Christmas Time - Holidays!

I guess you're preparing your next holidays but as you'll have plenty of time I thought you may want to practise your English for a while. The best way is using the useful links you have on this blog but I've chosen some readings for you. Remember you should write or speak about a short story or a book for the next exam in February. This is my choice of reading but if you want to read anything else, you can do it:

• NA1: 
• a funny story by Mark Twain - A Dog's Tale 
• Vladimir Nobokov : Symbols and Signs
• Toni Morrison : Sweetness
• An article about culture and identity: Danish and Skandinavian people
• If you want to choose something different, go to this link
• This is a "present" for Christmas; common language mistakes that children have while writing: click here. If you fancy, go to the last exercise offered to NI1

• NI1:
• this is a web page with different topics but they are too short: click here
• this has many short stories adapted and many have mp3 as well: click here
• this is a page for English children about language in general with typical mistakes or error. Have a look but don't worry too much if you aren't able to do it: click here

See you after Christmas! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2017 to all of you.

Practising with Listening Skills

There are some links to work on listening on the internet. You can find some if you use Google to find them but you should do it by using this phrase:   listening exercises B1 or listening exercises B2
These are the links I've chosen, but there are many more on the internet. Here you are some and choose the level you need:

• NA1 (B2): 
• the best job in the world; other listening exercises from this same site: click here
• a listening exercise for FCE
• a link to do listening exercises on topics: click here

• NI1 (B1):
• celebrations ; more examples in this link: click here
• an exemple for B1 level: click here
• this is an example of PET exam, a bit lower than the one we usually have but it's useful

• General links:
• Randl's Café: http://www.esl-lab.com/
• a mixture of exercises: http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topicsmenu/listening.html
• working on listening with videos or movies: http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/
• 5 minute English: http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm

NI1 - Preparing the end-of-term exam

This entry is to practise with the exam you are going to take tomorrow and on Wednesday.This is an exam taken form the internet and the topics are about celebrations so it is a complement to the lesson we have just finish.

• Listening comprenhension: the texts are here and the audios are audio 1  audio 2  audio 3 . Don't worry too much if the results aren't so good at first. This is an exam for the end of this level and a bit different from the ones we have in our school.
• Reading part: here you are a test with different parts. As I told you our exam is just to check what we've done up to now while this exam is to check your level but it's a good example of what you can find at the end of the school year so we should start preparing it.

Remember you have a writing part; review in your textbook the models for writing and revise your corrected compositions to see what your typical mistakes are and work on them to avoid them.

I hope this entry is useful. See you in class!

That's English! - Module 5 - unit 8: Back to School!

For those who can't attend the classes, here you are what we did in class:
Vocabulary revision

The topic of this unit is about education. You might have learnt some words or expressions you didn’t know before or the difference between two words which sound very similar or they are "false friends" like: pupil ≠ student,  title ≠ degree,  marks ≠ qualifications, public ≠ state school, single sex ≠ coeducational school

Other words or expressions which are interesting are: compulsory education, to be in detention, headteacher/principal, vocational education, school leaver, to miss/skip class or to fail an exam.

Activity 1

Work with your partner and compare Spanish and British Educational System. What are the main problems from your point of view?

Activity 2

What do you remember of your school days? What was your favourite subject? What kind of school did you go to? What did you use to do at school?

Activity 3

Think about the rules at school and try to add some more rules. Work with your partner.

Activity 4

When you were a child, what were you allowed to do? Ask your partner about things you could/couldn’t do: watching TV, coming back home late, having a party at home, smoking, being up until midnight, etc. Use sentences such as: I couldn’t be out at night until I was 18; when I was 12 I wasn’t allowed to go out alone, etc.

Activity 5

What skills/qualifications are necessary to do these jobs? Discuss with your partner about it saying sentences such as To be a doctor you have to study a lot, you need to be used to seeing blood but you needn’t be rich. Professions: pilot, nurse, pianist, truck driver, ballet dancer, footballer, animal trainer, teacher, car mechanic, writer, actor.

Grammar: modals

• Obligation = Present: HAVE TO – MUST – NEED TO – SHOULD  + infinitive. Past: HAD TO – NEEDED TO + infinitive
• Lack of obligation = Present: DON’T HAVE TO – NEEDN’T + infinitive. Past: DIDN’T HAVE TO – DIDN’T NEED TO + infinitive
• Permission = Present: CAN – TO BE ALLOWED TO – TO LET – MAY + infinitive. Past: COULD – WAS/WERE ABLE TO – LET + infinitive
• Prohibition = Present: CAN’T – NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO – MUSTN’T – DON'T LET + infinitive. Past: COULDN’T – WASN’T/WEREN’T ALLOWED TO – DIDN’T LET+ infinitive.

You may also go to this link which explains modal verbs: click here

Exercises to practise grammar; most of these links are pages with different exercises and different levels; have a look and choose the ones you feel more confortable: 

exercise 1  -  exercise 2  -  exercise 3  

Merry Christmas Messages

Hi everybody!
Here you are a board to write your Christmas messages for our friends in Kolding (Denmark). Would you like to add yours?
Go to this link and join the padlet for Christmas. Remember you can do it in English or in Spanish, as many students there are learning Spanish as well.

NA1 - What's on tomorrow morning?

We've been longer than a week without class. I hope you've already read the short story I gave you. If not, you have time as it is really short but tomorrow we'll work with it in class.

Apart from that, we're going to work with some exercises that are not frequent in the book but we should practise. This is a special fill-in-the-gap exercise about suffixes. It's very useful for increasing vocabulary so please go to this link; although it's not very difficult, it might be a good start.

The same happens with this exercise about some typical mistakes: it's a lower level but it's good to review these things from time to time: click here.

See you tomorrow!

NI1 - Present simple versus present continuous

the difference between habitual present (simple present) and continuous is clear. Have a look on this chart: click here. This other page is very useful as well: click here. You should do the exercises at the end of the web pages but here you are some more:

• exercise 1 (this is the exercise we did in class)   exercise 2

NA1 - Unit 3A: Narrative tenses

This lesson deals with the tenses we use in narrative, especially past tenses. Apart from the exercises you have on the book, let's see some more here:

• an anecdote: click here
• make up a spooky story by choosing the correct tense: click here

And here you have a short story with the audio to practise listening and check how to use narrative tenses: The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce; click here . If you find this story interesting you might like to read this text; click here