Books and Resources For Teaching and Learning English

 I was in an online Toastmasters International meeting on Zoom, talking about learning the English Language. 

My project was a question and answer session.

One of the audience asked me

1 How do I improve my English?

For American English, watch Friends with subtitles, several times, until you know the lines by heart (meaning you can remember the lines and repeat them or guess them after hearing the start of each sentence). 

For British English watch traditional British films such as

The Ladykillers, a black comedy, starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.

My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn.

a) Listen to the BBC. 

b) Listen to recordings of speeches such as the Christmas message, by the British royals. In time order, Queen Elizabeth II, the late (i.e deceased) mother of King Charles III, and speeches by King Charles III.

c) Listen to the news on the BBC.

b) Read English newspapers such as The Times and The Sunday Times. Read technical and scientific journals on subjects which interest you.

2 Where can I find out about alliteration, similes and metaphors? 

I have written a book on alliteration. It is humorous, and alphabetical. From book titles such as Famous Five, and film stars such as Marilyn Monroe, from awesome angels, to zany zebras.

For similes and metaphors, see Rhetoric in Wikipedia.

3 Where can I find idioms? 

Books. Numerous books on Amazon, in big bookshops such as Foyles where you can pick one the right price, and with large enough print for you to read easily without getting tired. 

Online. 

4 Why is my 10-year-old son at school having to learn words which he finds difficult and abstract, words like noun and adjective, when I picked up the language without knowing any of this?

Firstly, these are labels which help the teacher to quickly explain grammar. You can tell children that walking is a doing word, and a walk is the name of the activity, but it's quicker to write and say that walking is a verb and walk is the noun. 

Secondly, to find out whether a child has understood, you can ask, which is the noun? 

Think of it like symbols in mathematics. Firstly, it's quicker to write a plus sign and an euqal sign for '2+2=4', than to write out, 'add two to two together and you get four'. Also, in a mathematics exam, a pupil is asked to show the the addition signs in the working, not just give the answer, which could have been copied from the anwer page at the back of the book or copied from somebody else's homework.

Finally, many parents think they speak perfect English when they are making errors all the time. 

Errors can cause confusion. I was too polite to tell my Chinese friend that she is confusing the words lend and borrow. One day she phoned and asked if she could lend me an English-Chinese dictionary. I said yes. 

She was surprised when I didn't bring it to lunch. I was expecting her to lend me a book. I didn't realise she wanted me to lend her one of my books. 

In Chinese they have one ambiguous word which means both lend and borrow. (Ambiguous means having two meanings.)

'Having two meanings' is three words. The label 'ambiguous' is one word. 

1 Can you recomment a grammar book? The classic book is Fowler's.

2 Can you recommend a dictionary, English and American?

British English = The Concise Oxford Dictionary. Or any etymoloiicla dicitonary. An Etymological dictionary give you the language origin and meaning of the root of the word. This makes it eassssier to understand and remember words and spellings. For example, ager is Latin for field. The word agriculture is to do with farming. Hortus is Latin for garden. So horticulture is to do with gardening.

American spelling

Webster's Dictionary. Noah Webster was a publisher who produced dictionaries and school books.  He simplified spelling to make it easier to read and write, for immigrants, as well as children born in the USA.

3 How can I learn spelling? (I get confused between English and American.)

If you are academic and scientific and like to know the origins of words, learn British English. However if you simply want to learn to read and write English fast, learn and use American spelling. It was simplified to help learners like you.

4 Which is more useful, British or American English? If you are in America or selling to Americans, stick to American English. If you are liing in the UK or your job involves UK citizens, use British English. Simply looking at statistics, there are more Americans than British people.

If you want to know how many poeple speak English as a first or second language in individual countries, and the whole world, and how long it takes to learn a language, check Wikipedia.

5 Which is easiest to learn, British or American English? American English. 

However, if you simply want to communicate with lots of people around the world, consider learning Spanish, Swedish, or the made up language Esperanto.

What language was spoken before the Romans invaded Britain? Celtic.

How do I learn so many English words? Just keep on leaarning, every day. That's what everybody has to do. New technical terms and brand names come along all the time. 

Words have been changing since Shakespeare's time, and before.

If you like musical languages, learn Welsh or Italian. Italian is the language of opera. If you want to write songs and rhyming poetry, Italian is a good language with so many words ending in o and a. 

