Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 2 – Unit 2 – Lesson 4

February 24, 2012 Leave a comment

Adrian Underhill on Successful Pronunciation 1

February 15, 2012 Leave a comment

How I used the Love and Relationships Idioms in my lesson today

February 14, 2012 Leave a comment

I wrote twenty idioms on the board which kind of told a story of a relationship from the beginning to the end:

Method (Pre-Int to Intermediate Level):

Pre-task: Elicit: what is an idiom? i.e. A fixed phrase with a meaning that isn’t clear from the words used in the phrase.

1. SS work in pairs. They discuss together which ones they know already.

2. Group feedback.

3. SS check ones they don’t know in the dictionary or online.

4. Group feedback. Go through the list in order. Give examples. Elicit examples from SS. Check that everyone understands each idiom.

5. SS work together to prepare a dialogue or performance that includes all 20 idioms. Give them around 15 mins. Make a cup of tea for yourself; have a break; er, I mean monitor SS… Dialogues could be set in the past, with SS talking about a past relationship, or in various scenes set throughout the course of a relationship; or discussing future foreseen problems that might arise in a present relationship… etc.

6. SS read out or act their dialogues/scenes. Give feedback. Solicit feedback from other groups. Make a note of errors.

7. Error correction on the board with the whole group.

8. Homework, or follow-on activity: find 10 more idioms or phrasal verbs on the topic of Love and Relationships, and write a sentence using each one.

Note: for higher levels, you could mix up the order and get them to put them into their own order to make a story of a relationship.

It worked well and passed the time nicely for about 50 minutes. SS seemed happy to be learning (a lot) of new idioms. Do let me know how you got on, if you used this lesson plan! Thanks :)

Love and Relationships – English Idioms and Slang!

February 14, 2012 Leave a comment

New English Banana Trust Concert – “Big Sky” (31st March 2012 – Norwich Cathedral)

February 13, 2012 Leave a comment

Next English Banana Trust Fundraising Event at Norwich Cathedral on 31st March 2012

February 6, 2012 Leave a comment

English Banana Trust is Featured in the North Norfolk News (02.02.12)

February 6, 2012 Leave a comment

NEW! Free Printable English Lesson Plan – “Describing Boring Tasks”

February 3, 2012 Leave a comment

Membean for Students and Teachers (FREE VIDEO)

January 31, 2012 Leave a comment

Extend Your Vocabulary Easily with Membean.com!

January 29, 2012 Leave a comment

Membean.com...

http://membean.com

We’ve recently been trying out a brand new web service which aims to help you to extend your vocabulary. Membean is a really fun way to “lock in” new words – through a variety of methods.

We asked Membean Founder and CEO Ragav Satish to explain more about the goals of this valuable site:

“Membean is a unique web-based vocabulary learning environment that has its roots in research on human memory and learning. At Membean vocabulary comes to life through engaging video, rich imagery, interactive visualizations, quirky memory devices and unforgettable passages. Once a word is learned it must be maintained in the memory. This is where Membean’s unique Adaptive Reinforcement Engine comes in. Based on your interaction with the tool, it knows when to show you a new word, what questions to ask you and when you need to re-learn a word.” It really is fantastic! Here is an example of a word definition page, for the word “panache”:

Membean.com...

The other great thing about Membean is that it really motivates you to learn – plus it is totally addictive! You can sign up for a free membership today, and find out what we mean!

http://membean.com

 

New Free Printable English Lesson to Download Now!

January 23, 2012 Leave a comment

Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 2 – Unit 2.2: English is a Big Boiling Pot of Delicious Steaming-Hot Word Stew!

An Evening of Love Songs – Still a Few Tickets Left!

January 23, 2012 Leave a comment

There are still a few tickets left for our very special concert in aid of English Banana Trust. Check out the details below! Hope to see you there.

Tickets are available from the venue here:

http://www.greshams.com/About-Us/Auden-Theatre.aspx

Free Printable Worksheets (VIDEO)

January 4, 2012 Leave a comment

You are Invited to a Concert in Aid of English Banana Trust – 11th February 2012

December 28, 2011 Leave a comment

We invite you to a very special concert in aid of the Holt-based charity English Banana Trust. Spreading the use and understanding of the English language throughout the world… helping people to find routes out of poverty ~

‘When I Fall in Love’ – Saturday 11th February 2012 ~ 8pm (Bar opens 7.30 pm).

The Auden Theatre, Gresham’s School, Holt, UK. A selection of songs from the heart.

Soprano ~ Jayne May-Sysum

Pianist/Accompanist ~ Jonathan Wortley

A romantic programme for the ‘season of love’ including music by George Gershwin, Richard Strauss, Cole Porter and Giacomo Puccini.

Tickets £12.00

Box Office, Auden Theatre

01263 713444

email boxoffice@greshams.com

The Box Office is also open one hour before the performance.

Big Grammar Book is the Most Recommended Resource at Guardian Teacher Network!

December 28, 2011 Leave a comment

We’re delighted to announce that our free printable Big Grammar Book is now the most recommended teaching resource at the Guardian Teacher Network – out of 5,500+ free resources!

It is clear that the Big Grammar Book has wide appeal too, because it is the number one recommended resource in 5 out of 6 of the age categories:

You can download YOUR free copy of the Big Grammar Book here: Big Grammar Book – Free Download.

Visit the Guardian Teacher Network here: Guardian Teacher Network.

A Christmas Message…

December 23, 2011 Leave a comment
Categories: News, recommended Tags: ,

New FREE Downloadable English Lesson! Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 2 – Unit 2 – Lesson 1

December 22, 2011 Leave a comment

IELTS Speaking Interview Part 1 (Soo Yeon)

December 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Present Perfect Continuous – Positive

December 18, 2011 Leave a comment

English Banana Trust Presentation – Review (November 2011)

December 15, 2011 Leave a comment

NEW! Free Lesson Plan: “Time Travelling Job Swap”

December 9, 2011 Leave a comment

Quick Facts about English Banana.com (Updated December 2011)

December 4, 2011 Leave a comment

December 2, 2011 Comments off
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Read about 8 more teachers who are using English Banana.com Free Licences!

November 30, 2011 Leave a comment

We’ve just updated our Google Map which shows the location of various people who using English Banana.com material and free licences around the world. There are new teachers from Malaysia, The Philippines, India, Sudan, Pakistan, Brazil, and The USA all making use of our Free Copying Licence and Free Licence to Run Courses! Check out the newly-updated map here:

http://goo.gl/SotZJ

Here are a couple of the new posts:

If you would like to find out more about our free licences, please click here.

More than 1.6 Million English Banana.com Free English Books Downloaded since 2008!

November 29, 2011 Leave a comment

We recently had a count up and we’re excited to announce that (since April 2008) more than 1.6 million people have downloaded English Banana.com free English printable books!

English Banana.com FREE English Books...

The actual total to date is 1,615,276 , which averages out at 1,224 free downloads every day over the past 3.5 years!

This stat comes from the number of books downloaded from our pages on CNET and Scribd. Check them out and maybe you will find something useful for either teaching or learning English! This figure doesn’t include downloads from other websites where the books are hosted as well, e.g. Google Books, Guardian Teacher Network, Slideshare, and other file-sharing sites – so the total number of English Banana.com books downloaded over the past few years will be actually much higher!

The last time we did the count (about this time last year) the total figure was just over 820,000 books downloaded, which means that the number of people who have been able to benefit from our free material has more than doubled  in one year! This is really exciting for us here at English Banana.com!

The most popular free English Banana.com books – by a large margin – are Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1, and Big Grammar Book. We are absolutely thrilled to see that the material is being so widely distributed on the internet and used in many different teaching situations around the world. We love getting feedback every day from teachers and students who are benefiting from using the material. You can see some of the places where they are being used on this Google Map, and find out how people are using our free licences, which make the free material really FREE.

If you are a teacher or student who enjoys working with English Banana.com material, why not email us a picture of yourself using it in the classroom. We’d love to see it!