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Jonathan Taylor plays guitar and sings during production of Vseki den in Bulgaria

Jonathan Taylor is EnglishClub’s “Music Man” and this article about him recently appeared on Radio Bulgaria’s website.

When I asked Jonathan Taylor, a teacher of English in Bulgaria’s Sevlievo, if he liked Bulgaria, he replied: “I love it.” The Englishman has been living in the village of Krushevo since 2011 and says this country attracted him with its beauty and tranquillity. (more…)

For 2016 ExpertEditor.com has just published their list of best websites for ESL students. The list is conveniently split up into logical sections such as:

• Grammar
• Writing
• Reading
• Speaking
• Pronunciation
• etc

With 101 entries, ExpertEditor claims that this list “will blow your mind, and of course (more…)

Akademia Music Awards

EnglishClub’s music man, Jonathan Taylor Brittunculi, won a prestigious music award this month for his 9/11 tribute, The Falling Man (If Only). Jonathan’s song was chosen as Best Folk Song December 2015 in the Akademia Awards.

Odd Jonathan, whose stage name comes from his struggles with dyslexia, was inspired by the documentary ‘Voices from the Towers’. His award-winning song is also featured as part of the artist memorial gallery of the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York. The video below was created by Jonathan’s former English students.

Visit Jonathan’s MyEnglishClub page to congratulate him on this award. You can find Jonathan’s Music for English Learners on EnglishClub or on YouTube.

All good things must come to an endSaying

2016 is a new year with new beginnings and sad to say Tara Benwell, for over seven years the mainstay at MyEnglishClub, will be moving on to pastures new as from 1st January.

Tara actually started contributing to EnglishClub way back in 2003, writing materials for the Young Learners section, English for Work and many other pages. In 2006 Tara started writing and recording Listen to News, a popular weekly news story with audio and exercises. Then in 2008 we launched MyEnglishClub as our social network. Tara was the first administrator of MyEnglishClub and has worked hard to help and support its thousands of members. Since 2008 Tara has continued adding new lessons and pages to EnglishClub and helping in the overall running of the site.

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Hip Hip Hooray! Anyone can sing Happy Birthday!

A US federal judge has ruled that Happy Birthday To You, the most recognized song in the English language, is not protected by a valid copyright. This is great news for anyone who wants to use the song in a movie, advertisement, or other commercial production. 

The publishing company Warner/Chappell has been collecting millions of dollars in royalties for use of the Happy Birthday song since 1988. This is the year Warner took over a publishing company that once claimed to have the copyright for Good Morning To You, a kindergarten song with the same tune as Happy Birthday. Good Morning To You, which has been out of copyright for years, was written by an American teacher named Patti Hill and her piano-playing sister Mildred. The judge ruled that no valid copyright for the combination of the sisters’ adapted lyrics (Happy Birthday To You) and tune exists.

This new ruling suggests that Warner/Chappell not only has no valid copyright, but that it may also have to pay back millions of dollars in royalties that it has collected over the years. Warner/Chappell will have a chance to appeal.

Some legal experts warn that this ruling doesn’t officially put the Happy Birthday song into the public domain. A valid copyright holder other than Warner/Chappel could still come forward.

Which video site do you use to watch English videos? Have you tried Daily Motion? This is an alternative to YouTube, and you can now view EnglishClub’s videos on our DM channel. All of our Music for Learning English videos are now available in a playlist. We will be adding more EnglishClub videos soon.

Follow EnglishClub on Daily Motion.

https://vimeo.com/englishclub

Do you enjoy using Vimeo to watch English videos? You can now view EnglishClub’s videos on Vimeo. All of our Music for Learning English videos are now available on Vimeo in one handy Collection. We will be adding more EnglishClub videos soon. You can contribute your own videos to Vimeo, too. See you there.

Follow EnglishClub on Vimeo.

Happy 50th Jonathan

EnglishClub’s music man Jonathan Taylor Brittunculi celebrated his upcoming 50th birthday in style at the first annual Krushevo Music Festival. Krushevo is a small village in north central Bulgaria where Jonathan lives with professional photographer Nicola Miller. Jonathan and Nicola organized the festival and invited musicians and music lovers to attend.

