Student autonomy, or self directed study, is something I try to encourage as much as possible when it comes to English language learning. Here is a look at some research, putting this into practice
Source: IATEFL 2016 Moving EAP students to metacognition and autonomy (Michelle Tamala)
Most English learners only think about American English and British English but that’s ignoring a huge amount of people who speak English as first language. Want to know more about the others?
There are several major dialects of English spoken internationally, each with its own unique characteristics. Some of the primary differences among these dialects include:
British English: This dialect is spoken in the United Kingdom and is characterized by its pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. One of the most notable features of British English is its use of Received Pronunciation (RP), which is a non-regional accent that is considered standard in the UK. British English also has a large number of words and phrases that are not used in other dialects, such as “lorry” for truck and “chemist” for pharmacy.
Australian English: This dialect is spoken in Australia and is heavily influenced by British English, but also has its own unique features. Australian English is known for its distinctive vowel sounds, such as the “flat” or “short” a sound in words like “dance” and “bath.” Australian English also has its own slang and colloquial terms, such as “fair dinkum” (genuine) and “she’ll be right” (it’ll be fine).
Canadian English: This dialect is spoken in Canada and is influenced by both British and American English. Canadian English is known for its use of “Canadian raising,” which refers to the raising of the diphthong in words like “about” and “house.” Canadian English also has its own distinct vocabulary, such as “parkade” for parking garage and “serviette” for napkin.
New Zealand English: This dialect is spoken in New Zealand and is heavily influenced by British English but also has its own unique features. New Zealand English is known for its use of “New Zealand rising,” which refers to the raising of the diphthong in words like “bath” and “dance” in a similar way to Australian English. New Zealand English also has its own slang and colloquial terms, such as “sweet as” (cool) and “chur” (thanks)
These are the major international dialects of English, but there are also many other dialects spoken around the world, each with their own unique characteristics, such as:
Singapore English: This dialect is spoken in Singapore and is heavily influenced by British English, but also has its own unique features. Singapore English is known for its use of “Singlish,” which is a mixture of English and various Chinese dialects, Malay and Tamil words and phrases. Singapore English also has its own distinct vocabulary, such as “kiasu” meaning “fear of losing” and “lah” which is used as a filler or an emphasis.
Indian English: This dialect is spoken in India and is heavily influenced by British English, but also has its own unique features. Indian English is known for its use of “Indian English,” which refers to the English spoken in India that incorporates many Indian words and phrases. Indian English also has its own distinct vocabulary, such as “chappal” for sandal and “chai” for tea. Indian English also has different pronunciations, and intonations compared to other dialects.
Filipino English: This dialect is spoken in the Philippines and is heavily influenced by American English, but also has its own unique features. Filipino English is known for its use of “Taglish,” which is a mixture of Tagalog and English. Filipino English also has its own distinct vocabulary, such as “jeepney” for public transport and “tricycle” for a type of three-wheeled vehicle. Filipino English also has different pronunciations, and intonations compared to other dialects.
It’s important to note that these dialects can vary greatly within the countries themselves, and that the above examples are generalizations. English is a global language and it’s spoken differently in every corner of the world, and each dialect has its own unique features that reflect the culture, history and influences of the region.
Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments
Source: The Primary Differences Among Major International English Dialects | Grammarly Blog
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, it is more important than ever for native English speakers to think about the international implications of their communication. Here are several reasons why this is important.
In conclusion, native English speakers need to think about the international implications of their communication in order to promote effective and respectful communication with people from different cultures. This requires an awareness of cultural differences, an understanding of the role of English as a global language, and a willingness to adapt communication styles and avoid stereotypes. By being mindful of these issues, native English speakers can help to build cultural bridges and promote understanding and cooperation between different cultures.
For further reading, check out below:
In her blogpost this week, Chia Suan Chong looks at more reasons why native English speakers need to think about the international implications of their communication.
Source: 5 more reasons why native speakers need to learn to speak English internationally | ETp
Over the past 5-10 years, the Central and Eastern European region (CEE) has been quietly building a reputation as a potential competitor to India in the tech outsourcing business. Now signs are pointing to the region being the next global tech start up hub.
For companies with a European base of operations, the advantages of outsourcing to CEE are clear. There is a low cost, (salaries are typically 50% lower than western Europe) highly educated, skilled workforce (Poland ranks above the U.S.A and Germany on the Pearson plc Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attainment of 39 developed nations in 14th place). Plus there are minimal cultural differences, combined with the fact they are located in the same or neighbouring time zones. Also, important if you are working in a data sensitive industry, for CEE countries in the E.U. the same data protection laws are applied. These ideal outsourcing conditions have led to companies such as Google, IBM, Samsung, HP, Microsoft, Nokia-Siemens, SAP, HSBC, Xerox, Fujitsu, Symantec, General Electric and many more making use of C.E.E. as an a near-shoring opportunity, with Poland in particular being seen as a outsourcing hub. Capgemini, which provides business and computer outsourcing for almost 100 corporations, including Coca-Cola and Volkswagen operates five centers in Poland.
