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.