Modal verb CAN
Modal verb CAN

In my opinion the modal verb CAN is one of the easiest grammar points in English to teach. That is why I have not produced a post on this topic yet. However, this is going to change, as I am in need of one and I am going to share it here with you.

In this post you can find a simple mind map explaining the usage of the modal verb CAN. Then there are two speaking activities and an interactive quiz to give your students a chance to practise the grammar.

Modal verb CAN – songs

Having taught the modal verb CAN yesterday I added these two songs. Both of them are from British Council pages and they serve as a great introduction of the affirmative sentences and questions.

Here is the song I can run.

And here you can find a great song to introduce questions with CAN which is called Can a Flea Climb a Tree.

Modal verb CAN – mind map

In the last week I created two mind maps about the verb CAN. However, I felt that the first one was unnecessary complicated and therefore I decided to replace it with this one.
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Modal verb Can

If you are interested in the first version of the infographic, you can download it here:
Modal verb Can explanation

Modal verb CAN – speaking activities

In this part I would like to share two speaking activities. For the first one you need to download and print the following worksheet.
Can pdf speaking
Now you can choose what you will do with it. You can either cut the worksheet and give each student just one picture and ask them to write the questions with can below the picture. Then check their questions. Next, ask the students to stand up and mingle and ask their classmates whether they can do the activity.

If you do not like mingling activity you can print one worksheet for everyone and ask them to write the questions. Then check their questions and ask students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions in pairs.
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[showmyadsa] The second speaking activity is called LIAR. Prepare 4 sentences with the modal verb CAN and say them aloud. Now tell your students that one of them is a lie and your students have to guess which one. Now, ask your students to write 4 sentences with the verb CAN and one of them must be a lie. Let the students work in groups of 4. One student reads all 4 sentences and the others write down which sentence they believe to be a lie. Then another student reads and so on. At the end all the students say which sentence was a lie and they see who guessed it.

Modal verb CAN – quiz

The following quiz can help your students practise the modal verb CAN either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pictures and the sentences. In the second part, students have to complete the sentences with the missing words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Modal verb CAN – quiz
Giving simple directions
Giving simple directions

Sometimes easy does it. Two days ago I was assigned to teach a short dialogue to a group of students with learning disabilities and problems. I created a set of three activities and I did not held any high expectations. However, it turned out that the students liked the activities and many of them actually learned to give simple directions. Therefore, I decided to share the activities here.

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In this post you will find an unusual, although very effective, drill which I call vanishing drill. Then there is a worksheet with a gapfill exercise and a speaking exercise in which the students consolidate their knowledge. This time there are no interactive exercises, but I hope you will like it anyway.

Giving simple directions – video

The following video contains the vanishing drill. Play the video and ask the students to read the text. After 11 seconds one or two words vanish and the students read the text aloud again. At the end of the three minutes you can be pretty sure that they will know the dialogue.


Giving simple directions – worksheet

After going through the drill it might be a good idea to revise the prepositions of place too. You can do this here, or you can use any other materials you like.

Seat the students into pairs and print the following worksheet and hand it to students so that each student in the pair has a different copy. Ask the students not to show the worksheet to their partner. Tell them to use the phrases from the drill to find out where the places listed below the map are. They should write the words into the worksheets.

Giving simple directions – worksheet

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Once they finish they should show their map to their partner and check their answers.

Then the students complete the exercise 2 so that the dialogues are in accordance with the map.

There is There are in questions
There is There are in questions

I have always believed that questions are one of the most important things in a language. That is why I devote quite a lot of my teaching time to teaching questions. I have already written several posts on teaching questions:

And this time I would like to share with you several activities and worksheets on how to teach questions with THERE IS and THERE ARE. I have used all these activities with my students and they worked.

There is There are questions – infographic

Start the lesson with explaining the grammar. Do not complicate the matters. Just say that we use this phrase when we want to know whether something is somewhere. Allow your student to use the following infographic during the follow-up activities to make sure that they use the correct form.

There is there questions infographic

You can download the pdf file with two infographics here:
There is there in questions

There is There are questions – Speaking activities

There are threes peaking activities I have created.

In the first one, print the following worksheet for every student. First, ask them to write the names of the facilities under the pictures at the top of the picture. Then think of one of the pictures and tell the students they have to ask There is/There are questions and find out which picture you are thinking of.
Then they work in pairs. One of them thinks of a picture and their partner tries to find out, using THERE IS/ THERE ARE questions. When he/she manages to guess the picture they swap their roles.

For the second activity, you need to print the worksheet twice. Cut out the towns 1-8. Hand out the pictures to your students so there are always at least two copies of the same town in the group (of course, there can be more copies if your groups are really large.) The students must not show their pictures to anyone and they have to find someone with the same picture. They have to ask THERE IS/THERE ARE questions.