Several musical acts played throughout the day and into the night, including Vladimir Totev, a famous Bulgarian writer and his partner Dimi Dimitrova from the Russe Philharmonic Orchestra. Local bands Teen Dork and No Limits also hit the stage. Other acts included Mick Black and Matt Rider from England and Jamie McDonald from Ireland. Jonathan, himself, was also part of the show.

Are your students practising making predictions in English? On EnglishClub’s YouTube Channel, you will find a unique set of videos that can be used for a fun making predictions activity.

You Know What I’m Gonna Do?

EnglishClub’s video series “You Know What I’m Gonna Do?” features our Thai friend, Kid, using the informal contraction gonna. (She also asks her questions in an informal way: “You know …?” instead of “Do you know…?”). In each video Kid asks viewers what they think she is gonna do with the object that she has in her hands. (more…)

To teach is to learn twice. ~ Joseph Joubert

EnglishClub has a new reading and vocabulary resource all about Music. In this section, you will find in-depth articles and glossaries about many different music genres. If you’ve never tried using a jigsaw activity in the ELL classroom, now is a great chance to give it a try.

What is a Jigsaw Activity?

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EnglishClub’s music man Jonathan Taylor has released a new song and it’s full of phrasal verbs. Every phrasal verb in Phrasal Verbs Rock starts with the letter ‘r’.

If you’re a teacher, you can use this song to introduce phrasal verbs. Your students will see that these are really just verbs that need to be remembered in context like other English words. (more…)

Our Vocabulary Reference sections features many different types of vocabulary lists. We have a NEW section on Eponyms.

An eponym is a word that comes from a person’s name, such as boycott (from a selfish land agent) or petri dish (named after a German bacteriologist). Here are a few more eponyms that you will find in this section:  (more…)

Do you enjoy sending e-cards to your friends, family members or students? EnglishClub has holiday greeting cards that you can share along with easy English articles and quizzes.

1. Choose a Greeting Card

Find downloadable holiday/festival greeting cards to send to friends and loved ones on special occasions. (more…)

Happy New Year! Are you looking for an interesting project idea to try with your English learners this year? Why not try a Timeline project?

Here are a few examples:

• world news timeline (e.g., for a birth year or the year that just passed)
• personal timeline of my life
• personal timeline in comparison to word news
• timeline of our class or school
• timeline of a famous person or event
• prediction timeline (e.g., What might happen this year.)

Timelines can be useful for:

• practising the past tense
• summarizing information
• comparing and contrasting
• combining visual and print media
• presenting in front of an audience
• writing in chart format
• organizing information

EnglishClub’s News Archives

EnglishClub’s Listen to News resource has archives that date back to 2007. This resource can be very useful when it comes to creating timelines that relate to news and historical events. Why not have your students compare their own lives to events that happened around the world? Below is an example timeline entry for a comparison timeline between a student’s life and the world news.

In 2007, the world’s tiniest baby was released from the hospital four months after her birth. Tiny Amelia Taylor weighed 10 ounces at birth. That same year, my cousin Ellie gave birth to a baby boy. Marco weighed 9 pounds and spent only 5 hours in the hospital. What a difference!

A timeline project can also be completed online on a blog or webpage. Encourage your students to include links to the media sources they used or to articles that contain more information.

Are your classroom walls looking a little bare? EnglishClub’s NEW wall posters offer useful English vocabulary diagrams. These posters are FREE for anyone to download and print without modification. The following posters are now available.

• Parts of the head
• Parts of the body
• Parts of a car
• Parts of a car interior
• Parts of an airplane

How to download and print the posters

Go to EnglishClub’s Posters section, and decide which poster you want to print. You can download the image to any device, or print it immediately. Print as A4 (or larger A3 if your printer accepts this paper size).

Where to place the posters

Place these posters around your classroom or school:

• on a classroom wall
• in a teachers’ staff room
• in a hallway
• in a student lounge or cafeteria
• in a school office
• in a school lobby
• in a newsletter

You may also want to give this link to your students. Your students can print them at home and place them in their rooms, on a closet door, or on the fridge.

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