My name is...

Summer is over and a new school year has just started for me. 
It's time to meet my new students and share with them work and laughter. The first song I've chosen is 'My name is Luka', a sad song with easy lyrics that my students of Básico 2 will be able to understand, I hope.
Try to do the fill-in-the-gap activity and check your answers by clicking KEY in the toolbar.

Happy!!!!

Another year's over and the summer and the holidays are here!
I'm so glad to have shared this year with wonderful students and workmates but I'm in cloud nine because, at last, I'll be able to have a good rest. 
I've chosen a song that cheers me up whenever I listen to it and which, I hope, will brighten up your day.
Try to do the fill-in-the-gap activity. This time the missing words rhyme so you won't find it hard to complete them.

A reason to learn

One of the reasons why I love being a teacher at the Official Schools of Languages is that I have the opportunity to be in touch with students of all ages and learn from them, no matter how young or old they may be.
This post is especially dedicated to a group of young women I have the pleasure to share this year with. 
The beautiful song they recommended to me will help you revise the long vowels in English as all the missing words in the fill-in-the-gap activity below contain one of them.
Remember these long vowels are:

/iː/   

/uː/  

/ɑː/  

/ɔː/  

/ɜː/  

Now, you can listen to the song and try to complete the lyrics.

Sing a song

Spanish students usually find it difficult to pronounce the spellings 'ng' and 'nk' correctly as they tend to do so like our Spanish /n/ and not like the English sound /ŋ/.

/ŋ/ is a nasal sound, which means you have to pronounce it letting the air go out through your nose and not your mouth. You have to raise the back of your tongue against the palate while making this sound. 
Here you are a picture that shows the position of the tongue and a video which will help you identify and pronounce this consonant sound correctly.

Now, watch the video and do the fill-in-the-gap activity. All the missing words contain the consonant sound /ŋ/ and you can use the phonetic transcription in the 'Clue' to help you. You can check your answers clicking the KEY.

Do your best and make the most of this song

If you've ever wondered why it's 'do the ironing' but 'make the bed', the answer is COLLOCATIONS.

English is full of these words that usually go together and which you should learn as a whole and not separately: 'make an effort', 'tell a joke', 'conduct a survey'...

I've chosen a very popular song by Police in which you'll find several of these collocations. Do the gap-fill activity below and then click the link on the toolbar to learn some more verb and noun collocations. 

You can check your answers by clicking KEY. 

What does the future hold?

Happy New Year! I guess it's about time to come back to work, isn't it? And, why not, the perfect time to think of our future plans and dreams. 
In their song 'I'm gonna be', really popular thanks to movies such as 'Benny & Joon', the sitcom 'How I met your mother' and TV advertisements, the Scottish group The Proclaimers makes use of four different tenses (present simple, present continuous, 'will' and 'be going to') to talk about the future. 
Now, paying attention to these tenses, listen to the song and do the gap-fill activity below. Get the key clicking the link on the toolbar.
By the way, why don't you try to find out the meaning of the Scottish word 'haver' (L.7)?

Somebody that I used to know

Here we are, one more year, and I think it's about time to start working, isn't it? I'm glad to share the news with you all : I was lucky and got a part-time post in EOI Villaverde, a new school with new workmates among whom I've felt really welcome as they've been really nice to me.
To open this school year I've chosen a song I love and that I hope you'll enjoy too. Through it, we'll practise two English vowel sounds, /æ/ and /ʌ/, that Spanish students sometimes find difficult to recognize and produce.

• To pronounce /æ/ make a Spanish /a/ and in the middle change it to /e/ while keeping the front part of your tongue in the lower part of your mouth.Click the arrow in the audio reproducer to listen to this sound and some words containing it.

        

• To pronounce /ʌ/ make a short Spanish /a/ with the middle part of your tongue in the centre part of your mouth. Click the arrow in the audio reproducer to listen to this sound and some words containing it.

    

• You can click here to see a short video that'll help you pronounce /æ/ correctly and then here for the sound /ʌ/.
• Now, paying attention to these sounds, listen to the song  "Somebody that I used to know" by the Belgian singer Gotye. Then, listen again and do the gap-fill activity.

Kindness Boomerang

We are about to finish this school year full of hard work, disappointments, uncertainty and fight, but also of fun and unforgettable moments. I want to say goodbye to all my students and workmates raising my voice and asking for a ray of hope with a song and a video that we'll let you believe in the power of kindness and solidarity, even though it's just for five minutes. 
But as I can't help thinking as a teacher, I'll take advantage of this song to work on nasal consonants /m/, /n/and /ŋ/ which are pronounced letting the air go out through the nose with your mouth closed. 

• Spanish students find it especially difficult to produce the nasal sound  /ŋ/ which is represented by the spellings 'ng' as in 'sing' and 'nk' as in 'sink'. To produce this sound you have to stop the air flow through the mouth by pressing the back of your tongue against the soft palate. You can click here to see a short video that'll help you pronounce this sound correctly.
• Paying attention to these sounds, listen to the song "One day" by the American reggae singer Matisyahu.

 

 
• Now, listen again and do the gap-fill activity. 

Stronger!

Feeling stressed and a little bit down has become commonplace for many of us in these times. 
We can't avoid worrying about the world around us which seems to be falling apart and we experience a feeling of defeat; but do we realize what are the things that really matter in life? I guess we need to be reminded of. 

