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Today I want to share a lesson that is supposed to make your students think not only about grammar and spelling but also about what makes life worth living :) This lesson works best with adult students and is suitable for intermediate level. Get the printable version by clicking HERE . Giving Thanks By Mental Subtraction – ( Article taken from Psychology Today) This strategy is called mental subtraction, and studies show that instructions to imagine the absence of a good event produce more positive emotions than the simpler strategy of just thinking about its presence. Why does mental subtraction have beneficial effects? The researchers proposed that mental subtraction works against the human tendency to adapt to the good things in our lives and to take them for granted. In support of this explanation were further findings. Research participants who did mental subtraction rated the good event in question as more surprising than those who simply thought about the good event. ...

I am back after the long Christmas break - full of energy and plans! Do you like to make New Year's resolutions? Or, even better - are you the kind of people who keep them? :) This year I've decided to become a vegeterian, and for a carnivore like me - it is a revolution :) For the moment it's going great, I'm enjoying cooking new recipes (my boyfriend is less enthousiastic:) ) and I really hope that this New Year's resolution I will keep! Today's reading is about the promises we make to ourselves with the begining of a new year and  about the failures connected with it :) As usual - the printable version has some extra warming-up speaking and vocabulary activities. To get it, click HERE . The Problems With New Year’s Resolutions A New Year’s resolution is a promise that we make to ourselves to change something in our lives for the better. The changes are supposed to start with the beginning of the New Year, which gives many people an excuse to ab...

At some point of your English adventure, you must have come across the famous CONDITIONALS. Your teachers were exaggerating how important it is to master this specific grammar point and you promised eagerly to mix the tenses correctly till the rest of your lives. Just to... never use them outside the classroom. In fact, conditionals are really useful means of expression, even if it's perfectly possible to survive a foreign holiday without them :) To help you understand how you can use conditionals in real life conversations, I have written the short text below. Try to notice the logical  differences between the three conditionals and don't hesitate to ask me questions if you still have any! For the analizers, some warm-up questions before; for the hard-workers - some vocabulary practice. Key for the lazy ones also included :) Everybody's happy? Good! Now, let's get to work! PDF version Before reading the text, discuss these questions: 1.   Is it diffic...