How to Learn Languages with Super Mario

Since I love both games and languages, I've often tried to bring the two together. When I was teaching English, I always ensured that my classes played as many games as possible. In this article, I'm going to talk about how games influenced how I planned my lessons and how Chinese poetry influenced these games.

Kishōtenketsu

Let's start with Kishōtenketsu. This is a type of narrative structure mainly used in Chinese poetry which includes four parts: Introduction (ki), development (shō), twist (ten), and conclusion (ketsu).

In the first part, you introduce the characters, setting, and any other important information. This information is developed in the second part without introducing any major changes. Something unexpected happens in the third part of the narrative before the conclusion wraps everything up with the ending or resolution to the story.

Super Mario 3D World

Super Mario 3D World | Nintendo

Kishōtenketsu's narrative structure was highly influential when it came to level design in Super Mario 3D Land, which was released in 2013 on the Wii U.

The game's director Koichi Hayashida stated how he'd used Kishōtenketsu to influence how levels were designed in the game. Every time a level included something a player had never seen before, they'd need to learn how the mechanic worked. However, Hayashida didn't want to explicitly tell the player what they needed to do with boring text boxes and tutorials, he wanted them to learn what to do. Games are supposed to be fun, after all.

In short, a level introduces a new mechanic to the player. The player then gets to play around with the mechanic in a risk-free environment. After all, you don't want to punish a player for doing something wrong when they don't yet know how to do it!

Once the player is familiar with the mechanic, they're given a chance to prove they understand it with a challenging twist before finally given a chance to reach the flag and generally show off their new skills.

If you'd like to see how this applied to the game, I'd recommend watching this video on it:

Language Lessons

When I heard this, I was inspired by the method they used to teach players and thought I could apply it to how I taught my classes. There were two main rules that I applied to the lessons based on this design philosophy: focus lessons on one concept and always follow the four steps.

The first rule ensures that students have a clear goal that they can be tested on at the end of the lesson. Never introduce multiple grammar points in a single lesson! You can still use grammar points and aspects from previous lessons, though.

The second rule means that students are introduced to a new concept, can then play around with it (without any risks), are tested on the concept, and then given an opportunity to show off what they've learnt before they go home.

Here's an example of how a lesson would go:

1: Introduction: Quickly establish what the focus of the lesson is going to be. While you can explicitly tell the students what it is, I preferred giving students an example and letting them identify the focus of the lesson themselves.

2: Development: This is when the students are given an activity to practice the new grammar point. I often enjoyed doing this with pair work where students are free to make mistakes in a safe environment and don't feel pressured about getting it wrong.

3: Twist: Now's the time to test the students. This doesn't mean that you actually have to give them a test, though. As I said earlier, I loved playing games in class which can be just as effective at challenging students to think about the objective as well as verifying whether or not they've assimilated the new knowledge.

4: Conclusion: As the class finished, things became more relaxed. This was our "flag" moment. I'd give the students opportunities to use what they'd learnt in the lesson just before they left the class. This was great because it would boost their confidence and have them leaving with the objective they'd just achieved fresh in their minds.

I guess all that time spent playing Mario wasn't completely wasted!

5 Reasons You Have to Learn French!

While I've never stopped loving the French language, a recent trip back to Paris has has made me somehow love the language even more. If you're thinking about learning to speak French, here are my 5 reasons why choosing to study French is a decision that you'll never regret.

1: It's a Beautiful Language

While this isn't the reason that French is known as a Romance language, it definitely should be! Searching for "the most beautiful languages in the world" will very show you pages and pages of results in which French tends to come out on top.

Furthermore, the French language is made to sound beautiful. When you ask French speakers why there are certain grammatical rules and exceptions, they'll often tell that it's because it would sound "ugly" otherwise. They're seemingly obsessed with ensuring that their language remains number one!

2: It's a Popular Language around the World

French is only the 18th most spoken language in terms of native speakers but it jumps up to 10th place when you account for total speakers. This means that by learning the language, you're opening up a whole world of francophones to speak to in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Additionally, there's a wealth of French-language cinema, music, and literature for every budding francophone to sink their teeth into. You'll never be bored on rainy days with French!

3: It's a Popular Official Language

While learning to speak the world's 10th most popular language mightn't appeal to you, you should never underestimate how widely French is actually spoken. French remains relevant in the modern age thanks to just how many groups and organisations with French as an official language. The French just love setting up clubs!

In addition international union organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, every sporting federation seems to have French as an official language. If their name begins with an "F" like FIFA (football), FIBA (basketball), FIA (motorsports), FIDE (chess), expect to see French as an official language!

If you decide to learn French, you'll be creating opportunities to work at so many different companies and organisations!

4: It's a Language that's Widely Taught

Since French is still one of the world's most popular second languages, there are classes almost  everywhere. In the UK, for example, it's still the most popular language at GCSE. However, fewer and fewer students are opting to study it. This means that if you're from the UK and you decide to learn French, you'll be joining an increasingly exclusive club!

Furthermore, there are French language resources almost everywhere! It's not hard to find websites and books for learning French and there are plenty of places where you can get classes, too!

5: It's an Important Language

While some people may disagree, there are plenty of indicators that the French language is still important and will remain to be for the foreseeable future. The British Council sees French at the 3rd most important language for Britain's future (after Spanish and Arabic). Learning French could do wonders for your career, too!

