I don’t know about you, but with summer just around the corner, I’m starting to get itchy feet really bad!

What’s your favorite idiom below?Learn Body idioms with Kaplan

The London Exam Centre is part of Kaplan’s English language school in Leicester Square. They were the only school to receive two awards, and were awarded for: “Best performing new centre” and “Best use of Facebook for promotion.”

The meeting held place at the historic and picturesque surroundings of Somerset House. Cambridge English exam centers from all over the country met there for the awards ceremony. The ceremony was to recognize the contributions to the Cambridge English Language Assessment mission in the UK.

Are you interested in preparing for Cambridge Exams?

You’ll want to look into the courses at Kaplan Leicester Square. Some of the courses offered are: the First Certificate (FCE), the Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) or the Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE).

The principal at Kaplan Leicester Square, Craig Sargent, who was very happy with his school’s achievement, said:

“Kaplan Leicester Square school is delighted to receive such recognition at the Cambridge Centenary Awards. Being the only school to win two awards at the ceremony is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work of all our staff. We look forward to further success during this year and in the future.”

What do you think about text speak (those funny words and acronyms above)?

Do English learners who use text speak regularly suffer from worse spelling?

Kaplan’s English for Teenagers infographic reveals some interesting opinions in a new survey.

The graphic shows that 63% of English learners don’t believe that using text speak damages their English grammar or spelling. It also reveals that most (71%) use text speak on their phones, many (64%) use it online, and some (14%) actually use it in speech.

Although 5% use text speak when writing essays and 3% when writing exams, a recent study by Coventry University did not find any evidence that texting slang was detrimental to primary and secondary school children’s normal literacy abilities.

Dr. Clare Wood, Professor of Psychology in Education at Coventry University, said (important parts in bold added by me):

“Our own work examined children who used mobile phones and assessed them over the course of an academic year in one study, and over just 10 weeks in another.

“We found that not only was there no evidence of a negative association between literacy skills and the tendency to use texting slang or abbreviations when using SMS, in fact it seemed to be adding value to the children’s conventional spelling abilities, because of the highly phonetic nature of the text abbreviations which are most commonly used.

“They seem to enable children to rehearse their understanding of how speech sounds map onto printed characters in a way that benefits their normal literacy development.”

This survey and the mentioned research definitely goes against what a lot of parents and teachers feel, but it makes sense. Most children use text speak because they also have integrated mobile devices into their lives so much. Text speaking is much more efficient, communicating with less time and effort.

What are your thoughts? Take a look at the infographic and let us know in the comments!

English for Teenagers Kaplan infographic

So how do you win?

The competition is being called the Kaplan Talent Awards. Kaplan students have submitted over 1000 photos, and the top 30 have been chosen to be judged by you! You just need to look at the photos, and choose the ones you think are the best. One lucky judge will be chosen, and awarded with a free 2 week English course at a Kaplan school any where in the world.

You first need to go to the Talent Awards App on the Facebook page. Once you’re there, click to get started. After you click okay on the next screen, you’ll see the 30 photos being judged.

You can make each photo bigger if you click on the magnifying glass icon, and you can select your favorit by clicking on the check mark. There are several categories, so you can choose one from each.

After you’ve made your choices, click the submit button, and you’re finished! Both the winning photographer and the winning judge will be decided on May 13. Hopefully you’ll get contacted then with some great news!

About the competition

If you’re wondering more about the competition, here is what Kaplan’s social media manager, Robert Pickstone, had to say,

“For a long time now, we’ve been impressed and inspired by the talent displayed by our students. Their photography skills are fantastic. We wanted to recognize and reward our students, whilst also involving our Facebook fans, which has led to the birth of The Kaplan Talent Awards!

“Everyone stands a chance of winning the experience of a lifetime, and we’re excited to be offering this opportunity. Good luck and we hope you like the photos!”

Chances are, they have!

In a recent survey done by Kaplan, they discovered 86% of teachers use music in class, the most popular being the Beatles. You can see the full results on Kaplan’s How to Teach English Infographic (there are several translations as well!).

The survey asked over five hundred ESL teachers around the world about what they use in their classes. Music was obviously a popular choice, but using English speaking celebrities, movies, TV shows, and newspapers were also incredibly popular with teachers.

Time for me to come clean and admit…

I am one of the 3% who used One Direction, a popular British boy band. When teaching junior high school kids, they only care about what is really popular right now. The Beatles, for them, is something their parents listen to, so even if they get into it, they pretend really hard not to!

