This beautiful and touching ad aims to raise charity towards Alzheimer’s disease research. It tells the story of Santa in an imaginative country suffering from dementia. The advertisement was banned from being shown on the telly before 19:30 to avoid upsetting children and some parents felt that it was too children targeted, although, as I… Continue reading Listening activity: Santa Forgot
Videos
Jeff Lynne’s ELO When I Was a Boy
The song I have chosen here is a song by Jeff Lynne 'When I was a boy' to learn how to speak about the past, the dreams and the hopes we had as children. As the lyrics say, the person singing says that as a boy all he really wanted to do was to pick up… Continue reading Jeff Lynne’s ELO When I Was a Boy
The present simple of ‘be’ positive statements
For the very first English lesson, here's a video on the present simple of the verb 'be'. After you can click on the activity to check what you know. Click for activity
Listening Upper intermediate B2:The 10 Strangest Hobbies in the World
Only a little more than a month to go before we start thinking about our New Year's resolutions! Some will be thinking about losing weight or maybe, quitting a bad habit. Meanwhile, others may think that their life needs a new challenge or something exciting to spice it up. I wonder if any of you… Continue reading Listening Upper intermediate B2:The 10 Strangest Hobbies in the World
The Importance of having a good pronunciation
In yesterday's English class we were talking about the difficulties one can encounter when travelling to a foreign country. Some students mentioned problems such as: jet lag, losing their luggage or missing a flight, among others. When suddenly, one student said 'That people can't understand you'. I must say that he was absolutely right! Unfortunately,… Continue reading The Importance of having a good pronunciation
The Sailorman’s Hymn
This beautiful, although extremely sad ballad by Kamelot, tells the story of a woman hopefully waiting for her lover who may have died at sea in a shipwreck. Although she feels lost and lonely, she never loses hope and lights a candle every night to guide him back home to her. Why the man went… Continue reading The Sailorman’s Hymn
Simply Red – If You Don’t Know Me by Now
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… Continue reading Simply Red – If You Don’t Know Me by Now
Listening Upper intermediate B2: Ten Types of Food you Shouldn’t Be Eating
Photo by Marco Fischer on Pexels.com Yes, we all know by now, how certain food has a bad effect on our health and it's a real pity because nothing in the world can beat fried eggs and chips (mmmmm!). But what many of us didn't know is that certain types of food should be avoided… Continue reading Listening Upper intermediate B2: Ten Types of Food you Shouldn’t Be Eating
A2/B1 Comparative adjectives -er or more +adjective?
Midnight Oil ‘Beds are burning’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E I was listening to this song launched in 1987 by the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, when I realised that it would be a nice way to introduce the use of present continuous with 'when and while' for low levels of English, along with a bit of English and Australian history to explain the… Continue reading Midnight Oil ‘Beds are burning’