Category Archives: Tips for Teachers

Where to start when softening your English accent







Good luck!






Happy teaching!




Problematic Sounds For Many Non-native Speakers

One of the most challenging sounds for non-native speakers of English is actually the most common sound in the English language! That sound is The Schwa. The schwa is a very subtle, quiet sound – you may barely have noticed it, but without it, you can never hope to capture the rhythm of English. Any written vowel can be replaced by the schwa if it’s in an unstressed syllable. Examples can be heard in words like allow, or official: rather than saying the strong form of the vowel, it should be pronounced with a quiet ‘uh’ sound.

For non-native speakers this sound can really challenging, because when you’re speaking in your second language you want to be as clear as possible in order to be understood. Using the schwa can feel like mumbling or like you’re not fully pronouncing a word. However, in reality all native speakers use the schwa – even the Queen! And by not using it, you are are much more likely to be misunderstood.

The schwa is key to showing what’s important within sentences. The vowels in small grammar words like ‘to’, ‘as’, ‘at’, ‘can’ ‘was’ etc frequently reduce to schwas, and not using them will make those words stand out too much, and confuse listeners about the overall meaning of what you’re trying to say – the individual words may be clear, but the meaning of the sentence gets lost if you don’t unstress the unimportant words. For example, in a sentence like ‘I was waiting for you’, if you don’t unstress the word ‘was’ by using a schwa, it ends up sounding stressed to native speakers, and changes the meaning of that sentence from something quite neutral to ‘I WAS waiting for you’ which could seem argumentative.

So when practising English pronunciation, learning what not to say, is just as important as learning what to say.



Why Accents Matter

We love accents! We make our living helping people learn a variety of different accents, and we celebrate all the different accents that exist. We also know that accents are a big part of our identities and who we are as individuals, so we definitely aren’t interested in teaching everyone to sound the same. However, there are certain occasions where accents can cause problems for understanding, and those are the times when we believe it’s important to work on your accent.

One of those times is when an accent means that a speaker isn’t distinguishing between minimal pairs. This means that there are two words that only have one different sound, but have completely different meanings. For example: ‘live’ and ‘leave’. Speakers of many languages have issues differentiating between the long vowel ‘ee’ /iː/ and the short vowel ‘i’ /ɪ/. This could make it hard to tell the difference between the exclamations ‘I just can’t leave here!’, and ‘I just can’t live here!’. There’s a big difference in meaning, but only one very subtly different vowel sound.

For speakers of English at a more advanced level, accents can still cause problems, but in other ways. For example, someone who has lived their adult life in the UK, but grew up elsewhere speaking another language may have no problem with being understood, but may find that their tone or intention is frequently misunderstood. This can be because so much subtext and subtle emotional meaning in English is conveyed through intonation (the musicality of speech). In English, a falling tone usually conveys finality or certainty, so if (as a non-native speaker) you’re always using falling tones, due to the intonation patterns of your mother tongue, listeners may think that you don’t want to chat any more.

So changing your accent doesn’t mean losing who you are – in fact you can change your accent in ways that allow your true intentions to be understood more easily.



COBUILD: Design and Layout – Changes over the last 30 years

Where were you 30 years ago? I was in the middle of my university studies, still to embark on my ELT career, and as such, a smidgin too late to be part of the intrepid and free-spirited COBUILD dictionary team. Led by the late John Sinclair, this large young team was involved in bringing to life his vision: to create a dictionary for learners that was based on a large digital language database – or a corpus. The corpus would be used for analysing word frequencies, for identifying new uses, collocations, colligation, connotation, and typical contexts for words and phrases. Definitions would be written in full sentences in the type of everyday English a teacher might use to explain a word to a learner, with the added advantage that users would see how the word would work in a sentence.

Looking back at the pages of that first edition, you might be struck by the density of the page design. It seems that we now need our text to be broken up with white space, boxes and varying fonts and colours: our modern brains seem to need a bit of a break between lines and entries. Was my intrepid and free-spirited self really so much better at reading tiny words all squished together on a page? Well, the answer is probably yes, as I remember my first encounters with COBUILD dictionaries were ones of delight; I don’t recall thinking ‘What? How do you expect me to wade through all of that?’

