This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!
📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, and more:
Article from BBC FUTURE: Five myths about heatwaves, by Claudia Hammond. What you should
– and shouldn’t – do in a heatwave.
As summer temperatures climb, keeping cool becomes a
priority. But what age-old tips are worth sticking to? BBC Future takes a look.
With heatwaves
everywhere from Japan to the UK, and Algeria to California, everyone has plenty
of tips on how to keep cool. But which tips and facts stand up to scientific
scrutiny? We look at the evidence for whether you should do the following 5 things
or not. (Continue reading)
Article from BBC CAPITAL: Does ‘mindfulness’ kill motivation? By Jessica Brown. Companies are investing huge sums in mindfulness programmes
for employees, but could these be having unintended results?
Meditation
has long shed its Buddhist roots to become a secular answer to all of our ills
in the West, with numerous studies finding benefits like reduced stress and
better concentration.
Some of the
world’s biggest firms, including Google and Nike, have embraced the
practice, using meditation programmes as a way of tackling stress, staff
turnover and absenteeism.
Meditation is also
used as a tool to motivate workers, partly thanks to research on
the relationship between wellbeing and productivity. But a new study suggests
that mindfulness meditation, a popular type of meditation that practises being
aware in the present, may not be the best way to increase your motivation at
work. (Continue reading)
🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:
LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
USING ZERO ARTICLES (2:05 MINUTES)
- 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now (3:15 minutes)
- Where Does Compassion Really Come From? (2:43 minutes)
- What Does Your Bedroom Reveal About Your Personality? | Psych2Go (4:25 minutes)
- British and American English Pronunciation - Stop Saying (4:03 minutes)
- Why Plastic Straws Suck (4:37 minutes)
- The incredible history of China's terracotta warriors - Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen (4:31 minutes)
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
10 Things That Will SHOCK You About London, England (9:06
minutes)
- The Ultimate Test of Your Social Skills (5:29 minutes)
- Networking - 48 - English at Work gets you the contacts (5:51 minutes)
- SAMPLE ENGLISH SPEAKING TEST: Living in a city or the country (7:53 minutes)
- The art of the metaphor - Jane Hirshfield (5:38 minutes)
- What If We Have A Nuclear War? (5:01 minutes)
- Cherophobia: Why We Are Afraid of Being Happy (6:38 minutes)
A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
RSA
ANIMATE: The Empathic Civilisation (10:39 minutes)
- Speak English CONFIDENTLY | 8 Expert Tips | PART ONE (12:41 minutes) + Speak English CONFIDENTLY | 8 expert Tips | PART TWO (9:45 minutes)
💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
- Commonly confused words in English 2
- Quiz: Plurals
- Enquiry and Inquiry (The Difference) (Brief explanation + top tips + short test! ⇒ See also Commonly Confused Words)
- Assure, Ensure, or Insure? (Brief explanation + top tips + short test! ⇒ See also Commonly Confused Words)
- Good or Well? (Brief and clear explanation + quick interactive test! ⇒ See also GOOD or WELL)
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:
- ARTICLE or NO ARTICLE? 3
- ARTICLE or NO ARTICLE? 4
- Articles with idioms 3
- Reported Speech (Mixed tenses) 1
- Quiz: Adjective + Preposition
- Adjectives + prepositions 1 (Choose the best preposition to use in each of the sentences.)
- Quiz: Conjunctions
- REFLEXIVE pronoun or OBJECT pronoun? 1
- Phrasal Verbs with the verb LOOK – Exercise
MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!