Learn English With Barack Obama's Speeches

Barack Obama is no longer the president of the United States, but his speeches will be missed. He uses sophisticated words in his speeches and his English is very clear, so students could learn a lot from them.

In order to close this cycle, we created an activity with Barack Obama's farewell speech. Enjoy it!

A) Let's watch an excerpt of Obama's farewell speech. What does he talk about in this excerpt? Click here to watch it.

B) Now, listen to the speech, only listen, and complete the gaps in the transcript below.

"...maybe you still can't believe we pulled this whole thing off. _____ me tell you, you're not the only ones. (Laughter.)

Michelle — (applause) — Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, girl _______ South Side — (applause) — for the past 25 years, you have _________ my wife and mother of my children, you have been my best friend. (Applause.) You took on a role you didn't ask ______ and you made it______, with grace and with grit and with style and good humor. (Applause.) You made __________ a place that belongs to everybody. (Applause.) And the new generation sets its sights higher because ______ the role model. (Applause.) So you have made me proud. And you have made the country proud. (Applause.)

Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women. You are smart and you are beautiful, but more importantly, you are kind and you are thoughtful and you are full of passion. (Applause.) You wore the burden ______________ spotlight__________. Of all that I've done in my life, I am most proud to be your dad. (Applause.)"

C) Read the transcript again. Check if there are any words you don't understand. Look them up in the dictionary and make a list of the new vocabulary. The words in blue have links to their definitions, simply click on them and another window will open with a dictionary's definition.

D) Imagine you are the president of your country and you have to give a farewell speech. What would you say?

First, take a couple of minutes to organize your ideas making a list of topics.

Then, give your speech and record it using Vocaroo or your cell phone and send the recording to contato@elearningforall.org.

We will gladly make all the corrections necessary.