REVISION OF BASIC VOCABULARY

There's no excuse, if you feel you are short of words, that means you need to improve your vocabulary. So,  from A to Z, learn or revise your vocabulary, with lots of different entertaining activities.

BASIC VOCABULARY FOR EVERYBODY

15 WRONGLY PRONOUNCED WORDS IN ENGLISH

Learning English pronunciation is fascinating, although it requires a lot of listening and studying the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) helps a lot;the more patient you are with yourself the more your pronunciation will improve enormously if you don't give up.
This is a good video to start improving!

PRACTICE THE SOUNDS IN ENGLISH TO IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS AND PRONUNCIATION!

You need a lot of patience to acquire an excellent pronunciation, this website is an incredibly useful tool to achive this goal!

GOOD PRACTICE TO IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION

This website, Tedpower,  is great to improve your pronunciation, and at the same time, your listening and speaking skills. There are lots of exercises!

FANTASTIC PRONUNCIATION DICTIONARY!

howjsay . com

I'd like to share with those of you who are interested in improving your pronunciation, the link to this wonderful talking pronunciation dictionary, not only does it pronounce a word, for example "computer" but I think it also varies the tone according to the meaning of the word, try this word , doesn't it sound sweet?

ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION A CHAOS? NOOOOOOOO! NEVER GIVE UP!

This is a funny poem written in 1929 by a non-native English speaker who had problems with exceptions, just like you and me and every student!

This video explains the reasons of the apparent chaos and challenges you to repeat the exceptions, it's rather long..... 

so, you may choose to repeat and even learn the shortest version in this other video

IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION WITH TONGUE TWISTERS.

A tongue twister is a word or phrase that is difficult to say quickly, for example, can you pronounce this sentence fast and without mistakes: "She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore". ? 

So, this is my challenge today, try these tongue twisters
and these are my recommended videos:

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2 

VIDEO 3

IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION: SILENT LETTERS

How do you pronounce the word "half"? Check the pronunciation in a dictionary and you'll see that the letter " l" is not pronounced.

Learning pronunciation can be fun if you have a curious mind, so I suggest the following exercises, e do them first and check the pronunciation with the dictionary before your computer corrects them:

Read the theory first

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

PRONUNCIATION: PRONOUNCE CORRECTLY FINAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS OR BLENDS: SK, LF, SP, MB, MP......

This video explains what consonant clusters are and how they are pronounced in a natural way n

To practice these final sounds until you can pronounce them correctly and naturally, I suggest you watch the following videos for little children, to help them when they are beginning to read, so first find the little naughty child who still lives inside you and then listen, repeat and enjoy these exercises!:

Video 1: Learn to read

Video 2: Beginner readers

Video 3: I can read!

And now, more information and practice for adult learners

Video 1: Consonant clusters

Video 2: Final consonant sounds

VOCABULARY CRIME, PUNISHMENT AND CRIME PREVENTION

Crime and punishment is one of the topics of B2.

Here are some interesting activities:

Vocabulary 1

Vocabulary 2

If you are interested, remember than prevention is much better than cure so you might like this video.

Video, crime prevention tips

THE TOURIST SEASON IS COMING: FOOD VOCABULARY

A lot of my students work in the tourist industry and have asked me to recommend some vocabulary for restaurants: here you have lots of interesting activities!

Food

PRONUNCIATION OF THE SUFFIX "-TURE", FOR EXAMPLE LITERATURE!

Your pronunciation improves a lot when you practice how suffixes are pronounced, today, you can do the following exercise!

PRONUNCIATION OF THE PAST SIMPLE: "-ED"- REGULAR VERBS

For  the theory and practice of the pronunciation of this sound I recommend the following exercise with a really good explanation and exercises.

If you want to know more information, watch this on the BBC webside, it  shows another wonderful explanation of how to pronounce "-ed" in a perfect way and offers more practice!

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH: SCOTTISH ENGLISH

As you advance, you usually become more and more interested in different aspects of the language, for example, the differences in pronunciation between varieties of English.

Look at this amusing video: English vs Scottish accent!

VOCABULARY REVISION FOR EVERYBODY

This is an excellent site for learning new vocabulary if you are doing level 1 or simply for revision if you are intermediate or advanced.....

MORE PRACTICE WITH THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

Here's more practice with the IPA

Word families (Level 2)

Learning new words in English is easy if you are familiar with word families

PRACTICE THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET TO IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

The International Phonetic Alphabet, also known as IPA, is a really useful tool to improve your listenig and speaking skills...but first of all, you should become familiar with it.
So, let's go for it!

Exercise 1: Consonants

Exercise 2: Vowels

Exercise 3: More vowels


And now, find the vowel phoneme:

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

A lot of people think that English pronunciation is extremely difficult, even impossible, that  they will never understand English people, and lots of other negative ideas that just stop their minds from learning.... but in my experience, I know, it's just a question of practice and never get frustrated......
Did you know the saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"? If you are interested in the meaning, this is the wiki link.

VOCABULARY LISTS

You never stop learning vocabulary, even in your mother tongue. This useful website has interesting vocabulary lists..... You can learn words in different ways, for example, writing sentences with each new word....or using them in your essays.......

IDIOMS, SAYINGS AND EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH

DID YOU KNOW THAT MUSIC HAS CHARMS TO SOOTHE A SAVAGE BREAST?
In Spanish we say" la música amansa a las fieras..."
A really good website to learn idioms and expressions. (Level 2)