Giles Parker English Academy Podcasts

Modals to speculate about the past – Who could have poisoned Banjo? Hi! Welcome to another great English lesson with New English Academy. My name's Giles Parker and I'm your guide for today's lesson. I live in the beautiful Green Heart of Italy but life isn't always as pleasant as it seems here. So today we're going to hear about how my dog, Banjo was poisoned recently. The grammar point for this lesson looks at how to use modal auxiliaries to make a theory about or to speculate about the past. This is when you see something now but you don't know for sure what really happened so you make a theory or speculate about what happened. We’re going to look at phrases such as Someone must have done it; Someone could have done it; Someone might have done something, or Someone couldn't have done something. We'll do the reading and listening lesson first and then look at the grammar point after. As you listen to the podcast or read the transcript, try to look for these kinds of modal auxiliaries that speculate ab

Why learn grammar? Four great reasons Hi and welcome to another great lesson with New English Academy. My name is Giles Parker and I'm your host for this podcast. Today I'm going to answer a question from one of our listeners who asked me, "Why do you talk about grammar so much? Why do you have to use all those difficult words and ideas?" And she got me thinking - why DO I spend a lot of time talking about grammar? About half of each podcast focuses on grammar while the other half focuses on comprehension and vocabulary. Why do I think it is so important to learn - and teach - grammar? Well today, I'm going to get on my soapbox and explain why I think learning grammar is important. This isn't aimed at any particular level. I think most English learners will find something useful here. You can get the full course with the comprehension and vocabulary lessons and a guidebook with free hints and ideas on how to use this and other podcasts, at the website, www.newenglishacademy.com. Don’t forget, if there is a

'Go' and 'like' for indirect speech Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I'm your host Giles Parker and today we're going to look at one of the most useful grammar points that will make you sound immediately like a native speaker. Amazingly, this grammar point isn’t in any of the conventional grammar textbooks for English learners, which is kind of strange because it will help you speak and understand English so much better if you can use it. If you can find this grammar point in a book for EFL or ESL learners please let me know. So, what am I talking about? Basically, what I’m talking about is another way of saying what someone said WITHOUT having to do all the verb tense changes, pronoun changes, etc that you have to do when you use reported or indirect speech. Oh, no. This new way is so much easier and more efficient because it also allows you to do other things at the same time as introduce reported speech. You can also show what you or the other person was thinking or fee

Indirect or reported speech Hi and welcome to another great lesson with New English Academy. I’m your guide, Giles Parker, and today we’re going to look at how to use indirect speech to report or say what someone else said. There are a couple of really useful rules you need to remember when you tell someone what someone else said. For example, verb tenses change, pronouns and here-and-now-type words also change. AND you need to use a special group of verbs called reporting verbs. Phew! It’s a bit tricky and that is why this lesson doesn’t focus on how to make questions – we’ll save that for the next lesson. Our comprehension text today reports the meeting between Paola who is suffering from cancer, her district nurse Stefania and her daughter Katia. Cancer sucks and Paola, Stefania and Katia talk about what they can do to help Paola live at home and be as independent as possible. This lesson was requested by Iolanda in Brazil and is aimed at advanced level students but beginners and intermediate l

Making requests Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I'm your guide Giles Parker and today we're going to look at how to make polite requests. This podcast follows on from last week’s podcast ‘Pass the paint pot’ which looked at using imperatives. Both imperatives and requests are ways of getting people to do things for you but requests are more polite. The comprehension text also features lots more phrasal verbs which we also started looking at in the podcast on imperatives.  This course is aimed at beginners but I’m sure everyone will find something useful here. You can check out the full course with an interactive comprehension lesson and comprehension test, vocabulary lessons including pronunciation practice and interactive grammar games, and tests at our website http://www.newenglishacademy.com/. And a quick request from me: If you have anything special YOU want to study or practice, please send me an email. Maybe I can make a podcast and an online interactive lesson

Using imperatives to tell people to do something Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I’m Giles Parker and I’m your guide for this course. Today we’re going to look at some really useful phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are verbs that have two words to them, always a verb and either a preposition or a particle. You hear them all the time in spoken English so it is a good idea to start learning them. We’re also going look at how to tell people what to do. This is called the imperative form and it is very useful for giving instructions and giving directions or orders. Our comprehension text today is called ‘Pass the paint pot’ and features a dialogue between yours truly and a friend of mine, Marian, who helped me paint my house recently. He is just starting to learn English, so please forgive some of his pronunciation. I think he does very well. As ever, you can download the free transcript and the free guidebook with 25 different activities on how to improve your English us

Stative verbs - McLanguage change Hi and welcome to another great grammar lesson from New English Academy. I’m your host, Giles Parker, and today we’re going to learn about stative verbs, and in particular, how that famous burger chain, McDonalds has shown that grammar rules can change. This lesson is aimed at intermediate learners but anyone can learn something new from the vocabulary or the grammar, or just practice listening and reading comprehension. As usual, you can get the full online interactive comprehension, vocabulary and grammar explanations, the games and the tests at our website NewEnglishAcademy.com. Let me know if you like this lesson or any of the others by sending me an email or rating this on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. The more I know what you guys like, the better I can make lessons for you. Here in the beautiful Green Heart of Italy, I recently saw a sign of an invasion from another culture – a large McDonalds sign with its golden arches next to a main road advertising a new McDrive

Modifying nouns – Marketing houses in Umbria Hi and welcome to another great English lesson from New English Academy. I’m your guide Giles Parker and today we’re going to look at how to change or modify nouns – i.e. which adjectives come before others when they describe a noun. This lesson is aimed at advanced level students but everyone can learn something from it. The comprehension text is titled ‘Marketing houses in Umbria’ and talks about the way real-estate agents describe the beautiful old houses here when they want to sell them to buyers. As ever, check out the website New English Academy.com for all the fun interactive online games, quizzes and tests for this lesson. Also, if you like what you read and hear, don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher Radio or send me a comment on how to make this better. First I’ll talk about the grammar point and give you a few important rules on how to order or sequence adjectives before a noun. Then we’ll look at compound modifiers which

Simple past regular verbs – beginners Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I’m your host Giles Parker and today we’re going to look at one of the few nice and predictable things in English grammar – the simple past for regular verbs. Simple past regular is so regular, even new verbs, like ‘to google’ follow the rules! Our comprehension text is about two cross-cultural problems when people from one culture visited another culture. This lesson is aimed at beginner learners of English but there is something here for everyone. Check out the website, New English Academy.com for the interactive online grammar and vocabulary learning games, comprehension tests and pronunciation practice for simple past regular verbs. And, if you like what you hear, please add a comment or a review on iTunes or Stitcher Radio or send me an email and let me know how I can improve this. First I’ll talk about the meaning of the simple past, then look at the rules for spelling for the affirmative

Modal auxiliaries for permission - Getting what you want Hi there! Welcome to another fun lesson from New English Academy. I’m your guide, Giles Parker and today we’re going to look at how modal auxiliaries for permission can help you get what you want.  The comprehension text talks about a couple of examples of when someone asked for permission in the wrong way and didn’t get what they wanted. This lesson is aimed at intermediate students but as usual there is something here for everyone. Don’t forget to check out our interactive online lessons that go with this podcast at the website newenglishacademy.com. Let us know if you like this by leaving comments and a rating on iTunes or wherever else you downloaded this podcast. Your input helps this get better. By now, you already know that modals, or helping verbs, help us show things like ability, certainty or permission. Permission means if it is OK to do something, or not OK to do something. Modals also help us be polite to other people. They show th

Adverbial phrases Hi there! Welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I’m your host, Giles Parker and today we’re going to focus on how to be really efficient when you’re speaking, simply by shortening adverb clauses down to adverbial phrases. This lesson is aimed at advanced level students but don’t worry if you don’t think you’re advanced, have a go and see what you can pick up from it. The comprehension text is titled ‘Haiku: Doing more with less.’ First I’m going to talk about the grammar point. Then we’ll listen to the grammar in context in the comprehension text. Don’t forget, you can download the transcript and get access to the great online interactive games and tests for this lesson at our website, New English Academy.com. I guess the main point of all communication is for us to help the other guy to understand us. To help people understand us, it is a good idea to be really efficient. That means we should try to use fewer words but still show our meaning. One wa

Present perfect with 'already' & 'yet' Hi there! Welcome to another lesson from New English Academy. I’m your guide, Giles Parker. Today we’ll be focusing on how to use the present perfect with already and yet. This lesson is aimed at intermediate level learners but don’t worry if you aren’t at that level. There is something for everyone here. The comprehension text talks about a modern phenomenon, a ‘bucket list’ which seems to be increasingly fashionable these days. First I’m going to talk about how to use and make present perfect with already and yet, then we’ll listen to (or read, if you like) the comprehension text. As always, you can get more online activities, games and tests that focus on this lesson and others at our website, New English Academy.com. You probably know what the present perfect tense does – that is, it talks about past actions that are still true or important now, and they might still be important in the future too. You know that present perfect is different from

'Will' vs 'going to' Hi and welcome to another lesson from New English Academy. Today we’re going to look at the differences between will and going to. This lesson is aimed at beginner students but if you are more advanced you might still find something useful too. First, I’m going to talk about what going to and will really mean. Then we’re going to hear them in context in a short story. As always, don’t forget to check out our website, New English Academy.com for all the fun online activities that go with this lesson. You probably know that going to and will both talk about the future, therefore they are similar. But what are the differences? Why do we choose to use one and not the other? Some people might say OK, well, one is more relaxed than the other, or one is more formal than the other, but beware! That isn’t really the truth, and if you believe that then you are stopping yourself from being as accurate as you could be. Let me tell you more. They both talk about the future, but the similarit

