Michelle's independent resources for ESL Students at Vancouver Community College

This is a Canadian ESL blog for Intermediate and Advanced Students who want to learn and improve their English. Each PAGE above contains thousands of free English lessons, tutorials and practice exercises to help you learn and improve your English grammar, reading, listening, pronunciation, speaking, writing and editing. Some of the resources are Canadian. Others are from around the world.

The resources on this Canadian blog are all free, and I spend a lot of my time working on it, so please consider becoming a SUPPORTER. I appreciate all the support I get. It is the fuel that keeps me going.

Membership is FREE.

NOTE: To leave a comment, click on the word "comment" at the bottom of the page. A comment page will pop up.


Music



Listening to English songs  

Listening to music is an excellent way for you to practice English and have fun at the same time. You can focus on many different things when you listen.  You can listen for general    ideas and complete detail, specific aspects of grammar, vocabulary and different aspects of pronunciation ( stress, rhythm, intonation, linking, vowels, consonants).

Relax and Sing Along

You can also sing!  When you sing in English, you don't have an accent. This is because your whole mouth relaxes, and your tongue and face muscles can do what they need to do to make English sounds. Singing can make you forget you have an accent, and definitely helps you to improve your pronunciation and fluency skills.

If you really  work at it, it can help you to sound much more natural than you would ever believe. Trust me. It's one of the ways I became so fluent. It also helped every single homestay student who ever lived with my family and I.   

Sites with lyrics(the words) to songs  
    •  Lyrics Mode   At Lyrics Mode you can find the words to your favourite song, a summary of the story the song is telling, a video and an audio form of the song as well as a a whole section on the song meaning where people write in their opinions. Useful for reading other people's opinions and adding your own to.
     
    Lyrics Mania: Lyrics Mania, not only has the words to thousands of songs, it is also linked to several Spanish and Italian lyrics sites that provide English,Spanish and Italian words and commentaries for hundreds of artists.  
     
    Metro Lyrics  Metro Lyrics provides the words to thousands of songs. You can also find out what some of the songs mean, and get background information on your favourite artists as well as find out what is going on in the music industry in general.    
     
  • A to Z Lyrics 
  •  
  • Lyrics Wiki   
Sites to find out song meanings

   

TV Channels Specifically Devoted to Music 

Where to  Get Information on Famous Singers


 
SONGS WITH GRAMMAR POINTS  

 Grammar Point 

 Worksheets
 Simple Present
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
You Had a Bad Day 
What Makes You Beautiful One Direction   
What a Wonderful World (+ activity) 
Worksheet Wonderful Tonight  
Worksheet You Had a Bad Day  
Worksheet What Makes You Beautiful  
Present Continuous 
Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega (karoke)
I am Sailing by Rod Stewart 



Worksheet I am Sailing
Simple Past







Past Continuous 
Jealous Guy John Lennon


 Present Perfect 
We Are the Champions  Queen 
Still Haven't Met You Yet Michael Buble 
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For U2

 Present Perfect Continuous 
Waiting for a Girl Like You Foreigner  

 Past Perfect 

Used To OR Would  for Past
This Used to Be my Playground Madonna 
Those Were The Days + activities  


Mixed Verb Tenses
Pretty Woman By Roy Orbison  
Waving Flag by K'Nan ( QUIZ) 
Lady In Red by Chris de Burgh  
Thank You By Dido (activities)  
 
Worksheet  Pretty Woman
Worksheet Lady In Red
 Going to Future
 We're Gonna Be Friends Jack Johnson

 

Will Future
When I'm 64 by the Beatles  

I Will Survive 
You're Beautiful James Blunt  
I'll Be  There For You  The Rembrandts  



Worksheet for I Will Survive 
 Adjectives
The Logical Song by Supertramp  

Worksheet The Logical Song   
You're Beautiful James Blunt ( with activities)  

Adjective Clauses
Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion


First Conditional
Take a Chance on Me by Abba 
Wild World by Cat Stevens (+ activity )  


Worksheet Take a Chance on Me


Second Conditional 
**** ( quiz included with song)  


If I Could Save Time In a Bottle Jim Croce  
If I Could Change the World Eric Clapton
If I Were a Rich Man ***
If I Were A Boy Beyonce) ***
If You Were A Sailboat ***
If I Had a Million Dollars *****
If I Could Turn Back Time  Cher ***  
Hero by Julio Iglesas ***
Hurt by Christina Aguillera  
One of Us Joan Osborne  




Worksheet Save Time in a Bottle
Worksheet  Change the World 





 Future Time Clauses 
Who's Gonna Drive You Home? the Cars


Worksheet Who's Gonna Drive You Home  
Third Conditional
You Should've Said No  Taylor Swift     
Within Temptation by Bittersweet *** 
Tears and Rain James Blunt ***  


 Worksheet You Should've Said No  
Phrasal Verbs  
Leave Your Hat On Joe Cocker

Worksheet  Leave Your Hat On
Prepositions 
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds 
Octopus's Garden The Beatles 

