Games to help students learn English.
Everyone watches TV sometimes. Thus, to be able to speak about what they watch students need some specialised vocabulary. The aim of the following post is to introduce and teach 13 names of TV programmes.
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To achieve this, we have prepared the following activities: a video, a mind map, a pictionary and two games to practise the vocabulary you have learnt.
TV programmes – video
TV programmes – graphically
Once, you feel that you know all the necessary vocabulary, it is a good idea, to print out the following mind map and complete it with all the words you remember. Try to add the names of some real TV programmes you watch too. For example write a comedy programme to the picture of Laurel and Hardy and write there Friends, too.
TV programmes – games
The second game is going to play only on your desktop as it is in flash. The name of the game is Half a minute and your task is to unjumble the words. Good luck.
TV programmes – Half a minute gameWhen I started this website I dreamt of a site full of games that would be so interesting that students would want to play them and to play them they would have to learn English. However, for nearly a year it was just a dream. I did not know how to create a game like this. But then I had a brainwave and here is the result.
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Zudo – English learning game
Zudo – Your reactions
Do you think that it is the way to go? Do you think that it will help the teenagers learn English? Will they be more motivated?
Please add your comment at the end of this post to help us improve the game. Thank you.
Other stories
The Kiss by Kate Chopin Two dates chapter 1 Two dates chapter 2 Two dates chapter 3 Two dates chapter 4 There are several short articles and activities at www.englishlearningmagazine.com:
Amelia Earhart story Prague story There are two more stories with vocabulary at our sister site:
Flatmates vocabulary 1 Flatmates vocabulary 2
Kate Chopin was an American author from the end of the 19th century and she wrote very interesting stories. I have taken one of the shorter ones and simplified it for pre-intermediate students.
The Kiss is a story about love and money. It is about a girl who has to choose between real love and a lot of money. What will she choose?
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The Kiss – mind map
Even though the story has been simplified there are still some words that may cause problems. The words are listed in the following mind map which can (and should) serve as a worksheet. Print out the pdf worksheet file or the picture and translate the vocabulary into your MT.
The Kiss Kate Chopin mind map.pdf
The Kiss – story
The Kiss – games
First, you can try two dictation activities. Listen and click on the sentences you hear.
The Kiss – Dictation 1
The Kiss – Dictation 2
Now you can play several comprehension games. First, you could try the Hoopshoot game. (This game is in Flash and might not play on your mobile device).
The Kiss – Basketball gameThe second game is called Penalty Shoot out. Answer the questions and score! (This game is in Flash and might not play on your mobile device).
The Kiss – Penalty gameThe third game is the most difficult one. It is called Fling the teacher and you have to answer all 15 questions correctly to win the game. (This game is in Flash and might not play on your mobile device).
The Kiss – Fling the teacher gameThe last activity is called Storyboard and your task is to reconstruct the original text. This one is really difficult!!! Are you up to the challenge???
The Kiss – StoryboardOther stories
Two dates chapter 1 Two dates chapter 2 Two dates chapter 3 Two dates chapter 4 There are several short articles and activities at www.englishlearningmagazine.com:
Amelia Earhart story Prague story There are two more stories with vocabulary at our sister site:
Flatmates vocabulary 1 Flatmates vocabulary 2
Category: English games, Intermediate, Listening, Vocabulary
“What does maths have to do with learning English?” you might ask. Many people believe that nothing. In fact many wrongly believe that you can be good either at maths or at English.
However, I think that mathematics and English have more in common than it might seem at the first sight. To be good at both of them you have to practise a lot. And to be able to solve the mathematical problem you have to understand it. And to understand the mathematics you need to understand the English first. Thus English and algebra have a lot in common.
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Mathematics problems – vocabulary
Vocabulary – quiz
Mathematics – problems
1. There is a big container full of lemonade. You can fill 114 bottles from this container. Each of these contains 0.7 litre. How many 0.3 litre bottles can you fill from the same container?
2. A restaurant bought 6.4 kilogrammes of pork, 3.5 kilogrammes of beef and 4.2 kilogrammes of ham. One kilo of pork costs 123 crowns, one kilo of beef costs 245 crowns, and one kilo of ham costs 156 crowns. How much did the restaurant pay?
