How would the same car accident be described in over 15 completely different styles of English? What are the differences in vocabulary, grammar and organisational structure? How should I change my voice to read each description? Let's see how English changes in different situations. Styles presented include: formal and informal English, news reports, an action movie screenplay, an Eminem rap, a romantic novel, a Shakespeare play, a politician making a speech, a stand-up comedian, Liam Neeson in ...
Aug 02, 2023•2 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast [Part 2 of 2] Since recording part 1 of this conversation, Antony caught COVID-19 and lost a bit of weight, but he managed to talk for about 100 minutes here about more topics he has previously covered in episodes of his podcast "Life & Life Only". Here we discuss diverse things including the extraordinary feats of endurance by David Blaine🕴🏻, food and dieting 🍔, Stanley Kubrik's film "The Shining" 🪓, the term "conspiracy theory" 🤫, the ways that comedy shows can reveal the truth 🎭, and th...
Jul 26, 2023•2 hr 56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Antony is an English teacher, podcaster, life-coach and writer and he returns to LEP today for a conversation about topics which he has discussed in episodes of his podcast called "Life & Life Only". Listen to us chat about why cats are good for your health 🐱, what the Titanic disaster tells us about social class 🚢, how losing his backpack while travelling taught Antony a valuable life lesson 🎒, how psychology is involved in English teaching 🧠 and more. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sQ1 ...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Reading an article by Gavin Lamb (PhD) about the conclusions of academic studies into language learning, and adding my own reflections and comments. What does research tell us about the best way to learn a language? What are the most important things to consider? What are the best methods? The article boils it all down to three main points. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sPY Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/...
Jul 12, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Join me as I read through a bizarre online game. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a lemon? No? Well, neither had I, until I played this game. Can I escape the kitchen, become human again and avoid being chopped up and turned into a juice! Watch out for some descriptive language and some funny moments along the way! Story by Daniel Champion on www.textadventures.co.uk Episode page with links https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sPF Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes t...
Jul 05, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let me read you a classic Sherlock Holmes detective story, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'll read the original text and stop regularly in order to explain what is happening so you can follow the story. 📄 Episode page with PDF transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sPO Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 27, 2023•2 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast A conversation with Hadar Shemesh, a non-native speaker who has improved her English to a very high level, and who now shares her knowledge and experience with the world through her podcast and YouTube channel. Hadar describes her own experiences of learning English and mastering pronunciation. This episode is all about the voyage of discovery that is learning a language. 👉 Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sOJ 👉 Hadar's episode with Luke https://hadarshemesh.com/magazine/interview-with-luke-f...
Jun 20, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast In conversation with Andy Cooke, an English teacher from England who is very popular on Instagram. We talk about Andy's background, becoming an English teacher, getting big on Instagram, ChatGPT and a few other tangents along the way. Includes a few songs on the guitar at the end of the episode. 👉 Episode page on teacherluke.co.uk https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sPG 👉 🎧 Listen to Luke's Podcast using a podcast app on your phone (audio episodes have more content) https://plinkhq.com/i/312059190?to=page �...
Jun 14, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Finally, here is the third part of this series about English slang words and expressions that most British people know, but which will probably confuse almost everyone else! I started this series in 2019. It's only taken me nearly 4 years to get round to finishing it. Learn loads of slang and culture, plus a bit of British history too. Vocabulary and transcript available on the episode page here https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aj8 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast a...
Jun 09, 2023•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amber returns to the podcast to tell us some grisly stories about the history of Paris. Amber is a bit of an expert about Paris. She has read pretty much every book about the city and is also a registered tour guide here. A few years ago she set up a podcast called Paname Podcast (Paname is a nickname for Paris). Each episode contains a true story from history, with tales of battle, execution, romance, tragedy and adventure. You can get it where you get your podcasts. In this episode Amber comes...
May 31, 2023•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 👉 Take Carlos' survey here https://forms.ua.pt/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=699278&lang=en Carlos Soares, from the University of Aveiro in Portugal, is doing a master's degree dissertation all about language learning podcasts. He contacted me to conduct an interview as part of his research, and he agreed for me to publish it as an episode of my podcast. Carlos asks me about my thoughts on learning English through listening, my approach to making my podcast and some other details. 👉 Episode pag...
May 26, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Sebastian Marx returns to the podcast in order to talk about Yiddish words which have found their way into the English language, including common words like bagel, glitch and schmooze and plenty more. 👉 Episode page with links, etc https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sOX 👉 Sebastian Marx's website https://www.sebmarx.com Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more ...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is that a confusing title? Hopefully not. As you might expect, it's a little summary of what's included in the episode. To give you some more details, Alastair Budge is the host of a podcast called "English Learning for Curious Minds" and he has created a new audio drama for English learners called "Pioneers of the Continuum". It's a time-travel adventure for English learners, and Alastair asked me to be the narrator for episode 1. In this episode of LEP, we talk about Alastair's story, living i...
May 17, 2023•2 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Talking to my parents about the coronation ceremony of King Charles III which happened in Westminster, London on Saturday 6 May. Includes descriptions of the ceremony and discussion of some of the issues related to it, plus a few dodgy jokes along the way 👑. 👉 Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sOz Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 10, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this final part of the series I'm going to evaluate ChatGPT's ability to work as a dictionary with definitions, example sentences, synonyms, phonetic transcriptions, etc. I test its ability to convert texts into British English or other varieties, see if it can help with sentence stress and word stress, and check its ability to create grammar and vocabulary quizzes and other useful exercises. Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sOb Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the pr...
May 03, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this series I am evaluating ChatGPT as a language-learning tool. In this part I'm experimenting with role-play conversations, job interview practice, creating texts and dialogues and seeing if it can help you prepare for Cambridge exams like IELTS or CAE. Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sND Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...
Apr 29, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast An episode exploring the various ways that ChatGPT might be able to help you learn English. Can it create study plans? Can it correct your errors and explain the corrections? Can you use it to simulate natural conversations? This is the first of a three-part series in which I test ChatGPT's usefulness as an AI language learning tool. Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sMP Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.aca...
Apr 26, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rambling on my own about getting stuck in a time-loop 🔁, protests and strikes in Paris 🔥, the arrival of child 2 👶, and more. 👉 Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sMu 👉 Tony Kaizen interviews Luke on his podcast https://youtu.be/rIolbmPGKRU Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do we know when someone's English is good? Is it just about having a "British accent", knowing lots of big words, or speaking with no errors? In fact, there is a lot more to it than that. IELTS can show us how someone's level of English is assessed by looking at a wide range of skills and sub-skills and there is a lot more to it than making no errors while speaking with a "British accent". This episode should help you consider your own level of English level, get some perspective on what lan...
Apr 12, 2023•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast My friend Anna has written a book for children (7+) which has a full publishing contract and is available in all good bookshops now. The book tells the story of a boy who accidentally creates a monster when his secret collection of nose bogeys gets struck by lightning! This conversation includes lots of talk of snot and bogeys, as well as stories from Anna's time as a travel writer. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sN1 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast a...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Learn English with another short story. This time it's Parson's Pleasure by Roald Dahl, which is an intriguing tale of a dodgy antiques dealer with a nasty twist. Learn vocabulary while you enjoy a fascinating story. 👉 Episode page on my website https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sMo 👉 Buy "The Complete Short Stories" by Roald Dahl https://amzn.eu/d/axqHJjc Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. Se...
Mar 29, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Billington returns to LEP for the third time, to drink tea, talk about my pod-room, learning the bassoon, exam results, learning Chinese, responding to listener comments and talking about her videos on TikTok. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sM1 The British Council on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@britishcouncilenglish?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Host...
Mar 22, 2023•2 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast An episode all about studying at university in the UK, with loads of advice about student visas, funding your studies with scholarships, extra-curricular social activities and opportunities at the students' union and more. Features a conversation with a German student currently studying a master's in clinical neuroscience at UCL in London. This episode is published in paid partnership with Study UK and the UK Government's GREAT Britain campaign. For more information, follow the links below. Link...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast My dad has written a new book and he's come on the podcast to tell us about it. The book follows the path of the river Avon as it flows through the middle of England, telling stories of key moments in British history, nature and the current condition of Britain's rivers. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sLS A River Avon Year: The Wildlife and History of Shakespeare's Avon by Rick Thompson is available now!👇 📖 Amazon https://amzn.eu/d/dIzchIU 📖 Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/A...
Mar 08, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast A conversation with Anna Tyrie from English Like a Native (YouTube, Podcast) about children, the way we talk to children, and vocabulary relating to children and childcare, with a vocabulary quiz and some special news from the Thompson family...! 👉 Episode page with vocabulary lists https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sKN 👉 Anna interviews Luke on her podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2038858/12353084 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus....
Mar 01, 2023•2 hr 41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Steve Kaufmann is a very prolific language learner. He has learned at least 20 languages to varying degrees during his life. Some of them he learned during his career as an international diplomat and businessman, and others he has learned during his (semi) retirement. In this interview Steve talks about his language learning experiences, methods and motivations. We talk about various metaphors and similes for language learning including ocean voyages 🚢, cows 🐮, skiing ⛷ and cutting grass🏡 and...
Feb 22, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast To qualify for British citizenship, one of the requirements is to pass the "Life in the UK" test. Questions cover things like British history, British life & culture, British politics, British geography and principles of modern British life. What do you think? Can you pass the test? Join me as I test online English teacher Cara Leopold. How much does she know about her own country of origin? What can you learn about Britain? What IS Britain anyway? Find out in this episode! 👉 Episode page...
Feb 15, 2023•2 hr 53 min•Transcript available on Metacast An episode about two (unconnected) situations, 1) the very recent earthquake in Turkey & Syria which has left many people in urgent need of help, 2) the humanitarian crisis in Iran. During the episode I read from various articles and explain some vocabulary. 👉 Consider donating to the Disasters Emergency Committee to help people affected by the earthquake https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/turkey-syria-earthquake-appeal 👉 Episode page with transcript & links https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sL5 Sign up to LEP ...
Feb 09, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast A conversation with my brother about a specific musical genre, "ambient". We discuss Brian Eno's inspiration and approach to his first ambient albums, talk about the genre's origins in French 19th century classical music, jazz and the avant-garde and describe ambient trance music from the 80s and 90s including artists like Aphex Twin, The KLF, The Orb and The Irresistible Force. Enter the ambient zone on LEP. 👉 Get James' new ambient EP "Ambient Mode" on BandCamp https://jimthompson.bandcamp.co...
Feb 08, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast An unedited conversation with Amber & Paul about toilet habits, Titanic (1997), weird videos on TikTok & YouTube and plenty more. Advanced level listening practice with the POD-PALs. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sKt Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 01, 2023•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast