Daily English Activities

Develop your Listening Skills - The Musician

2020-07-07T22:29:00.009-07:00

Task 1 - Listen to Ben talking about how he became a musician.

Task 2 - Listen to Ben and write down what you hear.

Task 3 - Now say the sentences and check your pronunciation (You need to use the Chrome browser)

What was your score? Share it with your teacher.

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Demonstration Copy

Conversation and Listening - The Athlete

2020-03-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

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Conversations & Listening - My Mobile Phone

2020-01-18T23:52:00.001-08:00

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Developing Gist Reading Skills

2017-05-15T06:10:00.001-07:00

Gist reading can be a challenging skill to develop, but with this activity you'll be able to take control of the text and decide the speed at which your students read.

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I hope you find this activity useful and check out some of the others at PeacheyPublications.

Realated links:

Best

Nik Peachey

Studying How to Study

2016-07-23T22:51:00.002-07:00

Developng students study skills, especially in the digital age has become of imperative importance. In this lesson plan students will examine the way they study and think more carefully about how tey can improve their study habits by looking at a range of information from an infographic and sharing and discussing their views with other students.

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I hope you enjoy using this plan and plase do share any feedback or suggestions for improvement.

Related links:

Best

Nik Peachey

10 Lessons in Digital Literacy

2016-04-25T06:45:00.001-07:00

I'm proud to announce that my latest ebook is now available in Payhip. The ebook is a colelction of lesson plans fro classroom use that help students to develop their digital literacy skills and critical thinking.

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I hope you enjoy this book and that your students benefit from it.

Related links for teachers:

Free ebooks

Best

Nik Peachey

Perceptions of Advertising - Lessons in Digital Literacy

2016-03-07T00:59:00.001-08:00

This lesson is based on an infographic that reports on a survey into advertising, people’s attitudes to it and how it influences them.

Access the infographic here - Does it really add up?

In the lesson students will explore their views of advertising and think about how much influence it has over their own lives and the choices they make when buying products.

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I hope you find this lesson plan useful. Please do leave any comments if you think it can be improved.
Related links:

Best

Nik Peachey

How to improve your writing

2014-11-19T09:18:00.005-08:00

Writing well in English can be a really useful skill to develop. Increasingly web-based communication for international business is done in English and much of that includes things like writing emails, reports and sending text messages.

Improving your writing in English can be challenging, especially if you don’t have a teacher to help you, but luckily there are some free web-based digital tool that can help you.

In this task we'll be looking at how you can use https://www.languagetool.org/ to help you.

Task

For this task you can use any existing text that you have written and see how you can improve it.

Improving your vocabulary

One tool that most good writers use is a thesaurus. This can help you to develop your vocabulary while you improve your writing. You can access the Macmillan Online Dictionary and Thesaurus for free at: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/

Just type in some of the words you are using in your text and you can check the to see what other words have a similar meaning. You can also check the pronunciation of the words. Just click on the speaker icon and you’ll be able to hear the word.

Finding and correcting errors

Of course it’s also important to get some feedback on your writing once you have finished it. LanguageTool https://www.languagetool.org/ is a free website you can use to check your spelling and grammar.

Just copy and paste your text into the field and then click on ‘Check Text’.

The site will highlight any spelling problems in pink and any possible grammar errors in yellow.

Click on the the highlighted word and you’ll see a suggestion for how to correct the error. You can then either use the correction, ignore it or find a link to check the grammar rule.

Once you’ve finished checking through your work you can simply copy and paste it back into your original document.

Using a tools like these regularly will help you to improve your English as well as developing your vocabulary and helping you to feel more confident about your written communication skills.

Best

Nik Peachey- Pedagogical Director - PeacheyPublications Ltd

How to improve your writing skills with regular practice and feedback

2014-01-24T03:41:00.000-08:00

Developing your writing can be really challenging, especially at higher levels when you are working without the support of a teacher to give you detailed feedback. The best way to really make significant improvements to your writing though is to make sure you do some everyday.

In this activity we will be looking at how you can get ideas for daily prompts so that you have something to write about, and how you can get some very detailed and specific feedback and correction of your writing.

To do these we’ll be looking at three websites, two which provide stimulation for writing topics, these are Creative writing prompts from Writers Digest and the Toasted Cheese calendar of daily prompts.

To get the feedback on your writing we will be using a plagiarism checker called Grammarly. Grammarly doesn’t just check for plagiarism though, it also checks for errors and suggests ways you can improve your text.

Task

If you want a more challenging writing task, go to http://www.writersdigest.com/prompts.
Here you will see a page full of scenario prompts that you can write your own story around. The story or scene must be less than 500 words. I particularly like this site because if you click on ‘Read more’, you can find texts submitted by other writers and if you log in you can also submit your own text.

If you would like a shorter and simpler assignment go to http://www.toasted-cheese.com/webcal/webcal.cgi Here you will see a calendar with a prompt for each day of the month. Choose the one for today and compose your text.

Next comes the interesting part. Once you have finished your text go to http://www.grammarly.com/ and copy and paste your text into the field and click on ‘Check your text'.

To the left of the screen you will get an overall score for your writing and some idea of some of the problems.
To get really detailed feedback and suggestions for correcting your text, you’ll need to register. Grammar.ly offers a free 7 day trial, though you will need to enter some payment details and remember to cancel your subscription before the 7 days ends if you find that the suggestions aren’t helpful or you aren’t really using the service.
Once you have logged in you will be able to see your text and work through the suggested corrections.
You can select which things the site checks for.

You can also tell it what kind of document you are working on so that the feedback you get is more specific.

Then you can work through selecting the corrections you want to make.

Finally, when you have finished, you can download your document as a final copy.

Make sure you keep both versions of your text, then in a few weeks time go back to the original text and see if you can find the errors and correct them.
Once you have done that, compare with the version you corrected in Grammarly and see how many of the errors you found.

Doing small amounts of work, regularly like this can really start to improve your writing and make you more aware of your own errors and where they are likely to occur, but you do have to do it regularly.

Good luck with that and I hope your writing soon improves.

Related links for teachers:

Best
Nik Peachey

Build your vocabulary while reading the news

2013-05-21T02:17:00.001-07:00

Reading has and will probably always be one of the best ways to develop and broaden your vocabulary. By reading more you get more exposure to new words in context and develop the skill of learning what the words mean from their context.

Today's activity use a website which can help you speed up that process and also provide your with interesting reading materials at a level which is appropriate for you.

Task:

Go to http://knowble.eu/ and click to sign up.

Choose a username

Then click on 'Start knowble'. You can then register on the site. Once you have registered, you are given a short test with 40 test questions. This helps to find your level so that the site offers you texts at the appropriate level.

When you have finished the test, Knowble will find texts for you and sort them into five categories.

World
Business
Entertainment
Sport
Science

Just click on the heading that interests you most.

Then select an article. You will then see the article with words highlighted. You can get a definition and example pronunciation of the words by placing the cur or over the highlighted word. You can also select a support language to get translation and see examples of the word used in other contexts.

On the right side of the screen you also have a drag and drop activity using some of the words from the text, so you can check your understanding of the words before or after you read.

Knowble also creates a profile for you so you can revise the articles you have read and go back and check the words you have learned each time you log in.

Knowble is a great way to support the development of your reading skills and vocabulary learning. If you use the site regularly your reading and vocabulary are sure to improve.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Improve your English through film clips

2013-05-07T06:41:00.001-07:00

When learning English it's important that you hear as many different accents and types of voices from different ages of speaker so that you are able to understand English wherever you go. This activity gives you lots of opportunity to practice your listening skills and broaden your understanding of English speakers.

This is a simple and enjoyable activity to test your listing skills. It's based around video clips from YouTube with interaction built in through the VoScreen website.