3. Peter measured temperature during the day. He measured these temperatures: -2.0 degrees Celsius, 0.1 degrees Celsius, 3.4 degrees Celsius, 3.9 degrees Celsius, 0.5 degrees Celsius, -1.7 degrees Celsius and -3.5 degrees Celsius. What was the average temperature?
4. A pump delivers 50 litres per minute. How long will it take till a 10.2 cubic meter pool becomes full?
5. When James went to school he had $28.75 in his wallet. His friend gave him back $12.84. He then bought a burger for $3.86 and two books for $9.30. In the evening his father gave him $2.70 and he returned $5.00 to his mother. How much money did he have at the end of the day? Did he have more or less money and by how much?
Mathematics solution – mind map
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Mathematics – solution
Category: English games, Intermediate, Vocabulary
This is another post in my series of simple grammar explanations for elementary and beginner learners of English. In this post I try to explain the usage of the possessive ‘s and ‘. There is a mind map and several exercises to check the students’ understanding of the grammar.
Possessive case – mind map
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[showmyads]Possessive case – games
If you think you understand the grammar, it is time to check out your understanding in the following games.
The first game is in HTML5 and you can play it on any mobile device you like. Your task is to pass the quiz and if you get more than 70% of all your answers correct you will get a chance to play the game called Angry finches. Good luck.
Possessive case – Quiz (HTML5)The second game is in flash and it will play only on your desktop. Your task is to choose the correct option and then win the fencing duel against the computer. Good luck!
Possessive case – Embed
There have been several requests from people who wanted to share the games on their website. If you think that the html5 quiz is awesome and you would like to share it with the rest of the world on your site, you can do it by embedding the following code on your site:
<iframe src=”https://engames.eu/possessive case/Possessive case_sharable (Web)/index.html” width=”720″ height=”560″></iframe>
Vocabulary for learners of English
Grammar is really important if you want to learn a new language. However, vocabulary is the essence of a language. That is why we have come up with a new site to learn a lot of vocabulary. It is called envocabulary and you can find it at http://www.envocabulary.eu. Enjoy and learn.
Many students struggle with the basic question words even when they are at pre-intermediate level. That is why I have come up with the following post. There is a mind map explaining the meaning of the question words with examples. Then there are two quizzes to practise the question words in a real context.
Question words – mind map
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I think that students should translate the question words into their mother tongue too.
Question words – quizzes
In the first quiz you should complete and create the questions. If you do it well you will get a chance to play several games. The first game is called visual memory and you have to remember all the coloured squares. Can you get over the level 5? I have never managed to get that far. If you pass the second quiz you will play the game Rock, paper and scissors. It is pretty difficult to win against the computer, but it is possible. And if you pass the third quiz you can race on the tracks.
The second quiz is fully in HTML5. If you pass the first quiz, you can play the game Angry finches and if you pass the second quiz you can play the game Tower Defence.
Question words – Quiz (HTML5)Question words – share
<iframe src=”https://engames.eu/question_words/Questionwordsflash_share (Web)/index.html” width=”720″ height=”560″></iframe>
<iframe src=”https://engames.eu/question_words/Questionwords_share2 (Web)/index.html” width=”720″ height=”560″></iframe>
Learn Vocabulary – envocabulary.eu
Category: Elementary, English games, Grammar
Some posts take quite a long time to produce, but this one was an extreme case. Four people participated on it and I think we have produced a great material to teach vocabulary connected with sports.
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In my opinion there is everything. There is a video to help students with the pronunciation of the words. There are two mind maps to help you organise the new vocabulary in a way that will be easy to remember. And at the end of the post there are several activities to help the students learn all the words.
Sports vocabulary – VIDEO
Sports vocabulary – MIND MAP
The second mind map can serve as a worksheet. Your task is to complete it with the right words.
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Sports vocabulary – Games and quizzes
The first quiz is a way to learn the words. Listen and repeat the words. Then complete the quiz and go on. There will appear another set of words and a quiz. And so on.
The second game is called Kim’s game. You will see a set of pictures and then three of them will vanish. Your task is to write the words for the given missing words. However, you have just one minute to remember. And then three more pictures will vanish. Are you able to recall all the words?
