B2.1 - Expressing your opinion

To express agreement or disgreement, here you are a web page as an exemple, but there are many of them. It's really important to sound more natural and accurate while speaking so try to use a large variety of these starters.

Another way of expressing agreement and disagreement is using expressions such as:

• me, too; me, neiter
• so do I; neither do I

Go to this page we saw in class and do the exercise at the bottom to review what we saw in class: click here. If you need further practise or explanation, go to this video

In this lesson (1C-Empower B1+) we are also working with present perfect as well. As this is a revision, you may have a look at this page but I think you should see it in context and especially when you compare it with tenses which are a bit misleading such as present perect and past simple; if you need any help, go to this site or this one.

B2.1 - Present Simple versus Present Continuous

To work with these tenses, you may use previous entries lik this or you may find exercises if you look for them on the internet.
About the spelling, you can revise the general rules about adding sufixes:

• Consonant + Vowel + Consonant in the final syllabel, the last consonant must be double;  e.g.: win --- winner, prefer --- preferred  shop --- shopping
• When the verb finishes in -E,  you drop the -e and add the sufix; e.g.: write --- writing,  cold --- colder, start --- started 

For extreme and gradable adjectives you can go to this video we saw in class: click here. If you want to read some grammar explanation, go to this page: click here. Another example can be found here. Remember to use these adjectives when you describe things, places, people...

To revise the collocations for DO and MAKE you may use this web page  but you can search or the internet many more; nevertheless, here you are a video (not very appealing but useful) with some clues about how to use DO and MAKE: click here. This video is much more entretaining. Here you are some exercises to practise:

• exercise 1        exercise 2

To practise some listening comprenhension, here you are an exercise from British Council for B2.

B2.1 - Making Questions

We've already seen in class the way of making questions. Let's practice a bit with the grammar we worked with. Here you are some exercises to help you:

• a long explanation with a good exercise at the end of the web page: click here
• this exercise is quite simple but it may help you: click here
• this is another exercise to do: click here
• and another one: click here

Once you get confident with the grammar, try to practise with them. Here you are 2 examples:

• A typical way of using subject questions is having a survey: Who has any pets at home? Who went to the cinema last weekend? Who can drive? What happens if you boil water up to 100ºC?
• When you ask about hobbies, likes and dislikes, routines, etc : Who likes sports? Who gets up early in the morning? Who hates rock music?
• For the object ones you may ask questions about another person: What kind of music do you prefer? Who do you speak to when you have a problem? What books have you read recently?

As we are dealing with communication and speaking, here you are a TED talk I like a lot: click here

Starting the new school year!

We're starting our new year (2018-19) and apart from the text book we'll need to make some personal effort to improve your English. Here you are some recommendations so you'll be able to do it on your own and at your pace:

• Read a piece of news in English every day: it'll take you little time and you'll be updater at the same time. If you have an intermediate level, you could use this link of VOA (Voice Of America): click here. If you are in a higher level, you should go to an international edition of a newspaper like The Gardian or Le Monde in the English version, although it's rather difficult to understand.

• Talking is one of the most difficult things to do on your own but not impossible. Take advantage of all the tools you have with IT (the internet, moviles, ipads, etc.) . You could use hangouts, phone calls or  Skype to have a chat with your mates from time to time. You may speak about your holidays, what you've been doing, your plans... You might even use wassaps using the microphone and send messages to your mates telling them what you've done, a book you recommend, a film or a place you liked and say why you recommend it. Why don't you have a conversation group? You may meet from time to time to have a coffee and to talk about a topic. If you need help with the topics, let me know and I'll help you.

• Write an email to your mates or a diary explaining your experiences. Your're not a proffesional journalist but if you write down every week you'll realise that you do many things although you might think they're not so relevant. Remember: the more you write, the better you do it.

• Listening skills are very easy to practise thanks to the internet. Remember you've got some links on this blog (go to useful links on the right bar)  but you can use other links or look for some new webpages. Another possibility is to read a graded audiobook (from the "useful links" as we) and then listen to the audio when you've finished with your reading; listen to it when you're going for a walk, lying on the beach, cooking... and you should do it again some time later to check how much you remember. On the internet you can find many listening exercises if you serach in this way:
• Listening exercises+B2 (better a higher level than the one you are)

• But if you like grammar like me, you can use all the previous posts we've got on this blog or some others you may find. If you need something in particular you should search it on your own by introducing the topic in English or the search bar; e.g B2+Exercises+passive

You've got class again. This school year is going to be a wonderful challenge with all the changes we've got and I'm eager to see you again; maybe you are not in my classroom any more, but you may attend class in next room. Nice to meet you if you're a new student and nice to see you again if you aren't.

Enjoy your classes!