One thing I mentioned way back when Get Into English started was this idea of playing word games either with a pen and paper, or by using your imagination as you commute each day to work.
The idea of these games is for you to go over vocabulary you’ve looked at in class, or just to ‘activate’ what you already know, to see what words you can produce.
Word snakes
For example, start with one word, and then see if you can think of another that starts with the last letter of the previous word:
cat -> tan -> necessary -> yard - dream continue reading…
by David Sweetnam on May 9, 2012
One of my zouk teachers, a dancer from Brazil who’s lived in Prague for several years, starts his classes with some warm ups.
We then practise the basic steps which form the foundations of the dance.
And following this, he shows us some more complex dance moves and variations, which we do for about 5 minutes.
So the first 15 minutes is a warm up, followed by some new moves which we do on our own.
What I really appreciate is that when we then pair up and dance with a partner, we don’t start a completely new move or figure. Instead, the main figure (dance move) that we practise together is something that we just practised on our own for a few minutes at the start. read more…
by David Sweetnam on May 3, 2012
After several years without a TV, I got one this week. It’ll help with my own English lessons as I can link my computer up to the screen and use it for playing some English training videos, but it’ll also help with my Czech.
I know, TV has a bad rap. These days magazines and self-development writers and bloggers are saying “turn it off.”
It’s a waste of time.
Dumbed-down TV programmes too – hardly anything worth watching.
But it’s different when it comes to learning a foreign language. read more…
by David Sweetnam on April 29, 2012
Are you frustrated with where you are in your language learning? Do you feel you have a mountain to climb? There is a difference between being frustrated or dissatisfied with your language course, and not being satisfied with where you are.
Case 1: “I’m not satisfied with the quality of this course.”
Case 2: “I’m not satisfied with my linguistic level.”
Knowing about these differences can help you work out a plan of attack, and save you some stress too.
For example, someone wrote to me recently saying they weren’t happy with the progress they were making with their present teacher (case 1). Based on what she wrote, I gather that they’ve only had a handful of lessons together. However, assuming the teacher is doing what you’d expect a professional teacher to do, this person may simply not be satisfied with where she is (case 2 in fact).
Being dissatisfied with your level may have nothing to do with your teacher.
read more…
by David Sweetnam on April 23, 2012
Commas are those tricky little things which we use to show a gap or pause between parts of a sentence. Recently a student of mine saw that I’d crossed out quite a few of her commas, which begged the question: when to use them?
Micheal Swan in his book Practical English Usage has already written a nice summary which answers this very question. So I’ll simply highlight a few areas where I’ve noticed Czech and Slovak learners having particular problems:
- A few examples of when commas are NOT used in English (as opposed to Czech)
Myslím, že… -> I think that he’s tired. read more…
by David Sweetnam on April 23, 2012
I‘ve heard a lot of language bloggers and even English students here in Prague say that to really learn and speak a language you need to ‘speak, speak, speak.’
My message is simply: ‘speak and be active.’
I’m an introvert and for me to learn a language and speak it better, I get a lot of value from ‘reflective time’ and doing activities other than speaking.
Don’t get me wrong – speaking is still essential. But it’s not the only thing you can do. read more…
by David Sweetnam on April 13, 2012
Today something different – looking at an awkward article written by a blogger in the United States, and at a few themes which come out of it, including the angry reaction from others. And if you’re a non-native speaker of English, you’ll see for yourself that even native speakers struggle with writing well in English! read more…
by David Sweetnam on April 5, 2012
My zouk teacher made an interesting comment last week when a few of the class stopped dancing half-way through a song.
Usually we wait for him to direct the class and say what the next move or next steps will be.
This time was different. read more…
by David Sweetnam on April 2, 2012
What is the difference between all and whole? A student of mine asked me this at the weekend, and I think it was the first time in 10 or so years of teaching English in Prague that anyone had ever asked, so I said I’d investigate the differences. Do I eat ‘all the pasta’ or ‘the whole pasta’?
read more…
