C1 - Use of neither/nor, either/or and so

In class we worked with Neither do I and So do I. Let's do this activity connected to banking and money to practise this grammar point and to increase specific vocabulary:

Extra Activity
We are going to practise with SO and NEITHER and the vocabulary related to banking. Try to find 5 sentences to make your mate say a comment agreeing or disagreeing such as the ones you can see in these examples:

• I prefer to use my credit card to pay in cash when I travel  ----  So do I
• I've never been in the red in my account  ----  Neither have I
• I've never applied for a loan  ----  I have but I haven't paid it back yet
• I can manage to pay my monthly statements  ----  So can I
• I never use an ATM  when I go abroad   ----   I do, especially if I need cash
• I'm rarely broke   ----  So am I but I'm always short of money I've never been in debt

VOCABULARY:

(MAKE) PROFIT     WITHDRAWS      ATM     TO DEPOSIT MONEY     STATEMENT     INSTALLMENTS       TO CHARGE A FEE       TO PAY OFF       IN DEBT     TO BE BROKE     TO OWE   

Neither / nor explanation: click here and this is a video you can use as well.

That's English! - Module 7 - lesson 1: Our planet (B1.2)

Introduction
This unit is focused on improving your vocabulary in order to be more accurate when you describe a place, especially about geographical features. Let's start with this vocabulary and here you can find some exercises to do:

• an easy exercise to stat with: click here
• a list of exercises: click here

General Questions

Work with your partner and answer these questions. Give as many details as possible:

• Where were you born? What was it like?
• Describe the best place you've ver been to. Be precise and descriptive.
• Tell us an anecdote that happened to you or a friend of yours while staying abroad or in another city.
• Do you prefer to live in the countryside or in a city? Why?
• To get relaxed do you go to the country or to the seaside? Why? 
• Describe the most beautiful landscape you've ever seen.
• What city in the world is your favourite? Why?

Activity 1

To start with here are you a listening exercise about Canada. Pay attention the way they describe the country and the use of adjectives. Do the exercise here

Activity 2

Work with your partner(s) and describe a place you've visited and say why you like it. Try to be as precise as possible and use the vocaburay you've learnt about geographical features. Don't forget to use adjectives to express your emotions in your description such as:

amazing - spectacular - gorgeous - lively - incredible - breath-taking - vast - peculiar - outstanding -unspoilt - unique - impressive - awesome - astonishing - bustling

This is a good example of a description of  a well-known place: Paris. To do the listening comprenhension, click here and then use it as a model for your own descriptions.

If you want to know more adjectives related to nature, there is an exercise to help you: click here

Activity 3

This listening exercise is very easy but it's a good exemple to see what you could do to describe your own country. First, do this exercise (click here) and now try to expalin to your mate(s) the geographical features and climate of Spain/your country or a place you know well.

Activity 4

In your textbook, in page 9 exercise 6 you are asked to describe the place you grew up. Besides, tell us how much or little that place has changed. When your mate is working, make questions to get more details and make the conversation more lively. Use questions such as:

• Where is it exactly and how long did you stay there?
• Have you ever come back there? If so, what feelings did you have? If not, why not?
• What kind of memories do you have related to that place? What did you like most and least about your birth place?

Activity 5

Work with your partner(s) to explain the main differences between the north and the south of Spain, or between the coast and the plateau in our country. Then we'll share your opinion aloud.

Activity 6

According to what you've read on your textbook, choose what place of the world you'd like to visit and what place you couldn't go to or you wouldn't stand going to. Give reasons for your choice.

Here you are an example. If you want to know more about Australia, go to this video.

Hope these  activities have been useful. See you in class next\ week!

Welcome to That's English! - NB1.2: module 7 and 8

Great to see you again and welcome to the newcomers! My name is Pilar Álvarez and  I'll be your teacher during this school year.

From now onwards we'll be working with a lesson every week . You should have seen the lesson before coming to class, especially the grammar points and the vocabulary in order to practise. This blog is for all the students of module 7 and 8 and here I'll show you what we're going to work in class: activities, grammar exercises, videos, extra material...

These activities, especially the ones for practising speaking skills, are the base for the oral exam you'll have at the end of each module. You may prepare this exam with the general questions and the exercises given in the blog.

