FREE RICE

This activity is fantastic because it does two very important things:

1. Helps you practice your English
2. Does good thing for poor people around the world

The website www.freerice.com works on a very interesting idea. You have to answer questions and each time you get an answer correct, the World Food Program gives ten grains of rice to projects to feed people who do not have enough food. It is a fantastic idea and is something we support totally at WSI Nice.

The activities are very simple. http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1357 They all practice vocabulary. You simply have to find a synonym to the word on the screen. There are 60 levels that start very easy and get more difficult. To choose your level you can go here: http://freerice.com/levels

There is also a grammar section http://freerice.com/#/english-grammar/1936227 in which you must choose the grammar option that is correct.

Along with practicing your English, you can also answer other questions in English. For exmaple,

• http://freerice.com/#/famous-paintings/428 art
• http://freerice.com/#/literature/716377 books

PAST CONTINOUS

Hello everyone, this is a great blof for Upper waystage students and higher. It practices the Past Continuous. To help you understand this grammar better, I have found three or four websites with good activities.

PERFECT-ENGLISH-GRAMMAR
http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-continuous-exercise-1.html
This website is quite basic and the activities are not so dynamic. But it is good to help you practice the structure of the Past Continuous. You can also download the activity as a PDF so that you can save it on your computer.

EGO4U.com
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-progressive-1
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-progressive-2
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-progressive-3
This activity is ok for practicing the structure of the grammar again. It does not help you to understand when to use it, but it does help you know how to form 

• Positive Sentences
• Negative Sentences
• Questions

The website is a bit old so the graphics and design are not so great.

ENGLISH PAGE

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs3.htm

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs4.htm

There are two good activities on English Page. they do not ehlp you practice the form, but they are great for the usgae of the grammar. You have to choose between:

• Past Continuous
• Past Simple

They are really good in helping you understand the grammar

ENGLISHGRAMMARSECRETS

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/exercise1.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/exercise2.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/exercise3.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/exercise4.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/exercise5.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastsimpleorcontinuous/exercise6.html

This is one of my favourite websites. I like it because the system is similar to WSI's system and you because your parctice the grammar in different ways. There are six great exercises here. Some are fill in the gaps, others are mix and match. they help you udnerstand the form of the grammar and the best way to use it.

IRREGULAR VERBS englishgrammarsecrets.com

In my last blog article I told you that I thought englishgrammarsecrets was a fantastic website. So, I have added a few more links here to help you practice. This time, we are looking at IRREGULAR VERBS

Exercise1
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise1.html is a good one. It is very simple. you need to choose which verbs are regular and which are irregular. 

Exercise 2 http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise2.html is to help you practice irregular verbs in the past and in the present. It is the same as some activities you see in the Speaking Centre where you drag the right answer to the correct box.

Exercise 3
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise3.html is to practice using the verbs in the right situation. You need to match the correct verbs to the right sentences. this is a good way to check you can understand the verbs in real life and to stop you trying to translate them. 

Exercise 4
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise4.html is very very simple and is anothjer exercise for comprehension. You have to fill the gaps the right words.

Exercise 5 
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise5.html is another really simple one, you just have to match the answers to each question. it is good to help you understand. It is also great to help yopu see the:

• Positive Form
• Negative Form
• Question Form

Exercise 6 
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise6.html is more complicated and difficult. You have to fill in the gaps that are in both the questions and the answers. This means you will have to know the structure and understand the context.

Exercise 7 
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/irregularverbs/exercise7.html is a simple exercise in design, but is much more difficult with grammar and vocabulary. You have to match thez questions to the answers, but the questions are longer and the vocabulary more difficult.

There is an eigth exercise that should involve audio, but it does not work very well. So, I recommend using these exercises. They are very good and you will practice irregular verbs very well.

PRESENT SIMPLE Vs CONTINUOUS englishgrammarsecrets.com

I was very excited when I found this website. I really like its design and its activities. This link is about the PRESENT SIMPLE and PRESENT CONTINUOUS so it is good for Survival and Waystage students. 

The first page: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimpleorcontinuous/menu.php is an explanation of the grammar. It is a little dry and a little boring. So, I would not recommend it so much. But, the activities to practice are really good.

