Podcast Episode 63 – Party Nominating Process

Perhaps you’ve heard that we will be voting for a new president this year. Well, first we have to decide who will be on the ballot. In other words, each party has to decide who will be their presidential candidate. This happens through a process known as “the primaries” which starts on February 1st in […] Read more »

Podcast Episode 56 – Neuroplasticity and Brain Games

In this podcast episode, you will learn about neuroplasticity and how people are healing themselves of learning disabilities and brain injuries. I recently read three books related to this topic, and in this episode, I give you a brief description of each book and I talk about some of the latest research in this field. I […] Read more »

Reading Lesson – The Cost of Paying Attention

Hi Students! This past Saturday I taught a reading lesson to a group class on Verbling. Together we read through an opinion piece from the New York Times entitled “The Cost of Paying Attention” by author Matthew Crawford. I really liked the article as I think it discusses an important and timely issue. The author uses […] Read more »

Understanding Lyrics

Hi Students! I was preparing some materials for a listening class this morning and I came across this great site for understanding song lyrics. It’s called Genius.com. It is a website where people annotate songs. This means they give you the lyrics of the song with explanations and examples, so you can understand the song better. One […] Read more »

Boston Blizzard of January 2015

Slow Speed (3:48)   Normal Speed (2:20)   (How to use this lesson: Listen to me read the blog post out loud. Repeat as needed to understand. Look up any words or expressions you don’t understand. Listen again. Advanced students can watch the videos and read the extra materials below.) As many of you know, […] Read more »

Podcast Episode 51 – The Rosie Project

The other day I was looking at Bill Gates’s blog gatesnotes.com and I came across his article about the book “The Rosie Project“. He has given away 50 copies of this book to friends, so I thought it would be worth checking out. I listened to the audiobook and finished it in only 2 days. I found […] Read more »

Podcast Episode 49 – 10 Language Learning Tips

Language learning is a life-long process and many people use a variety of methods and strategies to continuously improve their skills. In this podcast episode, I am giving you my thoughts related to 10 language learning tips from a panel of multilingual experts. I read about these suggestions in a recent article online at TheGuardian.com entitled Learning a […] Read more »

All About that Bass – Explained

Earlier this evening I went to pick up my daughter from her dance class and I heard the song “All About that Bass” by singer Meghan Trainor on the radio. It’s quite popular and lots of people have been making videos for it and spoofs of it (a spoof is when you make fun of it in […] Read more »

Podcast Episode 44 – Cultural Differences

In podcast episode 44 I am talking about cultural differences between the U.S. and other countries, such as Brazil. I got the inspiration for this episode from one of my Brazilian students. The other day we were having our lesson and he started to mention some of the differences that he had read about on […] Read more »

Movie Lesson: Plane Scene from Bridesmaids

Here is another movie lesson using the funny plane scene from the movie Bridesmaids. (Note: there is some cussing in this scene.) This is a great way to practice your listening comprehension skills using authentic American English materials. Background Info In the U.S., when you get married, there are bridesmaids for the bride and groomsmen […] Read more »