MacMillan English Campus

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

A classic Shakespeare quote that may have held true in yesteryear Verona, but in this modern world a name can be the most powerful force in branding with the ability to make or break

Who doesn’t love Google Street View? I’m terrible at reading maps, and never go somewhere new without walking the walk through Street View first! And now you can be a virtual tourist, venturing inside some of the buildings you walk past with the Google Art Project.

The Google Art Project is

Graded Readers are one of the most motivating ways of encouraging learners to practise their English – there’s no better way of persuading learners of whatever age that they need the language than making them want to turn the page because they have to know what happens next.

There’s a long history

There’s a whole world of English out there. And you can explore it with your students using the web projects in MEC. There are 62 projects covering a wide range of subjects – sports, arts, travel and finance to name just a few. We check each project twice a year to

I am a big fan of infographics and it has been a while since I have posted one. It’s time to catch up, below you can find an infographic on International cooking habits compared which shows some countries with the tastiest flavours in their cuisines.

It could be great for a discussion,

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, but what if you can add the whole slideshow, words, sentences and accompany it with music?

Your students regularly post pictures on Facebook or Twitter and comment on them, so why not take their witty commenting skills into the English class. PhotoPeach.com is

As Valentine’s approaches it’s time to resurrect our Blended MEC Valentine’s poetry competition. Last year we asked you to get your students to write variations on the ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue…’ poem format, using it to deliver some untimely bad news. You can build on this by

In a few short days, the biggest day of the romantic calendar will be with us. Whether Valentine’s day is a convenient reminder to pick up some flowers for your loved one or just a depressing reminder of singledom, it’s an opportunity to do something a bit different in the ELT

Creative writing

I’ve recently noticed how technology is affecting my writing. I definitely cut down on writing using a fountain pen or pen, and I can see its effects as my handwriting quality has unfortunately started going down hill. It’s mostly because I tend to write more emails instead of letters and

And here we are again, it is the beginning of January we are all fresh, positive and ready to make big changes and promises.

Below you can find an infographic on how New Year’s resolutions are made, what goes wrong and how successfully complete your goals.

How to use it with students?

I think

With just under a year to go until Election Day in the United States, the New York Times reports that Barack Obama’s approval rating is at 46%. Funnily enough, his disapproval rating is also 46%. Ultimately, as many people approve of the current President of the United States as disapprove. It

I know that a lot of people think that Halloween is a very commercial holiday; however I personally really like it maybe because it is so different from All Saints Day on the 1st of November which I am so familiar with. I see Halloween as a day of amazing pumpkin

This week London has seen the world’s fashionistas flock into town for its annual fashion week.  So how might you incorporate the festivities into your classes?  London fashion week has a great website that you can use as a jumping off point for a lesson about all things sartorial. 

Understanding and using clichés and idioms in a foreign language is a sign of great comprehension: it edges your language right up there with that of native speakers, and helps you communicate in a more realistic way. What is difficult about these aspects of language, particularly idioms, is that they differ

The Mona Lisa image is probably one of the most popular and recognizable in the history of art. For centuries the heist of the Mona Lisa painting has been shrouded in mystery. However, it seems that now 100 years after the crime we have found out the truth about the man