EXERCISE 1 http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimpleorcontinuous/exercise1.swf
This is an activity to choose whih is the Present Simple and which is the Present Continuous. It is really simple. All you need to do is move the sences into the right box. It is justb like your multimedia exercises in the Speaking Centre. It is also really good because you can:

• See the correct answers
• Check you answers
• See a demonstration of how to do the exercise

EXERCISE 2 http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimpleorcontinuous/exercise2.swf

This is a mix and match exercise. You have to match the answers to the questions. It is also similar to the Speaking Centre activities. It is very nice because it is clear and simple to use.

EXERCISE 3 http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimpleorcontinuous/exercise3.swf

This exercise is not so exciting. You simply have to fill in the gaps. However, It is very good for practicing the two pieces of grammar.

EXERCISE 4 http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimpleorcontinuous/exercise4.swf

This exercise is great to check if you have understood the grammar completely. You need to decide if the sentences are correct or incorrect.

I really like these exercises. If you do all four it will really help you to understand the PRESENT SIMPLE and PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSES.

AUXILIARIES ego4u.com

Auxilieries are fundamental pieces of English. You cannot speak English well without them. We use them much more than you do in French. The pages selected here are great for practicing these. The first one is an explanation page: http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/auxiliary-verbs. Unfortunately, it is a bit complicated and uses lots of difficult vocabulary. So, I do not recommend it so much.

However, the practice pages are very good.
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/auxiliary-verbs/exercises?ex03
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/auxiliary-verbs/exercises?ex04
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/auxiliary-verbs/exercises?ex05
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/auxiliary-verbs/exercises?ex06

These are all really good for your practice. In all of them you have to select the correct auxiliary for each sentence. Exercises 3 and 4 are easier than 5 and 6, but none of them are too complictaed. they are great practice, though!!! The activitues are good because you can see the answers you get wrong and the website will correct the answers if you want.

AUXILIARIES IN THE PAST learnenglishfeelgood.com

Auxiliaries are some of the most important words in the English language. We use them a lot more than you do in France, so it is very important for you to practice them and be correct with them. This is an activity to help you choose the correct auxiliary to use for the past tense. It is a great activity for Waystage students: http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/english-auxiliary-verbs3.html 

The activity is good and there is good grammar practice, but the website is not so modern and so bright. However, when you have answered the questions you can check which ones are correct and which are wrong. the website will not give you the answer, but will ask you to try again.

BBC Transport Vocabulary

When you are learning English it is very important to be able to use the langauge you learn in real situations. It is great to talk about John Berry or Hugo Peters, but you cannot talk to normal English people about this. Therefore, it is important to learn vocabulary that you can use in real situations. A great example of this is for transport. This is a great exercise to practice transport vocabulary. http://wsdownload.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/pdf/2011/10/111003161006_qnet_358_transport.pdf

There are some very good examples to use all of which are very practical and useful.

BBC Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verbs are some of the most difficult things to learn in English. They are difficult to understand and difficult to predict. The best way to practice them is to use them and see them being used. This is an exercise where you pick the right Phrasal Verb for each sentence. http://wsdownload.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/pdf/2011/04/110404113132_qnet_333_phrasal_verbs.pdf

The cativity is good because it is nice and practical and you can see real examples. Unfortunatley, it is not interactive, so you just have to check the answers at the bottom of the exercise. the explanations, though, are very detailed so they are good.

PRESENT PERFECT (ENGLISH PAGE)

This is a website called English Page. It gives some good examples and some excellent practice exercises. We have added three links for you

EXPLANATION
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html This page is a little boring and the example is quite complicated. The examples are all written and there is a lot of complicated language that might be difficult for Waystage students. It is not as useful as our explanations on wsinice.blogspot.com which you can see here: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html

EXERCISES
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs5.htm and http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs6.htm. the exercises are much better than the explanations. They are great to practice and they will give you scores to show you how many you got correct and how many you got wrong. If you get an answer incorrect, the site will tell you which answer is incorrect, but it will not correct it for you. In that situation you need to think about:

1. The tense you used
2. How you conjugated the verb

INTRODUCTION

Hello Everyone

Welcome to our new blog. It is called Places to Learn. The object of this blog is to give you new places and new resources that will help you practice English. We are going to give you links to different sites to help you find the best ways to practice your grammar and vocabulary.

We hope you like it.

Thanks
Paul