This survey was focused on what teachers use in class, but I’m curious to hear from the students perspective.

Which of these activities is your favorite?

When your teacher says, “Alright class, now we’re going to …,” which one really gets you excited?

Take some time to look over the infographic, and then leave a comment with your answer.

Learn English with Kaplan

Do you dream of being the big cheese?

English has some pretty interesting idioms that use food. Take a look and learn some with the images below!

Which one’s your favorite? Tell us in the comments!Kaplan English Idioms Illustrations

The centers are filling up very quickly this year.

Why are these courses getting so much attention?

There are a couple of reasons.

First, from the words of a former student from Russia:

“The teachers are great and make the lessons really interesting. You make new friends all the time!”

This year’s popularity also ties in with the launch of K+ for Teens, a modern toolkit for the young tech savvy ESL learners. Filled with integrated books, apps, games and online platforms, teenage English learners now have a fun and interactive way to study English.

As Anna Robinson, Kaplan’s Junior Operations Manager for the UK & Ireland, puts it:

“Having our own bright and interesting materials professionally packaged with an exciting design, coupled with excellent teachers, means that students are engaged and learn more quickly.”

As you can see, the Kaplan Junior’s programs have so much to offer young learners. Not only can students choose to study in great destinations like Brighton, Bath, Bournemouth, Salisbury, Torquay and London Kingston, they also have the opportunity to make lots of new friends, learn from great teachers who care, and have access to an innovative suite of learning materials.

If you know a teenager who wants to improve spoken English, be sure to let them know about these amazing programs.

Running my own business is hard. Balancing the books is probably my least favorite thing in the world. If I wasn’t so worried about Uncle Sam, I’d try to cook the books a little so that I could get a tax break. I work long, hard days to bring home the bacon, but still can’t seem to build up much of a nest egg. Every time a friend comes to visit, I take them out to dinner, but I always have to ask them to go Dutch. I hate feeling like such a cheapskate, and would love to treat my friends to a luxurious meal some day. I daydream about riding the gravy train all the way to an early retirement when the boss gives me the golden handshake just before I take off to live out my life on a beach somewhere.

Learn how to speak English with Kaplan

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be the top in the world at something?

What would you do if you were able to do it?

Double Olympic champion Ilya Ilin from Kazakhstan broke two world records in London on his journey to retain his his gold medal from Beijing.

What has he decided to target next on his list of achievements?

He’s decided to enter Kaplan English courses in London, a city he fell in love with during the Olympics, in order to start mastering the English language.

Ilya will be joining a 10 week semi-intensive course. This course will help him in to develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Because Ilya has already worked hard to receive two gold medals, I’m sure he’s got the mental strength needed to focus his energy on achieving specific goals.

Have you? If you haven’t already, be sure to read about how you can focus your English studies like an Olympic gold medalist to improve spoken English or other language goals you have.

It’s no surprise that a world class athlete would want to improve his English skills. Why?

Well, Ilya says it best:

“When you travel so much in the world, English is something you must know. It can open new doors for friendships and professional connections. I’m very happy to come back to London and get the chance to improve my English.”

I’d just like to add that you don’t even have to travel the world if you want to gain the benefits of knowing English. You can start reaching out to English speakers around the world using social media and other online communication tools. Don’t be afraid to start, and don’t wait to start until you have a certain level. Just start today and see how it goes!

Best of luck with your own English learning goals. Try to make them your gold medal and go for it with everything you’ve got! Oh, and try to make it fun, too!

You can see some predictions in the infographic below, and one of them was really unexpected (for me, at least).

Over one thousand English learners taking Kaplan English courses for teens were surveyed about the future job they most wanted.

What did 58% of the students want to be? Looking at the ‘Jobs’ section below, we see ‘Augmented reality architect’.

If you said, “What?” then your reaction was the same as me. Basically, all that means is the person who builds a 3D model of a building project. This helps people visualize the project much better than physical models by allowing them to ‘walk around’ the grounds and inside the building. I guess it’s kind of like making a video game that will actually be turned into a real building.

The next most desired job at 20% was avatar designer, which I also had no idea was a full time job. I especially like the next two: 3D food-printer engineer and robot polisher.

I had never even thought of those job possibilities, but take a look at the stat that says 65% of kids will do jobs that don’t even exist yet!

Predictions about the future are always really hard to make, but take a look at some of the other predictions.

What is most shocking to you? Which do you want the most? Which do you want the least?

Give your answer in the comments below!

Kaplan English courses for teenagers