There is/There are questions – Speaking worksheet

The third speaking activity is called The same or Different? Print out the following worksheet and cut it in the middle. Students work in pairs. Each has one half of the worksheet and they must not show it to their partner. They ask THERE IS/THERE ARE questions and their task is to find out whether the corresponding pictures are the same or different.

Same or different pdf worksheet
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THERE IS THERE ARE questions – quiz

The following quiz can help your students practise the THERE IS/THERE ARE questions either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the questions. In the second part, students have to complete the questions and the answers. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

There is and there are questions
Giving Directions in English
Giving Directions in English

Giving directions in English is one of the most useful functions there is. Everyone understands that this is the function they are likely to use on the street, literally, and therefore the motivation is usually quite easy.

To be able to give directions you need to learn a set of phrases which you later combine into a conversation. To teach the phrases we offer you the following. A simple drill (teaching the basic phrases), an infographic, several worksheet activities and an interactive quiz.

Giving Directions in English – Video

First watch and repeat the phrases and then produce the phrases before the native speaker says them.
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Giving Directions in English – Infographic

It is always a good idea to give students a handout with all the phrases you want them to learn. Thus they can revise the vocabulary and there is higher chance that they will learn the phrases. Here is a colourful infographic with the phrases from the video.
Directions 2 web
You can download the full-size picture here:

Directions – full size picture

Giving Directions in English – Worksheet and quiz

First of all I would love to recommend the following worksheet by Mary Glasgow plus. In this worksheet students practise their divisions and directions too. You can download extra instructions for the same worksheet here.

Directions for Maryglasgow magazine

The following worksheet gives students a chance to use the new phrases. Print the following map and give one to each student. The students draw a trail into their map (from the start to any place they like) and then they give instructions to their partners who must draw the same trail into their map. At the end they compare their maps and discuss any misunderstanding.

Giving directions – map

The following quiz can help your students practise giving directions in English. They can do it either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the phrases and the instructions. In the second part, students have to type the missing words in the phrases. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Giving directions – quiz

Giving directions – links

There are some wonderful materials on giving directions at British Council site. Check them out.

Forming Questions in Past Tense
Forming Questions in Past Tense

It is really important that students learn to form questions in the past simple tense. If they don’t, they won’t be able to ask about the things that happened in the past. And as most conversations deal with the things that already happened it is vital to be able to ask about the details they are interested in.

In this post I would like to help you teach your students form questions in the past simple tense using the auxiliary DID. This post will not deal with the verb TO BE in the past tense. You can find a post on the verb TO BE in questions here.
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[showmyads] You will find here two videos, an infographic and several interactive exercises. I hope you like it.

Question words

Before dealing with questions in the past tense, it is important to revise the question words with your students. It is shocking how many students struggle with such a simple, yet crucial, thing.
First play the video and ask the students to watch and say the question words – best before they see them on the screen.

Then, cut the following worksheet into five stripes and ask the students to write the appropriate question words there.

Wh question words worksheet

Now you can move to forming questions in the past simple tense.

Forming questions in past tense – explanation

Start the explanation with eliciting the affirmative sentences formation. Explain that there is one basic rule in English and it is called SVOMPT. All English sentences have to follow this rule. At the beginning there is a subject and it is followed by a verb and then there is the rest of the sentence.

If you use the following infographic ask the students to fold the paper, so they can see only the last three rectangles.

Forming questions in the past simple tense

To form a question in the past tense, just add DID at the beginning of the sentence and put the verb into its basic form. If you want to get a more complex answer, put a question word at the beginning. And there you are. Now you can form questions in the past simple tense.

Here you can see a video on how to form questions in the past simple tense.


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Forming questions in Past simple tense – games

The following quiz can help your students practise forming questions in the past tense. They can do it either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the questions. In the second part, students have to write the questions in the past simple tense. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Questions in the past simple tense – quiz
Articles with names
Articles with names

The following post on the usage of articles with proper names is not going to be 100% grammatically correct. It’s not that I’m going to insert typos here and there. What I mean is that the rules stated here are just rules of thumb and will not work all the time. I am not a grammarian; I am a teacher. Thus my aim is to compress complex grammar into a small pill that learners can take whenever they encounter a problem. Using this pill, students will make some mistakes, but most of the time they will get the grammar correct.
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[showmyads] So in this post you will find a simple infographic explaining the usage of the definite article in front of proper names. There are also several games you can use to practise the most common English names. I hope you will find the explanation useful even though it will not work in all cases.

Articles with names – infographic

Ask your students to look at the infographic. Explain that using the definite article before names is very complicated in English and there are very few rules to guide them.
However, as they can see from the infographic, we managed to come up with a few.

Articles with names

Articles – full size image

Explanation: Most of the man-made structures that stand outside (where they get rained on) do not take an article. Most of the buildings where common people go inside to enjoy themselves take the article THE. Thus it is Oxford Street, but the Ritz Hotel. Notice that palaces do not take the article THE because they are not for common people. However, the Tower of London takes the because it is for the common people :-).

Articles with names – infographic

Now that you have explained the grammar, it is time to practise the grammar. You can use either some worksheets, or you can try our games here.

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct option and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

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[showmyadsa] The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct options. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the names that take articles 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.

Body Parts Vocabulary
Body Parts Vocabulary

Recently Fluency MC and I worked on a post about body parts. In the post we presented about thirty parts of the body. We used a wonderful rap song by Jason Levine, an infographic and a quiz to teach these words.

Then Jules from English Through Music Madrid contacted me and informed me that he has a new song on body parts for young students of English. I immediately loved the song, and we agreed that I will create a post on it.

In this post you will find that great song, an infographic, a revision video and a quiz with two games. We hope you will find all these useful.

Body Parts Vocabulary – song

Here is a song by English Through Music Madrid. First watch it with your students and then ask them to point to the body parts they hear.
Next, the students can sing along.
At the end of the lesson I would recommend that they listen to the song and complete the following lyrics:
Body parts for young learners
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Body Parts Vocabulary – infographic

Here is an infographic with all the parts from the song. It is suitable for presenting the vocabulary and for practising it. After you present the parts, drill the pronunciation and then ask the students to cover the picture on the left and label the parts on the right.

Body parts small children web

Full size picture

Body Parts Vocabulary – quiz

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[showmyadsa] The following quiz can help your students practise the body parts. They can take the quiz either at school or at home. It consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the words and the pictures. In the second part, students have to write the words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Body parts quiz

Body Parts Vocabulary – revision video

If you want to revise the vocabulary quickly in class this video is one of the best ways to do it. Ask your students to take a piece of paper and something to write with and play the video. The students have to write the name of each body part before it is displayed. They have about 12 seconds for each word.

Pope’s English
Pope’s English

I was looking for some short and useful activities which I could use in class. For a long time I could not find any interesting, yet extremely short texts which I could use if I had between five and ten minutes to spare. And then I encountered Pope Francis’ tweets and I tried to convert them into a teaching material.
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[showmyads] In this post there is a small worksheet with the quote, a vocabulary exercise, a reading comprehension and several discussion questions. Moreover, there is a short video where you can drill the quote. I hope you will find the material useful.

Pope’s English – video

Watch the video and repeat the phrase. Play the video at least twice to remember the sentence.

Pope’s English – worksheet

Print the following worksheet and ask the students to complete it. First, students read the words and try to translate them. Then the students should fill the words into the crossword.
After that ask the students to answer the reading comprehension questions and discuss the questions first in pairs and then in bigger groups.

Popes English

My Summer Holiday – speaking activity
My Summer Holiday – speaking activity

The school year is starting and the summer holiday is over. Students are returning to their classrooms and we have to teach them. And I think that many of us would like to teach better than last year. So let’s start with a great speaking activity about the summer holiday.
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[showmyads] The original idea comes from Larry Ferlazzo and you can find the original worksheet here. Larry was so kind to allow me to use his idea and worksheet and modify them. In this post you will find a video, a worksheet and instructions how to use them.

My Summer Holiday – video

Start with the following video. Ask the students to read, listen and repeat the sentences as instructed in the film. Play the video at least twice and do not worry if the students are not able to repeat some of the phrases in full. It is enough if they try.

My Summer Holiday – worksheet

You can find the original worksheet by Larry Ferlazzo here. Larry was so kind to allow me to change the worksheet and use it here.
My summer holiday worksheet

Print the worksheet so that the text is on one side and the colourful mind map is on the other.

Ask the students to complete the worksheet with their own ideas and experience. In some cases they can find several suitable expressions in the brackets but they can use their own words if they want to. There are several gaps with no help and students have to use their own words there.
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[showmyadsa] Once students complete the worksheet, they work in pairs and read their version to their partner. When they finish, ask them to have a look at the mind map on the other side of the paper. Explain that the mind map sums up the whole text. Demonstrate that you can easily retell the text using the mind map.

Ask the students to work in pairs again and retell their Summer Holiday story. Change pairs and students retell their story again. Do not prevent students from looking at the original worksheet if they feel they need to. They will copy the phrases and thus learn them.

Now it is time to play the video again and the students should be able to remember much more than the previous time. Play the video at least twice in the following lessons.

Parts of the body – vocabulary
Parts of the body – vocabulary

For a long time I felt that I was missing a post on this site on parts of the body. But I wasn’t inspired enough to close this gap. Fortunately, a few days ago Jason Levine from FLUENCY MC published a wonderful video dealing with the relevant vocabulary. It got me started. This post is another result of a fruitful partnership between Engames and Fluency MC.

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Engames and Fluency MC have cooperated on a number of posts in the past. Together we created four posts on irregular verbs based on Fluency MC’s popular video. We’ve also created posts on Collocations with the Verb HAVE, on the Gerund or Infinitive, and on Parts of Speech. And here comes the latest fruit of our cooperation – Parts of the Body.

In this post you will find the song, an infographic, a quiz and a game that will help you learn or teach the vocabulary.

Parts of the body – song

This is the wonderful song by Fluency MC. I recommend that you listen to it, then sing and perform it together with your students.


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Parts of the body – Infographic

I was looking for a suitable picture for a long time, and I feel this one is perfect.

body parts infographic web

What to do with it? Print it and hand it out, then check that your students can pronounce the words correctly. Once you finish, ask them to cover the picture on the left and write the names of the body parts on the right. In this way they will practice all the parts.

If you want the picture in full HD you can download it below:

Parts of the body – full image

Parts of the body – Quiz

The following quiz will help your students practise the parts of the body. They can do it either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pictures with the names of the body parts. In the second part, students have to click on the correct part of the body. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
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[showmyadsa] To get to the second part of the quiz, you have to click on the right next to the advert at the top during the game Angry Finches!!!

Parts of the Body – quiz

This game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target. Your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad frogs and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Parts of the body – On target game

Parts of the body – links

You can find nice activities to teach or learn Parts of the Body at British Council site.

How are you?
How are you?

Yesterday English Through Music published an awesome song called “How are you?”. As the song is easy to remember and sing, I contacted Jules and asked him for a permission to write a post around the song. He kindly agreed and here you can see the result.
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[showmyads] This post is mainly for beginners or very young learners of English. It contains the song, an infographic and a simple quiz with games. Moreover, there are several suggestions how to exploit this wonderful materials more.

How are you? – song

The following song was written and published by English Through Music. You can find their website here and there are more wonderful songs at Youtube English Through Music channel.

First listen and sing along:

Other activities you could do:
a) ask the students to perform an action for each of the adjectives (happy – smile, angry – pretend to be angry, etc.)
b) ask the students to listen and draw a picture for each adjective.
c) ask the students to mingle and ask each other “How are you?” and their partner must answer.

I am sure there are many more activities you will come up with. If you do, please share them with us.

Moreover, English Through Music promises to come up with an action video for the song soon.

Past simple and continuous – infographic

Here I have created a simple infographic for learners to take home with them. It presents all the vocabulary taught in the song in a simple and clear way. Pupils can use it to revise the vocabulary at home.

How are you infographic

How are you? – Quiz

Another way in which students can practise what they learnt at home is the following interactive quiz. Of course you can use it at school, too.

The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices.
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[showmyadsa] In the first part, students match the pictures and the adjectives. If they succeed they will be rewarded with the game called angry finches.
In the second part they have to write the appropriate adjective into the gap provided. If they pass this quiz too, they can play the game called Math Pop and practise their Maths.

How are you? – quiz
Telling time
Telling time

A few days ago Tekhnologic published a wonderful post on Telling time in English. What I liked immediately was the powerpoint presentation which was capable of showing the time on a clock with hands. I asked for a permission to modify the presentation and use it on my blog which was kindly granted.

In this post you can see the result of the cooperation between Engames and Tekhnologic. The post contains the modifie powerpoint presentation, a video, a mind map and a quiz to help you teach telling time in English.

Telling time in English – infographic

I have created the following infographic for the post the first post on telling time. As it proved incredibly useful form my students I will place it here again.
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[showmyads] Telling the time mind map

Print out the image and hand it out to your students and teach them how to use it. You can find the details how to use the infographic at Telling time in English.

Telling time – powerpoint presentation

And now comes the time to use the awesome powerpoint by Tekhnologic. It is superb for checking that the students understand how to say the time. You can dowload either the Powerpoint presentation or you can use the HTML5 one and use it online. It is up to you.
Presentation in HTML 5
Presentation – PPT

Telling time – How to use the presentation

I suggest the following way to use the presentation. First use the first slide and demonstrate the times by clicking the buttons on the right. Emphasize that if you click a blue button you have to choose the hour-1.

Once you feel that your students understand the concept hand out the following worksheet.
clock dials

You can download the full image here:
Clock dials – full image

Now display the second slide and ask the students to draw the hands into the worksheet. Then ask one of the students to click the right time on the screen. The others check their answers. Go on like this with all the other slides but the last one.
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[showmyadsa] The last slide should serve as a way of practising. You can make up a time and then display it on the last slide. Or you can ask the students to work in pairs and make up some times and then dictate them to their partners who should draw the hands into the worksheet. It is up to you.

You will find some more wonderful ideas at Tekhnologic website here.

