Geography

How well do you know the counties and countries in the U.K. or the American states?

When a handful of Brits were asked to label the states in the U.S. this was the result:

When several Americans were asked to label European countries the results were equally disastrous.

While it's true that not all Americans and Brits are totally clueless when it comes to geography; it is definitely something that we tend to forget if we haven't looked at a map since 5th grade social studies lessons.

Don't let that happen to you! Here are a few websites with interactive geography games:

England

Scotland

United States 

You don't have to limit yourself to these English-speaking countries...

The world

February Exams: What to take into account

Hi there!

The February test is just around the corner, so if you are a little bit unsure of how the exam works, here are the different aspects you should pay attention to:


1. What you should be able to do (at the end of the year): Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria

2. How we evaluate your performance: Marking Criteria

Marking Criteria

3. How the exam goes: Exam Timing and Structure

Exam Timing and Structure

Chores

Practice pronunciation here 

Practice present perfect

Video explanation of present perfect
Video explanation of yet/already

Grammar exercises
Grammar exercises 2
Grammar exercises 2

Reading

Hey everyone!

I thought I'd share some popular children's and young adult book authors with you because, as you already know, reading in English is one of the most enjoyable ways to expand your vocabulary and improve your language skills. When you started reading in Spanish, I'm sure you didn't start with Cervantes. The same goes for English! Start with adapted readers or children's books and then work your way up.

Shel Silverstein

Poems are great because you can read them in one sitting and they can even be helpful for practicing pronunciation, intonation and rhythm when speaking!

Roald Dahl

J.K. Rowling

This is probably still a bit difficult for Basic 2, but I had to include it! 

Lois Lowry

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope it's filled with family, joy, laughter and just a bit of English homework! 

If you are in the mood, check out this page where you can sing along to Christmas carols. Practice pronunciation of Christmas vocabulary here and here.

Illustrated Idioms

English can be a complex language to learn with loads of irregular verbs, idiomatic expressions and odd spelling/pronunciation rules. An English teacher in Brazil decided to make her students' lives easier by illustrating a few of the most popular idiomatic phrases in the English language. I thought you might enjoy them!

Click here to see them

Hi there!

Some people were a little bit confused about when to use "that" instead of "who" or "which". While we can of course use "that" when talking about people, animals or things, sometimes it may be better to use the relative pronouns "who" and "which". This video explains why.

Who? That? Which?

Enjoy!