20 December 2012

Let's defend the state-run language schools!

I had to share this beautiful video with you. Let's hope our state language schools survive!!!

Los alumnos y alumnas de la Escuela Oficial de Idiomas nos recuerdan los beneficios personales y profesionales de una enseñanza pública de idiomas de calidad. ¡Defendámosla! ¡Que no nos dejen sin palabras!

Iniciativa promovida por los Consejos Escolares de las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas de Cádiz y San Fernando.

"Emily" by Mika

It was high time I updated the blog... 
Here's the song we listened to last week by Mika. I'm also embedding the French version in case you're curious.
"Emily" (from his album "The origin of love").
And the original version of the song in French with English and French subtitles: "Elle me dit"


10 December 2012

Royal prank call ends in tragedy

Have you heard of this unbelievable story? Watch the Euronews video below. 
What do you think about it?

08 December 2012

Homework for next week

Hi there everyone!
Sorry I didn't post this before, but here it is, a quick reminder of your homework. 
Do the writing at the end of file 2 entitled A nightmare journey. The instructions are, as usual, in the white box on p. 33 and you have to write about 150 words (170 maximum!). You can hand it in or e-mail it to me in an attached Word file throughout this coming week (10-13 December).
 
Besides, remember to do the Revise & Check section from file 2 (p. 34-35). When you're done, you can check your own answers by clicking here.

That's all for now!!

25 November 2012

Thanksgiving

Last Wednesday/Thursday I forgot to mention that America was celebrating Thanksgiving, one of their most beloved holidays.
 
Did you know that it's celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the States, but on the second Monday of October in Canada?
If you want to find out more about this truly American celebration and do some listening practice at the same time, watch the video below and do the activities in this document.
I'll publish the key in the comments section!!!

"Life of Pi" and "The Hobbit"!!

I know this is not related to what we're doing in class, but here it goes anyway. 

I borrowed the book "Life of Pi" from a friend in 2007 and had such a great time reading it that I couldn't put it down!! So I was thrilled when I heard they were making a film based on it!!  
I'm soooooo looking forward to seeing it at the cinema!!! 

"The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey" is coming soon too. I read the story of Bilbo Baggins's odyssey two years ago and enjoyed it too, especially the first half and, since I loved "The Lord of the Rings", I'm not about to miss this one!!!
Did you know Tolkien wrote this book to keep his children entertained??? It's like no other children's book I've ever read; I can tell you that.
 Has anyone else read these books?  
Did you like them?
My advice is: go see them both!! =]
It's a shame we can't see them in the original version though. ='(

18 November 2012

How to make invitations in English and more!

Hi there!
Learn how to make invitations in English with this useful and clear document (again, taken from Hot English magazine). Also, feel free to listen to it by clicking here.

Also, if you want to learn very informal words and expressions dealing with money, check this out on the BBC Learning English site.
And why not take this quiz to check your knowledge of related words and expressions?
  
Now you only need the money to invite your English-speaking friends and classmates. =]

Songs about money

Hi there!
We're dealing with the topic "money" in class and this week we watched Ka-Ching by Canadian singer Shania Twain. I wanted to post here some more music videos with the same topic. However, I didn't want to publish the most obvious ones ("Money makes the world go around" by Liza Minelli, "Money, money, money" by ABBA, "Material Girl" by Madonna, "Money for nothing" by Dire Straits or "If I were a rich man", from a musical), so I've chosen a few more original ones:
"Money talks" by AC/DC 
"Fortunate son" (a classic!) by Creedance Clearwater Revival,
"She works hard for the money" by Donna Summer,
"All I wanna do" by UB40 and
"Bills, bills, bills" by Destiny's Child.
Do YOU know any other songs about money? Tell us!


*Sorry about the spelling mistakes in the last video.
** I ain't / you ain't / he or she ain't, etc is a very informal way of saying I'm not / you're not / he or she isn't, etc. It's very common in songs.