Telling time – Quiz

The following quiz is in HTML5 and your students can do it either at school or at home or on their mobile devices. The quiz will play on all of them.

Click the buttons below and then you have to click on the two correct hands to form the given time.
Telling time – quiz

Telling Time – additional activity

I seldom append my posts, but this time I felt that I have to add an activity. After doing all the activities above in my class, I realised that I would love to have there a simple quiz which all the students could do. So I created the following video.

Print the picture with the clock dials and ask the students to watch the video and draw the hands. There are sounds which tell the students when a new time appears and when they can check their solutions. The activity went really well. I hope you will find it useful too.

Telling Time – links

You can find several extremely useful activities at British Council site. Enjoy.

Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives are extremely important for learners of English. Words like my, your, his, her, their and our belong among the most frequent ones in English. Thus, you have to know them. Moreover, you have to learn them early to be able to understand and communicate in the foreign language.
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[showmyads] To help your students learn these super important words, Susan Brodar and I have created this post. There is an awesome chant by Susan, a clear mind map with several activities for your classroom, a quiz and a game. We are pretty sure that these activities will make it easier for your students to remember the possessive adjectives in English.

Possessive adjectives – chant

This wonderful chant was created by Susan Brodar. She has published it on her website http://bilingual-communications.weebly.com/. There are many wonderful materials worth seeing, so do not hesitate and visit her site.

First, ask the students to listen and then listen and repeat together with Susan.

Possessive adjectives – mind map

Print out the following mind map and go through it with your students. If you teach a monolingual class, ask the students to translate and retranslate the example sentences. Another activity your students could do is to cover the end branches with a paper and write the correct possessive adjective and their own example sentences.

Possessive adjectives

You can download the full image here:
Possessive adjectives – mind map

Possessive adjectives – Quizzes

The following quiz can help your students practise the possessive adjectives either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pronouns and possessive adjectives. In the second part, students have to put the right possessive adjectives into the gaps. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
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[showmyadsa] Possessive adjectives – quiz

The second game is called Teacher Invaders. Students’ aim is to complete each sentence with the correct possessive adjective and then shoot all the Invaders. Good luck. As the game is in Flash it will play only on desktops.

Possessive adjectives – Invaders

Possessive adjectives – Links

You will find more chants and materials by Susan Brodar here.

There are some wonderful materials by British Council here.

Learn the Parts of Speech
Learn the Parts of Speech

For ESL students and pupils in Great Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries, it is crucial to learn the parts of speech in English. In fact, this knowledge is very useful for EFL learners too, as it helps them get more information from dictionaries and grammar books. And as this topic is not difficult, it is worth spending a few minutes on it.
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[showmyads] In this post there is a wonderful song by Fluency MC, an infographic and several games which will help you master the parts of speech. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead!!!

Parts of Speech – song

The following song was created by Fluency MC. Listen and sing along. It is easy

Click here to get Fluency MC’s new (and FREE!) YouTube Songbook and to check out his new online speaking and listening program. the Weekly English Workout.
http://fluencymc.com/weekly-english-workout/

Parts of Speech – infographic

The following infographic contains all the information from the song. The parts of speech are organised into a mind map which allows your students to revise the facts. Ask the students to cover either the definitions or the parts of speech and then recall the covered information (They could do this in pairs too).

Parts of Speech infographic

If you want to download the full picture, click the button:

Parts of Speech – infographic

Parts of speech – games

Let’s start with a quiz which will help your students practise the parts of speech either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the words and the names of the parts of speech. In the second part, students have to write the name of the parts of the speech behind the words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Parts of speech – quiz
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[showmyadsa] The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct answer. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure, that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the parts of speech 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.
Parts of speech – Fling the teacher
To practise the parts of speech you can play the following game. Its name is En Garde. Your task is to choose the correct answer and then stop the target as close to the centre as possible. Hopefully, you will be faster and more accurate then your opponent. The game is in Flash and will play only on desktops:
Parts of speech – En Garde game
The last game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct part of speechand then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.
Parts of speech – Penalty game

Learn the parts of Speech

Phrasal verbs with BRING
Phrasal verbs with BRING

A few days ago my friend Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat publised a great post called “20 Phrasal Verbs with ‘BRING’ – Let’s Explore“. I liked it so much that I contacted Shanthi and she kindly agreed to my turning her post into infographics and games. And here you can see the final result of our great cooperation.

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Phrasal verbs with BRING – infographics

On her blog http://englishwithatwist.com/ Shanthi comes up with twenty different meanings of the phrasal verbs with BRING. Here, we tried to put the information in two infographics (as it was not possible to put all the information into just one 🙂 ).

Phrasal verbs with Bring infographic web

Phrasal verbs with Bring infographic web 2

You can download the full-size pictures here:
Phrasal verbs with Bring infographic 1

Phrasal verbs with Bring infographic 2

Phrasal verbs with BRING – games

Once the students study the infographics, it is time to practise their knowledge. I created 3 games to help them with the revision.