However, if you want lots of words giving you a choice of long or short words from many languges, learn and use English.

The French have tried to protect and preserve their language, through the Aliance Francaise. They fought against the introduction of the phrase le weekend. I think they lost that battle, and have finally conceded.

English took from William the Conqueror and his Norman buddies (friends) words such as beef from boeuf, which is French for cow. It bit mispronounced and changed over time. 

Banquette, bouquet, chauffeur and cul-de-sec, another 500 words. See Wikipedia for loan words from other languages, borrowed by the British. 

 English has adopted words from Greek, Latin, French and around the world. The word sputnik is Russian. Yacht is Dutch, Kindergarten is German. Safari is Swahili. 

From the bible we adopted many words and names. Cherubim and seraphim use the Hebrew im for plurals. An annotated bible given you the origin of some of words and names. El and Jo or Ya are names for God. El as in Elizabeth. Joel combines both. Ben means son of. Benjamin, son of my right hand. Reu-ben, see a son.

America is increasingly influenced by Spanish. New York has many Yiddish words, which are German, written in Hebrew. Keep shtum means keep quiet.

Looking up words in a dicitonary, and compiling lists of words in English from your favourite foreign languages, is an endless education and entertainment.

Of course, the best way to lear a language is by immersion. You can find language courses, and TEFL courses for learning to teach English, attached to colleges and universities in many foreign cities. Then you can travel overseas and teach English.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

 

What are the joys and perils of teaching English abroad?

In some countries you need a specific qualification to teach English. You can do a course over a year, or a crash course in four weeks. Whether you are learning Entlish or teaching English or learning to teach English, you could learn one hour a week, one hour a day, or eight hours a day for several days to reach the same level.

Does the school where you wish to teach do O level, A level, GCSE, Baccalaureat, EFL, ESL, TOEFL or what? It helps to know the abbreviations. At my first interview in Singapore, to be an English teacher, I was very experienced in teaching English in England, but I was asked if I knew TEFL. I did not even know it was the American system.

Angela Lansbury I feel the same. It doesn't matter whether you are a beginnner or an expert in the language. If have mis-spelled a word I am mortified. Teachers, tutors and toastmasters need to address this perception that mispronunciation and mis-spelling is so upsetting, and instead make it more fun, more acceptable, ok to achieve less than 100%, and easy to count your progress. It should be a joy to learn to improve, a credit to have helped others to improve. What are the worst insults, after ugly and fat, can't add up, can;t spell, bad handwriting, can't sing or sing flat, ... How can we say it nicely? Let me try. How about: "You have written 99 words correctly but one of them is wrong. You have a 99 per cent success rate but if you correct that one word you will be a 100% success." Does that solve the problem?

Work Permits
In the USA it did not occur to me to try to get a work permit teaching English. Americans all spoke English. I thought it was hard to get a work permit.

When I got to Singapore the same thing happened. I assumed it was hard to get a work permit. I heard dire warnings about how my husband would lose his job if I tried to work without a permit.

Then I sat next to a teacher at a dinner party He told me that in Singapore there is a shortage of native English speakers with qualifications. He gave me the name of a school which he told me would be needing teachers. He picked up a newspaper and pointed to advertisements for teachers.

My problem, my delay, was getting a copy of my university degree certificate from the UK.

Next I needed an X-ray to prove I did not have TB (tuberculosis).











After my university degree in London, England, I took a postgraduate cerificate in Education course for a year. The course included experience in a Girl's grammar School and a boys' school.

I had the benefit of another teacher sitting in on the class to answer any query I had.

In some schools you have a library of information and books. Other places expect you to provide materials.

In the UK it was easy to find work books at all levels in any stationery store as well as bookshops. In Singapore I chased all over the city, finding only books for teaching English written in Chinese.

Home Tutor
If you are waiting for your accreditation to be approved, in some places you can get paid as a private tutor. I started teaching primary school children in England for an agency.

Later I progressed to secondary school age. I would dash down to the public library to borrow set text books. At first Shakespeare was the greatest challenge, and all the books would be out near exam time if all the local schools did the same syllabus.

Later each school might choose different books, even each year, then even each class. This meant it was easier to borrow books. But at first harder as you kept having to revise another play or book. Eventually I had a copy or two of complete Shakespeare, and lots of commentaries and revision guides.



