways in the 400 years since he died.

For the most part, those changes don’t affect the expressiveness of the language or the ease of making certain important distinctions in speech and writing.

Yet language-change is not consciously guided: it’s unpredictable and sometimes chaotic. So what if language change gets it “wrong”?

Contemporary Standard Englishes (UK, USA, Australian, NZ, SA etc) distinguish singular from plural for all nouns and pronouns, with a few exceptions:

The few exceptions among nouns - such as “sheep” - rarely, if ever, cause confusion or lack of clarity. The problematic case is the second person pronoun “you”.

All the other pronouns not only vary from singular to plural, but also generally have distinct forms that vary for “case” or - put simplistically - whether the word is the subject or object of the sentence:
“I love language” versus “language fascinates me”.

The second person is simply you, whether singular or plural, subject or object. But that wasn’t always the situation. As recently as 400 ago, second person pronouns were as follows:

You took over as the plural form for both subject and object, but then eventually also supplanted the singular forms, so that we now no longer can be certain whether sentences such as “I need you to help me” is directed to one person in a group or the whole group.

We can of course get round it by adding phrases such as “You, with the blue shirt” or “you boys,” but compared to the elegant thou versus you this is clunky, and the verbiage almost defeats the advantage of having a pronoun, a shortcut to reference, in the first place. It’s a very useful distinction.

How on earth did we lose it?

What art thou staring at? Wikimedia Commons

My favourite hypothesis is that it fell victim to the increasing taste for formality in English-speaking society in the 17th through 19th centuries.

You in Shakespeare’s day was not only used for the plural, but could be used to address a single person in a formal context - usually if the person was of a higher social status or rank than the speaker, or if they were a stranger of presumably equal rank.

The use of you to a singular person indicated a kind of deference and social distance, and was formal in tone. One might say “I have brought thee a cabbage” to one’s brother or friend, but “I have brought you a cabbage” to a king, bishop, or employer (unless on intimate terms).

Many languages, such as French, still do this - they maintain a distinction between singular and plural second person, but use the plural form (vous) to a single person to indicate politeness or formality.

When I first read Pride and Prejudice, I was astonished by Mr and Mrs Bennett, married for decades, alone at a breakfast table, addressing one another as Mr Bennett and Mrs Bennett.

It’s not outlandish as an expression of endearment (as some couples use Mum and Dad to one another), but we can presume that a writer as astute as Jane Austen would have been reflecting social concerns and trends.

From my non-expert reading of the history of these times, it seems the level of formality increased in all interactions, even the most intimate, after the Renaissance, reaching a zenith in the Regency and Victorian eras.

Elgin County Archives

People would have used the formal second person you in more and more contexts, and the familiar/ intimate thou less, until a tipping point was reached and the singular forms disappeared entirely.

Contemporary English-speaking societies have retreated from that level of formality. Even the most formal interactions, such as job interviews and audiences with dignitaries, are far more casual than they were 200 years ago. Plus, we lost our means of distinguishing with a mere word whom exactly we were addressing.

That’s why, independently in many varieties of English around the world, the distinction has been re-introduced.

Not by the resurrection of thou, but by keeping you as the singular, and introducing a new plural such as youse (Australia, NZ, SA, Ireland, Scotland), yinz (Pittsburgh, parts of UK) and y’all (US South, West Indies, Alberta).

Tony Fischer Photography

No committee approved it. Some folks starting using it and, because it filled a need, it spread. Once an old form such as thou has disappeared from a language, it is unlikely to return even if a need for it arises.

Rather, speakers will use the available resources of the living language to innovate. So youse (or yous) is simply a regular “add an ‘s’” plural, y’all is a contraction of the phrase you all, and yinz appears to be a contraction of you ones.

In some places the phrasal you(s) guys is used, and in Kriol, an Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory, the plural yumob comes from you mob.

So, will this very useful innovation become standard? That’s impossible to predict, but we know that many people react negatively to any linguistic innovation, especially one that arises from non-Standard varieties.

The paradox of this prescriptivism is this: most prescriptivists don’t want to see the attrition of a language’s expressivity and nuance. But prescriptivism rarely prevents the disappearance of forms and structures. It didn’t save thou. But what it may hamper is the arrival or spread of innovations.

Prescriptivism doesn’t like to let stuff in, but it’s no good at stopping stuff from falling out.

Rob Pensalfini is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Drama at the University of Queensland, and the Artistic Director of the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble.