Task:

Go to the Voscreen website at: http://www.voscreen.com/

You can sign up for free, but you don't have to, just click on 'Start as Guest'.

Then select your first language and click on save.

Next you will see the first video clip. Play the clip and listen to the short piece of text. You can play the clip a number of times if you aren't sure you understand it. If you still aren't sure you can click 'Show me the script' to see the script.

You then have to choose the correct translation. You have 15 seconds to make your choice.

You score points for guessing correctly and you can see your score above the video clip.

You can play for as long as you wish, but coming back to http://www.voscreen.com/ regularly for a few minutes each day should really help to improve your listing skills.

I hope you enjoy this activity.

Related links for teachers:

Best
Nik Peachey

Practice Your Spelling

2011-09-01T06:36:00.001-07:00

As with most languages, spelling is pretty important in English. It's also something that gives many native speakers problems too, so don't be too worried if you find English spelling difficult and confusing. In this activity you'll be able to practice spelling and your vocabulary in an enjoyable way.

The activity is a fast paced game. You have a row of letters and have to use them to create and type words as quickly as you can.

Task:

Go to: http://deepleap.org/. The game starts as soon as you arrive. You will see some letters and a space below to type.

If you can't make words from the letters you see, just wait and more will appear on the right.

As the row fills, the letters on the left will disappear and be lost.
You must try to use as many of the letters as possible before they are lost and make as many words as you can.

You will lose any letters that are used in words spelled incorrectly.

Try to score as many points as you can. You will have 75 letters in total.

I hope you enjoy this game and play it regularly to help activate your vocabulary and practice your spelling.

Best

Nik Peachey - Pedagogical Director - PeacheyPublications Ltd

Play Word Games to Improve Your Vocabulary

2011-03-08T02:11:00.001-08:00

Having a wide vocabulary is really important to push the level of your English. This activity shows you how to push the level of your vocabulary and revise some of the words you already know while playing a simple online game similar to Scrabble.

In this task you'll also learn how to use an online tool to help you find new words to use your letters.

Task:

Go to: http://wordsquared.com/. You don't need to register, just click on 'Start Playing'

You will see your row of letters at the bottom of the screen. Choose any letter on the board that you can join your letters onto and make a complete word.
Drag the letters onto the board the click on 'Add Word'. If the word is correct it will be added to the board and you will get a score and some new letters.

The next word you make must join onto the previous one and you can only build on the words you have added. Each word you add increases your score.

If you can't think of a word, go to Scabble helper at: http://www.wineverygame.com/ Type in your letters and in either the 'Prefix' or 'Suffix' box type in the letter that you want to join onto from the board and click on 'View words'.

You will then see a list of possible words that you can make with your letters. Add the one you want, but be sure to check the meaning of the new word if you don't already know it.

Continue with the game until you have at least 100 points. Keep a list of any new words and their meanings as you play.

Try to play the game every day and build up your score and your vocabulary.

Here you can find more games to improve your vocabulary.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Create your own vocabulary tests

2011-03-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

Developing your vocabulary is one of the quickest ways of improving your English, but remembering new vocabulary can take time and effort.

In this task you find out how to use an online dictionary to find synonyms and antonyms and how to use this to create your own interactive tests to help you remember the words.

Task:

Find an article that you are interested in or that you have recently studied. Choose some 8 or 10 the newer or more difficult words from the text.

Next got to: http://www.en.wrds.eu/user/create and register (it's free). You just need to create a user name and password and give an email address.
Sign in and then click on 'Create a new list'.

Give your list a title (it could be the title of the text the words come from) and then type your new words into the column on the left.

Now go to: http://www.synonym.com/. Here you can type in your new words then click to find synonyms, antonyms or definitions of the words.
Once you find the antonym etc, copy it into the column next to your new word on the Wrds site.

Once you have added all the words and definitions, click on 'Save' and then click on 'Test'.

You can the choose the type of test you would like to take. The tests vary so try them all.

