Ethos English

Learn useful vocabulary related to voting and the democratic process based on an article from the Guardian on the recent snap election in Spain.

George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" tells us a lot about what it really means to be an advanced English speaker. (Hint: Value precision over adornment.)

What does Steve Jobs learning calligraphy from a Trappist monk at university have to do with the creation of what is now the single most valuable company in the world? Listen to find out.

This week I talk about metaphors, coaching and the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) pioneer Dr. David Burns.

Research shows that reading from physical books, rather than on screens, significantly enhances our ability to understand, remember and reflect on the content. Worryingly, many universities are choosing to replace readings with video content in an en effort to engage with students. Is this a step backwards?

Instead of focusing on overall fluency start defining the specific contexts in which you need English. The skills you need for a given context can be thought of as a microfluency and can be developed at a faster pace. I give my own experience learning German when I was a flight attendant and discuss related concepts such as SMART goals and narrow reading and listening.

What is the impact of unlimited access to both trivial and transformative online content? Should we limit the information we take in and be more reflective information "consumers"? I also give informaiton on a free online event for English teachers on 27 May.

Although the monarchy may be on its way out, the same can't be said for monarchy-inspired idioms.

This week we look at articles from the Verge and Reuters on a proposed EU copyright law. Copyrighted text and images are being used to build generative AI platforms like ChatGPT through a process called scraping yet the owners of this intellectual property stand to gain nothing. What is the future for creators?

This week we look at articles from The Financial Times and The Economist on Fox News' record-breaking $787.5 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. Find out how corrupt journalists allowed conspiracy theories to become mainstream and the role played by former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson in compromising media integrity.

I share insights from my coach training programme, specifically ideas taken from a talk by Marcus Buckingham called "9 Lies About Work" and how real progress depends on our ability to focus on our strengths and giving up on the fantasy of being well-rounded.

The word "stake" has a variety of metaphorical meanings. It can represent ownership, risk, investment, commitment - and even belonging and is used to talk about everything from territorial disputes to the health of the planet. When we explore the etymology and metaphors behind everyday expressions they become cognitively sticky and therefore easier to remember.

This week I share insights from Psychology Today and the book Nonviolent Communication that will help you communicate far more effectively in high-stakes situations like speaking exams, job interviews... and on your next date.

One of the greatest writers in our language only started learning English at the age of 21. This week I look at more compelling goals than sounding like a native-speaker.

Puffin Random House, publisher of Roald Dahl’s works, has hired a company to make the author’s books more politically correct by removing references to race, gender, body size and other potentially offensive content. The move has prompted criticism that children are being shielded from difficult truths about the world, with some critics arguing that sanitising Dahl’s work removes important cultural commentary. I explore the history of bowdlerisation from Shakespeare in the 19th century to the more recent example of a revised version of Huckleberry Finn that removes the "n" word.

Many learners overlook everyday uses of inversion. This grammar structure is not limited to formal and literary English and should be part of your repertoire as a proficient English speaker. Learn a few of the most frequently used inversions, conveniently presented in sentence frames and chunks.

Surveys suggest that we're spending far less time with friends than we used to. More and more people - especially men - report having fewer or even no close friends. This week I explore psychological concepts like learned helplessness and mere exposure to help you reflect on how to make your own social life more rewarding. 

The World Cup might be a distant memory but the political scandals linking Qatar to European lawmakers are far from over. This week find out about corruption in Brussels as well as the origin of the suffix -gate to refer to scandals.

Find out how a 22 year-old year old undergraduate has managed to create a tool that detects AI-generated text with a low margin of error. Is this a dream come true for educators?

In this week's show I talk about how ChatGPT and artificial intelligence more generally will affect language learning. I discuss articles from The Atlantic and The New York Times and explain the concept of neo-Luddites.

This week I'm going to teach you about the importance of alliteration. From advertising to journalism to fiction, alliteration is all over the place. Listen to become a better English speaker.

In this episode I discuss my first year of podcasting why I'm happy that my early episodes make me cringe... and why they're still worth listening to!

I go over my some of my favourite episodes and some useful language related to advent. 

This week I continue my exploration of adverb collocations and share with you two powerful (and free!) online writing tools to dramatically improve your writing.

Advanced English learners use adverbs in strikingly different ways. (You see, I just did it! Strikingly different - that's an adverb + adjective collocation.) Research has shown that C2 English speakers use not only more adverbs but also a wider range of them. In this week's episode I draw your attention to some key adverb + adjective collocations to help you make the shift from an intermediate to a truly advanced English learner.

We live in a world that seems to value productivity and external accomplishments over everything else. How can we shift our mindset so that we not only survive but thrive as teachers, students and human beings? Today I explore the deceptively simple insights of Zena Hitz on the true nature of genius. (Hint: think attitude not inborn trait). As a bonus I share one of my favourite websites for thought-provoking essays and articles.

This week I share with you an entertaining and very unintellectual newspaper column that will have you laughing out loud and ask whether you are as open-minded as you think. I discuss a fascinating New York Times video on the hypocrisy of the political left and how the concepts of belief perseverance and the backfire effect will have you rethinking how you argue with others.

In this week's show I remind you of the importance of resetting your attentional filter to notice key categories of vocabulary in English, including "empty" verbs and binomials. You'll be putting into practice my tips and I've even come up with a scavenger hunt for you to play while listening.

This week I explore key concepts from neuroscience in Daniel J. Levitin's book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload and how they apply to language learning. Specifically, I explain the concept of the attentional filter as it relates to language learning and how using categories allows us to learn better. I go over last week's tip related to delexicalised verbs as exemplified in news stories on the political situation in the UK and then introduce this week's tip on binomials as a useful category of chunk in everyday English. As always, at the end of the episode I go over key vocabulary with definitions and examples.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, thereby depriving women in many parts of the U.S. access to legal abortion. In this episode we look at key vocabulary related to the law as well as discuss the American Supreme Court and new evidence-based studies on abortion. 

In this week's episode I discuss a recent court ruling in the United States on the safety of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the world's most widely-used pesticide and why this coming year is crucial for improving food safety and wildlife protection in the European Union.  

What can London's sewage crisis of the 19th century teach us about our own environmental crisis?

What is eco-anxiety? How we can use art as a way of processing grief caused by climate change? I have a brief chat with the environmental scientist, policy maker - and award-winning mosaic artist - Julie Sperling about the therapeutic value of art and how we can use the principles of ikigai to find ways to do our part in the fight against climate change.

In this episode I delve into key words and phrases to help you talk about a topic that is very common in speaking exams, namely the importance of learning English or another foreign language. This is a very popular topic and one for which you can prepare yourself by learning some key vocabulary that will help you boost your performance. What's more, I explore the idea of educational inequality and how requiring English for professional and academic use has a dark side. Specifically I discuss a BBC article on subtractive bilingualism in Holland.

I also raise the issue of anticipating the kinds of questions you might be asked and how vital it is to avoid superficial answers. The questions you're asked may be boring but your answers shouldn't be!

What does it mean to be well-read? In this episode I talk about Pierre Bayard's book How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read and why book reviews are an underrated tool for your personal development.

In this episode I talk about embracing being a nerd and the expression "Seek and ye shall find" and how the Bible, specifically the King James translation, has provided English with a wealth of idioms still in use today.

Find out how Marshall McLuhan's media theory might just save your relationships.

In this episode I talk about some counterintuitive yet helpful advice from one of my favourite columnists and address the issue of philistinism in English language teaching. Why does literature play such a small role in the teaching of English? Why are we so unambitious in our approach to writing?

In this episode I talk about New Year's resolutions. Where did they originate? Are they worth making?