Category Archives: Grammar

800. [PART 2] EPISODE 800 RAMBLE / LEPSTER Q&A

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Celebrating episode 800 by answering a massive list of questions from listeners. This episode covers things like how to improve your speaking when you live in a non-English speaking country, the headphones and microphone I use, my current favourite episode, the afterlife and spirit world, my favourite brands of tea, my favourite video games, being a father and the recent Star Wars series Andor and plenty plenty more. Video version available.

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A note from Luke (not in the episode)

I recorded parts 1 & 2 on Thursday 8 December. Since then England got knocked out of the World Cup by France (ouch!) and also I got ill with a horrible case of flu which put me in bed for 4 days. I’m still ill, but definitely starting to feel better. I’m going to record the rest of these episodes when I am well again, but time is running out fast before Christmas arrives. I am not sure I will have time to do a World Cup episode, but who cares now that England are out? 😂 (I’m joking – I’d love to talk about the football, but I don’t know if there will be time. We’ll see.) Anyway, enjoy the part 2 of this episode 800 mega-ramble! 🎆🎆🎆

QUESTIONS (Listen or watch the video to hear/see me correcting some errors)

АфтандилAftandil

1 day ago

Hello Luke,

How are you?

I kicked off listening to your podcact because of your Mom.  In one of your first episodes, you were talking about the Beatles. I so much liked her wise answers to your questions, her voice, accent, and most of all her straightforward way of speaking . She’s great!

My question Mr Thomson.

What are  High Hopes in your mind ? I’m now referring to Pink Floyd’s song.

Thank you very much,

Best of luck.

Lobzhanidze Aftandil.

Sirus Asgarov (and Garov is very serious)

10 hours ago

Hi,Luke.Please  add  some  special   videos for IELTS listening multiple questions.There are  different   sounds  and also  so fast  for this  reason  it is  hard to define.

Thanks in Advance

David Alexander

10 hours ago (edited)

Hi Luke ️I have a suggestion for creating a discord server in order to connect LEPsters around the world therefore they would be able to talk and have a chat with each other, what’s your take on this Luke? (anyway you can easily notify LEPsters through discord about contents too and it’s utterly free, that’s awesome isn’t it?) and thanks a lot for your awesome contents, have a blessed day 

Tutor Asim

1 day ago

Hello Luke . Can you make a video about how to be confident on camera? Maybe you could interview some of your YouTuber friends or maybe Paul and Amber , they haven’t been on the podcast for a while have they ?

宁 魏Ning Wei

5 hours ago

Hi Luke～How do we improve our speaking skills if we are not living abroad～I mean English language speaking country～ Do you have any practical suggestions? I feel like my listening is much better than speaking~Your podcast is awesome ~thanks~

4 ways of speaking to yourself

  • Repeat after me, shadowing
  • Just chatting to yourself “I’m going to do this, and that’s a bottle of shampoo with soap all over it’ etc
  • Giving an opinion in response to something
  • Describing past events to practise storytelling

Mosbah Tayeb  • 1 day ago

How are you

Lv Bri  • 10 hours ago

Hi luke, why your headset look so ugly? I don’t mean to be rude, but they seems to be fixed with a plastic bag.

Lv Bri  • 10 hours ago

I was joking haha. A more real question: I am curious about if the podcast is your main job or do you teach in a real school? You are a great teacher and I wish you all the best with the podcast.

Natasha Katina

1 day ago

Hi Luke, thank you for your brilliant podcast. is your daughter friends with Amber’s and Paul‘s children?

Денис Пирог Denis Pirog

1 day ago

Hello, Luke! Which episode do you like the most and why? 

marianavie2012

1 day ago

Hi Luke, what do you like the most about being a podcaster?

Maria K.

1 day ago

Could you perhaps read short stories to repeat more often. I think this is the best way to practice pronunciation. That would be great.

Cristiano Ronaldo

1 day ago (edited)

I have a suggestion for you to make your podcast greater. You should make more episodes about vocabulary, like topic vocabulary, everyday expressions and some difficult grammatical structures, for example: 

I ate anything but an apple 

which means I only ate an apple.

I ate nothing but an apple

[Luke: actually this isn’t correct – listen to the episode to hear my comments]

Berdiyev Azamat from Uzbekistan 

Norridin Abdulkarim

1 day ago

Hey teacher Luke’ How are you? My question is how many Languages do you speak?  Second question Which club  do you support in the premier league?  Thanks an advance!!!

Rome Gracheve

2 days ago

Hello, Luke! My question is, what is the best gift you have ever received?

Mak Rakhimova

1 day ago (edited)

Do you have any movie lists to recommend ? 

Last question : I know you travelled to lots of countries . Haven’t you thought of starting a travelling blog ?

Angela M

1 day ago

I hope you will end episode 800 with a song! 

Mak Rakhimova

1 day ago (edited)

Hello,  Luke. Do you believe in the concept of the After Life ?

Have you ever been interested in the spirit world ?

Andrii Abtseshko

1 day ago

Hello Luke. What kind of dance you will do online on your YouTube channel if England win the Qatar championship ?

