Category Archives: Maltalingua
Free English Lesson – Describing the human body
Welcome to another free English lesson from Maltalingua. Today you will be focusing on the human body.
Knowing the parts of the body is very important in any language. If you go to a gym, the instructor might ask you about your body and how to check parts of it. If you go to a doctor or a physician, he might ask you what problems you have with your body and which part of your body is in pain. Today we’re going to look at the English names for different parts of the body and how to remember them.
This lesson is aimed at students learning English at Pre-Intermediate level or above.
Many students have a problem with remembering most of the vocabulary that they’ve learned in the same lesson. How can you remember all of these words? Here are a few suggestions:
- Remember body parts using the different parts of the body
Head: cheeks, chin, ear, eye, face, head, neck, nose
Shoulders to stomach: arm, chest, finger, hand, shoulder, stomach, wrist
Waist to feet: ankle, foot, hip, knee, leg, toe, waist
Just as we did in the video, use different colours to write and memorise these. Using flashcards can also be helpful!
- Use pronunciation to help you remember words with the sound
/ e / chest, head, leg, neck
/ ɪ / chin, fingers, hips, wrist
/ əʊ / nose, shoulders, toes
/ iː / cheeks, knee
Don’t forget that words like wrist and knee have silent letters. Words like stomach are more difficult to pronounce so focus on them. Pay attention to vowel sounds, these can be helpful too!
- Revise, revise, revise
Keep in mind that it’s not enough to just make these lists. Many times, we see students take their lists and put them into their bags, never to be seen again! Remember to take out these lists and revise them regularly. It only takes two minutes to go through a list again and say the words out loud, but repetition is vital when you are memorising vocabulary.
Now that you have a better understanding of the human body, make a list and show it to us in the comment section below! Make sure to check out our video for a fuller explanation, given by our CELTA-qualified teachers.
Discover more of Maltalingua’s free English lessons. Explore more about imperatives here.
Check out our other brilliant free English lessons here.
Free English Lesson – Imperatives and how to use them!
Welcome to a free English lesson from Maltalingua. Today you will be focusing on the Imperatives.
A simple idea with so many different uses – You have probably used or heard imperatives before, in your language or in English. If you’ve been to an English school, like Maltalingua, your teacher probably used them many times: “Open your book”, “Go to page 6” and so on. We can use imperatives to give orders, but not only – find out more in this free English lesson on imperatives and how to use them!
This lesson is aimed at students learning English at Pre-Intermediate level or above.
Imperatives have a very simple form. All you need to do is to take any verb in English that you want to use as an imperative and remove ‘to’. For example, if you want someone to open their book or to listen to you:
- To open —> “Open your book.”
- To listen —> “Listen to me.”
If you want to form a negative imperative (something you don’t want someone to do) simply add ‘don’t’ before the verb. For example, if you want someone not to speak or not to shout:
- To (not) speak —> “Don’t speak, I’m talking to you.”
- To (not shout —> “Don’t shout, the baby’s asleep.”
We can use imperatives for many different things, not only for orders. We can use them to do the following:
- To give directions: Turn left, Take the second right. / Cross the road.
- To give advice/suggestions: Don’t watch that movie. / Take an umbrella with you, it’s raining!
- To ask someone to do something: Come in, sit down. / Listen to this.
- To wish someone something: Have a lovely day. / Enjoy your holiday.
- To make offers: Make yourself at home. / Have some juice (or some cake).
Discover more of Maltalingua’s free English lessons. Explore more about -ed endings here.
Check out our other brilliant free English lessons here.
Free English Lesson – Exploring the future continuous!
Welcome to a free English lesson from Maltalingua. Today you will be focusing on the Future Continuous.
How often do you hear native speakers talking about the future and you aren’t quite sure what form they’re using, and why? In English, the future is a problematic area because as opposed to the past and the present, there is no future ‘tense’. However, there are several forms that are used to refer to the future. These forms have different functions and talk about the future with different levels of certainty.
This lesson is aimed at students learning English at Upper-Intermediate level or above.
One form that is often used amongst native speakers is the Future Continuous form. Have a look at how the future continuous form is used:
- “I can’t make it tonight… I’ll probably be studying all evening.”
- “So you won’t be coming to the party tomorrow, will you?”
- “The party will be starting at 9, in case you change your mind.”
- “Will I be seeing you this Saturday for lunch?”
- “I’ll be taking my exam in the morning.”
