A quick ramble about why this is the final part of episode 800, why there was a delay between part 2 and part 3, some comments about having flu, and about World Cup 2022.
Category Archives: Hello
797. Stephen from SEND7 interviews Luke about LEP
Stephen from SEND7 podcast becomes the host to interview me about how I started LEP, the ins and outs of doing this, plus some advantages and challenges for podcasting to learners of English. Video version available.
Video Version (automatic subtitles)
Send 7 Podcast – www.send7.org
772. Rambling in the Podcastle (June 2022) News / Thoughts / Reflections
This is an unedited monologue in which I talk about some things which are on my mind at the moment, including how my hair is stopping me from learning French (and vice versa), virtuous and vicious circles, how English is like a shark (or a river – or maybe a shark in a river), some comments about recent episodes and a visit from a friendly bat at my podcastle.
[DOWNLOAD]
Video Version (try activating the automatic subtitles)
Some vocabulary extracts
I have been deliberating about which microphone to choose
Geeky microphone chat
I have a plethora of microphones
People who have just stumbled across this and are wondering what this is all about
Perhaps you’re in transit somewhere, maybe you’re doing some housework, maybe you’re listening to this in a classroom while your teacher takes a well-earned break, or maybe you are lying in a floatation tank or in zero gravity in the international space station
Stick with me, and enjoy being a LEPster
Here’s a run-down of some of the things I’d like to talk about.
- How my hair is stopping me from learning French, and vice versa – how my French is stopping me from getting a hair cut (virtious and vicious circles)
- How my summer is looking, what my plans are and what that might mean for the podcast (busy – difficult to record podcasts in July and August – what’s new?)
- Thoughts on recent episodes like Sick in Japan and Spinal Tap
- Some metaphors and similes for language learning and teaching
- That’s probably plenty!
I’ve been just sweeping it (my hair) back over my head
Maybe I’m being a bit precious about this but I can’t help feeling self-conscious
Taking initiative is very important but it can be hard.
It can just be taking the initiative to speak, to make an effort to communicate with someone, to risk looking a bit stupid, going out of your comfort zone.
But if you take that tiny little risk, it can pay off in various ways.
You need to keep the English moving through you like a river or the water of your English will become stagnant. We all know this.
But without that little impetus to speak, you won’t do it.
If you don’t take initiative, you don’t put yourself into situations in which your confidence can develop.
Starting a virtuous circle is a matter of taking small steps in the right direction.
Micro-decisions or micro-steps.
Now I have to go out of my way to walk to the hairdresser.
Some people commented that the crowd were quiet. Well-behaved maybe.
I should have:
Hyped the crowd up more
Done more stand up at the start
Warmed them up by getting them to make noise.
“French people make some noise!” Etc
I should have done more crowd work.
Spinal Tap – maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but at the end of the day I am the one who decides what happens in these episodes.
I find that with my learners it’s not just listening skills or vocabulary, but just “being on the same wavelength” and that includes things like little references to culture, or just having a certain sense of humour.
It’s also important that I do stuff that I am personally invested in, or this whole thing just won’t happen. So there.
I love teaching but sometimes I get a bit frustrated because it can be a bit like banging your head against a wall.
You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
763. Rambling in the new Pod-Room / Choose The Adverb / Deal or No Deal
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.
[DOWNLOAD]
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
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.
[DOWNLOAD]
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
-
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.
29. Mystery Story / Narrative Tenses
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.