That's English! - Module 6 - unit 3 - There's no place like home

As usual, let's start with general questions about this topic:

• If you moved to a new house, what features would you consider most important?
• What's your favourite room in your house and why?
• Have you ever been involved in works at home: redecorating, changing electrical wiring, a new bathroom...? What was your experience like?
• Think about the main problems you can have at home (or in your hotel room!) and discuss with your partener about how to solve them: a leak, a blocked drain, a leak...

Vocabulary
Here you are some exercises to review the vocabulary of housing: exercise 1
You can also visit this blog with adjectives to describe

Activity 1

Imagine you are in a hotel and you have problems in your room. Ring the reception desk to complain: a blown fuse, a leak, a blown light bulb (or burnt out light bulb), a blocked drain ...Then exchange roles.

Activity 2

Describe your house and what you'd like to change. If you've made any works recently explain what you did and what it was like to do it. Then exchange roles.

Activity 3

Imagine you want to rent an appartment for 6 months in Great Britain; you go to an estate agent's to hire what you need. Then exchange roles.

Activity 4

Discuss with your mate about the main problems of the housing bubble and the following housing crash. Is it important to have your own house? Is it better to rent a house?

Listening exercises

• Go to this link to hear some videos about this topic. The problem is that the vocabvulary could be a bit specific and there are no activities or exercises connected to these videos. Click here
• This link is a conversation about housing complaints, with a listening exercise included but rather difficult; click here
• This link has lots of models about housing: renting an apartment, problems at the flat, etc. Click here

Reading

Here you are an article about the problem of housing in Spain. The level is a bit high but you can find very useful vocabulary

That's English! - module 6 - unit 2: Lifestyle choices

Life can change in many ways for different reasons. Think about those reasons and discuss with your partner how life might change due to them; you may think of these among some others:

• Having children  /  a new job, especially in another town / a serious illness / to break up with your partner / winning the lotto / meeting an important person in your life

Have you ever been in one of these situations? Do you know anybody who has? Which of these reasons do you think is the most important for you?

Activity 1

Describe your lifesyle to your partner giving details about where you live and work, your hobbies and free time, what things you'd like to change in your life and why and some of your plans for the future.

Activity 2

Working with vocabulary: choose 5 words from this unit and ask your partner about the meaning and then think about a sentence using that word; e.g.: neighbourhood - sources - compassionate - challenging - choice - belief - to trust - to feed - staff - living off-the-grid

Activity 3

Describe a person you know well (as you can find in your textbook in exercise 4 p.21) using as many adjectives as possible and then explain why you've chosen that person.

You can also do this listening comprehension exercise; click here

Activity 4

What do you prefer ...? Choose between the options given below and explain your choice:

• Living in a big city / living in a small town or a village
• Working for a big company / working on your own
• Living in a flat in the city centre / living in a terrace house in the suburbs

Grammar

In this unit we are working with indefinite pronouns; here you are some grammar explanations like this one  or this, and some exercises:

• exercise 1    exercise 2   exercise 3  exercise 4 and a link with many more exercises

The other point of grammar is about neither / either / both and here you are some good explanations; the one from BBC Learning English, this simpler one or this longer one. Once you've seen the explanation, here you are some exercises:

• exercise 1    exercise 2    a list of exercises

Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday

Today we start with Lent but yesterday it was Mardi Gras, which is a famous festivity in America, especially in New Orleans. Here you have a video of National Geography: Mardi Gras. This is another video, with longer speeches and a bit of history if you want to practise.

Another typical feast is Shrove Tuesday, which is the Tuesday before Lent as well: click here to know what this is and some useful vocabulary; and this link is just an example to explain it, the same as this one.

NA1 - Some Practice for Listening

Although you have this link in the blog and I'm not very sure about the level, let me recommend this listening as it's not very frequent to find this type. It's one of headings: go to this link

That's English! - Module 6 - unit 1: Getting Better

We start a new module and a new lesson as well. It's about health, going to a doctor, alternative medicine, going to a chemist's and so on. Let's begin with the usual general questions:

• Do you have good health? What do you do to be healthy?
• Do you prefer traditional or alternative medicine? Do you believe alternative therapies work?
• Have you ever tried alternative medicine? Which one? What was the experience like? Would you like to try any?
• Have you ever tried to lose weight? Explain your experience to your mate.
• Do yu often go to the doctor or do yu go to the chemist's first?
• Have you ever had a medical problem while travelling?

About vocabulary connected to this topic, here you are some useful links:

• a large vocabulary list  with questions and comments you may use at the doctor's: click here
• here you are a vocabulary of the human body: click here
• a long list of exercises about the topic

For pair work, a common activity is to perform a role playing in which one student is a doctor and the other is the patient. Then you exchange your roles. Pay attention to these aspects:

• symptoms and how long for
• ask for details: habits, recent changes, diet...
• ask/give advice to solve the problem

Another typical situation is going to a chemist's because you have a problem: do the same but this time you are a chemist and the customer. To help you with the conversation, go to this link. If you need some vocabulary you can usse this link as well.

Here you are some listening exercises:   exercise 1  (going to a chemist's)   exercise 2 (about health)    exercise 3 (going to the doctor)

Saint Valentine's Day

This post is a "romantic" contribution to Saint Valentine's Day. Here you are some short stories and some quotes about love. I hope you'll enjoy them.

• short romantic stories: click here
• romantic messages: click here

If you want to know something about Saint Valentine's Day here you have some videos:

• a video about the story of Saint Valentine: click here or this one
• Saint Valentine's day in America: click here or here
• This is another video with some interested facts; clic here

NA1 - Lesson 6B: Reporting Verbs

In this lesson we ork with the topic of news. The language used on the news is quite difficult because there are a lot of omissions and the vocabulary is more precise than usual.
If you want to practise you should go to the international editions of newspapers, which are a bit easier to understand and they have really good articles to read. Here you are some examples:

• The Times
• The Gardian
• Le Monde Diplomatique
• The New York Times

I've found this listening about news, with headings so you can practise for the exam: click here

For the grammar point of this lesson, here you are some exercises to practise with reporting verbs:

• these are quite easy, with clues about using -ING or INFINITIVE : exercise 1    exercise 2
• a bit more difficult: exercise 3  exercise 4   exercise 5

See you in class!