How to practise English with games and real-life scenes

The activities and real-life scenes on GrammarDots are made for practising English by using it, not just reading about it. The activities review words and grammar in short rounds; the real-life scenes take the same language into a café, a pharmacy or a job interview. This post shows, step by step, how to use the two together and regularly.

What the activities and scenes are for

The activities run in the browser without an account and work comfortably on a phone, a tablet or with a keyboard. Each one opens with a level and a topic. Games such as Balloon Pop, Mole Hunt and Penalty Shootout look different but do the same job: you read a meaning or a question and choose the right answer. Matching, Memory and Flashcards pair a word with its meaning; Unscramble, Type the Answer and Crossword make you spell the word letter by letter.

The real-life scenes put you inside a conversation. You choose your level first, then a situation: a café, a hotel, a pharmacy, a bank, a job interview or a phone call. You read what the other person says, then choose the most natural reply or complete the missing word. After a wrong answer you see why straight away, and the conversation goes on with the right one. Each of the twenty situations comes in seven levels, from Pre-A1 to C2.

Which kind of practice helps with what

Choosing your level

If you are unsure of your level, start one level below your guess. If you answer most questions in an activity without thinking, move up a level; if you get stuck on more than half, play a few more rounds one level down. In the real-life scenes the test is this: if you understand the lines but need a moment's thought to choose a reply, you are at the right level. For what each level means, see How do I know my English level?.

A 15-minute practice session

The order matters: first you recognise a word, then you use it in a conversation. Working on food and drink words before the café scene, or on body and health words before the pharmacy scene, means a word will not trip you up while you choose a reply. Your attention then stays on the flow of the conversation instead of on what a word means.

Learning from your mistakes

At the end of an activity you see your score, your mistakes and the right answers. Look at that list more than at the score: each mistake points to a word or a rule you need to review. Write your mistakes in a notebook with the correct sentence next to each one, and play the same activity again the next day. Why don't new words stick? explains in detail how to plan that review.

Do not skip the explanations in the real-life scenes. Often the wrong option is grammatically correct but sounds rude, too formal or out of place in that situation. In a café, for example, “I want a coffee.” is not a wrong sentence, but “Could I have a coffee, please?” is far more natural and polite. The scenes teach exactly this difference: not what you could say, but what people actually say.

Turning a scene into speaking

When you finish a scene, play it once more out loud: read the other person's line and say your reply yourself. On the second round, try to answer without looking at the options. That is how you move from choosing to speaking; in a real café or on a real phone call, nobody offers you options. You can practise the short exchange below in the same way, taking both parts.

• “Hi, what can I get you?”
• “Could I have a latte, please?”
• “Sure. Anything to eat?”
• “Do you have anything vegetarian?”
• “Yes, there's a cheese and tomato sandwich.”
• “Great, I'll have that, please.”

A sample week

Each day, choose one group of words and a situation that fits it. When you pick a topic in the activities, open the one closest to those words.

At the weekend, take a break or just look through your mistake notebook. Fifteen minutes a day is easier to keep up than one long session a week, and it brings the words back in front of you more often.

With children

The activities also work with children. Most games have no time pressure and a wrong answer does not end the game: in Maze the explorer always reaches the exit, even by the long way round, and in Word Race the car always reaches the finish line. Play the Pre-A1 word games side by side with your child: read the question aloud and let them choose the answer. With older children, turn a real-life scene into a role-play: you are the café assistant and they order.

Frequently asked questions