A page from the first edition of COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

A page from the first edition of COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

The other feature that jumps out at us from the pages of the first edition is the ‘extra column’. This was a narrow column down the right-hand side of each main column of dictionary text. It provided information on parts of speech and typical syntactical patterns, such as ‘V + O’ (= verb plus object) for transitive verbs, so that students didn’t have to search through the denser dictionary text for this type of information. Parts of speech were very specific; for example, adjectives might be ADJ CLASSIF: ATTRIB (a classifying adjective that occurs in attributive position) or ADJ QUALIT (a qualitative adjective), and verbs could be V ERG (ergative verb), v-link (linking verb) or V + O (transitive verb). The user can see the examples of use in the main dictionary text next to this information.

See the ‘extra column’ information for accusation below:

An extract from the entry accusation from the first edition

An extract from the entry accusation from the first edition

The ‘extra column’ information here means:

Accusation is a countable noun. If it’s followed by a preposition, then that preposition is of or against (e.g. accusations of cheating). It can also be followed by a reporting clause, as in The accusation against us was that we were biased.

COBUILD’s ‘extra column’ was something of a showcase for the incredible amount of hard work that lexicographers and grammarians put into analysing the newly-built corpus. It told us all sorts of previously undocumented facts about how the English language works.

Sadly, though, the extra column was not to survive. Market research told us that most learners did not read or even understand the vast majority of information in the extra column and in 2008 it was quietly put out to grass. The information in the extra column was re-worked with the modern learner in mind. The reintegration of much of the material into the main text meant that the main columns could be widened and more words and meanings could be covered in the same number of pages.

So, what does our mature 30-year-old dictionary look like now? Well, it has grown into an incredibly user-friendly go-to treasure trove of the English language, thanks to its sophisticated font design, useful information boxes, colourful images, and plenty of restful white space. It has a hugely popular online sibling, available at, and has inspired learners and lexicographers alike to use corpora to continue to learn ever-more fascinating facts about our language. Happy 30th birthday, COBUILD!

A page from the ninth edition, published in 2018

A page from the ninth edition, published in 2018

This blog post has been written by Penny Hands, who is an ELT lexicographer and materials editor.

Find out more about our new editions of the Collins COBUILD dictionaries and other COBUILD materials here.

Encouraging IELTS students to read beyond the course book

It comes as no surprise that reading widely is proven to increase reading fluency. However, many students are still in need of a little encouragement and guidance to build the skills required to read confidently outside of the course book. Here are a few ways you can incorporate authentic readings into your IELTS preparation course to engage students and help them better prepare.

How do you choose authentic material?

Not all authentic material is made equal. While there is a plethora of potential readings just a mouse-click away, many students cite article selection as one of the main reasons why they didn’t read online regularly.

When selecting articles for your students, there are several things to consider:

  • Is the level appropriate?
    Be careful of discouraging students. Look for material that will challenge and motivate students at their level without being too advanced.
  • Is the material relevant?
    Select articles with topics that are likely to be covered in the IELTS exam. Also consider the structure and style of the articles. Does the material have a similar structure to potential IELTS readings? Are there good examples of language and topic sentences that students can model?
  • Will students enjoy reading this?
    The most important aspect. Students should be interested in and excited about learning a language. Try to find articles that will not only educate, but will impress your students and encourage them think and discuss. Ways to do this are catchy headlines, polarising topics or very current issues.

How do you make the most of the authentic material?

It’s unlikely that articles will come with a set of teacher’s notes and lead-in questions. But fear not: potential authentic reading tasks are endless! What’s more, you can do these activities together – or flip the classroom, doing any related speaking in class and prime/prep for the reading at home!

