Grammar + Songs | SONGS AND ACTIVITIES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Skip to primary content Songs can be an effective way to introduce or reinforce a grammar topic. Click on the topics below for companion songs and activities. Adjectives in the Song “True Colors”Adverbial Phrase “At All”Comparisons with LikeFeel LikeGerunds as Objects of PrepositionsGet to Do SomethingGotta: Informal Spoken English for Got ToInfinitives as AdjectivesMust Have + Past ParticipleNoun ClausesParticipial PhrasesReflexive PronounsShould Have + Past ParticipleUsed to + a Verb in the Simple FormUsed to vs. Verb Tenses: Future with Gonna: Questions Beginning with Who’s gonna…Future with Gonna: Talking About the WeatherFuture with Gonna: Talking About PlansFuture with Will: Offering to HelpFuture with Will: Making PromisesFuture with Will: Contractions I’ll and It’llPresent Perfect: It Was vs. Share this: Like Loading... %d
A Pronunciation Guide to London - Pronunciation Studio From Southwark to Borough, Cockney to Posh and food to grub – here’s the Pronunciation Studio survival guide to life in London: Zone 1. /ˈzəʊn ˈwʌn/ Let’s start in the centre: Leicester Square /ˈlestə ˈskweə/, Grosvenor Square, /ˈgrəʊvnə ˈskweə/ and Gloucester Road /ˈglɒstə ˈrəʊd/ all have confusing silent letters. Audio Player Suburbs. Moving to the suburbs, or ‘burbs’ /ˈbɜːbz/ for short, might give you more space, but it won’t solve the pronunciation issues. Audio Player Accents. A typical London accent is working class, a bit of cockney /ˈkɒkni/ in there, innit /ˈɪnɪʔ/? Food. Fortunately, particularly if you believe what they say about English cuisine, London has food from all over the world. Grub. But what about English food, or “grub” as it’s locally known? Film. There are three types of film set in London: inoffensive romantic comedies (Romcoms /ˈrɒmkɒmz/), generally with Hugh Grant wandering around nice areas like Notting Hill /ˈnɒtɪŋ ˈhɪɫ/ and being charming and foppish. Markets.
Practise English speaking skills | LearnEnglish Here you can find activities to practise your speaking skills. You can improve your speaking by noticing the language we use in different situations and practising useful phrases. The self-study lessons in this section are written and organised by English level based on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR). There are videos of different conversations at work and interactive exercises that practise the speaking skills you need to get ahead at work and communicate in English. The videos help you practise saying the most useful language and the interactive exercises will help you remember and use the phrases. Take our free online English test to find out which level to choose.
How English learners can improve intonation What is intonation and how can you improve this aspect of your pronunciation? Fazle Muniem, a teacher at the British Council in Bangladesh, explains. Imagine you are asking a cab driver if he will take you to a shopping centre five kilometres away. He replies – in the most chilling, low, flat voice you have ever heard – 'Sure. Now imagine there is another cab behind him. If you choose the second cab, it is probably because the driver's intonation has made you feel more welcome: 'Oh, he seems much nicer', you think to yourself. But what is intonation, really? What we mean by intonation Intonation is a feature of pronunciation and common to all languages. At its simplest, intonation could be described as 'the music of speech'. We can therefore think of intonation as referring to the way we use the pitch of our voice to express particular meanings and attitudes. Different functions of intonation in English Attitudinal Grammatical Ways to improve your intonation
IELTS Speaking: Using technology to improve your vocabulary - IELTS blog Using the language as a regular part of your life Being successful with English, in IELTS and beyond, means finding a way to make using the language a regular part of your life. That means gearing your studies to your hobbies, interests, work and daily life. The problem is that more interesting materials can be difficult to find and can also be difficult to understand. Podcasts Podcasts are short audio programs produced on a variety of subjects. Mindfulness: feel your stress melt awayWhy do we feel pain? So you can see that I am interested in health and fitness. How can you use these podcasts to practise for IELTS Speaking? Choose a topic from your podcast list, for example the future of meat.Give yourself one minute to plan a short talk on the topic, just like in the IELTS Speaking test.Give the short talk and record yourself. The advantage of this approach is that it will help IELTS Listening, IELTS Speaking and IELTS Writing too. YouTube Be precise in the right context
41 pop songs with different tenses + worksheet for ESL class Practice past simple verbs in your ESL class with this song, Love yourself by Justin Bieber. There are 12 different verbs in the simple past tense in this song (8 of which are irregular): rained, broke, didn’t want, didn’t see, told, hated, was, tried, came, made, fell & felt There is a suggestion on how… Practice the present perfect and especially the interrogative form have you ever… ? in your ESL class with this song, Have you ever? by Brandy. The 8 different examples of have you ever… in this song are: have you ever loved…, have you ever needed…, have you ever tried…, have you ever been…, have you ever… Revise multiple tenses, but especially the past simple in your ESL class with this song, Hotel California by Eagles. Practice the future tense ‘going to’ in your ESL class with this song, Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley. Practice the future tense ‘going to’ in your ESL class with this song, I wanna start a fight by Pink.
Pronuciation app New Version (February 2016) includes: - New improved interface (including Tablet improvements) - English Dictionary search - Text translations for: Spanish, Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) (English version only) Future updates will contain a speech anatomy section. This application was originally designed at the University of Iowa to help students learning how the sounds of different languages are produced. Since its production, it has become a milestone for phonetics teaching tools around the globe. Sounds of Speech™ provides a comprehensive understanding of how, physiologically, each of the speech sounds of American English is formed. Please send any questions or issues to soundsofspeech.uiowa@gmail.com. (If you bought the version prior to Jan 2nd 2014 and would like an update to the newest version please contact us at uirf@uiowa.edu, thank you and we apologize for the inconvenience )
Free voice recorder - SpeakPipe Click "Allow" in the Firefox permission dialog. It usually appears in the left upper side of the window. We respect your privacy. Click "Allow" in the Chrome permission dialog. Click "Allow" in the permission dialog in order to allow access to your microphone. You have denied access to your microphone. It seems your microphone is disabled in the browser settings. You need iOS 11 and Safari to use the recorder on your device. (Or you can use the recorder on your computer.) Please tap • • • in the uppper right corner of the screen and select "Open in Safari". Audio recording works only in Safari. Sorry for the inconvenience. It seems this page doesn't support an inline recorder. The widget must be opened in a standalone window to access a mic. Is your microphone ready? 1 Record - 2 Listen - 3 Send SpeakPipe voice recorder allows you to create an audio recording directly from a browser by using your microphone. Works on iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Android devices. Oops, something went wrong
IELTS Speaking: The grammar challenge - IELTS blog You might be surprised to hear that grammar is one of the four criteria used to assess your IELTS Speaking test performance and that it carries 25% of the points. Many test-takers assume grammar in speaking is only about accuracy and not making any mistakes. This is only half the story. Making errors is natural, and IELTS understands this: even IELTS Speaking Band 7 expects that ‘some grammatical mistakes persist’. To avoid mistakes, it helps to think about the tenses you use, and ensure these tenses relate to the questions being asked. However, grammar is also about showing a range of grammatical structures. How can you demonstrate a wider range of grammar in your speaking? Let’s look at an example Part 2 prompt: Describe your favourite film. You might have thought of some of these tenses: Practice task Practise this process with other Speaking Part 2 prompts. As Part 3 of the Speaking test is a broad discussion, you also have the opportunity to demonstrate a range of grammar.
Phrasal verbs | Grammar - Intermediate to upper intermediate Look at these examples to see how phrasal verbs are used. This is the form. Please can you fill it in?Why are you bringing that argument up now?Police are looking into connections between the two crimes.We need to come up with a solution. Try this exercise to test your grammar. Read the explanation to learn more. Phrasal verbs are very common in English, especially in more informal contexts. I called Jen to see how she was. In terms of word order, there are two main types of phrasal verb: separable and inseparable. Separable With separable phrasal verbs, the verb and particle can be apart or together. They've called the meeting off. However, separable phrasal verbs must be separated when you use a pronoun. The meeting? Here are some common separable phrasal verbs: I didn't want to bring the situation up at the meeting. Non-separable Some phrasal verbs cannot be separated. Who looks after the baby when you're at work? Even when there is a pronoun, the verb and particle remain together.
Test Your Comprehension | IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive Whether you’re an ESL (English as Second Language) speaker or just want to test your understanding of various dialects and accents, you’ll find this page a fun exercise in English comprehension. We invite you to listen to the following samples from around the world, transcribe (write down or type in English in a document of your own) the speech you hear, and then compare that to the full transcription by clicking the link underneath each audio clip. By clicking the link under the clip, you’ll be taken to the sample, where you can see the transcription, listen to the full audio clip of that subject, and find out more about the person. 1. Click here for the transcription and information on the subject. 2. Click here for the transcription and information on the subject. 3. Click here for the transcription and information on the subject. 4. Click here for the transcription and information on the subject. 5. Click here for the transcription and information on the subject. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.