Kims game – sports vocabularyThe third quiz is a dictation. In the first phase you will listen to several sentences and you have to click on the words you hear in the sentences. In the second phase you have to listen to the sentences and write them. Good luck.
Sport – dictation and listeningCategory: English games, Intermediate, Listening, Vocabulary
A few days ago I wrote a post where I dealt with the mistakes my students made during their final exams. There were six common mistakes which I felt needed explanation and correction.
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In this post I will deal with six more common mistakes that my students make. Some of them are really elementary but some are more difficult. There is a mind map depicting the mistakes, their correction and an explanation. At the end of the post there are two games to practise the grammar you have learnt.
Common mistakes – mind map
Common mistakes – games
Once you feel confident that you know the correct grammar, it is time to practise the grammar in the following quizzes.
In the first quiz there are several slides with different types of questions. Your task is to correct the mistakes and choose the correct options. If you answer more than 80% of the questions correctly you will get a chance to play the game Tower Defence. In this game you have to set your guards in such a way that they kill all the attackers before they get to your tower. I have passed 2 levels. Will you do better? Both the quiz and the game are in HTML5 so they should play on your mobile device.
Common mistakes – share
<iframe src=”https://engames.eu/common_mistakes/commmistakes2/embed/battle_fillintheblank_game.html” width=”800″ height=”640″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
To share the game Hoopshoot on your site insert the following code:
<iframe src=”https://engames.eu/common_mistakes/commmistakes2/embed/battle_flashcards_game.html” width=”800″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
Category: English games, Grammar, Intermediate
As I mentioned before, next year I am going to teach low level students, so I am trying to prepare some materials which I will be able to use with them. A week ago I wrote a post on the verb to be in affirmative and negative sentences. In this post I would like to explain the creation of questions with the verb to be.
[showmyads] In this post there is a mind map showing the usage of the verb to be in questions and then there are several pictures with examples. Under the pictures there is a simple quiz repeating what the students have just learnt. Then there are two quizes to practise the questions and short answers.
Questions with the verb TO BE – mind map
In the short answers you say YES/NO + the pronoun and the verb to be.
In the following picture you can see some examples of the questions:
Questions with the verb TO BE – games
[h5p id=”3″]
Questions with the verb to be – quiz
It was really easy, wasn’t is? Let us try something more difficult. Try to complete the questions in the following quiz. If you succeed you will get a chance to play the game Tower Defence. Good luck.
Verb to be – questions quiz
And now it is time to practise your short answers to the questions. Try the following quiz and if you pass it you will have a chance to play the game called Tic-Tac-Toe. Will you win?
Verb to be – short answers
This post is about common mistakes in English. There are two pieces of interesting research into learning and teaching English. One of them says that students learn more if someone else is corrected by the teacher than if they are corrected. The other found out that students learn and remember more vocabulary if the words are not connected in any way (they do not create so called lexical set).
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[showmyads]Combining these two findings it seems logical that students could learn and remember a lot if they were presented with a haphazard collection of someone else’s corrected mistakes. So, during an exam I collected several mistakes which I will present in a mind map and correct them and explain. I hope that students will learn a lot from these.
The post contains a mind map and two games to give the students a chance to learn from the mistakes other students made.
Common mistakes – mind map
Here are six mistakes my students made during an exam. The mistakes are in the bubbles closest to the center. In the second bubble there is the correct version of the given sentence and there is an explanation at the end of each branch.
If you think you will never make these mistakes, you can try the following games:
Common mistakes – games
The first game is an HTML5 quiz. Try to choose only the correct sentences and if you pass the test you can play the game called Tower Defence. Both of these can be played on your mobile phone or iPad.
If you want to display the quiz in a new window click on the button below:
Common mistakes – QuizThe second game will play only on your desktop as it is in Flash. It is called Hoopshoot and your task is to choose a correct sentence and then score a basket. Good luck.
Next school year I am going to teach low level students, so I started to prepare materials for them. The first one deals with the verb to be in affirmative and negative sentences.
The verb to be is the most important verb in English. You need it all the time. That is why solid knowledge of this grammar is vital. Spend your time learning this grammar it will pay off.
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In this post you will find a mind map and two games for elementary students. I tried to limit the vocabulary, so even a complete beginners would be able to do the exercises.
VERB TO BE – mind map
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VERB TO BE – games
If you are viewing the post on your mobile device, click on the button below to open the quiz in a new window, which is more comfortable.
The second game is in Flash and thus it will not play on your mobile device. The game is called on Target and your task is to choose the correct form of the verb TO BE and then shoot all the bad ducks. Do not forget that you can get a bonus if you shoot any of the bottles.
In the previous post we could see that verbs usually go with one or more prepositions. In this post we are going to deal with two verbs which can be followed by two different prepositions with different meaning. These verbs are THROW and SHOUT.
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Both of these verbs can be followed by the prepositions AT or TO but the meaning differs. The differences of meaning are clearly shown in the mind map and at the end of this post there are 2 games to practise these two verbs with their prepositions.
Prepositions – mind map
Prepositions – games
The first game is a HTML5 quiz followed by a Tower Defence game if you pass the test. Good luck
Verbs and prepositions – practise the grammar
The second game is called Teacher Invaders. Your task is to complete the sentences with the prepositions AT and TO and save the planet against the invaders. This game is in Flash and it will not play on mobile devices. Sorry 🙁
Category: English games, Grammar, Intermediate
Are you going to teach or learn the form “BE GOING TO” for expressing future? This post might come handy. There is a mind map explaining all the forms: Affirmative sentences, negative sentences and questions.
This post is especially designed for elementary students who need to learn the form. There are two games to practise the form too.
Be going to – mind map
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Be going to – games
The first game is called Reaction. Your task is to complete the sentences with be going to and then click on the ugly frog as quickly as you can. The quicker you click the more points you are going to get.
The second game is a quiz. If you answer all the questions correctly you will be able to play the game called Indiara. Good luck.
Yesterday I learnt Spanish and when I tried to reconstruct a text I found out that I do not remember the small words like articles and prepositions. They were so small that I did not pay enough attention to them to remember them.
Interestingly my students have similar problems with prepositions in English. Therefore I have decided to add more posts on prepositions here to help them.
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There have already been several posts on prepositions: Adjectives and prepositions, Nouns and prepositions and verbs and prepositions.
In this post you can find a mind map and two games. Unfortunately the games aren’t mobile friendly.
Verbs and prepositions – mind map
Verbs and prepositions – games
The second game is called Teacher invaders. To stop the invasion you have to shoot all the monsters and complete each sentence with the best preposition available.
Prepositions InvadersCategory: Elementary, English games, Grammar
The greatest thing that can happen to a teacher is the aha! moment when suddenly the students get it. And this happened to me on Thursday. I was teaching the modal verbs of deduction for a hundredth time and suddenly the students could understand it and use it correctly. Wonderful feeling!!!
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In this post I would like to share all the materials I used in the lesson. There is a mind map and two games. Moreover, for the teachers of English there is a hand out for an activity called pair cards.
Modals of deduction – mind map
The meaning of the modals is often influenced by the context. These mathematical expressions of the meaning should be understood in context. By these modal verbs the speaker expresses how certain he is about the given thing .
Modals of deduction – games
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[showmyads] In the first quiz you should complete the second sentence is such a way that its meaning will be the same as the first sentence. Sometimes more than one answer is correct however you have to use the modal verbs of deduction all the time. If you pass the test you can try our new game called Tower defence.
In the second quiz you should do the same as in the first one. However, this time if you pass the test, you will be given a chance to play the game Angry finches. Good luck 🙂
Modals of deduction – for teachers
Cut the worksheet into four different cards. Ask the students to work in pairs and give each student one of the cards. Make sure that each student in the pair has a different card.
On each card some sentences are blue and some are white. The blue ones are the correct answers and the white ones are the students’ task.
Students work in pairs and they read their white sentences and complete the one with the gap in such a way that it has the same meaning as the first one. Their partner listens to them and checks their answer in the blue sentences.
Students take turns and go through the whole cards. Students do not write anything! They just read their answers so they can swap the cards and do the same if they get to the end.
Students often use the wrong prepositions. So I have created this post in hope that this short explanation and practise will help them get at least some of the prepositions correct.
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Many teachers claim that students use prepositions incorrectly because of interference from their mother tongue. It is true in many cases but I think it is not the main reason. I believe that students confuse prepositions mainly because these small words often do not hinder communication. Even if students use the prepositions wrongly most of the time, people can still understand them.
In this post students will get a chance to learn some basic nouns + prepositions. To achieve this goal there is a mind map depicting basic nouns + prepositions. Then, there are three games where you can practise what you have learnt in the mind map.
Nouns and prepositions – mind map
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You have probably noticed that several words are used with more than one preposition. In some cases there is a difference in meaning and in others there are none. Let’s have a look at these words:
Advantage of / in / to – the meaning is the same.
A relationship / a connection / a contact with – with one noun.
A relationship / a connection / a contact between – between two things or people
An attitude to / towards – both have the same meaning.
Nouns and prepositions – game
En Garde game
The third game is called Teacher invaders and your task is to protect your planet against the invaders. And from time to time you have to complete the sentence with a correct preposition.
My students are online all the time. Through the internet they are flooded with information, but whenever I ask them about any current affairs they know nothing. They have no idea who or what I am talking about.
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In my opinion, this “dementia” is caused by two factors. First, all the news on the internet has to be new and it must not get repeated. Thus the students see all the facts just once and therefore they do not remember them. Second, students choose only the news they are interested in and ignore the rest. The basic information never reaches them.
That is why I have decided to give my students a chance to meet all the news in my lessons. I have created a mind map and several games for the video First News TV. In this video all the most important news from the previous week gets summed up. Moreover, the news is read slowly and clearly and students can learn a lot.
First News – video
First News TV from Sky News (30 May 14) from First News on Vimeo.
First News – Mind map
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First News – games
The other game concentrates on the vocabulary. Your task is to complete the quiz and if you pass you will get a chance to play the game Indiara. As both of the games are in HTML5 you should be able to play it on your mobile phone too. Enjoy.
Many students struggle with reported speech. They feel that there are many rules they have to follow and they often get confused.
In this post I try to simplify the rules about the reported speech (or indirect speech) as much as possible. There is mind map describing the basic rules, a video and two games to practise the grammar.
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To put it simply, reported speech is used when you start a sentence with an expression like She said or He told me etc. Then you have to move the verbs backwards. Thus you change the present simple tense into past simple. You change the past continuous to past perfect continuous and so on (see the mind map for more details).
Reported speech – video
Reported speech – mind map
First of all, reported speech happens after the reporting verbs (said, told, claimed etc.) in past tense. Then you have to move the original verb from the direct speech. The changes are depicted below.
The most common changes are depicted in the lower part of the mind map. If there are the verbs ARE, IS, WILL, CAN, HAVE or DO in the direct speech, just change them as shown and you do not have to do anything else.
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Reported speech – games
Download the following pdf file and open it with Acrobat Reader, otherwise the game will not work.
The second game is a quiz. You will see the direct speech and your task is to complete the reported speech sentence correctly. If you pass the quiz you can play the game Indiara. All of these are in HTML5 so they should play on your mobiles without the slightest problem.
In my last post I try to teach 11 common similes in English. However, as some students still feel that they need more practise, I have decided to produce this post too. This post contains a visually appealing demonstration of all the 11 similes, a short film to learn the phrases and a dictation exercise.
Similes – picture
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Similes – video
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Similes – dictation
Similes – practice
A year ago George Woolard published a book called Messaging. There he suggests that learners of a foreign language should learn the whole phrases and sentences. By learning the whole chunks the students will later be able to produce the language quicker and more precisely.
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I think that I can agree with this proposition. However, there is a problem. It is much more difficult to commit to memory long sentences than short words. That is why this method will probably never spread much.
Fortunately there is one area in English that follows the Messaging principle and at the same time does not overwhelm our memory. These are similes. As they consist of well known words and they have got their rhythm they are easy to remember.
In this post I am going to introduce eleven common similes which will be presented in a mind map. Then you can learn the phrases in a presentation and once you know all the similes you can test your knowledge in two quizzes. If you pass the quizzes you can play the games Car race and Angry Finches.
Similes – mind map
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Similes – presentation
Similes – games
In the second quiz you have to complete the sentences with the missing words. Each gap contains exactly one word. If you pass the test (you need 80% this time) you can play the Game Angry FINCHES. This game si fully supported by mobile phones.