If you’re like many English learners, you want to learn English faster. Usually, my stance is “enjoy the process, eager student”, BUT there are several ways that you can speed up your learning. And these ‘tricks’ are not rocket science. They will not take hours for you to use, BUT they will have a nice …
When you’re learning English it’s easy to get distracted by the huge amount of information available on the internet. There’s so much information that it can actually be quite difficult to figure out what’s true and what’s a myth. A myth is something that people believe is true, but really it isn’t. For example, one …
Five Myths That Will Damage Your English Learning Read More »
Usually students don’t ask how to write effective English paragraphs. That’s because it’s usually too late when they realise they need help writing a good paragraph (such as 1am the night before a deadline). The truth is we don’t often realise we need help until it’s too late. We don’t look for the prevention, we …
Moving to another country to study is a stressful experience even for the most prepared students. One of the reasons for this is conversations with native English speakers. I recently did some research on international students at a university in the UK. I wanted to find out what they were really worried about when they …
Put your hand up if listening tests and lectures stress you out. [I see you!] You’re not alone, trust me. The problem is: listening to natural speech is hard. Especially if it’s a lecture or a test… Let’s quickly illustrate this point with an example: In 2011, John Field did a study on international students …
Improve Your English Listening Skills In 10 Minutes Read More »
Anyone who has written or is writing a dissertation will agree with me when I say: Dissertations are not easy. Are they fun? Possibly. Are they easy? No, definitely not. But what if dissertations could be easier? Writing a dissertation still wouldn’t be really easy… but it would definitely be easier. Well, in today’s post, I’m …
Using Journal Articles to Make Your Dissertation (and Your Life) Easier Read More »
Thesis statements are pretty important, but they cause students a whole lot of trouble. You can find them in the introduction of an essay. They’re usually only one sentence and they contain two important pieces of information: The main topic of the assignment Your stance (also called your view or opinion) on the topic. Without …
What if you could learn English and have fun without studying textbooks? That would be great right? I mean, I technically learnt English (along with around 400 million other people) without consciously studying it. There is a time and a place for grammar, vocabulary and writing books, but you shouldn’t use them all of the …
Five Fun Ways to Learn English Without Opening a Textbook Read More »
You keep seeing Academic English and EAP, right? I didn’t see the word ‘academic’ until I became a university student. Fast-forward a few years later when I became a lecturer, and then suddenly everything was academic. I didn’t know much about Academic English when I was an undergraduate student. I never knew how to write academically when …