It is also very important to bring your composition of the unir we'll work un class every single week as I'll be able to give you feed-back to improve it. You can take any exercises about writing from the textbook or from the general questions given or suggested on the book. Be constant  and do the composition every week and you'll see your progress.

You know that it's not compulsory to come to class, but it'll be very useful and it's the best way to practise your speaking, to solve your doubts, to get in contact with other mates and so on. We expect you'll attend class as much as possible to improve your English.

To finish with, remember you should check the web page to be informed about the exams, holidays, any changes and what lesson we're having. This blog is only for learning purpous.

Thank you for your attention and hope to see you in class!

C1 - Environmental Issues

On September, 22 we celebrated the World Car-Free Day and there were different demonstrations headed by youngsters and teenagers. In lesson 1B we're dealing with age; this is a good example that it's not a matter of age to be aware of the major problems of our planet. This is a video of Greta Thumberg and her fight against gobal warming and it's amazing how a teenager can manage to tell the truth to the rulers of the world: click here

C1- Improving your writing

On the British Council page for teenagers you can find this section for improving your writing: click here with different kinds of pieces of writing. To start with and as a revision, you can see what they have about a for and against essay: click here and pay attention to the exercises you find there.
In class, we've been working orally with this kind of topic when we were speaking about advantages and disadvantages of a certain age: childhood - teenager age - personhood - elderly age.

B2.1 - Unit 1A: Names - Pronouns and possessives

In this lesson we`ve been working with names and how much they can interfere in your life. This is a listening comprehesion about the topic: click here

The grammar point in this lesson is a revision of pronouns in English. To start wirh, let's see if you can find the mistakes in these sentences:

• My sister and me are fond of football
• I don't like theirs children too much
• I never go with they
• She´s a friend of him
• "Who is it?" "It's I" (Pay attention to the use of IT for people when you don't know the sex yet)

To be sure about the right pronoun or possessive is very important, as you can see in this example:

• Look at him (at Jonh)    but    Look at his (at John´s car, for example)   
• Look at her  but    Look at hers (this is NOT plural but the possessive pronoun)

A student in the class asked me the difference to use TO or FOR with complements. When you use TO is just direction while FOR is for purpose or instead of that person. To see this go to this link.

To finish with this is a video about the pronunciation of personal pronouns; it's American English but you can practise with it. And this other video about how to choose a name for a business, to work with the vocabulary of this lesson.

B2.1 - Leisure activities

We've been working about what you do in your free time and we saw you should keep in mind the typical questions which could help you to speak about it:

• what you do
• when you do it / how often
• where you do it
• if you do it alone or with other people
• when you started doing it
• why you do it

Although it's a very simple topic, it's very frequent to talk about this, especially when you meet people or when you introduce yourself.

Here are there some listening exercises to practise and to take ideas:

• Leisure activities: click here
• Activites to do on a ship: this one
• to hang out: click here

C1 - unit 1A: Uses of YET

In this lesson we've seen the use of YET in two sentences from the extracs of p.7:

• Alternating between Elisavyeta's and Pavel's competing YET complementary perspectives...
• Together we were earning around $100,000 and YET it just got frittered away in cabs and restaurants.

As you can see, YET can be used as:

• an adverb
• to discuss an additional idea
• to give emphasis
• as a conjunction

To see how to use it go to this link, or to this one. This last link is just to see good examples in which YET is used as a conjunction: click here.

To sum up, YET is an adverb that means the action is not finished or it's in progress ("todavía", "aún"). But as a conjunction the meaning is similar to "however" ("y aún así"). With superlatives the translation should be "hasta ahora".

Starting the New School Year!

Welcome to the new school year 2019-2020. Here are we to go on with English. This year there will be some changes but we'll be able to solve the problems we could have, you'll see.

The levels I teach are B2.1 and C1 so most of the activities will be oriented to these groups. Nevertheless, I'll include other levels if necessary.

To start with, let's see what these levels imply according to the CEFR:

• B2.1: the reference is B2, but this will be the level you'll have when you finish B2.2
• C1

It may help to check your own level if you try to do these tests:

• This is a test to know your level by Cambridge
• Another test: click here
• Or this one

See you in class!