LAST POSTS

27 Nov 2010

Some British festivities

Good afternoon!

How's the weekend going? :) Here you have the usual summary of the week.

Last week we talked about stress and we did a test to see how stressed we were. In class, some people were relaxed, but some of you are completely stressed out!!! We also revised some daily routines (please, study the Vocabulary Bank on page 147) and did some phonetic transcriptions on the board. Congratulations, you did them really well! :)

Then we read Louisa's story and we saw that she had a very stressful life. Then we listened to Simon (p. 31): his life is even more stressful!!

On Thursday we talked about the American festival of Thanksgiving, which is a very important celebration in the United States and in Canada.





Finally, we watched a video about traditional festivals in Britain. We talked about Guy Fawkes' Night (5th November), Pancake Day (sometime in February), St Valentine's Day (14th February) and Halloween (31st October). We'll continue watching it another day.

Have a nice weekend!
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Oral presentations? No problem!

Hi all!

In every language course you'll have to prepare oral presentations. Some people don't like them too much because they suffer from fear of public speaking, or simply feel embarrassed to talk in a different language in front of a lot of people!

But remember that preparing an oral presentation is an excellent way to consolidate your grammar, learn new vocabulary, check the pronunciation of new words and discover gaps (lagunas) that you didn't even know you had!

I know speaking in public is difficult, especially if it's not in your language. But, hey, everybody feels nervous, even the most prepared people, so don't think you're the only one having a hard time. Try to relax as much as possible and enjoy your presentation.

I'm 100% sure you've devoted plenty of time to it, so don't let nerves spoil it: feel enthusiastic about your work and show us what you have conscientiously prepared!

Below you have a short presentation I've prepared for you. It explains why we feel fear of speaking in public, and I give you a few tips to overcome that fear. I hope it helps you out a little bit!

(To see the presentation better, click on play, and then "full screen". Advance the presentation by clicking on the arrow).

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23 Nov 2010

Quite & very; telling the time; colours

Good afternoon guys!

Here you have a summary (resumen) of what we did last week: On Monday / Tuesday we did a test of Units 1 and 2. After the test we listened to the song Oh Pretty Woman, which inspired the title of the film starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.

On Wednesday / Thursday we corrected Grammar Bank 3A and we learnt more adjectives to describe people (revise the Vocabulary Bank on page 146). Remember that we can use very and quite before the adjective:

       A: How old is your brother?
       B: Oh, he's very young. He's only 14.

       A: How tall is your father?
       B: Oh, he's quite tall, around 1.80 m.


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19 Nov 2010

Some more listening practice

Hi there,

Here I leave you with two links for listening practice:
  • Click here to listen to Kevin talking about women. You have some online activities and you can also have a look at the transcription.
  • Click here to listen to a women who is running a business in Tanzania, Africa. Again, you have some online activities and you also have the possibility of listening with the tapescript.
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13 Nov 2010

Some revision (numbers, informal introductions, verb "to be", present simple, the family)

Aquí os dejo algunos enlaces para repasar:
  • Numbers: leed la explicación (está muy detallada) y luego pinchad en el ejercicio que aparece al final de la página. Activad que os salgan números aleatorios (get a randomized number, all through to 1.000.000, cardinal numbers). Os saldrá un número que tendréis que escribir; la misma aplicación os lo corrige.
  • The verb to be: aquí tenéis una explicación muy completa en español. Parad de leer cuando lleguéis a "Pretérito".
  • The present simple: en este enlace os vienen explicados el presente simple y el continuo. Leed sólo lo referente al presente simple -no hagáis los ejercicios puesto que aparecen ambos tiempos.
  • Family: un juego de memoria y de pronunciación sobre los miembros de la familia.
Sería conveniente que le echárais un vistazo aunque sea rápido a los distintos enlaces. It will help you to consolidate things.
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6 Nov 2010

Vocabulary related to jobs; possessive 's (Saxon genitive)

Good morning everybody!

As usual, here you have a summary (un resumen) of what we did during the week :)

With Basic Level D, we finished the unit about Natasha and Darren. Was their date (cita) a disaster or a success??

We also corrected some exercises to form questions in the present simple. Then we started the topic about jobs. We learnt vocabulary about jobs (please, see Vocabulary Bank page 144) and we read Annabel's interview: she's an artist and a musician, but she thinks her job is stressful and sometimes lonely...

Then we listened to an interview where three people guess a person's job. Can you remember his job? ... That's it: a footballer! With the questions in the interview, we played a game where we had to guess our job: do I work in an office?, do I earn a lot of money?, do I wear a uniform?, am I a politician? etc.

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Study English with friends

Meet friends and study English together.
You can repeat your English vocabulary, do your homework together and help each other with English grammar. Studying with friends simply is much more fun.
It’s also a good oportunity to exchange ideas on studying in general. Maybe your friends have found out about a good way of studying more effectively. Or, who knows, maybe you can advise your friends on this?
All for one and one for all!
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1 Nov 2010

Word order in questions (QUASI); Halloween

Hi all!

I hope you've had a great, great bank holiday! :) I'm sorry I haven't uploaded the class record before. Anyway, here you have it!

With Basic Level D we only had one day of class (Tuesday), and we talked about meeting people (where and how can you meet people? - at school/university/work; in a supermarket; on the Internet, in the street...). Then we read the story of Natasha and Darren, who met on the Internet and had a date. Unfortunately, they are very, very different (they have nothing in common!) and they do not make a good couple... :(

With their conversation, we learnt how to make questions in the present simple (remember: QUASI - QUestion word + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive). In the present simple, the auxiliary is do or does (for he / she / it): what do you study?; where does he live?; do you have a pet?

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