What do you think? Do you have any other reasons you should learn French or do you think there's another language we should be learning? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Languages in the News: November 2016

It's that time again when we bring you the best language news stories from last month. Let's get straight to it with a story from Slate about the US presidential election. Thanks to Americans going to the polls, American English has some new vocabulary including the verb early vote. You can read about how this election changed language here.

There was a lot of love within the language community for Arrival, a sci-fi film about linguists who have to find a way to communicate with aliens who show up on Earth. NPR was full of praise for the film and its focus on language. Read what they had to say here.

Earth looks like a fine place to visit.

The Washington Post (WP) looked at Arrival from the effect it had on the profile of linguists. While we've always believed linguists were cool, WP reckoned that the film helped to raise the profile of linguists and make them "almost cool". Read all about these almost-cool linguists here.

Business Insider focused on the film's accuracy and portrayal of linguists at work. In an interview with Jessica Coon, the linguist who consulted on the film, they discuss how the work and practices of linguists were very accurately represented. Of course, there were still a few falsehoods that Hollywood let slip in the name of entertainment. Read about them here.

With the end of the year rolling in, you can expect plenty "of the year" articles and stories to start popping up. Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year was already decided in November and the BBC ran the story. Learn more about the word of the year here.

With the Word of the Year decided, it's hardly surprising that Oxford Dictionaries provided their own articles on it. There was one article we found particularly interesting about the other words considered for the word of the year. You can check them out here.

The New York Times gave us a fascinating article on Catalan in Italy. The language is under threat in Alghero, on the island of Sicily, where it is still spoken, despite very few efforts from the Italy to protect it. Read about these unsual struggles here. 

Our last great language news stories both come from NPR. In one story, they explained how California decided after nearly two decades to reintroduce bilingual education which you can read about here. In another related story, you can also read about the benefits of bilingual education on the brain here.

If there were any interesting stories we missed, feel free to tell us about them in the comments below.

10 Tips to Improve Academic Writing Skills in English by Antonio Tooley

It is challenging enough to learn to speak, write, and think in English, but when non-native students go abroad to study and pursue their academic careers, things become even more complicated. Why? Because they will be, among other things, required to write academic papers, such as essays or even dissertations, depending on the level they are at.

Such tasks require thorough understanding of the language, grammar, and a pretty decent vocabulary, in addition to extensive knowledge on the actual subject matter. Academic writing is rather hard on native speakers, and it’s even worse on those who use English as their second language. Needless to say, they have their work cut out for them.

However, if you belong in that group, you should not despair, because there are some guidelines you can follow to make your academic writing just as good as that of any native speaker. In this article, you will find 10 tips that will help you improve your academic writing in English, even if you are a foreign student. Keep on reading.

1. Read Academic Writing by Other People

Of course, it goes without saying that you will be required to read many, many academic papers, but instead of just using them to extract information for your own writing, try and look at them from a writer’s point of view. Pay attention to how the author is using the language to make an impact and guide the reader through their paper. Also, you can find plenty of help online, such as this guide on how to write a dissertation.

2. Don't Make the Same Mistakes Other Non-Native Students Do

Most foreign students don’t notice the literary mistakes they make, such as punctuation, using the wrong prepositions, a or an instead of the, or vice versa, or they simply translate a phrase from their own language into English, which doesn’t sound terribly good or is something a native speakers would ever use. According to the Berkeley Student Learning Center, fixing all of these is fairly simple. Check out their list of the most problematic writing clichés students use.

3. Read Anything You Can Get Your Hands On

Even though reading academic papers will help you with your current assignment, reading other things like books, novels, magazines, articles, short stories, or even blogs, will greatly improve your knowledge of the English language and expand your vocabulary. Every now and then, you will run into a phrase or word that you will like and memorize, and use later in one of your papers. Try to make it as varied as possible, because that’s how you can enhance your vocabulary.

4. Write

Again, there will be no shortage of writing assignments for you in college, but in order to work out those small writing kinks which usually tell whether or not you’re a native speaker, you should write as much as you can, because some of those mistakes tend to diminish as you develop a feel for what sounds right. If you want proof, look no further than the reputable writers online who are also ESL speakers, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from their writing.

5. Have Native Speakers Review Your Work

Most people tend to consider the way they write to be something very personal, which is why it can be very hard to listen to someone pick it apart and point out all the mistakes that you’ve made in your academic paper. However, sometimes, it is necessary to set your own ego aside, because such criticism will serve you well in the long run. You can bet that you won’t make those same mistakes again after receiving honest criticism from a person you trust.

6. Try Your Hand at Translating

One of the most effective exercises you can do is translate a piece of writing from English into your own native language, or the other way around, because that’s how you can really gain a better understanding of the language. And if you are struggling, that only means you will be reaching for the dictionary more often, which is a good thing, because that’s one of the ways to learn new words, phrases, and idioms.

7. If Your College Has a Writing Center, Make Yourself a Regular

A writing center will often provide you with a tutor that will help you hone your literary and verbal skills. While you are not supposed to use them as a means of editing your essays each and every time, they can help you out by pointing out some of the most common mistakes you are making when writing academic papers, and by providing more elegant alternatives.

8. Provide Examples Instead of Explanations

Sometimes, even native speakers will find it impossible to find the right words and phrases in order to be able to explain complex concepts properly, and for non-native speakers, it can become a nightmare. However, one way of working around this issue until you master the language well enough is to provide examples instead of explanations. Just make sure that they are pertinent to the topic and you will be fine.

