Repeat After Us: tongue twisters online!

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Can you say this tongue twister very quickly?
Mmmmm....I guess you might have to practice a little, no?
Well, this site is perfect for it!
RepeatAfterUs is an award-winning online library with the best collection of copyright-free English texts and scripted recordings.
The free audio clips provide an excellent resource for students and literature lovers of all ages.
Genres include:

• Poetry,
• Drama,
• Children's Stories,
• Prose Fiction,
• Nursery Rhymes and Tongue Twister,
• Prose Non-Fiction,
• Memorable Quotes,
• In Your Own Words

Another cartoon updated weekly!

Humour (to understand it or to be humourous) in another language is the hardest thing of all...So, have fun with these daily or weekly cartoons. Happy learning!

Play the Hangman!

The Hangman: It's an easy game which everyone knows. What has been done here is that it has been set up with over 180 words which are commonly misspelled. See whether you can find them. Good luck! Click HERE to play

Download the Irregular Verbs Hangman Game

. Please Read This Carefully First

1. This game will only work with the Windows operating system.
2. The game is downloaded as a ZIP file. If you have a version of Windows prior to Windows XP, you will need to have a special utility (such as Winzip) to unzip this file.
3. No technical support whatsoever will be provided for this game. If you don't understand how to do something, please go to a website (such as www.newbieclub.com) which is a specialist in teaching people how to use their computers.
4. This program is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. You download and play this game entirely at your own risk.

. About The Game

* This Hangman Game will give you fun practice of the main Irregular Verbs.
* In order to use the game, you have to download it to your computer.
* You can do this by clicking on this link and choosing 'save'.
* Clicking this link means that you have read, understood and agreed with all the terms and conditions on this page.
* Once you have downloaded it, you need to unzip the game.
* Find the icon for the game in the directory to which you unzipped the game.
* Click on the icon and start playing.
* Have fun while you are learning!

Major U.K. Newspapers

Reading English newspapers is one of the best ways to learn modern current English. Check out some of the most well know U.K. Newspapers available on-line:
- The Cambridge Evening News
- The Daily Record (Glasgow)
- Guardian Unlimited
- The Huddersfield Daily
- Examiner
- Independent Digital
- The Observer
- The Telegraph
- The Times

Anything you need to know, anytime, anywhere.

Concise information in one click

Search Dictionary/Thesaurus/the Web with Dictionary.com

Search: Dictionary.comThesaurus.comthe Web for

OneLook Dictionary

Enter word or phrase:

English-French Dictionary

WordReference.com is an excellent FREE on-line dictionary that does French-English and English-French translation of words. Additionally it gives examples and expressions in both languages. Try it out now: English-French Dictionary

Basic-English-Check on-line

This is a Basic-English-Check. Choose the correct answer from 25 multiple choice questions and press the OK-button.Click HERE

Cambridge Online Activities and Worksheets

If you want to put your knowledge of English to the test, then why not try the
excellent Cambridge online activities, or download their worksheets?

Most of these activities above require Shockwave to be installed, which may take
a few minutes if you have not installed it before. The idioms activity requires
you to be using version 4 or above of Netscape or Internet Explorer. The Shockwave
player can be downloaded from Macromedia
download site. The worksheets are in PDF format. To view them, you will need
Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free at the Adobe
Reader site.

1. Verb Patterns
2. CLD worksheet (PDF, 399KB)
3. Crossword
4. Irregular Verbs
5. Food Preparation Game
6. Phrasal Verb Dispenser
7. Phrasal verbs worksheet (PDF, 198KB)
8. Idiom Definitions
9. Idioms worksheet (PDF, 243KB)

Daily Business Cartoon by Ted Goff

Reach me on Skype for a Video-chat!

Do you have a web-cam? An ADSL connection?
Well, why don't you join me for a video-chat in English?
All you need to do is to download Skype 2.0, a FREE application that takes only seconds to install.
Then look for me: my user name is pierregeslin.
When you connect to Skype you will be able to see whether I am online or not.
If I am, buzz me and we'll have a chat.
In english, of course.
It's that simple!

Introduction soundbite: the start of an audio blog...

When you click on this audio file (.mp3 format) it will open with your default sound application (QuickTime, Real Player, Media Player) and you will be able to listen to it again and again, at your own convenience.

Learning English with the BBC World Service

NEWS ENGLISH Vocabulary from the news

WATCH & LISTEN Music, pictures, stories

NEWS ENGLISH is a selection of news stories you can listen to whilst reading the transcript as well. The most difficult words and expressions are conveniently explained in other terms, in english. The pages also offer a series of links to more detailed content, including video broadcast links of BBC NEWS coverage of the same topics.

WATCH & LISTEN is an entertainment related feature using multimedia technology to present Music and Show Business articles but also tips about pronunciation, audio and video exercises including vocabulary explanations, etc. See in particular the WEEKENDER a collection of magazine like articles with audio reports, transcripts and links to quizzes, etc.

BBC World Service helps you Learn English Online

The site is intended to help you improve your learning of the English language. Throughout the site you will find short courses, quizzes, grammar, vocabulary, audio and video that will help you to improve your English. Of course, the BBC is not able to offer personalised tuition...But what is there is nothing short of amazing!
Over the next few days I will come back to this blog with details of what the BBC World Service offers on its site: there is so much there that it can be a little mindbogling. I will try to offer you a road map to the site and to point out the most interesting and valuable content and interactive tools.

