Avoiding your native language while learning a new language

If you only speak in your target language and only hear your target language, it seems logical that your skill with it will improve more quickly than if you are trying to juggle your target language with your native tongue. But what of your family and friends from home – should you cut off contact and immerse yourself wholly in the new language to the detriment of your relationships? Of course this isn’t really practical or desirable! In fact, it can feel quite lonely to be surrounded by a new language and never to fee able to express yourself properly to anyone.

Your native language can be like an oasis in the desert, the place where you feel secure, able to express yourself as you intend, without having to worry about the ‘subjunctive mood’ or any other linguistic hurdles. However, the native language must be able to coexist with your target language and not interfere with learning.

Surround yourself with the target language to combat native influence

Therefore a good idea is to consciously try to surround yourself with your target language as much as possible with TV shows, newspapers, magazines, social interaction and so on – all much easier if you live in the country of your target language. Necessarily you will want to talk to those back home in your native tongue and this can not only be an emotional relief, it can also actually help your foreign language skills. This is because your native language can make you more aware of differences in grammar and expression. This realization, more strongly apparent when you are switching back and forth between the languages, can help the memory remain aware of the differences.

Native language can help your target language skills

Native language interaction need not be detrimental to target language practice if you always try to remain conscious of the language you are using and be aware of your native language as you speak it, using it to reaffirm particular grammar differences.

You don’t need to avoid contact with your native language entirely when learning a new language – as long as you remain conscious of it, you can even use the differences to your advantage.

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Barriers For Older People Learning New Languages

Language can be seen as one of the few constants in our lives. Wherever we go, whatever we learn, our native language is always there for us to enjoy by reading, going to the theatre, watching a film or conversing with friends and strangers. We can always rely on the good old language of our native home.

This is why it can seem daunting to learn a new language as we get older – it is a little like leaving home, moving away from what we know to a new and strange place where everything feels out of control. These issues can form a barrier to someone wanting to learn a new language and these differences can seem bigger and more daunting the longer we have been speaking our own native tongue.

Learning a New Language is an Adventure

This threat of the new can simply be a matter of perception. If we take these challenges and frustrations and treat them not as a threat but as a fun and interesting adventure, it can make the process of learning a language as stimulating as playing a sport. We may not be perfect, but the trying is enjoyable in itself: we might hit the ball into the net a few times, but we can still enjoy playing the game. After a bit of practice, we might even find ourselves serving an ace!

Access to materials need not be a problem either. There are lots of free language learning resources available online, in addition to books and podcasts, and there are plenty of universities and colleges offering language courses in the evenings. Using multimedia in the classroom is much more common now too for increased study options. There are many opportunities for older people to embrace a new language as they might embrace learning a new craft or sport.

Why Older People Can Make Better Language Students

‘Old dogs’ can in fact be stellar students. There are lots of ways in which older people can make better language learners than young people. When they do start taking lessons, older people often tend to have a greater motivation for learning a language. Indeed, a student at school is learning often to simply pass an exam, whereas an older adult will be learning for pleasure or for other reasons such as travel or for improved communication with a loved one.

Learning a new language is also great exercise for the mind, with proven evidence that learning languages can help to keep the brain limber in old age.

Don’t Be Afriad of Mistakes When Learning a Language

The most important thing for an older person to remember when learning a language is not to be afraid of making mistakes. This is how we learn. Young people are not so embarrassed about their mistakes but for an older, more accomplished person who is used to being respected in their profession, in total control of their life and with a solid set of abilities, suddenly to be making mistakes left, right and centre can feel shameful or inappropriate. However languages are all about communicating and making mistakes when learning is totally natural. In fact, don’t think of them as mistakes, they are just communication mishaps! Laugh at them and carry on.

It is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. In fact, the grace of age and experience can make an old dog even more subtly accomplished in their new trick than a young whippersnapper ever could be!

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1. What Motivates You to Learn English?

The post Is it Ever Too Late to Learn a New Language? appeared first on My English Language.

The call for immigrants to learn ‘proper’ English is commonly heard from natives wanting to help preserve their country’s linguistic heritage. But what is proper English? The language of English is rich in borrowed words and foreign phrases, and the language continues to grow and evolve thanks largely to the influx of foreign words brought over by immigrants.