There are some disadvantages, with most of the outsourcing companies of a much smaller scale than their south Asian rivals. This means they can’t compete directly in cost per capita, and if you have large scale, exact brief that doesn’t need too much supply-side innovation then India may still be the best location to outsource to. However, the CEE countries are able to turn this small size to their advantage, as they are much more able to do innovative, experimental projects with much less direct management than is needed for Indian projects.
So, with so much skilled labour (Romania has an estimated 64,000 I.T. specialists alone) and hundreds of thousands of tech aware, motivated, potential entrepreneurs graduating each year, this has been a period of real growth across the region. This on its own isn’t enough to create a viable tech eco-system, but the thing that is making the real difference is cash. After all, these areas have for a long time had talented, hardworking people. What has changed is huge amounts of capital invested in the area with billions of Euros being pumped into Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia etc to improve their infrastructure and also provide grants to promote entrepreneurship. But it’s not just government money, increased amounts of angel investors and VC’s are increasingly targeting CEE. Over the past few years several startup success stories have emerged across CEE. These include AVG and Avast from the Czech Republic, Nordeus from Serbia, Filestube from Poland, BitDefender and Soft32 from Romania, and Prezi, Indextools, LogMeIn, and Ustream from Hungary and they have attracted investors seeking scalable ideas. Many people believe that C.E.E. is 10-15 years behind western Europe for tech start ups and, now the money tap has been turned on, the region is primed for massive growth.
So what does this mean for US businesses? While the basic ingredients are there for growth, what is really needed for CEE to truly become a international tech hub is expertise in developing local success stories into global ones. The seed money is there and there are a lot of talented people working hard to grow their start ups but for every Skype there are thousands which can’t make the leap. This is of course the same with every tech hub, but with the right partnerships, and maybe a bit of US know-how, the sky is the limit for these CEE countries and the companies they work with.
Present Simple and Present Progressive (AKA Continuous) are two fundamentals of English Grammar. Tenses, or time forms, are the thing that causes the biggest groans in English classes (looking at you “Present Perfect”). Here I want to look at the above two in a bit more detail.
When learning a language, people often like to compare it to what they know from their mother tongue. It’s not such an effective learning method, but when the two match up, it can give a reassuring feeling. If you are a German speaker then you have an advantage over many other language speakers when it comes to learning English as there are thousands of these “cognates“, shared vocabulary.
Unfortunately when it comes to grammar it’s another story. For example, while German has Präsens, English has Present Simple and Present Progressive (sometimes called Present Continuous). If you were to translate “I go” it would be “ich gehe” but “I am going” would give the same result. But this doesn’t mean “I go” and “I am going” mean the same thing. So what is the difference?
It comes down to this: Is the action happening one time, either now or in the future or is it a more general action, something that’s repeated, or simply a fact? Let’s think of an example.
Present Simple: I teach English in Berlin
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(Subject) (Verb) (Object) (Circumstance)
(Circumstance just means the time or place where the action happened.)
This is a general situation; I go there everyday Monday to Friday and I’m not talking about any particular day.
Present simple with be: I am an English Teacher in Berlin.
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(Subject) (Be) (Object) (Circumstance)
Here we have no main verb so before the object the verb “be” must be included.
| Singular | Be | Plural | Be | ||
| 1st person | I | Am | 1st Person | We | Are |
| 2nd Person | You | Are | 2nd Person | You | Are |
| 3rd Person | He/She/It | Is | 3rd Person | They | Are |
Present Progressive: I am teaching at school tomorrow
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(Subject) (Be) (Verb + Ing) (Object) (Circumstance)
In this case, I’m talking about a specific occasion i.e. tomorrow. It doesn’t suggest that I do it regularly, it’s only interested in tomorrow. It’s a one time situation.
Present Simple for Future
In “If” sentences, we use the Present Simple to talk about the future. e.g. We’ll get wet if it rains;I’ll get a drink if I go to the kitchen. ‘Rain’ and ‘go’ are the verbs and the action is in the future but we still use the Present Simple.
Another way to use Present Simple for the future is when you talk about things like the cinema and train times, things which are planned. E.g. What time does the film start? It starts at 8pm.When does the train come? Hopefully soon!
Present Progressive for Future
When something is happening in the future and it is planned and decided that it is definitely going to happen then the Present Progressive is the right tense to use. Often people use “Will” but this should be for actions which are a bit more spontaneous.
You can also use it when the action is just about to happen. E.g. I’m going to bed. You can be sitting on the sofa and yawning when you say this, it’s still fine!
How to know it’s Present Simple
Do is an indicator that the sentence is Present Simple. Questions need auxiliary verbs in English for example “Do” and “Be”.
To make a question in Present Simple we use “Do” before the subject. E.g.
Do you work at an English language school?
If using a Question word (Who, What, Where, etc.) then Do is still before the subject.
What do you do? When do you work? Why do you think that?
Another sign is “How often” either in the question e.g. How often do you do sport or in the answer e.g. I walk past the gym every day.
We can look for time periods like everyday, on Mondays, every summer. We can also look for adverbs like often, always, sometimes which don’t really go with progressive tenses.
There are words which mean you do something by saying something. e.g. I promise, I apologise, I insist, I agree, I propose, I suggest etc. These words are for a one time action which is happening now, so logically it should be Present Progressive. But as you’ve probably realised by now, logic doesn’t get you too far with English.
How to know it’s Present Progressive
The way I think about it is “Is the action in progress?” It’s started but it hasn’t finished. I’m sitting in this chair. But if it’s something that’s still going on, even if it’s not happening now that still counts. E.g. I’m reading a book about English grammar at the moment. You can have a break from reading but it’s still there and you’ll (probably) go back to it.
Time periods like now, at the moment, this year, this summer, etc. are good indicators that it’s not a simple tense and therefore could be progressive. Can you think of any others?
If you want to talk about changes happening now, there are some words which usually go with Present Progressive. E.g. start, begin, rise, grow, become, fall, etc.
If you are talking about a temporary situation, you should be using the Present Progressive. I often hear “I am living in Berlin” from people who have spent their whole life here. This is not correct. If it’s a temporary situation like “I’m living in Berlin while I learn German” then that’s fine.
If someone plays computer games as normal hobby, then you would use Present Simple. If they are overdoing it you can say “You are always playing computer games!” This tells us that it’s just too much.
So what do you think? Is there a mistake that you know you sometimes make? Do you think English Grammar is difficult to learn? If you are looking for an English teacher in Berlin let me know!
“Routine is liberating, it makes you feel in control.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love
Language learning is not something that can be picked up and put down if you want to make progress. You have to be using whatever English knowledge you have regularly. Whether it is reading tweets and watching Youtube or reading short stories and listening to audiobooks, if you are exposing yourself to the language frequently, you will improve quicker.
Routine doesn’t have to be negative and it doesn’t have to be boring. If the act of doing “something” becomes routine, then you will find yourself learning more.
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. – John Powell
Learning a language needs more than staring at grammar tables and memorising lists of words in books. The most effective language learners are those who aren’t afraid to make mistakes.
In fact the fear of making mistakes often causes more communication problems than actual errors. Trust your gut feeling and leave your brain out of it!
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of the learning process. It is through our mistakes that we are able to identify areas in which we need to improve and gain a deeper understanding of the subject at hand.
One of the key values of mistakes in learning is that they provide feedback on our progress. When we make a mistake, we are given an opportunity to identify what went wrong and make the necessary adjustments to improve our performance. This process of trial and error allows us to gradually build upon our knowledge and skills, eventually leading to mastery of the subject.
Additionally, mistakes can also serve as a valuable source of motivation. When we encounter a challenge and make a mistake, it can be discouraging. However, this can also serve as a driving force to work harder and overcome the obstacle. This sense of determination and resilience is crucial in the learning process and can help us achieve our goals in the long run.
Moreover, making mistakes can also foster creativity and innovation. When we are not afraid to make mistakes, we are more willing to take risks and explore new ideas. This open-minded attitude can lead to breakthroughs and discoveries that would not have been possible otherwise.
It’s also important to note that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process and should be embraced, not feared. When we view mistakes as opportunities for growth rather than failures, we are more likely to approach learning with a positive attitude and a willingness to take on challenges.
In the classroom, it’s important for teachers to create a safe and supportive environment where students feel comfortable making mistakes. This can be done through constructive feedback and positive reinforcement, rather than punishment or criticism. By fostering a culture of growth and learning, students will be more likely to take risks and engage in active learning.
In conclusion, mistakes are a vital part of the learning process. They provide valuable feedback, serve as motivation, foster creativity, and should be embraced as opportunities for growth. By valuing mistakes and creating a supportive learning environment, we can empower ourselves and others to reach our full potential.
Improve your English skills 