Category: English games

Games to help students learn English.

TV programmes – learn English vocabulary
TV programmes – learn English vocabulary

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

Watch the following video and repeat the words. Go through the video as often as you feel necessary to remember all the words for the TV programmes.

TV programmes – graphically

If you find the video to fast here is a pictionary. You can study the vocabulary from the following picture:

TV programmes pictionary: learn the vocabulary

You can learn the vocabulary here

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 mind map

Write the words you have learnt and examples of the programmes you know.

TV programmes – games

Now you have a chance to practise your knowledge in a playful way. The first quiz is fully in HTML5 so it should play on your mobile devices too. Try to solve the quiz by matching the words and the pictures and by writing the appropriate words to the pictures. If you pass you will play the game called angry Farmer. My best result has been 25. Will you be better than me?

TV programmes – HTML 5 quiz

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 game
Zudo – game to learn English
Zudo – game to learn English

When 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

Welcome to Africa. Zudo is a young boy who lives in Africa with his animal friends. But one day he meets two men and his adventures start. Can you help him to survive in the wild jungle?

Zudo – full screen game

Zudo – Your reactions

As this is something absolutely new, we would like to know what you think about it. Did you like it? Did you find some mistakes in the game? Was any of the tasks too difficult?

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

Did you like the Zudo story? There are several more stories at our site or sister sites.
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
The Kiss story by Kate Chopin
The Kiss story by Kate Chopin

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 by Kate Chopin mind map extensive reading

The Kiss Kate Chopin mind map.pdf

The Kiss – story

Now, that there are no unknown words it is time to read and listen to the story. Take the mind map, listen and answer the comprehension questions. It would be best to listen to the story at least twice.

The Kiss – games

Now there are several games and activities to check your knowledge and understanding of the Kiss story.

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 game

The 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 game

The 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 game

The 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 – Storyboard

Other stories

If you like the Kiss, you might like the following stories too:
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
Maths in English
Maths in English

“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

As I write above, to get to the algebra you need to understand the English first. Learn the following vocabulary using the mind map. All the words are explained and demonstrated. Print out the mind map and write the translation of the words into the empty boxes.

maths-ing-english

Vocabulary – quiz

Now it is time to practise the vocabulary you have learnt in the mind map. If you pass the vocabulary quiz you can play the game Tic_Tac_Toe. Both of the activities are in HTML 5 so you can try them out on your mobile phone or tablet. There is just one way to win the Tic Tac Toe game. Can you find it? Good luck.

Mathematic problems – vocabulary

Mathematics – problems

Now that you know all the vocabulary it is the time for the algebra. Can you solve these 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

Here you can see the graphical explanation how to solve the mathematical problems.
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maths-in-english

Mathematics – solution

Still not sure whether you have counted correctly? Insert your answers into the following quiz and see how many answers you got correct. If you manage to solve 4 or five problems you can play the game Angry Finches. Good luck.

Mathematic problems – solutions
Possessive case explanation
Possessive case explanation

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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possessive-case-explanation

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.

Question words with the verb to be
Question words with the verb to be

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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Question words with the verb to be

Study the question words and examples.

I think that students should translate the question words into their mother tongue too.

Question words – quizzes

Both of the following quizzes will play on your mobile device, however, you will not be able to play the games in the first quiz. The games will play only on a desktop. Sorry about it.

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

There have been several requests from people who wanted to share the games on their website. Now you can share the quiz by pasting the following code to your site:

<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

You can learn some new vocabulary at our new site https://engames.eu. Give it a try!!!

Sports vocabulary
Sports vocabulary

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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[showmyads] 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

Watch the video. Listen to the American pronunciation of the words and repeat.

Sports vocabulary – MIND MAP

In the following mind map you can see all the words and phrases clearly organised.
sports-vocabulary
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

This time all the quizzes are in HTML5 so they will play on your mobile devices.

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.

Learn Sports vocabulary

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 vocabulary

The 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 listening
Common mistakes in English II
Common mistakes in English II

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

This mind map shows the common mistakes my students make. In the first column there are the mistakes, the second column contains the corrected version and in the third one you can find a short explanation.

Common-mistakes-in-english

Learn from the mistakes others made.

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 II – QUIZ
The second game is not in HTML5. It is in flash and it plays only on your desktop. You have to download the document and open it with Acrobat Reader. It is called Hoopshoot and your task is to choose the correct sentence and then score a basket. You can choose the difficulty of this game. Good luck.

Common mistakes – share

There have been several requests from people who wanted to share the games on their website. Now you can share the quiz by pasting the following code to your site:
<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>

Verb to be in questions
Verb to be in questions

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.

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[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

Here is a simple mind map showing the way the questions are made with the verb to be. Simply swap the verb and the subject.
In the short answers you say YES/NO + the pronoun and the verb to be.

questions with the verb to be
In the following picture you can see some examples of the questions:
Questions with the verb to be examples

Questions with the verb TO BE – games

Let’s start with something really easy. Your task is to complete the questions in the same way as they are in the example above. All the games in this section are in HTML5, so they should work without any problems on your mobile devices.
[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

Common mistakes in English
Common mistakes in English

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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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.

common-mistakes-in-english

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 – Quiz

The 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.

Verb to BE in affirmative and negative sentences
Verb to BE in affirmative and negative sentences

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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[showmyads] 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

This mind map explains the usage of the verb to be. Moreover, it can serve as a worksheet. Print it out and after explaining everything, ask the students to fill in the gaps.

Verb to be mind map and worksheet

Study and fill in the gaps.

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VERB TO BE – games

The first game is in HTML5 so it should be playable on any mobile device. Your task is to complete the quiz correctly with verb to be. If you get more than 80% of your answers correct, you will get to a game called Tower defence and you can play as long as you like. However, if you do not pass the test, there will be no game.


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.

Verb to be – Quiz

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.

Prepositions with the verbs THROW and SHOUT
Prepositions with the verbs THROW and SHOUT

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

Study the following mind map:

Throw and shout with prepositions

The meaning is different depending on the prepositions.

Prepositions – games

Now that you know and understand the difference between the phrases THROW AT and THROW TO and SHOUT AT and SHOUT TO, you can practise the grammar in the following 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 🙁

Be going to for elementary students of English
Be going to for elementary students of English

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

Study the forms of Be Going To in this mind map:
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Be going to – games

Both of the games should be in HTML5 and thus you should be able to play them on your mobile phone or on a tablet too.

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.

Verbs and prepositions II
Verbs and prepositions II

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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[showmyads] 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

Have a look at the mind map and try to remember the prepositions that are connected with the verbs.
Verbs and prepositions mind map

Verbs and prepositions – games

Do you think you know the prepositions? Test your knowledge in the game called On Target. Choose the best preposition and then try to shoot the bad ducks. You can get a bonus if you shoot one of the bottles.

Prepositions game

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 Invaders
Modal verbs of deduction
Modal verbs of deduction

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

Look at the ways how you can express different degrees of certainty using various modal verbs.
Modal verbs of deduction
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

In the following quizzes you can find about 30 different sentences to practise the usage of Modal verbs for deductions. Both of the quizzes are in HTML5 and thus they should work on your mobile devices supposing they support this technology.
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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

One of my favourite grammar activities is called Pair cards.
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.

Nouns plus prepositions
Nouns plus prepositions

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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[showmyads] 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

Study the following mind map:
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Nouns and prepositions mind map

The basic nouns and prepositions.

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

The first game is called Tower defence and it is in HTML5 so you can play it on any device (provided your browser supports this technology). First you have to solve the quiz and then you have to protect your castle against the invaders. Place your defenders and then click on the coins to earn more money and strengthen your defence. There are many levels. Enjoy, but first pass the quiz 🙂


En Garde game

The second game is called En Garde. This game is not supported on most mobile devices as it is in Flash. Your task is to choose the correct answer and then hit your opponent.

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.

First news for learners of English
First news for learners of English

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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[showmyads] 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

Watch the video and complete the following mind map.
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First news mind map

Complete the mind map with the information from the video

First News – games

Once you have filled in the mind map, it is time to check your understanding in the following games. The first game is called on Target and your task is to choose the correct answer and then shoot as many BAD ducks as possible. Do not forget that you can get an interesting bonus if you shoot one of the bottles.

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.

Reported speech grammar explanation
Reported speech grammar explanation

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

Watch the video and try to understand the explanation of the rules.

Reported speech – mind map

In this mind map I try to explain the basic rules.

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 infographic - the most common backshifting

The most common changes in reported speech.

Reported speech – games

The first game is called Hoop shoot. You will see a reported sentence and your task is to choose the correct sentence in direct speech. If you succeed you will be given the chance to score a basket.
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.

Similes – learn the phrases
Similes – learn the phrases

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

You can see all the similes in one picture. Go through them and try to remember the phrases.
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similes mind map 2

Do you know these similes?

Similes – video

In the following video you can see and hear all the similes. In the first part you are asked to repeat the phrases. In the second you have to produce the phrases on your own.

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Similes – dictation

In this task you will hear the similes used in simple sentences. Listen and write the sentences. If you succeed you can play the game Angry finches. Good luck

Similes – practice

If you know all the similes print out the following mind map and complete it with the similes. You should keep the printout and use it for future reference.

Similes mind map 3

Complete this mind map with the similes you remember

 

Similes for learners of English
Similes for learners of English

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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[showmyads] 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

First study the similes in the following mind map once you know the phrases, cover the text and produce the similes looking at the pictures only.
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Similes mind map

Similes are easy to remember.

Similes – presentation

Go through the following presentation and try to remember the phrases. If you have remembered the phrases using the mind map, you can skip this exercise.

Similes – games

In the first game you should match the beginning and the end of the phrase. If you match more than 60% of the phrases correctly, you can play the game Car race. Good Luck.

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.