From a traditional school approach, reading in a foreign language was more about: Reading a text out loud Answering boring questions about the text Looking at grammar points which come up in the text And in some schools, it was also about: Translating the text However, reading in real life doesn’t require any of these. An example of a more modern approach to reading and learning in general would be our Spanish courses in Bristol. Think about it – when do you read aloud? When does someone quiz you about something you just read...

The notion of learning vocabulary is far from foreign to any language learner. Vocabulary is not only important for communicating, it is essential to it! Students who have been through our Spanish courses in Manchester, as well as all the other courses we run, will attest to that. “Without grammar you can say little, without lexis you can say nothing.” However, what makes for effective vocabulary learning is a totally different kettle of fish. This blog post will explore precisely that: effective and well-organised vocabulary learning for forei...

Learning a language isn’t easy... If you’ve ever learnt a language yourself or know someone who has, perhaps someone who has done one of our Spanish courses in Bristol, then you will have heard of the difficulties learners have to go through: it’s no easy chore! However, there isn’t really anything difficult to language learning. In fact, the problem lies in time: you need “the necessary time” and “an effective approach” to successfully learn a language. This hasn't really changed with the advent of new technologies. If anything, t...

This morning I read an article in a national newspaper looking at mobile technology in the language learning classroom It divided schools up into two groups: Schools which allow learners to use technology in lessons (such as UKLP Bristol where our Spanish courses in Bristol allow phones and electronic devices in the classroom) Schools which don’t allow learners to use technology in lessons From the teachers’ part, there is always the argument that smartphones and tablets “disturb lessons” – they are a nuisance and distract learners ...

You may be among the majority of people that believes that you can’t learn a new language beyond childhood and definitely not once you’re pushing 40. You are, however, about to learn why this received wisdom is very wrong indeed. Older people actually have some advantages over children when it comes to learning new languages; you just have to make the most of them. Adults can learn faster and more effectively than children It used to be the case that you were written off at 50 when it came to picking up a new language – or anything else new for t...