Blog - Teaching tips

Elevate Your German with Slang Words and Phrases

17 November 2020

Mastering the art of casual conversation is often the key ingredient that transforms your language skills from functional to fulfilling, helping you to develop and maintain long-lasting relationships across the language barrier.

In this article, we look at some conversational slang words and phrases that could add an extra dimension to your German language learning, helping you to connect more personally with your German friends and colleagues.

Going to Timbuktu? Need to Learn an Obscure Language? No Problem!

10 November 2020

When you want to learn a language, you generally have a lot of options to choose from. But where do you turn if you want to learn one of the rarer languages from the 7,000+ languages in the world?

The short answer is: turn to us! We provide language training in more than 70 languages, so if you have a particular and unusual request then we can help you find a solution. In this article, we share a case study of one such unusual request… where a student wanted to learn the ideal language for a move to Timbuktu.

Language Acquisition: How Many Words Do You Need?

15 September 2020

Learning a second language is quite a different challenge to learning your native language. When you are gradually developing your native language skills, you are also learning a myriad of other things – but learning a second language as an adult is a completely different experience because you are translating what you already know into a new way of communicating and understanding.

In this article, we consider just how far you need to take this process by asking the question: How many words do you need to learn to ‘get by’ in a language?

Boost Your Vocabulary to Fast-track Your Language Learning

14 July 2020

Getting to grips with a host of unknown words is a part of the language-learning journey, but there are plenty of ways to improve your vocabulary without too much stress and struggle. This article introduces some effective vocabulary-building techniques that you can use to fast-track your language learning experience.

Language Training – 5 Top Teaching Tips for Error Correction

02 April 2019

As James Joyce once said, “a man’s mistakes are his portals of discovery”. It is a fact that we learn from our mistakes, it should therefore follow that mistakes take a significant role in the language learning classroom. Every language trainer has a preferred method of error correction, but it’s always good to mix things up and try something new – take a look at my recommendations.

Pronunciation and Accent Reduction – Teaching Tips

26 February 2019

Pronunciation is a notoriously tricky part of language teaching and learning no matter how experienced a trainer is. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a rookie right out of a teaching qualification, tackling pronunciation can be a daunting and overwhelming task. However, once you take the leap, you’ll see that ‘little and often’ really does make a difference when it comes to pronunciation.