Professor Averil Coxhead: An Interview on using the Academic Word Lists to Boost Your English Language Learning
Averil Coxhead is an energetic and friendly Professor in Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She created the Academic Word List (AWL)- the most widely used and...
Using Authentic Materials in Foreign Language Teaching: How Text Inspector Can Help
As an English language teacher, you’ve no doubt come across a wide variety of different language learning materials such as course textbooks, vocabulary lists, grammar exercises, flashcards, audio recording and language learning apps. While they can be highly...
How to Select the Best EFL Materials for Your Classroom
Finding the best language learning materials for your EFL class can be a challenging task, especially if you’re a new teacher. If you’re working for a language course provider or employed by the Ministry of Education in a certain country, you may be provided...
How Technology Can Help Language Learners
Technology has changed the world dramatically over the last decade or so. These days, most of us communicate with friends and family, make new purchases, plan trips abroad, spend our leisure time and even catch up with the...
Reader Question: “What about the English Grammar Profile?”
A few weeks ago, we received the following questions in the comments section on the website. “Are there any plans to incorporate the EGP (English Grammar Profile)? If not, could you briefly explain the technical difficulties associated with combining the EVP (English...
The English Vocabulary Profile (EVP) in Language Teaching
The English Vocabulary Profile tool is one of the tools we use on Text Inspector to help us analyse the vocabulary of texts. Based on collaborative research conducted by two departments of the University of Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press and...
What Are Discourse & Metadiscourse Markers?
Metadiscourse markers are words or phrases that help connect and organise text, express attitude, provide evidence, to connect the reader to the writer and to ensure that the text ‘flows’ from one idea to the next. The term was first coined by American linguist...
Lexical Density vs Lexical Diversity: What’s the Difference?
Lexical diversity and lexical density are two ways in which we can analyse a text and understand more about its linguistics features. By understanding this information, we can also understand the CEFR level of the text and make better informed decisions when...
What is Readability and How Does It Work?
If you’ve already analysed texts using the Text Inspector tool, you’ll have seen that part of our linguistic analysis focuses on readability. Readability refers to how easy it is to read and understand a text, depending on its unique features. This can be measured...
Is Vocabulary Important in Language Learning?
When it comes to learning a foreign language such as English, many students spend hours working through textbooks, doing grammar exercises and perhaps even watching the occasional Netflix show in their target language. However, many people don’t realise that working...