9. Edit Your Work

Once you have completed an essay or your dissertation, you should feel good about yourself, but not so good that you avoid going over it a few times and figuring out what can be done to improve it. We are not just talking about grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but also things like clichés, wordiness, overly complicated or unreadable sentences, and so on. Tighten up your writing every chance you get.

10. Avoid Plagiarism

Even though you may come across a paragraph or a sentence written by someone else that you really like, resist the temptation to use it in your own writing, unless you are quoting the author, or have thoroughly paraphrased the literary construction in question. Plagiarism is one of the worst academic offenses, and you want to stay as far away from it as possible.

You may notice that nearly all of these tips are anything but quick fixes. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts if you want to take your academic writing to the next level. But, now you can focus on the methods that really work, and before you know it, you will be able to write just as well as any native speaker out there. Good luck!

Antonio is a hopeless optimist who enjoys basking in the world's brightest colors. He loves biking to distant places and occasionally he gets lost. When not doing that he's blogging and teaching ESL. He will be happy to meet you on Facebook and Twitter.

The Sorry State of Languages at GCSE

Here in the UK, yesterday marked the day that children in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland received their GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) grades. The results for the Standard Grades, the equivalent in Scotland, were published earlier in the month.

For those not familiar with the UK education system, the GCSEs are the qualifications generally taken by students over their final two years of compulsory education (between 14 and 16 years old). This is the time of year when regardless of the results, people will complain.

If the trend is that grades are getting worse, then it is assumed that kids today are not as smart as those who studied before them. If the results are better, then the exams must be getting easier. I don't subscribe to either of those opinions because it's almost impossible to standardise the exams each year and the percentages for each grade given are fairly arbitrary.

Over a decade has passed since foreign languages were removed as compulsory subjects at GCSE, and the trends for foreign language education in the UK are not looking good. It seems every year the number of students taking a foreign language at GCSE decreases, and this year is no exception.

Declining Numbers

Perhaps one day all of these new Portuguese students
will be able to understand a performance at the
Municipal Theatre of São Paulo in Brazil!

In 2013, around 332,000 students were taking foreign language GCSEs. This figure dropped in 2014 to 321,000 students. This year it dropped yet again by an even greater amount to just over 300,000 students. It goes without saying that as a language lover, this doesn't feel great.

Those who do choose to study a modern foreign language at GCSE are also moving away from languages traditionally taught in the UK, such as French and German. Spanish has dipped in popularity this year, but this does follow nearly a decade of increasing popularity. Mandarin is doing well, with the number of students studying the subject increasing by nearly a fifth. More students have also been choosing to study Portuguese, Polish, and Arabic.

Some figures have suggested that foreign languages are being squeezed out by what I would call "modern" subjects, such as ICT (information and communications technology) and computing. It's hardly surprising that students are opting for these subjects given the world we live in and the increasing use of computers.

However, I don't think these two types of subjects are in competition. In fact, I believe the spread of telecommunications is the reason that languages are more important than ever. As the world becomes more and more connected, we've seen a rise in the demand for both communication technologies and foreign language abilities; it's just that the latter seems to have gone unnoticed by a number of students taking their GCSEs.

Easy "A"s (or "A*"s)

There are also stories going around that an increased number of migrants are taking the foreign language GCSE of their mother tongue. There have been suggestions that students are being encouraged to do this to either boost their school's performance or their own. While I suppose this isn't really in the "spirit" of taking a foreign language qualification, it would balance out having to take a number of other GCSEs in your second language.

The beautiful countryside and mountains of Crete, Greece.

This trend has also been said to be the reason for the increase in some of the less-common languages, such as Polish, Urdu, Turkish, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Farsi, Modern Greek, and Modern Hebrew.

The Reaction

Obviously, few are calling any of this a good thing. Negative adjectives are being thrown around as they seem to be every year. The UK is miles behind so many countries across Europe and the world in terms of foreign language education, and it's not going to close the gap if things continue as they are.

I find this all pretty abhorrent because it's certainly not caused by the teachers who are constantly given more bureaucratic hoops to jump through, more work to do, less pay, and yet still attempt to impart their knowledge upon the teenagers of this country.

What I find even worse is that although several groups with a bigger voice than me have spoken out about these disappointing trends, little seems to be changing.

What are your thoughts on the decline of foreign languages at GCSE? Any ideas on how to improve the matter? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Is It Worthwhile To Study Languages At University?

Just over a month ago, I discussed the dilemma of encouraging language learning while protecting my own livelihood as a translator. In the post, I mentioned that the average translator in the UK earns what I consider to be a disappointing amount considering that they master at least two languages, have a technical or business specialisation, and possess in-depth knowledge of the cultures of at least two countries.

This is the kind of statement that should hold a lot of weight for someone getting ready to go to university in a couple of months. Today, I'd like to revisit that particular point, extend it to all language-related jobs, and finally see whether studying languages is worthwhile. To do so, I'd like to draw on my own experiences as well as some information and statistics. Of course, this is a language blog and I'm a language fanatic so there will be some bias. In an attempt to provide a fair and balanced argument, I'm going to start with the negatives.

On a personal and negative note, I do genuinely believe that there are jobs out there that require language skills and do not adequately remunerate those with said skills. I can provide one such example from my own life experience.

