Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning

Did you know that the preferred term for policeman is police officer? A postman is now a mail carrier, and a stewardess is a flight attendant. If a fireman is now a firefighter, is a fisherman a fisherfighter? Join Britta and Johnson in the second episode on our series on the evolution of English. They discuss the naming of professions through the ages, and how the names for different jobs are evolving as the workforce changes and becomes more inclusive.

This week, our guest host is Johnson Bresnick. Johnson is the Director of Learning & Development at ACA, and has worked at ACA since 2011. He has also taught ESL and had extensive experience in curriculum development. He has a background in Linguistics and is researching acquisition of grammar in second language learners.

In this episode:

Comedy is a great way to engage with the language you are learning, and this week, Johnson recommends the Baroness von Sketch show. It features four amazing women and comedy which approaches awkward, everyday situations with humour. Here’s a link to one of their sketches so you can give it a try!

Britta recommends the History Chicks podcast, where two women discuss the lives of important women throughout history in an engaging that is anything but dry. They provide a nuanced view of their subjects, correct misconceptions, and do it an entertaining way.

Whenever we learn something new like a language, making mistakes is part of the process. What is the difference between a mistake and an error in language learning? How do language teachers help learners correct their mistakes? Why don’t the people around us correct us when we make a mistake? Join Britta and Kelsey as they discuss these questions, and offer advice and suggestions to help us make the most out of our mistakes. Language teachers may also be interested to learn more about the effectiveness of different types of feedback in the language classroom.

This week, our guest host is Kelsey Ulrich-Verslycken. Kelsey fell in love with teaching English in 2013 when she moved to South Korea to teach English as a Foreign Language. Since then, she has worked as a teacher, a curriculum developer, an editor for EFL textbooks, and an assistant professor of English at a university in Seoul, completed her MA in Applied Linguistics, and is currently working with ACA and pursuing her PhD in Applied Language and Discourse Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.

In our weekly recommendations,

• Kelsey recommends forgiving yourself for making mistakes in the language you are learning. Try not to listen to your inner critic.
• Britta recommends setting your digital assistant to communicate in the language you are learning. This will help you check your comprehensibility and pronunciation. Hola Siri! Bonjour Alexa!

Come check out our website, at lesbonsmots.ca. You can see our language learning videos, and read our blog posts on news, culture and language learning. We will also have our episode transcript available there. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

Here is some of the research we used in preparing the episode, if you want to read more about the research behind error correction:

Li, Shaofeng. (2010). The Effectiveness of Corrective Feedback in SLA: A Meta‐Analysis. Language Learning. 60. 309 - 365.

Lyster, R. and Saito, K. (2010) Interactional feedback as instructional input: A synthesis of classroom SLA research. Language, Interaction and Acquisition, 1(2), 276 - 297

Mai, Zhou. (2009). Cooperative Principle in Oral English Teaching. International Education Studies. 2.

Nassaji, H. Anniversary article Interactional feedback in second language teaching and learning: A synthesis and analysis of current research. Language Teaching Research 20(4)

Sheen, Y. (2006). Exploring the relationship between characteristics of recasts and

learner uptake. Language Teaching Research 10, 361–392.

Join Britta and Jeff as they discuss bilingualism, an important subject in the world of language learning. What does it mean to be bilingual? What are some of the misconceptions about bilingualism? They also discuss the physiological, social and financial benefits of bilingualism!

Jeffrey Smale is a member of the teaching team at ACA, and since obtaining his CELTA teaching certificate has taught in Brazil and Quebec. He has learned some Russian, Bulgarian, German, Chinese, Portuguese and also French.

In preparing this episode, we used information from a number of sources:

Bilingualism and Multilingualism by Jean-Marc Dewaele

Statistics Canada Linguistic diversity and multilingualism in Canadian homes:https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016010/98-200-x2016010-eng.cfm

CBC https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/census-wednesday-language-1.4231213

BBC:https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual#:~:text=He's%20right.,language%20%E2%80%93%20South%20Africa%20has%2011.

Francois Grosjean: https://www.francoisgrosjean.ch/myths_en.html

Economic Advantages of Bilingualism (Canada): https://www.caslt.org/files/learn-languages/pch-bilingualism-lit-review-final-en.pdf

Psychology Today; https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/hide-and-seek/201807/beyond-words-the-benefits-being-bilingual

This week, Jeff recommends lyricstraining.com for a fun way to practice listening using music. Britta recommends trying a crossword puzzle to practice English vocabulary and general knowledge too! Here are some puzzles for different levels of English learner:

Beginner and intermediate crossword puzzles for language learners:

https://www.esolcourses.com/content/exercises/crosswords/crossword.html

http://iteslj.org/cw/

https://games.usatoday.com/games/easy-crossword/

Advanced crossword puzzles:

https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords

Come check out our website, at lesbonsmots.ca. You can see our language learning videos, and read our blog posts on news, culture and language learning. We will also have our episode transcript available there. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

Join Britta and Clémence as they talk about pronunciation! What makes pronunciation so difficult? How important is it? How can you improve your pronunciation? Our language teachers offer you information and advice to help you improve your pronunciation as you learn languages. This week’s episode takes a dive into English and French pronunciation.
This week's guest is Clémence Grison. Clémence is part of the teaching team at ACA, and has a bachelor’s degree in english literature along with a master's degree in English studies, and a master's degree in journalism. She’s taught ESL in France and Quebec, and has a deep understanding of the difficulties of mastering pronunciation in a second language.

In the show:

• We mention Gretel Kahn’s essay for CBC about her accent, and how her feelings about it changed. You can read or listen to it here.
• Clémence recommends Likewise, a website and app which offers suggestions for everything from books and movies to restaurants and places. She likes it because the recommendations come from other users, not an algorithm. Check it out here.
• Britta recommends Ted.com, a website that offers videos with excellent support for language learners. You can watch videos on thousands of topics from experts around the world and use subtitles in many languages as well as interactive transcripts to improve your understanding.

Come check out our website, at lesbonsmots.ca. You can see Lauren’s video on the “th” sound, one of the trickiest sounds in English, and read Nathan’s blog posts on news, culture and language learning. We will also have our episode transcript available there. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

Join Britta and Johnson as they talk about verb tenses, and specifically, the present perfect. What makes this tense challenging? When is it appropriate to use it? We take a deep dive into this tricky verb tense. Our hosts discuss some tips to help you gain confidence in using this verb tense.
This week's guest host is Johnson Bresnick. Johnson is the Director of Learning & Development at ACA, and has worked at ACA since 2011. He has also taught ESL and had extensive experience in curriculum development. He has a background in Linguistics and is researching acquisition of grammar in second language learners.

In the show:

• Johnson recommends a good courtroom drama to practice the present perfect and other tenses, such as The Good Wife.
• Britta recommends Duolingo, an app for language practice. It’s free, and offers a fun way to build your vocabulary and language skills.

Come check out our website, at lesbonsmots.ca. You can see Lauren’s video covering the use of the simple past and present perfect tenses, and read Nathan’s blog posts on news, culture and language learning. We will also have our episode transcript available there. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected].