That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 9: Science Fiction

Let's talk about the future and imagine how many posibilities there will be in 20 years time or so. As we do in every lesson, let's start with the general questions to discuss with your partner:

• In what ways will life be different by the end of the 21st century? Pay attention to different aspects such as transport, communication, city life, medicine and health, education and so on.
• Do you think life exists on other planets? What would that life be like? Should we reserch on that to check if we are alone in the universe or is it a waste of money and time? Should we keep on such search?
• What changes will you see in Spain in 50 years time? Take into account social, economical and physical changes, especially in everyday life.
• Do you think technology will help us in the future or will it be a drawback for humans? Give reasons and/or examples for your answer.

Activity 1

Discuss with your partner about your future in  10 years time about the following topics:

       Family     Work/studies     Travelling     A flat/a house     Where you'll be living

Try to use all the future tenses with sentences such as: In 3 years time I'll have finished my degree at university and I'll be looking for a good job in a big company. I'll try to find a new house and by the end of 2019 I'll be living on my own.

Activity 2

What are your feelings about the future? Are you hopeful or scared about future? Talk about the dangers and the advantages of using technolgy. What will change in our future?. Make predictions using WILL and then we'll compare your feelings and your predictions with the rest of the class.

Activity 3

This is a listening comprehension exercise about homes in the future: click here. What's your opinion? Would you  like to live in such houses? Do you prefer your current house? Why/ Why not?

Activity 4

This is a link with cards to speak about future. You'll see different forms and tenses to express future. Work with your partner with these cards and pay attention to the tense you use each time. Click here

Activity 5
Imagine you are a fortune teller. Predict or guess what is going to happen to your mate in a short term, in 5 years time, in 10 years time... To help you with your task, you can use this video.

FUTURE TENSES
About grammar, this unit deals with future tenses. This is a video to see how to use present simple, continuous, going to and will; it's quite simple but it's useful to start with..  If you need more practise here are you some useful links: this is a good exercise or you can do this one with all the tenses. This one is quite long and you also have this link to grammar explanation or this one here.

C1- Unit 4B - Tongue Twisters

This kind of games is very common in English, especially for children. Here have you got some examples to practise your pronunciation:

• Tongue Twisters for children
• A funny video
• A list

Have fun!

B2.1 - Freeganism

This is the video we saw in class: click here. However, there are plenty of them on the internet but with many different levels. Have a look here:

• An exercise with different options about Freeganism: click here
• Advanced level: The food-waste rebel (C1)
• Another video of a family in favour of Freganism: click here

Cinema in Original Version in Alcalá

If you are fond of movies in original version, you're lucky because you have two good options in Alcalá as you can see below:

• Cineforum at Teatro Salón Cervantes, where you can see films on Wednesday and Thursday. There are 2 sessions: at 18.30h and at 21.00h. The information is here
• Films in original version at Cuadernillos Cinema: here is it the link

C1 - Listening Tests for Practising

Thanks to a coleague I've come across this webpage to practice with listening comprehension. You can use it right here but I'l also include it in the Useful Links section on the right side of this very blog. I'm quite sure you'll find it very handy.

• https://englishlistenings.com/ielts-listening-tests

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 8: Crime

As usual, we'll start with general questions about this topic. Here you are some questions to work on with your partner(s):

• What are the main crimes in your town/country? Have you ever been a victim of one of those? If so, explain what happened to you.
• Do you think prison is an effetive form of punishment? What other forms of punishment do you know?
• Do you think cybercrime is a big problem in Spain? What about downloading? Is it a crime?
• Are there any measures to be taken to avoid or reduce the crime rate in our society: more severe laws, more or longer punishment, more help for people who are at risk of exclusion, educational measures...?

Activity 1

Imagine you have been burglared and a police officer comes to your house. Have a role play in which you are the victim and your partner is the police officer. Give as many details as possible about what you've been robded. Then change roles and in this occasion you are the police officer and you've been mugged in the street or pickpocketed when you where on the bus. Ask questions to get details. what happened, when, where, what items you were stolen and so on.

Activity 2

Think about a detective story, novel or film you've seen recently and tell the story to your mate. If you don't remember one, try to make up a detective story about a famous detective such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot, Agatha Christie's strories and so on.

