by Claire Jaynes

It's the time of year when we ask ourselves, what do we want to achieve this year? What do we want to change and what can we improve?

by Claire Jaynes

For most of our students, listening is a key skill they want to develop alongside their speaking skills. Just think of all the different ways we listen every day: calling a colleague abroad, talking to a group in a conference call, negotiating with a supplier or simply just working in a multinational team! Luckily, listening can be practised both inside and outside the classroom. At Trebinshun House, we help students develop and practise their listening skills on our business courses so here are some of our top tips.

It has been a great summer here in Wales in our anniversary year. Trebinshun House has now been providing excellent language training for 40 years and it has been a pleasure to have new faces around our dinner table as well as old friends returning too!

We are still very much a family business. Archie Watson is enjoying his role as the main host at Trebinshun and also works with his sister Bee on marketing.

By Claire Jaynes

Many of our students at Trebinshun House leave their course with a high level of motivation and enthusiasm for continuing their learning (and of course, improved language skills). They often ask us for advice for how they can maintain or perhaps even improve their language skills once back in their country. Let's look at the place of traditional face-to-face learning and consider what benefits distance learning can offer. 

by Claire Jaynes

Let's face it, we all look for shortcuts in our lives (to get fit quick, to answer our emails by lunchtime etc). Language learning is no different. There is no quick fix such as fluency in 3 months (sorry!). What you'll find here is some sensible advice that language teachers follow when learning a language.

by Claire Jaynes

Did you know that motivation is one of the key factors determining the success of learning a language? It provides the initial impetus to start the learning process and is the driving force in sustaining learning in the long term. It has been argued that even with considerable ability in language learning, motivation remains the core success factor - more so than ability! This means that even if you've had negative experiences in the past, you still have every chance of succeeding now....

by Claire Jaynes

At Trebinshun House, we very often work with European students on our intensive business courses. Wthin this European framework, we train people whose companies do business on a daily basis with neighbouring countries, including being involved directly in the European Parliament or in their own governments. So with the 'surprise' result of Brexit just last week, let's look at the role of English in the European Union and consider if that could change.

by Claire Jaynes

Vocabulary is the key building block to fluency and for the majority of our students, being more fluent in English is their main aim. At Trebinshun House, we are often asked by our students how they can build their vocabulary. While they are studying our intensive courses, it's easy - you are literally surrounded by new words every day! How do you keep learning once you go back? How can you improve your skills in acquiring more words? Here are three SMART tips.

by Claire Jaynes

Did you know that English words are not really English after all?! According to surveys completed in the 1970s and 1980s, 29% of 'English' words have a Latin root, a further 29% come from French and a good 26% from German. It's no wonder that our students can (sometimes) make easy connections between their language and English. Just last week, my elementary German-speaking students recognised 'shift' (Schicht in German) along with many other words. The good news is that we can make the most of these similarities (something that we explore in our Intensive Training Programmes) in addition to working on the differences. But what happens as new inventions or ideas come along? How do we create new words?

by Claire Jaynes

We often feel uncomfortable about making mistakes and it's all the more clear in speech: we might use a word incorrectly or stumble over a tense (many of us also experience 'going blank').But mistakes are part and parcel of language learning so it's important to recognise how useful mistakes can be. Here are some points to keep in mind.

by Claire Jaynes

Stop and think for a minute about this: what beliefs do you have about learning a language? Is it that children learn more easily than adults? Is is that grammar is hard? Is it that you can be only be fluent if you live in the country in which the language is spoken? Whatever you believe,  it is helpful to explore your beliefs especially where any negative ones could have an impact on your language learning. Let's look at some examples below.