These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

Listen and read along.

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When summer arrives and the weather gets warm, people all around the world&nbsp;eagerly pack&nbsp;their bags, hop in the car or on a bus or train, and head into nature for some quality camping time. But not all camping experiences are alike! Here are a few questions to consider before you venture outdoors&nbsp;so that you can have the best possible experience,&nbsp;whether you prefer glamping or roughing it.

<h2>How &ldquo;outdoorsy&rdquo; are you really?</h2>

Some people love sleeping under the stars. Others prefer spending time outside without forsaking the&nbsp;creature comforts of modern amenities. The good news is that both perspectives are valid. If the thought of sleeping outside among the critters makes your skin crawl, consider renting a yurt with electricity, heating, and air-conditioning&nbsp;or maybe a trailer with its own cooking facilities. On the other hand, you might be someone who thrives on reconnecting with the wilderness. For you, a single pup tent or hammock might be enough!

<h2>Who&rsquo;s invited?</h2>

When you imagine yourself camping, who are you with? Since camping isn&rsquo;t everyone&rsquo;s cup of tea, it&rsquo;s a good idea to invite people who will enjoy the experience. Your high-maintenance cousin might not be the best person to pitch a tent with, no matter how well you get along.

<h2>What&rsquo;s your ideal setting?</h2>

Maybe you live in a rural area with plenty of great camping spots around. If you&rsquo;re more of a city slicker, however, you might have to drive a couple of hours to get to your location of choice. Decide how far you&rsquo;re willing to go&nbsp;and what sort of environment you&rsquo;d prefer. Do you want a lake or river to swim in, or are you more focused on finding great hiking trails? Do dense forests make you nervous&nbsp;or are you a fan of the shade they provide?

Considering these questions&nbsp;before you set out will help you have a better overall camping experience. If you have any camping stories to share, go ahead and post them in the comments. We&rsquo;d love to hear them!

<h2>Vocabulary</h2>

<ul>
	<li>glamping: a luxurious version of camping&nbsp;(&quot;glamour&quot; + &quot;camping&quot;)</li>
	<li>rough&nbsp;it: to live without the usual comforts of everyday life</li>
	<li>creature comforts: small luxuries that make you comfortable</li>
	<li>critters: small animals that live outside</li>
	<li>make your skin crawl: to give you a creepy, uncomfortable feeling</li>
	<li>pup tent: a small tent for one&nbsp;person</li>
	<li>not one&#39;s&nbsp;cup of tea: something one doesn&#39;t enjoy</li>
	<li>high-maintenance: needing a lot of special attention</li>
	<li>city slicker: someone who lives in an urban enviroment</li>
</ul>

Camping: Getting the Most Out of an Outdoor Adventure

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Listen and read along.

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Unless you grew up in the UK, you&rsquo;ve likely never heard of cockney rhyming slang. This unique way of speaking can be confusing to those unfamiliar with it. However, if you ever find yourself in&nbsp;London, you&rsquo;ll have a great time piecing conversations together&mdash;that is, once you crack the code!

<h2>What does &quot;cockney&quot; mean?</h2>

&quot;Cockney&quot; refers to a person who is from&nbsp;the East End of London, England. According to popular tradition, a true cockney is someone who lives close enough to hear the bells of the Church of St. Mary-Le-Bow&nbsp;in an area known as Cheapside.

Stereotypical cockneys are working-class people, and the term was originally meant as an insult. However, nowadays cockneys use the title with pride.

The cockney accent is very different from what people call &ldquo;the Queen&rsquo;s English,&rdquo; which is considered an upper-class way of speaking. But what truly separates cockney English from typical London English is the slang. According to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cockney">Britannica.com</a>, &ldquo;There are as many as 150 terms that are recognized instantly by any rhyming slang user.&rdquo; Below are just a few&nbsp;commonly used phrases and their meanings.

