Halloween is coming! (31st October)

 This is a very well-known festivity in Anglo-saxon countries, especially in the USA. If you want to know something about this you could do some exercises:

• a listening comprehension: click here to do it
• some activities in this page of British Council: click here
• vocabulary: try to fill in this crossword exercise
• Comparing British and American Halloween: 10 differences
• By the way, if you want to know differences between British and American English, click here.
• If you want to read a scary short story, this is a sample as a fill-in-the-blank exercise: click here
• Why don't you try to write a spooky story? You can do it in Classroom.

For more activities connected to our textbook, go to Classroom to check what you have for homework. There are some days without class but we need to go on with our lessons.

Unit 1B: Use of Auxiliaries, Double Compartive and Compound Adjectives

 This lesson has a lot of grammar so let's try to see it as something useful and not as dull as you may think.

The Use of Auxiliaries

This part of the lesson is connected to how to use auxiliaries in tag questions, echo questions, by using "so" and "neither" or as an emphatic form of the verb.

• I took this document from a really good blog (Mey English Class B2): go to this link
• You can use this exercise to practise the use of auxiliaries: click here

Double Comparative

As I've already told you in class you should review the rules for compartive forms and its spelling.  If you want, you can use this video: click here. Remember double compartive form is quite common and you can also find it in usual idioms such as: The sooner, the better  or   The more, the merrier. Once you've seen in your text book how to use them you can do this exercise to practise more: click here.

Another way of using double compartive is by saying both comparatives with AND, as you can see in the example: You need more and more  practice if you want to speak better  or  There were more and more people around the street artist.

Compound Adjectives

To explain this grammar point we should know what a "false participle" is. We form new adjectives by adding -ED to the end of a noun like in  this example: an aged woman. But the most common ones are those which are formed by two words: bad-tempered, left-handed or big-headed . Besides, there are some other endings for these compound adjectives, like real past/present participles: well-behaved, well-known or good-looking. If you think it's clear, do this exercise: click here. Once you finish with it, use the dictionary if you have any doubt about the exact meaning ot hese adjectives.

Unit 1A (2nd part): Job Interviews

 Apart from grammar, in this lesson they deal with job interviews, which is something very important for your own future. Let's see some videos related with this:

• How to Prepare a Job Interview: a short but really interesting video about your performance in a job interview. We'll work with this video in class but if you want to review it you can click here.
• Top 10 Job Interview Questions: quite easy and a bit repetitive but useful as well. Pay attention to the vocabulary connected to job interviews such as weaknesses and strengths, detail-oriented, to overcome a challenge, career goals,, etc. Click here for the video.

Another useful thing we should do is to review the vocbulary related to work and job-seeking so you can go to this link to start with and then you have this one, which is longer and with translation into Spanish; the problem is they don't distinguish between formal and informal English and the translations are rather scarce. If you want to improve your vocabulary and your spelling, do to this exercise.

We'll practise in class with these questions and we'll simulate a job interview by playing the roles of interviewer and interviwee and swapping roles. Nevertheless, if you want to practise more, you could do it with another mate by using the MEET link in Classroom or just by recording yourself while answering the typical questions in an interview. Remember that the more you practise, the better you'll do it. 

This other exercise is a listening comprehension but I'm afraid is not very natural as a model but it's worth a try in the end: click here. If you want to have a higher level of listening comprenhension, go to this video in which you'll learn how to face the typical trick questions or problems in a job interview: click here.

Just to finish awith, remember you can find many examples and tips for job interviews, so surf on the Internet and you'll find very good ones like this one: it's not  for learning English but it gives you clues about what to say: click here

See you in class!

Unit 1A: Questions and Answers

 Let's start with the textbook but as some of the students are still trying to get it, I'll introduce the main grammar point of this lesson: how to make questions in English.

I'm absolutley sure you know how to make questions but let's check there are no doubts, especially in those cases which are a bit different. This is a summary of the kind of questions you can find:

• YES/NO questions: as they have this kind of answer, they are also called "total" questions. The structures is AUXILIARY+SUBJECT+MAIN VERB. These are some examples:
• Is he attending our class?  ---  Yes, he is    Can you drive?  -----  No, I can't
• "Partial" questions: when you only ask something in particular, that is, a "part" of the sentence; these questions start with WH-words but you also need the inversion, as you can see in these examples:
• WHERE was he born?  -----  He was born in Murcia.
• HOW MANY children have you got?  -----  I've got 2, a boy and a girl.
• HOW MUCH sugar do you need?  -----  Just a little.
• WHY did you phone Susan yesterday?  ------  Because I wanted to meet her.
• Exceptions: when the WH-word has the function of the subject in the questionyou don't have to use the inversion; have a look at the examples to see how they work:
• WHO is coming tonight?  -----   A few friends (THEY are coming)
• HOW MANY friends are coming?  -----  Just 3 or 4 close friends.
• HOW MUCH sugar is needed?  -----  Not much (Not much sugar is needed)
• WHAT happened to you?  -----  Nothing (nothing happened to me).
• Negative questions: if you use the negative form contracted, there's no change; however, if you use it as a normal adverb, it'll take that position. Look at the examples:
• Aren't they coming?    BUT    Are they not coming?
• Indirect questions: as you only have one question mark in a single question, you can't use two inversions, just one. Let's see the examples:
• Can you tell me where the car is?
• Do you know what the answer is in this item?
• Questions with prepositions: when the main verb of the question or an adjective go with preposition this should be kept in their natural position, as you can see in the examples below:
• How many people do you work with at work?   ---   I work with 2 people
• What are you listening to?  ----   I'm listening to classical music
• What sort of music are you fond of?  ----   I'm fond of salsa