The first game is called On Target. Students should read the sentence and complete it with the correct option A-D. If they answer correctly, they are given a chance to shoot the bad ducks. They can shoot one of the bottles on the sides and get a bonus. This game is in Flash and it will play only on desktops.

Phrasal verbs with Bring – On Target

The second game is called Penalty Shoot Out. At school students love playing in two teams against each other. They have to choose the correct answer and then they should score a goal. It is not easy but it is great fun. This game is in Flash and it will play only on desktops.

Phrasal verbs with Bring – Penalty

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[showmyadsa] The third game is called Goose Science Quiz and the students click on the die and move forward. From time to time they have to answer a question. If they answer correctly they move forward and if they answer incorrectly they move backwards. The winner is the student who gets to the FINISH first. The game is in HTML5 and it will play on all electronic devices.

Phrasal verbs with Bring – Quiz

Phrasal verbs with Bring – Links

If you want to see the original blog post by Shanthi go here.

There are several interesting posts on Phrasal verbs at British Council pages too.

In this post we tried to introduce twenty different meanings of Phrasal verbs with Bring. If you would like to see more posts on phrasal verbs, you can go to Phrasal verbs in a story or Phrasal verbs Fred and Betty.

Phrasal verbs with BRING

How to Form and Use the Third Conditional
How to Form and Use the Third Conditional

The third conditional is the most feared grammar point I know. Students of English think that it’s hard to form and understand. Therefore, when they start learning the grammar they are paralysed with fear. And as a result, they fail to learn it. Thus the third conditional keeps its reputation.
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[showmyads] But the truth is that the third conditional is not difficult at all. In this post I will show you how to teach this grammar quickly. I hope to destroy the myth that the third conditional is difficult.

Third conditional – song

Start the lesson with the following song:

Here is a short worksheet that will help you introduce the grammar:

Third conditional song lyrics

Third conditional – infographic

Display the following infographic or print out copies and hand them out. Draw the students´ attention to the form.
Third conditional web

You can download the full image here:

Third conditional infographic – full image

Next, explain the meaning of the third conditional. Tell your students that the if-clause of the conditional speaks about a situation in the past that did not happen. The second part of the sentence expresses our hypothesis about what could have happened if the first part of the sentence were true. In both parts we speak about the past, and none of the actions happened. The ideas expressed in the third conditional are about the past and they never happened.

Now, ask your students to form three third conditional sentences using the clues in the infographic and to describe the situations in which they might be used. For example: Martina went to a party yesterday. She got drunk and the police arrested her. If she had stayed at home, nothing of this would have happened.
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Third conditional – quiz

The following quiz can help your students practise the third conditional either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the third conditional sentences. In the second part, students have to put the verbs into the correct form to form the third conditionals. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Third conditional – quiz
Teaching English using Poetry
Teaching English using Poetry

Have you ever used poetry to teach English in your class? If you have you can probably confirm that it was not a great success. The majority of your students were probably bored and didn’t share your passion for the poem. And thus they found your lesson boring and useless.

Therefore, it may seem that using poetry for teaching is a waste of time. So, how about if I offer you a poem your students will love and remember for a long time? Do you think it is impossible? Well, try the following lesson plan and see if you don’t change your mind.
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Using poetry – Teaser

Introduce the topic. Tell your students that you are going to play a video for them. Play the following video till the time 0:50. Then ask your students whether they want to see the whole thing. I am sure their answer will be YES.


Using poetry – vocabulary

Explain that they need to know a lot of vocabulary in order to understand and enjoy. To introduce and teach the vocabulary I use the following method which I call Remembering Tables. Print out the following worksheet. Each student needs to have his/her own worksheet.

Eugene poetry vocabulary

I usually print both pages on one sheet of paper, but you can print it on two different sheets of paper, too.

Make sure that the students are looking at the same page as you and read the words in the first table aloud. Ask your students to repeat the words after you. Then ask them to read the definitions. If you teach a monolingual class, ask them to translate the words. If you teach an international class, check your students’ understanding of the words by using concept questions.

Once your students understand all the words, tell them they have 20 seconds to remember them. When the 20 seconds are up they have to cover the table on the left and complete the table on the right by filling in the words. Once they finish they can check and complete their answers using the table on the left.

Do the same with the second, third and fourth tables, but increase the time given to remember the words to 30, 45 and 60 seconds.

Do both of the pages with your class and then you can move to the following task:

Using poetry – Speaking

I love using the following activity to practise the new vocabulary. Print out or display the following questions and ask your students to complete them using the new words:
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  1. What time did you __________ the school today?
  2. How do you feel in ________________ places? Do you like it when there are many people around you?
  3. What would you like to ______________?
  4. When was the last time you gave somebody an ____________? What were you sorry about?
  5. What do you think about _____________? How often do you read a poem?
  6. Have you ever performed on a _______________? How many people watched you?
  7. Can you describe your ________________? What are you like?
  8. What is your _____________? How often do you do it?

