200 Facebook Likes! Thank you very much!

I don’t update this blog as much as I would like now but every few days, someone new ‘likes’ it on Facebook.  I hope that people continue to find the content useful.

I promised that I would post a new article when the blog got 200 likes and I will.  The new article should be online within a couple of hours of this one.

Thank you again!

"Understanding How We Learn" is now "Understanding English"

I recently wrote my 100th post on this blog! I started writing my blog in February 2011 while I was teaching abroad (meaning in another country) and I'm pleased to say it's always been a lot of fun finding things to share with you and thinking about things to write. In September 2011 I returned to Britain and started doing a Masters in Applied Linguistics and Teaching. Unfortunately, my work and studies meant I couldn't think about my blog for a while.

However, a few months ago I decided to start writing and posting again and I'm pleased to see that you are still interested. I hope that what I'm posting is helping you in your studies of English. I will try to keep writing as long as people want to keep reading.

As for 2013, I have a few ideas about new things I want to introduce to the blog. I look forward to getting a few more of my excellent teaching colleagues to share their thoughts and advice with you as well. I am making one big change immediately.

Understanding How We Learn is now going to be called Understanding English.

This blog is mostly about learning and studying English so I think ‘it is about time’* the title should make that more clear. I hope you like the change. It's still the same blog, it's still the same author and none of the links should be affected.

I'm really looking forward to writing the next 100 posts but I thought I'd just give you a small summary of what made the first 100 posts.

You can still follow me on Twitter (@gscruton) and you can follow the blog and see other things I'm sharing on Facebook (Gordon's Understanding English Blog).

Thanks for following and sharing the blog with friends.  Keep visiting because there's more to come. :-)

Gordon

P.S.  Here's a small explanation of a phrase I used in this post: "It's about time (that)"

* “it's about time (that)” is a phrase that means an event is late.  Here are some examples.

• “The shelf has been broken for 3 months now.  It's about time I fix it.”
• “It's about time you arrived.  We've been waiting for you for half an hour!”
• “I've decided to change the name of my blog.”  “It's about time.  You should have changed the name months ago!”

100 Fans on Facebook! Thank you!

Yesterday the blog got its 100th 'Like' on Facebook!  Many thanks for all the support from everyone.  As you can see I'm making a few changes on the site and starting (again) to post more information more regularly.

Tell your friends and thanks for reading!

Sharing Understanding How We Learn

Thank you! We did it! This blog reached 50 fans on Facebook just over a week ago! That means a lot to me, thank you.

I would love more people to know about this blog so I’d like you to 'do me a favour' (phrase meaning do something that will help me): I want you to ask one of your friends to join us! If everybody does that then I’m sure I will be sending you another message soon to say we have 100 fans! :-)

Meanwhile, keep reading, keep commenting and keep learning. Have a great day!

New IELTS Page

Since I know a lot of learners reading this blog are preparing for the IELTS exam, I've made a new page on this blog which has a list of websites and blogs that I think are very useful for IELTS preparation.  I will be adding more links and resources of my own over the next weeks and months so check it out and keep coming back for more help as and when you need it!

Take a look at my IELTS Help page.

Follow this blog on Facebook!

If you want to know when there is something new on this blog, you can "like" it on Facebook.  Then you will get news every time there is a new blog post and it will be easy for you to stay up to date.

Follow this link to "like" this blog - Understanding How We Learn on Facebook

This blog has 25 likes at the moment.  Can you help to get it to 100?

A Few More Changes

Hello all,

The main post will come tomorrow but I thought I would point out that I've just added a link to a brilliant site, www.phrasemix.com.  Take a look in the right column and scroll down until you see PhraseMix.

Apart from that, you will probably notice that I have changed the appearance of the site a little bit.  Hope you like it, I certainly do.

Gordon

A Few Changes

Hello all,

This is a short post to mention a couple of changes to the blog.  You might see that I've changed the name of the blog to "Understanding How We Learn" from "Understanding How to Learn".  This is certainly "we" because I am learning with you here.

I've also added the option to email, blog, tweet or share any posts on Facebook.

The biggest change is that I've set up a Facebook page to promote the blog (you probably received a recommendation on Facebook).  The link at the moment is this (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Understanding-How-We-Learn/134361106634970?sk=wall) or this short URL (http://on.fb.me/fwByj6).  After there are more than 25 likes I will change the page address to something better.

Now that this is attached to Facebook, I hope I'll see more of you on the blog.

Look forward to reading your opinions,

Gordon

Welcome... again!

Here is a welcome video I made for the site last month.  I finally managed to upload it a few days ago!

Signing In

Hello all,

I understand that a few of you might have some problems commenting.  You do need to sign in to do this but you can do this with any of the following accounts:

Google
Twitter
Yahoo
AIM
Netlog
Open ID
(unfortunately, not Facebook or Hotmail)

I know that I can set the blog to accept comments from anyone... but I want this to feel more like a community.  I thought that lots of comments from "anonymous" would not be particularly fun.  Remember, we are here to share ideas so don't be shy. :-)

Welcome!

Welcome to this blog. It's not my first, but hopefully it was continue for longer than my Spanish diary (which lasted for about 4 posts over 1 month).

Let me explain what I want to do here. I've invited you to this blog because you are all learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL students). Some of you are intermediate, some of you are advanced (and some of you are perhaps even more advanced than I am!). But you all have a similar experience - you made a decision to learn English, which for you is a non-native language.

I am going down to Argentina next month to work with a school where I will be the only native-English speaker (all the other teachers are Argentinian). I am very excited by this opportunity because I expect I will learn about English language teaching from a completely different perspective.

But why should I learn about this by myself? AND, why should I wait until I get to Argentina? With your help, I can start now. And I think you will benefit from this as well.

So, what will I, Gordon, do in this blog?

I am going to ask you about your experiences and your opinions about various aspects of learning English.

What will I get?

• More understanding of my students (both old and new) and what they thought and think about their English learning.
• Some ideas about effective ways to teach specific parts of English
• More contact with all of you - friends I have made around the world.

What will you get?

• An opportunity to practise your English by writing replies and reading other people's replies.
• Perhaps a cultural education - I hope that friends and students from Mexico, France, German, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Oman, Korea and Thailand will all be able to join in. That's lots of different cultures and traditions. Lots of different attitudes about learning and education.
• A better understanding of how you, personally, learn a language. If you can understand your own learning style and preferences, then you can learn more and faster.
• Some funny stories from me (I hope) and from other people who contribute (more likely).
• Perhaps some new friends.
• Another way to procrastinate and avoid work. :-D

So, hopefully, this will continue for a while and maybe, MAYBE will become part of your daily (or at least weekly) routine.

I am VERY interested to hear about your opinions and experiences so please, don't be shy. The only rule that I will put here is that people must be nice to each other (except me, you can be horrible to me if you really want). ;-)