Salvador Sabral’s victory for Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest was the first time a non-English Eurovision song had won the coveted crown since 2007. Salvador performed Amar Pelos Dois (Love For Both) at the Grand Final in Kiev to an enraptured crowd. One of the most interesting elements of the singer’s performance was that the bossa nova was entirely in Portuguese, written and composed by his sister. (more…)
The gamification of language learning is an important topic in the EFL teaching world. There is an increasing number of apps and learning technology that use games as a way of motivating and engaging with students.
Gamification of learning in general has brought education and games together to create a fun hybrid – but is this a successful strategy for long term educational development?
Read on to explore the concept of gamification in education, its potential benefits, the concerns of critics and how the gamification of language learning could help to boost student motivation and engagement. (more…)
American software company GITCS has developed a brand new learning app focused on helping students of English as a second language. The Beginner ESL app provides engaging content using a range of innovative features to help students with their reading comprehension. With beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of ESL lessons, this app can be used by all students to improve their learning experience. (more…)
You never forget your first language – even if you have never spoken it, scientists have discovered. Babies develop knowledge of the language they hear in their first few months of life and will always retain that knowledge on an abstract level. It has been discovered that your brain retains the hidden ability to recall forgotten first languages decades on. The findings indicate not only that you never truly forget your birth language but also that language acquisition as a baby is abstract in nature and not dependent on experience. (more…)
Scientists have discovered that baboons can produce five distinct vowel sounds, which are strikingly similar to our own human vowel sounds. This discovery suggests that language skills actually evolved tens of millions of years earlier than previously thought. It is now thought that our pre-human ancestors could have been using meaningful language over 25 million years ago. (more…)
Each Christmas is the anniversary of the death of pop star and esteemed singer-songwriter George Michael, who passed away on Christmas Day 2016. As a tribute to his song-writing talent and philanthropic work we have taken one of his most famous tracks as inspiration for language learners.
Careless Whisper contains many interesting phrases that are useful to English language students, so let’s consider this classic song and use George’s clever and evocative lyrics to help EFL learners get to grips with some new vocabulary and expressions. (more…)
Are you enjoying the cold snap? With the thermometer diving towards zero across the UK, it’s time to think about winter weather vocabulary. There are many ways to describe a cold day – certainly useful when living in a northern climate!
From cool to chilly to freezing, whether the wind is breezy, blustery or gale-force – with or without a downpour – cold weather vocabulary is always handy at this time of year. Read on to explore the English vocabulary you need to talk about the cold weather. (more…)
Remembrance Day, also called Armistice Day, is an important day in British culture. November 11th is the day everyone remembers the sacrifices made by the service men and women during the world wars. Traditionally there is a two-minute silence on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – the moment in 1918 when the armistice became effective in Britain.
The main ceremony of remembrance takes place on the nearest Sunday and this day is called Remembrance Sunday. People wear red paper poppies at this time of year to show their support. Read on to learn more about this important day in British culture and explore new vocabulary in our Remembrance Day EFL lesson through two famous war poems.
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Halloween is an exciting holiday occasion and the perfect time to learn some new vocabulary – so why not learn with a classic song! Monster Mash is a fun Halloween-themed pop song by Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett and the Crypt Kickers, recorded in 1962. It contains lots of spooky vocabulary and is a great way to expand your knowledge of idioms – and enjoy some Halloween-flavoured language fun. This is great listening material for the EFL class. Will you do the Monster Mash? (more…)
The English language has spread around the world so dramatically since the Second World War that there are now more non-native English speakers than native English speakers. The number of English speakers has risen from 400 million to 1.5 billion over the past 70 years. English dominates many conversations between speakers of other languages, simply because it is the only language many people have in common. But will the dominance of English fade after Brexit? (more…)