February 2014 – English Is Crazy

Dear Teacher,

Folk music lost one of its founding fathers earlier this week when Pete Seeger passed away at the ripe old age of 94. We pay tribute to him with a worksheet based on his performance of English Is Crazy, a look at some peculiarities of the English language, based on the work of linguist Richard Lederer.

It will soon be St. Valentine’s Day, and this month’s second addition to the Downloadable Worksheets section of the Teachers’ Area of www.tuneintoenglish.com is the beautiful Make You Feel My Love, written by Bob Dylan and recorded by Adele. The phonetic activity on this worksheet was contributed by Colm Boyd, based in Barcelona. There is a link to over 25 love-themed worksheets on the homepage of the website.

On the other side of the coin, our third new worksheet is based on the desire to hold on to a relationship even when it appears to be breaking down. A Tense Review based on Just Give Me A Reason, by Pink & Nate Ruess was submitted by regular contributor Mena Bianco from Naples.

Pink’s song is a favourite in this year’s Tune Into English Roadshow – you can see students of the Liceo Scientifico Statale “Galileo Galilei”, Palermo singing it here.  Thank you to all those who have hosted the show – I look forward to meeting many more of you in the coming  months. You can read the latest comments here and see a large selection of videos and photographs on facebook.

You can sing along with the UK Top 10 Charts on the Speak Up site – updated weekly, there is a link on the Tune Home page too.
The Karaoke page of Tune Into English now features over 8,800 songs.

Remember, a 48-page worksheet based on the film Once, an Irish love story with a difference, and the 95-page e-book Notes from an ELT Consultant are available to download on the site, and that Tune Into English also works with schools in the UK and Ireland to promote study tours and teacher refresher courses there. Full details are online.

Finally, the 1st of February is St. Brigid’s Day, the other patron saint of Ireland, marking the beginning of the Celtic spring – you may enjoy making a St. Brigid’s Cross with your students.

Much love to you all for St. Valentine’s Day!

Best wishes,

Fergal Kavanagh
Tune Into English
www.tuneintoenglish.com

 

 

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