FINAL SPEAKING REVISION

Hello again!
Before the final orals, you could check out these two posts of mine: "One way to improve your speaking" and "How to speak better".
If you want to practise a bit more, you can use Eva's post and Michael's game here; Saro's also got some cards and expressions you can use here; Dulce gives you some advice here too.
Good luck to you all!

WORRIED ABOUT YOUR WRITING TEST?

So seem to be some of us, teachers, as we are all trying to give you the last tips before the final exams... But don't panic, there's still some time to revise the basics, and this is where we can all help you. For example:

• for the brainstorming part, you can read my post on "How to make a good composition". You can also look at this one on Opinion essays. 
• for some general tips on the whole process, watch Dulce's "Better at writing" post, as well as this one for reviews, and this one on opinion essays and more (thank you notes, informal emails...).
• to read more on opinion essays, read Saro's post here.
• to revise how to write letters of complaint visit complaintletter.net , where you can see many different examples
• Eva has prepared a presentation to revise how to write stories (look at it here) and this other one for reviews. 
• But if you need to revise all the types of writing, especially their formats, have a look at this presentation:

Writing Revision NI2

weather

This is the presentation we used in class to revise and learn some vocabulary on the weather:

Environment Weather

REVIEWS

This is an example of people discussing books, taken from podcastsinenglish.com. The title is "A good book". Although not a review as such, it's got good examples of the "general comments on the book" part of the review.

Brookline book reviews offers you reviews by some students in public schools in Brookline. You can listen to them all, as they come in mp3 format. However... they're students who speak rather fast, which may be a bit too difficult for you, so take it as a challenge.

Canary News

Hi everyone!
       You have probably come across one or two free newspapers in English we have in Gran Canaria. One of them, The Canary News, can be read online here. You can also read News in the Sun. There's another one, but I can't recall its name, does anyone know? 
       Moreover, you might also have a look at Tenerifenews and Sur in English) and Round Town News to find out what's going on in the south of Spain.
       It's a great way of keeping up to date with local news while practising your English, isn't it?

ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE BLOG

Sorry about that, but they just appear! 
If anyone knows how to avoid them, please tell me! They are so annoying!

GENERAL STRIKE

OMG!
It's Wednesday night, the general strike has just started... but the BBC has nothing on its webpage, nor do "The Times", "The Independent" or "The Guardian"!!!  Well, at least "The Telegraph" mentions something, it focuses on the flight cancellations, but that's about it.


As regards the USA, nothing is mentioned in either the "The New York Times"or "USA Today".  However, the CNN does! Thanks God someone remembers us! You can read the article here (there's a video as well). And ... "The Washington Post" also devotes this article to our country, which offers quite a good general overview.


And all this makes me wonder, does the rest of the world really care about our situation? Will anyone help us out or is it up to us to get out of this crisis just by ourselves? Will the reform be implemented? Will the trade unions succeed? In what ways? What would you do if you were in power?  


Please leave a comment with your opinion on any of these topics; it'll be interesting and excellent writing practice for you! You can remain anonymous if you wish (but if you let me know which comment is yours, it'll count as one more writing task for this term)

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO....

Hello again!
To practise your listening, please watch Mery Streep's speech here (BBC)

These are the pictures of the celebrities described in the photocopy we saw in class, just match them and indicate who's who. This is the text, just in case. Answers will appear in a comment in a few days!

By the way, in this post from EOI Guía you will find an interesting link to the English blog where they give interesting information about leap years and a funny tradition in the British Isles.

JORNADAS CULTURALES 2011-12

Wednesday, February 15th
4:00 p.m.

• Musical "Grease" (basic level)
• Theatre workshop
• Taboo (intermediate)
• Film: "Le ballon rouge" (francés)

5:50: coffee and tea break
6:15

• The EOI Quiz; Karaoke (basic)
• Taboo (intermediate)
• Workshop: "Another language" (intermediate)
• Film en français: "Bienvenus chez les Ch'tis" (Bienvenidos al norte)

Thursday, February 16th
4:00 p.m.

• Musical "Grease" (basic level)
• Taboo (intermediate)
• Film en français: "Rien à déclarer". Seguido de forum.
• Charla sobre el turismo (por una guia alemana) y concurso sobre cultura alemana

5:30: CAKE COMPETITION!!!
6:30

• Bollywood
• The EOI Quiz (basic)
• Film en français: "Rien à déclarer". Seguido de forum.

PARTICIPA EN LAS ACTIVIDADES, CONCURSOS, TALLERES... HABRÁ PREMIOS!

JORNADAS CULTURALES 2012

That time of the year has finally arrived... those days when we learn and practise English in a different way. This year's JORNADAS CULTURALES will take place next week (February 15th & 16th)! 

There are competitions, workshops, games, musicals... you have to come and see it! Remember to write your poem or minisaga, make a nice bookmarker OR prepare a cake for the competition (please send us the recipe).
You can win interesting prizes! 
JOIN US AND...

PARTICIPATE!

Without you we can do nothing ;-)

THE PASSIVE

In the first place, you can watch this video, to revise what was explained in class and visit englisch-hilfen to revise everything and do some exercises.

If you want to practise this structure, you can visit this page.

Here you have a game, to make it more fun; choose the number of players and enjoy yourself while you learn

INFINITIVE OR GERUND?

If you want to practise this grammar point and have some fun meanwhile, why don't you play battleships here? This is another online game from ESL Fun Grammar Games and this other one from englishmedialab.
For exercises, visit ego4u.
Finally you can do some of these tests, if you like: 1, 2, 3, 4.
These three tutorials might also help: 1 -2 -3.

This video shows you parts of songs where the infinitive and gerund are used ;-)

Use and Omission of the Article

(Unit 5B)

When do we use THE and when do we omit it ?

Visit this LINK and do the exercise!

Once upon a time a boy met a girl in the centre of the city.

They had an ice cream together, and then they went to the cinema to see a film. The film was called Eleven Years.

Click HERE to see Powerpoint presentation



;-)

NOVEMBER CELEBRATIONS

There are a couple of common celebrations in Britain which you may not be so familiar with: Guy Fawkes Night and Remembrance Day, a.k.a.* Poppy Day. The former is celebrated on November 5th, the latter is on November 11th. To find out why, just follow the links from Wikipedia above.
This is a video of the Guy Fawkes celebration in Victoria Park in London. Enjoy! You can also visit our post last year here.
* also known as

-ING or Infinitive?

Doing little is fun. I love lounging...

Remember the general rules:


WE use the -ing form

After certain Verbs
After preposition
When the verb is the subject of the dentece

We use the infinitive:

After certain verbs
After adjectives
For reason or purpose

See the following links
FOR:

Verbs followed by INFINITIVE
Verbs followed by -ING
Verbs Followed by Gerunds OR Infinitives (Different Meaning)*


FURTHER PRACTICE

1. Do they enjoy_____ (read) ?
2. Sorry for ______(be) so late. I overslept!
3. I don't mind _____ (help) in the house.
4. It was stupid _________(run): the train had left.
5. She's always dreamt of ________(have) a house by the seaside .
6. ___________(not/have) a mobile phone nowadays is old-fashiones.
7. What about________ (ask) our teacher?
8. We stopped_________ (talk) when the teacher entered the room.
9. Please, keep__________ (tell) us what happened yesterday.
10. She promised_________ (help) me with the essay.
11. They would prefer ________(fly) to England.
12. Will you be able________ (speak) English fluently next year?
13. She left without _________(say) good-bye.
14. He persuaded her________ (buy) another washing-machine.
15. Susan bought the car _________(give) it to her daughter for her birthday ?

Answers  in Comment 1 :-)

OPINION ESSAYS

Hello again!


We'll soon revise how to structure them, but meanwhile, you can have a look at this post from Masterpapers or these instructions from eHow. In Custom Writing you can also find some good advice on what to do, what to avoid and some expressions that may come handy.

Now that Halloween is approaching, you will start hearing ghost stories and other scary stuff. However, if you would like to check for yourself if a house is really hauted (or maybe it's just your friends trying to terrify you), you can follow these steps to find out.


Finally, if you've still got what it takes, you can listen to some spooky stories here. When you click on the story, it takes you to the script, then you must click on "listen to the audio version". Try not to read anything the first time, please, just concentrate on what you hear. The second time you are allowed to read while you listen. OK? Enjoy!

R U stressed?

Just do this test to find out...   Good luck!


To find out more on the topic, you can also watch this video where an expert explains what stress is, the physical and mental effects of being stressed, when it becomes a problem and when to seek help; it's at the end of the page, but remember to switch off the subtitles the first times you hear it (pressing "CC")


In any case, if you sometimes think you can't manage stress, you may need to watch this video from the NHS page, where an expert provides some techniques for managing stress.


So ... have you ever suffered / do you ever suffer from stress? Any symptoms? What did / do you do to deal with it? If you had a panic attack, what would you do? Please leave a short paragraph with your experience (and remember to sign it, please)

SOME QUICK TIPS TO GET BETTER

A pool table? No, snooker!

Do you feel the test is just round the corner and you don't know what else to do? Don't panic and try some of these things:
These are the two of the listenings you have in your photocopy: ideal home and blind date.

For further speaking practice go here. It's for intermediate level.
To write a good blog post, follow these steps:

1. have a clear idea of what you are going to write about (topic) and your goal (provide links, start a conversation, express an opinion...)
2. come up with an awesome title
3. think of your readers and try to hook them (humour, news, attack...) and to create a conversation! Communication is one of the main objectives. A good introduction is highly advisable! These comments will...

• have a clear objective, i.e. make a valid point (give your reasons or examples, if necessary)
• be part of a context (the post you are commenting on)
• be brief and respectful
• be signed, so that the blogger can comment back to you
• be proof-read before submitted

     4. write a detailed post, but keep it simple and to the point. Add your thoughts and if you want people to
         comment, ask a question to your readers BUT only get out what’s really relevant to this particular post.
     5. you can make a list with bullet points and organize it into headings and subheadings
     6. use your voice, your opinion (be honest)
     7. check for spelling, grammar, and most importantly flow issues. Then edit the post (things like links to
         resources, underlining, bolding, etc.)
     8. if you add a picture, it will make it a bit easier on your readers’ eyes.

Now, why don't you leave a comment on any of the listenings above? What is your ideal home like? Have you ever gone on a blind date? Would you?

ONE WAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SPEAKING

Hello again!
You have probably received your recordings... but you may still wonder... How can you get better? How to structure your monologue?
In the first place, THINK! Organise your ideas, so that you do not repeat things or omit important points. If you make notes, be VERY BRIEF and make sure you use them; otherwise you'll have wasted precious time. Your notes are only reminders; you cannot read from them!
As you speak, control the time limit, deal with all the points a little and LINK your ideas nicely, so that you make a speech and not a list of answers.

Remember to STRUCTURE your talk; you'll always need:

• an introduction to the topic
• a body, where you deal with all the points
• a conclusion (which you often forget about)

Try to use gramatical structures and vocabulary of the level and please avoid basic mistakes.
You can listen to this podcast from Splendid Speaking, where they analyse a student's short talk. Two more examples analysed here and here.

SOME MORE REVISION BEFORE "CERTIFICACION"

For some revision you can do these activities:

- this is a wordsearch on reporting verbs

- exercises on the passive

- exercises on so / such

- complaints (practical English File 7). We didn't do it in class, but I'll

  try to have a look at it.

  Meanwhile, you can look at pages 108-109 from our coursebook

- For some reading, see the McDonald's webpage and you can also

  do some interactive quizzes about crimes here.

- To practise listening, visit the British Council , the "learning English" section in VoaNews, elllo.org....

 
And basically, have a look at everything in the blog, you've got loads of material.