The correct answers are: 1 enter 2 crowded 3 give a go 4 apology 5 poetry 6 stage 7 personality 8 passion.
Next, I ask my students to choose 3 questions they would like to ask me. They ask me the questions and I answer as well as I can.

Then the students work in pairs and ask and answer the questions.

Using poetry – Video comprehension

Now it is time to play the whole video. Turn on the closed captioning if you feel that your students’ level of comprehension is not high enough for them to understand all of it.

Ask your students to read the comprehension questions first, and check that they understand the questions:

1. How old is he?
2. What is his job?
3. What is his passion?
4. Why does Piers buzz him?
5. Who thinks that Eugene is a loser?
6. What do girls do when Eugene enters a room?
7. What do the judges say at the end?
8. Is Eugene happy at the end?

Using poetry – Finish

To finish the lesson, it is ideal to practise the new vocabulary and do a speaking activity.

Start with the speaking activity. It is a simple role play. Ask the students to work in pairs. One of them is going to play the role of Eugene and the other is a reporter. It is one week after the show was broadcast, and the interviewer wants to know what has changed in Eugene’s life. Thus the interviewer asks questions and Eugene answers as best as he can.

To practise the vocabulary, you can use the following crossword and a fill-in-the-blank exercise. The students can do the exercises at school or at home. Please print 2 pages on one page for best results.

Eugene poetry crossword

Eugene poetry crossword key

Using poetry – Conclusion

This lesson plan is based on a video of Eugene performing his poem in the talent show called Britain’s Got Talent. In this lesson, students will learn 25+ new words and phrases, and they will get a chance to use the phrases at school. To make the lesson even more concentrated on poetry you can ask your students to write their own poem in English.
Here is a brief summary of the lesson plan:

1. Video teaser
2. Vocabulary – memory tables
3. Speaking – complete the questions and ask your partner
4. Video + comprehension questions
5. Speaking – role play
6. Vocabulary revision

I hope that this lesson serves as a great demonstration of how to use poetry to teach English and that your students will remember a lot of real-life vocabulary.

Teaching English Using Poetry

Prepositions of place – speaking activities
Prepositions of place – speaking activities

Recently, in the post called Questions with Like, I asked you to choose the activity you would like me to write about. Most of you voted for a Speaking activity, so I prepared a set of speaking activities to practice the prepositions of place.

I have already created a post on prepositions, so this time there will be no infographics just two speaking activities. If you are looking for more speaking activities, you can find a two great speaking activities here.
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Speaking activities – Battle

The first activity is called Battle and it was devised and recommended by K. Folse in his book The Art of Teaching Speaking.

First, print out the worksheet with 18 pictures. Each picture is different and they are labelled with letters A to R.

Ask students to work in groups of three. They should label themselves A, B, and C. Student A starts.
Student A will choose a room in the worksheet. Then students B and C will take turns asking yes – no questions to identify A´s room. For example, B asks: “Is the table in front of the sofa?” If student A answers “Yes, it is,” student B asks another question. He continues in this way till student B answers “No.” Then it is student´s C turn. Students go on like this till someone identifies the picture student A is thinking of.

After student B or C has guessed A´s room, student B chooses a room and students A and C try to guess it in the same way as they did with student A.

Students keep track of how many rooms they guessed correctly, and the winner is the one who guessed most.

Here is the worksheet students will use (it is enough to print out just one worksheet for each group.)

Speaking activities battle room worksheet

Speaking activities – Language needed

To be able to do the task above successfully, your students need to know the following vocabulary and grammar:

Vocabulary: plant, picture, lamp, table, cushion, plant, sofa, floor, wall, chair, ball and the prepositions of place (you find the materials to teach Prepositions of place here).
Grammar: to form question with is/are and the phrases There is / there are.

If your students do not know the language mentioned above, the speaking activity will not work!!!

Speaking activities – Drawing a Picture

First you need to print out the following worksheet once for each pair of students. They should cut it in the middle and each student should keep one sheet. (Now each student has two pictures with the room.)

Then, each student draws between 5 and 10 objects into one of his pictures. He or she has to draw objects they know the English words for. I personally ask my students to draw pieces of furniture we learn in the textbook unit.

Students sit with their backs to each other and one describes their picture for their partner, and the partners draws the objects into the picture he or she has not drawn into yet. When one student finishes they swap their roles and the other student describes their picture.

At the end the students compare their pictures.