The form has 2 main uses. Firstly, like other continuous forms, it shows the progression of an action at a certain time/period in the future. In sentences 1 and 5 for example, the actions of studying/taking the exams will happen during or throughout the time period mentioned.
Secondly, the future continuous can simply refer to a planned action at a time in the future. In sentences 2 and 4 the speaker says this with the knowledge that a plan was made from beforehand i.e there were plans to go to the party and to meet for lunch.
Forming the future continuous form can’t be easier. As you can see above, you need the subject, the auxiliary verb ‘will be’ and a verb in the –ing form (1, 3, 5). For the negative, change ‘will’ to ‘won’t’ (2) and for the question simply to invert the subject and ‘will’ (4).
Furthermore, you might also have heard native speakers change the auxiliary ‘will’ to ‘going to’ or ‘should’, both of which have similar functions. For example:
- I’m gonna be taking my exam in the morning on Saturday. (the spoken form of ‘going to’)
- I should be studying all evening. (here, perhaps implying a form of obligation)
Finally, you can often switch the future continuous with other forms used in English for the future, for example:
- I’m going to study all evening. (be going to for intentions)
- The party starts at 9. (present simple for schedules)
- I’m taking my exam on Saturday morning. (present continuous for fixed plans)
Now that you have a better understanding of the future continuous form, try using it to talk about your plans or things you’ll be doing tonight! Make sure to check out our video for a fuller explanation, given by our CELTA-qualified teacher.
Discover more of Maltalingua’s free English lessons. Explore more about -ed endings here.
Check out our other brilliant free English lessons here.
Tips to help you with “-ed” endings.
Did you know that the way you write “walked” is probably not the way you say it? Pronunciation is an essential part of learning a foreign language, and sometimes communication can break down because of simple and easy to avoid mistakes. Pronouncing “-ed” at the end of verbs in English can be challenging, because there are THREE ways of saying it. Discover more about them below.
This lesson is for students learning English at Pre-Intermediate level or for people who have a general interest in phonemic sounds.
ED endings appear at the end of regular verbs in the past tensee.g. wanted, helped, lived.
Sometimes in adjectives ending in ED, such as tired, embarrassed, relaxed, and also in some Past Participles. These ED ending words can cause some problems for non-native speakers because there are three possible ways of pronouncing them: / ɪd /, / t / or / d /
Don’t worry there are a few rules that can help you remember which pronunciation we need for each word, but first we need to recognise our voiced and voiceless consonants.
Put your finger on your throat and pronounce the letter L.
Now do the same thing but pronounce the P.
Notice the difference? The ‘L’ sound causes a vibration in your throat but the ‘P’ sound doesn’t. If it makes a vibration then it is a voiced sound (consonant) if it doesn’t, then it is a voiceless sound (consonant). Try this with the other letters and you will “feel” the difference between a voiced and a voiceless consonant (or sound).
Now we know the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds we can look at the following rules for the correct pronunciation of ED in English:
| The /ɪd/ sound | The /t/ sound | The /d/ sound |
| If the last letter of the word is a ‘d’ or ‘t’, the ED pronunciation is an /ɪd/ sound
It rhymes with kidand bid.
Wanted is pronounced as “want-id”, More examples.. waited (“wait-id”) needed (“need-id”) folded (“fold-id”) |
If the last consonant of the word is voiceless ‘k’ ‘s’ ‘p’ then the ED pronunciation is as a T.
Be careful not to create an extra syllable or “id” sound.
talked (sounds like “talkt”) parked (“parkt”) helped (“helpt”) |
If the last letter of the word ends in a voicedsound (consonant) ‘m’ ‘l’ ‘n’, then the ED is pronounced like a D
(without creating another syllable) played (sounds like “playd”) closed (the S sounds like a vibrating Z so the word would sound like “clozd”) opened (“opend”) lived (“livd”) |
Now you’ve learnt the THREE ways of pronouncing “-ed” in English, well done! Make sure to check out our video for a more detailed look, given by our CELTA-qualified EFL teacher.
Free Online English Lesson – Wishes, Dreams, Desires & Ambitions
Our dreams and ambitions follow us everywhere. It’s so important to be able to talk about them and to express ourselves in English. In conversations and other situations where you need to give reliable, fluent answers in English, these functional-language phrases will help you to keep the words flowing in a natural way.
Learn phrases used by native English speakers and memorize them to use in your next English conversation. These phrases might be challenging to translate from English to your language. We recommend leaving the translator alone and engaging in our English expressions lesson.
