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The schwa sound explained
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What is the schwa sound? It is a very LAZY and typically quick and short. In the world of colors, it is equivalent to GREY. In the world of drinks, it is equivalent to water, NO TASTE! Got the idea? I say it’s lazy, because we don’t need to make any effort with the…
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Pronunciation Teaching: The Basics
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How adult learners of English go wrong!
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Language is a complex set of utterances or sounds humans use to decode each others’ messages. Allow me to use the following metaphor: You turn your PC on, it asks you to log in. You punch in your password, a series of letters and numbers which the computer has to recognize and read to…
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Are you good enough to sell in English?
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We are all selling something aren’t we? We sell our skills and experience to future employers. We sell our vision to potential investors. We sell products to consumers and services to clients. Some of us even try to sell Gods to non-believers. Never before has the ability to sell been more critical for survival…
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Japan: The land of the rising sun and broken dreams
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Her name was Miyu, a 26-year-old Japanese English teacher at a public Junior High school in Hyogo prefecture, Japan. Miyu was (and hopefully still is) incredibly passionate about teaching English. It’s easy to recognize a passionate teacher when you are one. Miyu believed that the sole purpose of her existence was to teach English…
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Error correction in pronunciation teaching
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Why we don’t do it much… Some say “don’t do it”, others say “do it in moderation”, and I say, do it as often as the learners need it. Note that I’m not talking about error correction in a General English class, I’m only talking about error correction in pronunciation courses where learners do…
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How to sound like a native speaker?
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WARNING: Is that what you really want? To sound like a native speaker of English? Then be prepared to live as two different persons in one. Relax, I’m not talking about schizophrenia, I’m talking about creating a new identity that can coexist with the old one peacefully. You will have to be comfortable speaking…
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From Advanced to Native-like English: Myth or reality?
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So you’re an advanced English speaker! You can speak fluently, you can say pretty much anything you want, you can even discuss politics, economy and other social issues intelligently and even eloquently. Congratulations. Many native speakers can’t do that with the language. You would be amazed to see how limited some native speakers’ vocabulary…
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8 must-know BE phrasal verbs II
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As promised, there is Part 2 of the 8 must-know phrasal verbs, so enjoy it and feel free to ask questions if you’re not sure about anything. If you haven’t checked out Part 1 of the 8 must-know phrasal verbs, DO IT NOW! 2-I’m up…(up for/up to/up against) I’m up for some ice cream!…
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8 must-know BE phrasal verbs
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I just can’t tell you how DARN IMPORTANT phrasal verbs are for English learners in general, which is why I created a whole section for them on this website. I have taught hundreds of advanced students over the past 7 years and what I have realized is that most of them are never comfortable…