Slang & Vocabulary in English – BLOW · engVid

Slang & Vocabulary in English – BLOW · engVid

The presenter maps out and explains the different uses of the verb 'blow' in a spider diagram: a useful technique when exploring a word that has different uses and meanings.

Quick Slang – Talking About Being Excited!

Quick Slang – Talking About Being Excited!

This week the British Council's podcast introduced 'informal language phrases'.  For example - 'What do you fancy?' instead of 'What would you like?' which is more formal. 

Here is another resource that focuses on slang or informal language. There is a quiz at the bottom of the resource to do after you have watched the video. Just click on it and you can test yourself on what you have learnt.

Learning English with the News – Improve your vocabulary and comprehension

Learning English with the News – Improve your Vocabulary and Comprehension

Some very good, practical advice is incorporated in this video from EngVid.  

Reading newspapers online, listening to news reports, buying and reading an English magazine or newspaper are very good ways of expanding your vocabulary. If possible do these activities daily.

When you do this develop your comprehension skills by asking yourself the following questions:-

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

How?

Inspirational Shakespeare

Speech by King Lear

Listen to a speech from Shakespeare's King Lear and a commentary given by Andrew Marr on why he chose this extract as the piece of Shakespeare that most inspires him.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/myshakespeare/myshakespeare_20120522-1700a.mp3

Learning English - Words in the News - Stagecoach

Learning English - Words in the News - Stagecoach

What do you think they use old trams for in Mexico City?

A BBC short video that firstly introduces 5 new words, the presenter then makes the video report explaining what the Mexicans use old trams for.  The 5 words are subtitled as they are used.  The video is then replayed with a full transcript which you can read. Finally you have the opportunity to use the 5 words learnt in a new context as a gapfill exercise.

Keep a note of the new vocabulary that you learn in your vocabulary book.

Verb + Preposition (it depends on)

TEFL Global Grammar Resource

Verb + Preposition ('it depends on') Exercise

'What does success depend on?

Grammatical exercise suitable for an Intermediate level of TEFL student.  This exercise looks purely at the verb and prepositional phrase 'it depends on'.  

Match the jumbled up questions and answers.

ENGLISH PAGE - Modal Verbs Exercise 1

ENGLISH PAGE - Modal Verbs Exercise 1

A gapfill exercise using the modal verbs - can, could, have to, must, might and should. Suitable for Intermediate students.

modals + have

modals + have

This resource will give you further information if you need it in using a modal + have + past participle.  The last exercise in Literature is Great Part 1 used this formation.  This article explains the grammar and theory behind it!

Literature is Great - Part 2

Literature is Great - Part 2

Part 2 of the British Council's 'Literature is Great' resource looks at 'Modern Day British Literature'.  Modern children's/teenagers books from the UK tend to be mainly in the fantasy genre.

Richard, the presenter introduces you to modern day British writers: George Orwell, C.S. Lewis, J R R Tolkien, J R Rowling, Philip Pullman, Anthony Horowitz and  Cressida Cowell.


Which book title and writer do you associate with these images?

The Learn English video exercises involve summarising the main message, answering comprehension questions and completing gap fills.

Additionally, it is worth noting that all the above images come from films.  Some children in the UK have only seen the films and have not read the books.  This varies from child to child and depends on their reading ability.  Is this the same in your country?

Films make the story more accessible for children who have difficulty with reading.  On the other hand, some children could read the books but choose not to because the film is just much easier for them to watch.  This addresses the issue in the podcast this week about reading the book or watching the film. 

What do you think? 

If you wish to express an opinion I welcome you to do so in the comments box below.

Literature is Great - Part 1

Literature is Great - Part 1

Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Hardy, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and 

William Wordsworth. 

Try to match these famous British writers to their photographs:

The Learn English, British Council video resource attached to this blog post  is mainly about William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.  Other writers that are also noted such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Hardy and William Wordsworth.  Do you know any of their plays, novels or poems? 

Watch the video and find out where the writers came from in the UK. Richard, the presenter also visits two other places in this video: the Globe Theatre and the Charles Dickens Museum. 

Grammatical and communicative exercises follow developing your comprehension and understanding skills, sentence composition skills and finally grammatical skills using modal verbs (must, might, can) with the present tense or the present perfect tense.  As always there is also the opportunity to contribute your thoughts to the discussion forum at the bottom of the page. 

NB The latter grammatical exercise is more suitable for a higher level of TEFL student.

Horror Films

Horror Films

Do you like horror films? An audio file with a listening comprehension which requires you to answer true/false questions after familiarising yourself with some of the vocabulary associated with this genre of film. Add a comment to the website at the end of the exercise, it will give you the opportunity to express your opinion on horror films.

Personally, I don't like them.  I hide behind cushions on the sofa, go to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.  I do anything to get me out of watching them!

British Council Elementary Podcast - 4

TEFL Vocabulary, Grammar and Communicative Skills.

If you are a beginner (A2 CEFR level) these British Council Podcasts are excellent for getting you started.  As the week progresses I will post up other related work which will be appropriate for different levels of student ability.  If you are an Intermediate level of student you may want to use this resource to revise and then extend your knowledge.  Advanced students may just want to dip into the additional and other resources added during the week.

Go to: 

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/elementary-podcasts/series-01-episode-04

Find the audio link (MP3) right click and save it so you can listen to it whenever is convenient for you. The podcast comes with a support pack and transcript which is 22 pages long.  Use this link:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/sites/podcasts/files/learnenglish-podcasts-elementary-01-04-support-pack-transcript.pdf

Download and do the exercises.

Main Contents of Podcast This Week

• How are you feeling? Enquiring about somebody's health after they have been ill.
• What famous person would you like to meet and why? Bob Marley
• Vocabulary quiz - nouns and verbs
• China - Cheung Chau Bun Festival
• Expressing an opinion - Do you prefer to read a book or watch a film?
• Dialogue of Carolina from Venezuela on the train on her way up to Newcastle.
• Telling/retelling a joke

Here is a summary of the main language points of the podcast. Try to get more practise with these language points during the week if you can:

1. British money - pounds and pence vocabulary
2. informal phrases - what do you fancy, this ones on me, stuff
3. phrasal verbs - it depends on

I will follow up with work that is related through the week.  This work will be graded for different levels of student ability.