National Parks in Utah; New York Top 10 Attractions

Good morning everyone!

So week 2 has already gone by! Hasn't time flown??! On Tuesday we finished correcting the grammar quiz and I was happy to see that most of you remember what you learnt last year; well done!! :) Then we had a quick look at the book and you thought about five places you would like to visit, and five places you have no desire to visit ever. Feel free to post a comment with your ten places!!

Finally, we listened to part of a radio programme where a man gave advice to first-time visitors to London. I can't post that listening due to copyright reasons, but here you have another one about National Parks in Utah (scroll down the page and you'll find the play button). In that page you have a multiple choice exercise. If you prefer filling gaps, then click here instead. Finally, you can have a look at the script (transcripción).

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Welcome to a new course at the Official Language School in Roquetas de Mar!

Hi everyone!

This is the blog for the Advanced Level 1 group. I intend it to be a place where we can all communicate and share ideas, impressions and materials that may be useful for all of us. We'll also try to keep a record of what we do in class every week.

Welcome aboard, guys!! ;)

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Obama's Speech

Good morning everyone,

First of all, sorry for not updating the blog during the weekend, but I was busy with some other things. Anyway, better late than never!

On Monday/Tuesday we finished off the unit about crime correcting some final exercises on indirect questions, and we continued commenting on The Canterbury Tales. After that, we devoted most part of the lesson to discussing Bin Laden's death and the effect it will have on the international sphere. We watched Obama's official announcement and we also listened to a news report. You have the video below:

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Indirect questions & question tags; "From Hell" (film)

Hi there!

Last week was rather short because we only had one day of class. But I think we made the most of it, didn't we? :)

First of all, we revised some grammar and corrected some exercises related to indirect questions and question tags. Remember that indirect questions are a way of making questions more polite, introducing a formula of politeness such as do you know...? can/could you tell me...? etc. They can bit tricky because they don't have the usual structure of a question (QUASI), but the structure of a normal sentence: Sj + Verb + Complements.

(Taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk)

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Question tags; line dancing

Hello guys!

I hope you're having a great weekend, although it's apparently going to rain a lot... (fingers crossed!!).

Last week we talked about Easter holidays and we also had a special activity with Chanelle and Lauren, who prepared a quiz about the differences between Canada and the United States. I hope you learnt a lot!!

We also learnt a bit of line dancing. Here you have the video; I'm sure you're dying to show your family and friends! :) It's a bit old, but it's the easiest dance we could find!

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The Canterbury Tales

Hello everyone,

During these days I'd like you to read The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer. I know it's a book you have to read for the Escuela, but, please, don't read it with a feeling of obligation: I want you to enjoy the book, and to appreciate the real treasure you have in your hands. It's one of the best works ever written in English, a veritable masterpiece, and don't forget that Chaucer is known as the Father of English Literature.

Some of you might not like reading, but, trust me, The Canterbury Tales has something for everybody's taste: some stories are deep, some others are hilarious, some are a bit bold/dirty, others are a lesson of morale... And they portray a perfect picture of 15th century England.

As I said in class, the context of the tales is that of a group of pilgrims travelling from London to Canterbury Cathedral to visit Thomas Beckett's tomb; they are people from all the levels of society, from a miller to a knight, from a squire to a priest. The original idea was for every character to tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. But, instead of 120 tales, the text ends after twenty-four tales.

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