<h2>Common phrases</h2>

<ul>
	<li>apples and pears = stairs</li>
	<li>army and navy = gravy</li>
	<li>bees and honey = money</li>
	<li>bottle and stopper = copper (policeman)</li>
	<li>box of toys =&nbsp;noise</li>
	<li>brown bread =&nbsp;dead</li>
	<li>bubble bath =&nbsp;laugh</li>
	<li>borrow and beg =&nbsp;egg</li>
	<li>currant bun =&nbsp;sun</li>
	<li>cut and carried =&nbsp;married</li>
	<li>dog and bone =&nbsp;phone</li>
	<li>early hours =&nbsp;flowers</li>
	<li>light and dark =&nbsp;park</li>
	<li>loaf of bread =&nbsp;head</li>
	<li>lump of ice =&nbsp;advice</li>
	<li>mince pies =&nbsp;eyes</li>
	<li>on the floor =&nbsp;poor</li>
	<li>pleasure and pain =&nbsp;rain</li>
	<li>china plate =&nbsp;mate (friend)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Give it a try!</h2>

Now that you&rsquo;ve had a taste of it, try translating this paragraph:

Oi,*&nbsp;china plate! Let me give you a lump of ice. When talking to a pretty girl, look her in the mince pies and make her bubble bath. On the floor? No problem! Pick her a nice bunch of early hours. Calling her up on the dog and bone and taking her on a nice walk in the light and dark doesn&rsquo;t cost any bees and honey either&mdash;but make sure the currant bun is shining! There&rsquo;s nothing like pleasure and pain to ruin a good date. Lastly, just use your loaf of bread and&nbsp;you&rsquo;ll be cut and carried in no time!

*&quot;Oi&quot; is a typical&nbsp;cockney exclamation.

<h2>What do you think?</h2>

Could you ever get used to speaking in cockney rhyming slang? Does your first language have anything similar? Let us know in the comments!

What Is Cockney Rhyming Slang?

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Spring is back in the Northern Hemisphere and the world is coming alive again. It&rsquo;s a time for blooming flowers, nice weather, and renewed energy.&nbsp;What better time to clean your house? It&#39;s common knowledge that spending time in clean, organized spaces is good for mental health. Here are some spring cleaning tips to bring freshness to your living space, no matter where you live! And, to kill two birds with one stone, why not learn some idioms at the same time?

<h2>Make a donation</h2>

Take a page out of organizing consultant&nbsp;Marie Kondo&rsquo;s book and clear your clutter&nbsp;by donating or giving away items that do not &ldquo;spark joy.&rdquo;&nbsp;This might include clothes you haven&rsquo;t worn in a while, books you&rsquo;ve already read, or knickknacks&nbsp;you just don&rsquo;t love anymore.

<h2>Pop open a Coke</h2>

Nobody likes scrubbing the toilet, but here&#39;s a trick that won&#39;t require you to use too much elbow grease. If you have rust rings&nbsp;in your toilet bowl, pouring a full can of cola over them can help get rid of them! Pour the soda around the rim so it covers the entire bowl, wait for an hour, and then scrub and flush. The result should be clean as a whistle!

<h2>Have a freezer feast</h2>

If you&rsquo;re the kind of person who throws everything in the freezer until there&rsquo;s no room left, invite some friends over and have a party. After you&#39;ve prepared the food&nbsp;that&rsquo;s been stashed away over the last few months, you and your pals can enjoy pigging out.

<h2>Get that hair out of there</h2>

We love our pets, but they sure do shed. Hair-removing rollers don&rsquo;t always cut it, and they can be expensive. Luckily, you can remove pet hair from furniture with something you probably already have in your home&mdash;a pair of rubber gloves! Just slip them on and run your hand over those hairy surfaces.

<h2>Get rid of sink stink</h2>

If your kitchen has a garbage disposal, then you know those things can get awfully smelly.&nbsp;Toss a few lemon rinds in there and turn the disposal on for 30 seconds. Add some cold water&nbsp;and inhale the freshness!

Do you have any favorite cleaning tips? If so, we&rsquo;d love to hear them. Leave us a comment and share the knowledge. Happy cleaning!

