English With Luke

Some statements for a debate on immigration:   As a woman I am not allowed to express myself and my opinions in my home country, I am compelled to leave and seek asylum so that I can stand for my opinions and be myself.   I’m not a racist, but if I accept migrants in my country, they should learn our language, and our culture.   I think there’s enough unemployment in this country, and we should not allow more migrants in.   Everyone must have the right to go wherever they want to go.   In our society you only “exist” when you’re officially regularised.   All migrants without papers are irregular and should be sent back. Charities that operate rescue boats in the Mediterranean encourage illegal immigration Immigrants should stay permanently in the first safe country that they reach. Immigrants that arrive in Europe should be able to choose the European country they want to settle in. Uncontrolled immigration leads to criminality. W...

Cambridge PET Speaking Exam Part 2 In this part of the speaking exam, you need to work with your partner to make a decision.  You are presented with a situation where you need to discuss a few options and then choose one of them. Here's an example: "A girl is going to spend two weeks living with a family in England to improve her English.  She has put the clothes she needs in her bag.  Talk together about the other things she will need to take, and say which will be the most important." First of all, think about what each picture represents.  Can you think of the right words for each picture?  Can you think of a reason why each would be a good idea (or a bad idea)?  Can you explain it to your partner? Now, think about some useful language when discussing the decision you have to make. STARTING THE CONVERSATION: Shall I start, or will you? Would you like to start, or shall I? DISCUSSING AN OPTION: I think that ...... would be a good idea ...

Lots of detail here: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/3AJigyt4JBtlIw A summary here in PowerPoint form: Powerpoint

(Tip: To help you with speed reading, try this website's free teleprompter: Free Teleprompter Immigrants from a certain country had to confront a wave of virulent prejudice and nativist hostility. As immigration from that region of the world increased to its highest level, anti-immigrant feeling increased along with it. There was an economic crisis, and immigrants were accused of taking jobs. At the same time, newspapers circulated theories alleging that people from that region were genetically inferior. Drawings and songs that portrayed the new immigrants as infantile, criminal, or subhuman became very common. One cartoon claimed that “If immigration was properly restricted, you would never be troubled with anarchism, and problems like that!” Attacks on those immigrants were not limited to the words, however. Anti-immigrant movements appeared around the country. Religious buildings were vandalised and burned, and people were attacked by mobs. In one decade, more than 20 of ...

An area of English that seems technical is indirect or reported speech.  But once you have understood the basic principles, it becomes a lot easier. Example: Imagine a teacher that says, "I'm so happy today." If you are telling a friend about this the next day, how would you explain it to him/her? You would have to think about a few things: The teacher said it yesterday (in the past). The teacher was happy yesterday, maybe he/she isn't happy today. You are not the teacher.  The teacher is a he/she. So you could directly quote the teacher, maybe imitating his/her voice and say: Yesterday, my teacher said: "I'm so happy today". You have used the past simple to show that it happened in the past.  But it would be much more natural to say: Yesterday, my teacher said that he was so happy that day. What did we have to change? We added "that" - this is very common in reported speech. We changed "I" to "he". We...

Which verb should I use?  Look, see or watch? These words have similar, but different meanings.  Here are the main differences: SEE = Notice something with your eyes. LOOK AT = Direct your eyes at something and pay attention to it. WATCH = Looking at something for a (usually long) period of time, usually something that is changing or moving (or something that you expect to change or move). Here are some special cases to remember: We use SEE for sports, films, theatre and dramas. We WATCH television. We use SEE to focus on what we noticed.  We use WATCH or LOOK AT when we want to focus on the process of observing.  We could SEE something without planning to. For more information, check out the link below: Link to a Cambridge Dictionary article about this topic

There is nothing wrong with having an accent when you speak English - in fact, everyone has an accent!  What can cause problems is when your pronunciation confuses the people listening to you and makes it difficult to understand what you're saying.  This is usually because you are pronouncing a sound following the rules of your native language instead of English rules. For example: Spanish people are known for pronouncing the "r" sound very, very clearly.  So, when Spanish people speak English, they usually over-pronounce the "r" sound.  The reverse is also true, English people speaking Spanish have to make an effort to "roll" their RRRRRR sounds. Most Italians usually have problems with specific sounds that are pronounced differently in English.  If you can identify and practice pronouncing these sounds correctly, you can do a lot to make your English more understandable. For example:  How do you pronounce the name of the comic character "...