Each time you come back to the site you can add more word lists and revise old ones. You can even share lists you have created with friends. I hope you find this a useful way of revising your vocabulary.

Here you can find more vocabulary related activities

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Train yourself to hear song lyrics

2010-12-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

Listening to songs is a great way to learn a language. It's easy to listen to a song many times, especially if it's one that you enjoy and this can really help with your listening and pronunciation.
This activity is based around the Lyrics Training website. The site helps you to listen to and understand songs.

Task:

Go to: http://www.lyricstraining.com here you can search for a song that you like or select on from the home page. Once you click on a song it will start to play, you can then select your level.

You then see some of the words of the song with some gaps. The song will stop so that you can write in the missing words.

You can also select your own language so that you can see a translation of the lyrics in your own language.

Click on 'Help' to see all the instructions.

I hope you find this useful. Here you can find more song based EFL / ESL activities.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Show and tell online

2010-10-23T03:43:00.000-07:00

Show and Tell has been a very popular activity in the English language classroom for quite some time. It is often based around bringing in to class an object or photograph of something that is important to you and asking and answering questions about it.
Now you can 'show and tell' with the world and share images from your life and ask and answer questions using a website called Shuttercal. It's very simple, you just upload a picture each day and write a few sentences about it. This is a great way to practice reading and writing and communicate with real people.

Task:

First go to: http://shuttercal.com/ and create your account (It's free).

Once you have done this you can log in and start to look at other people's photographs and leave comments on the ones you like. You can do this just by going to the 'Explore' menu and looking for new photographs.

Click on an image that you find interesting, click on 'Comments' on the bottom right corner.
You should now be able to see a text field and add a comment or question. Once you have added a question click on submit and the owner of the image will get a message with your question.

Be patient it could take some time before you get a reply. Try to comment or ask questions about ten images.
You should also upload some of your own images. To do this, go to your own calender, by clicking on your name. then click on the square for today. You should then be able to browse your computer for an image and upload it. Youc an also add some comments and information about the image.

Keep adding images everyday and commenting on other people's images. This way you will build up a network of contacts to interact and communicate with.

I hope you like this activity and by all means look at my calender and leave comments or questions at: http://shuttercal.com/calendar/NikPeachey/

Here you can find more image based activities.

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Best

Nik Peachey

Write a Blues Song in English

2010-05-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

Listening to music and songs is a great way to improve your listening skills, vocabulary and pronunciation.
In this activity you create a Blues song and then listen to it. You will then listen to some more Blues music and do some listening dictation.

Task:

Go to: http://www.thebluesmaker.com/ and click on 'Start it Right Away'.
There are ten steps to creating your song. In step 1 complete the first line of the song. The song starts " I lost my .." and you choose the end of the line by clicking on one of the 4 choices.
Then move on to step 2 and choose the harmonica sound you want next. Once you have the sound you like, continue and choose the next line of the song.
Continue through all the steps until you get to step 10, then click on 'Finish my Blues'. Wait a few moments and you will be able to hear your song.
Once the song has finished playing, you can share it by sending it to your friends. Just add email addresses and click send.

If you enjoy this song, you can find more Blues music on YouTube by going to 'Browse', 'Music' and 'Blues' (or click here: Blues).
Try to find a song you like and write down the lyrics / words of the song. Once you think you have written down all the lyrics, go to: http://2hats.net/yl/ Here you will be able to search for the video and the correct lyrics to check your work.

I hope you enjoy this activity and the music you listen to and create.

Here you can find all the song related activities for EFL and ESL students

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Memorize a Song

2010-01-11T02:24:00.000-08:00

Learning and enjoying songs can be a great way to improve your listening, vocabulary and pronunciation. In this activity we are going to use two websites to help you find, listen to and memorize the words of a song.
First you'll use YouLyrics to find the words and a video of the song, then you will use MemorizeNow to help you learn and remember the words.

Task:

First go to the YouLyrics site at: http://2hats.net/yl/ You will see featured and the most recently listed songs and videos.

