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Interview with Lori from Better at English

Lori — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:18:31 +0000

Hi everyone,

Despite the embarrassing lack of activity here at Better at English, I’m still very much alive and kicking. In fact, Ana from Inglês Online, a great online resource for Brazilian learners of English, caught up with me for a quick interview. You can find it (audio and transcript) here.

Thanks to everyone for your emails and comments the past few months. I’ll be back with season two as soon as I can figure out how to work creating at least one episode per week into my schedule.

Best of luck with your continued English learning,
Lori

Announcement: Technical problems

Lori — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:25:27 +0000

Hi everyone, Lori here with a quick announcement. Last night I updated the betteratenglish feed so that from now on all of our previous episodes will be accessible through iTunes and other podcatchers. Unfortunately a few of the older episodes are not available yet because of a technical problem with the service that hosts our mp3 files. I have notified them of the problem, and hope to have it resolved as soon as possible. Thanks to those of you who notified us of the problem. We really appreciate it. Bye for now!

Uncensored English – New English learning podcast

Lori — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:37:48 +0000

Hi everyone! Lori here with a quick announcement.

Even though many of you have told me that you don’t mind the occasional swear word or bit of off-color language, I’ve decided that it’s best to keep B@E a relatively clean site, and put all the naughty stuff on a different one. Today I’ve launched the evil twin of Better At English:
UncensoredEnglish.com. On Uncensored English, Michael and I will be teaching you all kinds of colorful idioms and slang — even swear words — because we think that learners benefit from knowing about ALL sides of the English language, not just the clean, polite side. So if you are curious about learning more of the edgy, gritty side of the English language, and if you’re not easily offended by vulgar language, then head on over to UncensoredEnglish.com and give our first shows a listen.

And for those of you who are not interested in off-color language, don’t worry. We’ll continue with the clean stuff here at B@E.

Thanks for listening!

Question: What is the best book you’ve ever read in English?

Lori — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:41:19 +0000

I have a quick question for all B@E readers and listeners out there:

What is the best book you’ve ever read in English, and why did you like it?

Note: Original books only, not simplified books or abridged “easy readers.”

It can be fiction or non-fiction. I’m mainly interested in books that are so fantastic that you hope everyone will have the chance to read them someday. But if that’s a tall order for you, then just tell me about any book that you really liked. You can write as much or as little as you like.

I’d be grateful if you could post your answers in comments, or email me. Or why not record your answer?

I’ll summarize all of the responses I get in a later post so that everyone will benefit from all your suggestions!

Thanks in advance,
Lori

Here is the background to my question:

Some of my students are reluctant readers, even in their own language. I’ve made it my personal mission to help them discover the wonderful experiences that reading has to offer. But even though I’m a trained teacher and a voracious reader, it’s still difficult for me to accurately judge how difficult a book will be for non-native speakers of English. And it’s even harder to judge how enjoyable a book will be for them (even if they can handle the “level” of the language).

As I see it, there are four main factors that interact to make a book more or less readable and enjoyable (your own list may differ):

1) The complexity of the language (sentence structure, overall readability)
2) The vocabulary
3) The cultural knowledge that the reader needs to know to “get” the content of the book
4) The reader’s interest in the overall topic or story itself

I’m pretty good at guessing about points 1 and 2, but 3 and 4 are much harder!
So your input will be a big help!

Announcement: going on a short business trip

Lori — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:46:08 +0000

Hello everyone,

I will be away on business for the next 5 days, so I won’t be able to make any new podcasts for you until I get back. While I’m gone, I have a favor to ask you: it would be great if you could let me know which type of podcast you find most useful.

Which of our two main formats do you like best?

2-minute English
Real English Conversations
Both formats
I would like something else altogether (tell us what!)

You can either post in comments here, or send an email through the contact form, or why not record a message?

I’ll be back on 17 October, and you can look forward to more frequent podcasts after that!

Bye for now,
Lori