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.

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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 


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 




Mixed Verb Tenses
 
Worksheet  Pretty Woman
Worksheet Lady In Red
 Going to Future
 We're Gonna Be Friends Jack Johnson

 

 Adjectives
The Logical Song by Supertramp  


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



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







Worksheet Save Time in a Bottle
Worksheet  Change the World 





 Future Time Clauses 


Phrasal Verbs  
Leave Your Hat On Joe Cocker

Worksheet  Leave Your Hat On




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 


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