For the past 30 days I’ve been taking part in a Blogging Challenge run by Sarah and Kevin Arrow of Sark e-Media. The challenge was to post one blog post every day for 30 days, and along the way read posts by others taking part in the challenge, and comment on and share those posts. […]
Weekly language learning roundup – September 22, 2014
September 21, 2014 by 2 Comments
This week we have details about free online course, an article about learning languages as an adult, and a reminder about one of my posts. I hope you find them interesting and useful 🙂 A beginner’s guide to writing in English for university study This free course is presented by the University of Reading […]
Idiom: as cool as a cucumber
September 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
To be as cool as a cucumber is to be very calm and serene in stressful circumstances. cucumber (noun) a long green vegetable that’s normally eaten in salads Example sentences: 1. We were terrified during the storm, but she was cool as a cucumber. 2. He has an important exam today but […]
Phrasal verb: soup up
September 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
To soup up something (or soup something up) is to change something, especially an engine or car, to make it more powerful; or to make something more interesting, attractive or appealing. If something is souped-up (adjective) it has been made more powerful or more attractive. Informal English. Example sentences: 1. He’s driving round in […]
100 English comparatives
September 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The comparative forms of adjectives and adverbs are used when you want to compare two things in order to show the difference between them. (We use superlatives when we’re comparing more than two things) For example: Book A is $20 and Book B is $10. Book A is more expensive than Book B. Book […]
English lessons in Cornwall
September 16, 2014 by 2 Comments
I live and work in the beautiful county of Cornwall in the UK where, as well as my online work, I also teach face-to-face one-to-one English lessons in people’s homes. Sometimes I hear from people who want to improve their English, but for various reasons they aren’t able to commit to weekly lessons with a […]
Weekly language learning roundup – September 15, 2014
September 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Two articles and an app this week. I hope you find them interesting and useful 🙂 Characteristics of a good language learner What do you think makes a good language learner? Over on The Mezzofanti Guild site, Donovan Nagel has put together a great list of 11 unmistakable characteristics that define a good […]
Listening resources for learning English
September 12, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Here’s my list of some of the sites offering mostly free or low-cost resources for improving your English listening skills. They include some excellent audio and video resources that will help you understand spoken English better. It’s a public list so if you have a favourite site that’s not yet included, please add it 🙂 […]
Learning English with stories
September 11, 2014 by 2 Comments
Do you like reading short stories? I do. And I also like using them as a resource for teaching English. I find it’s a good way to add something a little bit different to our lessons, as well as a good way to use culturally relevant resources by selecting stories or fairy stories according […]
Dream vocabulary
September 9, 2014 by 3 Comments
dream (noun) – things such as thoughts, images, or emotions that you experience in your mind while you are sleeping ♦ Last night I had a strange dream about a parrot called Claude. dream (noun) a dream is something good that you want to happen very much I have a dream that my four […]