See how these English phrases can be used in such an easy and natural way to make you sound like you’ve been using these expressions all your life! Our native English teacher Brian Dimech will show you examples of real-life situations where you can use these English phrases in an everyday conversation.
Furthermore, our English phrases are ready-to-go functional-language, which means they need minimal changes to grammar or sentence-structure to use when you’re engaging in an English-speaking situation.
This video is perfect for English language students at the CEFR level B1+ (Intermediate) and level B2 (Upper Intermediate).
REMEMBER TO…
It’s OK to watch this video without writing down every word, but remember to come back and write down all the phrases that Brian teaches you. It always helps to write things down if you want to remember them!
IT’S EASY!
We’ve summarised all the phrases towards the beginning and the end of the video, go and see Brian’s goodbye to find all the phrases. Scroll back to after Brian’s introduction to check the correct form for these great English phrases to express your wishes and ambitions!
ALWAYS PLAY
English is a flexible and fun language. Now that you’ve learned the basic situations to use your new English phrases, make sure you change the verbs (see the correct forms in the video!) and find ways of applying them to a variety of different situations! Just make sure that your phrasal structure follows ours!
LISTEN FOR…
The English expressions being taught in these videos are used every day, all over the world. Now that you’ve learned them, you’ll be surprised to know that you’re going to be noticing other people using them a lot. Make sure to join in and use the phrases that you put so much time into learning and remembering.
Student Working and Employment Rights Malta
Want to study English under the sun? We’ve got some good news for you!
Good news for those coming from a non-EU county who want to travel to Malta to learn English. From now on students who study for longer than 3 months are allowed to work in Malta!
The rules? It’s quite simple. Firstly, your language study has to be for 3 months or longer. You can work part-time with this Visa (maximum 20 h/week).
This Visa is valid for the duration of your course, plus an extra seven days. The new system will allow students to work as of the 13th week after their arrival. The work licence is issued once the student visa is approved and the student can apply once they find employment.
Students must attend a minimum 75% of classes to obtain the special Visa, and follow the rules enforced by Jobsplus. (a Maltese organization responsible for employment in Malta)
Do you want to stay in Malta for even longer? No problem, you can get a visa for 6 months if you complete a full-time course at the higher-education level, which will allow you to work a maximum of 20 hours a week while you look for a job. You can apply when you find a job relevant to your studies and your gross salary equals 1.5 times the national minimum wage.
For more information, you can always contact your embassy in Malta or give us a call today (+356 2742 7570).
Malta is one of the most popular destinations to learn English. Since English is one of the official languages in Malta, it is the perfect destination to practice your English daily and become familiar with the language.
A language journey to Malta is something not to be missed. Culture, history, beautiful sceneries and several events make this island the perfect destination for tourists and students who are eager to learn. Malta was a British colony for several years, and you can still find several remnants of this period, such as the typical British telephone booth.
Many students dream of studying abroad and this new legislation will make it a lot easier for students outside of the EU to go on the language adventure of a lifetime.
In 2017 Malta reached an absolute record with 87,190 students who visited this beautiful island to study English.
Learning English and want to put your linguistic knowledge into practice at the same time? What a great idea, the best way to learn a language is to use it every day! That’s Maltalingua School’s mentality too. At Maltalingua we teach inside and outside the classroom.
We are convinced that students will learn the most by using English all day, every day, and interacting with other students and native speakers from all over the world. Within our school walls, we motivate our students to communicate in English, no matter their mother tongue and level of English.
Naturally, our dedicated and motivated staff is always on standby to help out in several languages.
Maltalingua is one of the only language schools on the island that is run by British management, with a rooftop terrace and pool, not to mention the fun, interactive activities that are organized daily on a weekly schedule.
Every Monday we host a welcome party, including Maltese appetizers, for new and old students to meet and mingle.
Discover more about Maltalingua on our website.
Maltalingua Star Awards – May, June and July 2017
We’re having a very busy summer at Maltalingua, and our staff have been doing a great job! We like to thank them for their hard work each month, and choose one teacher and one other staff member to receive our Maltalingua Star Awards.
May 2017 – Maltalingua Star Teacher of the month: The Whole Teaching Team 🙂
The standards of the whole teaching team were so high in May that it was impossible to choose just one winner. Congratulations everyone!
Star teaching team May 2017
May 2017 – Maltalingua Star of the month: Marialuisa Esposito
During one of the busiest times for the year for our registrars Marialuisa was a stand-out. Her organisational skills, calm temperament and efficiency helped her to do an excellent job of dealing with a very high volume of quotations, inquiries and bookings.
