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Collins ELT

Work on Your Idioms: digging below the surface

by Harper Collins

Work on Your Idioms: digging below the surface

Idioms can be a really fun part of language learning with their colourful imagery and quirky cultural connections. However, they can also be a real challenge for learners. There are such a variety of idioms in English and many are impossible to decode on first meeting.

 

Posted in Confidence in English, ELT, English Grammar, English Language Teaching, General English, Idioms, Language Learning, Work on Your

Work on Your Phrasal Verbs: focusing on contemporary usage

by Harper Collins

Work on Your Phrasal Verbs: focusing on contemporary usage

Multi-word chunks of language, such as idioms and phrasal verbs, make up a large proportion of any written or spoken text, so they’re really key fo...
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English at work, English Grammar, English Language Teaching, Language Learning, Phrasal Verbs, Work on Your

Independent Learning - More than meets the eye

by Harper Collins

Independent Learning - More than meets the eye

There is no doubt that independent learning is a tricky topic for EFL teachers. This approach of independent learning, where students take control of their own work and organise and manage their studies, is promoted widely in UK universities as a way to enable students to unlock valuable skills such as self-awareness, self-motivation, and decision-making abilities. Skills which are undoubtedly valued in the workplace, especially in high-level jobs where autonomy, evaluation and quick incisive decision-making are great assets. 
Posted in Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Speaking

Collins Peapod Readers: Engaging young learners in online learning using readers

by Harper Collins

Collins Peapod Readers: Engaging young learners in online learning using readers

Recently, I‘ve been looking at ways to support young learner engagement through the use of readers online. Readers can help you to reach out, motivate, connect with and stimulate your young learners and help them continue on their English language learning journeys. They can provide a fun, energetic and multi-skilled learning environment. And there are many free software tools out there that can help.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Peapod Readers, Phrasal Verbs, Reading

Collins Peapod Readers: Off to a budding start with Cambridge English Qualifications

by Harper Collins

Collins Peapod Readers: Off to a budding start with Cambridge English Qualifications

It seems to me that we often fall into the trap of viewing readers as an added extra in English language teaching, when in fact readers can offer so much more and be an integral part of a young learner’s English learning journey. Readers make learning English a positive and fun experience. Readers anchor vocabulary and language in varied and meaningful contexts. They support all of the classroom and coursework learning, and extend that learning by presenting the vocabulary and language in multiple scenarios.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Peapod Readers, Reading

A New Turn of Phrase

by Harper Collins

A New Turn of Phrase

When we think of language change, it tends to be new coinages that spring to mind (rewilding, deepfake, zoombombing), but in fact, a lot of new language is created by putting existing words together in new combinations, that’s especially true of phrasal verbs and idioms.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, Grammar, Idioms, Language Learning

COBUILD English Usage 4th Edition: Changes in vocabulary and grammar

by Harper Collins

COBUILD English Usage 4th Edition: Changes in vocabulary and grammar

In the second of our blog posts about the new edition of COBUILD English Usage, Penny Hands details some of the findings that came out of the team’s research into the ways in which new words and uses are created.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning

COBUILD English Usage 4th Edition: updating the examples

by Harper Collins

COBUILD English Usage 4th Edition: updating the examples

In the first of our blog posts about the new edition of COBUILD English Usage, Penny Hands details some of the changes she made to the examples to ensure they reflect changes in society, and ponders on how future-proof these changes are likely to be.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning

Where to start when softening your English accent

by Harper Collins

Where to start when softening your English accent

Changing an accent is not an overnight task and many people try and fail because they don’t know the best way to approach accent modification and become overwhelmed. The trouble is we talk all the time without even thinking about it, so when we try and think ‘how do I say that?’ we can’t answer.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Speaking, Vocabulary, Work on Your

Tips on how to use Collins Work on Your Accent in the classroom

by Harper Collins

Tips on how to use Collins Work on Your Accent in the classroom

Accents are muscular habits. As such, learning a new accent is like learning a gymnastic move, and any teacher should aim to balance the teaching need for muscular repetition with the learner’s need to feel they are making progress.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Vocabulary, Work on Your

Problematic Sounds For Many Non-native Speakers

by Harper Collins

Problematic Sounds For Many Non-native Speakers

One of the most challenging sounds for non-native speakers of English is actually the most common sound in the English language! That sound is The Schwa. The schwa is a very subtle, quiet sound – you may barely have noticed it, but without it, you can never hope to capture the rhythm of English. Any written vowel can be replaced by the schwa if it’s in an unstressed syllable.
Posted in COBUILD, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Speaking, Vocabulary, Work on Your

COBUILD: The Evolving Corpus – How corpus use has changed over the years

by Harper Collins

COBUILD: The Evolving Corpus – How corpus use has changed over the years

Size matters when it comes to corpora. At 220 million words of text, the corpus used to create the second edition of the COBUILD dictionary in 1995 was over ten times the size of the one used for the first edition, and 220 times bigger than the first electronic corpora developed in the 1960s and early 1970s. Yet it was tiny compared to those we use today, some of which amount to billions, not millions of words.
Posted in COBUILD, COBUILD Corpus, Confidence in English, ELT, English Language Teaching, General English, Language Learning, Vocabulary