Bashiir Ahmed

1 day ago

Teacher luke, good morning, greetings from a small country in the horn of Africa called SOMALIA. my question is, can you connect me to an online English Teacher or School where I can study English. Thank you so much.

KamMouflage

2 days ago

what is your fav British tea brand?

Yang Si

1 day ago

What is the best random conversation you overhead?

TECH STUDIO

1 day ago

Can you describe you as a luckiest person

Steelpiercer

1 day ago

What is your favorite video game?

Stas Miroshnikov

1 day ago

Hi, what was your childhood dream? Do you have any dreams now?

ghada suqr

2 days ago

Please  read about YouTube algorithms  to reach more audience.

AGnieszk rachula

1 day ago

Have you ever been to Poland ?

KamMouflage

2 days ago

why do you wear a headset while recording?

Farhan Ibnu salih

7 hours ago

Hello are you fine

Maria Osipova  • 21 hours ago (edited)

Hi Luke, what is the best thing about being a father?

Hóa học Phương trình  • 6 hours ago

Why i can hear u,but i can’t hear american speak ?

みき  • 5 hours ago

And Can I ask what is the name of the microphone? Your voice is really clear and nice.^^@

Stas Miroshnikov  • 40 minutes ago

Hi again, have you watched new TV Star Wars series Andor? If yes, did you like it and why?

inga nagifka 

 • 1 day ago

Hello, Luke! I’m a new listener of your podcast, but I already like it a LOT! I love your sense of humor! Have you seen the movie Hot Fuzz? What do you think about it? Maybe you can recommend some interesting movies with great British humor? Good luck to you and thank you very much for your excellent job! 

Elena Buzalskaia  • 1 day ago

Hello, Luke! Could detective stories and poetry be more frequent or somehow regular in your podcast? Do you think they are like boosters for vocabulary, or they can make listeners feel a little bit passive? Do you have a special formulae for the  balance between different types of lessons?

Alessandro Clavenna  • 1 day ago

Hi Luke. Have you ever been to Italy.

Aurora Contreras  • 1 day ago

Hi, I’m new a subscriber! Great Podcasts!  I’d like you to dedicate an episode to the MBTI personality test, which is very popular nowadays.Kind Regards! 🇨🇱🇬🇧

Jerry Han  • 1 day ago

Could you please make a new episode about British English? like the tips of sounding more british and the things we have to mind if we wanna master British English. Thank you so much!

Maria Osipova  • 1 day ago

Hi Luke, what is your best life-changing non-fiction book?

Agnieszka Stodulska  • 16 hours ago

Hi Luke, Have you ever been to Poland?

HI Luke, Have you got any pets? Dogs or cats?

Hi Luke, What is your favourite dish? Do you prefer french or english cuisne?

Hi Luke, I like the podcasts with yout brother. Do you plan to organise the meeting with him on you tube? He has a very interesting voice. I’d like to see him :)

Hi Luke, Can you imagine that I need to have contact with your podcast every day? It is like an addiction:) Have you got some patent to be so good?

Hi Luke, What is in the picture on the left in your podroom?. I see a red geometric figure but what does it mean?

PART 3 coming as soon as possible!

800. [PART 1] EPISODE 800 RAMBLE / LEPSTER Q&A

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Celebrating episode 800 and responding to lots of questions sent in on social media. Expect questions about my ill-fated music career, grammar, favourite authors, my daughter, life as an English teaching podcaster and plenty more. Video version available.

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Intro Script & Questions for Part 1

Hello listeners, welcome to episode 800.

Fireworks! BOOM! 🎆🎆🎆

Welcome to episode 800.

Here we are. It’s episode 800. It’s a big occasion but the emphasis is on chill in this episode. We’re just going to chill together and celebrate episode 800. So let’s sit back, relax and enjoy podcasting together. 

This episode might take absolutely ages – I don’t know how long this is going to be, but we’re not going to worry about that, or anything else in this episode. No concerns, no worries. 

For this one I thought I would answer some questions from listeners on social media, YouTube and my website. I recently asked for questions and I got loads. Billions. I got billions of questions. 

I’m going to try and answer them almost all of them in this episode. 

That might be seriously over ambitious and this could end up being the longest episode ever, we’ll see. If I have to divide it into parts, so be it. We’ve had episode 300 part 1 and 2, as well as several episode 666s, we can have episode 800 in a few parts. But in fact that does prove that I’ve already done more than 800 episodes. In fact I reckon it’s over 1000 if you include premium ones, bonus ones, app-only ones, phrasal verb ones. 

In any case, I’m going to go through the questions and try to answer as many as possible. This is bound to take bloody ages. I mean, hours. 

I’ve chosen nearly all the questions which came to me, except for world cup ones because I’ll talk about that in another episode. 

They’re presented here in no particular order, from various social media platforms. 

And I’m going to correct errors if and when I find them. 

So this will be a sort of error correction episode too, I expect.

We will start in a minute, but first I just want to take this moment to celebrate getting to 800 episodes!

What does this really mean to me?

