Isn’t it absolutely disgraceful to go hiking or riding your bike out in the countryside only to find litter strewn around by lazy visitors? Inspired by this unfortunate issue, I created this animation not only with the aim to teach the sound we have in words like ‘up, umbrella and love, but also as a…… Continue reading Phonetics English sounds /ʌ/
Hi there! Here’s video English sounds 5. In this video you’ll get to know about schwa /ə/ and /ɜː/ (making a sort of sound as if you were disgusted about something) . Why together? Well experience has taught me that both sounds are a bit difficult for Spanish English learners, but at the same time,…… Continue reading English sounds video 5: schwa /ə/ and /ɜː/
This is video number four concerning English vowel sounds. This sound doesn’t usually involve many problems for Spanish speakers, but a little practice is necessary to avoid making the sound too long or sounding a final ‘r’. This vowel sound is a feature that distinguishes rhotic and non-rhotic varieties of English accents, meaning by accents,…… Continue reading English vowel sounds: /ɑː/
If you have problems saying something like ‘Young rats in black hats’ or ‘The cat sat on my hat’ Then this video on phonetics will be handy as it will help you practise this open ‘a’ (ahhhhhhh!) sound. https://youtu.be/l3Y0jZY0d8g Serena’s blog
As a start for this year, here’s another video on English vowel sounds. This video is for short and long i sounds that are often confused by learners of English. At the end of the video you have a short listening activity to practise distinguishing the sound between two words that have a very similar…… Continue reading English vowel sounds short i /I/ & long I /i:/
Some years ago I devoted part of the blog to this area of language learning, but now that the plug-in is no longer available, I needed to refocus on a new tool. So why not Youtube? I’m going to gradually upgrade all the stuff I wrote on phonetics and here is the very first video.…… Continue reading What is phonetics and why should we learn it?
When you have a phonetic language like Spanish, for instance, it is quite easy to say the words you have learned from a book or a dictionary because if you know the sound of each letter, you can do quite well when speaking the language and everybody will understand you. But this is not the…… Continue reading Silent letters in English words
Here’s a video with the English alphabet for beginners. Here you can do two activities. First you can listen to the video and repeat the names of the letters and after, you can click on the quiz button below and do the sound quiz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fAnQZwPi4 Coming soon!
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…… Continue reading Learning English with songs Friday I’m in Love
Benjamin Zephaniah’s poem on animal rights and Christmas, is not only thought provoking, but is also put in such a humorous and clever way, that you actually can’t help admiring him as one of Britain’s top post-war writers. Zephaniah, a dub poet and Rastafarian, once mentioned that his mission was to fight the dead image…… Continue reading Listening Intermediate B1:Benjamin Zephaniah’s Talking Turkeys
