How do deaf people read?
My brother and his wife are sign language interpreters speaking American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is its own language with syntax and grammar and the signs are not merely replacements for English words. The...
All English - Helping you connect with the world
What’s an Allophone?
A phoneme is a distinct unit of sound. There are about 40 unique phonemes in American English, 24 consonant sounds and 16 vowel sounds. But of course, this division of sounds is not absolute....
Is It a Baa or Faa?
Why are we so insistent on using video in the All English courses? When we learn a language we think we are just learning sounds, but in fact communication is so much more. Previously, I’ve discussed...
50 Shades of Vowels
Look at these glasses of wine from a French winery. Obviously they are all reds. Now let me ask you: Which one is really red? There are lots of shades of red, as you...
Grammar Byte: Parts of Speech
There are different kinds of words, according to the particular part (or role) a given word plays when it is used in speech or writing. We give each kind of word a label that shows which part...
Grammar Byte: Meet the Noun Family
NOUNS Nouns are naming words for people, places, things, ideas, and animals. PRONOUNS Words that can be used to replace a noun. ex. you, it, that, we, there ADJECTIVES Words that describe or modify...
What If English Was Phonetically Consistent?
Reading English can be frustrating because the spelling of sounds varies a lot. Take for example the letters “ough”. They can be pronounced in at least eight different ways: Enough Plough Through Though Thought...
Why British Singers Lose Their Accent When Singing
One day my son and I were listening to some music and he told me the singer was British. “Really?!” I said. “He sounds American to me.” “All singers sound American,” he replied in a matter...
Grammar is embedded in vocabulary
If it’s not obvious from reading this blog, I have a strong bias for teaching vocabulary over grammar. Research is conclusive: Explicit learning of grammar does not help language acquisition. It may help...
Measuring the Immeasurable
One of the big problems with education is how to measure student results. We tend to measure what is easily measurable rather than measuring what’s truly important. And this especially true in measuring language...