Gerunds as subject and object Hi there! Welcome to another fun lesson with New English Academy. I’m your guide, Giles Parker. Today, we’re going to look at how we can use gerunds as subjects and objects in a sentence and I’ll talk about that first. Then we’ll listen to or read the comprehension text which is called ‘Preparing for a Marathon’ and yep! You guessed it! It talks about things we can do when we’re training and getting ready to run a marathon. This lesson is aimed at intermediate level learners but the language is natural and there is something for everyone here. Don’t forget to check out the great online activities, tests and games that go with this podcast at the website, New English Academy.com. First, a quick chat about using gerunds as subjects and objects. I guess by now you already know what a noun is. A noun shows a person, place, thing or idea and can be the subject or object of a sentence. So, for example: · The London Marathon is a very popular race. You can see that Lond

Superlative adjectives Hi there, and welcome to another great lesson with New English Academy. I’m your guide Giles Parker and today we’re going to focus on superlative adjectives. The comprehension text is about some of the strangest world records in the Guinness Book of Records. This lesson is aimed at beginners but anyone can find something new and interesting here. First we’ll talk about how to make and use superlative adjectives then we’ll listen to, or read if you want, the comprehension text. As always, don’t forget to check out the great online games and learning activities that go with this lesson on our website at New English Academy.com. First, a little chat about superlative adjectives. You know how adjectives give more information about nouns, how they describe something, make it more interesting? Well superlative adjectives talk about the one thing in its group that is the most ‘whatever’ in its group. For example: · I live in a house. Let’s add an adjective; · I live in a nice

The passive voice for reports Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I’m your guide, Giles Parker, and today we’re going to look at the controversial usage of the passive voice. The comprehension text looks at a report by the BBC last year that described UK Health Protection Agency advice on the use of Smartphones. This lesson is aimed at more advanced learners but if you aren’t advanced don’t worry. Hang in there – you will find something useful for you. As always, you can get the interactive lessons online by subscribing at our website, New English Academy.com. First, let’s talk about the passive voice. I said it was controversial. That means that people are not sure whether it is a good or useful thing to use. For example, I can use this MS Word software to automatically check for passive constructions so I can delete them. Why should I want to delete them? They are just another part of grammar, aren’t they? Well, let’s find out. You probably know by now that the p

'used to' for past habits The text is called ‘Guys used to wear hats’ and this talks about – yep, you guessed it – how people used to wear hats once upon a time, but it seems this is no longer true. But first let’s talk about the grammar, used to. You know how the past tense talks about a finished or competed action that we also know when it happened, like I ate cereal for breakfast? Well, used to talks about past routines or past habits or past situations that were regular but that don’t happen anymore now. So,’ I used to wear short pants when I went to school (but I don’t anymore)’. Or ‘I used to work out every Saturday (but I don’t anymore)’. Used to shows the difference between the past and the present, saying that something was regular but it stopped. You can make this clearer by adding a negative phrase like ‘I don’t now’, or ‘I don’t anymore’.  You can also use it to talk about states that are no longer true, like ‘I used to be fat but then I went on this great e

Frequency adverbs Hi, welcome to another lesson from New English Academy. My name’s Giles Parker and today we’re going to be looking at frequency adverbs. The title of the listening and reading text is ‘My friends make me fat’. The grammar is aimed at beginners but the language is natural so it can be used by any level. Don’t forget, you can download the transcript and access great online games and activities at the website too. First, I’m going to talk about frequency adverbs, then we’ll listen to them or read them, if you like, in context in the comprehension text. When you want to say how often something happens, or how many times a day or a week or a month, etc, something happens, you can use frequency adverbs. Maybe you remember how adverbs kind of give extra information about the verb – they describe how the verb happens. Well, frequency adverbs describe how often the verb happens. So; · 100% of the time use always · 60-75% of the time use often, usually, frequently or regularly · 5

Modal auxiliaries for regret Hi welcome to New English Academy. My name’s Giles Parker and I am your host for this podcast. Today we’re going to focus on 3 different modal auxiliaries to express regret. The listening text is called ‘Buyer’s Remorse’. I’ll tell you more about that in a bit. This lesson is aimed at advanced level students but anyone can try it. First, I’ll explain about the grammar point then you can practice your listening and reading. Don’t forget to check out the website New English Academy.com for more great interactive online English learning activities. Modal auxiliaries, or helping verbs, if you like, are words that add extra colour and dimensions to verbs. You know how in English verbs always show us who did what and when, well modal auxiliaries give extra information and detail to the verb. So they say who did what but give extra information about the ability of someone to do something by using can or could or about the possibility of something by using may or might, or