This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

5 Tools You Need to Start Learning a Foreign Language on Your Own Today

Mini Danish-Norwegian-French dictionary (Wikipedia)

by Erin N O'Reilly, PhD

1. Bilingual dictionary

Yes, you can use Google Translate or any other online translation service to help you get through a blog post or newspaper article.

But if your goal is to learn another language, you're going to want to own a physical bilingual dictionary.

Over the course of your studies, you'll dogear pages and underline definitions.

You will turn each page lovingly as an explorer, discovering how your new language describes the world.

Start your journey by taking a trip down to your local book store and browsing through the foreign language section.

2. Phrasebook

Okay, you just purchased a bilingual dictionary. Why do you need a phrasebook? This is so you can start speaking right now with native speakers. You want to select a phrase book that will give you transliterations (the alphabet equivalents in your native language for foreign words).

Also, look for a phrasebook that gives useful expressions to help start a conversation, such as, "Good morning. You're from Romania? I'm learning Romanian!" I know this sounds obvious, but not all phrasebooks are designed for the survival speaker, especially for less common languages.

You could use an app instead of a phrasebook if you have a smartphone. The key is to have something that's pocket-sized to easily carry around with you. Which brings us to the next useful item.

3. Flashcards

Flashcards are the age-old, tried-and-true method for memorizing lots of words quickly. Flashcards are a fabulous language learning tool because you can stick them in your pocket and take them out multiple times during the day to review.

You can buy pre-made flashcards with the 1000 most common words in almost any language. Or, you can hand-make your flashcards.

Before you scoff at the idea of making thousands of flashcards, note that many language learners find the physical act of making the flashcard just as helpful in remembering the word as actually practicing with the flashcard.

For those of you who are less inclined to physically write out cards, spend an hour looking into flashcard programs and apps. There are plenty of free and paid choices. Consider spending a few dollars on a flashcard app for your smartphone a worthwhile investment.

4. Grammar workbook

I realize that this will not make me popular, however, find a beginner grammar workbook for your new language. Use the purchaser reviews as a guide to help you choose one that is "straight forward" or "self-explanatory".

If you find grammar difficult to understand, that's okay. Consider this book as your guide to exploring the different grammar topics in your new language.

You can (and should) follow up the lessons and explanations in the book with online material that you can find by doing web searches. YouTube is a great supplement for grammar explanations in workbooks.

5. Free language courses

This comes in many forms. Start by visiting your local library to see if they have a beginner's crash-course on CD for your new language. Alternatively, visit the BBC, which offers beginner language courses in 40 different languages.

You can also do a search for introductory podcasts in your chosen language. The key is to finding auditory input to hear the way the language actually sounds.

That's it! You now have the five essential tools you need to start your language learning today!

Interested in learning more? Erin N. O'Reilly is a language coach specializing in second and foreign language learning strategies, helping learners at all levels reach their potential. You can learn everything about how to learn another language here: http://www.strategicl2.com.

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How to Teach English to Non-Native Speakers

Please Teach Me English (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Chris A. Harmen

Teaching English has become a popular way for native speakers to see the world and earn a living at the same time, but it's not exactly easy!

If you've never taught before, you might not be sure how to start.

When you're trying to teach English to non-native speakers, watch your idioms, slow down your speech patterns and use basic vocabulary that's easy to understand to help your students become successful.

Lastly, don't forget about classroom management!

Even if you're teaching adults, it's important that you have adequate classroom management skills so that your class isn't running the show.

Watch the Idioms When You're Trying to Teach English

When you're a teacher, it's vital that you watch what you say carefully. Saying things like 'It's time to hit the books,' or 'This homework should be a piece of cake' will likely be met with some serious confusion.

Do you really want your class to slap their textbooks or bring you a piece of cake the next day? If not, it's important to watch these types of phrases and idioms. They'll just confuse beginning students so you should wait until your class is more advanced before you introduce these phrases.

Slow Down When You Speak

If you've ever heard someone else speak another language, you know that it can seem confusing, especially if they're speaking rapidly. To help your students understand when you're trying to teach English, slow your speech way down.

Use pauses in between sentences so that they can process and understand what you're saying. While it's unlikely that your students will understand every word, if you speak slowly, they'll be more likely to figure out your general idea and they'll be able to fill in the blanks.

Use Basic Vocabulary

Additionally, make sure that you're using words that are basic and uncomplicated - now is not the time to show off your extensive vocabulary.

Additionally, you can help your students' vocabulary by labeling things in your classroom, such as the chairs, desks, door and anything else that's inside your classroom. Once your students have a basic understanding of vocabulary, then you can move on to expanding their vocabulary with synonyms.

If you're trying to teach English to adults, you will likely need to teach some specialized vocabulary. For instance, businesspeople may need to understand certain business or industry related terms.

For this reason, it's vital that you understand who your students are so you can tailor your lessons to their needs and requirements.

Classroom Management is Also Important

Don't forget about classroom management techniques, they can be especially important with adults. You may have a class full of students who are eager to learn, or you could have one joker who tries to run the show.

There's no one perfect classroom management technique that will work for every situation so it's important to have a variety of techniques at your disposal. If you can, talk to other people who teach English overseas to get ideas and tips that you can implement in your own class.

If you're getting ready to teach English to non-native speakers, use these tips to help your students become successful in their new language.

For over 20 years, AIDC has been helping native English speakers with information on how to teach English in Abu Dhabi. These jobs can provide teachers with one of a kind experiences they'll never forget. To learn more about teaching English overseas, please visit http://www.aidcinc.com/.

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Teaching English Tips: How To Be A Successful Teacher

Teaching and Learning (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Chris A. Harmen

If you're interested in moving abroad for a job teaching English, you'll likely find that it's quite different than being a teacher or tutor for native speakers.

However, before you move to start your new career, consider brushing up on some tips to help you become a better teacher.

These aren't the only ways to become successful, but they can certainly help your students learn the language.

Tip #1: Speak Entirely In English

If you've ever tried to learn another language, you know that it can be difficult, especially if you're trying to go back and forth between your new and native tongues.

Studies have shown that immersion classrooms are more successful, mostly because students are forced to switch their brains over to the new language.

If your students are just beginners, they may have problems following along so make sure that you write down any necessary information, such as homework assignments.

Students may need to look up a few words in a translation dictionary before they truly understand, and having the instructions written down will help ensure that they can complete the assignment at home.

Tip #2: Encourage Everyone To Speak Up

Instructors aren't the only ones who should be talking throughout the class. Students should feel free to speak to each other, without worrying about being mocked for making a mistake.

Learning a new language is difficult and everyone needs to actually say the words in order to be effective in their new language! Don't let a few outspoken students run the class though.

Teachers should make an effort to call on each student at least once a session to ensure that everyone is progressing as they should.

Tip #3: Require That Students Write In English

Have you ever met someone who's fluent in another language, but they can't read or write it? These are often people whose families speak other languages, but they learn another in school.

To help your students become successful in all parts of speech, make sure they write, as well as read and speak in the new language.

Tip #4: Make Teaching English Fun

Your class will learn better when they're having fun, even if they're adults. Nothing will put your class to sleep faster than a dry, boring lesson.

Instead, use games and other teaching gimmicks to make the lesson enjoyable for yourself and your class. Pictionary and charades are especially fun, as well as spelling bees and 20 questions.

If you notice that your class prefers certain games to others, try to adapt them for different lessons. Or, ask your students to come up with their own game to teach the class - when they're directly involved in their own education, they'll be more likely to be successful.

These aren't the only ways teachers can be successful when they're teaching English to non-native speakers, but they're certainly a good start. If you can, connect with others who are teaching English and work together to share ideas and strategies that will help you - and your class - to be successful.

For over 20 years, AIDC has been giving native English speakers the chance to find jobs in Abu Dhabi teaching English. These jobs can provide teachers with one of a kind experiences they'll never forget. To learn more about teaching English overseas, please visit http://www.aidcinc.com/.

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Learning Languages for Hopelessly Busy People

Foreign language books available (Photo credit: Newton Free Library)

by Laura Canadeo

When you were younger life was devoted to school and its associated student responsibilities.

There weren't many constraints to deal with, such as a job, children, home keeping, and other grown-up obligations.

As an adult you still have goals and interests, and speaking a foreign language might be one of them.

It takes around 1000 hours of study to be considered fluent in most languages so, with all the time required, how can one realistically speak a new language when your schedule is already full?

A productive way to learn a language and strengthen skills when time is limited is to make use of idle moments, down time, travel time, and waiting time. While traveling or commuting to work, use those minutes for listening to podcasts or music in the language you're studying.

If you're at an advanced level, listen to an audio book in that language. Even if you're passively listening to music in another language, you are learning new vocabulary, and music is a wonderful memory aid.

While waiting for an appointment or standing in line, use a language-learning app on your smart phone or tablet to pass the time. Brief periods of study are small reinforcements that boost your memory tremendously.

Read 15 minutes each day. If there is a book that you like in English, try reading it in your foreign language. You don't need to read it word for word; understanding the basic storyline and becoming familiar with the sentence structures and new vocabulary will have an impact. Besides, you'll have great satisfaction and confidence after achieving such an impressive goal.

Of course reading a novel is one suggestion. The important thing is to read something, anything that interests you: magazines, comic books, romance novels, whatever will motivate you to read every day. In fact, reading 15 minutes each day exposes you to over 1,000,000 words each year.

If rereading a book doesn't interest you, watch a favorite movie in the language you're studying. You will already know the plot so this time you can follow the dialogue with better understanding. Use subtitles if you wish.  

Games and puzzles are a productive use of time as well, and there are limitless options available on the web. How about participating in a foreign language chat room? Not only do they provide practical conversation experience, they're also a wonderful source for potential foreign friends. The objective here is to squeeze some language learning into your relaxation time.

Have you ever tried incorporating the five senses into your language learning? This can be done wherever you are. Whenever you taste, smell, touch, hear, or see something new or interesting, think about these sensations in your new language.

By engaging with your senses you will train yourself to think more in the new language, not your dominant language. This is why so many language learners advance quickly when they travel to foreign countries.

They start to hear and see more foreign words than they do words in their own language. Eventually their brains stop translating into their own language and start thinking in the new language.

When brushing your teeth, for example, talk to yourself (silently or aloud) about the minty taste of the toothpaste, how fresh your mouth feels, the color of your toothbrush, how the bristles feel on your gums, how smooth your teeth feel, how foamy the toothpaste becomes, the water, and the brushing sound.

Involve your senses in simple tasks while thinking in the language you're learning. Don't worry about making mistakes. Think in words and sentences and let you mind be free.

To supplement language learning during your busy day practice these achievable approaches that will keep you on the path to fluency. You can do it!

Having an interest in foreign languages is rewarding and opens your world to new possibilities so don't let time constraints limit your potential to speak a new language.

I have always loved words, reading, writing, word puzzles, and learning foreign languages. I earned my degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Journalism.

I dedicate my English course to non-native speakers wanting to learn English, business English, grammar, or improve English vocabulary and conversation skills.

I speak English every day with professionals, artists, and students to help them converse naturally, write better, or prepare for presentations, interviews, or English exams. It's extremely productive, convenient, and enjoyable!

I welcome you to try a free 30 minutes conversation.

Visit my website http://www.improving-english.com and my entertaining English blog: http://blog.improving-english.com

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How to Teach This and That, These and Those

"That Chocolate Cake" (ulterior epicure)

by Shelley Ann Vernon

A teacher asked me today how to teach this and that, these and those.

Teaching this and that, these and those is easy and fun.

You need plenty of real objects to hand to demonstrate the concepts of singular and plural and also distance.

Start by introducing the meaning of this and that by demonstration with real objects. Don't move on to plurals right away, teach in stages so your students don't have too much to take on at once.

TEACHING THIS AND THAT

The main concept here is distance. This is close and that is far. Demonstrate this using real objects around you. Use only vocabulary the students already know, which is useful revision, so that only the words "this" and "that" are new.

Point at a chair that is close to you, stand right next to it and touch it. Point to a chair that is far away saying "that chair". Switch to this pen and that pen. This shoe and that shoe. This nose and that nose. This window and that window.

Go through pencil case items, items on the desks, furniture in the room, posters on the walls, clothing and body parts. Those are all things you are likely to have around you.

Each time you say "this" make sure you are TOUCHING the item to make it clear you are close. And each time you say "that" make sure you are quite far away to demonstrate the distance.

Call out "this pen" and have students hold up a pen and point at it, the one in their hand and say "this pen". Call out "that door" and have students point to the door and say "that door".

Continue like this until most of the students have become quite good at it. As students improve switch faster and faster between different objects.

Students follow you pointing at the correct objects either near or far. They will find it fun as long as you move along at a good pace and don't drag it out. Start with "this pen, that pen", "this book, that book", "this shoe, that shoe". Then mix up the nouns: "this shoe, that book, this nose, that shirt, that nose, that door, this eye".

Bring up your best students and let them call things out to the class. That challenges them as they have to think of things for the others to point to which prevents them from becoming bored in the lesson if they are better than the others.

Make it more complicated if the students are doing very well by adding in adjectives such as "this red book, that blue shirt".

Introduce these and those in the same way.

Put the children in pairs now and call out "this pen" and "these pens". The students put there pens together so they are close and point at them. For "those pens" all students hold their pens together while pointing at someone else's pens.

It will be fun when you do "these noses" and "these legs" and so on because students have to move to get the objects really close. Obviously you have to gauge if getting close to someone else's nose is appropriate for your class - the adults will not enjoy it but most children will find it fun. Adults can gesture without touching.

Play music while children pass pens and books around the classroom. When the music stops call out "These pens" and any children with a pen have to jump up and run over to someone else with a pen to show "these pens".

Play the music again and call out "those books". Any students with books jump up, put at least two books together, and everyone points to them from a distance. Play the music, students pass their objects. Stop the music and call out "these eyes" - ALL students must point at their eyes. And so on.

All the best, Shelley.

Easy fun games and teaching ideas for kids can be found in 176 English Language Games for Children, on Amazon and on:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/4-12.htm

For teens and adults use the teen/adult activity book instead:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm

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How to Make an English Lesson More Interesting

Reenactment of the Battle of Hastings (Wikipedia)

by Marie Maille

When teaching English to foreign students I have found that incorporating a hobby or interest of theirs has made a big difference to their language learning experience.

At present, I have a group of three Italian teenage girls who are all interested in arts and crafts, as well as wanting to improve their English language skills.

As they are staying with me in my hometown of Hastings, East Sussex, which has great historical significance, yesterday I planned an art lesson with a difference.

A favourite craft of mine is transforming empty bottles into lamps or decorative candleholders. I accumulated several old wine bottles which we prepared for decoration by removing any sticky labels and polishing.

I gave all the instructions in English and asked the girls to repeat what they were doing as they were doing it. Our theme was Hastings and I explained that our objective was to decoupage these bottles using various images from a selection of local magazines.

Prior to starting the project, I had explained to them the history of the 1066 Battle of Hastings, when William the Conqueror invaded England and the Normans took over the country for several centuries, as a consequence.

The girls seemed very interested in this and asked me a lot of questions on the subject, as they had no idea of the historical importance of the place they were staying in!

We flicked through several magazines and found numerous pictures of the Hastings castle ruins, the old town with its ancient Norman church, the West and East hill cliffs, Knights in armour, the fleet of fishing boats, the funicular climbing the cliffs amongst many other relevant images.

We proceeded to cut out these images roughly and pile them all on the table. The various images created dialogue between the students and myself as they became very curious about the area especially when I mentioned the old town ghost walk!

We also spoke about towns in Italy which also had particular historical interest from the same era. In fact, this lesson turned out to be a combined English, Art and History lesson.

The next stage of the lesson was to start applying the various images to the bottles' surface. I placed a large pot of PVA glue in the centre of the table and each student helped themselves to a paintbrush.

Only one of the students had done decoupage before so I had to explain the procedure to the other two students. For those readers who are not aware, it is simply glueing image on image overlapping slightly, until the surface is completely covered.

Once the surfaces were all covered we then proceeded to apply a second layer of glue over the whole area, ensuring that there were no air bubbles and making the images as flat as possible.

We left the bottles to dry overnight. The following day, before we attempted to do anything else, we discussed the whole procedure so that the girls could reinforce the language and vocabulary they had learnt on the previous day.

The project turned out to be very successful. Our final step was to varnish the bottles with a water based varnish spray.

We wrapped string around the neck of the bottles to give a neater appearance and then inserted a thin candle into the neck. The girls were delighted and each had a souvenir of their English homestay experience to take back to Italy.

The following day we recapped on all the English learnt and I asked the girls to compose an essay in which they described the procedure from start to finish. They also worked together to create a sales pitch for promoting these bottles on a market stall.

My name is Marie Maille and I organize English language courses for foreign students. I work with a network of highly qualified teachers who offer one to one private tuition in their comfortable Sussex homes.

The homestay packages include one to one private tuition, full board accommodation and excursions. We cater for all ages and all levels including Seniors 50+ and parent-and-child programs. We believe in offering a quality, reliable service and try to be competitive with our prices. http://www.homestayenglish.uk.com

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