Learn English with the British Council and Premier League

Speaking Skills - Changing the subject

17 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich look at words and phrases you can use to change the topic or subject of a conversation. M...

This week - Matchweek 1

14 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of football action for learners of English from across the globe. In This Week, Jack...

Understanding Grammar - Would

06 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the new Premier League season which kicks off on the 10th of August. They spea...

Learning Vocabulary: Football kits

26 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich are talking about football kits. Rich has a new Liverpool shirt, but Jack prefers an Arse...

Speaking Skills - Summarising

20 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich say goodbye to the World Cup in Russia. Jack didn't watch the World Cup Final because he ...

This Week - World Cup & Fantasy Football

17 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of football action for learners of English from across the globe. In This Week, Jack...

Learning Vocabulary: Congratulations and commiserations

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich host their fourth World Cup podcast. They give you two roleplays where you have the chanc...

Football Shout-out: After the match

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Football Shout-out: Set pieces

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Football Shout-out: Losing

02 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Understanding Grammar - Conditionals

02 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich host their third World Cup podcast. In this podcast, they are going to do two roleplays.T...

Football Shout-out: Missing Chances

27 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Learning Vocabulary: Extreme Adjectives

24 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich host their second World Cup podcast. They talk about the surprise result between Mexico a...

Football Shout-out: Shouting at players

22 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Understanding Grammar - Making Predictions about the World Cup

17 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich are talking about the World Cup and make some predictions about the matches, players and ...

Understanding Grammar - The Past Continuous

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about interruptions and roleplay a situation where the Premier League is stolen from...

Football Shout-out: The Opposition

29 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Football Shout-out: Fouls

25 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Football Shout-out: Goals

22 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Football Shout-out from Premier Skills English, where we talk about the language you need when watching a match. Whether you are a super fa...

Learning Vocabulary: Phrases with go

16 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich try to describe the offside rule and roleplay five short conversations where they use phr...

This week - Matchweek 38

14 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Which team finished where? Jack and Rich roundup the Premier League season and you can vote for your best moments. Get the full lesson here on Premie...

Understanding Grammar - a, an, or the

10 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about Indian food (Jack loves it, but Rich is not a big fan). The language focus is ...

This week - Matchweek 37

07 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Speaking Skills - Truth and lies

03 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about some strange football stories. Your task is to guess if these stories are real...

This week - Matchweek 36

30 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Understanding Grammar - Wishes and Regrets

26 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about wishes and regrets. The language focus is on the phrases if only and I wish an...

This Week - Matchweek 35

23 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - Confusing Words

19 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack is away so Rich and Jen talk about some pairs of words that are often confusing for learners. Do y...

This Week - Matchweek 34

16 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Manchester City are Premier League Champions!Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier Leag...

Learning Vocabulary: 10 phrases with take

12 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack plays a practical joke on Rich and Rich and Rich plans his revenge. The language focus is on a ver...

This week - Matchweek 33

10 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Speaking Skills - Talking about pictures

05 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about photos and pictures. They describe some photographs and ask you to find the ph...

This week - Matchweek 32

02 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Understanding Grammar - Gerunds and Infinitives

28 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about two sports that you might not know and ask you to tell us about a sport that i...

Learning Vocabulary - Prepositions

23 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack is away on holiday so Rich has to find someone to help him with the show! He finds Nick who volunteers to...

This week - Matchweek 30

14 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learner training - 5 ways films can improve your English

08 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the language of films. They discuss two films about football that they really ...

This week - Matchweek 29

05 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Premier Skills English Podcast - This Week, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across t...

Understanding Grammar - Past Simple v Past Perfect

02 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about a specific structure that learners often find difficult: the past perfect. The...

This week - Matchweek 28

27 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - Health and Fitness

22 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the language of health and fitness. They roleplay three different situations a...

Understanding Grammar - What would you do?

14 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the language of dilemmas or difficult choices. They talk about situations that...

This week - Matchweek 27

12 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - Breaking the Ice

07 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the language you need when you meet someone for the first time. They talk abou...

This week - Matchweeks 25 & 26

05 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - 10 Phrasal Verbs connected to travel

30 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about phrasal verbs that are connected to travelling. What time do you set off in th...

Speaking Exams - The Long Turn

24 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about speaking exams. They focus specifically on the long turn which is the part in ...

This week - Matchweek 24

23 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Listening Skills - Noisy Places

16 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about the problems that learners can have when they have to listen and respond in ...

This week - Matchweek 23

15 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

This week - Festive Football

08 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the globe. In...

Learning Vocabulary - Staying connected

05 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about how technology can bring people from all over the world closer together. The...

Understanding Grammar - Making New Year's resolutions

30 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s Premier Skills English podcast, Rich is making a New Year’s resolution and Jack gives him some advice. The language focus is on fut...

Christmas Podcast - The language of giving and receiving

22 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich are celebrating Christmas. The language focus is on the language we use when we give some...

This week - Matchweeks 17 & 18

18 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - 10 Phrasal Verbs

14 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about phrasal verbs, why they are difficult to learn and how you can increase your v...

This week - Matchweek 16

11 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Speaking Skills - Paying for things

08 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack help you with the language you need when you need to pay for things. Paying for something...

This Week - Matchweek 14 & 15

04 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Perfect Pronunciation - Consonant Sounds

01 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich focus on pronunciation. They talk about five of the most difficult consonant sounds (soun...

This week - Matchweek 13

27 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Understanding Grammar - Too v Enough

24 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Rich is very tired and he doesn't know why. Jack thinks it might be Rich's diet or lack of exercise, bu...

This week - Matchweek 12

20 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - Phrases with make

17 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack makes a fool out of Rich and Rich makes a crossword for his students. The language focus is on a v...

Speaking Skills - Interrupting

09 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack help you with the language you need when you want to interrupt someone. This is a speakin...

Matchweek 11

07 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Speaking exams - Talking about yourself

03 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about speaking exams. Speaking exams are things that nearly all learners of English ...

Matchweek 10

31 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Learning Vocabulary - Halloween

26 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the language of fear. They look at some Halloween vocabulary and also look at ...

This week - Matchweek 9

23 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Perfect Pronunciation - Weak forms

20 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Jack and Rich help you with one important area of pronunciation - weak forms. This is an aspect of pron...

Matchweek 8

17 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

Understanding Grammar - Using the passive

13 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Jack visits Cambridge to show us where the first ever football rules were written down. He also shows u...

Learning Vocabulary - Phrases with get

06 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Rich gets angry because he has to get the bus. The language focus is on the verb with the longest entry...

Matchweek 7

02 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to This Week from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the gl...

This week - Matchweek 6

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to 'This Week' from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the ...

Understanding Grammar - How to use articles

22 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich have a quiz for you that tests your knowledge of grammar and football. The language focus...

This week - Matchweek 5

18 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to 'This Week' from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of all the action from the Premier League for learners of English from across the ...

Speaking Skills - Getting a haircut

16 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about all things connected to getting your hair cut. They talk about some Premier Le...

This week - Matchweek 4

11 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What happened in Matchweek 4 in the Premier League? Join the discussion and make your predictions on the website: http://premierskillsenglish.britishc...

Speaking Skills - Words of encouragement

08 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about how we show sympathy and the language we use to encourage others. Jack is sad ...

Speaking skills - Talking about computers

01 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Rich is having some problems on his computer and can't change his Fantasy Football team. He calls Jack ...

This week - Matchweek 3

28 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What happened in Matchweek 3 in the Premier League? Join the discussion: http://premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listen/week/matchweek-3

Speaking Skills - Being polite

25 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich focus on being polite and the words and expressions you should use to show politeness. Th...

This week - Matchweek 2

21 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What happened in Matchweek 2 in the Premier League? Join the discussion on the website: http://premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listen/w...

Pronunciation - Difficult words and sounds

18 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich focus on pronunciation. They talk about where their clubs (Arsenal & Liverpool) finis...

This week - Matchweek 1

14 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to 'this week' from Premier Skills English, a weekly review of the action from the Premier League for learners of English across the globe. In...

Premier League Kick-off

10 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the new Premier League season which kicks off on the 11th of August. They spea...

On a desert island

27 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich help you with conditional sentences and ask you to imagine the things you would like to keep with you if you wer...

Speaking Skills - At a hotel

22 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack tells Rich about a bad hotel experience. The language focus is on words and phrases you can use at...

Choosing a coach

14 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich interview two very different candidates for a job. Listen to both phone interviews and de...

Speaking Skills - On the phone

08 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich talk about problems when talking on the phone and look at lots of words and phrases we use in phone conversation...

A person you admire

30 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about the backgrounds of some Premier League players and Rich talks about one player...

Talking about money

23 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Jack and Rich talk about money and shopping in the market. Rich wants to buy an old football shirt for ...

How to eat like a Premier League footballer

16 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Jack talks about his diet and how he could eat more healthily to lose some weight. Rich gives him some ...

How to improve your fluency

09 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich talks about how nervous he gets before interviews and how this affects his speaking fluency. Rich ...

Speaking Skills - Talking about holidays

02 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about the latest news from the Premier League and we talk about holidays now the Premier League...

Five ways you can help the environment

26 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about the latest news from the Premier League and we talk about how Premier League c...

Premier Skills English Prediction: FA Cup Final

22 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to this week's Premier League Prediction! Every Monday we have a new prediction for you to make. This week, Rich and Jack talk about this seas...

Chelsea win the Premier League

19 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Premier Skills English podcast, Rich and Jack talk about the latest news from the Premier League and we talk a lot about Chelsea, who h...