  • Focus on comprehension and structure
  • Underline topic sentences.
  • Prediction tasks, guessing the structure and content of the article from the title, subtitle and pictures.
  • Cut the article up into paragraphs, and give students a time limit to order it.
  • Focus on vocabulary
  • Utilise the Academic Word List and academic word highlighter. Try: blanking out academic words, creating word games or matching synonyms.
  • Practice guessing unknown vocabulary from context. Focus on the word function, other forms of the word and the connotations.
  • Ask students to select 5-10 unknown words from the text and categorise this into academic vocabulary, technical vocabulary, or different parts of speech.
  • Focus on IELTS style tasks
  • Create a set of T/F/NG questions. Or better yet, ask students to write their own to gain better understanding into the formulation of these.
  • Ask students to give each paragraph a heading, pass those headings to the next group and ask them to match.
  • Focus on responding
    Articles should not only be used for reading. Studies show that oral discussion of texts has a positive effect on language learning. Here are some ways you can use the text as a springboard to responding.
  • Practise speaking for elongated periods of time – summarise the main points of the article, aiming to speak for two minutes.
  • If there are multiple viewpoints in the article, assign students different personas and have them practise giving their opinions as part of a group discussion.
  • Identifying the main arguments, and use these to write an essay discussing both views.

To sum up, although there are some challenges in using authentic material in the classroom, it is a useful tool for both the teacher and the student. Through classroom and classroom support, students will benefit in gaining global reading skills which will assist them in the IELTS exam, and beyond.


Exploring language change









1.   generic pronouns and determiners
2.   stative verbs used with progressive aspect
3.   unmodified much in affirmative statements
4.   be like as a reporting structure
5.   plural forms of you
6.   all-purpose question tags


The results were fascinating:





          John has been keeping birds for about three years now.



  • discussion (much talk/discussion/debate/argument)
  • thought (much speculation/deliberation/doubt)
  • study (much research/study)
  • attention (much attention/interest)

          relating to discussion, debate and research.

          The subject of company and annual accounts is generating much debate among
          accountants and analysts.
          The team’s findings have caused much excitement among medical experts.
          After much speculation, intelligence agencies now believe that he survived.





          situation and means something like It was amazing/surprising.

          Be like always comes before the reported clause.


          Some varieties and dialects of English have developed particular forms of

          What did y’all eat for breakfast?
          I want to thank y’all.




          You’re American, right?
          He’s a lawyer, right?
          Let’s talk about something else, eh?
          Not good, eh?


          We’ve seen that film already, isn’t it? 
          They’re arriving tomorrow, isn’t it?


          It makes you think though, innit?
          It’s all just a bit of fun, innit?
          So eventually he gave me the sack, innit.



Explore this topic in greater detail with our free guided worksheet.






collins cobuild grammar





               A: Where’s Ben?







               This time next year I’ll be studying for my finals.


Now consider this example:






Consider the following exchanges, too:





Explore this topic in greater detail with our free guided worksheet.

Nonstandard usage or error: where should we draw the line?

collins cobuild grammar










          the English used by the powerful.







Geographically based varieties:





Varieties used by particular groups in society:

















  1.  slips of the tongue
  3.  errors of spelling or punctuation
  4.  foreign learner mistakes



Explore this topic in greater detail with our free guided worksheet .





Thornbury, S. (2011)

BBC news website (2010)

BBC Voices (2014)

Modality and conditionals



Sun Tzu



Consider the following statements:

1  Mr Wilkins is the oldest person in the village.

2  Mr Wilkins must be the oldest person in the village.



Or even just:

I’m certain Mr Wilkins is the oldest person in the village.








Helmets must be worn at all times.

You have to eat or you die.



You mustn’t use your mobile in the library.




There’s nobody here – we needn’t have arrived so early!











Conditionals are often taught as one of four forms:


If you heat ice, it melts.


If she gets here on time, we’ll start as planned.


If Jack did more exercise, he’d lose weight.


If my parents hadn’t met, I wouldn’t have been born.



If he’s arrived, I’ll speak to him.







A:         I wish it was Saturday.

B:         Why?






Explore this topic in greater detail with our free guided worksheet.






Further reading:
