Writing A Report

There's a complete lesson on writing a report here. I'm in the process of trying to make it more interactive and I'll post downloadable handouts soon...

Questions Questions Questions

In total, you wrote 22 perfect questions for me to answer. Click here for my 22 answers!



Vlad, Lurance, Beida

What is your favourite football team and why?

Are you married?

Do you have a car and, if so, which model?

Do you like movies and, if so, what is your favourite?

Do you have a dog or a cat?

What do you do for a living?

Are you happy with your job?




Kenny, Aneliya, Seonwoong

Do you like your job?

Do you have a reason for liking the number 7?

How many people do you know?

Where do you like to go at weekends?

What kind of girl do you like?

Where do you live in London?

How long have you been working at Internexus?




Elif and Feng

I can’t memorise words. What do you suggest?

What was your favourite lesson when you were a student?

Can you swim very well?

Have you been to Turkey or China?

What is your dream job?

If we gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

How old were you when you came to Internexus?

I want to be alone when I feel bad. What do you prefer – being alone or with other people?

Travel Tips

Lots of students ask me to recommend places to go in London so I thought I'd start a list. In case you want more than my biased views, The Guardian website has a really good travel section in which readers submit their own recommendations and the section on London is huge and here. You could also try looking at my former student Ana's blog and at the cool website, Gridskipper.





My top tips for the capital are as follows:




1. Hampstead Heath - walk around the Heath for hours (or days) and make sure you enjoy the views from Parliament Hill. If you're lucky you might see crazy people swimming in the lakes. At the opposite end of the Heath to Parliament Hill, it's worth stopping briefly in Kenwood House (even just the cafe). You might recognise the building from the end of Notting Hill (Julia Roberts films a period drama there).

2. Hampstead High Street - nothing amazing but some beautiful houses and pubs around the back streets. You should try...

3. crepes from the street vendor

4. watching a film in The Hampstead Everyman Cinema. There are “love seats” for couples to sit in…or you can pay extra to sit in a VIP area with comfy sofas and a bar.

5. Primrose Hill - a lovely quiet pocket of green hills and famous people...if you walk down Primrose Hill high street you'll see some lovely little shops and you might even bump into Jude Law.

6. Highgate Cemetery - sounds a bit morbid, but there are quite a few important dead people there. Famous as the home of Karl Marx's grave.

7.Take a boat trip down the Thames. You can get a commentary to point out the most important buildings. The London Eye is worth going on too, but it’s a good idea to book in advance to avoid the queues. Personally, I like just walking near the river – from Big Ben to The Tate Modern takes a long time but on a nice day it’s a glorious walk and you get some lovely views. At the Tate Modern there a re some nice cafes with great views. If you don’t mind spending a little extra you can eat good food on the 7th Floor Restaurant, which in my opinion, is one of the coolest locations in London.

English Politeness : A Pronunciation Exercise

This is story is supposed to be an amusing example of how polite the English are. You can have read it and go through some simple sound-chunking pronunciation tasks here, or you can download the handout here.

If you think you know about British manners, try finishing the following sentences:

1. The British think that they are…
2. It is well-known that British people like…
3. In Britain, queues are…
4. It’s very important for the average English person not to…
5. The English are terrified by…
6. If you try to kiss a typical English person, they will…

As a language exercise, you can try to re-write your sentences using the following opening phrases:

1. The British love to think of themselves as…
2. Everyone knows how fond they are of...
3. Another sign of our good breeding is…
4. The average English person would rather die than…
5. The English find touching and other shows of friendship...
6. Try kissing the average English person and they will…

I'd be very happy to read any suggestions, and you can also adapt these sentences to talk about manners in your own culture. Some lovely examples can be found here.

Writing Complex Sentences

There's a short exercise in using relative clauses to creat complex sentences if you click here. Alternatively you can download the class handout here. A simplified option is this:

Hopefully, none of these statements should be true for you:

- I hate people
- I never eat food
- I can’t stand films
- I never go to places

So, can you extend the sentences to make them true for you.


Did you use any of these devices?

I hate people who…
I never eat food which…
I can’t stand films in which…
I never go to places where…


For more practice, try to extend each expression using all the alternative devices listed below:


I hate people who…with whom…because…

I never eat food with…when…from…containing…made…

I can’t stand films starring…made…featuring…

I never go to places which…in which…from which…

Suck It And See : Lexical Sets

The point of this exercise it to recognise that any vocabulary you find in any article belongs to a lexical set (a vocabulary topic). If you know which lexical sets you can find in an article, you should be able to guess the general meaning of unknown vocabulary more easily. Paying attention to lexical sets should also help you to use vocabulary more accurately.

Here, I've divided a newspaper article into different lexical sets. All you have to do is decide what each lexical set is. The class handout can be downloaded here.

CV Writing : Step One

Today we looked at some language for making yourself sound dynamic on a CV.

First we considered a list skills and qualities featured in a textbook called Business Builder. The first task was for students to identify which skills and qualities they have and then to prove it by referring to examples of achievements in their work experience, education, and personal life.

We then looked at the language they used to express them and worked on ways of making it more dynamic. We also used this vocabulary exercise to identify accurate and effective collocations to talk about work experience. A Word file can be downloaded here.