Top articles

• voyage, voyage..

  02 décembre 2009 ( #Vocabulary )

  It's always difficult to talk about travel in English. In French there is one word: "un voyage" et "voyager", whereas in English we have "trip", "travel" and "journey". In fact the verb is very easy to translate: voyager = to travel The noun "un voyage"...

• than / that / as

  17 novembre 2009 ( #Grammar )

  What do these 3 words have in common? They can all be translated as "que" in French.. 1) the comparative An elephant is bigger than a mouse. Un éléphant est plus grand qu'une souris. 2) the same... as He lives in the same street as me. Il habite la même...

• Prepositional Phrasal Verbs

  27 avril 2010

  Prepositional Phrasal Verbs are phrasal verbs which are followed by a preposition. Find a list below of the most common ones + their translation into French: to back out of (se dégager de /sortir à reculons) to catch up with (rattraper / rejoindre) to...

• IATEFL 2016 Plenary Day 2 (Silvana Richardson)

  15 mai 2016

  As an English teacher who is a non-native speaker of English, I want to "promote" Silvana Richardsons talk! Here is a summary of the presentation by the blogger Lizzie Pinard: The one minute history of Native Speakerism starring the Monolingual Bias ....

• Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers

  29 janvier 2012 ( #Culture )

  Being a nonnative speaker of English, I'm very happy that recently people have been more open to the fact that nonnative English-speaking teachers can be good English teachers. In fact some people even state that nonnative speakers are better teachers,...

• Each peach pear plum

  22 janvier 2012 ( #Culture )

  When my children were little I would read them this lovely book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The text is as follows: I n this book With your little eye Take a look And play “I spy” Each Peach Pear Plum I spy Tom Thumb Tom Thumb in the cupboard I spy Mother...

• English Pronunciation Verse (The Chaos)

  27 janvier 2012 ( #Pronunciation )

  The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité ( 20 July 1870, Utrecht - 9 October 1946, Haarlem), was a Dutch observer of English. He is best known in the English-speaking world for his poem The Chaos which demonstrates many of the idiosyncrasies...

• The history of the English Language (videos)

  16 novembre 2014 ( #Culture )

  "The Adventure of English is a British television series (ITV) on the history of the English presented by Melvyn Bragg as well as a companion book, also written by Bragg. The series ran in 2003. The series and the book are cast as an adventure story,...

• A tour of the British Isles in accents

  22 février 2014 ( #Pronunciation )

  A dialect coach, Andrew Jack, gives a tour of the accents of the British Isles. You can hear the following accents: Received Pronounciation (RP) London Cockney (East-Anglia / Suffolk) West County (Cornwall / Dorset) Devon Yorkshire Lancashire Liverpool...

• Language influences how people see the world

  22 février 2016 ( #Culture )

  Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely express thoughts, or do the structures in languages (without our knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to express? Article from The Wall Street Journal By LERA BORODITSKY...

• BBC Learning English

  13 avril 2014 ( #External links )

  The site BBC.CO.UK/Worldservice proposes this: ~Hi I'm Neil. Thanks for joining me on English at Work - a new series of programmes set in an office, full of top tips to help you learn some useful business language which you could use in the workplace....

• verb + "-ing" or + "to infinitive"

  17 février 2010 ( #Grammar )

  This is always a tricky subject. Yesterday evening we had to"decide" if it was "I like going" or "I like to go". Now in fact, this is one of the verbs which can be followed by either form, with little difference in meaning. In American English, people...

• 'Les Anglo-Saxons'

  24 novembre 2017 ( #Culture )

  The Local 26 October 2017 Ever noticed how the French will refer to the English-speaking world as "les Anglo-Saxons", even though historically-speaking the Anglo-Saxons haven't been around since medieval times? Emile Chabal explains why it says more about...

• Learning a foreign language: five most common mistakes

  19 juin 2013

  1) not listening enough: language learners need to practise listening in order to learn. This can reinforce learned vocabulary and structures, and help learners see patterns in language. 2) lack of curiosity: a learner who is keen about the target culture...

• France ranked 'worst in EU' at learning English

  08 novembre 2015

  The report noted that France, as well as neighbouring Spain and Italy were behind European averages. However, while Spain and Italy were on the up, France remained stubbornly stuck, well behind the likes of Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. "In fact,...

• "We need a native speaker...."

  13 septembre 2017

  This is not the first time that I talk about the organisation TEFL EQUITY ADVOCATES. This organisation fights "FOR EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS IN ELT". Here are some extracts from an article by Karin Krummenacher...

• Le chant faciliterait l’apprentissage des langues étrangères

  19 juillet 2013

  Just read this in a French newspaper: apparently singing can help you to learn a foreign language: http://etudiant.lefigaro.fr/les-news/actu/detail/article/chanter-pour-mieux-apprendre-une-langue-etrangere-2500/ And here you can find the article in English:...

• Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010

  30 décembre 2009 ( #Culture )

  We Wish You a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Good tidings we bring to you and your kin; Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year. Oh, bring us a...

• Pronunciation of "i"

  16 janvier 2010 ( #Pronunciation )

  It's not easy to find a rule that will help English language learners to know how to pronounce the letter "i". We will talk here about the letter "i" alone, not about the letter "i" in combination with other vowels, like "ai", "ei", "ie", etc. There are...

• the Cotswolds

  28 janvier 2010 ( #Culture )

  Sometimes students ask me where to go for a holiday in England. Well, my favourite region is the Cotswolds. You will find beautiful villages, loads of castles and lovely landscapes... Bibury Some interesting websites/pages: A map of the Cotswolds Your...

• Ski holiday

  28 février 2010 ( #Vocabulary )

  For those lucky enough to have gone skiing these last few weeks, here is some useful vocabulary: ski resort = station de ski slope = piste ski lifts = les remontées mécaniques drag lift = téléski chair lift = télésiège cable car = téléphérique gondola...

• Horoscope

  23 mars 2010 ( #Vocabulary )

  Occasionally the horoscope is mentioned during the lessons, and I always get stuck when I have to name the astrological signs in English (mind you, I find it difficult in French or Dutch as well). So to help me to remember these names, here are the signs...

• Not only ... but also...

  05 juin 2010 ( #Grammar )

  In one of the texts we read during a lesson was the following sentence: "Look, not only do we have a major error on our hands, but we're also not sure how this happened." I was asked the following question: Why is it "do we have" and not "we have", because...

• Paper Planes

  12 juin 2011 ( #Culture )

  This afternoon I bought a book called "A Picnic on Earth" by Rupert Morgan. It caught my eye, because it said on the front cover something like "download free audio version". I thought that this might be interesting material to use with students. In fact...

• Irish Pub Songs

  24 septembre 2011 ( #Culture )

  This Summer (August 2011) I was on holiday in Ireland. And one of the things I enjoyed most, was going to the pub where musicians would play Irish music. Most of these songs were known to all, and people would sing along. Please find below Youtube links...