A long term professional project which has been a success and continues to be. No mean feat!

It’s a nice big number

800 is a large amount of anything – name a thing and imagine 800 of it. It’s always a lot!

Satisfying to reach a milestone, but I have my sights on 1000 now.

No need to dwell on it too long…

Thank you for continuing to listen to this podcast, allowing me to keep doing this all these years. 

Recently the podcast hit 100,000,000 downloads since it started.

I love doing this podcast and I hope you love listening to it too.

I love the fact that I can do this – spend most of my working time on making content for learners of English, doing it my own way, being my own boss. It’s all thanks to the podcast, which means it’s all thanks to you, and the way it works is that those people who can afford it can become premium subscribers, which keeps the show completely free for those people who can’t afford it, and I get to keep making the episodes. 

Let’s get on with the listener questions.

By the way, I’ve removed all World Cup questions because I think I’m going to talk about that in a separate episode.

QUESTIONS

FROM LEPSTERS

YouTube

Cyril Alexander

1 day ago (edited)

Hello! Thank you for this lux podcast!

I saw you like playing guitar and maybe you have your own compositions and maybe you have some thoughts about your own rock band. 

Luke, did you ever dream of being a rock star? 

Would you be able to carry the rock star burden?

MUSIC

Played drums in lots of bands

Made music on computer (real instruments)

Made music on synths (Korg)

Play guitar (other people’s songs) and piano (not any more)

Play bass on other people’s songs

Bands

The bold ones were the serious ones

Engshan (English with Zeeshan)

1 day ago

Hey Luke  my name is M Zeeshan i am from Pakistan i’m your big fan so could you explain the difference between these sentences ?

“We had to stay until we had finished our podcast.”, 

“We had to stay until we finished our podcast.” 

Which one is correct?

Sera Bende  • 2 hours ago (edited)

Hi Luke, thanks for this mini episode :) Congratulations on the 800 episodes. My question is if you are considering doing more rambling episodes because they are fun and I think it is an excellent way to learn how to speak naturally and talk about daily life. Looking forward to seeing more rambling episodes.

Mariagrazia Fornarotto

17 hours ago

Hi Luke! It’s Mary from Italy writing..I was just wondering…who is your favourite contemporary English novelist and why? Thanks in advance  for your reply…

Maria

1 day ago

Hello, Luke! Thank you for your podcast Tell us, please, what stories do you tell your daughter? What are they about? Which ones are her favourite? 

Oishi

1 day ago

800 is a long way, congratulations Tr Luke. I would like to suggest that it would be great if you could upload one story telling episode per week (is it too much?) because as a lazy learner, your story telling can carry me to the end of the episode.

Janya Markevich

8 hours ago

Hey Luuuke! I really like what you do and I’m a fan of your sense humor. I was wondering as a kid at school were you this type of guy who bravely says a joke loudly so that the whole class hears and giggles afterwards? 

And do you feel that via humor you make the atmosphere (any place: job, school, family pre Christmas hassle, etc.) more amicable and lighthearted? 

Thank you in advance!))

Maria C

1 day ago (edited)

Hey Luke! Congratulations on the 800 episodes 

My question is if Jerry Seinfeld is one of your favorite comedians and if it was him or another one who inspired you. 

Steve Martin

Jerry Seinfeld

Bill Hicks

Eddie Izzard

Bill Bailey

Serg Boorow

2 days ago

Hey Luke, what’s cracking!?Thanks for your fantastic podcast, IMHO for the time being it’s one of the most fascinating podcasts in terms of immersing in British English/humor (or at least I would like to think like that) that I’ve come across. My question is, do you consider moving to somewhere from Paris in particular and from France in general? Cheers.

Living Italian style with Nina

57 minutes ago

Hi Luke,  thank you for your amazing job on your podcast.  My question is: when will you release another episode of the Rick Thompsom Report?

Antin Kuntin

1 day ago

Hi Luke.

First of all: you are doing a really great job! 

My question is: are you talking normally like in your daily life or slower and clearer than usual so that we can understand?  

Thanks in advance for your answer

Vafa Guliyeva

1 day ago

Hi, Luke! I got 3 questions for you .

In your opinion, approximately how many words do you need to have in your vocabulary to be able to speak like you do in your ramble episodes? and is there an efficient method for determining the amount of vocabulary for a non-native speaker?

https://manylex.com/

How does it work? Read the text on the website.

Native speakers know 20,000 – 30,000 words.

I got about 25,000.

Learners of English who get 10,000 can be near-native.

Aster L.H.

1 day ago

Bravo Luke! Looking forward to your next podcast talking about The FIFA World Cup. 

A question to Luke. How many Asian countries have you been to?

Jakub

1 day ago (edited)

Hello Luke. I really enjoyed your podcasts about comedy TV series, like Alan Partridge. However, I asked you (very politely) quite a long time ago about the possibility of doing an episode (likely more then one) about Peep show. I believe that we could all learn from Peep show loads of useful British expressions/phrases which never occur in textbooks for students. Is there any chance that some comedy episodes are in the pipeline?  Respect and best wishes from Poland 🇵🇱️

Teacher Zdenek

1 day ago

My questions for you: “What’s the hardest thing about doing the podcast?”

