Langues et plus - Languages and more
English courses & activities for children
Posts about learning English and in general about the English language.
Updated in February 2020. What if there is a way to meet new people, take part in engaging conversations AND improve your foreign language skills? Would you like to try out “an original concept: read books and practice English, while chatting about it with interesting people from various parts of the world.”? This is what … Read more
For a long time now, listening to popular songs and watching TV shows in English has been a proven method to expand learners’ vocabulary Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a famous reindeer that first appeared in 1939 in the coloring book that was written by an American, Robert L. May, and published by the Chicago-based … Read more
October is time for magic. Colourful leaves, roasted chestnuts, long, rainy nights and of course – Halloween! I must admit that I’ve felt a bit of that magic since I first started teaching English to children online through our e-learning platform and Virtual Classroom. Skype lessons for young children From the first day on, I’ve been … Read more
Quite true, Richard Richard Branson explains it very well in his book Like a Virgin – Secrets they won’t teach you at business school when explaining a potential misunderstanding with an American music industry executive: “It came down to our differing interpretation of the word ‘quite’. In British usage, if someone says, ‘I think you … Read more
Building blocks of life Words are the building blocks of life. We become the very person we are today based on words: those that we have heard, read and believed about ourselves. In an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) context, book reading is often associated with advanced … Read more
Bake, sing and play We hope you are enjoying the holiday season! While you are baking cookies with your kids, you can sing some traditional English songs and rhymes. Rhythm and repetition in songs helps children learn new words faster. “Pat-a-cake” is one of the oldest rhymes in the English language. In place of the … Read more
Class profile A mix of bilingual/trilingual young learners, some of whom are “traditional” EFL students, while others have been exposed to English-speaking environments through school, family, etc. Age range: 7 to 11. Goals Review unit vocabulary and challenge two learners who are using more advanced resources. Conduct group activities notwithstanding age differences. How we … Read more
Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Geneva, Switzerland Switzerland distinguishes itself from many countries with its four national languages (French, German, Italian, and Romanche), and dare I say, tongue-in-cheek, an unofficial fifth one (!!) if we add English to the equation. Nearly two-thirds are speakers of German, and the remaining third is split … Read more
En anglais uniquement: We had some wonderful “Eureka” moments last week with 8 to 11 year old EFL (English as a foreign language) students while reviewing letters and vocabulary with a spelling game. The word dolphin came up – quite a tricky word for French speakers. On the one hand, the ph is maintained, but the French … Read more
Here are a few expressions in French and English using do and make. These are talking flashcards, so do check the volume of your device! Flashcards: Jeux:
The pointers of a clock or watch are called “hands”: the second hand, the minute hand and the hour hand. Note that there is no final “s” to “second, minute, hour”. In French, hands turn into needles → les aiguilles d’une montre ou d’une horloge. L’aiguille des secondes, des minutes et des heures. The French … Read more
(in English only) CLOSE & CLOSE: Homographs – not homophones… Homographs are words with the same spelling but with different meanings AND pronunciation. This term has Greek roots: homo means the same, while graph means writing. Many of you probably learned read (present tense-bare infinitive) and read (past tense form) early on in your English … Read more
Falloir : Il faut – il me faut Il faut – il me faut are from the verb falloir and are used exclusively in the third-person form, which is impersonal, as explained in this previous post. Add a me, te, lui, nous, vous or leur to define WHO is in need: So, how is this different … Read more
I miss you, or do you miss me? Get ready for some brain juggling on the verb to miss! Can you spot the difference in sentence construction between: Tu me manques and I miss you? Miss and manquer: a question of personal pronouns Indeed, in English “I” does the missing, while in French, “you” are … Read more