The issue of not being able to communicate in English is a different issue altogether – and can be a problem for immigrant communities and for the host nation. But the rich additions to the language that a country inevitably acquires from an immigrant community can surely only have a positive effect on the native language.

This leads us to ask, with such a mingling of languages in the world today, can a ‘proper’ language ever really exist?

The Linguistic Heritage of English

Looking into the history of the English language, some of the oldest English words are the days of the week, named after the sun and the moon and some Germanic gods, with Saturday being named so after Saturn, a Roman god. Much of the English language comes from Latin but we also throw in a dose of French, Arabic, Spanish and Dutch and add to the mix a helping of Greek, Italian, Japanese and Gaelic to name but a few of the rich languages finding their way into the English language dictionary.

English uses words from around 350 other languages and becomes all the more exciting and descriptive because of it. It is not clear exactly what ‘proper’ English is as this is a language which evolves to embrace new phrases and words over the years.

Each year brings with it new English slang words, with different phrases becoming popular in different cities of the country. Some slang phrases are introduced from immigrant populations and, as with society in general, a country’s native language can be all the richer for its foreign influences.

With So Many Borrowed Words – What is Proper English?

Some people with English as their native tongue worry that proper English is being watered down or changed from how it ‘should’ be. But who can say what proper English should sound like? The truth is that English is a hybrid language with a rich heritage of borrowed words and foreign influences. The very words English natives can be worried about losing are often words derived from other languages. As people travel more widely and emigration becomes more and more common, the world’s languages will intermingle and inevitably produce more weird and wonderful linguistic changes, not only for English but for all languages.

The boot can also be well and truly on the other linguistic foot, as English itself has influenced many other languages: the French enjoy the ‘weekend’ as much we do and the Spanish enjoy a game of golf and a sandwich.

In fact, with so much borrowing going on and all these constant changes and new slang, can a ‘proper’ language ever exist at all?

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Around 500 people cited Cornish as their main language in the 2011 census. This was enough to incite Diglot Books to encourage Amazon to publish Matthew and the Wellington Boots as an e-book.

The Catalogue of Endangered Languages is an international collaborative project which aims to preserve languages. The bold move by Amazon to publish its minority language e-book comes amid a flurry of activity from small publishing houses keen to preserve old languages due to their importance to culture and heritage.

Alaskan publisher Hazy Island Books published a children’s book in the Alaskan Tlingit language, a language with only 400 native speakers, while independent UK publisher, Francis Boutle aims to help preserve a wide variety of endangered European languages, publishing books in minority languages, such as Manx.

Do you think publishing houses have a responsibility to help preserve languages? Is it a good idea to publish books in minority languages or do you think languages should be left to survive on their own and die out naturally?

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Bingo is one of the best games for EFL teaching because it is so famous and so easy to play. Bingo is a classic game that can be changed to meet any aims of the EFL teacher. The only necessary part to using bingo to teach English is that you create bingo cards with different words or numbers on them. The card can have as few or as many numbers or words as you like, depending on how long you want the game to last.

Using Bingo to Teach English

A classic 75 ball bingo game is played on a 5×5 grid, with one square blank in the middle. We can use this classic card layout as a starting point for our EFL bingo game. If you want to teach beginner students their numbers in English, we can use a game of traditional 75 ball bingo. Simply write a range of numbers from 1 to 75 on each of the students’ 5×5 bingo cards and prepare another set of number cards with the numbers 1 to 75 written on them. You will then put all the numbers from 1 to 75 in a hat and pick them out at random, read them aloud to the class and the students will mark them off on their bingo cards until they get a line of numbers, or create a pre-agreed ‘pattern’ on the bingo card, for example, a ‘coverall’ where all the numbers are covered, or a square where all the outside numbers are covered.

As an alternative EFL bingo game, we can use vocabulary relating to a theme, such as colours, professions, animals or sports. Depending on the theme you can of course cut down the number of words put into the hat (unless you can think of 75 colours!) For a fun alternative you could use drawings or pictures cut from a magazine instead of written words, which would make the student focus more on listening skills to hear the word and match the picture. The written word would, on the other hand, help the student recognise spellings.

A more complex EFL bingo game would have words relating to one individual theme. It would be particularly useful to select a theme the students are most interested in or a theme relevant to current events. For example, words relating to football could include: footballer, goalkeeper, attack, midfield, goalposts, goal net, supporter, fan, trophy, FA Cup, team, football league, sponsor, division, manager, coach, captain, etc.