Bravenet Daily Cartoon

a2zWordFinder.com

a2zWordFinder.com is a free online dictionary for crosswords, Scrabble dictionary, Literati helper, Jumble solver, WordOx helper, anagram generator, and vocabulary utility for quickly finding words while you're solving word puzzles and games of all kinds as well as educational lessons. Just click on the specialised areas to perform a lookup you're interested in. Quick example searches can be performed using the 'Find Words' buttons below each main area link.

Learn New Scrabble Words

Play against your PC. Get word tips from Official Scrabble Dictionary.
The World's Best Loved Word Game is now the ultimate interactive word game! The game play's the way you've always known it, but now stunning graphics, multiple difficulty levels, pop-up menus and more come to vivid life on your desktop. It's everything you love about Scrabble in one easy download. A whole new level of fun!

Word Web Pro : FREE English dictionary, thesaurus and word finder

NEW: WordWeb Pro 4
Thousands of new words, full text search, powerful word finding, and more.

WordWeb Pro is a quick and powerful international English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It can be used to lookup words from almost any Windows program, showing definitions, synonyms and related words. There are also many proper nouns and usage examples. You can search for words matching a pattern, find and solve anagrams, and optionally search a large number of extra word lists.

Unlike any paper dictionary or thesaurus WordWeb is truly a Word Web - each set of synonyms is linked to other related sets. Lookup "tree", click on the "Types" tab and you'll have a list of different types of tree. Click on "Part of" and WordWeb will tell you that a tree can be part of a "forest" or "wood".

Unlike any online dictionary, WordWeb allows you to dynamically filter words to find what you want. For example clicking on a sense number shows only synonyms and related words for that word sense. Clicking on the "Noun" button filters the synonyms to show you only noun senses, and double clicking on any word takes you immediately to its definition. It will also suggest the correct form for many common misspellings.

Features

The fast easy-to-use program lets you:

• Look up words in almost any program, including MS Word
• Edit and add to the database
• Find words matching a pattern
• Solve and find anagrams
• Copy results to the clipboard
• Cross-reference to other installed dictionaries and web search engines
• Search for words in a large number of optional extra word lists
• Add your own custom glossaries
• Configure for American, British, Canadian, Australian or Asian English
• Option to hide (default) or flag vulgar and offensive related words
• NEW: Reverse definition (full text) search

The extensive up-to-date dictionary database features:

• Definitions and synonyms, including many compounds and proper nouns
• Word relations: find antonyms, parts or types, less specific words, etc.
• Over 124 000 synonym sets and 156 000 root words
• Search over 240 000 words, compounds and derived forms
• 70 000+ pronunciations, with pop-up hint pronunciation key
• 49 000 usage examples
• View alphabetically nearest words, suggestions for many misspellings

WordWeb Pro runs under Windows NT/95/98/2000/Me/XP. Sorry, there is no Mac, Palm or Pocket PC version. You do not need to be online to use WordWeb.

Get the FREE Version

WordWeb is a cut-down version of the WordWeb Pro that is free for personal use. It includes a comprehensive English thesaurus and dictionary, and can be used to look up words from within most programs. Features of the free version include:

Definitions and synonyms Proper nouns Related words Pronunciations

140 000 root words 115 000 synonym sets Look up words in almost any program

Millions of people from all over the world use this top-rated software.

---

WordWeb 4.0 for Windows 95/98/2000/NT/Me/XP
No SpyWare. No AdWare. No viruses. Works offline.
Free for personal non-commercial use.

Get the FREE download
Download from TUCOWS. Download manager? Click here

Get into the loop!

Learn English viewing some fancy cartoons on your desktop!



FilmLoop is free software that displays photos in moving "Loops" on your desktop.

No login or URL required. Watch Loops made by other people, or create your own and invite everyone you know into your Loop.
Let your friends add their photos to your Loop, and you all see updates instantly — now you're all Looping!

Why global English may mean the end of English as a foreign language

English Next (2006)
By David Graddol

English Next was commissioned by the British Council and written by researcher David Graddol – a British applied linguist, well known as a writer, broadcaster, researcher and consultant on issues relating to global English.

The report draws attention to the extraordinary speed of change to issues affecting English identified in the 1997 publication: The Future of English?

The new report argues that we are already in a very new kind of environment and a new phase in the global development of English. What are the new rules and who will be the winners and who will be the losers? In this new study David Graddol suggests some of the answers by analysing demographic and economic trends in the Twenty First Century which affect Global English and the language policies worldwide and will influence its future.

Read English Next (1.89MB - PDF) and find out why global English may mean the end of English as a foreign language

Daily English Cartoon by Dan - Changed daily!

Bookmark this page for a new cartoon everyday!

RSS Link to this Blog!

Would you like to keep in touch with this Blog? >Simply copy the RSS link here ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/EnglishCircle ) and add it to your Google home page for example and you will receive the latest news as they are published.

Learning English Online

LearnEnglish is a free site that helps learners and teachers of English. LearnEnglish comes to you from the British Council, the United Kingdom's international organisation for educational and cultural relations.
Find out more...

Global Language for the Global Village

You don't learn English as a second ("foreign") language anymore...
You learn English because it's THE Global Language.
The language for the Global Village.
Give the world a single language.
Give it also the means to communicate its thoughts instantly (the Internet, the Web, this Blog, etc;).
And maybe, just maybe, we'll have a chance to start understanding each other better.