A few years ago I spent a summer working in a data-entry centre that required knowledge of Spanish and several other languages at which I was paid the UK minimum wage for my troubles. By paying me minimum wage, my employer was effectively saying that my language skills were valueless or should be expected from any employee, which I hope you will agree is nonsense.

This is even more ridiculous given that the UK is famously the worst country in Europe terms of speaking foreign languages. Surely this should make my foreign language skills even more desirable in a country lacking the workforce to meet the demand for multilingualism.

Despite my personal anecdote, the demand for language jobs is definitely still there. You'll see facts floating around stating that the translation is one of the only recession-proof industries across the world. However, I've also definitely heard a fair few horror stories of translators being expected to work to impeccable standards, at incredible speeds, and for below a living wage. It wouldn't surprise me if this kind of behaviour was partly responsible for the decreasing numbers of students taking language degrees at universities in the UK.

On the one hand, UK language graduates had the third lowest employment rate of any discipline, according to a study published in 2013. However, the employment rate for all subjects only ranged from 84% to 95%, meaning there isn't a huge difference between the best and worst. On the other hand, UK language graduates were ranked sixth in terms of average salary earned. We live in a world where money talks, and this is the kind statement that's difficult to ignore.

Language learning can take you to plenty of places on this
beautiful blue marble we call home.

So far I've only been talking about studying languages from a financial viewpoint and in terms of employability and expected salary. However, languages have a value well beyond money. Learning languages opens doors and takes you places where you'll meet wonderful people that you wouldn't have otherwise met if you'd remained in a monolingual bubble. For me, you can't put a price on that!

The experiences I've enjoyed because of studying languages have been priceless and I have no doubt that there are plenty ahead of me. I'm so incredibly glad that I did study languages throughout school and at university.

In fact, even though I was terrible at languages at school, I still decided to study them at university because I loved them. When I started studying languages at university (Northumbria University, to be precise) I wasn't a model student and I wasn't particularly gifted at languages. It was only thanks to the wonderful lecturers whose love for languages far surpassed my own that I was given the opportunity to improve and develop my own language skills.

Finally, I feel the need to mention that the language department at Northumbria University (my alma mater) is under threat of closure. I feel anybody who had the support of lecturers anywhere near as wonderful as those at Northumbria would appreciate that this cannot be allowed to happen. I would be eternally grateful to each and every one of you if you could take the time to sign the following petition on change.org to ensure that the UK doesn't lose a wonderful language department. You can also show your support on this Facebook page.

Do you think it's worthwhile to study languages at university? Have your studies brought you financial success or something even better? Tell us all about them in the comments below.

Honouring André Lefevere and his Work in Translation Studies

It was on this day in 1996 when André Alphons Lefevere, an acclaimed translation theorist, lost his battle with leukaemia and passed away. We thought we'd take this opportunity to honour his life and his contributions to the academic fields of comparative literature and Translation Studies. Lefevere was born in Belgium in 1945 and studied German Philology at the University of Ghent, Belgium, from 1964 to 1968. He then completed his PhD in 1972 at the University of Essex in the UK.

Translation Studies is often considered to split nicely into three different "turns": the linguistic turn, the cultural turn, and the sociological turn. When Lefevere started his career, the discipline was firmly rooted in the linguistic turn, and the work of many academics reflected this, even Lefevere's. However, taking Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory and the Manipulation School as a starting point, Lefevere viewed the validity of translations by taking cultural factors and the roles played by the various actors in a system into account, making him one of the pioneering scholars of the cultural turn. In fact, it was through collaborations with Susan Bassnett that André Lefevere suggested that Translation Studies required a "cultural turn".

A beautiful metaphor for translation.

Lefevere considered the art (or is it a science?) of translation as "rewriting", a practice that he likened to the refraction of light. In this metaphor the source text is a beam of light, and the translator acts as a prism, bending and manipulating the source text so that different colours, or interpretations, can be seen.

He was influential in establishing Translation Studies as an independent discipline, spending his life as an academic who sought to bring theory and practice together. At the time of his death, he was working as a professor in the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas.

While nearly two decades have passed since his death, his work and input will live on as a testament to his brilliance. To find out more about his work on Translation Studies, we recommend picking up one of the many books he wrote, especially his collaborations with Susan Bassnett.

Why I Love Dutch, the Dutch, and the Netherlands

Until recently, I was never a huge fan of Amsterdam and hadn't really visited anywhere else in the Netherlands (with the exception of the Efteling theme park), so I'd never really had an experience to write home about.

I'd visited Amsterdam with my parents when I was at an age when I still thought girls were disgusting. This meant that during an accidental trip into the red-light district (which is right by a beautiful church I was visiting), the view of scantily-clad prostitutes in the window made me cry.

On a later trip around Europe I ended up partaking in a small amount of Amsterdam's other popular pursuit, cannabis, and the ensuing paranoia coupled with again accidentally finding the red-light district led to a wholly unpleasant time.

As they say, the third time's the charm, and upon my arrival in Amsterdam, the first destination in a trip around Europe, I was adamant that I was going to enjoy myself and change my poor opinion of the city and, by extension, the country. I made sure to find the beautiful parts of the city and subsequently the beautiful people of the Netherlands.

Even though I was hoping to learn some Dutch and had quickly consulted a couple of web pages on the matter, when I stumbled with the longer words and seemingly endless number of vocalic phonemes, the locals were all very friendly while they put me to shame with their flawless mastery of my mother tongue.

