Supporting someone to learn English when their first language works very differently can feel tricky at times — especially when you’re not sure why certain words, sounds or structures are proving hard.
Many volunteers tell us they sometimes worry about “getting it wrong” or not knowing the best way to help.
To make things easier, we’ve created a new set of L1 Interference Guides. They give a simple overview of how different home languages work, the kinds of challenges learners often face when moving into English, and a few practical ideas you can use straight away.
They’re short, friendly, and designed for real volunteer sessions — no linguistics degree required.
The first guides cover:
We’ll keep adding more as we go. so if there’s a language you’d love us to include next, please let us know.