Activity 3

Here you have some listening exercises to practise:

• a short exercise about crime: click here
• this is a funny video about a crime: click here
• this is a very easy listening about a "perfet crime": click here
• this is a short text with audio including some words about crime and punishment: click here
• this a very long one but it's divided in 4 exercises: click here

Activity 4

About grammar this unit deals with non-defining relative clauses, which are the ones in which the relative pronoun can't be replaced by THAT. They are like an explanation and they go between commas (as if it were a comment or an added explanation). Here you are an exercise to see the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses: click here.

Let's practise with this. This game is called Taboo and you can't say the word in your card or very clear clues. Describe the object or the person you have in your card so you should use WHO, WHICH or THAT, like in this example:

• a screwdriver: it's a tool (which/that) you use to fix two things together. You need a screw, which is a piece of metal similar to a nail, but you also need another piece with a hole in the middle (something similar to a little ring) to fix it. - destornillador

REMEMBER: When THAT / WHICH / WHO are not the subject of the subordinate clause, it can be elicited or removed from the sentence; e.g. It's a kind of tool (that) people use to cut something or to peel fruit, vegetables or so ( a knife).

Activity 5

To work with vocabulary of crime and punishment, here are you some exercises to practise:

• exercise 1    exercise 2

This is an entry on a blog about this topic; it has some videos and vocabulary: click here


Activity 6
To finish with, remember you use passive voice while talking about this topic (reviewing this grammar point from previous lessons). Let's see some examples by ansering these questions:

• Have you ever been stolen on a bus or on the train? What were you stolen? Did you reported the theft? What happened in the end?
• Has your house ever been burglared? What happened? What were you stolen?
• Have you ever been mugged in the street? What happened? Were you hurt?

European Union News

I've been sent some information about grants and some help for European people. The link I've been given is this:

• https://europa.eu/youth/discovereu/rules_es

I hope this will be helpful for you.

C1 - Cleft Sentences

I think this is a bit confusing grammar point so I've found these links to help you:

• this short video is a good starting point although it's a bit simple
• this is a BBC Learning entry: click here
• this exercise it`s really useful and also this one
• this example might give you a clue about how to use cleft sentences

C1 - Environmental Issues

This is a really recurrent topic and very actual. You have plenty of chances to be asked about this topic either in speaking or wrting parts of the exam. Here are you some material to work with:

• From the British Council, you have these exercises of listening:
• This listening comprenhesion about climate change
• This one is about reducing waste
• This is called A Plastic Ocean
• This is about wasting food

If you want to read something about Environment, this link of The Independent is quite interesting. There is a similar one in the BBC and another one in The Gardian.

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 7: Help the World (B1.2)

This is a very humanitarian topic as it deals with NGO's and organisations focused on helping people or the planet. Let's start with the general questions:

• What are the main charities or NGO's in Spain? Do you support any of them? Why/why not?
• Do you think these charity organisations are necessary? Try to find pros and cons.
• Have you ever worked as a volunteer? What about the experience? If not, why haven't you done it? Would you like to join an NGO? Which one or what about?
• Have you ever taken part into an event to raise money? What was the experience like? How did you feel? Would you do it again?
• What do you think about famous people who give their support or their image to raise money for these organisations? Do you agree? Do you think it's just marketing?

Activity 1
Some people think that charity is not the solution of a problem and it makes the problem last longer. What's your opinion? Discuss this with your partner and try to find different aspects of this topic.

Activity 2
About grammar, we are going to work with the construction I wish + past simple and If only + past simple. They are used to express wishes and desires for the future so choose some of the below suggestions and tell your partner(s) about them:

• to buy a new car    to have a better/bigger house      to live abroad      to go on a luxury trip   
• to speak other languages     to win a lot of money      to get a gap year at work/your studies

Activity 3
The other structure is with past perfect tenses (If only/I wish + past perferct) and it is used for regrests or complaints as it is referrred to the past not to the future as the previous one. Use the same examples but use them as if you were upset because you didn't do those things at the right time.

Exercises:  exercise 1       exercise 2       a list of exercises here 


Activity 4

Here you are a listening comprenhension about charity. Do the exercise and then comment about what you have just heard. Click here

Activity 5

Some charities are more popular and have more supporters than others. Discuss with your mate about raising money for homeless people, children with problms or for unsheltered animals. Try to give reasons for your answer.