When I saw this video filmed at Seattle Children's Hospital, I felt so moved and touched! They are the true heroes, the ones who struggle no matter what life brings them! So this is a tribute to all those who keep putting up a fight with a smile on their faces and teach us a lesson of hope and courage.

"Stronger",by Kelly Clarkson, is not only a heartening song but also a perfect way to practise the weak vowel sound schwa /ə/ that we find in unstressed words (auxiliary verbs, prepositions and articles) and unstressed syllables.
Here are some examples:
He was feeling down                 /wəz/  
I can do much better                /kən/      /ˈbetə/ 
You have to put up a fight       /həv/    /tə/   /əp/     /ə/

Listen to the song and do the gap-fill activity. Click the key to get all the answers. 

If I were a boy...

Have you ever wondered how different your life would be if you were a boy and not a girl or the other way round?

Beyoncé has in this song which I'm going to use to make you think of the variety of sounds that can correspond with the letter 'o' in English. Do you pronounce the 'o' in  'broke' and 'shot' in the same way? If you want to know, see this short presentation before doing the listening task below.

You can check your answers with the key.

I wish, I wish...

I must admit I'm not prone to making wishes as I've promised myself to enjoy what I do have and stop dreaming. Wishes make us hopeful, though, and that's why I want you to learn how to make them.

In this song by Pearl Jam you'll learn about all their wishes by filling in the gaps with one word to complete the lyrics. Check your answers here.
Then, if you're interested enough, you can click the link in the upper or lower bar and find an amusing presentation that I hope will help you understand the use of "I wish..." just a little bit better.

Start with yourself

Consonant clusters (a combination of two or three consonant sounds) may be difficult to pronounce, especially if it is a combination that is not common in our language.

Three-consonant clusters at the beginning of words always begin with s, e.g. scream /skriːm/.

Three-consonant clusters at the end of words are often plurals (girls /ɡɜːlz/), third person singular verbs (wants /wɒnts/) or regular past tenses ( asked /ɑːskt/).

To practise this combination of consonant sounds I've chosen a song that reminds us that the real change is inside ourselves, that we can't close our eyes and only see misery and poverty at Christmas time. Listen to it and do the gap-filling exercise while listening. All the missing words  contain a consonant cluster. Then, you can check the answers clicking the link KEY on the activity.

Old Times

"Old times were better", some people think but "not always", I say. However, I must admit I've really enjoyed preparing this activity as watching the video has reminded me of my youth (a loooong time ago!). For some of you, the youngest, this song will just ring a bell, others, the not so young, will probably associate it with their teenage but I hope you all will enjoy doing the fill-in-the-gap activity. You can check the right words with the key. Then revise the pronunciation of regular and irregular past forms by clicking the link on the upper toolbar.

Too much or too little holiday?

Hello everybody! Yes, I’m sorry to tell you summer is over and holidays too! I hope your enjoyed yours as mine weren’t as relaxing and peaceful as I’d expected.
But now it’s time to go back to work and brush up your English and what a better way to do it than revising some grammar through music? I’ve chosen “Broken Strings”, a song by James Morrison & Nelly Furtado, in which you’ll find several quantifiers and indefinite pronouns. First, do the listening task and then, revise the use of these words trying the activities below. They’re not too difficult as I guess you'll need some time to get used to hard work, won’t you?
As usual, you can correct your answers if you CLICK THE KEY.

Did you say you needed a "pin" or a "bin"?

Let's face the truth, whether we like it or not being able to recognize and produce English sounds is key to understanding and being understood. 

Some pairs of consonants are pronounced exactly in the same way but for the vibration or non vibration of our vocal cords in their production and, thus, we sometimes find it difficult to tell them apart.

Here you are a couple of interactive activities to get familiar with four of these pairs.

Now listen to Amy Mcdonald's song "This is the life" and try to fill in the gaps with the correct words, which all contain the consonant sounds introduced in the activities above. Click "hint" to get the phonetic transcription of the missing words and here to download the KEY.

What if God was one of us?

An interesting question, isn't it? This is the title of a song by Joan Osborne that really moves me whenever I listen to it but this title also made me think about second conditional sentences (a tendency to see everything from a professional point of view, you know). So I decided to create a gap-fill activity that you can do below. Click the KEY to check your answers.

If you want to get further practice on the pronunciation and use of "would", why don't you try and meet Justin, an Australian student, and Kylie, an American teacher?

First, repeat what Justin says paying attention to the pronunciation of "would".

Then, listen to Kylie's answers to some questions and say the questions. You will listen to them after a few seconds to check if you were right.

Mind the sound (English Dypthongs)

Phonetics may seem plain boring to you but why not take a funnier approach to it with music?

Below you'll find an activity to work on English Dyphthongs. First, click the link above to download a presentation that'll help you revise these dyphthongs. Next, do the gap-fill activity to complete the lyrics of U2's song "One". Check your answers with the Key. Finally, click "next exercise" to do a matching activity based on the lyrics.

"Hot n cold"

You've surely heard Katy Perry's song "Hot n cold". I must admit this song makes me feel full of energy but also, listening to it made me think of a way to work on opposites (words with opposite meanings), which can help you increase your vocabulary.

Listen to the song and complete the gap-filling activity using the hints in the ? buttons if necessary. To check your answers you can use the Key.

You've probably noticed that the chorus is based on opposites, haven't you? Would you like to find some more? Do the wordsearch activity below.
Could you now use some of these opposites to make a comment here and show their meanings? I know you can!