The Weekly Review - Who Knows What?

For a non-native speaker it could be complicated to practise a foreign language out of the classroom or study area. One must bear in mind that one of the fundamental bases in order to learn and familiarize yourself with a language is to be in daily or frequent contact with it. For this reason, LP Method has created an online newspaper called The Weekly Review, which has the main aim of bringing the English language to its students in a more dynamic and fun way.

As one can notice, The Weekly Review is divided into different zones.

Culture Vulture: A part on general knowledge which aims to expand our horizons on topics such as History, Art, Geography and Music.

This section can be very useful in order to understand that a language is not only a group of symbols and letters but a culture as well.

Grammar Under the Hammer: A perfect section to practise and to clarify any doubts one may have concerning grammar. This part is addressed to all levels of students (even to native English speakers!)

Learning and using some phrasal verbs, for instance, might result a little complicated for non-native English speakers. In this section not only will these verbs be defined but students will be provided with some examples in order to clarify any doubts they may have.

A good example would be ‘to egg on’. This phrasal verb means to cheer somebody up, especially when competing against an opponent. To clarify its meaning even more, it could be very useful to read the suggested examples on the webpage. However, it could be even more enriching if one personally tries to come up with another example: ‘I was egging my sister on all the time while she was competing against her friend’.

Think Language: This last section is created to be a little bit critical with the language. Particularly when being in front of a language that has got many verbal forms for different language contexts.

For example, the sentences ‘If Lara phones I will let you know/If Lara phones I am going to let you know’ would be translated into Spanish, for example, with the same verb tense: Si Lara llama te lo haré saber. However, analysing further, it can be noticed that in English the meaning of both sentences change. In the first one, the verb ‘will’ is used as to make an offer, and in the second sentence the verb ‘be going to’ gives a sense of intention to the sentence.

Other sections, Smile for a While for example, bring some humour to English and its culture. Every week some jokes will be posted in order to make the users smile.

Last but not least, there is a section dedicated to words and foreign expressions, especially focused on Latin. It must not be forgotten that many of the words in English have a Latin origin. A good example of this could be the word miracle, which originates from the Latin word miraculum.

To sum up, thanks to The Weekly Review one can learn English from very different perspectives that can be very useful for those who want to learn a language with a rich vocabulary and culture.

Visit The Weekly Review to improve and practice your English!

This guest post has been contributed by LP Method. LP Method is an English course online which programmes your brain in such a way that you will no longer have to think before talking or writing in English, thus improving your fluency. Sign up now!

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