B2.1 - Revision of prepositions

In Unit 3B we're working with prepositions while describing a photograph.  This video could help you with a short revision of prepositons of place and movement: click here. If you want to practise with this grammar point you should do some exercises like these:

• very easy ones:  exercise 1      exercise 2    
• intermediate level: exercise 1    exercise 2 (prepositions in general)
• upper-intermediate: exercise 1 (including phrasals)

How to write a review

As we've already seen some short films so I'd like you to write a review about one of them; maybe you could chouse the one you liked most. Don't do it too long, just 150-175 words as a short writing.
Nevertheless,  and in case you haven't been able to attend the session of ALCINE, you could do the write a review of a book or a film you've enjoyed lately.
To help you how to do it, there are plenty of links to see what you need to do it properly. This is the list of possible links:

• Writing a review for FCE: click here. At the end of this page you have some task to work with. Choose one of them or do it with the short films we've already seen in ALCINE.
• This link has an example of a book so it might be useful: click here
• This is a summary on how to write a film review, useful sentences and an example: click here

I hope this information will be useful but you might find some more on the internet.

ALCINE Festival 2019

On the 8th November we saw some short films. This material is what I've found about them on the internet. Let's have a look:

• 73 Cows by Alex Lockwood: this is the film and this is a conversation with the farmer; click here
• Roughhouse by J. Hodgson: some info here and this is the trailer
• Take Your Partners by Siri Rodnes: an interview with the director and the actress and the oficial trailer
• Work by Aneil Karia: this is the link for the film

As the speaker who introduced the films said at the theatre, what they have in common is how important it is to make decisions and how these decisions or choices affect to our lives.
Next week we'll speak about them in class. I hope you enjoyed the films but you must admit how actual the topics are, anyway.
Thank you for coming and for the lovely talk after the cinema. See you in class!

The Next versus Next, the Last versus Last

The Next versus Next / The Last versus Last

POSITION (with article)	TIME (no article)
The next (like the following in a list)	Next as a time reference of future
Examples: The next time I had a problem I asked for help I'll be the next person	Examples: The last time I saw him was yesterday I'll be the last one
The last (at the end of a list)	Last as a time reference of past
Examples: The last week of the term we'll have an exam	Examples: Last Friday I went to Paris

This exercise will help you to distinguish the difference: click here. If you need more practice, click here

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 6: Films

The topic of this week is really appealing, isn't it? Films (or movies as Americans call them,) is one of the most typical entretainment for everybody all over the world.

As usual, let's start with some questions taken from your textbook (exercise 11, p.62):

• What kind of films do you enjoy the most? Why?
• What is the last film you've seen? What was it about? Did you enjoy it?
• Who is your favourite film star? Why? What was the last film starred by the actor you saw?
• Are there any kind of films you can't stand? Why?
• Do you follow any film festival? Do you usually see films rewarded with an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Lion of Venice or any other award? Are these festivals necessary?
• Do you know anything about ALCINE Festival in Alcalá de Henares? Have you ever been to?
• Do you like short films or animation films?
• What do you do to choose the film to see? Do you read film reviews? Do you ask anybody about the film?
• Do you prefer watching films on television, a DVD at home or going to the cinema? Explain the main differences in your opinion.  

Activity 1

Talk to your partner about the main differences between European or Spanish films and American ones. Explain which ones you prefer and give reasons for your answer.

Activity 2

Revise the vocabulary of this lesson and try to find a definition with your own words of these terms:

• blockbuster - dubbed films - feature - length - selected for screening - to release - indie films

Activity 3

Here you are a listening comprenhension exercise with an ordinary conversation about movies; click here. This other exercise is about inviting someone to the cinema; click here. Both are a good example to practise with your partner later. 

Activity 4

About grammar, we deal with an important point: passive voice. Remember it's much more usual in English than in Spanish and it has the function of impersonal forms in our language. Here you have a link with a long explanation and exercises at the end: click here. You should use it in your writing but also in your speaking as it is very usual. Rephrase these sentences using passive tenses to see how frequent it is in English:

• Someone stole my movile yesterday
• Many people say American films are much better than Europeans
• Somebody gave me this packet for you
• Someone told me you have a new job
• They opened a new exhibition about Picasso

Activity 5

To practise for the exam, here you are an exercise of gap filling. The topic is different but you can find many examples of passive voice; click here.

Hope to see you in class!

C1 - How to Write a Proposal

It'son page a possibility as a writing exercise in the exam. We did it in speaking on page 8 so let's have a look as a writing paper. You may go to this link (the one used in class) but there are plenty of them on the internet. Remember you can also use the samples given by the British Council like this one.