Strategies in Language Learning

No matter what religion you practice I suspect that many people around the world are winding down. It is a good time to relax, recharge and maybe reaffirm or tweak your current goals, or maybe even set new ones. Listen to the jingle below to put you in the right frame of mind! Something light […]

I had the pleasure recently of being interviewed by Sylvia Guinan on the role of empathy in language learning in Teacher Appreciation week. The interview with me formed part of a 2 hr session on WizIQ with various language experts from around the world, which explored the role of empathy in language learning.  In the […]

Listen to the podcast below (an interview with Dr. Piers Messum) and discover valuable insights as to how we stress and reduce vowel sounds in English. This understanding and the resultant techniques talked about have the potential to transform the successes you have as a learner in mastering the unique demands of the English language. (This […]

Many people do not want to make mistakes in learning languages, however they serve an important function in learning, which in fact can’t be avoided. As James Joyce said,”Mistakes are the portals to discovery”. They alert us to what we are doing wrong and hence what we need to work on to progress. To better […]

Listen in as Dr. Piers Messum explains how by using imitation as a key to learning pronunciation we have been misled and then find out the keys we can use to learn pronunciationI recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Piers Messum, who teaches in London and did his dissertation a few years ago on the role […]

It is possible to learn a language in many different ways. One way that appeals to many people is reading. What is important to remember that if you wish to speak, nothing will replace the activity of speaking. However by learning to better use your reading time you may well be able to accelerate your […]

A little understood language learning strategy Every language learner I believe understands the importance of practice. However, just what constitutes language practice that will lead to improvement is an issue that is not so readily agreed understood. Many readers will, I am confident, be able to relate to times when practice did not result in […]

Does “practice make perfect” or “does practice make improvement”? I think both can be true but really we will get much further and not get disillusioned if we aim for progress rather than perfection.  That way we can keep progressing until we get to perfection! Did you know that when a Shuttle rocket blasts off […]

Two ways to deal with the question of “how to improve memory”.Most of the articles I have seen on how to improve memory don’t necessarily relate to the needs of language learners. I will look here at two quite different ways to improve memory, specifically for language learners. The first way relates to the way […]

You will discover ideas and practical suggestions as to how you can improve your pronunciation in this second part of a two part article.  You can implement them right now to improve your pronunciation in whatever language you are learning in any aspect of that language, whether it be at the level of individual sounds […]