Bingo Game Using English Antonyms

Another advanced bingo game still could involve the use of synonyms or antonyms. The bingo card would be filled with adjectives and the words you read out will be synonyms or antonyms of each of these words. For example, the card might contain the words: fat, tall, wide, white, poor, male, smooth, dark etc, while the words placed into the hat could include their antonyms: thin, short, narrow, black, rich, female, rough, light etc.

As you read out the words from the hat, students mark off their antonyms on their cards. The first student to mark off all their words shouts ‘bingo!’ – and wins a prize of your choice!

EFL Bingo is an easy fun game to play, relatively quick to prepare and a game that can be modified to suit your students’ ability level and the vocabulary point you are trying to teach. Just pick up a pen and paper and start preparing your next bingo game!

Before you launch into the world of EFL bingo, why not check out the game for yourself so you get the hang of the bingo lingo? It’s easy to play, you can even play bingo on your mobile, and you could even win some cash while you’re at it! Students will no doubt enjoy a real game of bingo to practise their numbers at a bingo hall, casino, an online bingo site, or with bingo games on their mobile. The game of bingo is everywhere – the perfect way to teach numbers to EFL students.

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1. EFL Vocabulary Lesson to Celebrate St Patrick’s Day

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It’s St Patrick’s Day tomorrow – and this is a great time to present some new vocabulary in the EFL classroom relating to Ireland and Irish folklore. One of the best and simplest ways to introduce new vocabulary is to put it into context in simple passages appropriate for language level of the students. We’ve prepared some vocabulary that will be useful for a St Patrick’s Day EFL lesson and crafted a list of names and answers that will perfect to turn into a worksheet for students. Now it’s up to you to devise a lesson to present the vocabulary! In any case, don’t forget to keep a crafty bottle of Guinness under the desk for a real authentic taste of Dublin during your St Patrick’s Day EFL lesson!

St Patrick’s Day Vocabulary

St Patrick’s Day is a great time for celebration and ideal for introducing new vocabulary. Once the new words have been presented the students can practise them in a variety of ways, with gap fill sheets always a popular idea. We’re gathered together a list of descriptions and answers which can be used as new vocabulary for students.

The names and descriptions can then be mixed up to turn them into a simple worksheet for your students for part of your St Patrick’s Day EFL lesson:

1) Shamrock            a) Clover

2) Leprechaun          b) Irish fairy

3) St Patrick             c) Patron Saint of Ireland

4) Irish                      d) People from Ireland

5) Island                   e) A country surrounded by water

6) Jig                         f) An energetic dance

7) Good luck             g) You say this to wish someone good fortune

Dublin                   h) Capital city of Ireland

9) 17th March           i) St Patrick’s Day

10) Green                 j) Colour associated with Ireland

11) Guinness           k) Famous Irish drink

12) Green, white and orange      l) The colours on the Irish flag

13) Paddy                 m) Affectionate nickname for an Irish person

14) Shoemaker         n) Profession of the leprechauns according to Irish folklore

15) Pot of gold          o) You might find this at the end of a rainbow

16) Four leafed clover   p) Symbol of good luck

Mix and Match Exercise for St Patrick’s Day EFL Lesson

After the ideas, myths and facts have been presented in your Irish themed EFL lesson, these words and descriptions can be used as an exercise. Just mix up the numbers and letters to create a fun challenge. The students can fill in the sheet and match up the names and their descriptions. This can also be used for a lesson filler at the end of the class or as a fun homework exercise.

Now we just need to devise a suitable EFL lesson to present these words and ideas!

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2. EFL Lesson Ideas for Chinese New Year
3. Christmas Vocabulary for EFL Lessons

The post EFL Vocabulary Lesson to Celebrate St Patrick’s Day appeared first on My English Language.

Are you intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated when it comes to language learning? Everyone studying English has their own reason for learning the language. Maybe it is for work, to pass an exam, to communicate more easily when travelling: there are many possible reasons for motivation. Some reasons will help you reach your goal standard more quickly than others and some could keep you at a level of fluency forever. Other reasons for motivation will have you forgetting what you learnt a few months previously. So let’s pinpoint your motivation and use that to improve your language learning.