<h1>Glossary</h1>

<ul>
	<li>kill two birds with one stone: to&nbsp;achieve two things at once</li>
	<li>elbow grease:&nbsp;physical effort</li>
	<li>clean as a whistle: very clean</li>
	<li>take a page out of someone&#39;s book: to follow someone&#39;s example</li>
	<li>pig out: to eat a lot of food at one time</li>
	<li>not cut it: to not be good enough to do something</li>
</ul>

Make a Clean Sweep: Learn Some Tips (& Idioms) for Spring Cleaning

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This post is in the For Students area of our blog. If you are a teacher, you can share it with your students for extra reading practice. The audio features an Irish accent.

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St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day may have originated in Ireland, but it is incredibly popular in the United States and Canada. Why? Because many North Americans are of Irish descent, which means that their ancestors came from Ireland.

<h2>What brought the first Irish people to North America?</h2>

Before the US gained independence, it was a collection of 13 British colonies. Many Irish people left their homeland because of religious conflict and poverty. Some of them came to the colonies as part of the British army, and some were indentured servants.

There were so many Irish people in the colonies by 1762 that New York City held its first St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day parade!

<h2>A second wave</h2>

In the early 19th century, the potato had become&nbsp;a staple of the Irish diet. However, in 1845, the potato crops in Ireland began to fail, leading to starvation. This period was known as the Irish Potato Famine,&nbsp;and it brought another wave of Irish immigrants to North America.

Because Ireland and Canada were both part of Britain at the time, tickets to Canada were less expensive than fares to the US. While&nbsp;many Irish chose to call Canada home,&nbsp;others&nbsp;found the financial resources to make their way to the US.&nbsp;The transatlantic journey was difficult. In the mid-1800s, it took 12 weeks&nbsp;to cross the ocean by boat.

<h2>What&#39;s it like now?</h2>

Nowadays in the US, approximately 26% of the population has&nbsp;Irish ancestors or relatives, and&nbsp;more than 13% of Canadians&nbsp;are of Irish heritage. It&rsquo;s no wonder St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day is so popular in these places!

<blockquote>
Writing challenge: Write a comment using the words &quot;ancestors&quot; and &quot;heritage&quot; to describe something interesting about your family or culture.
</blockquote>

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li>ancestors: family members from the past</li>
	<li>indentured servants: people who had to work without a salary for seven years to pay for their travel to America</li>
	<li>famine: an extreme shortage of food that leads to widespread hunger</li>
	<li>heritage: the culture&nbsp;and traditions of a person&rsquo;s parents and grandparents</li>
</ul>

Why Do North Americans Love St. Patrick's Day?

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Listen &amp; Read

With Valentine&rsquo;s Day coming up on February 14th, there&rsquo;s no better time to get into a romantic mood. Is there someone you have your eye on? Or maybe you want to show your long-term partner some appreciation&nbsp;or even send some warm vibes to your friends and family? If so, I&rsquo;ve got you covered.

In this post, you&rsquo;ll find three ways to celebrate&nbsp;Valentine&rsquo;s Day.

<h2>A classic card</h2>

Offering your loved one a card on Valentine&rsquo;s Day, along with a box of chocolates, is never a bad idea. Include a few lines of verse to get your message across. This&nbsp;timeless Valentine&rsquo;s Day poem can do the trick:

<blockquote>
Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you!
</blockquote>

But why not make your own variation? Notice how the second and fourth line rhyme. It is easy to substitute these two lines with your own rhyming lines, like this:

<blockquote>
Roses are red.

Your eyes are brown.

You are the cutest&nbsp;

Girl in this town!
</blockquote>

Of course, Valentine&rsquo;s Day cards don&rsquo;t have to follow a formula. Any personal sentiment is sure to make your loved one swoon! And if you want to get things just right, check out this post on <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/valentines-day-capitalization-and-punctuation-rules">Valentine&#39;s Day Capitalization &amp; Punctuation Rules</a>.

<h2>A home-cooked meal</h2>

It&rsquo;s no secret that restaurants tend to be very busy on Valentine&rsquo;s Day. So why not re-create the restaurant experience at home? Bring out your best tablecloth and light some candles.&nbsp;Then serve your loved one their favorite home-cooked meal.&nbsp;Or, even better, cook the meal together!

<h2>A treasure hunt</h2>

If you&rsquo;re looking for something a little more unique, you might want to try a treasure hunt. Grab a stack of notecards&nbsp;and number them from 1 to 10. On each card, write a clue about where to find the next card. Hide all the cards in your house, except the first one, which should be somewhere obvious. Your loved one will have a blast searching for each clue! And if you&rsquo;re feeling especially romantic, why not hide a gift along with the last card?

<h3>Glossary</h3>

<ul>
	<li>appreciation:&nbsp;a feeling of thankfulness</li>
	<li>vibes: feelings</li>
	<li>verse:&nbsp;poetry</li>
	<li>timeless:&nbsp;always relevant</li>
	<li>variation: version</li>
	<li>substitute: to put one thing in the place of another</li>
	<li>formula:&nbsp;a standard plan&nbsp;</li>
	<li>sentiment:&nbsp;expressed emotion</li>
	<li>swoon:&nbsp;to feel an emotion, such as romantic love, so strongly that you almost faint</li>
	<li>tend to:&nbsp;to usually do or have</li>
	<li>obvious:&nbsp;clear, not hard to figure out</li>
	<li>have a blast: to&nbsp;have fun</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Do you have any fun Valentine&rsquo;s Day tips or stories? Spread the love in the comments below! (Try to use a word or phrase from the glossary.)
</blockquote>

<ul>
</ul>

Share the Love with These Valentine's Day Ideas

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What do you think of when you hear &ldquo;California&rdquo;? Probably palm trees, surfers, and movie&nbsp;stars.

But what if I told you there were two different&nbsp;Californias?

It&rsquo;s true! While Southern California (SoCal) and Northern California (NorCal) might be part of the same state, they have completely different climates, landscapes, and&nbsp;reputations.

Though it&rsquo;s important not to believe all stereotypes, many&nbsp;Californians&nbsp;still love to debate these&nbsp;differences.

Here are a few of the biggest differences&nbsp;between NorCal and&nbsp;SoCal:

<h2>Climate</h2>

If your idea of California is all sunshine and T-shirt weather, you must be thinking of SoCal. There, even in December, the average weather ranges from 58 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit or 14 to 26 degrees&nbsp;Celsius.

NorCal is a different story.

Though it can still be warm inland, coastal cities like San Francisco are known for their rainy, foggy&nbsp;weather.

In fact, the fog is so famous in San Francisco&nbsp;that locals have even given it a nickname: Karl the Fog.&nbsp;Karl has his own <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/karlthefog?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter account</a>&nbsp;and is even the star of his very own <a href="https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/karl-the-fog" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">children&rsquo;s&nbsp;book</a>!

<h2>Nature</h2>

California is a long state bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean. There are beaches all along the coast, so you&nbsp;can surf pretty much anywhere. But&nbsp;if you&rsquo;re planning on surfing up north, you better wear a wetsuit&nbsp;because that water is&nbsp;cold!

If you&rsquo;re looking for palm trees, you&rsquo;re better off sticking to SoCal&nbsp;where most of the landscape is&nbsp;desert.

Because NorCal gets much more rain, it tends to be&nbsp;greener.

In fact, Northern California is covered in a vast forest, which is home to the world&rsquo;s tallest trees: redwoods (also known as sequoias). Redwood trees generally grow between 250 and 300 feet tall (72 and 91 meters)&nbsp;and some are wide enough to drive&nbsp;through!

<blockquote>
<h3>Fun Fact</h3>

Some redwoods can live to be 1,500 years&nbsp;old!
</blockquote>

<h2>Industry</h2>

SoCal is the home of Hollywood. People all over the world move to SoCal hoping to become famous and &ldquo;make it big&rdquo; in the film industry.

NorCal, on the other hand, is the home of Silicon&nbsp;Valley.

If you&rsquo;d rather develop the next big app than star in the next big movie, the San Francisco Bay Area is the place for you. This area of NorCal is home to all the big tech giants, from Facebook to Apple to&nbsp;Google.

<h2>Attitude</h2>

Since California is a diverse place,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s impossible to generalize everyone. There&#39;s a huge Hispanic community in California since it used to be part of&nbsp;Mexico.

The building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s and the California Gold Rush of 1849 also brought many Asian workers to&nbsp;California.

But despite all this fabulous state-wide diversity, Californians will still try to convince you why their region is the&nbsp;best.

As a whole, California has a reputation for being one of the more politically liberal states in the US, though there are certainly conservative&nbsp;areas.&nbsp;

People from NorCal will tell you that people from SoCal are superficial, thanks to Hollywood. Meanwhile, people from SoCal will say that people from NorCal are a bunch of liberal&nbsp;hippies.

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Are you more NorCal or SoCal?</h5>

Now that you&rsquo;ve heard about some of the big differences between SoCal and NorCal, where would you rather visit? Which part of California seems more like your scene? Tell us in the&nbsp;comments!
</div>

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li>climate: the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of&nbsp;time</li>
	<li>landscape: the&nbsp;nature in&nbsp;a specific&nbsp;region</li>
	<li>inland: the interior of a country normally far away from the&nbsp;coast</li>
	<li>wetsuit: a tight outfit used to keep people warm in the&nbsp;water</li>
	<li>diverse: composed of many different types of&nbsp;people</li>
	<li>liberal: believing more in political progress or change than in tradition</li>
	<li>conservative: believing more in political tradition than in progress or&nbsp;change</li>
	<li>superficial: caring too much about&nbsp;appearances</li>
	<li>hippy: a group of people in the 1960s and 1970s who cared about social and environmental issues and believed in love instead of&nbsp;war</li>
</ul>

NorCal Vs. SoCal: The Two Sides of California

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Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

Previously I shared some reading recommendations for <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/reading-recommendations-for-your-low-int-students" target="_&quot;blank&quot;">low-intermediate</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/reading-recommendations-high-intermediate-students" target="_blank">high-intermediate</a> students. We covered middle-grade/children&rsquo;s books as well as young adult&nbsp;books.

This time, I&rsquo;d like to recommend a couple of fabulous reads for advanced&nbsp;students.

Advanced ESL students have a lot of options in terms of reading materials. Once learners reach this level&nbsp;they have access to the entire gamut of English language&nbsp;literature.

This list includes adult-level books featuring relatively simple language.&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve also made sure to include&nbsp;an array of non-fiction titles this&nbsp;time around.

<h2>Reading recommendations your advanced students will love</h2>

<h3>Fiction</h3>

<ul>
	<li>The Midnight Library by Matt&nbsp;Haig</li>
	<li>The Song of Achilles by Madeline&nbsp;Miller</li>
	<li>Pride and Prejudice by Jane&nbsp;Austen</li>
	<li>The Handmaid&rsquo;s Tale by Margaret&nbsp;Atwood</li>
	<li>Stardust by Neil&nbsp;Gaiman</li>
	<li>The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch&nbsp;Albom</li>
	<li>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark&nbsp;Haddon</li>
	<li>Lord of the Flies by William&nbsp;Golding</li>
	<li>The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa&nbsp;Gregory</li>
	<li>Normal People by Sally&nbsp;Rooney</li>
</ul>

<h3>Non-fiction</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Sapiens: A Graphic History by Yuval&nbsp;Noah&nbsp;Harari and David&nbsp;VanderMeulen</li>
	<li>Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert</li>
	<li>A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill&nbsp;Bryson</li>
	<li>Freakonomics by Stephen&nbsp;J.&nbsp;Dubner and Steven&nbsp;Levitt</li>
	<li>Me Talk Pretty One Day&nbsp;by David&nbsp;Sedaris</li>
	<li>Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl&nbsp;Strayed</li>
	<li>The Tipping Point by Malcolm&nbsp;Gladwell</li>
	<li>The Prophet by Kahlil&nbsp;Gibran</li>
	<li>The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie&nbsp;Kondo</li>
	<li>The Library Book by Susan&nbsp;Orlean</li>
	<li>When Time Stopped by Ariana&nbsp;Neumann</li>
</ul>

There are also many great reading resources on Instagram.&nbsp;If you&#39;re looking for a little book inspiration, make sure to check out <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bookosis/" target="_blank">BOOKOSIS</a>&nbsp;which is&nbsp;run by our Motion&nbsp;Graphic&nbsp;Designer,&nbsp;Lula!

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Now it&#39;s your turn!</h5>

If you&rsquo;d like to add any of your own recommendations to this list, leave them in the comments section below. We&rsquo;d love to hear which adult-level books your students have enjoyed&nbsp;reading!
</div>

Reading Recommendations for Your Advanced Students

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Last month I shared reading recommendations for <a href="http://ellii.com/blog/reading-recommendations-for-your-low-int-students" target="_blank">Low-Intermediate Students</a>. The list I shared included a variety of children&rsquo;s books.

Now&nbsp;I&rsquo;d like to continue with more recommendations for High-Intermediate levels. For this level, I recommend Young Adult (YA) books.

Here&rsquo;s a fun fact: According to an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/why-so-many-adults-are-love-young-adult-literature/547334/ " rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">article</a> by The Atlantic, over half of YA readers are actually adults!

The good news for ESL learners is that YA books will likely include more relatable subject matters than children&rsquo;s books, while still remaining level appropriate.&nbsp;

The following list includes a mix of older and newer books in the YA genre, from dystopian classics and&nbsp;page-turning mysteries to historical&nbsp;fiction and coming-of-age stories.

<h2>Reading Recommendations Your High-Intermediate Students Will Love</h2>

<h3>Oldies but Goodies</h3>

<ul>
	<li>The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros</li>
	<li>The Giver by Lois Lowry</li>
	<li>Charlotte&#39;s Web by&nbsp;E. B. White</li>
	<li>Holes by Louis Sachar</li>
	<li>Of Mice and&nbsp;Men by John Steinbeck</li>
	<li>Number the Stars by Lois Lowry</li>
	<li>Animal Farm by George Orwell</li>
	<li>The Nancy Drew Mysteries by Carolyn Keene</li>
	<li>The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton</li>
	<li>Life of Pi by Yann Martel</li>
</ul>

<h3>More Recent Titles</h3>

<ul>
	<li>The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas</li>
	<li>The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth</li>
	<li>Dry by Neal Shusterman</li>
	<li>The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline</li>
	<li>Displacement (graphic novel) by Kiku Hughes</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Need something a little more advanced?</h5>

Next month I&rsquo;ll be adding a list of books for advanced students. Once again, feel free to share any high-intermediate recommendations you may have in the comments below!
</div>

Reading Recommendations for Your High-Intermediate Students

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When I was an ESL teacher, students often asked me what they could do to practice their reading outside of&nbsp;class.

This question was particularly hard to answer for lower-level&nbsp;students since I knew it would&nbsp;likely be&nbsp;difficult to read an entire English novel with a language level lower than&nbsp;B1.

My answer for those eager lower-level&nbsp;students was usually the same: Try reading children&rsquo;s books!

Even for older students, children&rsquo;s books can be a great resource for learning basic vocabulary and getting used to seeing English in&nbsp;context.&nbsp;

<h2>Reading Recommendations Your&nbsp;Low-Intermediate Students Will Love</h2>

Here are a few go-to reading recommendations from the Middle Grade (MG) category:

<ul>
	<li>Percy Jackson and the Olympians&nbsp;(series) by Rick Riordan</li>
	<li>They Called Us Enemy (graphic novel) by George Takei</li>
	<li>Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga</li>
	<li>Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper</li>
	<li>Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
	&nbsp;
	</li>
</ul>

<h2>Reading Resources for Elementary-Level Students</h2>

Another great reading resource is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.helblinglanguages.com/int/en/helbling-readers-red-series">Helbling Readers Red Series</a>, which contains books written for elementary-level students (CEFR A1&ndash;A2). You&#39;ll find&nbsp;original titles, some of which are illustrated to help with comprehension, as well as&nbsp;classics adapted for lower&nbsp;levels.

Here are a few of the available titles:

<ul>
	<li>The Time Detectives (series) by Martyn Hobbs</li>
	<li>Sherlock Holmes (series) by Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Maria Cleary</li>
	<li>Alice&rsquo;s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, adapted by Jennifer Gascoigne</li>
	<li>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur&rsquo;s Court by Mark Twain, adapted by Scott Lauder and Walter McGregor</li>
	<li>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, adapted by Geraldine Sweeney</li>
	<li>The Westbourne Kids (graphic novel series) by Martyn Hobbs</li>
</ul>

Students will find that a little bit of extracurricular reading every day goes a long way. Likewise, sharing what they&rsquo;ve read recently with the class provides them with an opportunity to practice speaking. In short, extracurricular reading is full of benefits and has virtually no&nbsp;drawbacks.&nbsp;

Got any other recommendations for low-intermediate reading resources to add to my list? Let me know in the comments&nbsp;below!

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<h3>More Fun Ways to Get Them to Practice Their Reading</h3>

See how ESL Library&#39;s ready-made lessons and resources can help improve your students&#39; reading comprehension and vocabulary while making teaching easier for you. <a href="https://ellii.com/tour/lms" target="">Learn more...</a>
</div>

Reading Recommendations for Your Low-Intermediate Students

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Ello-hay, Eader-ray!

Hello, reader! If you were able to understand the phrase above, you must speak pig latin.

Pig latin is a made-up language game used by English-speaking children, and the point of it is simply to confuse people who don&#39;t understand it. Words are formed by removing the first <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2152" target="_blank">consonant</a> of a word, adding it to the end, and adding the <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2316" target="_blank">suffix</a> &ldquo;ay.&rdquo;&nbsp;Easy! (Or easy-ay.&nbsp;If the first letter is a vowel, all you need to do is add &ldquo;ay.&quot;)

<h2>But Why Is It Called &quot;Pig Latin&quot;?&nbsp;</h2>

Fun fact: Pig latin&nbsp;has no relation to Latin at all!&nbsp;This&nbsp;made-up language is most likely called pig latin because to anyone who doesn&rsquo;t understand the rules, it sounds as confusing as Latin. And why &ldquo;pig&rdquo;? I&rsquo;m afraid I don&rsquo;t have an answer to that one. Orry-say!

So where exactly does this silly language come from?

Although no one really knows who invented pig latin, it&#39;s been a part of popular culture since the late 1800s. Pig latin has been featured in&nbsp;various songs and television shows throughout the years, as well as in movies like The Lion King and Monsters Inc.&nbsp;

<h2>Other Languages Like Pig Latin</h2>

While pig latin is&nbsp;the most common invented language related to English&mdash;aside from maybe <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gibberish" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">gibberish</a>, which has more confusing rules&mdash;other languages have their own versions.

French has verlan,&nbsp;a type of slang where you swap the&nbsp;first and last parts of a word. Swedish has a similar language game called fikonspraket, which literally means &ldquo;fig language.&quot;

<h2>More Than Just Fun &amp; Games</h2>

Of course, not all made-up languages like pig latin are fun code games or slang.

Esperanto was invented in Poland in 1887 to encourage peace by bringing people of many nations together&nbsp;under the same common language. It&#39;s still used today and is one of the world&#39;s most famous made-up languages.