If you have time, visit this link with examples of questions; it'll be pretty useful, I think. At the end you have some exercises but you'd better practise orally, paying attention to grammar and entonation. These are suggestions to review questions:

• A goog exercise is to take a sentence and to ask about different parts of it:
• Yesterday Peter came to school by car  because he was late  --- Who came by car?  How did he come to school?  When did he come by car?  Why did he do that? etc.
• Another good way to practise questions is by asking about a story or a fairy tale, like in the example:
• Cinderella: Who was she? How many sisters did she have? Why was she so unhappy? What happened to her during the ball?  What did the prince do? etc.
• You can do something similar but with a real anecdote. Try to ask the questions below and you'll realise you have the way to write about that. These are some examples:
• A trip: When? Who with? How? How long? Where? What was it like? Why? etc.
• An embarrassing moment in your life
• What I used to do as a child

Hope this entry will be useful. See you in class and remember to do the reading comprehension and the exercises of vocabulary on pages10 and 11 of your textbook..

Starting a New School Year 2020-2021!

 Welcome to the new school year 2020-2021. Here are we to go on improving our English. This year there will be some changes due to the pandemia but we'll be able to solve the problems we could face, you'll see we'll be able to manage.

The level I teach is Nivel Intermedio (B2.2) so most of the activities will be oriented to this level. Nevertheless, I'll include other levels if necessary.

To start with, let's see what this level implies according to the CEFR:

• The reference is B2, but this will be the level you'll have when you finish in May.

It may help you to know your real starting point by checking your own level so you should try to do these tests (as many as you like):

• This is a test to know your level by Cambridge
• Another test: click here
• Or this one
• In this link you'll see other links for a placement test and for the different levels you can have

Remember all these placement tests are only based on grammar and vocabulary, but they don't include productive parts such as oral and writing skills. 

Before starting with our virtual class, let's use the blog as a guide for your homework. For next week, I'd like you to do these exercises:

• Write a composition (150-180 words) about your experience of learning English and why you're studying it now. Remember to use a general structures of introduction - main idea - secondary ideas or examples - conclusion. Check what you've written before handing in your work.
• Listen to the monologue you recorded with your own movile in class and try to improve it so that you can do it again taking into account what you checked  (gaps, fluency, repetitions, vocabulary, entonation, etc.)
• Reviewing the 2nd conditional by practising orally. If you need any help for this you could use part of a previous entry in this blog to help you: 

 The types of conditionals are these but 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.

Focusing on hypothetical conditional, you can visit this blog for a good summury: click here. And this is the link of Perfect English I saw you in class: click here for the explanations and thses are the exercises: exercise 1 and then you could go on with exercise 2.

To finish with, this is the link for the previous entry in this blog that has already been used in this very entry just in case you want or need more practice: click here.

If you want to here a good example of conditional, listen to the song If I were a boy by Beyoncé, but be careful with the spelling.

See you in class!

Exercises to Prepare B1 (B1.2-That's English!)

As you can see from the previous posts, I've found Idiomium, which has a lot of information about exams. But what I like most is that it's well organised in skills so it's easier to use it. You can choose exercises and practise according to your necessities and your available time. The only problem is that they take PET exams as models and in EEOOII the exams are different.
Have a look and use this link to practise: B1 / PET exams
In the same site you can find exercises to prepare it in skills:

• reading
• listening
• writing and this other one about "tipos de writing"
• speaking
• PET exams

So most of the samples are taken from previous exams and maybe you've already seen them so it's just a good way of having the possible practice organised by skills to get to what you need faster.

Hope this is useful.

Exercises to Prepare B2

I've found by chance this blog to prepare exams of B2. Although it's suppose to be a higher level I think it might be useful to work with; if you find it too difficult, look for the posts of B1. The purpose of this post is to give you exercises to practise English using the format of exam in order to get familiar with it, as it's just practice.
On the other hand, if you feel challenging to have a try with C1, go ahead; but remember there are many differences among CCAA in Spain and also in other institutions which provide exams. As an example, notice that B2 is considered "inglés avanzado" while in Comunidad de Madrid it's the end of intermediate leve.
The examples shown here are taken from previous exams so you might have already done them but the way they are presented is very useful, that is, by skills, although mediation is not included.
The link I´m talking about is this: B2
in Idiomium they also have other links for more practice also by skills:

• listening B2
• reading B2
• writing B2 but also it's useful this entry "tipos de writing"
• speaking B2
• B2 / FCE exams

As usual, let me tell you you should use this practice in chunks, that is, in little portions and paying attention to your weaknesses.