Teaching Shakespeare Is Easy
Surprisngly, teaching Shakespeare's plays was easiest. Firstly, you could always buy books of notes for pupils and teachers. Secondly, most books had footnotes explaining long or outdated words. Thirdly, the plays were short enough to be read through in a hurry, unlike some novels.

If the words weren't clear, you coud check in the dictionary.

If you have visited places connected with Shakespeare, or have pupils who have done so with their school or family, you will have interest. It is easy to fill in half an hour talking about places connected with Shakespeare.

His birthplace in Stratford upon Avon, England.



The Globe theatre in London, England.

He is buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon.



Shakespeare Day

New regulations came in. The UK agency required police clearance.

EFL Teaching
Then I went on to teach English as a foreign language in Singapore. For that job there were three requirements. I needed my university certificate showing that I had a university degree, in any subject, not necessarily English, so long as I was a native speaker. I worked in private schools full time. At weekends I was a volunteer in a state school helping pupils in English enrichment.

Toastmasters Interntional To Practise Public Speaking and Presentations
Now I spend days and evenings and weekends in Toastmasters International clubs training speakers.

Why is it that as a speach coach, teacher, trainer or member of Toastmasters International, if you count ums and ahs (there is a post called ah counter) you are listened to politely. But as language evaluator, sometimes called grammarian, you have to be extremely careful not to be seen as critical. In fact you are often told not to use the words, 'I have only one criticism ...'.

I wrote in Facebook:
I feel the same as people speaking English as a second language. It doesn't matter whether you are a beginnner or an expert in the language. If have mis-spelled a word I am mortified. 

Teachers, tutors and toastmasters need to address this perception that mispronunciation and mis-spelling is so upsetting. Instead make it more fun, more acceptable, ok to achieve less than 100%.  Also it should be easy to count your progress. 

It should be a joy to learn to improve, a credit to have helped others to improve. What are the worst insults, after ugly and fat, can't add up, can;t spell, bad handwriting, can't sing or sing flat, ... How can we say it nicely? Let me try. How about: "You have written 99 words correctly but one of them is wrong. You have a 99 per cent success rate but if you correct that one word you will be a 100% success." Does that solve the problem?

Useful Websites

About the author
Angela Lansbury

News and newspapers when travelling, and using newspapers to teach English

I was looking at a copy of the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, but somebody who was off travelling grabbed it from the table to read on the train.

Newspapers
What about the poor reader like me, who has lost their newspaper?
Some newspapers can be read on line.

You can pick up news from the US or Asia by clicking on the relevant pages in the online version of BBC news or the online Daily Mail.

Mail Online
Mail online has the headings US and Australia.

BBC online news
Click on the heading WORLD. Underneath pops up more icon words: Africa, Asia Australia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, USA and Canada.

BBC Radio
Some people travel with a radio from home which picks up foreign news but has the dials as from the UK. You can also take with you sticky dots to label your radio with local station positions on the old fashioned dial. Or, with a digital display, you can cut out or copy  he section of the local newspaper listing local stations and stick that onto your radio or TV or indoor diary.

You could also bookmark a newspaper from another country on your home page. Or when you are on holiday, find the online version of the local newspaper and then copy that to your computer home page, or copy the ap onto your phone.

When friends are coming from overseas, you can ask them to keep the free newspapers they are given on the aeroplane.

When I travel I have often kept the newspapers from home to read on the 'plane. Arriving at my destination I have left them on a desk or dining table for a week or longer. Before throwing them away, I ask my visitors if they would like a newspaper. Some ex pats are interested in reading news from home, either the news or the features.

Teaching with newspapers
Others who are not English like the newspaper so they can practise their English.

As an English teacher, I would cut out articles and give them to members of the class and ask them to look up the works, précis the article and explain it to other members of the class.

Another popular gift at Christmas time is a magazine or newspaper subscription.

Free Newspapers
UK
Metro (in boxes outside London stations)
Evening Standard (in boxes outside London stations)
Local newspapers are put through the letter boxes of houses and sometimes left in the lobby of blocks of flats or residential homes for the elderly; also and in high streets in boxes outside estate agents (real estate agents if you are reading in the USA) which have ads in the property supplements.

Singapore
Boxes containing the free newspapers are at the central stations.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer.