Mixer

What is Mixer?

Mixer is one of the most popular activities for students and teachers on elllo.

In this activity, students can listen to six people from around the world discussing one topic or question.

Why is Mixer a good tool for learning or teaching English?

The best English learners have one thing in common. They have listened to a large variety of speakers, topics, and accents. Mixer helps students learn English by giving them a large collection of lessons that are interesting, effective, and easy to do. As a result, EFL students can listen to a lot of English and also become successful language learners themselves.

Keep it Short!

Mixer was designed to make listening easy and interesting for students by keeping the audio short, and the topic consistent. In the real world, in daily conversations, movies, and even podcasts, conversations are often long and the topic can change quickly.

Long conversations can be a problem because students will have a difficult time if the topics change often, or if the conversation is very long.

Give me a break!

Students benefit from having a break as they listen. Because there are six responses, the students can get a mini break between each response. These mini breaks will help students stay focused.

Everyone has a voice!

These responses are from International speakers, so students can hear a variety of accents. For many students, the purpose of learning English is to speak with people from different countries. Mixer helps students become familiar with different accents and types of English.

The variety of voices will also help students stay interested and hold their attention. It is interesting for students to hear how people from around the world answer the same question. Also, because the topic never changes, students can compare what each speaker says.

Keep it real!

Most importantly, the language in the Mixer lessons is real! Students often study 'museum English' or 'fake English' in textbooks. These materials are not natural, and they do not prepare students for English in real life. Mixer provides an abundance of lessons that help students prepare for real life encounters in English.

How to study English with Mixer?

Studying with Mixer is easy. Students and teachers can use the following lesson plan.

1) Listen for Fun

For the first listening, students should just listen for the main idea and to hear what people have to say, just like in real life!

2) Take a quiz

For the second listening, students can take a quiz and test their listening comprehension. These quizzes are also a great way to develop test-taking skills.

3) Read and Listen

For the third listening, students can read the text as they play the audio. When they reed, students will likely notice more language than before. Students can also learn the highlighted vocabulary in blue.

4) Learn the Vocabulary

Students can now learn the key words in the lesson. These words are often special vocabulary or multi-word expressions or idioms. These vocabulary items are often hard to learn with a dictionary.

The vocabulary lessons provide audio support so students can hear the words multiple times to learn their correct pronunciation. Each word is spoken at least five times. Also, students can check their comprehension by taking the interactive vocabulary quiz.

Students and teachers can do this lesson on any device: such as a computer, tablet or mobile phone! 

Get in the Mix!

Below are some recommended lessons for Mixer. There are 150 lessons on Mixer. Students and teachers can access all of these free English lessons here.