– C1-C2 (advanced) –

Practice Your Listening Comprehension

Practice Your Reading Comprehension

Christmas is a time full of music in Canada. From traditional hymns to modern originals, music is intrinsic to the Christmas season. A popular song listened to and played by Canadians during this time is “Mary, Did You Know?”, which was originally performed by Michael English in 1991. Since his debut of the song, countless covers of the tune have been made, including one by Pentatonix, an a cappella group largely known for its gorgeously and inventively sung Christmas albums.

WHAT TO LEARN

While listening to “Mary, Did You Know?” by Pentatonix, English learners can practice and improve a variety of elements:

• listening comprehension

• American pronunciation

• connected speech

• unvoiced plosives

• question structure

• complex sentence structures

• the past tense

• the future tense (i.e. will)

• the conditional

• the possessive

• cultural references

• forms of address

• collocations

• vocabulary

  • common verbs

  • knowledge

  • Christianity

  • redemption

  • physical condition

• and much more!

Do you listen to Christmas music? What is your favourite Christmas song? Tell me about it in the comments below.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Christmas Eve

• Christmastide

• Boxing Day

• Song: “Cuddle Up, Cozy Down”

• Song: “Wrap Me Up”

ATTRIBUTION

• Pentatonix: “That’s Christmas to Me” album art thumbnail courtesy of Pentatonix / Madison Gate / RCA / Sony - iTunes (US), Fair use, Wikipedia