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Worksheet 
Worksheet Octopus's Garden  

Reported Speech / Direct/Indirect Speech
 Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Elvis Presley)
Somebody Told Me The Killers 
Norwegian Wood The Beatles




SONGS TO PRACTICE PRONUNCIATION POINTS 

Leaving on a Jet Plane (activities)  - linking 
Leaving on a Jet Plane (karaoke version)
Sunshine on My Shoulders by John Denver  ( S/ SH + long vowel sounds)







International Singers of English and other languages


TOPICS and THEMES

APOLOGIZING 

 EDUCATION:  


ENVIRONMENT (listening activities included)



FRIENDSHIP


 HOPE / DON'T GIVE UP 

 HUMAN RIGHTS and WAR 


SONGS FOR DISCUSSION   


HEROES: 





LOVE: 
MONEY 





CLASSICS:Slow Songs that are easy to sing 


ABBA 
 
ABBA, a group from Sweden, is one of music's most beloved groups of all time. They have sold more albums than almost any group in the history of the music industry.                                                               
 ABBA is a particularly good group for you to sing along to for several reasons:
  • The group's first language was Swedish, NOT English. They are living proof that you can sing in  English without an accent. 
  • All of their songs make you feel good. You want to sing them again and again. This  means they are great songs to memorize so that you can sing along without having to  read as well. 
  • Memorizing songs and phrases in songs is fantastic for your vocabulary, as well as speaking and pronunciation fluency.
  • The words are very clear.  
  
Here are some of ABBA's songs to sing along to.
  




SONGS FROM GLEE

Singalong: Karaoke with song from Glee


Parts of Speech
Relax, Take it Easy ( activities)
Lemon Tree by Fools Garden ( with exercises)
Lemon Tree by Fools Garden ( video with lyrics on screen)  

I



Pronunciation and Prepositions 

Theme:
Songs of hope and encouragement about "underdogs" : people who are bullied or treated badly in school just because they are different.  




Biographies: Best Singers from Other Languages 
Asa : A Wonderful  Singer from Nigeria  


Playing  For Change: 

 Playing for Change: Change the World through Music  

  • The Playing For Change Foundation is dedicated to connecting the world through music by providing resources to musicians and their communities around the world.

    A decade ago a small group of documentary filmmakers set out with a dream to create a film rooted in the music of the streets. Not only has that dream been realized, it has blossomed into a global sensation called Playing For Change, a project including musicians of every level of renown, that has touched the lives of millions of people around the world.
    While traveling the world filming and recording musicians, the crew became intimately involved with the music and people of each community they visited. Although many of these communities had limited resources and a modest standard of living, the people in them were full of generosity, warmth, and above all they were connected to each other by a common thread: music.
    Out of these discoveries, the Playing For Change Foundation was born and made its mission to ensure that anyone with the desire to receive a music education would have the opportunity to do so. The Playing For Change Foundation is dedicated to the fundamental idea that peace and change are possible through the universal language of music


INTERVIEWS WITH SINGERS 

THE SINGER AND THE SONG: 

Halloween 

The Monster Mash Music and Lyrics
The Werewolves of London
Don`t Fear the Reaper
There`s a Light Over at he Frankenstein Place 

CHRISTMAS CAROLS AND SONGS 
I will try to post the words and some clozes (fill in the blanks) as soon as I can, but I'm going to Hawai tomorrow, so it might not be until Thursday.


 Christmas Karaoke Singalong to Some Famous Christmas Carols

Enjoy! 


Words and Lyrics to many Christmas songs
Christmas Carol Songbook  









ABBA   


.

ABBA, a group from Sweden, is one of music's most beloved groups of all time. They have sold more albums than almost any group in the history of the music industry.                                                               

 ABBA is a particularly good group for you to sing along to for several reasons:

  • The group's first language was Swedish, NOT English. They are living proof that you can sing in  English without an accent. 
  • All of their songs make you feel good. You want to sing them again and again. This  means they are great songs to memorize so that you can sing along without having to  read as well. 
  • Memorizing songs and phrases in songs is fantastic for your vocabulary, as well as speaking and pronunciation fluency.
  • The words are very clear. 


Here are some of ABBA's songs to sing along to.




Halloween 



CHRISTMAS CAROLS AND SONGS 

I will try to post the words and some clozes ( ie. fill in the blanks) as soon as I can, but I'm going to Hawai tomrrow, so it might not be until Thursday.


Enjoy! 


Felice Navidad   Jose Feliciano

O Holy Night   Celine Dion



Words and Lyrics to many Christmas songs



Flash mob dance: 


Today's Gonna Be a Good Day -

The Black Eyed Peas and thousands of Chicago kids dance their hearts out to kick off Oprah's 24th season.  Enjoy and dance along.



 





From LYRICSMODE.COM lyrics archive

Lyrics | Gotye lyrics - Somebody That I Used To Know lyrics



Lucky by Jason Mraz, by Khampeerai Kaewharn
Find this and other songs exercises in English Exercises .org
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)