I was looking for a song with the present continous and I found this one, and it looks perfect for our isolation. and perfect for the present continous. The animation is really cute and you can see the lyrics and sing along like in a karaoke :D.

I really hope it cheers you up!

Song by Fools Garden.

TM Animations

Idioms · Learning English with songs

Listening activity Upper intermediate B2: Katy Perry’s Roar

4 September, 201828 August, 2019 blogdeserenaLeave a comment

This song’s real fun! Makes you feel good and strong and ready for almost any of the daily battles we come across.

This song by Katy Perry is about overcoming a bad situation in life, may that be at work, in a romantic relationship or a challenge we had set ourselves and somehow failed to achieve. It is about a person who used to accept a situation, even though she was not happy about it, but one day, felt tired of feeling this way and decided to face her problems and sort them out. I think it’s definitely a very motivational and inspiring song.

The video is quite funny and has used the cliché of Tarzan (King of the Jungle), but in a humerous way, representing the typical things Tarzan did ( like killing crocodiles or any other animal in sight), however, adapting them to the female role represented in the video.

Here I’ve used the video for the purpose of learning some expressions and idioms related to problems and relationships. I hope you enjoy it.

Click here for video and activity

Learning English with songs · phonetics

Learning English with songs Friday I’m in Love

21 July, 201824 July, 2020 blogdeserenaLeave a comment

Robert_Smith_of_The_Cure_live_in_Singapore_1_August_2007

This great song by the British band The Cure really puts one in a happy mood and I must say, that it doesn’t matter how old the song is or how many times you hear it, it’s always smashing. Apparently the song was written in response to press criticism accusing the group of being incapable of writing anything cheerful (if you want to know what the press meant by this, look for their song ‘Lullaby’, even though I don’t agree). The meaning of the song is not clear. Some say it’s about love, some say it’s about enjoying Friday more than being in love with a person they probably meet on this day, and some people even go a bit further in their interpretation (there may be minors reading this post, so I’ll leave this to your own imagination). Whatever conclusion you arrive at, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it anyway. There are different activities for this song. The first two are for basic levels, to learn days of the week and discriminate sounds. An intermediate level is for learning some colour idioms as well as filling the blanks with missing vocabulary from different fields.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

A2 · Learning English with songs · Listening

Simply Red – If You Don’t Know Me by Now

4 November, 201717 September, 2020 blogdeserenaVideoLeave a comment

The British pop/soul band, Simply Red covered this song in 1989 and it became their second best-known hit after reaching number 1 in U.S. The original track was recorded in 1972 by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.

Here the aim of listening to this song is to become aware of the first conditional, which is actually in the title of the song. You will also be able to revise some of the vocabulary from A2 such as personal adjectives and pronouns among some of the most important content. The song also has some very useful expressions related to a romantic relationship between a couple that are arguing. Although it is a very old song, I chose it because it is easy to understand, but as I always say to my students, be careful with some of the expressions that are grammatically incorrect – like double negatives- but are often used in colloquial speech.

Level A2

Click for listening

A2 · B1 · B2 · Grammar · Learning English with songs

2nd conditional: If I were a Boy

12 February, 201729 August, 2019 blogdeserenaLeave a comment

Listening to Beyoncé’s song ‘ If I were a boy’ not only is a nice way to introduce conditionals, but also invites one to think about what the person is trying to say when she finally says ‘but you’re just a boy’.

For this listening I would suggest trying to make a list of all the things the person would do if she were a boy and after, try to make out her reasons for saying this.

B1 · Learning English with songs

Henry VIII and his six wives

12 January, 201729 August, 2019 blogdeserenaLeave a comment

Divorced, beheaded and died. Divorced, beheaded and survived…

Henry VIII is one of the most famous kings in English history. He was most famous for his six wives and for having caused a breach with the Church of Rome.

This is a famous song about his six wives that talks about what happened to each one of them. The song is quite humorous even though, I agree on the fact that none of Henry’s six wives may have found the song particularly amusing.

Here’s a link to the song by Horrible Histories and if you are interested in learning some British history, I have also included a link from the BBC website.

Click for song

Click for history

A2 · B1 · Learning English with songs · Pre-intermediate A2 listening activity

Listening to ‘Hey Brother’ by Avicii

1 January, 201728 August, 2019 blogdeserenaLeave a comment

Hey Brother by Avicii

I posted this song as one of the first activities on the blog. Today, sadly, we no longer have Avicii among us. RIP Avicii

I love this song because it talks about the special bond that exists between brothers and sisters. Although I must say that I always find it very hard to watch the video because it makes me quite sad. Even so, I think it’s a great song where you can learn conditional structures and expressions related to daily life problems and relationships.

Listen to the song, and see how many correct answers you get.

Click for activity

Serena's blog

Just another one of those ESL blogs

Tag: Learning English with songs

Don McLean – Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)

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Cliff Richard & The Shadows – Summer Holiday

This is a good song for the present continuous and vocabulary related to holidays and having a good time. The first activity is a jumbled sentence listening and the second activity is a sentence completion. Levels A1/A2

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Learning English with songs Lemon Tree

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Listening activity Upper intermediate B2: Katy Perry’s Roar

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Learning English with songs Friday I’m in Love

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Simply Red – If You Don’t Know Me by Now

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2nd conditional: If I were a Boy

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Henry VIII and his six wives

Divorced, beheaded and died. Divorced, beheaded and survived…

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Listening to ‘Hey Brother’ by Avicii

Hey Brother by Avicii

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This is a good song for the present continuous and vocabulary related to holidays and having a good time. The first activity is a jumbled sentence listening and the second activity is a sentence completion. Levels A1/A2

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Divorced, beheaded and died. Divorced, beheaded and survived…

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Hey Brother by Avicii

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