From Amsterdam, I headed eastwards to the city of Zwolle to meet a good friend and exceptional English teacher. In Zwolle I was treated to the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the city, as well as travelling on a typically-Dutch bicycle that was kindly provided for me.

The Netherlands, and Zwolle in particular, is a wonderful place for cyclists and while it seemed odd to me that nobody wears a helmet when cycling, it became abundantly clear that with all the cycle paths, cyclist-friendly road layouts, and drivers that are very familiar with being surrounded by bikes, there was little danger of ever encountering any trouble.

I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on a couple of English lessons at the school where my friend taught and was left completely astounded by the level of English on display. The older children were discussing Jewish-American Literature and not only providing exceptional insight into the passages they had read, but doing so in impeccable English.

So it might be pretty clear that I think the Netherlands is a wonderful place, since the people were friendly and happy to converse with us in English without being upset that my Dutch is abysmal. While I don't speak Dutch and the words I know could be written on a postage stamp, I love the look, feel, and sound of the language.

One particular highlight was sitting in on a lesson on English accents. As a special guest, I was allowed to provide a sample of my finest Geordie. The children then had to ascertain, given my accent, where I came from. Sadly, they were more familiar with the accents of those on the reality tv show Geordie Shore (which I was shocked to find the Netherlands is also subjected to) than a typical Geordie accent, and struggled to pinpoint my city of origin. Nevertheless, it was an incredibly fun and eye-opening experience, putting my foreign language education in the United Kingdom to shame.

The Dutch Language

Since large portions of my time in the Netherlands were spent speaking English, I did my best to learn as much as I could about the language from native speakers while trying to pick up as much vocabulary as possible from every example of the written language.

While the phonetic differences between Dutch and English are vast, the language is similar enough to English to make my ears hone in on speech. This left me confused as my brain clearly felt it could understand the language but never quite managed.

While other languages have left their mark on the Dutch language, you can certainly tell that English and Dutch are cousins as many words have shared roots that become apparent when you hear or read them.

Despite struggling with the pronunciation of countless phonemes, I would certainly recommend learning Dutch. While you could argue that it may not vastly increase your career prospects, I found the language both beautiful and fascinating, and am very keen to learn more.

My only criticism of the whole experience is that any English speaker may find it hard to have an entire conversation in Dutch with the natives. I got the impression from the Dutch people I met that they are not only masters of English, but also very keen to use their foreign language skills. I'm sure once I reach the level of basic communication I will enjoy many wonderful conversations in Dutch, if I could just get a chance to practice!

Languages In The News: January 2014

As we sluggishly approach the end of January, we hope you have managed to keep your resolutions. Today we'll be having a look at the top language news stories from the first month of the new year.

On the last day of the year NPR was clearly thinking about its resolutions for 2014. They put together an argument for why twerk and selfie are words that need to go.

The Guardian challenged spoken language with its fascinating look at prescriptivism in British dialects. Without asking, we later got the opposing opinion from across the pond from Techcrunch.

Of course, the beginning of the new year is always full of retrospectives on the previous year. The BBC was no exception, looking at the 20 most overused words of 2013 on New Year's Day.

It certainly seemed that on both sides of the pond, twerk and selfie were the most popular words of the year, as well as the most likely to be condemned to lexical hell.

Our favourite academic blog, Language Log also looked back at 2013 and the word "because" in its new, somewhat disgusting usage.

The Oxford University Press blog mixed music with language and showed us a number of instruments that took their names from their creators. Sadly, there was never a Mr. Piano or Mrs. Guitar, but there were a few interesting ones that we had no idea were named after a person.

Edutopia cleared the muddy waters of academic language with 8 strategies for teaching academic language.

The video game website Eurogamer had a story on a devoted group of translators who translated an entire game for free since there was no English version available.

NPR's codeswitch blog posted a riveting look at dying languages and the eventualities when their last monolingual native speaker dies, while the main site brought together science, music, and language in a story on a pill that could help you attain perfect pitch and language learning skills. Codeswitch was back in the latter half of the month with a look at Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland, revealing that not as many of them speak Spanish at home as one might think.

Slate gave us an interesting anthropological and etymological piece on the origins of Jewish surnames, plus a piece on translation and some of the more difficult terms to translate from The Metamorphosis.

Montreal Gazette had a divisive opinion piece on the ongoing debate of why English speakers should be speaking French in Quebec.

The Telegraph gave us proof that baby talk is still beneficial to speech development in infants.

It seems that for every colour there's an etymology.

By the middle of the month, we came across something quite amazing: a Buzzfeed article that wasn't a list peppered with GIFs! Not that we hate images of cute cats and reaffirming that we were born in the 80s, but it's always nice to see real articles there too, such as the one on the Spanish translation used for the Obamacare website. This wasn't long-lived as later in the month, Buzzfeed was back with a list, this time the 37 worst translated movie titles ever. Though it only includes Spanish language titles, it was nice to mindlessly muse over the translation decisions and why they were made.

Phys.org had scientific news that computational analysis had revealed elements of writing style that differentiates successful fiction.

Sarah Hashim-Wallace of the LA Times provided us with a piece in which she tested how useful the Google Translate app was on a trip to Tokyo. It may have received 4 out of 5 stars from one reviewer but the results in the field paint a very different picture.

Towards the end of the month an opinion piece from The New York Times appeared on translation as a performing art. We were drawn in by Antony Shugaar's piece and hope you will be too. To end the month, Gizmodo had a wonderful piece on the etymology of colours, plus a video with the Oscar-nominated song from Disney's Frozen in 25 languages was doing the rounds and we loved it! Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Did we miss any of your favourite language articles? Tell us about them in the comments below.

Everything You Need To Know About Getting To A UK University, All In One Place by Jennifer Lee

There are an overwhelming amount of university options open to international students in the UK; the Study Group University Fair for International Students is the place to make sense of them.

Most people will tell you that, when learning a language, it always helps to have a goal in mind. Whether seeking personal advancement, improved career prospects, or in the pursuit of academic greatness, keeping your eyes on the prize maintains focus and can help you get there much sooner.

The UK has a thriving community of English language schools, attended each year by tens of thousands of students from all over the world. For many, it’s the first step in an exciting journey towards their dream of securing a place to study for a world-class degree at a leading UK university. Studying for a degree abroad alongside a wide array of students from many different backgrounds can be transformative, both personally and in terms of language development – students may pick up more than just English in classes with British, South America and Asian students. Having mastered English at language school, higher education (HE) at university is the place to push understanding and ability to the limit.

However, to get to university, a pathway programme is often required to secure the correct academic and English language qualifications. But this is where things can get overwhelming for many international students, with IELTS and academic requirements to consider as well as student visas and UCAS applications. Here at Study Group, we have been preparing international students to study at UK universities for many decades, either in partnership with leading universities such as the University of Lincoln, the University of Sussex and the University of Leicester; or at our Bellerbys Colleges in Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton or London. Having seen firsthand how the wealth of HE options open to students can make a tough decision even harder to reach, we’ve organised a fair in London that has all the relevant information in one place – IELTs and UCAS (Universities & Colleges Admissions Service) experts, representatives from more than 75 universities as well as advisors on hand to discuss things like visa issues. The Study Group University Fair for International Students takes place at the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel, Central London, Saturday 8th February 2014. Entry and registration is free.

There will be seminars at the fair dealing with applying and studying at a UK university, adapting to UK culture, work placements and employability issues, advice on how to secure your university place, as well as insights into some of the highest-ranking UK institutions.

Information about specific degree courses will be readily available, and experts will be available to talk you through options and show you which pathway to university entry would work best based on your individual requirements. Friendly student enrolment advisers will even be issuing on-the-spot offers for Study Group preparation courses to students who meet the entry requirements (click here for details).

For many students at the UK’s English language schools, a degree from a UK university is their ultimate goal, but their time at university is also a wonderful opportunity to build their language skills. Therefore, I would absolutely encourage them to come and visit us in London in February.

Jennifer Lee is project co-ordinator at Study Group, and is responsible for the Study Group University Fair for International Students. Keep up to date with the show on Facebook or by following @StudyGroupFair on Twitter.

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Ways to Motivate Students to Learn English by Steven Armstrong

Learning a language poses exceptional hardships that are difficult for some students to overcome. One such difficulty is the lack of motivation that can accompany frustration in learning a language. According to language experts at SolidEssay.com, a college paper writing service, English is a particularly difficult language to learn due to various roots it possesses from other languages; thus, grammar, syntax, and pronunciation are not common to most students. Taking into consideration importance of English in a global context, motivating students is a particularly important task that must be completed with aplomb if one is to help students learn. There are two types of motivation that will be explored. The first is positive motivation and the second one is negative motivation. The vehicles of these two types of motivations will differ according to the age structures of the students.

Importance of Motivation in Learning a Foreign Language

When a person, specifically a student, embarks on learning a foreign language they are tasked with acquiring a new set of grammar, pronunciation and diction rules that they have not previously known. Considering the degree of difficulty posed, it is quite reasonable to assume that there is a risk of loss of motivation in learning a new language if a student does not feel adequate progress is being made. In order for the learning process to be facilitated and for the student to feel that actual progress is being made, it is crucial to motivate him or her. There are various types of motivation, both positive and negative, that can affect students’ performance and progress in learning new language. Positive motivation includes a reward structure while negative motivation includes punitive measures, which are covered in a grading structure.

Positive Motivation in the Form of a Reward Structure

Positive motivation for a student to learn English can emulate a structure of differing levels that have accompanying perks. In the same way that a promotion works in the labor world, a student has different privileges granted when performance quotas are met. This structure must adhere to the age of students that are learning English; therefore, in order to proceed with this argument, we are going to assume an average age of students between 14 and 18. Certain privileges for students of that age group, assuming they are learning in a structured environment such as school, may include less homework or more enjoyable language exercises. These rewards can evoke a sense of justification for the hard work a student puts into learning a language and serve as a motivational factor for them.

Negative Motivation in the Form of a Grading Structure

Examinations and grading are forms of negative motivation.

Negative motivation is most commonly seen in the form of a grading structure. The grading structure serves a twofold purpose. The first is to track performance of the student and the second one is to motivate those that are not performing adequately. The grading structure in the aforementioned age structure is even more powerful because students are able to better comprehend a failing grade versus a satisfactory grade. A student that is not performing and has a below average grade will be subject to judgment of their peers. The innate fear of being judged differently by your peers due to poor performance is a negative motivational factor. Students who seek approval would be more keen in improving their grade in order to seek approval.

Results Sought in Motivating Students

It is important to understand that not all students will excel in learning a new language. However, with appropriate methods and motivation not only on the students’ part but also on the educator’s, the process could be made simpler and much more enjoyable.

Steven Armstrong is a freelance writer specializing on college essay writing, working with different educational paper research companies, including SolidEssay.com.

Why ERASMUS Will Be The Best Time Of Your Life

At this time of year, many students within the European Union will be starting what promises to be the best year of their lives. The ERASMUS programme, an international student exchange within the EU, enables students from Europe to experience other cultures, countries, and best of all, learn another language!

Le Pont d'Avignon, my old French stomping ground.

On a personal note, it was five years ago today that I started my ERASMUS year and like many, I was scared, apprehensive, and, above all, excited. I had initially been told that I would be spending my year in France living the typical Parisian lifestyle in the capital. Much to my chagrin, this was later changed to Avignon, a place I had never heard of and much farther away from northern France, where I had spent almost every family holiday.

Before even leaving the UK, I made a stupid error whereby I booked a flight for a Tuesday, thinking it was Monday. I showed up at the airport with a plane ticket for the following day, meaning I had to spend another £200 on a flight to Paris, and the best part of €100 on a train from Paris to Avignon. Thanks to arriving four hours late to the University, I missed the opening hours of the student accommodation office and was left to find a hotel when I should have been staying in the accommodation.

Though scared, nervous, and possessing a very poor level of spoken French, I showed up to the orientation meeting with all my belongings in tow. It quickly became apparent that every other ERASMUS student was scared and just as in need of meeting some new people.

Like anyone, it took some time to adjust, but by Christmas I had already met a wonderful group of people who would remain lifelong friends, learnt an incredible amount about French culture, and improved dramatically in French. The worries and apprehension I felt at the start were just a distant and somewhat ridiculous memory.

Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience. The remaining months through the spring and into the summer were just as incredible as the first few months, and though it was difficult to leave and many tears were shed, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

So for those about to embark on this journey, it should be noted that you are not the first people in the world to do this. People do survive and share an experience not just with those who are in the same town, city, or village, but with everyone who has ever spent a year abroad, ERASMUS or otherwise. You are incredibly lucky to have this opportunity and once you're finished with it, you'll do nothing but annoy your friends back home with all the stories that you can't bring yourself to stop telling.

You should take this time to stop worrying and start enjoying yourself. Just don't forget about the languages you can learn! It can be all too easy to stay within your comfort zone and speak in your mother tongue with others from the same country. Grab the opportunity with both hands!

Have you been on an ERASMUS year or will you be going soon? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below and please, keep it clean!

Is TEFL For You?

Nowadays there's a huge demand for English lessons as the world becomes more connected everyday and globalisation has made the English language more important than ever before. Of course, many naysayers will claim that Mandarin Chinese is the world's most important language. Whilst it may be wise to learn Mandarin for the future, learning English now is very important for everyone.

If you have been lucky enough to have been born in an English-speaking country or even just to have had the opportunity to learn English, teaching it can be very rewarding and, in some cases, very lucrative.

Whilst there are multiple ways to become an English teacher to foreign speakers, we will not be covering that today. What we're aiming to do is clarify whether or not you'd be ready to take that first step into teaching English as a foreign language.

You never know what you'll find abroad. In
Spain you might see these works of art known
as fallas explode in pyrotechnic glory while
learning the Valencian language!

Do you love languages?

If you love languages, you're probably already giving this some thought. Teaching English as a foreign language is a way to share languages with everyone. In many countries, both children and adults are looking to learn English so you will have a choice.

After all, your principal goal as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher is to impart your wisdom and knowledge of the English language onto those who have to, and in certain cases, want to learn English.

Do you love travelling?

If you love travelling, then moving to another country for TEFL can open doors to you. Obviously there aren't many opportunities to teach English as a foreign language in English-speaking countries. That said, there still are some jobs like this around.

Do you love learning languages?

If you are in a foreign country teaching English, you can definitely make the most of your time there learning a language yourself. You can make the most of your time by taking classes or even just spending time with locals because, as we've said before, immersion is one of our favourite ways to learn foreign languages.

Do you love teaching?

This is definitely the most important question you have to ask yourself before setting off on your TEFL journey. At the end of the day, you are teaching, and if teaching isn't for you then it renders all the other answers redundant. If you answered "yes" to all these questions, then you best get started!

Do you teach or have you taught English as a foreign language? Do you have any advice for budding EFL teachers? Tell us below in the comments!

Language Learning Methods: Language Camps

In the past we've covered a few specific methods for learning languages, such as immersion, choral drilling, and flashcards. Today we'll be covering camps, in which learners, usually children, go to a country where the target language is spoken.

Spending time in a foreign country allows learners to experience everyday life, see the foreign language objects in the flesh, and put names to faces, so to speak. There are many advantages to language camps, particularly for those who are tied down and can't just leave their home to go abroad permanently to learn another language.

S'mores and campfire stories while
learning a foreign language, anyone?

Language camps can be great for older children, especially those in secondary education as younger children in primary school would be more likely to have problems spending extended periods of time away from their parents.

When tied in with entertaining activities, the rate at which people learn is greatly increased. There's nothing better than enjoying yourself, and it's even better when you don't even realise you're learning a language at the same time. When organised as part of a school visit, teachers can also benefit from the experience. They can brush up on the languages that they may not get to speak so often with native speakers, as well as showing their pupils everything they've been teaching them with real people.

