C1 - An example of oral mediation

This is the oral mediation about how to be healthy I showed you: go to this link . Pay attention to what we saw in class about this:

• how to start your speech (who you are addressing is essential)
• be aware of the task and check whether you are asked to give advice/your opinion or not
• don't look at the piece of paper too often, just a quick glance to avoid getting lost
• you should do it with enough time: introduction, explanation and conclusion in 2-3 minutes

How to practise on your own: do this exercise and record yourself with your mobile to check the time, the topic, your fluency and entonation and the coherence of your discuss.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll see you on Wednesday, 8th January. Have fun!

Revision of Relative Clauses

This is the link I showed you in class explaning defining and non-defining relative clauses. There are plenty of grammar explanations if you surf on the internet. The most important thing is to use it in your speech better than to do lots of exerises but if you want to practise with exercises that's a good idea as well.

For C1 level, this is the link we watched about multi-words verbs: click here

C1 - Revision: Reporting Verbs

As this grammar point is so arid I think the best way is learning by doing as many exercises as possible, so let's practise with some of them:

• exercise 1 (low level)      exercise 2     exercise 3     exercise 4     

B2.1 - Conditional sentences

In lessong 4B we deal with conditionals. In class we saw all the types and we insist on using the name rather than the number of conditional:

• zero or general conditional: if you have a problem you call an expert
• first or probable/possible conditional: if you have a problem, will you call me?
• second or improbable/hypothetical conditional: if you had a problem, you could call me
• third or impossible conditional (a regret or complaint about past events): if you had had a problem, you should have called me so you didn't have it.

If you want a good summary, you should visit this blog: click here

Here you are some exercises to practise with the connectors:

• exercise 1 (if/unless/as long as)   exercise 2 (if/unless)    exercise 3 (with in case)  exercise 4
• exercise 5 (a list of exercises)

Apart from IF, WHETHER and UNLESS, there are some other connectors such as AS LONG AS, PROVIDING, PROVIDED THAT, SUPPOSING etc. If you want to know a bit more about these connectors, you should use this link and you can practise with these exercises:

• exercise 1      exercise 2     exercise 3

Hope it helps!

That's English! - Module 7 - unit 10: Superstitions and Fears

Not all the superstitions are the same in all the countries; there are differences but what they have in common is that they are true for many people. Let's start with the general questions:

• Do you have a lucky number, clothes or an object you feel more confident with? Do you believe in lucky objects? Give reasons for your answer.
• Are you a supersitious person? Do you have lucky charms you use before important events such as exams, job interviews, sports events and so on?
• Do you think Spanish people are supersititious? Is it a problem of nationality, age, religion or sex? Compare different groups of people according to supersitions: Italian or Spanish versus British or Geman people, a youngster and an elderly person, for a wedding or for an exam...
• What's the difference between a fear and a phobia? Think about some examples.
• Do you suffer from any phobias? Is there anything you can't beat or you really hate? Do you know anybody who suffers from ones: spiders, bees, dogs or eating fish, kidney, etc?
• Were you afraid of anything when you where a little child? Do you still have it?
• Do you have any scary story that happened to you? 

Activity 1

In p.102 there is a gramar point about describing repeated and typical behaviour. You should use WILL for the present and WOULD for the past, like in these examples:

• An actor won't wear yellow clothes during a performance because it means bad luck
• Pelé would kiss the ground every time he won a match

Using this model try to think about some activities for you:

• getting up in the morning  -  going to school as a child - playing with my brothers/sisters - something you used to do before an exam - something you do on Sunday

Activity 2

In p.105 there are some proverbs. Choose one o those or pick up one from the ones given below and try to explain it to your mate (taken from this site):

• "Two wrongs don't make a right."
• "The pen is mightier than the sword."
• "When in Rome, do as the Romans."
• "No man is an island."
• "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones."
• "Better late than never."

Activity 3

Here is a video about superstitions: click here for the video. After watching it, discuss with your partner the following questions:

 Which of these superstitions are similar to those in your country?
 Which are different?
 What are the things that are considered unlucky?
 What are the things that are considered lucky?
 Do you think that there is truth behind superstitions?

Activity 4
What about you? Discuss with your partner if you are a superstious person and why you think so. Compare your attitude with the one when you were younger. Have you changed a lot? In wahat sense? Give reasons for your answers.

Activity 5
Some people think they are going to be lucky and they'll be able to change their life. Here you have a video about luck: click here
What do you think this story is about? Would you do something like that? Why/why not?

Activity 6
This is another video with a programme talking about luck: click here

See you in class and... Good luck with your exams! Next lesson is a revision and we'll have the final exam of module 7 after Christmas holidays so you should start studying.

REMEMBER WE DON'T HAVE CLASS ON THE 5TH OF DECEMBER BECAUSE WE HAVE RECUPERATION EXAMS. However,we have class on the 12th and 19th of December 2019.
We'll practise with this last lesson and with exercises for the exam in class.

A Cover Letter (B2-C1)

Although it's not very frequent to be asked to write a covering lettre, you're likely to have one in the final exam so pay attention to what you should do or what you should include. This link will help you but you should search for models on the internet. Just in case here are you some videos:

• this video is practical and short: click here  (B2)
• this video is a rather professional one but interesting; a bit long, perhaps. (C1)
• this one is quite long but it shows exemples and he speaks very clearly (B2-C1)

You already have the writing exercise (an article) I've asked you for next week, but a cover letter is a kind of wrriting which is very useful for your future as it goes along your CV and many times it's even more important than a resume, so have a look whenever you can and try to practise when you are more free. Maybe during Christmas time!

How to write an article (B2-C1)

Writing an article is a very common piece of writing for EOI's exams so let's practise with it. This entry is for both levels (B2.1 and C1) as you may be asked to write an article in the exam.

But first of all, we need to know how to write an article, the parts we can distinguish and the way to organise it. To help you I think you can use these links or tools:

• a useful video about writing an article
• a guide to write articles by
• this entry of a blog about articles in the exams of EOI's for B2 and C1; it's in Spanish but it's quite clear and with examples.

The topics you may use for writing an article could be one of these:

• the use of technology   or    some devices I can't live without
• how we could be more eco-friendly    or    the climate change
• traffic in your town    or     public transport in your town
• a turning point in your life   or  what I'd like to change in my lifestyle

The task you should do is to write an article about one of the previous topics. Pay attention to the organisation of the article and what kind of article you are using. This time we'll work with opinion articles so you can watch this short video to see how to do it and then write the composition bearing in mind the task as it follows:

• B2.1 : 150-175 words
• C1: 200-225 words 

Remember to reread and check your piece  of writing before giving it to me for marking.