Piano Man - Billy Joel (lyrics)

The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) Lyrics

Idioms of the day: FOOD IDIOMS

Schwa /ə/ in words

English pronunciation - Short vowel /ǝ/

English pronunciation - Long vowel /ɜ:/

English Vowels: /ɜ:/ and /ə/ (video explanation)

Pronunciation tips - VOWELS /ɜ:/ and /ə/

Little Red Riding Hood - (pronunciation practice activity)

Hello class:

Today we are going to practice what we've learned in class with a classic Grimm brothers' bedtime story: "Little Red Riding Hood".

Here's a video I found at Learn English Kids BBC Council's webpage.
You can listen and read the story.


You can visit the site clicking on the following link and download the text and some activities to complete the exercise:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/little-red-riding-hood

Listen to the story carefully, pause the video and repeat what you heard focusing on a propper acticulation.

Enjoy!
Jon.

La importancia de saber inglés - LES LUTHIERS

giving opinions - SPEAKING ACTIVITY

Synonyms for the 100 most used words in English

English synonyms

Hello there, 

Check out this website where you can find an excellent list of synonyms for the 100 most used words in English. 

This is a perfect place to improve your vocabulary.

I hope you find it useful.

Teacher Jon.

Sound pairs to practice vowels /e/ and /æ/

Here are some minimal pairs to practice vowels /e/ and /æ/:

Click on the image to hear the words.

(taken from http://www.shiporsheep.com/page3.html)

And some more:

English pronunciation - / æ / compared to / е /

English Vowels: /e/ and /æ/ (video explanation)

Pronunciation Tips: /e/ and /æ/

"The hundred foot journey"

This week we'll watch the film "The hundred foot journey" a beautiful 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström.
The film stars Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayaland and Charlote Le Bon and tells the story of two nearby restaurants in a French town: one which is run by a recently relocated Indian family and the other a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Enjoy!

Betty Botter Bought Some Butter - English Tongue Twisters

Here's a famous English tongue twister which is perfect to practice short vowels:

/æ/ batter
/e/ better - Betty
/ɪ/ bitter - bit - this
/ɒ/ Botter
/ʌ/ butter
/ʊ/ would

And the long vowel:

/ɔ:/ bought

Sound pairs to practice vowels /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/

Here are some minimal pairs to practice vowels /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/:

Click on the image to hear the words.

(taken from http://www.shiporsheep.com/page12.html)

(taken from http://www.tedpower.co.uk/l1all.html)

Vowel Pronunciation - A & O

English pronunciation - / ɒ / compared to / ɔ: /

English Vowels: /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/ - VIDEOS

PRONUNCIATION TIPS: /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/

Comic Strips - GARFIELD

English vowels: /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ - PRACTICE

Sound pairs to practice vowels /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/

Here are some minimal pairs to practice vowels /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ :

Click on the image to hear the words.

(taken from http://www.shiporsheep.com/page8.html)

And here are some more minimal pairs to practice these vowels:

Minimal Pairs 

barn - bun

calm – come
cart – cut
card - cud 
tart – tut

heart – hut 

karting – cutting 

Learning English Pronunciation - /ʌ/ compared to /ɑ:/ - VIDEO

English vowels: /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ - VIDEOS

PRONUNCIATION TIPS: /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/

Audio Guide to British English

Hello class, 

Here's a link to a website with mp3 audio files which you can listen to to practice your pronunciation:

http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/pronunciation.htm#ah

Enjoy!
Jon

My Fair Lady - pronunciation

A short summary for gerunds and infinitives

INFINITIVE OR GERUND?

we use the INFINITIVE with to:

• after adjectives
• to express reason or purpose
• after certain verbs (see list below)

we use the INFINITIVE without to:

• after most modal and auxiliary verbs
• after make and let

we use the GERUND:

• after prepositions
• as the subject of a sentence (NOMINALIZATION)
• after certain verbs (see list below)