As we’ve covered on our blog before, it’s not always easy to distinguish between a language and a dialect. One criterion that can help differentiate between the two is mutual intelligibility. That means whether two speakers can understand each other without spending time and energy on learning each other’s language. Ideally, dialects should be mutually […]
Motivation plays a vital role in every language learner’s life, but not all incentives are created equal. In fact, it is rather important to tell the difference between at least two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. What that difference is and what role it plays in language learning is the topic of today’s blog […]
While the concept of “a word” is surprisingly difficult to define with any accuracy, it still makes sense to divide that nebulous idea into more concrete and manageable categories. One way of doing that is to split words into content and function words. The category names themselves already provide a bit of insight into what […]
In today’s world, where a majority of people are multilingual, languages can and do open doors. Just imagine how amazing it would be for you to speak freely with people from different cultures. Sadly, language barriers often make such communication difficult. To solve this, many monolingual adults have resolved to learn other languages. Some do […]
The process of learning something new requires an individual to pay full attention for them to truly acquire it. However, learning a new language is different from studying other concepts that you know. You need to memorize and make sense of unfamiliar sounds, finally working your way to producing those sounds yourself. That’s the short […]
There are two types of English teachers in this world; a Native English Speaking Teacher (NEST) and a non-Native English Speaker Teacher (nNEST). The former speaks English as their mother tongue, while the latter learned it, overcoming the same learning challenges you’re struggling with now. So, today Marek from TEFL Equity Advocates is explaining the […]
Trying to make sense of linguistic terms can sometimes be a challenge. Especially when the terms are very similar in both meaning and sound. Such is the case with homonyms, homophones, and homographs. If you add to that list “homomorphs”, the confusion level increases exponentially. As with many technical terms, the differences between them are […]
English might be the most common second language on the planet, but that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s the easiest language to learn. The maddening number of homonyms in English is enough to create confusion in anyone, learner and native speaker alike. The Internet crime of mixing up “your” and “you’re”, which many seem to […]
Words that resemble one another are common in all of the world’s languages. Through historical trade and relations with neighbouring countries, vocabulary elements have spread far and wide from their original locations. For example, “orange” comes to English from the Far East. The exact origin language is unknown, but it probably started in Telugu, Tamil, […]
When talking about languages, it’s often marked in how many countries they are the national or official language in. For example, English is an official language in 54 states. But very little attention is paid to correctly using the terms national and official language. They are often thought to mean the same thing but that […]
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