The only downside to language camps is the expense. Travelling to another country and paying for the service and accommodation can cost a fair amount, and there probably aren't many schools that would be willing to pay for the service.

However, if the school is willing to pay or you have the disposable income to afford such a trip for yourself, your children, or are part of a school, then a week or two in a language camp or foreign language activity centre could be just the right thing to improve your language skills and have a great time doing it.

The Best Multilingual Cities In Canada

Since we covered the best multilingual cities in Europe last week, we felt it was only right to look at some North American cities this weekend. Today we're covering Canada, and tomorrow we'll head south into the US. Let's start our visit with Vancouver.

English Bay, Vancouver

Vancouver, British Columbia - If you leave Vancouver heading west you'll end up in "the East". Vancouver's proximity (it is only a few thousand miles, after all!) to Asia has helped cultivate some of the immigration that has left one of the World's Most Livable Cities with a huge Asian population and, as a result, Chinese and Cantonese as very popular languages within the city.

Aside from Mandarin and Cantonese, Punjabi, Persian, Tagalog, Korean, Italian, German, and French can also be heard in Vancouver. Despite French also being an official language of Canada, Mandarin and Cantonese are more popular in this area.

Toronto, Ontario - Given that Ontario borders Québec, Canada's principally French-speaking province, you can expect Toronto to have a fairly mixed bag when it comes to languages. Often confused as being the capital by ignorant foreigners (and a few poorly-educated Canadians), Toronto has very multicultural surroundings which can be found leaking into the city and government.

Ottawa, Ontario - Sitting right next to Québec, Canada's actual capital city has its own motto in both English and French. Advance-Ottawa-En Avant represents the country's two official languages, and the University of Ottawa is the largest bilingual university in the world.

Olympic Stadium in Montréal, which features
the tallest inclined tower in the world.

Montréal, Québec - As you could guess by the accent on the letter e, Montréal, or Montreal when Anglicised, is the largest city in the province of Québec. Recently the city has been in the headlines as a centre of controversy following multilingual political upheaval and the language debate within Québec. The famed Pastagate scandal following the over-Francofication of the city and tensions between French-speaking and English-speaking communities has been tarnishing Montréal's reputation.

That said, Montréal is a wonderful melting pot of French and English cultures, not to mention that Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Arabic can also be heard around the streets of the world's second largest French-speaking city.

That concludes our quick trip across Canada. Are than any multilingual cities you feel we may have missed? Tell us about them in the comments below! Tomorrow we're heading south into the US.

The Pros And Cons Of Compulsory Language Learning

Far behind many of its European counterparts, the UK is finally getting ready for compulsory language education in its primary schools. As language enthusiasts, we obviously think this is a fantastic thing, but today we're trying to be diplomatic and present a fair and balanced argument for and against obligatory language learning.

For

The first photo taken of Earth, in 1968.

With the world becoming increasingly global and open, languages are a valuable skill. Particularly so in the UK, where monolingualism is rife amongst its youth, who are effectively the future of the nation. Since many other nations already have foreign languages in their curriculum from an early age, the British workforce of the future could be left lagging behind the other nations without it.

Speaking foreign languages has been shown to have huge benefits in terms of cognitive abilities, brain development and health. If today's youth aren't learning foreign languages for the economy, they should be learning it for their own development and the ability to lead richer lives.

Against

There are a lot of key subjects that can be considered to be more important than languages. Literacy and numeracy are always at the forefront in terms of education, and whenever new classes are added to curriculum, the time used to teach these subjects must be taken from another subject. Of course, it needn't be maths and English that lose out to foreign languages, the sciences and the humanities can end up with their contact hours slashed. Is there a particular subject that can be removed?

Which subjects will have to lose out?

Art: Some may argue that art could be one of the first subjects to lose time to foreign languages. It is not a particularly academic subject, especially at the primary level, but could we really take away art, one of the most creative subjects available to young minds, and effectively destroy any creativity they are harbouring?

St. Catherine of Alexandria, by Raphael.

History: To some, history is incredibly interesting and worthwhile, to others it's incredibly boring. Fans of this subject will argue that you can't understand the present, make plans for the future, or have an awareness of world affairs without learning what came before.

Geography: Geography was never a particular favourite subject of ours. Sure, we enjoyed looking at atlases and cool places to visit, finding funny place names and wondering what languages they spoke there. We did not, however, enjoy looking at soil or measuring traffic flow on the local main road.

Science: For people as nerdy as we are, science will always be considered one of the coolest subjects. You start to learn about how everything around us works, from the atom all the way up to the universe and almost everything in between. Most primary schools tend to focus on science in general instead of specialized subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology, but it would be very difficult to cut since it is certainly a very academic subject.

Music: Music is another of the so-called artsy-fartsy subjects that are said to nurture young talent and creativity. Is it necessary to have both music and art, or could we perhaps lose one (or combine them) in order to have languages on the timetable?

Religious Education: Some places, such as France, consider themselves secular when it comes to education. Others do not. Some parents prefer to send their children to religious schools in order to provide them with both empirical learning and theological learning. In these cases, it's going to be very difficult to take RE off the syllabus.

IT: Perhaps back when some of you were in primary school this wasn't such a big deal. Now it is. Is there anyone out there who doesn't use a computer daily? 

What are your opinions on compulsory language learning? Have you ever worked in or attended a school that had it? If so, do you feel that other subjects suffered as a result? We'd love to hear your opinions and experiences below in the comments.