
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
ACA
All episodes
Best episodes
Seasons
Top 10 Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

The Business of Language Learning
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
01/15/21 • 46 min
Welcome to Season Two of Les Bons Mots! Join Britta and Taylor for a discussion of the business of language learning. How do successful organizations approach language training? Why does ACA invest in our instructors and our own made-in-Quebec curriculum? How has language training changed in the last decade, and what is next for language education and for ACA?
This week’s guest host, Taylor ireland, is the president of ACA. Before he became president of ACA in 2009, Taylor travelled the world, worked as a second language instructor and studied finance. Find out how his experiences have shaped how ACA operates today.
In this week’s episode, Taylor recommends the following resources for accessing business news in English:
CBC News | The National - CBC.ca
For those who would like to practice their English with a good comedy, Britta recommends the series Kim’s convenience, about a Korean-Canadian family living in Toronto. Taylor is planning to binge another great CBC series, Schitt’s Creek
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].

The Icing on the Cake: The Unexpected Advantages of Being a Language Learner
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
11/05/21 • 37 min
Why are you learning another language? Is it for fun? For love? For professional reasons? There are a lot of reasons people choose to learn a language, and a lot of benefits to be gained from the experience. In this episode, our guest is Pierre-William Plante, a Solutions Specialist at Coveo. If you want practical advice about how to improve your language skills, and why it is worth the effort, this episode is for you!
Pierre-William talks about his experience learning English, primarily as an adult, and some of the expected (and unexpected) benefits that come from working in your second language. He also shares practical advice for how to improve your second language in formal and informal ways, and even offers some tips about making small talk in English.
Our expression this week is the icing on the cake. Do you know what it means and how to use it? Listen and find out, and hear what the equivalent expression is in French!
Visit us at lesbonsmots.ca to check out our blog and language learning videos, or reach out to us at ACA to discuss your language learning needs.

Français Québécois
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
12/17/21 • 33 min
Are you learning French in a Canadian context? Do you work with clients or colleagues in Quebec? In this episode, Roxane and Britta talk about how the French language is used in Quebec, including topics like politeness and formality, what to expect at a 5 à 7, and some unique Quebec vocabulary. Join us, and practice your French listening skills, because this episode is in French!
This week, the guest host is Roxane St-Hilaire. Roxane is pedagogical advisor at ACA, and she is also a French as a second language instructor. Roxane. She is finishing her masters degree in second language didactics and she’s interested in the use of technology in class, the development of intercultural competence and intergenerational relationships.
In this episode, Britta and Roxane discuss an expression in French, se faire passer un sapin. Do you know what it means and how to use it? Listen to find out!
Visit us at lesbonsmots.ca to check out our blog and language learning videos, or reach out to us at ACA to discuss your language learning needs.

Staying the Course: Persistence in Language Learning
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
12/06/21 • 25 min
Are you learning a language? It is a rewarding project, and one that takes time and effort. How do you stay motivated through the learning process? In this episode, our guest Corinna Mitchell-Beaudin shares her own language learning journey, and offers great advice about how to stay focused and motivated through all parts of the language learning process.
Corinna Mitchell-Beaudin is an Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer at Farm Credit Canada. In this position, leads the team accountable for overseeing the management of enterprise, credit, market and operational risks at FCC. She has held a number of executive positions at FCC. Corinna has a bachelor of administration degree from the University of Regina, and she is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant and a CFA Charterholder.
Our expression this week is staying the course. Do you know what it means and how to use it? Listen to find out!
Visit us at lesbonsmots.ca to check out our blog and language learning videos, or reach out to us at ACA to discuss your language learning needs.

Connect the Dots: Connected Speech for Pronunciation
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
11/19/21 • 35 min
Are you working on making your English pronunciation sound more natural? When you listen to people speaking English, does it seem like they are speaking too quickly? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this episode is for you. Learn about how words in spoken English are connected. In this episode, Britta and Clémence discuss how some sounds change, appear, or even disappear when people speak English. They also share practical tips on how to understand spoken English, and how to use connected speech to improve your English pronunciation.
This episode’s guest host 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.
Our expression this week is to speak out of turn. Listen to find out what this expression means, and some of the situations where you can use it.
Do you want to read more about connected speech? Here are a few articles for further information:
- Connected Speech (teachingenglish.org)
- 5 Features of Connected Speech (eslbase.com)
Visit us at lesbonsmots.ca to check out our blog and language learning videos, or reach out to us at ACA to discuss your language learning needs.

