Games to help students learn English.
Recently one of my readers asked me to write a post on USED TO, GET USED TO and BE USED TO. He wanted a clear infographic and some exercises to practise the grammar. So I did exactly that. I created an infographic, an online quiz and a simple worksheet to help you learn these phrases.
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Infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] The following infographic tries to explain the difference and usage of these phrases:
Phrases BE USED TO and GET USED TO are followed by the gerund (-ing form) while USED TO is followed by an infinitive. BE USED TO and GET USED TO mean to be/get accustomed to. BE USED TO describes a state and GET USED TO describes a change in state.
USED TO is used to speak about repeated actions or states in the past which usually are not true any more.
[su_spacer][su_heading]QUIZ
[/su_heading][su_spacer] To practise the grammar, try the following online quiz. Choose the correct answers and click them. Then you can see how well you understand the grammar.You can share your results on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
If you prefer using a paper worksheet, here is one which you can use.
In the first activity, your students should read the sentences and tick the ones that are grammatically correct. In the second exercise, students should fill in the verbs in the correct form.
You can download the pdf file with the worksheet here:
I hope you find these materials useful and that you will use them in your classes. If you are looking only for some materials to teach only USED TO for past actions, you can try our post on this grammar here. Moreover, you can find more activities to practise the grammar in our post USED TO additional grammar activities here.
I can see what you think. Irregular verbs again? You must be joking!!!
I know. I have already published many posts on irregular verbs. For example:
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But let´s be honest. None of them proved to be the miracle solution which would make my students learn all the verbs.
In fact, after all those years of teaching, I have come to a conclusion that there is just one way to ensure that students learn something. They have to LEARN it. I, as a teacher, can motivate, explain and navigate, but only the students can learn.
And that is why I decided to write this post. Here, I would like to share with you a simple vocabulary trainer which will help your students learn the past tense of 50 irregular verbs in English. If they learn these fifty (in fact there are 52, but fifty sounds so much better 🙂 ) they will understand 87% of all occurrences of all irregular verbs in English.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Needs analysis
[/su_heading][su_spacer]To know the irregular verbs, students need to learn the following. They need to memorize the meaning of the verb, the infinitive and the past tense of each verb. The easiest and quickest known way to do this are word lists and flashcards. If you doubt my words, have a look at anything written by Paul Nation.
However, as we live in the twenty-first century, paper is not something that our student would be fond of. Especially teenagers seem to be allergic to it. But they never fail to have their mobile on them. Thus, if we could get into their mobiles, they might start learning.
Thinking along these lines I decided to make a mobile app that would work a bit like the flashcards, and which would provide the meaning, the infinitive and the past tense of the verb. Moreover, if the students finish the game, they will meet each verb between six and eighteen times which should ensure they remember them.
You can see the app below:
And you can download the app here:
[su_button url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fifty.irregular.verbs” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Learn 50 irregular verbs – App store[/su_button]
[su_button url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fifty.irregularverbs.italian” target=”blank” background=”#f56aaa” size=”6″]Irregular verbs past tense – Italian version[/su_button]
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Irregular Verbs – Invitation to collaborate
[/su_heading][su_spacer] As you can see, the application is perfect for Czech students but not of much use for anyone else. That is why I would like to ask you for help. Could you translate the past tense of the 50 irregular verbs and send them to me? If you do, I will publish the app place a link here and your students will be able to use this app too.The app will be free and there will be a web version too.
You can download the word file here.
Please, send the resulting file to my email rotreklzdenek@gmail.com. Thanks.
Reported speech is often considered very difficult. Students fear the backshifting of the tenses, because they often do not know the tenses very well. If they struggle with the formation of the past tense, you cannot expect them to recognize it and backshift it to the past perfect tense. To avoid all this hassle I came up with a simple system to help students with the backshifting in reported speech.
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In this system students do not worry about the names of the tenses. They just learn a few key words and their reported counterparts, and then they are able to form the reported speech correctly.
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In this post you will find an infographic and several exercises to practise the rules outlined here.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer]The following infographic shows the most frequent backshifting changes in reported speech.
If students see the word IS in direct speech, they should use WAS in the reported speech. Similarly, if they see COULD in the reported speech, they know that CAN is in the direct speech.
