Tongue-twisters

Hi everyone!

Here are some tongue-twisters to practise  pronunciation. 
A tongue-twister is a sequence of words that is difficult to pronounce quickly and correctly. Even native English speakers find the tongue-twisters on this page difficult to say quickly. Try them yourself. Try to say them as fast as possible, but correctly!

Have fun!

A proper copper coffee pot.
Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran.
Long legged ladies last longer.
Mixed biscuits, mixed biscuits.
A box of biscuits, a box of mixed biscuits and a biscuit mixer!

 *

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled pepper?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, Where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?

 *

Pink lorry, yellow lorry.
Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather.
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The sixth sick Sheik's sixth sheep is sick.
[Sometimes described as the hardest tongue-twister in the English language.]

*
 Swan swam over the pond,
Swim swan swim!
Swan swam back again -
Well swum swan!
*
 Three grey geese in green fields grazing.
  *

We surely shall see the sun shine soon.

When English teachers snap!!! XD

Enjoy!

Do schools kill creativity?

Hi!

This is a very interesting TED talk given by Sir Ken Robinson. The question whether schools kill creativity or not is an exciting way to trigger debate among students, teachers and, why not, parents.

"In Sir Ken Robinson's 2006 speech at the Ted conference in California entitled ‘Do schools kill creativity’, he is critical of the current system of education in the United States. He asserts that it has for too long wrongly rewarded students for a very exclusive and limiting set of skills and for the future it will not service. He accuses the current system of ruthlessly squandering the creative potential of children. He puts forward the case that in this new era of information technology, creativity will become as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same status."

This question has travelled around the world. What do you think about it? What would you do to reverse this?

I Heard You Twice the First Time!!!

Ok. This phrase may have crossed our minds more than once during a lesson. There are times in which we are tired and we answer to our students' questions a little less effusively than usual.
Here's a book for Tired and Bewildered Teachers trying to have a break!

I Heard You Twice the First Time – Poems for Tired and Bewildered Teachers by Kalli Dakos.

 Meet the teachers who struggle with stress, failure, difficult students and a lack of time to “enjoy the joy” in their classrooms. Laugh with the teacher who is bewildered by the endless changes in her profession, and finally, meet the teacher who arrives at the Pearly Gates and asks the most important question of all:

Were my years in school
Worth all that work and time?

Join author Kalli Dakos on a poetic journey that will rest your teaching soul and inspire your career!

Here is one of the poems from the book:

Definition of Teachers

Astronauts,

Exploring

The far reaches

Of the universe

Inside of students.

Engineers,

Designing Spaceships

Strong enough

To carry children

On their journey

Through life.

Scientists,

Studying

The minds

And hopes

And dreams

Of the earth’s

Most precious resource.

For further information about the author, you can visit her website http://www.kallidakos.com/

Regards,



Vicky.

Miss Representation: You can't be what you can't see.

Hello everyone! 

This is an activity on a documentary called Miss Representation. The film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in the United States.
It is very interesting to watch this documentary with teenagers and young adults as a way to raise awareness on this topic.
Even if the documentary deals with this issue in the USA, you can create another speaking activity in which the students have to analyse the topic by discussing how women are depicted in their own countries.

 
The questions are targeted to advanced students of English. You will also find an exercise on vocabulary items and expressions mentioned in the documentary.

You can download the worksheet from here and the vocabulary exercise from here.

Enjoy!

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to Learning English in Argentina! This is a blog that is dedicated to the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language in Argentina. Here you will find interesting material for discussion in class, activities, woksheets, lesson plans and anything that comes to mind on the teaching and learning of English and the language itself.

Enjoy!