Work it! Job Interviews in English
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
10/22/21 • 30 min
Are you looking for a new position? Are you going to be interviewed either fully or partially in English? This week Jenni and Britta talk about what kind of questions you can expect to hear in an English-language job interview, and how to answer them. They share advice about answering wildcard questions, which verb tenses to use, key vocabulary to highlight your skills, and how to prepare for success before the interview even starts. This episode is essential listening for job seekers!
This week’s guest host is Jenni Campbell. Jenni has a Human Ecology degree from the University of Manitoba and a language certificate from the University of Laval. She has been with ACA for ten years, and has extensive experience doing curriculum development. She also does hiring and recruiting for ACA here in Quebec and across Canada.
Our phrasal verb of the week is take on - do you know how to use this phrasal verb to talk about employment? Listen and find out!
Visit us at lesbonsmots.ca to check out our blog and language learning videos, or reach out to us at ACA to discuss your language learning needs.

Pronunciation - HOW do you say it?
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
04/02/21 • 33 min
Is it there, their or they’re? Why is the verb tear pronounced differently than the tears we cry? Do I have to pronounce the ‘b’ in doubt? English and French are full of words that sound the same, but have different meanings, words that are written the same, but have different pronunciations, and silent letters! In this week’s episode, Britta and Clémence help you to understand some of the homophones, heteronyms and silent letters that can be challenging for language learners.
This week’s guest host 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 this episode:
Clémence recommends a podcast called Word Bomb, which is a deep exploration of a different English word in each episode. The words they choose are important and timely, and they go beyond the dictionary to contextual them.
Britta recommends the highly entertaining book about the English language, The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way, by Bill Bryson. If you are curious about how English became the language it is today, a lot of the answers may be found in the history of the language, and this book is anything but dry.

The Evolution of Language: Talking about Professions
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
03/19/21 • 26 min
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.

Making the Most out of Making Mistakes
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
02/05/21 • 44 min
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.

True Friends, False Friends
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning
01/22/21 • 34 min
English and French have thousands of words in common - how can you tell which words have the same meaning in both languages, and which ones are false friends, words which look or sound the same, but have different meanings? Join Britta and Kimberly as they explore some of the similarities, and deceptive differences, between English and French. This week’s episode tackles verb tenses, parts of speech, and some essential business vocabulary!
This week’s guest host is Kimberly Lamontagne. Kimberly studied psychology at Bishop’s University, and is originally from Baie-Comeau. She’s been part of the ACA team for the past three years. Her bilingual background has made her passionate about the topic of false friends.
You can find visuals for this episode on Facebook, linked here.
In this episode:
Kimberly recommends the Great British Baking Show (also called the Great British Bake Off) in order to learn some of the cooking terms which come into English from French.
Britta recommends using the long winter nights to pursue your language learning, either with an evening class, or by pursuing one of your hobbies in the language you’re learning. If you’re interested in taking evening classes with ACA, you can find out more here.
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].
Show more best episodes

Show more best episodes
FAQ
How many episodes does Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning have?
Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning currently has 24 episodes available.
What topics does Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning cover?
The podcast is about Language, Linguistics, Esl, Language Learning, Learning English, Podcasts, English, Education, Business English and Business.
What is the most popular episode on Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning?
The episode title 'Staying the Course: Persistence in Language Learning' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning?
The average episode length on Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning is 33 minutes.
How often are episodes of Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning released?
Episodes of Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning are typically released every 13 days, 23 hours.
When was the first episode of Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning?
The first episode of Les Bons Mots: A Podcast about Language Learning was released on Oct 2, 2020.
Show more FAQ

Show more FAQ