One basic skill you need when you learn a language is to be able to spell your name, place of birth, etc. Even intermediate level students sometimes have a problem with that and end up with misspelled information on official papers or mail that never reaches them because they spelled their address wrong. This is […]
Practical Tips and Resources to Prepare and Deliver Your Presentations
(This is an update of an older article.) There are countless places where you can find advice on how to make presentations look nice, appealing, convincing, and so forth. Though these are all valid concerns, my experience with students and colleagues is that they also often simply need help in the practicalities of using their […]
English Idioms 1
I am teaching a course on English vocabulary again at the Université Saint-Louis (Marie Haps). The first part of the course focuses on English Idioms. These are practice exercises for my students but anybody can have a shot at them. The course notes are not made public. Resources and Links Antidode: bilingual corrector, dictionaries, etc. […]
How I Learn Vocabulary
On eating eggs and learning new words “How do you like them eggs? Soft boiled? Omelet? Scrambled? Poached? Sunny Side up? Over easy? Benedict?” To the bemusement (or embarrassment?) of my family, for years I would dread being asked how I wanted my eggs cooked at the Waffle House. Tired of gambling with my eggs, […]
How I Teach the English “th”
The English “th,” the dread of so many ESL and EFL learners. Tricky to learn and to teach as it means pronouncing sounds unused in many languages. Note: If you are just interested in learning how to pronounce the English “th” and not in the technical aspects developed at some length here, you can skip […]
English Idioms 3
This is the third practice page for the English Idioms course I am teaching at the Université Saint-Louis (Marie Haps). These exercises are designed to complement and practice the material learned in Units 19 and following (with some material from units 1–18 for practice purposes) of the course and should be fine for anyone with […]
English 5 – CVO Tervuren 2021
English 5 CVO Tervuren 2021 We use the book Speak Out 2nd Edition – Intermediate. Holidays Schedule Spring break – 15/02 – 19/02/21 Easter holiday – 05/04 – 16/04/21 Last class – 09/06/21 Summer holiday 1/07 – 31/08/21 Feb. 1, 2021 No class. Homework was sent to replace the session. Don’t forget to do the […]
English Idioms 2
I am currently (Fall 2020) teaching a Bachelor 2 course on English Idioms at the Université Saint-Louis (Marie Haps). These exercises are designed to complement and practice the material learned in Units 11–15 (with a few ones from Units 1–10) of the course and should be fine for anyone with a B1 English level. The […]
Listening to English Online
(This is a revised version of an older post) At some point when you learn English (or any other language), it is important to listen to “real English,” not just to small pieces or excerpts from language textbooks and manuals, even if you do not understand everything. There are many easy ways today to listen […]
How to Improve your English
How do you keep on learning a language during the lockdown? How do you improve your English when you can’t go to classes, conversation tables, private lessons? More generally, how do you get your language skills up by yourself? Though some of this information might be useful for a beginner, the point here is to […]