To help shed some light on the topic of English word stress rules, I recently interviewed English pronunciation coach Jennie Reed. Jennie is an experienced English teacher from southern England.  Before introducing Jennie, I will briefly introduce the topic of English word stress. After sharing a short biography of Jennie, I will share the interview. Then, I will go into some of the rules of English word stress, ably assisted by some excellent articles and books I’ve read. I shall round things off with one of Jennie’s exercises on word stress, followed by some closing thoughts.  &nb ..read more

The market of online English language teaching is undoubtedly competitive.  There are countless online language learning marketplaces, such as italki and Preply, to find a tutor, not to mention popular classified ad portals where tutors advertise their services. Therefore, it’s a tough task to choose a good online English tutor that will put their heart and soul into helping you reach your goals.  Check out this 5-step guide on how to find the best online English language tutor for you straight off the bat.  1. Establish your goals first. Do your objectives match a teacher’s sk ..read more

Many moons ago, I wrote a post on the tenses and aspects I believe English language learners should devote the most attention to. One of the four tense aspects I nominated was the present perfect continuous. With the importance of the present perfect progressive in mind, I’d like to share three present perfect continuous exercises which teachers can easily implement in the classroom. These exercises will enable students to fully internalise the present perfect continuous tense through speaking and interaction.  Present Perfect Continuous Exercises to use with groups of students in the c ..read more

One of the biggest dilemmas I’ve faced over the past ten years as an online English language teacher is coming up with suitable first online English lesson ideas to make sure that I engage and retain new adult students who’ve got in touch with me. However, through a process of trial and error, I’ve been able to establish a plan for the first online lesson I have with newcomers.  The following ideas I shall share are suitable for most levels of English language proficiency, apart from perhaps beginner level. It's expected that the lesson will last 45 minutes: 1. Gently share and visually ..read more

My last post here on English Coach Online explored the defining features of gerunds and to-infinitives and the differences between them. In that post, I promised to examine the like to or like ing dichotomy in the following post. Therefore, I shall now examine the verb like when it is followed by the infinitive and the gerund. Like to or Like ing? - Background  Before I go into the finer nuances of the like to or like ing debate, it’s worth noting that deciding on whether to use a to-infinitive or gerund after like goes a little deeper than whether one is a Brit and American. Traditiona ..read more

This post tackles the very thorny issue of choosing between gerunds and to-infinitives. Although there are some rules which govern the use of gerunds and to-infinitives, only a great deal of practice and exposure to English may enable the learner to retrieve the right form when they are the object of a sentence (i.e. follow a main verb). Before I explore the differences between gerunds and to-infinitives, I will first of all define what they are. What is a Gerund? Gerunds comprise the base form of a verb (bare infinitive) followed by -ing. The most defining feature of gerunds is that they be ..read more

I currently teach around 15 students online. I’ve been teaching a small number of them for over five years. Even though every freelancer around the world seems to have raised their rates, I’ve decided against increasing my private lesson prices for already enrolled students.  The state of play with my prices When I started teaching English in Poland in 2006, my rate for private conversation classes was 60 PLN per clock hour. Very good money in those days. This became 65 PLN in around 2012 when I taught students face-to-face in Lódź, Poland. When I reverted back to teaching mostly Polish ..read more

The web is full of generic blog posts advising English language learners how to choose the right tense when writing. However, this post offers some innovative techniques regarding how to choose the correct tense when speaking English. You got it. Tips to retrieve the right tense when you only have a split second to apply the correct tense. Don’t learn all the tenses under the sun I once wrote a piece urging English language learners to strip down the grammatical syllabus and focus only on those tenses which proficient users of English tend to use in conversation.  So, don’t fret when yo ..read more

Frankly, it’s about time I wrote a piece about how to improve listening skills in English.  Over the past few years, I’ve rather focused on methods for learners to become more competent speakers of English.  Hence, it’s about time I stepped out of my comfort zone. After all, I have plenty of things to get off my chest when it comes to the best ways to hone listening skills. Characteristics of Good Second Language Listeners First of all, it’s important to nominate which traits I believe good listeners in a second language (L2) possess. A good place to start would be this list of ‘Ch ..read more

The Keyword Method is a mnemonic device designed to facilitate students’ learning of foreign vocabulary.  In this post, I explore the early origins of the keyword mnemonic method. Then, I explain what a keyword is. Next, I discuss how the keyword approach can be applied to acquire second language vocabulary. Finally, I consider the effectiveness and possible drawbacks of the keyword technique.  Defining mnemonic and “mnemonic devices” The word mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word μνημονικός (mnēmonikos), meaning of memory or relating to memory.  There is also a cl ..read more