Star staff member May 2017
June 2017 – Maltalingua Star Teacher of the month: Toni Cassar-Dowling
Toni was invaluable in June. At a very busy time, her hard work, experience and administrative skills made her a star performer. Our DOS knows she can trust Toni to look after the day-to-day running of the academic department whenever required.
Star teacher June 2017
June 2017 – Maltalingua Star of the month: Julian Micallef
In June Julian did an excellent job of making sure that our new apartment renovations and upgrades were completed on-time and to a very high standard. This was a complicated task that required a lot of planning and people management skills. The new air-conditioned apartments are looking fantastic and the students love staying in them.
Star staff member June 2017
July 2017 – Maltalingua Star Teacher of the month: Louisa Testa
Louisa is adored by our junior students. In July, the excellent feedback she received from our young students propelled her to the Star Teacher of the Month award. Her positivity and helpfulness were also big factors in her receiving the award. In the words of our DOS “She’s a real team player”.
Star teacher July 2017
July 2017 – Maltalingua Star of the month: Indira Gimeno
Indira’s duties changed a lot in July. She received lots of training and did exceptionally well. She learned quickly and adapted to her new role with great positivity and professionalism.
Star staff member July 2017
Do you want to let us know who your favourite member of the Maltalingau team is? Then leave a comment below.
Maltalingua Star Awards – April 2017
At Maltalingua we’re lucky to have such a great team. From the office staff to the teachers, from the registrars to the activity coordinators and from the principle to the group leaders we’ve got smart, capable and committed staff right through the school.
To show appreciation for all the hard work done by the team, each month we’re going to have 2 special star awards:
Maltalingua Star Teacher of the Month
Maltalingua Star of the Month
In April, we had many strong contenders for each award, but we had to choose only one for each:
Maltalingua Star Teacher of the month: Harriett Bussell-Nguyen
Star Teacher!
Well done Harri! She received some excellent feedback from students recently:
I would like to praise Harriet for being really the best teacher I could have imagined to have. She had really lively, well prepared classes, and I really appreciate we had her as a teacher.
– Ilona Cerna
I liked the familiar and friendly athmosphere at maltalingua. Teaching lessons with Harriette were quite intensive and funny.
– Anonymous
I Love Harri & Toni 😉
– Anonymous
She also currently doing a great job of studying for her DELTA (an extremely high level of English teaching qualification).
Maltalingua Star of the Month: Marta Szmidt
Star Staff Member
Well done Marta! She’s made Maltalingua one of the most popular School’s on the Island for Polish students. Her lively personality and dedication to great customer service have been hugely appreciated by all the staff here and all of her clients.
Have you got a favourite staff member at Maltalingua? Leave a comment below to let us know whom!
Maltalingua has a brand new website!
After many months of creative development, we are very pleased to release the latest version of our new Schools website. Yes, we are a little sad to see our old site confined to the archives of the internet but we do love harnessing new technologies.
Besides, the school now has so many new memories which are displayed all over the site and in the new school photo galleries (Adult photo gallery Junior photo gallery)
Build mostly in-house, our web team have worked tirelessly to create what we hope you agree with, is a pretty decent site 
Thank you to the content team (Marta, Indira, Dennis, Chiara and Marina) for inputting the content and for making all the necessary translations to what is now amazingly 9 different linguistic sites. Many thanks to Sumit and Martin for their supreme technical development and a special thanks is reserved for James for managing the entire project and for his exhaustive efforts to capture the essence of Maltalingua and compile many of the awesome images and content on the site.
A wonderful team effort – Thank you to all!
Mark Holland
Director
P.S Watch this space for further website features and development in the coming weeks
Merry Christmas from Maltalingua
We might not get any snow in Malta, but people here certainly now how to enjoy the holiday season. All the towns and villages are covered in Christmas lights and there’s a real feeling of festive cheer across the islands.
Last week we had our annual Maltalingua School of English Christmas party. Lots of the staff, teachers and English language students joined in the fun and a good time was had by all. We had our staff party that evening and it got a little bit wild in the best possible way. There was even an epic dance battle between Jonathan and Katrin, and Brian and Toni!
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- Katrin wasn’t very impressed by Brians’s dance moves.
The staff here at Maltalingua would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful New Year!
We would also like to say thank you to everyone who helped make 2016 such a great year at Maltalingua. That’s why we made a little video slideshow of out favourite memories from 2016. The staff, teachers, students, host families, agents and all really helped to make 2016 our best year yet!
Here’s hoping that we can make 2017 even better!