Made-up languages can also be found in the beautiful fictional worlds we often see in movies, TV shows, and books.

The Dothraki language was made popular in Game of Thrones, a fantasy television series based on author George R. R. Martin&#39;s bestselling book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Another famous example of an imaginary language is Klingon, from the creators of the science-fiction show Star Trek.&nbsp;

Made-up languages are all around us. Ow-hay Any-may Anguages-lay O-day Ou-yay Peak-say?

Pig Latin & Other Made-Up Languages

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

One of the most important skills students can learn is critical thinking&nbsp;and, by extension, critical reading. Critical reading helps students form their own opinions about texts and teaches them to think for themselves. If students come from an educational background where this skill&nbsp;has not been prioritized, they may have trouble with the concept. Here are some questions that students can ask as they learn&nbsp;how to read critically.

<h2>The Big Question</h2>

The big question students should ask themselves when they read any text is: &quot;Am I thinking about what I&#39;m reading?&quot; That&#39;s an easy question to answer with a simple &quot;yes&quot; or &quot;no,&quot;&nbsp;but the most successful students will break the question down further&nbsp;by asking the following sub-questions.

<h2>Ask yourself...</h2>

<ul>
	<li>What sources did the author use?</li>
	<li>What is the author&#39;s background?</li>
	<li>Who is the intended audience of the text?</li>
	<li>What was the author&#39;s purpose in writing this piece?</li>
	<li>What information does the author assume is true?</li>
	<li>Does understanding the information depend on knowing the context?</li>
	<li>Does the author show any biases?</li>
	<li>Is the author stating facts or opinions?</li>
	<li>What is the author&#39;s final conclusion? Do you agree with it?</li>
</ul>

<h2>Let&#39;s try it!</h2>

These questions can be applied to any text. Assign your students a short article and have them answer the&nbsp;questions.&nbsp;Then put them in groups to discuss their answers. For bonus points, see if your students can think of other critical reading questions. There will be as many interpretations of the text as there are students, so encourage healthy debate.

Developing these skills will turn your students into free-thinking individuals, which will help them not only throughout their academic careers, but also throughout their lives.

Questions for Critical Reading

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<ul>
	<li>What did you use&nbsp;to do on weekends?</li>
	<li>What changed?</li>
	<li>Was it a difficult change to get used to?</li>
	<li>Are you used to your new routine now?</li>
</ul>

If these questions are confusing, don&#39;t worry! It&#39;s perfectly normal to have trouble understanding the differences between &quot;used to,&quot;&nbsp;&quot;get used to,&quot; and &quot;be used to.&quot;

Here&#39;s a handy cheat sheet to help you see the differences:

<img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1822/content_Lara_Getting-Used-To_01.jpg" />

<h2>My Sentences</h2>

Here are a few examples from my own life:

<ol>
	<li>I used to live in San Francisco, but now I live in Phoenix.</li>
	<li>When I moved to Arizona, I had to get used to the hot weather.</li>
	<li>I am not used to driving everywhere.</li>
	<li>In my old neighborhood, I used to walk to my favorite cafe every weekend.</li>
	<li>I used to live with roommates. I am still getting used to living with my boyfriend.</li>
	<li>We are hoping to move again! Soon, we&#39;ll have to get used to a new city!</li>
</ol>

<h2>What Do You Think?</h2>

Have another look at my sentences, and then answer the following questions for each one:

<ul>
	<li>Is the sentence about the past, present, or future?</li>
	<li>Is each sentence about the past referring to something that happened once or many times?</li>
</ul>

<h2>Leave a Comment</h2>

<ul>
	<li>What is something you used to do regularly in the past, but don&#39;t do anymore?</li>
	<li>What is something you didn&#39;t use&nbsp;to do&nbsp;before, but have gotten used to doing recently?</li>
	<li>What is something familiar that you are used to doing&nbsp;because you&#39;ve been doing it for a long time?</li>
</ul>

VIEWING POSTS BY

Lara Henerson