You can either select one of these or search for a song you like, by typing in the name of the song and artist at the top of the page.

Once you have found the song you want to learn, watch the video and read the lyrics. If you click on the link to one of the videos it will open and play beside the lyrics.
Once you have watched the video, copy the lyrics and go to: http://www.memorizenow.com/
Paste the lyrics into the text field, add a title then click on the 'add' button. The title will appear in the 'items to memorize' list.

You can then click on the title and start to memorize the words. If you click on the arrows above the text, words will start to disappear from the text.
Try to remember the missing words as you read through the text. If you can't remember them you can click the back arrow and the missing words will appear again.

You can gradually remove more and more of the words until they all disappear. If you have problems remembering the words listen to the video clip again and this will help you. You can also try to remember the words with just the first letter as a prompt. Just click on 'Letters'.

You can also start to remove the letters by clicking on the arrows. If you want to see the complete text again you can either click on the 'memorize' button again of 'display all' and this will show you the complete text.

You can also save the activity to your computer desktop so that you can revise and review the words at a later time. Just click on 'save' and follow the instructions. Listening to songs and trying to learn and memorize the lyrics is an enjoyable way to improve your listening and vocabulary skills and if you sing along it can also improve your pronunciation. I hope you enjoy this activity.

Here you can find all the song related activities for EFL and ESL students

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Read and Write Very Short Stories

2009-10-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Reading and writing both help to improve your vocabulary and give you the opportunity to use your language skills in a creative way.

Today's activity will show you how to get simple quick writing practice and how to give and receive feedback and criticism of your written work. The activity is based around a site called Five Card Stories and will help you to create a story based on 5 images.

Task:

First you are going to read some very short stories based on images. Look at the five images that go with it, read each story and then vote how good you think the story is. If you think the story is really good, give it 10 stars. If you think it's really bad, give it just one.

Here are 5 very short stories for you to read and vote.
Done with work
A relaxing day by the water
George
After the wedding
The colour blue

Now you have read and voted on the stories try to improve them. Below each story, you have the chance to write your own version using the same images. You can either rewrite the story and try to improve it or write your own story based on the same images.

To write the story just give it a title, use add a name (it doesn't have to be your real name) complete the story and then type in the two security words and save it to the site. You''ll then be able to come back each day and see how people have voted on your story.

If you enjoy short writing activities you can come back to the site and create your own story by choosing images yourself. Just go to: http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/flickr.php and select the images you want in your story. Tip: It's easiest if the first image you select is of a person or animal, this can then be the main character in your story.

I hope you enjoy this short reading and writing activity and create some wonderful stories. Please leave a link to any you create in the comments section below.

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Best

Nik Peachey

A City Love Story

2009-10-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

Today's activity is about talking about your city and the things you love, and was inspired by a YouTube video that tells a short love story. The Story is set in Beirut in Lebanon and tells the story of how two young people meet and fall in and out of love. The video though is also a tribute to the city that they both love and the things that they like about it.

The wonderful thing about the video is that it shows you the inside of a city from the perspective of two people who live there. So in this task you will watch the video and then see how you can make your own tribute to the place you live.

Task:

So, first here is the video. It isn't in English, but it has English subtitles, so it will be easy to follow. Just pause the player if you need more time to read the subtitles.
The first part of the story shows the two people meeting and what they like about their city and what they like doing there. Watch and decide which of them has the most similar likes to your own.

Were you more similar to the girl or the boy? Were you surprised by what you saw of Beirut? Was it as you expected?
Think about the things they like about their city and the things that you like about your city.
Now take a camera and go round your city taking photographs of things that you like, places that you like to go and things that you like doing.
If you don't want to go taking photographs you could search for images on Flickr.com. Use the Creative Commons section where you can find images that are free to use without copyright restrictions as long as you aren't selling what you create. Just search for images of your city or things that you like doing.

Once you have collected your images you will need to make them into a video. You can do this using a free product called Photo Story 3, which you can download from here It is for use on PCs running Windows.

Photo Story 3 enables you to create projects using images music, your own voice and text and then covert them into video.
Here you can find a short video showing you how to create your photo story.
Photo Story 3 Tutorial

Create your project, add some music from your city and narrate the video in English, telling people what you like about your city. You can also add text to help people understand.
Once you have finished you can upload the video to YouTube and share it or you can keep it as part of your English digital portfolio.

I hope you enjoy making this video and please do share a link in the comments below once you have made one. Also be sure to post any comments if you need help or if you get stuck making your video and I'll try to help.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Write Your Auto Biography

2009-10-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

An important part of being a good conversationalist is being a good listener and asking people questions about what they tell you, but sometimes you also have to talk about yourself and be prepared to answer questions.

In today's task you are going to answer questions about yourself and in doing this create your autobiography. You are going to do this using a website called Biographicon which is a site that collects the biographies of ordinary people like you and me.

Task:

Go to: http://www.biographicon.com/ and click on 'Create a new biography' then type in your name and create a new biography.

You will then see the frame for your biography. Click where it says 'Answer a questions about ...' and a field will open with a question and answer that you should complete.

Complete the answer to the questions and then click on 'OK, next questions'.

You will the see the next question. Work through answering as many of these questions as you can. When you have finished answering questions, you can click on edit and you will be able to upload an image of yourself.

You can also add some basic information like when and where you were born etc in the 'Overview' section.

Once you are finished you should have quite a complete biography of yourself that you can link to or share with friends.

As your English improves and things in your life change you can also go back and edit your biography. You don't have to complete it all in one day you can do a little more each day and add few more answers to questions.

I hope you have enjoyed this activity and soon have your biography ready to share.

Here you can find more writing activities for EF ESL students.

Learn to Put Your Make Up on in English

2009-10-13T01:25:00.000-07:00

YouTube offers you so many opportunities to learn English and also to learn how to do new things, learn how to do things better or teach others how to do things.

In today's activity we'll look at some 'home' produced YouTube channels and learn a bit more about how to use make up and other cosmetics and develop your vocabulary in this area. We'll also look at how you can enter into a dialogue with the people who create the videos.

Task:

You are going to watch 3 short videos showing you how to apply make up. The first video is by Andrea and has no words, just text and images. Pause the video to make notes of any new words you see in the text.

Now look at the new words you noted down and check to find a definition for them on this site: Make Up USA Vocabulary.
Just click on the word to the left of the screen and you will find images of the kinds of products in the video.

Now that you have a bit more vocabulary, you can watch this second video and listen as Michelle Phan describes how she puts on her make up.

The vocabulary in these videos and the range of accents can be very challenging, but if you watch and listen to a number of different ones you will find they become easier to understand, and if you do have a problem with understanding some of the things that they are saying or doing, remember that you can leave a comment or ask a question by going to the video on YouTube.
Here's one more video for you to watch. In this one Elle describes the make up used in the 'Blockbuster' movie 'Twilight'.

One of the great things about people who produce these kinds of videos is that they welcome communication with the people who watch their videos, so you can either go to their channel on YouTube and send them a comment or question or you can follow them on Twitter and see what they have to say and ask them questions.

You can find Andrea's YouTube channel at: Andrea's Choice and follow her on Twitter at: Andrea's Choice
You can find Michelle's YouTube Channel at: Michelle Phan and follow her on Twitter at: Michelle Phan
You can find Elle's YouTube channel at: AllThatGlitters and follow her on twitter at: AllThatGlitters

I hope you enjoy watching these videos, learn a little more vocabulary and have some practice at understanding different US accents.

Here you can find more video based activities for EFL ESL students

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Best

Nik Peachey

Study a Classic of Literature

2009-10-11T02:26:00.000-07:00

Many great works of literature have been translated into other languages, but there is nothing quite as good as reading a book in the original language. In today's activity you are going to study a classic of English literature; 'The Old Man and The Sea' by Ernest Hemingway.

You are going to use a number of different tools to make this easier and more enjoyable.

Task:

First go to Wikipedia and find a summary of the plot. You can do this with most books, just by searching for the name in Wikipedia. Click on the link to see The Old Man and the Sea Plot.
Read through the plot, then watch this animated video of the story. It takes about 20 mins, so make sure you have time before you start.

Now that you know the plot and have seen the video you should be able to tackle the book.
You can read the complete book online at Google books The old man and the sea
The book is quite long to read, but you should now have a good grasp of the story. If you want to study the story in more depth you can find notes and analysis of the story at: SparkNotes - The old man and the sea

This is a good way you can try to read and understand more classics of English literature.

Find information about the plot in Wikipedia
Find video clips of the story on YouTube or Google Video
Find the complete book on Google books
Find notes and analysis on SparkNotes

I hope you enjoy this classic story and find many more to read.

Here you can find more literature activities for EFL ESL students

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Best

Nik Peachey

Learn from and Create Animated Music Videos

2009-10-08T01:53:00.000-07:00

Learning English from songs lyrics and music is a great way to study. In today's activity you are going to be able to watch and enjoy some simple 'stop motion' animated music videos and then find out how to create your own.
The videos for you to watch come from two sources; Music and Muffins and SereneRhapsody and you can find more examples on their YouTube Channels

Task:

For the first part of this task, you can simple watch and enjoy two short music videos and just decide which video you like the most.
This one is "You Could Be Happy" and the music is by Snow Patrol

This one is called "Rain drops" and the music is by Regina Spector

You can find more videos like this at Music and Muffins and Serene Rhapsody
Once you have chosen the video you like best, think about how the images illustrate the story of the song.
Try to think of a song that you like and the story behind the song.
Find the lyrics for the song at: http://www.lyrics.com/ and copy each line of the lyrics onto a sheet of paper.
Put the sheets of paper in order and then do a simple sketch on each sheet of paper to illustrate the line from the song.
Now using a simple digital camera you can create your own 'stop motion' video of the song.
Here you can find step by step instructions showing how this is done.

Here you can watch a video of how to make stop motion videos

Once you have create your video you will need to add the sound track too. This is a great way to enjoy music and develop your English.

I hope to see some of your videos on YouTube soon.

Here you can find 20 + more video activities for EFL ESL students

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Learning Phrases and Phrasal Verbs

2009-10-06T01:41:00.000-07:00

Most students find learning phrasal verbs a real challenge. They can be confusing and complex, but today's activity looks at a way that you can make learning them a little more fun.

This activity combines two different website Phrases.net and TransL8it to help you learn and test yourself on new phrasal verbs.

Task:

First decide on the phrasal verbs you want to learn or revise. If you can't think of any then just go to: http://www.phrases.net/ and you'll see some in the left column.

Click on one and you'll see that you get more information about it. This includes what it means, an audio clip example of how to say it and an example sentence. You can also get a translation.

Listen to the audio clip and then highlight the example sentence and copy it. Once you have copied it go to: http://www.transl8it.com/ and paste or write the sentence into the left hand field. Then click on the button that says 'transL8it-->'. This will translate your text into English sms texting language.

Now copy and paste the sms translation into a word processing document.
Go back to Phrase.net and repeat this process with ten more example sentences from phrasal verbs you would like to remember and copy them all into your document.
Once you have the ten sentences in sms text chat language, try to remeber them and translate them back to standard English ( You can leave this until the next day if you prefer).
Once you have finished check your answers by copying and pasting your translations of the sms text into the left column http://www.transl8it.com/ to see if you get the same translation again.

You can use this technique to rivise any new phrases or sentneces that you learn. You could even start translating example sentences from other vocaulary you want to learn. This will also help you to understand English sms and text chat.

I hope you enjoy this activity and try it regularly to develop your memory. here you can find more vocabulary building activities.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey