October 31, 2016

The Great fire of London

“Dad! Dad! Wake up! Something’s burning!”

When Thomas Farriner, King Charles II’s baker, went to bed on the night of September 1, 1666, he forgot to put out the ovens. Early the next morning, the wooden house caught fire, and by September 6, when they were finally extinguished, the flames had destroyed 80% of London.

Read about the great fire on London on Oxford Culturemania and play an interactive game!

Play the Great Fire of London game

October 30, 2016

Do opposites attract?

The subject of this 6-minute English programme is attraction. Listen to it

October 28, 2016

Basic Pronunciation practice

You can practice pronunciation in the exercises below:

Halloween gapped text

Hi,

How about filling in the gaps with the words you remember from the activity in class?

October 26, 2016

Online English TV

Hi,

This is a wonderful link where you can watch online British TV channels.

British TV channels

Enjoy!

October 25, 2016

Shakespeare lives!

Here comes again the Caixa Fórum November program about Shakespeare's 400th anniversary.

Shakespeare lives

October 21, 2016

How to improve your spoken English!

Here are our 13 top tips for improving your spoken English.

Part I: Preparation
As part of improving your spoken English, you need to get used to producing English sounds. Here’s what you can do.

1 Read aloud
Take a short text (preferably one with an audio file to go with it) and read parts of it out loud. Later, you can compare your version to the original.

2 Repetition
Repeat key sentences and expressions over and over again until they become automatic. Very soon, you’ll have learnt lots of useful phrases you can use in real conversations.

3 Stories
Practise telling your favourite stories or anecdotes. Write them out first. Then, make notes and practise saying them to yourself or a friend. Later, you can use these stories or anecdotes in conversations.

4 Memory
Memorise typical phrases, expressions and sentences. A lot of the language we use when speaking consists of set expressions and chunks of language. For example, “That’s interesting! / I never knew that! / That must have been scary!”

5 Simultaneous speaking
Sing along to your favourite songs, or try to speak at the same time as the character in a video clip or an audio recording you’re familiar with. Simply press play and then start speaking along with the news presenter, actors, singers, etc.

6 Questions
Practise forming questions. Take a piece of text and make questions from sentences in the article or paragraph. For example, “She’s seen it. = Has she seen it?” Asking questions is a good way of participating in a conversation without having to say much.

7 Listening
Work on improving your listening skills so you can follow what people are saying. You can do this by listening to audio files from course books, watching films or TV series, listening to music or watching videos on YouTube. Spend at least 70% of your study time listening to English.

7 Foods to Boost Your Mood Naturally

Hi,

This is the text that you'll orally present in class:

Find out which healthy foods will help boost your mood.

If you’re feeling blue—or want to ward off feeling that way—there are some foods to consider adding to your diet that might help. Studies suggest that the following foods may help reduce stress, ease anxiety and fight depression. See which healthy foods to eat to help you boost your mood.

—Brierley Wright, M.S. R.D.

Next: 1. Chocolate »