Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson

When Walaa was first on this podcast in episode 703 she talked about living in Syria as a student during the civil war (or people’s revolution) but at that time she felt she could not talk in detail about the situation. Now that the Assad regime is no longer in control of Syria, Walaa feels she can talk more candidly about what it was like to live near Damascus during those days. Walaa’s descriptions are both shocking and moving. This is the topic of this episode, which is part 2 of a two-part series.👉 Episode page on my website https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/03/06/925-walaas-experience-in-syria-walaa-mouma-returns-part-2/

Walaa Mouma returns to the podcast after 4 years to give us an update about her academic studies and personal story, including getting married and moving to Wales, details of her PhD doctorate, as well as her other studies and volunteer work helping to teach English to refugees and asylum seekers. Walaa's passion for this work is inspired by her own personal story of learning English, seeking asylum in the UK and studying in the UK's academic system, which she first talked about in episode 703 of this podcast. Part 1 of a 2-part episode.Episode page with more information and links to Walaa's social media 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/03/03/924-walaa-mouma-returns-part-1-phd-studies-in-wales-teaching-english-for-refugees/

In episode 923 recently I did a mini-lesson about the expression "to follow through" and this has inspired me to make a premium series all about the word "through", including what it really means, how to pronounce it, and all the ways the word is used in phrasal verbs, idioms and other fixed expressions. Let's go through this word in detail!On the PDF there's a transcript, plus several memory exercises and a set of discussion questions to help you remember and use the vocabulary in this episode.📄 Get the PDF in normal text size https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P67-Part-1-Everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-the-word-through-but-were-afraid-to-ask.pdf📄 Get the PDF in large text size for your phone https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P67-Part-1-Everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-the-word-through-but-were-afraid-to-ask-Phone-version.pdf📼 Video version https://youtu.be/goNs3SnQATg

A rambling episode full of spontaneous speaking from me to you. Topics include; an exercise for you to practise your spoken fluency 🗣️, the benefits of extensive listening to spontaneous speech 🎧, overcoming mental blocks 🌳, the English of my daughter and raising our kids to be bilingual 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, some reactions to recent episodes 🙉, some thoughts about upcoming content 🔮, some bird-related idioms 🐦, the phrasal verb "to follow through" including its rude meaning 💩 ...and more! PDF transcript available.Episode page 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/02/23/923-a-rambling-exercise-for-fluency-late-winter-2025/Get the PDF transcript 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/923.-A-Rambling-Exercise-for-Fluency-_-Late-Winter-2025-Transcript.pdfLEP Premium info ℹ️ https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo

Amber joins me for a discussion of some words which reflect various cultural movements of the last 12 months or more. Learn some trending words and listen to discussions of topics such as the influence of online content on mental health, the Oasis concert ticket scandal, an exploration of the 'lore' of LEP, romantic fantasy books, the rise of AI and more. Includes a PDF with my episode notes and vocabulary lists.The Oxford Words of the Year is a shortlist of words chosen by OUP because they saw a significant increase in usage in 2024 and because they represent certain cultural moments of recent times.📄 Get the episode PDF here 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/922.-Words-of-the-Year-with-Amber.pdfEpisode page on my website (with links for previous episodes) 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/02/17/922-words-of-the-year-with-amber/The Oxford Words of the Year (OUP website) 👉 https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/LEP Premium information ℹ️ https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfoSign into your premium account 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/accountSign up for LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

More pronunciation and speaking practice for you in this episode. Listen to a short story containing a lot of vocabulary from this series, and the repeat the story after me, line by line, focusing on the right sentence stress, delivering the story just like I do.📄 Get the PDF in normal text size https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P66-Part-4-Story-Pronunciation-The-Getaway-Gone-Wrong.pdf📄 Get the PDF in large text size (for your phone) https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P66-Part-4-Story-Pronunciation-The-Getaway-Gone-Wrong-1.pdf📼 Watch the video version https://youtu.be/Ex2UnCJD9EI

Phrasal verbs and their equivalent nouns have a crucial difference in their pronunciation - the word stress. In this episode you can practise pronouncing these different words and phrases within sentences. Practise pronouncing the correct word stress, and sentence stress too. Listen and repeat after me.📄 Get the PDF in normal text size https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P66-Part-3-Sentence-Pronunciation_-Word-Stress.pdf📄 Get the PDF in large text size (for your phone) https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P66-Part-3-Sentence-Pronunciation_-Word-Stress-1.pdf📼 Watch the video version https://youtu.be/vxIKQ3QYLt0

Ian Moore returns to the podcast to talk about his career shift from stand up comedy to writing "cosy" crime novels. After several decades as a professional stand-up comedian, Ian has transitioned to writing murder mysteries. Now he is a bestselling author and his books are being adapted for television. In this episode Ian talks about ending his stand-up comedy career, why he was not suited for life as the host of a guesthouse, writing books on trains, and why his COVID lockdown was actually great. 🔗 Episode page on teacherluke.co.uk 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/02/10/921-from-comedy-to-cosy-crime-with-ian-moore/📄 Get the PDF transcript 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/921.-From-Comedy-to-Cosy-Crime-with-Ian-Moore.pdf📚 Ian's books 👉 https://www.ianmoore.info/

Part 2 of 4. Continuing the series about noun forms of phrasal verbs, this episode features a list of these compound nouns. I play a guessing game to encourage you to remember vocabulary from part 1 and consolidate and extend your vocabulary further with more input and examples. There is another memory exercise on the PDF to help you.📑 Get the PDF in normal size https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P66-Part-2-When-phrasal-verbs-become-nouns.pdf📑 Get the PDF with large size text (for your phone) https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/P66-Part-2-When-phrasal-verbs-become-nouns-Phone-version.pdf📼 Watch the video version on YouTube https://youtu.be/d_mrlehALgc