Imagine you want to workout and build a nice body. Will a good gymnast ever tell you: ‘OK – walk into the gym, pick up the heaviest dumbbells you can find, and do as many reps as you can for as long as you can.’? Of course not. Yet very often this is exactly our students’ approach when studying English.

It does not have to be like this. In the past few decades, cognitive scientists have identified some key principles which can help people learn faster, with less effort and then retain what they have learned for much longer than they otherwise would.

In this very practical workshop, we are going to look at five of these principles and illustrate each of these with easy-to-use activities which you can try out with your learners tomorrow.