Listening on EDUCATION

HI THERE! 
TODAY I AM GIVING YOU THREE POSTS (3)

• This one on LISTENING. 
• Next one is the powerpoint presentation seen in class and further practice on LET,  BE ALLOWED, MAKE . 
• And below there is a guideline for an OPINION COMPOSITION.

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Visit the following link to practice your listening skill a bit further:

• B1 LEVEL
• Try this a bit more difficult one: B2 LEVEL

KEEP WORKING. GO TO THE PREVIOUS POST below. 

SOME TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

Hello again!

Here you have SOME of the topics covered during these two years. You can practise your monologue with them. Just remember to...

• structure it well (i.e. introduction-body-conclusion)
• include as much specific vocabulary as possible (including phrasal verbs, strong adjectives, )
• avoid basic or common mistakes and use tenses correctly 
• use structures of the level (e.g. conditionals, relative clauses, passives, infinitives/gerunds, I wish, used to...)
• connect your ideas properly

1. Men and women: are we equal?	13. Unemployment: is it getting better?	25.Crime and punishment: should the laws change?
2. There's too much violence on TV	14. Fashion: is it controlling us too much?	26. Is technology isolating us?
3. Should we all pay a TV licence?	15. Tourism: Is it the solution to Spanish economy?	27. Are Spanish streets safe?
4. Stress: how to deal with it	16. Are men too worried about their appearance nowadays?	28. What would the best job in the world entail?
5. Do we complain too little?	17. The worst film you've ever seen	29. Someone you admire
6. Tell an item of news you've heard recently	18. Can we do anything to be luckier?	30. What superstitions do you know?
7. A crime that you've heard of	19. Bad health habits you have	31. Your favourite food/song/group...
8. Have you ever cheated?	20. Who's your favourite relative?	32. Are you careful with money?
9. How would you change your life?	21. Risk sports: have you ever done any?	33. How not to get worked up in a traffic jam
10. Have good manners disappeared?	22. Do you judge people by appearances?	34. How could the Spanish educational system improve?
11. Describe the most amazing building you've ever seen	23. Do you eat sensibly?	35. Are you a shopaholic?
12. Have you ever been near a natural disaster?	24. What's the latest book you've read?	36. How green are you?

Last but not least, here you will find the certification exams we did last year in the Canaries. Try to do them at home and practise as much as possible. Good luck!

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.
Finally, this page from elblogdelingles gives you good advice and some help with the oral too. Good luck to you all!

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.

HOW TO SPEAK BETTER

Hi!

Are you wondering how to do a good test? Here's some advice:

1) RELAX!

• Do not get too hung up on trying to sound like a native speaker. Would you start learning the piano in an attempt to sound like Mozart? Just try to speak clearly and correctly.Avoid basic mistakes and use some "nice structures" and specific vocbulary. Short sentences are just as good (if not better) than long rambling explanations. Remember that you have to stop and breathe!
• Get over any fear you might have of making mistakes. You will make mistakes, so be patient with yourself. Learning any language can be frustrating, but frustration won't help you, so let it go.

 2) PRACTISE!

• Grasp every opportunity you have to speak with people in English. Read short stories out loud and try to see, say and hear the words to reinforce your memory. Record yourself and play it back later, how does it sound?  
• Don't worry about your accent too much. That said, people need to be able to understand you, so pronunciation and enunciation are important. Don't worry about sounding like a native, it is more important to speak clearly and pleasantly than it is to sound like the Queen of England - Even the Queen of England doesn't sound like she used to!
  
• Record yourself, keep the tape and record yourself later, have you improved? Don't be shy - ask a friend to listen to the tape too. 
• If you make a constant mistake in pronunciation, you should record the right pronunciation of that word and listen over and over again so that you will be familiar with it, or write down the pronunciation. Remember you can always check the pronunciation in an online dicitonary like
• Try singing along to English songs. Lots of the major games consoles have karaoke games nowadays, like Sing Star on the Playstation. You can find some karaoke resources and ideas on the learn English through songs page.

3) SPEAK! Find English speaking friends:-

• You might not be able to find any friendly native speakers where you live, but you can find English speaking people on the Internet! 
• There are several internet based voice chat programmes out there: iVisit | Pal Talk | MSN Web Messenger | Yahoo! Messenger | Google Talk | Skype, etc.
• Look for people with the same interests as you. It's no good asking everyone you meet to help you with your English, rather develop natural friendships based on your hobbies etc. Eventually you will make friends and they will be much more likely to give you correction / guidance.
• Join an English club or conversation group. If you can't find one, talk to friends who are also learning English. Go out together for coffee and only speak English to each other!
• If you can travel to an English speaking country, do it.

You will also find excellent advice in Dulce's advanced blog here.

HOW TO MAKE A GOOD COMPOSITION

I hope this presentation helps you in the future. Some of the ideas are also good for the speaking test.

HOW TO MAKE A GOOD COMPOSITION

FINAL EXAMS

We have to do two sets of exams this year: the "pruebas de dominio " and the "pruebas de certificación". You have already done one prueba de dominio (in January) but there is another in May. The dates are as follows:

Pruebas de dominio (in your usual lesson time):
WRITING: Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th May
LISTENING & READING: Monday 10th & Tuesday 11th May
SPEAKING: Wednesday 12th, Thursday 13th, Monday 17th & Tuesday 18th May (talk to your teacher beforehand, to arrange a time). After the exams, we will have normal lessons to prepare more for the certification exam and finish the course. You will get your results ("notas") on Wednesday 2nd & Thursday 3rd June.

Pruebas de certificación: from June 4th until June 14th, but we do not know the exact dates yet. We will keep you posted.