Here is the worksheet:
Speaking activites drawing a picture web
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To be able to print out the worksheets in the best possible quality, use the following pdf file:

Speaking activities pdf worksheet prepositions of place

Speaking activities – Language needed

To be able to do the task above successfully, your students need to know the following phrases:

Can you repeat that?
Tell me again.
Where does the …. go?

Speaking activities – Conclusion

I hope you will find both of the speaking activities useful and interesting, and that they will make it into your classroom. Both of the activities should ensure that your students will produce a lot of language and they will practice their knowledge of prepositions of place.

Speaking activities – prepositions of place

Questions with LIKE
Questions with LIKE

The word LIKE is one of the most productive words in English. However, many students often confuse the meaning of the questions with LIKE and they give completely wrong answers. Especially pre-intermediate students of English find these questions really difficult.
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[showmyads] The aim of this post is to explain the meaning of different questions with LIKE and give students a chance to practise and remember the questions. To achieve this there is a video which is based on BBC programme called Grammar Challenge. Moreover, there is an infographic and a quiz to practise the grammar.

Questions – video explanation

When I asked my brother what he does on the Internet he told me that he spends most time watching videos. And in my experience that is true for most of teenagers. To attract them to learning English I decided to create a short video explanation based on BBC learning English programme called Grammar Challenge. Watch the video and try to understand the grammar.

Basic questions_fb
Questions in present and past tense

Questions with LIKE – infographic

Once your students have watched the video, you can hand out the following infographic. Go through the sentences and elicit the correct answers to the questions in the picture.

Questions with like

Questions with like – online quiz

The following quiz consists of two parts. In the first part students listen to the answer and they have to choose the correct question. In the second part, students see the answer and part of the question and they have to type in the missing words to make the question correct. If the students pass the tests they will be rewarded with a game.

The quiz is in HTML5 and it will work on the desktop and all mobile devices.

Questions with LIKE – quiz

Please let us know what you would like to read about next (there is just one question). Thank you.
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School subjects – speaking activities
School subjects – speaking activities

Speaking activities are the most important component of English courses using communicative approach. However, it is very difficult to find quality speaking activities that would work. That is why I would like to publish a speaking activity here once a week. All the activities will be based on the recommendations given by Keith S. Folse in his wonderful book The Art of Teaching Speaking.
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[showmyads] In the first post I offer you two pair speaking activities using school subjects and the verb HAVE. Let’s start!

School subjects – language for the activity

To be able to complete the task successfully, students will need the following sets of language: the verb HAVE (or have got) and the names of the school subjects.

If you have not taught the school subjects yet, it is necessary to do so before you start the speaking activities. For the following tasks, your students need to know the following school subjects:

School subjects mind map web

The other set of language your students need to know is the usage of the verb HAVE for questions like “What subject has she got on Monday?” or sentences like “She has chemistry on Monday at 11 o’clock.” You can find materials for teaching the verb HAVE GOT here. Once your students know the vocabulary and grammar you can move to the next part. Please, do not skip this step. Otherwise, your students might be either very quiet or use their native language to accomplish the tasks.

School subjects – speaking activities

In my experience students speak most when they work in pairs or groups of three. In bigger groups some students tend to dominate the task and some opt for not doing anything. That is why all of these tasks are designed for pairs or small groups.

The first activity is called Information gap. In this task students trade missing pieces of information to complete their sheet.

Information gap – in class

Put the students in pairs.

Hould up an example of the two sheets and explain that you’ll give each pair an A sheet and a B sheet.

Each sheet has a school timetable, but each sheet has only part of the timetable. Pairs need to work together to find out their missing information so that they end up with two complete and identical sheets.

Distribute the papers. Tell them not to look at each other’s papers. Let the students do the task.
Once they finish they can show each other the sheets and compare them.

Here are the two sheets:

Pair speaking activity School subjects

Pair speaking activity School subjects sheets

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Battle: Find it first – in class

In this task, students work in groups of three and they take turns asking yes/no questions to identify the picture that one student has in mind.

Print out one copy of the sheet (all 9 timetables) for each student.

Hold up one of the sheets and show everyone that the sheet contains nine timetables that are similar yet different. Students need to listen, think and then ask questions so that they can guess which picture the person is thinking about.

Put the students in groups of three.

Student A will pick a timetable and then students B and C will take turns asking yes/no questions to try to identify A’s timetable. B begins with a yes/no question. If A answers yes then B continues. If A answers no, then c asks a question. The goal is the to be the person who gets a yes answer to the a question such as, “Is it Jane’s timetable?”

After B or C has guessed A’s timetable, then A and C try to guess B’s timetable. Finally, A and B try to guess C’s timetable.

The winner is the student who guesses most timetables.

Here is the sheet each students should get:
Speaking activity school subjects timetables

I hope that you find the School subjects – speaking activities useful and that you will use them in your classes. You can download the worksheets in pdf here. All the pictures are in much better quality here:

School subjects speaking activities worksheet