Art & media

Language is also a way into art: street art, pop art, songs, movies and TV series. Choose a topic and practise your English with real documents.

Harry Potter (A1-B1)

A complete course built around the Harry Potter characters, from A1 to B1.

Famous faces, school trips and gallery rules in the heart of London.

Watch, look and listen Join a school group in London's gallery of famous faces. Can you take photos? Can you touch the paintings? Watch and find out!
More portraits: The Royal Portrait Gallery Crowns, robes and curtains: learn to read the portraits of kings and queens.

Sing along with Dora and Boots, and follow the map!

A cheerful song about friendship and the first day back at school.

Watch and complete Pick the right words as you listen to the song.
Watch and type the words Ready for a challenge? Type the missing words yourself.
Vocabulary Fall, bell, fence... match the words of the song.
Flashcards (Quizlet) Review the words with flashcards and games.

A five-year-old boy lost in India finds his way home 25 years later: an incredible true story.

Watch the presentation When I was five years old... watch the trailer and find the verbs in the past.
The characters How well do you know the characters?
Who did what? Match each action with the right character.
The plot Put all the verbs of the summary into the past tense.
Story reconstruction (H5P) Put the events of the story back in order.
Simple past and past perfect When Saroo woke up, he had... rebuild the sentences.
History vs Hollywood How close is the movie to the real story?
The real Saroo (video) To finish, meet the real people behind the story.

Campbell's soup cans, silk screens and the birth of Pop Art.

Vocabulary Learn the words of art and Warhol's life, and discover what he once dreamt of being!
Biography From Pittsburgh to New York: listen to the life of Andy Warhol.
Biography: quiz Real name, first job, the Factory... how much do you remember?
Historic and artistic background Where did Pop Art come from? Listen and find out.
Historic and artistic background: quiz Why "Pop"? Why silk screens? Check that you got the big picture.
Campbell's Soup Cans 32 paintings of soup cans: listen to the story of a famous work.
Campbell's Soup Cans: quiz Did Warhol love or hate the consumer age? Test yourself.
The work, part 1 How did Warhol use commercial techniques in his paintings?
The work, part 1: quiz Dollar bills, a first show in California... follow Warhol's road to fame.
The work, part 2 When and where were the soup cans first shown?
The work, part 2: quiz What do 32 soup cans really mean? Find out if you understood.
Translations Can you say it all in English? Translate 20 sentences about Warhol, then check.
Final test Was born, had begun, has been exhibited... get the tenses right and score out of 20!

Star Trek, Zorro, Charlie's Angels... the opening stories of famous series.

Star Trek: Enterprise Captain Archer gives a speech for the creation of the Federation.
Zorro Don Diego comes home to California and finds his people terrorized.
The Six Million Dollar Man Astronaut Steve Austin is rebuilt after a terrible accident.
The Time Tunnel Two scientists lost in time, from one adventure to the next.
Charlie's Angels Three police officers become private detectives.

A powerful song against bullying.

Watch and complete Pick the right words as you listen to the song.
Watch and type the words Ready for a challenge? Type the missing words yourself.

Who is the mysterious street artist, and is graffiti art or vandalism?

Watch and complete, part 1 Why is a Banksy exhibition so unusual?
Watch and complete, part 2 One of his early works, on a wall in Bristol.
Watch and complete, part 3 Art or vandalism? The debate goes on.
Watch and type the words, part 1 Same text, but now you type the words.
Watch and type the words, part 2 Same text, but now you type the words.
Watch and type the words, part 3 Same text, but now you type the words.
Vocabulary Exhibition, stencil, to spray... learn the words of street art.
Read the article Graffiti: art or vandalism? An article from the British Council.

46 survivors of a plane crash are stranded on a mysterious island.

Jack's speech Jack tries to convince the others to live together.
Jack meets Locke Lost luggage at the airport: one lost his knives, the other lost his father's coffin!

The Boss tells a moving story about his father, before singing.

Listen first Listen to the speech once, just to get the gist.
Listen and complete Me and my dad would go at it all the time... complete the speech.

Travis tells Jane a long story about two people he used to know.

Watch and type the words A famous scene from Wim Wenders' film. 53 words to catch!
Flashcards (Quizlet) Review the key words with flashcards and games.

Secrets, lies and dinner parties on Wisteria Lane.

Episode 1: the introduction Mary Alice Young, the narrator, tells her own story.
Episode 1: Susan and Julie A mother, her daughter, and the daughter is the adult!
Episode 1: Lynette and her kids Lynette has a hard time with her children.
Episode 2: the plot What is happening to the four main characters?
Episode 2: the conclusion Mary Alice Young concludes the episode.
Episode 3: organizing a dinner party Bree is getting ready for her dinner party.
Episode 3: the dinner party Bree is hosting the dinner party. What goes wrong?
Episode 4: the tape Bree found a mysterious tape at her therapist's.
Episode 5: Lynette's kids at school Bree and Lynette talk about Lynette's children.
Episode 5: Bree and Rex Bree and her husband Rex are now separated.
Episode 6: John Rowland Gabrielle and her mother-in-law have coffee at Bree's.

Elves, hobbits and the ring that corrupts everyone who bears it.

Watch and complete Use the word list to complete the presentation of Tolkien's world.