18 July 2016 / by Marjan Van Rij

Some tips for your English students during summer break

Have you already made plans for this summer? Going to the beach, the mountains or visiting family? What about your EFL or ESL students? Will they keep on studying English if they're not going abroad? It might be a good idea to give them something to do, right? Therefore I've listed here some activities to keep them busy in a easy way without you having to check any homework. So let the progress continue of your English students during summer break!
Cooking recipes

Give your students some cooking recipes in English which they can try out during summer break. Make sure that you give them everything in English: the grocery list and instructions. You can find recipes on the web with videos, with instructions (in American English or British English) or you can give them one of your own favourites. Here are two of mine: Chicken pot pie & scones. You can even take it to the next level and let your students organize an English evening in which they can play some charades, cook a lovely dinner and only speak English with eachother.
Ted Talks

A great platform for short interesting videos is Ted.com. Your students can search for any topics they like and watch a short (or longer) video about it. This website offers them full transcripts or subtitles in any language they prefer. Of course, it depends on your students which one will be best. That's why I recommend you to have a look beforehand and already select one or two videos for your students to watch. Some of my personal favourites are Why I keep speaking up & What makes a good life.
Lyrics training

A helpful tool to practise listening which English students can use on their own can be found on lyricstraining.com. Students can select the language of the songs and browse for any song they want to practise with. They're able to choose their own level (beginner, intermediate, advanced or expert) and listen to lyrics while doing a fill in the gap activity.

23

October 2012
This is the News...
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://youtu.be/aU7LYD2jNuU NEWSWEEK TO END ITS PRINT EDITION Rising costs of publishing and a fall in the number of advertisers willing to buy space in newspapers and magazines mean a move to a digital version. The number of subscribers has also HALVED from its 2001 HEYDAY of over 3 million to 1.5 million today. The transition...

23

October 2012
Molotov Cocktail for Kids
by Radmila Gurkova
Parents in Tunisia are up in arms at one of the country's most popular children's magazines. The reason for the outrage...

22

October 2012
Chinese anyone?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcGlnoTFSWI Language lessons at school used to be about learning to count in French, or ploughing through irregular verbs in German. Now it seems growing numbers of children are moving away from European languages, and choosing Arabic or Mandarin instea...

11

October 2012
Project Stratos - Record Of A Lifetime
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCqnQq86fkY Have you ever been skydiving? This story is perhaps one of the most amazing skydives that will have been attempted ever! An Austrian, 43 year old, former parachutist wants to jump from the stratosphere. This will be the fastest and highest free jump in history. He wants to jump from 36...

02

October 2012
Ryanair - Low cost, low safety?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_dQH1hNCsg Have you ever flown on a budget airline? Do you think they are safe? Have you heard any recent news about Ryanair? Ryanair is again being investigated by aviation authorities following accusations it put pressure on pilots to fly with minimal fuel to cut costs. The gov...

02

October 2012
Politicians saying sorry?!
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOHtExdrdI&feature=youtube_gdata_player A spoof video where Nick Clegg appears to sing an apology about his party's tuition fees u-turn is to be released as a single on iTunes! The British deputy prime minister has given his permission for the film to be issued by satirical website thepoke aft...

28

September 2012
Chinese factories closed amid violent anti-Japan protests
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgbSutTPqAg Major electronics firms Panasonic and Canon have temporarily suspended production at factories in China after a territorial dispute over a group of UNINHABITED s...

28

September 2012
Strikes in Madrid and Barcelona
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJS9x-HhAxI A transport STRIKE has complicated the journey to work in Madrid and Barcelona. UNIONS have made a call to travellers not to pay for their ticket in a protest against what they consider to be abusive minimum services. In Madrid the Metro and the RENFE Cercanias COMMUTER lines were affe...

20

September 2012
Are you 'normal' or 'crazy'?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgsVdiDZ_8 So, are you CRAZY or are you NORMAL? Do you crazy things? These animals are definitely pretty crazy but read on to hear about some crazy things people do... Some crazy things people do: A man in London set his home on fire by microwaving his underwear. In India a vil...

20

September 2012
Is it 'only a video' or is it an insult to Islam?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRucxuOcF9M&feature=plcp Have you heard about the protests in the Middle East because of a video called ''The innocence of the Muslim''? An American man made a film expressing his opinion on Islam, but unfortunately it was not a good opinion...The Muslim community in many countries took it as an...