Active Listening Exercises for you to try today: facts about screen time

by ellieC | Apr 20, 2023 | Active Listening | 1 comment

Listening to real English can be really tough with all the ways we change our pronunciation in real contexts.

But don’t worry – I’m here to help!

In this video I’m going to give you some facts about screen time in the United Kingdom and I’m going to ask you some questions. The answers are below the video (but don’t look until you’ve done the work!).

I’d like you to listen and then EITHER answer the questions OR transcribe the whole text.

Your questions:

Who loves screen time?
How long do around half of British adults spend binge-watching TV each day?
How long do we spend on Facebook?
How long on Instagram?
How long on Tiktok?
How long on YouTube?

Watch the video here:

Here are the answers and the full transcript:

As a nation, the UK loves screen time. About half of British adults spend between 3 and 4 hours a day binge-watching TV, about 2 hours a day on Facebook, 90 minutes on Instagram and 75 and 25 minutes on TikTok and YouTube respectively.

Even if we’re multitasking and watching more than one thing at once, that’s a lot of screens!

Who loves screen time? People of the UK
How long do around half of British adults spend binge-watching TV each day? 3-4 hours
How long do we spend on Facebook? About 2 hours a day
How long on Instagram? 90 minutes
How long on Tiktok? 75 minutes
How long on YouTube? 25 minutes

How was that? Easy? Difficult? Somewhere in between?

Let me know in the comments.

Active Listening Exercises: facts about British weather

by ellieC | April 24, 2023 | Active Listening, British Life | 0 Comments

Listening skills are so important if you want be able to easily and confidently talk to other English speakers. In this post, I want to test your listening skills and I’m going to give you some information about the British weather. It’s our favourite topic of...

Active listening exercises: number facts about United Kingdom geography

by ellieC | April 24, 2023 | Active Listening, British Life | 0 Comments

Do you find listening to real British English challenging? If you do, I’m here to help. In this post you’ll find a video with some geography facts about the United Kingdom. This video is one of many videos and transcripts you’ll find to help your listening skills....

What are the different ways to pronounce “ei” in British English?

by ellieC | April 17, 2023 | Spelling & pronunciation | 0 Comments

English is well known for its less-than helpful spelling system. There are many different ways to pronounce the same letters depending on the word they’re in. As a learner of English, you need to memorise a lot of pronunciations. In this post I want to help you with...

How to pronounce words with “OO” spelling

by ellieC | March 24, 2023 | Spelling & pronunciation | 0 Comments

English spelling is complex and often the same letters have multiple pronunciations depending on the word they’re in. In modern British English there are five – yes FIVE – ways we pronounce “OO”. There’s no logic behind why some words have one pronunciation while...

What is Galentine’s Day (and how do you pronounce it?!)

by ellieC | February 10, 2023 | British Life | 0 Comments

Galentine’s Day has only been celebrated for the last 10 years or so. It originated in America but is becoming popular in the UK too. It’s now quite a familiar term with younger people. Galentine’s Day is February 13th – the day before Valentine’s Day. It’s a day...

How to pronounce “holy” and “holly” in a British English accent

by ellieC | January 11, 2023 | Christmas pronunciation | 0 Comments

This is a pair of words that lots of learners of British English find challenging. In this post, I’m going to explain the difference for you. There is also a video at the bottom of the page so you can hear the difference. HOLY /ˈhəʊ.li/: The vowel is the first...

Accent focus: Liverpool accent with Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher

by ellieC | October 15, 2021 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Liverpool is a city in the north of England with a distinctive accent (the way words are pronounced) and dialect (the actual words that are used). The accent here is completely different from accents spoken even just a few miles away. Watch this video of footballers...

Glottal stops in real English

by ellieC | October 1, 2021 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

When I was growing up, I remember being "corrected" and told that the way I spoke was "wrong". The reason? I used glottal stops. The glottal stop is a common sound in British English and often replaces /t/ between vowels like "water" or at the end of words after a...

Five Spanish loanwords

by ellieC | August 29, 2021 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Many words in English originate from other languages but we no longer think of them as foreign words. Examples include “restaurant” (French origin), “algebra” (Arabic origin) and “bungalow” (Hindi origin). Some words though still look and feel like they are borrowed....

Accent focus: Newcastle accent with Sarah Millican