English4U

Colm Boyd, a materials writer and British Council teacher in Barcelona shows how attention to connected speech in pop music can help improve fluency in spoken English...

We asked Tangent Training English language teacher, Richard Best: Is it a teacher's responsibility to bring up difficult global issues such as women's rights, racism and poverty in the classroom? 

How do you keep students motivated? I like to compare it to keeping a healthy successful marriage. Like passion, motivation eventually fades away if you don’t feed it every day. It takes time, effort and energy - but it is worthwhile.

When I was learning English, my teachers spent a lot of time in class focusing on the form of the target language, but with no context. As a consequence, my natural and varied use of English suffered.

Language learning in schools is being greatly damaged by the reduction in opportunities to engage with native speakers and experience the culture at first hand. For decades, school exchanges and trips abroad organised by school languages departments have provided pupils with valuable first-hand experience of the language and culture being studied in the classroom. More often than not, they have presented pupils with their first taste of using another language in a real context and have not only given pupils a tremendous boost of confidence but inspired future learning and a love of the language. These are now threatened by a number of factors, including funding and the reluctance to allow pupils out of school because of the demands of other courses. 

Language learning in schools is being greatly damaged by the reduction in opportunities to engage with native speakers and experience the culture at first hand. For decades, school exchanges and trips abroad organised by school languages departments have provided pupils with valuable first-hand experience of the language and culture being studied in the classroom. More often than not, they have presented pupils with their first taste of using another language in a real context and have not only given pupils a tremendous boost of confidence but inspired future learning and a love of the language. These are now threatened by a number of factors, including funding and the reluctance to allow pupils out of school because of the demands of other courses. 

When I was learning English, my teachers spent a lot of time in class focusing on the form of the target language, but with no context. As a consequence, my natural and varied use of English suffered.

​Artificial Intelligence (AI) sounds like science-fiction. Our familiarity with self-aware machines in film, TV and online has given us a particular perspective on what AI can achieve in the classroom. Here are some areas where improvements in AI technology can be adopted in the virtual classroom sooner than you might think.

When I was learning English, my teachers spent a lot of time in class focusing on the form of the target language, but with no context. As a consequence, my natural and varied use of English suffered.

​Artificial Intelligence (AI) sounds like science-fiction. Our familiarity with self-aware machines in film, TV and online has given us a particular perspective on what AI can achieve in the classroom. Here are some areas where improvements in AI technology can be adopted in the virtual classroom sooner than you might think.

​Artificial Intelligence (AI) sounds like science-fiction. Our familiarity with self-aware machines in film, TV and online has given us a particular perspective on what AI can achieve in the classroom. Here are some areas where improvements in AI technology can be adopted in the virtual classroom sooner than you might think.

Continuing Professional Development helps individuals to regularly focus on how they can become a more competent and effective professional. Training and learning increase confidence and overall capability, and compliments career aspirations...

Try one of these great English quizzes...

Tangent Training’s language e-learning programs are put together with you in mind.  They match your proficiency and our trainers, and take into account your weaknesses as well as your strengths. 

Synchronous Live Online Training (SOLT™) methods form part of the vast E-learning zoo. In this article, Tangent Training CEO, Neil Rodrigues explores the advantages of SOLT™ for adult learners wishing to learn new languages.

I recently read an article on the importance of pronunciation in language learning and realised, sadly, that teachers are still talking about it 20 years after I first heard the discussion. The reasons may have changed from learning it to sound British or American to sounding ‘intelligible’ but the reasons are still solid.