Shaping an idea into the finished product. 

Дмитрий Обухов Dmitry Obukhov

19 hours ago (edited)

Hi, Luke! I’m really into your podcasts and watch every single episode no matter what length it is. My favorite videos are about detective and horror quizzes/stories. Are you planning to make a podcast on this topic? If so, I’m looking forward to seeing new episodes soon.

Cristiano Ronaldo

1 day ago (edited)

Hi Luke, how is it going? First of all, thank you for teaching us. My question is : is it possible to speak like you, if I only listen to your podcast, I mean your intonation and your pronunciation. You speak very clearly. I like your speech that is why I usually listen to your podcast

My name is Berdiyev Azamat from Khiva in Uzbekistan

德高望重respected

1 day ago

Hi Luke, I wonder what makes you an English teacher? I am a new listener since maybe 3 months ago, and I enjoy your style a lot. Thanks anyway.

Cecília de Melo

1 day ago

Hi, Luke! Thank you for teaching us. My question is: I don’t have problems to understand you but why is so difficult for me to understand an American talking?

  1. Familiarity
  2. Are you watching TV/Films?
  3. Maybe British English is just better

vvaskey

2 days ago

Hi Luke:) 

My first question is what is the best moment in your childhood?) 

My second question is a bit personal, but anyway how old is your daughter? How is she doing?)

796. Language & Local British Identity with MARK STEEL

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Special Guest Mark Steel joins me to discuss cultural and linguistic differences between the UK and France, plus accents in the UK and a little tour of some places in the UK that you don’t know about. Also includes a discussion of swearing and rude language in Britain. What is the R word which you should never say in a specific part of the UK? Listen on to find out. Video version available.

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Video Version (shorter, with automatic subtitles)

795. DOPPELGANGER (Learn English with a Short Story)

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Learn English with another short story. In fact, this episode contains two stories. Listen until the end for the 2nd one. Repeat after me to practise your pronunciation. Learn some vocabulary & grammar in the second half of the episode, with an explanation of modal verbs of deduction in the past and present. Video version available.

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Video Version (with on-screen text)

Sign up to LEP Premium for a premium series with another story (P41)

Get the episode PDF with notes and full transcript

795. DOPPELGANGER (Learn English with a 100-Word Story) PDF TRANSCRIPT – teacherluke.co.ukDownload

There are a couple of sites where you can find a lot of 100 Word Stories. One site is called https://100wordstory.org/ and the other is https://www.fridayflashfiction.com/ 

 

Get the book 

I want to just point out that there is a book full of these very short stories, which you could buy. 

It’s called Nothing Short of 100: Selected tales from 100 Word Story

It is a collection of stories from the https://100wordstory.org/ website. 

There’s a Kindle version or a print version. 

It is published by OUTPOST 19 and it was put together by the team behind the website, including Grant Faulkner, Lynn Mundell and Joshua Michael Stewart. 

It is available for you to purchase and I recommend it if you are looking for bite size stories to use for learning or teaching English. 

I also recommend visiting https://100wordstory.org/ and www.fridayflashfiction.com where you can find absolutely loads of stories like this with new ones arriving each week.

Do you want more of this kind of thing?

Sign up to LEP Premium www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium 

I do language analysis, vocab & grammar explanations and pronunciation practice.

There are stories and language reviews for conversations which have appeared in episodes of LEP. 

If you sign up you can add all the premium episodes to your podcast app of choice, and also get links for video versions and PDF worksheets.

www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium 

That’s the end of the episode, but check out LEP Premium.

I’m going to do a premium episode all about this second doppelganger story. 

All the vocabulary (with a memory test), some grammar, some pronunciation practice.

I’ll go through the vocabulary and some grammar and I’ll do some pronunciation practice with it too, just like I did with the 100-word story.

P35 [1/2] StoryTime: Learn English with Stories (free LEP Premium Sample) THE BEAR STORY

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This is a free sample of LEP Premium, available for everyone. In this episode I’ll tell you about my technique for learning English with stories and transcripts, with full details about how to improve your English with my stories. Then I’ll tell you a story about a time I had an encounter with a bear, and then I’ll give you some language practice exercises for your grammar and vocabulary, and some pronunciation drills to let you repeat after me. Full PDF transcript available + video version available too.

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Video Version with on-screen transcript

Links, PDFS & Notes

🏆 LEP Premium is a series of bonus episodes from Luke’s English Podcast in which I teach you vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. LEP Premium is now available on Acast+ Episodes are usually in audio format (with some bonus videos), and you can listen to them in any normal podcast app.

👉 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

👉 Click here for more information about LEP Premium on Acast+ https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo

👉 Already subscribed to LEP Premium on Libsyn/LEP App? Click here for important information about moving your subscription https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium/moving

👇 Get the full PDF transcript/worksheet for this episode

📄 PDF in normal size https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-1_1-StoryTime_-Learn-English-with-Stories-free-LEP-Premium-Sample-THE-BEAR-STORY-COMPUTER-VERSION.pdf

📄 PDF with large text for your phone https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-1_1-StoryTime_-Learn-English-with-Stories-free-LEP-Premium-Sample-THE-BEAR-STORY-PHONE-VERSION.pdf

📄 PDF Bear Story Transcript https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-The-Bear-Story-Transcript-COMPUTER-VERSION.pdf

📄 PDF Bear Story Transcript for your phone https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-The-Bear-Story-Transcript-PHONE-VERSION.pdf

768. English Teaching Methodologies (with Gabriel Clark)

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Gabriel Clark from clarkandmiller.com joins me to discuss a short history of teaching methodology in the world of TEFL. The direct method, the grammar translation method, The Audio Lingual Method, the Structural Approach, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), The Silent Way, Community Language Learning, Task Based Language Learning, The Lexical Approach and dogme style – all these get described and discussed. Learn how English teachers teach you English!

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Video Version (with no ramble at the end)

Come to my talk at the British Council in Paris – 19 May 7PM – https://www.britishcouncil.fr/evenements/talks-english-comedie

Any listeners in the Paris area – This is just a reminder about the talk I am doing at the British Council at the Invalides centre in Paris on Thursday 19 May at 7pm. I will be doing some storytelling in front of a live audience and you can be there if you want. It’ll be sort of a mix of stand up, storytelling and podcasting at the same time as well as a social gathering afterwards, all in English of course. 

I will be on the stage telling the story of how I ended up sick in a Japanese hospital bed, scared out of my mind because I thought I was going to die or something – now, that sounds quite scary but the idea is to make it funny and entertaining. 

It is a true, personal story of travelling, living in another country, and how things can sometimes get completely lost in translation, leading to some rather dramatic experiences. 

If you want to come and be part of the audience – you can. It’s free. Everyone is invited. I will be recording it for the podcast, but if you want to actually be there in the room and have a drink afterwards, socialise in English and so on – then you are welcome. You need to book a seat though, and you can do that at britishcouncil.fr and then click evenements – my event is the one called Talks in English : Le choc culturel – humoriste

763. Rambling in the new Pod-Room / Choose The Adverb / Deal or No Deal

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This is a chance for me to just let loose and have a ramble while inviting you to this kind of housewarming party (or perhaps just the first part of the party) in my new pod-room. In this one I am going to welcome you into the new room and do a ramble challenge in which I am restricted to only talking about things inside the room, plus reading from some random books on my shelves. Grammar rules, adverbial collocations and a game show story.

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Episode Notes

Private Lessons with British Council English Score Tutors https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/english Episode page

LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo

LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch

Rules of the Ramble

  • Welcome everyone to the pod-room.
  • Give a tour.
  • I’m restricted to only talking about things inside the room.
  • Maybe describe some of the items on the walls and pictures.
  • Include some descriptive language.
  • Pick up a book and do a random exercise from it.
  • Keep talking without pausing or saying “errr”.

Contents

  • 00:00:00 Hello
  • 00:00:52 Promo
  • 00:02:30 Introduction
  • 00:03:44 Ramble Rules
  • 00:05:26 Welcome to the new pod-room
  • 00:05:42 The Electricity & Internet Situation
  • 00:10:37 Sound Recording Setup
  • 00:17:01 Let me show you around the room
  • 00:22:32 The desk
  • 00:24:30 A Book from the `Bookshelf
  • 00:25:17 English Grammar in Use by Ramond Murphy
  • 00:25:38 Present Perfect Simple vs Continuous
  • 00:27:04 Build Your Vocabulary 3
  • 00:27:31 Choose The Adverb
  • 00:47:23 Lighting
  • 00:49:25 Random Book: Jon Ronson – Lost At Sea
  • 00:51:01 Deal or No Deal story
  • 01:00:48 Ending

756. Learn English with LEP in 2022 / A New Year Ramble

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In this episode I’m going to wish you a Happy New Year, ramble a little bit about what’s going on in LEPland, restate some of my aims and objectives for this podcast, and give a few comments on how you can use the podcast to improve your English, with reference to some recommended episodes from the archive.

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Episode Notes & Links

Happy New Year everyone! (new listeners, long-term listeners, mid-term listeners and anyone else who happens to be listening)

All the best for 2022. Try to keep up your motivation for learning English throughout the year. I hope I can help. That is my aim.

How was your Christmas/New Year? Did you have a holiday? What did you do?
What’s the situation Luke, as you record this? (summarise the last couple of weeks, and what’s going on around you)

I might not be able to upload episodes regularly for the next few weeks. If LEP goes quiet – I am still here and still working, but not able to record or upload because of all the different disruptions. My life is like a puzzle at the moment and I am putting all the pieces back together.

LUKE’S ENGLISH PODCAST – AIMS

  • To provide a resource of authentic speech for learners of English.

Episode suggestions
All of them! Especially ones which are unscripted. 

  • To inform my audience about methods and strategies for improving their English.

Episode suggestions
174. How to learn English with Luke’s English Podcast

251. Welcome to LEP / 16 Things You Should Know About LEP

669. How to Learn English

  • To educate my listeners about the English language by explaining or providing examples of grammar.

Episode suggestions
Premium episodes www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo (articles, sentence structure, present perfect tense, narrative tenses, modal verbs about the past, quantifiers and more) but also a lot of episodes in the archive deal with grammar. Here’s a selection.

19. Passive Verb Forms

29. Mystery Story / Narrative Tenses

44. Telling Anecdotes

53. Discussing Grammar with My Brother

69. Common Errors / Typical Mistakes

176. Grammar: Verb Tense Review (should be premium really!)

263. Past, Present & Future A chance to really understand the tenses in English, with lots of context.

372. The Importance of Anecdotes in English / Narrative Tenses / Four Anecdotes This episode has a bit of everything: useful tips for telling anecdotes, a review of narrative verb tenses, some authentic spoken anecdotes by members of my family and some vocabulary explanations.

406. Grammar (Past Continuous Tense) / UK Media Bias / Brazil Football Tragedy A review of the differences between past continuous tense and past simple tense

518. Grammar Questions (Part 1) Present Perfect Continuous / Future Continuous / Language of Newspaper Headlines – Answering grammar questions from listeners, with details about verb tenses (including present continuous vs present perfect continuous & future continuous vs going to) and the language of newspaper headlines.

518b is in the LEP app – [App-only Episode] 518b Grammar Questions (Part 2) Hope vs Wish / Relative Clauses (an overview) / Prepositions

  • To enrich the vocabulary of my listeners by presenting and teaching natural English usage in context.

Suggested episodes
Check the archive here https://teacherluke.co.uk/archive-of-episodes-1-149/ and try doing a command+F search for vocabulary, or search for the word vocabulary in the app.

  • To entertain my audience by producing fun and interesting content specifically targeted at learners of English as a second language.

  • To highlight particular aspects of English (language) culture including themes about Britishness, accounts of key moments in history, politics and the arts, with a particular focus on comedy and film.

Suggested episodes
Search the archive for the words British and comedy. The Rick Thompson Report, Film Club, British Comedy, Luke’s D-Day Diary, and more…

  • To raise awareness of many features of British English pronunciation and provide practice of repeating certain phrases or constructions.

Suggested episodes
All premium episode series have dedicated pronunciation episodes. Also, these ones:

224. Pronunciation: Verb Tenses & Connected Speech Learn how native speakers really pronounce sentences in different tenses.

485 & 486. Difficult Words to Pronounce in English (with Paul Taylor) (Parts 1 & 2) + video This is a double episode with two audio episodes on one page, and it’s all about difficult pronunciation in English. 

682. Key Features of English Accents, Explained – Exploring the main differences between standard English pronunciation (RP) and non-standard regional or colloquial accents. 

And various episodes about accents…

  • To keep my audience engaged in the listening process long term, by providing a resource to help them laugh while they learn.

  • To make people laugh out loud on public transport while listening to the podcast!

  • To dominate the world with an army of LEP ninjas equipped with biscuits and good English. …Ok, one of my listeners asked me to add this as an aim for my podcast, ha ha! (Thanks Chriss Benitez)

Those episodes can be found in the LEP app or via the episode archive. Most good podcasting apps will have the entire archive, but I think iTunes or Apple Podcasts doesn’t show all episodes. YouTube doesn’t show all episodes either. Only some of my episodes are on YT. I’d like them all to be there (just the audio) eventually.

HOW TO USE LUKE’S ENGLISH PODCAST TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH

People from all over the world use my podcasts to improve their English, and lots of people email me to tell me how much they love the podcast and find it useful. Some of you might be wondering how you can improve your English by using the podcast. I’ll tell you more about this in a moment, but let me first recommend a couple of podcast episodes you could listen to.

Click here to listen to an episode with lots of advice and suggestions for improving your English with L.E.P. It has a transcript too. (Episode 174)

Click here for an episode called “16 things you should know about LEP”. (Episode 251)

Many people tell me they are completely addicted to the show. Usually they say that they found the podcast via one episode in particular and then start listening to all the others before becoming completely hooked. I have quite a hard-core following. The podcast won the Macmillan Dictionary Award four times and was nominated for a British Council ELTon award, so I must be doing something right!

L.E.P combines English teaching with plenty of entertaining conversation, humour and genuine insight into the culture of the English language. My methodology and approach are based on the idea that language is acquired by engaging with it in authentic form, over longer periods of time. Although this is not the only way to improve your English, listening to natural authentic speech over quite long periods of time can greatly improve your listening skills, pronunciation and vocabulary. This goes on to improve your spoken English, and your general instinct for grammar. I try to balance this approach by regularly recording episodes in which I directly teach you vocabulary, pronunciation or grammar.

Good grammatical awareness is based on instinct as much as on active knowledge of the rules of English. When you take an English exam you have to answer questions that test your knowledge and use of grammar or vocabulary. For example, consider this question:
FILL THE GAP IN THE SENTENCE WITH THE APPROPRIATE WORD
“I just can’t rely __ this car any more. It keeps breaking down. I need a new one.”

1. with          2. from        3. on          4. to

The answer is ‘3. on’, of course.
How did you know the answer? Really think about it. How did you know that ‘on’ was right? Do you remember learning ‘rely on’ in a book, or in a class? Maybe you did. But, for many of you, the answer just felt correct. Your instinct just said ‘on’. Well, this instinct is what you develop when you read or listen to the language a lot. Your brain builds up a kind of memory bank of all the words you have seen and heard. So, when you see ‘rely ___’ you automatically feel that ‘on’ is the right answer. Why? Because you’ve seen/heard ‘rely on’ lots of times!

The point is, that listening to English a lot can really help you to get a ‘feel’ for the language. You learn grammar rules by the frequency in which you hear patterns. You learn about good pronunciation by hearing the language a lot. You develop an ‘ear’ for English.

It’s just like when you live in a foreign country to learn English. It’s the best way to learn a language. Just live in that country and get completely surrounded by the language every day. Eventually you pick it up and learn it well. That’s because you’re hearing it so much and you’re getting used the rhythm and intonation. Every language has a beat. You can learn the beat of English by hearing it a lot.

So, you can use Luke’s English Podcast to do this. It’s like living in another country. You can listen a lot, pick up bits of vocabulary, get a ‘feel’ for the language, understand pronunciation and all kinds of cultural stuff. Not only that, but many listeners tell me the best thing about the podcast is simply that it makes them laugh out loud.

So, enjoy the podcasts and good luck with your English.

CLICK HERE FOR ThE ARCHIVE OF ALL THE EPISODES OF LUKE’S ENGLISH PODCAST.

747. Social Awkwardness / Very British Problems (with Michael Lavers from Level Up English)

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Talking to Michael Lavers from the Level Up English Podcast about learning Japanese, embarrassing moments in language learning, social awkwardness and some “very British problems”. Are you as socially awkward as a British person? Let’s see how you and Michael would respond to some quiz questions that will test your British awkwardness to the max. Video version available.

Audio Version

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Video Version

Introduction Transcript

Hello listeners and video viewers,

Today on the podcast I am talking to Michael Lavers who is an English teacher from Cornwall in the South West of England. Michael also has a podcast for learners of English. It’s called The Level Up English Podcast – you might want to check it out if you haven’t already done so. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts.

As well as being an English teacher, Michael is also a language learner himself and in his podcast episodes he often talks with guests about experiences of learning other languages, including those embarrassing or awkward moments that happen when you feel shy or you make mistakes. Also, Michael has described himself as a socially awkward person who lacks a certain amount of confidence in himself. In fact, he says that one of the reasons he started his podcast was to try and gain some confidence by going out of his comfort zone.

So this is what I thought I would ask Michael about: his language learning experiences and those awkward and embarrassing moments, and then I’d like to chat about social awkwardness and whether this is a uniquely British thing. And we’re going to go into some specific examples of how this so-called British awkwardness manifests itself.

That’s the plan, so now, let’s meet Michael Lavers from the Level Up English Podcast.

Awkward Situations – Very British Problems

Here are some questions based on some tweets by the popular Twitter account, Very British Problems. Each one describes a specific problem that British people typically experience in social situations. They seem to sum up the experience of being a British person. We’re socially awkward – I don’t know why.

Let’s see how you respond to these questions. And listeners, I want you to consider your answers to these questions too, then we’ll see what Michael says, and then we’ll see the original tweets and we can see if they match up.

Questions & Tweets

How do you feel when you walk through the “nothing to declare” gate at an airport?

You’re sitting with a group of people. It’s time for you to leave. What do you say as you kind of slap your hands on your knees and stand up?

If someone says something to you but you don’t hear it, how many times are you willing to ask them to repeat themselves?

What do you say to your taxi driver as they approach the point where you want to get out of the cab?

If you’re on a train, sitting in the window seat with a passenger next to you, and your stop is approaching, what do you do to signal to the passenger in the aisle seat that you will need to get up?

You’re standing at the exit door of the train as it is pulling into the station, slowly coming to a stop, and there is a crowd of other passengers right behind you, eager to get off the train. The “Open door” button isn’t yet illuminated. What do you do? Do you press the button?

How do you feel when the ticket inspector inspects your perfectly valid ticket?

What do you say, modestly, to guests arriving in your home, even though you spent some time before their arrival, tidying things up?

There’s one last roast potato on the table at Sunday lunch. You want to eat it. How do you achieve this?

  1. Just take it and eat it
  2. Ask if you can eat it
  3. Offer it to everyone else first

Do you ever tell your housemates or family that you are “off to bed” but then just stare at your phone in bed for an hour?

Imagine you are walking through a hallway with lots of doors in it, like in a library or something and you’re walking just behind a stranger who keeps having to hold the doors for you. How many different ways of saying “thanks” can you think of?

How do you end an email? Is there a subtly less friendly difference between kind regards and just regards?

What do you do when you get an incoming call from an unknown number?

How good are you at overtaking someone on foot?

Do you feel it necessary to speed up at all, when walking over a zebra crossing?

If you pay for something with exactly the right change, and you know it’s exactly the right change, do you wait for the cashier to count the money?

Links

www.ewmichael.com

www.levelupenglish.school

A reminder of the LEP Design Competition

I have had some entries already. If you’ve sent me something, then thank you. Please send your designs to podcastcomp@gmail.com and my brother and I will review the entries we receive, talk about them on the podcast and pick at least one to be featured in the LEP Merch store.

  • Think of a t-shirt that LEPsters would want to wear
  • PRIZE: The winning design will be put on t-shirts, mugs and other merch, and the winner will also win £80!
  • SPECS: A high-resolution transparent .PNG at 150dpi.  Minimum dimensions of at least 1500px by 1995px (not including outer transparent pixels).
  • CLOSING DATE: 22 October 2021
  • Send your t-shirt designs to podcastcomp@gmail.com

740. Are native English speakers bad communicators? (The Travel Adapter with Matt Halsdorff)

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Talking to English teacher Matt Halsdorff about a project to train native English speakers how to communicate better with non-natives. We talk about the reasons why native speakers are often bad at communicating with non-natives, what they should do to fix this and the wider issues relating to this project. Video version available.

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Episode Introduction Transcript

Hello listeners and video viewers, how are you doing today?

In this episode you’re going to listen to me in conversation with Matt Halsdorff who is an English teacher with many years of teaching experience, and we’re going to be discussing the question of whether native English speakers are in fact the worst communicators in an international English environment.

Matt is currently working on a project with Christian Saunders from Canguro English. I think the project sounds really interesting and raises a few good questions about how native speakers of English and non-native speakers communicate with each other, what non-natives really struggle with in this language, and whether native speakers can do anything to help.

If you saw my latest video interview with Christian from Canguro English and you watched until the end you might remember us discussing this project briefly. If you remember, Christian mentioned a training course in communication in English – but the twist is that it’s for native speakers – more specifically it is for native English speakers who need to communicate internationally.

Because, It’s not just learners of English who need training in this language. Apparently – It’s native speakers too.

English is a global language, and everyone is using it for business and also for travel purposes. Everyone needs to use this language to communicate successfully so the world can continue spinning.

Everyone uses English, and everyone has to work on the way they use it, in the same way that we all have to work on our email writing and IT skills to make them as efficient and effective as possible.

As a non-native speaker of English, of course you’ve got to work on the entire system – you need vocabulary, you need correct grammar, you need clear pronunciation, fluency, confidence and so on – obviously, that’s what’s involved in trying to use another language.

You learn as you go and try to do your best and you almost certainly feel a great deal of responsibility, pressure, and challenge when communicating in English. You are probably keenly aware of your performance in English and sensitive about any kind of failure in communication and how that might be your fault.

But do native speakers share a similar sense of responsibility?

In fact here are a number of other questions which arise when thinking about this topic.

  • Do native English speakers do all they can in international situations to make sure they are understood clearly, just like everyone else does?
  • Are native speakers aware of what it is like to operate in a second language?
  • Might there be other reasons why native English speakers don’t adapt the way they speak in order to improve shared communication?
  • Who is responsible for the success of any act of communication? Just one side, or both?
  • Should native speakers adapt their English? Or is it up to the non-natives to do all the heavy lifting in this situation?
  • And if native speakers should adapt their English, how should they do it?
  • What kind of English should they avoid and what kind is likely to be the most successful?
  • And what about other considerations and questions, such as what happens to the English language when it is being adapted in this way?

Well, I am interviewing Matt today in order to discuss these things and find out about this project in general. First we’re just going to take a few minutes to get to know him, and then we’re going to dive into this training project for native speakers, which is called The Travel Adaptor by the way. We’re going to find out about the project, about what native speakers do and say which can be so confusing, how native speakers can facilitate communication with non-natives, and the wider issue of global English and successful international communication.

As well as getting into the specifics of this conversation, you can certainly learn about some of the major obstacles that non-native speakers have when understanding natives.

So there’s plenty to pick up from this. There is a YouTube version too just in case you need to see our faces as well as listen to us.

Let’s get started!

Links

Download the PDF about The Travel Adapter

www.canguroenglish.com

www.coyoteenglish.com

*This is a conversation about language*

Ending

Well, that was Matt Halsdorff talking about The Travel Adapter – a training course for native-speakers of English, to help them communicate better globally.

So, what do you think? I’m very keen to read your comments and I am sure you had things popping into your head during this conversation. Why not express them in English here in the comment section?

  • Do you have experiences of communicating with native speakers in English? What was it like? Did they adapt their speech? What was difficult?
  • Do you think native speakers should adapt their speech when talking to non-natives, or not? Why?

But that’s it for now. Thank you for listening and I will speak to you again soon. I’ve got a little announcement coming in the next few weeks that’s pretty cool, plus the usual free episodes and premium episodes on their way as usual.

Speak to you soon, but for now – goodbye bye bye bye bye bye bye!