Extrinsic Motivation to Learn a Language

We all learn languages for different reasons. One of the most popular reasons when we are children is to pass exams – and we often don’t think further than this. This is an extrinsic motivation, meaning in this case the motivation for learning a language is from an outside influence. We are learning English simply to pass an exam and, after this short term goal is achieved, we will have no further use for the language. Other extrinsic motivations include learning to please someone else or to get a pay rise. In these instances, we are only learning to get a reaction from someone else or for more money, not for any reason related to the self.

It is important to keep motivated when learning a language and extrinsic motivation is not a lasting form of motivation. EFL students who are only extrinsically motivated will find it very hard to reach a stage of fluency because the drive is simply not there. Similarly, it is very difficult to teach students who are only extrinsically motivated as they will not be as likely to put much effort into the class.

Intrinsic Motivation to Learn a Language

Intrinsically motivated students on the other hand are highly motivated for reasons beyond immediate rewards. Intrinsic motivation means a student wants to learn for reasons of enjoyment and personal fulfillment. An intrinsically motivated EFL student is likely to put more effort into learning the language as they want to learn for themselves, not simply to pass an exam.

Identifying EFL Student Motivation

Teachers need to identify students’ motivation in order to construct an effective lesson to meet their learning goals – performing a needs analysis will be crucial here. Often a good way to encourage students to find a stronger intrinsic motivation to learn English is to make the lessons fun. Using humour in EFL lessons is a great way to turn an extrinsically motivated student into a student who actually enjoys learning because the language is fun.

Interestingly, some studies have shown that providing extrinsic rewards for an extrinsically motivated activity actually results in demotivation for the student. However it is often difficult to determine if a motivation is entirely extrinsic or intrinsic in the first place and it can often seem a combination of both. For example, the desire to learn English in order to integrate better into the community – this seems to be driven by both types of motivation. Integration is related strongly to the sense of self, but it is also a motivation outside of the self, related to other people.

Whatever your reasons for learning English, it is important to identify them so that you can find the learning tools and study techniques best suited to your own goals. If you want to integrate into a community, it will be a great help to talk to natives; if you want to pass an exam, it will be useful to focus more on formal textbook learning, using the exam syllabus as a guide.

So, teachers: how do you help keep students motivated? And students: what motivates you to learn English?

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The post What Motivates You to Learn English? appeared first on My English Language.

The President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, last week called for English to become the official language of the European Union. He insisted that, as English is the most commonly shared language across the European community, more effort should be put into teaching English as a second language in order to improve communications across the continent and bring together a united Europe. Although greeted with approval by many, there has been opposition to President Gauck’s proposals, most notably from French diplomats, who feel their linguistic heritage is under threat. 

Mr Gauck’s appeal for a common language was also combined with a request to the UK to stay in the EU. He believes that the UK saved Europe during the Second World War and that the European community needs the UK’s ‘traditions, pragmatism and courage’ if it is to survive.

Mr Gauck said: “One of the main problems we have in building a more integrated European community is the inadequate communication within Europe” and that English as the common language would not cause any loss to any nation, instead it would bring us all closer together. He explained: “I am convinced that feeling at home in one’s native language and its magic, and being able to speak enough English to get by in all situations and at all ages, can exist alongside each other in Europe.”

Mr Gauck continued: “A common language would make it easier to realise my wish for Europe’s future — a European agora, a common forum for discussion to enable us to live together in a democratic order.”

French was central to communication in the early days of the European Economic Community and it still stands alongside English as the benchmark languages for all documentation and translation in the EU. However, with the arrival of more Eastern European countries into the EU, where French is less commonly spoken, English has become much more important than French to overall communication within modern Europe.

With this in mind, President Gauck also called for a common European television channel to be broadcast in English to keep all countries up to date on happenings across the continent.

The English language European television channel would include current debate affecting all European communities, including employment issues, environmental news, political concerns and family issues.  Mr Gauck explained it would be “a multichannel, linked to the Internet for at least 27 states, for the young and old, for onliners and offliners, for pro-Europeans and Eurosceptics”, uniting and informing everyone about European issues and maintaining open communication channels between all EU member states.

What do you think about these ideas for a more strongly united Europe? Do you think English should become the official language of the EU? Can this harm the languages of individual countries, or will it only help to harmonise Europe and aid communication?