Remember to inform the students that reported speech is used after phrases like SHE SAID, HE TOLD ME, THEY INFORMED ME, etc. In other words, after the past tense of a verb that means to give information.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Exercises
[/su_heading][su_spacer] In this part there is a worksheet for your students to use to practise the grammar.
You can print the worksheet with the exercises here.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Reported-speech-worksheet.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”9″]Reported speech worksheet [/su_button]In the first exercise, students should write the verb that will appear in reported speech.
In the second exercise, students complete the sentences with the correct options. All the sentences in this exercise are examples of reported speech.
In the third exercise, students should transform the sentences from exercise 2 into direct speech.
In the last exercise, students transform the direct speech into reported speech.
Keywords are the easiest way for students to know which present tense they should use. If the students know them, they are more likely to choose correctly which present tense they should use in the given sentence. Moreover, once they remember and understand the keywords, they might be able to form the underlining grammar concept in their brains.
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In this post, I offer the following:
[su_column size=”1/3″]A simple infographic 
,[/su_column] [su_column size=”1/3″] a set of exercises 
[/su_column][su_column size=”1/4″]pedagogical tips.[/su_column]
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Keywords – infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Display or print the following infographic for your students.
Explain, that the easiest way to use the correct tense is to look for keywords. Once they find any of the words in the boxes, they choose the correct tense – present simple or continuous.
Mention that the colours show where the word usually goes in the sentence. Words in light blue squares come at the beginning of a sentence. Light green words come after the subject and the words in the dark blue squares come at the end of a sentence. This of course isn´t true in 100% of cases. Sometimes the words can appear in a different position.
You can print the full size image here:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/present-tenses-keywords-web.jpg” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”7″]Keywords infographic [/su_button][su_spacer][su_heading]
Exercises
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Print the following exercises to practise the grammar and concept:
You can print the pdf file here.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PRESENT-TENSES-KEYWORDS-worksheet.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”7″]Present tenses keywords – worksheet [/su_button] [su_spacer] Once you have finished your explanation, ask the students to do the first exercise. Students read the sentences and circle the keywords and underline the verbs. They use the red colour for the present continuous tense and blue for the present simple.In the second exercise, students complete the sentences with the keywords.
In the third exercise, students put the verbs in the correct tense.
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Pedagogical tips
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Once you finish the exercises, I suggest that you ask the students to learn the keywords by heart. It might seem a bit harsh, but to be able to use the foreign language, you have to know the words by heart. First ask them to learn the words for the present simple tense only!!!Even though textbooks give both of the tenses the same amount of attention, in reality the present simple tense is between 5 and 20 times more frequent than the present continuous tense. Thus, if the students are not sure, they should use the present simple tense.
It is very important for students to be able to say and understand dates in English. For example if our students deal with someone about a deadline, they need to be sure what date is being talked about. In business, missing the deadline can have dire consequences. Therefore, dates are extremely important for the students to learn.
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I have already published some materials on this topic. There is a post on dates here. But as I was not really happy with my students´ progress in this area, I created several new materials and I was pleased to see how well they worked in my classes. That is why I will share them here and I hope they will be as successful in your classes as they were in mine.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Dates – months
[/su_heading][su_spacer] To be able to form dates, students have to know the months.I always start with the following song by British Council: [su_button url=”https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/time-another-year” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Time for another year – song[/su_button] [su_spacer][su_heading]
Ordinal numbers
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Another thing your students need to know before they can form the dates, are the ordinal numbers. Display the following infographic. Explain that the students have to learn the numbers 1-3 by heart. Then explain that it is enough to add the ending -th. However, they have to be careful with the spelling of the numbers in the green field. Numbers above 20 are explained in the last field.
Play the following video and ask the students to repeat the numbers.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Dates – infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Once the students know the months and the ordinal numbers, it is time to teach them how to form the dates. Display the following infographic:
Explain that in English there are two ways to say a date. You can use either the way displayed on the left, where you start from the centre and move outside. Thus the resulting date is THE ORDINAL NUMBER OF MONTH.
Or they can choose the other way of saying the date. It is depicted on the right and students start from the outside and move to the centre. The resulting phrase then is MONTH THE ORDINAL NUMBER.
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Bingo
[/su_heading][su_spacer] First, try the following dictation. Students listen and write the dates they hear. The correct results are displayed at the end of the video. If you see that your students struggle, it is a good idea to play the video twice and pause the recording after each date.I found out that Bingo is a great way to practise dates. Print the following worksheet and cut it into cards. Give each student a card. Explain the rules and set the winning combination. I usually say that the winner needs two columns. Then you call one of the students and he or she says a date from their card. Then you call another and so on.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Dates-bingo-game.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Dates bingo game[/su_button]
The schwa sound is the most frequent sound in English. It appears in nearly every word, therefore, it is of paramount importance that students can hear and produce this sound correctly. To help them I have prepared this post. You will find several exercises to help your students produce and hear the schwa sound.
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Schwa Sound – video
[/su_heading][su_spacer]At the beginning of the lesson, play the following video by BBC Learning English. The formation of the sound is explained and demonstrated here. Moreover, you can practise the sound too.
Display the following picture and explain the position of the tongue and lips. The lips are opened but not too much and the tongue is relaxed in its natural position.
Give your students a chance to produce the sound.
Schwa – listening
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Here you can find a series of exercises to tune your learners´ ears to the sound. In the first exercise, students listen and count how many schwa sounds they hear.In the second exercise, students listen and write the sentences they hear.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Schwa sound – speaking
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Print the following exercise. Students fold the paper in the middle and they underline the places where they expect the schwa sound. Then play the recording and ask the students to check their answers. In the end, the students open the worksheet and check their answers. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Schwa-sound-exercise.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Schwa sound worksheet[/su_button]The recording of the story is here:
Then ask the students to read the text aloud and check that they use the schwa sound.
I hope you find this post useful. If you would like to see more of our pronunciation posts, go to the voiceless TH sound over here.
In his latest video Fluency MC teaches comparatives and superlatives. He uses about forty different adjectives and raps them in the comparative and superlative form. The song is catchy and the grammar very important. Jason was kind enough to allow me to write some teaching materials to go with the song. In this post you will find the song, an infographic explaining the grammar, and a classroom activity.
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Fluency MC and I have already produced a lot of material together. For example, there are four posts on irregular verbs and two posts on collocations with HAVE. You can find a list of all the posts at the end of this text.
Students can get a free copy of the Fluency MC YouTube lyrics book and a free sample of his online course here: http://fluencymc.com/starter-course/ Teachers can get a free copy of the the first unit of his song and video activity book here: http://fluencymc.com/teacher-activity-book-and-media-pack/
[su_spacer][su_heading]Short Adjectives – song
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Play the song at the beginning of the lesson. You could ask your students to write all the adjectives they hear. Students write only the basic forms.Hand out the following worksheet and ask the students to check their answers. All the adjectives from the song are in the worksheet, in the order in which they are heard.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Adjectives-worksheet.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Adjectives Worksheet[/su_button] [su_spacer][su_heading]Short adjectives – infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Explain that Jason uses only the short adjectives in his songs. These adjectives have just one syllable and thus the following rules apply:
You can download the pdf file here:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Superlatives-and-comparatives-short-adjectives.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Comparatives and superlatives – pdf file[/su_button]
Explain the rules, and then ask the students to take the list of adjectives they wrote during the song and write their comparative and superlative forms. Once they finish they can check their answers using the worksheet they received at the beginning of the lesson.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Superlatives and comparatives – video
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Explain the meaning of the superlative and comparative forms. We use the comparative if we compare two things. If we compare three or more things and want to say which one comes at the top, we use the superlative.Once the students understand the meaning, play the following video. In this video, students look at the pictures and then answer the questions.
Check to see who was the best FBI agent.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Posts with Fluency MC
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Greetings are one of the topics teachers have to teach every year. They are introduced early on in every textbook and it is really nice if your students can produce some language from the very beginning. It is usually the first function students learn in English.
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Surprisingly, greetings are not easy for students. As they are usual presented in a lexical set (you can see why this is a problem here), students often confuse them and very often they stick to HELLO and forget all the others.
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Moreover, as the greetings are considered easy, there are not many teaching materials which would help us teach these greetings. That is why I created a set of activities that might help you. First, there is a simple song with all the greetings. Second, there is an infographic with all the greetings and several exercises to help your students learn the words.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Greetings – song
[/su_heading][su_spacer] I have to teach the same greetings every year. However, when I searched the internet for a song which would contain all the greetings I was out of luck. Either the songs did not contain all the necessary greetings or they were too complicated. So in the end, I decided to write the lyrics myself and mikeyshynemusic wrote the music.And you can hear the result here:
There are two things you can do with the song. You can ask your students to listen and sing along or you can ask them to listen and complete the lyrics of the song.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Greetings-song-gap-fill.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Lyrics worksheet[/su_button] [su_spacer][su_heading]Greetings – infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] In the following infographic, there are all the greetings students have to learn in this lesson.
It is a good idea to go through the greetings with your students and teach the correct pronunciation and meaning of each of the greetings.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Greetings – games
[/su_heading][su_spacer] It is time to practise the greetings and learn them. The first game is in HTML 5 and it will play on any mobile device you use. It is a simple crossword. Click on any square and at the top of the crossword there will appear a clue. Then just type your answer. You can print out the crossword too and then solve it on a paper. It is up to you: [su_button url=”http://www.envocabulary.eu/crossword/?puzzle=greetings” target=”blank” background=”#92eef5″ size=”6″]Greetings – Crossword[/su_button]The other two games are in Flash and therefore they will play just on your desktop. The first one is called Teacher invaders and you have to answer all the questions with the correct greeting and then shoot all the invaders. Good luck.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/greetings/Greetings_invaders (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#92eef5″ size=”6″]Greetings – Teacher Invaders[/su_button]The second game is called Half a minute and it is suitable for classes with an interactive whiteboard. When you start the game there will appear the jumbled greeting and students have to write it on their paper and then one of them can type it into the computer. However, you have to do this in 30 seconds. Have a good fun with it.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/greetings/Greetings_halfamin (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#92eef5″ size=”6″]Greetings – Half a minute[/su_button]
Thematic vocabulary sets are the best way to learn vocabulary. The research shows that students learn these sets much more quickly than semantic sets. Moreover, they remember the words much longer and they confuse them less. Even our poll has showed that 100% of teachers consider these sets very useful.
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These thematic sets are difficult to find. If you search the internet, you will find only a few thematic sets and none of these are suitable for teaching. That was why we started to prepare materials with thematic sets which could be taken and used for teaching. You can find our first thematic set for birthday here. And this time we offer you the BED set.
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In this post you will find an infographic with example sentences and an exercise to practise the vocabulary.
Thematic set BED – infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] All the words in the BED set were chosen in the following way. There can be only two words which are the same part of speech to minimize the possibility that students will confuse the words. Therefore, there are only two nouns, two verbs and two adjectives. These words are then organised into a mind map and their meaning is clearly illustrated.Under the mind map you can find example sentences. It might be a good idea to read the sentences with your students aloud to practise the pronunciation.
Next to the example sentences, there are the same sentences but this time the key words are replaced with a picture. Your students should read the sentences aloud and you check their answers in the first column or the mind map.
If you want to print the infographic above, download the following pdf file and print it.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/bed-mind-map.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Bed infographic pdf[/su_button]
Dictation is one of the best listening activities. To be able to write what you hear, you have to understand it and know the words. Once you can divide the stream of sounds into separate words, then you can understand it. And as dictation makes you do this, it is the best way to improve your listening skills.
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In this post there are three dictations. The first dictation is for elementary students, the second is for lower-intermediate and intermediate students and the third one is the most difficult. These exercises should be used to practice listening at home or on students mobile phones.
Moreover, each exercise is offered as an MP3 recording where each sentence is repeated three times. You can use these recordings at school for your students to practice their listening.
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Elementary
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Students can practise their listening in the following online quiz. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Dictation/Dictation simple Quiz 1 easy (Web)/” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Dictation quiz[/su_button]If you want to use the exercise at school here you can play the recording for elementary students. At the end of the exercise there are all the sentences written and your students can check their answers on IWB.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Pre-intermediate dictation
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Pre-intermediate students can practise their listening in the following online quiz. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Dictation/Dictation simple Quiz 2 (Web)/” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Dictation Quiz[/su_button]If you want to use the exercise at school here you can play the recording for Pre-intermediate students. At the end of the exercise there are all the sentences written and your students can check their answers on IWB.
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Intermediate
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Intermediate students can practise their listening in the following online quiz. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Dictation/Dictation simple Quiz 3 (Web)/” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Dictation Quiz[/su_button]If you want to use the exercise at school here you can play the recording for intermediate students. At the end of the exercise there are all the sentences written and your students can check their answers on IWB.
Irregular verbs in English are very important for students to learn. These verbs belong among the most frequent words in English and if you want to speak about your experience you cannot do without them. Therefore it is extremely important to give a lot of time to teaching and learning these verbs.
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To make the learning easier, teachers should offer interesting and fun activities. At www.engames.eu you can find a lot of activities to teach the irregular verbs. For example:
All of the activities above will make teaching and learning the irregular verbs easier.
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I have already published many activities but this time I come with something new.A board game. The game is called Catch me!(if you can). The rules are simple and the preparation time is low. The game is fun and students have to produce all the irregular verbs.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Catch me!! – resources
[/su_heading][su_spacer] To play this game, you need to print the game and the key for each group of students.
Moreover, you need the key:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/cATCH-IRREGULAR-1-KEY.docx” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Irregular verbs board game – key[/su_button]
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And you can print the game from the pdf file.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CATCH-ME-GAME.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Irregular verbs – board game[/su_button]
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Irregular verbs board game – rules
[/su_heading][su_spacer] This game is for up to five players. To play the game, each student needs a counter. Each group needs the game and a key.Each player places their counter on one of the coloured squares. If there are just two players they place their counters on the pink squares. If there are three players they place their counters on the blue squares and when there are 4 players, they place their counters on the blue squares. If there are five players, one of the players is a referee.
Students decide who will start. The last player takes the key and serves as a referee for the first move.
The player one moves counterclockwise and he/she has to say the past tense and the past participle of the verb in the square in front of him. If he or she does this correctly (the referee decides), he/she moves to this square. The player goes on like this till he/she makes a mistake. Once they make a mistake, the referee tells the player the correct answers and the player stops on the square in front of the square with the verb he/she did not know.
Player one now takes the key and player two tries to move on in the same way. Players take turns after they make a mistake.
The aim of the game is to catch the others. Once a player gets to a square someone is standing on, they catch the player and take them out of the game.
You can change the aim and say that the winner is the student who returns to the square where they started first.
Irregular verbs – other resources
[/su_heading][su_spacer] You can find more interesting activities at British Council site.And of course there is the wonderful song by my friend Jason.
In this post I would like to share 7 online quizzes to practise the present simple tense. All the quizzes are in HTML 5, so you or your students can play them on their mobile phones. Moreover, if you have a website or a wordpress site, you can easily enter these exercise there by copying the code under the quizzes.
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Present simple – affirmative
[/su_heading][su_spacer] In the first two quizzes, students can practise forming the affirmative statements in the present simple tense. In the first quiz they have to put the verb into the correct form.To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple affirmative (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Present tense affirmative[/su_button]To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple affirmative (Web)/index.html"></iframe>In the second quiz, students test their knowledge of the third person singular.
To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple affirmative third person (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Third person affirmative[/su_button]To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple affirmative third person (Web)/index.html"></iframe>[su_spacer][su_heading]Present simple – Negative sentences
[/su_heading][su_spacer] In the following quiz, students are asked to make the sentences negative.To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple negative (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Present simple negatives[/su_button]To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple negative (Web)/index.html"></iframe>[su_spacer][su_heading]Present simple – Questions
[/su_heading][su_spacer] In the following quiz, students practise forming questions in the present simple tense.To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple questions (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Questions in the present simple tense[/su_button]To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple questions (Web)/index.html"></iframe>In the fifth quiz, students can test their knowledge of the short answers in the present simple tense:
To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple questions (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Questions and short answers in the present simple tense[/su_button]To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple questions (Web)/index.html"></iframe>[su_spacer][su_heading]Present tense – Revision
[/su_heading][su_spacer] To revise everything students have learnt about the present simple tense, there are two quizzes to do this.
In the first one, students have to tick all the sentences, that are grammatically correct.[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple choose correct (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Choose the correct sentences[/su_button]
To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple choose correct (Web)/index.html"></iframe>And in the last exercise, students try to choose the correct answer for each gap.
To play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple questions and affirmative (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Present tenses revision[/su_button]To put this quiz on your website or wordpress site, just copy the following code:
<iframe width="710" height="480" src="https://engames.eu/Present simple/Quizzes/Present simple questions and affirmative (Web)/index.html"></iframe>
In this post, I would like to share the best activities I know to teach questions in the present simple tense. The aim of these fun activities is to help your students form the YES/NO questions and short answers correctly. I have used all these activities in my classes and they worked very well.
(more…)In this post, I would like to share the best activities I know to teach questions in the present simple tense. The aim of these fun activities is to help your students form the YES/NO questions and short answers correctly. I have used all these activities in my classes and they worked very well.
(more…)
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Recently I published a post on Speed Reading. The post contains a game which you can play on your computer. However, most of my students have a smart phone but no internet connection. Therefore, it is much more effective to make a mobile phone app. Students just download it and use it all the time.
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That is why I tested the speed reading game and published it as a mobile phone app. The application is free and there are no adverts inside. You can download it here .
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Speed Reading App – Instructions
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Click the Play button and choose the level you want to read. Click the level and then click Play button again. You will see a text.
Read the text as quickly as possible and then click the FINISH button.
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Read the statements (you do not have to hurry now), and decide whether the statements are true or false.
Your score is the number of words you can read per minute. Be careful, the speed goes down if you make mistakes in the comprehension questions.
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Speed Reading App – Reset
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If you want to reset the levels, it is enough to click the Setting Button at the top of the screen.
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Then click the Lock on the right side of the screen. By clicking the icon you can start from Level 1 and all your scores and Trophies will be set to 0.
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In English there are many words which have the same or very similar meaning. Words that have the similar meaning are called synonyms. In this post, I am going to present synonyms for the words DIFFICULT and HARD.
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In this post, there are two quizzes to practise the new vocabulary and an infographic explaining the meaning of the words.
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Difficult and Hard – infographic
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The words DIFFICULT and HARD have a similar meaning and you can use the word HARD instead of DIFFICULT nearly all the time (BUT you cannot use DIFFICULT instead of HARD!!!) However, in English there are many other words which are used instead of the word DIFFICULT. You can see them in the infographic below. The meaning of each word is explained and the usage is demonstrated in a sentence.
To display the image on the full screen, right-click the picture and open it in a new window. You can print the image then, too.
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DIFFICULT and HARD – Quiz
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You can test your knowledge of the vocabulary in the following two quizzes. The first quiz consists of three parts. In the first part, you should unjumble the words and type them. In the second part, you have to choose the correct definition for each word. In the third part, you have to complete the sentences with the right words. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/difficult synonyms/Difficult_hard/DIFFICULT and HARD (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Difficult and Hard – quiz[/su_button]
The first quiz serves as a way to practise the vocabulary. The second quiz is different. At the end, you will be asked to supply your name and your result will be displayed in a leaderboard.
The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, you see a definition and you have to type the correct word. In the second part, you see a sentence and you have to type the missing word. Good luck and share your results please.
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Speed reading activities are very important for learners of English. By trying to read quickly, they develop their comprehension and fluency in reading in a foreign language. Thus they improve their knowledge of English.
The problem with speed reading activities is, that they are not for elementary students of English. The texts mostly aim at advanced or intermediate students. To fill this gap, I created a speed reading application and filled it with texts for elementary learners of English.
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Speed reading – application
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Here is the speed reading application. Choose a level and read the text as quickly as possible. When you finish, click the FINISH button and then decide whether the statements are TRUE or FALSE. The final score is your speed. The speed is given in number of words per minute. Thus if you see SCORE 215, it means that your read 215 words per minute.
You can play the game on the full screen here:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Speed reading elementary/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Speed reading for elementary students[/su_button]
This is the beta version of the speed reading application. If you spot a mistake or it works badly, please leave a comment and inform us. Your comments are very important, because I would like to publish this for mobile phones and it is nearly impossible to correct the bugs then.
I hope you will find this application useful.
Share your results in the comments, so you can compare with other students of English. If you get over 200 it is very good and you will get three stars.
A few years ago Jason better known as Fluency MC, came up with a rap song and a video. In this video he teaches ten phrasal verbs. And as I like the video very much and I think it is really useful, I decided to create a post using the video.
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In this post you will find the rap song, an infographic and a game to practise and learn the phrasal verbs.
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Phrasal verbs – video
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Play the following video for your students and let them sing along.
If you want to set a task for your students to do during the video, here are two suggestions:
a) Ask your students to write down all the phrasal verbs they hear.
b) Ask your students to count the number of phrasal verbs they hear.
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Phrasal verbs with Fluency MC – infographic
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Having watched the video, it is time to learn the phrasal verbs. Display the following infographic for your students:
You can download the pdf file here:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/phrasal-verbs-with-fluency-mc.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Infographic pdf file[/su_button]
If you teach a monolingual group and you speak their language, elicit the translations of the phrasal verbs.
If you cannot translate the words, ask the students to demonstrate the meanings.
All the verbs in the video are easy to demonstrate, therefore once your students finish studying the verbs, practise them using TPT. First, say the phrasal verb in English and students have to demonstrate it. Second, demonstrate and students have to say the phrasal verb in English.
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Phrasal verbs with Fluency MC – game
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The game is called Darts Quiz Game. Your task is to type the correct answer – the appropriate phrasal verb – and then stop the dart in such a place to get as many points as possible. You can buy and edit the game here.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Phrasal verbs/darts_game/darts_game/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Phrasal verbs – darts game[/su_button]
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More posts
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Together with Fluency MC we have published quite a lot of posts already. You can see them here:
- Irregular verbs with Fluency MC
- Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 2
- Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 3
- Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4
- Phrases with GET
- Phrases with GET 2
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Yesterday I published a post in which I taught 16 phrasal verbs which belong among the 50 most frequent phrasal verbs in English. In this post I am going to introduce 10 more phrasal verb which belong into the same category.
Before you start learning anything, take the following quiz. Read the questions and choose the best option to see how many phrasal verbs you already know. If you manage to score 20 points, you can leave this page because you know all the phrasal verbs, I am going to teach here.
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Phrasal verbs – infographic
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As you are reading these words, you obviously need to learn some phrasal verbs. In this post I would love to teach the following 16 verbs. All of them belong among the 50 most frequent phrasal verbs in English. That means they are really important.
Study the verbs in the following infographic:
The verbs are organised according to the particles. First, read the infographic and then cover the definitions and try to remember the verbs and particles.
You can print the infographic here:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Phrasal-verbs-I.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Phrasal verbs I – infographic[/su_button]
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Phrasal verbs – games
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I have not produced any games for a long time, so there are two of them now:
The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct answer and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.
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To play the game on the full screen click the button below.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Phrasal verbs games/Phrasal verbs I penalty.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Penalty game – full screen[/su_button]
The second game is in Flash, too, and it will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.
To play the game on the full screen click the button below.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Phrasal verbs games/Phrasal verbs I On Target.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]On Target game – full screen[/su_button]
If you like this post, please tell your friends and share. Thank you.
Paul Nation in his book What Should Every EFL Teacher Know suggests that every language course should consist of four strands: Vocabulary development, Extensive input and output, grammar explanation and fluency development. By giving these four strands equal amount of time in EFL lessons, students will learn the foreign language.
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In this post, I will concentrate on speed reading which belongs into the fluency development. If you cannot use the language with some degree of fluency, you cannot claim (and feel) that you know the foreign language. Moreover, fluent reading is essential for successful comprehension. And to achieve it, you need to train it.
In this post, you will find a short game for elementary students of English to measure their reading speed. In the future, I plan to publish several more speed reading texts for elementary students, and a mobile phone app.
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Speed Reading
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It is important to read quickly in a foreign language because “by reading quickly, students are training themselves to process meaning chunks. Reading quickly
encourages guessing from context and ignoring unknown words.” (Paul Nation)
To practise this skill, I prepared the following game. Click the button below and start reading as quickly as you can. When you finish, click the orange button “FINISH”, and answer the comprehension questions. Answer the questions as well as you can because your score will be reduced if you make a mistake.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Speed reading fin/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Speed Reading[/su_button]
Read the text just once!!! If you do it twice or several times, your results will go up and they will not show your real reading speed and comprehension.
Please, share your results in the comments below. You do not have to sign your results, just write the number of words per minute, you have achieved.
I hope you find this activity interesting and useful. Please, let us know.