Welcome to the Britlish Library.

Just for Laughs 1

English humour can be difficult for non-native English speakers. This is why simple English jokes are a very good way of teaching vocabulary, and why I’ve chosen 7 short British English jokes for this lesson. These 7 English jokes will help you understand English humour and improve your vocabulary. They will also show you how British English humour depends on word play, puns, and pronunciation, as well as the multiple meanings of some English words. There are exercises to go with each joke which will help you to really understand there the humour comes from. By mastering English humour, you will be developing your English skills in an enjoyable and memorable way. 

CPE Reading and Use of English Activator 1

The Cambridge Proficiency Exam (CPE) reading and use of English is a set of 7 questions from the full CPE exam for which students are given 90 minutes to complete the exam. I have created an example exam using the same format as in the CPE and you can do a full, reading and use of English exam timed for 90 minutes to help you get used to planning your time wisely in the actual exam. You can also do parts 1-4, part 5, part 6, and part 7, separately as untimed tests if you just want to practice the exam technique. Each of the tests in this activator will give you immediate feedback on your score and show you where you might have made mistakes. There are 53 questions in total in the Reading and Use of English part of the CPE and you can score a maximum of 72 points. These tests reflect the official Cambridge scoring system.

Romeo and Juliet - Short Version

This short version of the classic Shakespeare play will teach you the basics of the plot. It will also teach you some useful vocabulary such as, banish, break up, bring forward, bump into, cheesed off, chemist, cousin, dagger. duel, fall in love, feuding, friar, gatecrash, get along, get own back, get together, grieve, hatch a plan, hot-headed, in secret, look forward to, love at first sight, mourn for, newlywed, nobleman, nurse, pad, poison, potion, shenanigans, spend the night, squabble, tomb, top, untimely, and wet lettuce.

Flowers of the Grass

A short lesson using a video I made of a beautiful haiku poem some years ago. The lesson will help you to learn, remember, and use some vocabulary and expressions in English. I hope you enjoy both the poem and the lesson, as well as the video, as much as I enjoyed making them for you.

Huge - Hard to Say

The word huge is a hard word to spell and to pronounce. In this lesson I’ll tell you what huge means, show you how to pronounce it with a standard British English accent, and give you some examples of its use. I’ll also look at other vocabulary of size adjectives such as colossal, diddy, diminutive, enormous, gigantic, ginormous, huge, immense, large, lilliputian, mammoth, massive, mega, microscopic, mini, minute, petite, prodigious, puny, teeny, tiddly, tiny, titanic, and vast. You can also practice your knowledge of the IPA symbols and pronunciation with some IPA transcriptions of these size adjectives.

Conversation Simulations

Conversation or dialogue simulations use the latest technology to bring you as close an experience as you can get to an actual English conversation. By imitating real world conversations, you can practice your communication skills on any device and receive instant feedback on your mistakes and your accuracy. The conversation simulators also give you the chance to look at specific areas of English where you might be having problems.

Writing

One of the four core skills of language is writing. The other three are reading, listening, and speaking. Because, like speaking, writing is a productive skill, it is not quite so easy to teach remotely as it is to teach in one-to-one classes online. Nevertheless, I have attempted in these lessons to provide you with a means to practice some writing, and provide some feedback through the interactive component.

Idioms

Once I realised that idioms were incredibly problematic for my students, I set about gathering as many idioms as I could and making videos about them for my YouTube channels. I am determined to make idioms as accessible for all students as any other part of the English language. Reading and memorising lists of vocabulary is not the most productive, interesting, or useful exercise in English language learning. I wanted to create a series of lessons in the form of Activation Packs that would encourage the reader to not only learn and remember the idioms, but also to have fun with them, as having fun is a great aid to learning and remembering. It is important that you know as many idioms as possible as native English speakers use them with alarming regularity. I hope that as you work your way through the Idiom Activation Packs you will make some of the idioms your own and use them regularly like a native.

Humour

These English Lessons are built around English jokes. The jokes may be old or new; they may be very funny or just amusing. The language of the joke is explored and you will begin to understand a very important aspect of the English language - humour. Many students of English, be they students of English as a second language or of English as a foreign language, find it very difficult to "get" English jokes. British humour has a strong satirical element aimed at showing the absurdity of everyday life. A lot of English humour depends on cultural knowledge and the themes commonly include the British class system, wit, innuendo, to boost subjects and puns, self-deprecation, sarcasm, and insults. As well as this, English humour is often delivered in a deadpan way or is considered by many to be insensitive. A particular aspect of British English humour is the humour of the macabre, were topics that are usually treated seriously are treated in a very humorous or satirical way.

English in Use

The lessons categorised as English in Use look at the way we use English in everyday life. The lessons cover the actual use of English and examine grammar, punctuation, and functionality of the language. For any student studying English as a second language or English as a foreign language, English in Use lessons are particularly useful for improving speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills. These lessons will help you to develop your confidence in using different types of text such as fiction, newspapers and magazines, as well as learning to speak and write about things such as the weather and travel, as well as preparing you for typical situations such as ordering in a restaurant or buying a train ticket.