12 November 2012

"Programación inglés 2012/13" on the EOI Lorca website

Hi everyone!
You can now read or download the 2012/13 version of the English syllabus 
(= programación) for the EOI Lorca y extensiones by clicking here.

Revise and Check File 1 KEY + Writing

Hi there!
Here's the key to the revise and check section from file 1 (p. 18-19) in your book.

Also, don't forget to submit the file 1 writing, whether on paper or by e-mail, this week. The instructions are in the white box on page 17 and you have to write 125 to 150 words.
Additional instructions:
If you do them on paper: use a PEN (NOT a pencil), leave the necessary margins and double space it (leave wide spaces between the lines). And, of course, write legibly!! I don't speak Aramaic or Hindi (not yet!).

If you send them to me by e-mail: save them in a Word file that includes your name, surname and title (or number) of the writing. I have to receive something like this: 
Thank you for your collaboration!!

07 November 2012

Family Vocabulary

And again here's another nice document from Hot English magazine about family. To listen to the audio that goes with it, click here.

Have fun!!!

06 November 2012

Making conversation (very useful!!)

I'm leaving you here a document with useful sentences and fixed expressions (plus a dialogue) you can use when you make small talk from Hot English magazine
It is REALLY USEFUL!! You should print it out, read it carefully and keep it for future reference. You can even bring it to class. You can also listen to everything on the page by downloading the audio in mp3.

Enjoy!!

04 November 2012

Modern family: Halloween



Hi there!
Here's the link to episode 6, season 2 from Modern Family that we watched in class this week. You have to add the subtitles yourselves, by clicking here.
Enjoy!!! 

30 October 2012

File 1 extra listenings

Hi there!
Below are two listening activities from file 1 you can do at home. I did both activities in class with group A and the second one with group B too. Now, everyone can do them at home. Click on the links below to download or play the audios. And, as usual, check the key in the comments section in a few days. =]
1   Listen to a conversation about food in Oxford. Write A, B, C or D after each sentence. You can use a letter more than once.
1   The best pub food can be found _____.      
2   The highest-quality cooking in Oxford can be found _____.      
3   The cheapest food is _____.      
4   The best Thai restaurant is _____.      
5   There are tapas bars _____.      
      A  in the centre of the city
     B  in the north of the city
     C  in the east of the city
     D  outside the city
Chiang Mai Kitchen Restaurant in Oxford

Five conversations (file 1-listening 2) 
2   Listen to five conversations. Tick A, B or C.
1   Todd wanted to watch the World Cup final _____.
     A  in a restaurant with his workmates          B  at home with friends         
     C  in a small café with friends      
2   In the past, Lauren ate or drank _____.
     A  less coffee          B  fewer sweets          C  less tea      
3   Keira doesn’t have any _____.
     A  cousins          B  brothers          C  parents      
4   When he was at school, Johnnie _____.
     A  broke his leg          B  was captain of the team          C  did some coaching      
5   Sophie is _____.
     A  a bit lazy          B  friendly          C  confident      

26 October 2012

"The best teacher I've ever had" sample writings


I've decided to publish some of the best pieces of writing from my three groups here so everybody can read them and learn from them. From the entry tests, I've chosen these three. I hope you like them!


 
Last June, in my speaking exam, I spoke about my best teacher. She was my mother and my maths teacher too. Now, I’m going to tell you about another teacher who worked very hard with me in the music school. She was my guitar teacher and she played the guitar like an angel, but now, she can’t play because her ill hands are slow, so now she’s sad.
When I was a child I wanted to be like her, tall and elegant with long fingers, and to play the guitar in concerts.

