Chat rooms play a positive role in motivating students and encouraging an independent approach to learning English as a foreign language. Innovative research highlighted in a new book Using Technology in Foreign Language Teaching shows the advantages and disadvantages of utilising IT in teaching English in countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and Malaysia. The current interest in combining different teaching methods with technologies that promise to motivate learners to respond effectively has meant that many language-teaching institutions strive to...

Spacex, Exeter’s contemporary visual arts organisation, has successfully raised £10,000 to support its new artists residency programme.

Hundreds of people have donated money to the campaign, and in return will receive artworks, posters and publications.

Mark Waugh Chair of Spacex said: "We are thrilled by the enormous response to our crowdfunding campaign, which shows that the public wants to support the dynamic evolution of Spacex as it explores new ways to fund original and challenging visual arts in Exeter.

"We are also indebted to the great generosity if the...

The sun shone at the Broadclyst Family Fun Day and everyone had a great time at this hugely popular annual event.

This social and community event is one of the highlights of the year in Broadclyst, bringing the whole village together, for one special day.

The village playing field was transformed into a colourful kaleidoscope of activities: children’s races, a massive inflatable slide, displays, stalls, the village school choir performed and the family dog show proved incredibly popular.

It was a great opportunity for local community and voluntary groups to showcase...

Following assessment by bomb disposal experts, the device found at King William Street in Exeter city centre found earlier this morning (Monday 29 June) has now been safely dealt with.

The device at York Road is expected to be dealt with later this afternoon following further assessment by bomb disposal.

The scene cordons on both King William Street and York Road are now reduced to 100 metres as a result.

Road closures around the city centre remain to ensure the matter can be safely resolved and the police led multi-agency response to the incident continues....

Open Mic UK’s 2015 auditions begin in two months.

The national music competition Open Mic UK is the biggest search for unsigned artists in the UK and it’s calling all singers, singer-songwriters, vocal groups, rappers and solo artists to get involved in their singing auditions which begin in August. With over 9,000 people entering last year, and a fifteen-date audition tour in place this year, 2015 is definitely the year to enter!

Open Mic UK focuses on developing acts with music industry feedback and live performance experience, and in addition there are thousands of...

Police are advising motorists not to drive into Exeter city centre today as officers and bomb disposal teams examine two suspicious packages

Devices were found at York Road and King William Street in Exeter City Centre earlier this morning.

Cordons have now been put on both areas meaning some people are being evacuated from their homes and being taken to rest centres at Exeter Bus Station and St James Park football ground.

A full multi-agency response to the incident is now in progress involving police, bomb disposal experts, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue...

Earlier this year Future Music launched a brand new Songwriting Competition to find the best songwriters in the UK and it has found its first winners! Joining a long line of prestigious Future Music competition winners, Yazzy from Westwood Ho, Devon has been crowned the winner of the national Songwriting Competition at Dingwalls in London!

Yazzy, who is 16 years old, was crowned champion in front of a capacity crowd and a prestigious music industry judging panel at the world-renowned music venue Dingwalls in Camden, London on Sunday night. Her original song called “Someone Could Be...

There were dramatic scene in Exeter city centre today after two suspicious packages were found in separate locations.

The first package was found in York Road, near Sidwell Street.

A second suspect package has been found at the King William Street Car Park in Exeter City Centre at around 9.15am today.

Exeter Daily reader Sam Richards captured the developments.

Related articles:

Don't drive into Exeter say police: http://www.theexeterdaily.co.uk/news/local-news/dont-drive-exeter-say-police

Second suspicious package found in Exeter: http://www...

Two of the busiest arteries into Exeter were eerily quiet this afternoon after bomb disposal teams examined two suspect packages.

Sidwell Street and Longbrook Street are normally bustling with traffic but they were occupied by just a few individual police officers.

Cordons stretched across the entrances to both roads from New North Road.

Businesses were evacuated and people turned away in their droves.

Amongst those waiting to return to their building were workers at Carden’s Estate Agents.

One told the Daily: “We were told to leave immediately. It...

Gill Fisher celebrated her birthday with her lovely family in our lovely garden!

The family borrowed matches to light Gill’s birthday cake, hung balloons from trees and set up a party table in the hospice garden. But the fun didn’t stop there; the new Hospiscare Choir heard about the celebrations and came out into the garden to sing Happy Birthday to a thrilled Gill!

Our staff here at Hospiscare, who run the hospice in Exeter’s Dryden Road, were delighted to see the party. “It was so lovely seeing the family having fun in the garden and these pictures really sum up...