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 …
Isn’t the internet awesome? I remember back when I was a kid and we got our first family computer (in 1995) that came with some free information CDs. I absolutely loved all of them: Dangerous Creatures, Musical Instruments, Ancient Lands and Encarta 95. I spent hours and hours just reading and learning from those CDs. …
Five English Learning Myths That Are Holding You Back Read More »
Can you work out what this article is going to talk about? Any ideas…? That’s right: phrasal verbs, the popular language item which confuses many English learners. Why are phrasal verbs confusing? Well, take a look at the question above – do you understand what “work out” means? It could mean “to exercise”, “to end …
Do you dream of speaking English like it was your first language? Do you ever wish you could write sentences which just seem natural and complex? Do you want to avoid using strange expressions like ‘snow cold’? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to make all of these come true!? Well there …
Having a good Academic English vocabulary is a significant part of studying at university. If you have a large Academic English vocabulary, you’ll write better essays, give better presentations and understand more of your lectures. Reading academic articles will be easier, too! Woohoo! To build a large Academic English vocabulary you’ll need to learn words from …
14 Effective Academic English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Read More »
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 …
Thing is one of the most overused words in Academic English. You’ve probably written something like: “This essay will discuss several possible things” OR “One thing which affected the results one…” Right? The reason why thing is used so much, is because it’s a beautifully versatile word which can be used in so many situations. It’s also really lazy. …