By Ana Mª Mingorance, from NI1-A
  
The best teacher I have ever had was called José Martínez. He had a long, white, curly beard, round blue eyes, a big nose, a small mouth and a pair of two very small ears.
He used to be always friendly, open-minded and kind to the children, their parents and teachers outside and inside the school.
My favourite teacher taught Mathematics to the children who were in their seventh and eighth years at the ages of thirteen and fourteen years old at the San Juan de las Águilas primary school.
Besides, I liked his classes very much because he explained the theory and practical exercises in a very logical, easy and simple way. Therefore, everybody could understand it.
Finally, I remember that I never spoke or interrupted his classes during his explanations. I would stare at the blackboard and write down all that he wrote for fifty minutes three times a week.

By Mª Mar Menchón, from NI1-B

 
Mrs Leiva has been my best teacher. She was twenty-nine years old when I met her at secondary school. She was very tall and very thin. She had black hair and brown eyes. She was always happy and very optimistic with us. We got on with her very well.
Mrs Leiva taught us History and Geography. I learnt a lot with this teacher. She told us many stories about the Moorish pirates because she loved them. In her classes, we watched films and played games. We went out and took photos too. I had a good time!

By Kenia de Haro, from NI1-C

Sports Listening

Hi there!
Here's the link to the listening from elllo.org we did in class this week where six people of different nationalities talk about their favourite sports.
The questions you had to answer for every speaker were:
1. What's his/her favourite sport to do?
2. What's his/her favourite sport to watch?
3. Write down one more detail about each of the people.
Remember you can always read the transcript of what is said on this website.

24 October 2012

Irregular Verb Patterns

I've found this excellent worksheet on my ex workmate and friend Helena Manrubia's blog. I think it can be extremely useful when memorising irregular verbs, because many of them follow certain patterns. You should print it out and complete it. Also, some of the verbs are not in the list in your student's book, so you can include them. Use the dictionary to look up their meanings.

Parts of the body

Hi everyone!
Since we briefly talked about parts of the body when dealing with sports, maybe this advanced video will help you remember the most important ones:
Ok, boys and girls! We're going to sing about some of the parts of our bodies.
See if you can point to the part we're singing about. Once you know the words, sing it with us.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes! x2
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
(Repeat till the end)

22 October 2012

Bazinga!

I love Dr Sheldon Cooper. :-)

Phrasal verbs about sport

Hi again!
I have this document from Hot English magazine which is about common phrasal verbs used when talking about sports. You may find it handy!! 
(It's on the second page. The first one is about a different topic, but since it's a PDF document, I could not split it. Sorry!).
  
I've also found this Let's talk about sport! worksheet online which I think it's very useful to get you speaking about sport.

Food and eating

Here are some things about food and eating:
Click here to download a couple of listening activities I did in class with group A (not B or C). Now everyone can do them at home. For the audios, click on the links below:
In a few days, I'll publish the answers in the comments section. If someone wants to do it before I do, you're welcome to do so!!!

Now, here's the menu I showed you in class too.

Besides, here's a very useful document dealing with invitations and you can listen to it if you click on the link.

I hope it all helps!!

14 October 2012

Entry test listening

Click here for the listening I played in class for your entry test. You can listen to it again or for the first time. I'm pasting the activity here for your convenience as well. You'll find the key in the comments.
Remember to always check the right sidebar to find links to very useful sites, for instance, for listening practice.



Listen to a recording about a woman called Tanya Coles and circle the right option a, b or c:
Example: 0. Tanya Coles is originally from
a)     Jamaica.         b) Haiti.         © Barbados.

  1. When she first arrived in London she was
a)     a teenager.      b) 30.           c) divorced.

  1. At the beginning she
a)     did the same job for a long time.  b) had to do several jobs.   
c) was unemployed.

  1. She got married
a)     before she graduated.     b) after starting a new job.        
c) after she graduated.

  1. Her salary is
a)     very high.                      b) OK, but not great.                
c) quite low.

  1. She doesn’t mind
a)     looking after her pets.     b) taking care of the house.       
c) looking after her kids.

  1. She says people who emigrate to a new country will be successful if they
a)     are optimistic.                b) have good friends around.      
c) are hard-working.