Sally Teacher
Each week at Languagelab we will review one good English practice website that may complement your English studies with us. Each review will focus on two questions.
What are the key features of the site?
How can Languagelab students benefit from this site?
This week’s English practice website is BBC Learning English
What are the key features of this site?
The BBC Learning English site is a huge site with loads of resources, so instead of looking at the whole site we shall just focus on a few key selections.
Ask about English – A selection of questions and answers about the English Language. You can browse the archives to search for questions already asked and if you can’t find an answer to your question then you can write and ask it.
Up to date English -A selection of the newest words in the English language. You can read about what they mean and where they came from. Or, if you prefer you can listen to the descriptions on downloadable audio files.
How to… – This section contains phrases and expressions which you can use for many different situations. There are over 50 units of different situations and each unit has audio, texts, quizzes and exercises to help you practice using them.
Face up to phrasals – A ‘live’ drama about the lives of four characters called Betty, Fred, Amanda and Daisy. The story line follows their lives in very short sections of dialog. Each section contains a new phrasal verb and information about its meaning and how to use it.
The Grammar Challenge – A weekly podcast which explains difficult grammatical structures as well as providing interactive quizzes and grammar tables to help you to understand and use the structures.
So how can Languagelab students benefit from using this site?
While I believe that all of the sections I have described are useful, the ones that I really think could complement your studies at Languagelab are “up to date English”, “How to…” and “face up to phrasals”.
Up to date English is an excellent resource for new vocabulary and also a great conversation topic. Why not learn some of the new words and then take them to languagelab and see if the native speakers who work there know them? These words are very new, so you might have the pleasure of knowing something that your teachers and friends don’t!
How to… is an excellent resource for all those role plays and unexpected situations that your teachers and the City People are constantly making you do. Why not have a browse through some of the topics today? Then the next time you are ‘thrown in the deep end’ you can quickly go to a rich resource of common expressions to help you talk your way through any situation.
Face up to phrasals is a fun and easy way to learn a new phrasal verb every day. It only takes a couple of minutes to listen to each part of the story. How about learning a new phrasal verb everyday and then logging in to Languagelab and making sure that you use it with everybody that you meet?
i want downloads from bbc
Interesting article. Where did you got all the information from… :)
If the site is sponsored by BBC it has got to be good. They are always producing great resources. One questions though, does the Languagelab only work for English or is it available for other languages as well. Thanks!
Excellent article, I will take notes. Many thanks for the article!
I am a huge fan of this website and I read it regularly. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for this article. Ill will return to your great blog.