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The post German President Calls For English To Become the Official Language of Europe appeared first on My English Language.

Words and Phrases related to Movies for EFL Lessons

There are lots of film-related words and phrases that are great for EFL students to know in order to improve their knowledge of collocations and enable them to understand all the movie-talk. These are great to use in an EFL vocabulary lesson. So here are a few useful phrases and words for film-goers:

To rave about an actor’s performance’ means to praise it

A highly popular film is called a blockbuster

An unpopular film is called a flop

The box office used to be where cinema goers went to buy their tickets. Today it is more commonly used to refer to the film ticket sales

A film with no sound track is called a silent movie

A movie buff is someone who knows a lot about films

To shoot a film means to make a film

An understudy is an actor who studies a role as a potential replacement for the main actor

The names that appear at the end of the film, giving details of the people involved in the making of the film, are the credits

If a film is shot on location it means it is made in a real place, not in a studio

The objects used in a film scene are called props

The adverts for films shown before the main film at a cinema are called trailers and sometimes coming attractions

If a character in a film is involved in a physically violent or dangerous scene, usually a stuntman is used instead of the actor

If a film is running slower than normal speed it is using slow motion

The actors who are not main characters in a film, but just appear in the background, usually in non-speaking roles, are called extras.

If a voice of the narrator is heard in the film this is called a voice-over

A film made with computer graphics is called a digitally animated film

If a film is translated into another language using voice-overs the film is dubbed

A film that has a translation using words along the bottom of the screen is using subtitles

Film genres:

Thriller, drama, horror, comedy, western, musical, cartoon, animated, documentary, gangster, detective, science fiction, war, psychological, romance, action, biography, history, film noir, black comedy, epic, adventure, family, fantasy

EFL Lesson Ideas using Movie Vocabulary

There is so much vocabulary in the movie world that there is plenty for a number of EFL lessons. The EFL movie vocabulary can be used for all kinds of different lessons, with one of the best using comprehension exercises to test the new vocabulary. Students can place the new words into sentences of their own, writing about their experiences when working on an imaginary film set, as an actor, director or extra.

For advanced EFL students they could watch a short film or a couple of scenes from a film and then answer comprehension questions about it afterwards. This is a great exercise for EFL listening skills.

Have fun with film vocabulary in the EFL classoom – and don’t miss the Oscars tomorrow night!

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We have a winner! Congratulations to Alejandro “Alex” Montesinos from Spain who guessed correctly that there were 2783 Matesers in the jar! Alex has won a language holiday to Malta, including 2 weeks of English tuition at Maltalingua language school.

Maltalingua Language School is giving away a holiday to Malta including two weeks of free English language tuition! Enter the Great Chocolate Malteser competition right here for your chance to head to sunny Malta for two weeks of sun, sea and sand – and improve your English language skills at the same time!

The new competition from Maltalingua will see one lucky EFL student spending 2 weeks at the internationally renowned Maltalingua language school in Malta. The school is situated in the stunning St Julian’s Bay and offers students the best in language learning facilities and leisure activities, including free WiFi, lending library with books and DVDs, PC room, kitchen, chill-out room and a large roof terrace with swimming pool.

The holiday prize includes:

• A two week English language course
• All course material, level test and course certificate
• 14 nights’ accommodation in a self-catering school apartment
• Free internet access in the school and apartment
• Student discount card and welcome pack
• Welcome party including snacks and refreshments
• Return airport collection
• A fun, friendly and international school atmosphere

In addition to 2 weeks of top English language tuition, the competition winner will be able to enjoy all the history, culture, delicious food, top beaches, sunny weather, shopping and exciting nightlife of the stunning island of Malta!

Maltalingua ran a similar competition last year with a ‘spot the difference’ picture competition. This time, you need to guess how many Maltesers are in Maltalingua’s jar! To enter the competition, just follow the link to the Maltalingua website and guess how many Maltesers are contained in the jar in the picture. Post your answer at the bottom of the page in the comments section – and if you guess the right number of Maltesers, you will win this dream EFL holiday!

http://www.maltalingua.com/competition/maltesers/

Enter Maltalingua’s Great Chocolate Malteser competition now for your chance to win!

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1. Win a Language Holiday to Malta
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