Tuesday, December 16, 2008

(Avanzado 1 &2) I elfed myself

Cor Blimey, it's Christmas again! Doesn't time fly? Not that I like Christmas that much or I'm dying to get the tinsel or the mistletoe wreath, but just for a bit of fun and to wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year you might as well have a laugh at these triplets on the dance floor. Mind you, one of them is more like the Grinch, what with that face...
Enjoy your holidays and I'll see you after Christmas. Any New Year's Resolutions, e.g. little lies, like "I'm going to study English!"?
See you!
Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thursday, November 27, 2008

(Avanzado 1) Too old for rock'n'roll, too young to die

That's the title of a song by Jethro Tull, a 70s group. Do you feel you're too old for some things and too young for others?
Well, to know (roughly) how old you will be, this website has a life expectancy calculator that will work out yours after answering questions about your health and lifestyle. The vocabulary may be a bit difficult so if you need to, use a dictionary.When you get the results, check what the website suggests you could do to improve your life expectancy. Then, send a comment into the blog telling the others about how old you're supposed to turn and some advice they gave you to live longer.
And going back to the title of the post, these people below are probably not too young to die, but they're certainly not too old for rock'n'roll! Watch them sing a cover of The Who's "My generation" and ask yourself if you expect you'll be doing these things when you are their age!!! What do you think you are too old or too young to do? Dancing to pop music in public? Have babies? Start it all over again? Get drunk? Settle down? Watch or read comics? Do you feel a bit embarrassed because you like doing things which are not considered suitable for your age? Tell your partners.
See you after the loooooooooooooooong bank holidays, when we'll all be a bit older.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

(Avanzado 1& 2) Like peas in a pod...cast

If you missed one of the Friday classes (you probably did, as only a few of you turned up) you didn't hear about podcasts, a portmanteau -some people think- of the words Ipod (Apple's sleek mp3 player) and broadcast. Some others, however, claim that's wrong and podcast comes from the acronym p.o.d. (public on demand) + cast. A podcast is...well, you'd rather watch this video to find out.












Where can you find the podcasts? Probably the best way to download, subscribe to and manage episodes is iTunes. If you haven't got it yet and want to download it you can do it here.
If you are experiencing problems or you're not exactly what I'd call tech-freak, watch this video for troubleshooting.
If you want to browse through the wide array of podcasts available to you, you can either-

1.Once you've downloaded and installed iTunes, go to the Podcasts directory and search for the category you're after. Choose one episode of a podcast to download the programme or, if you really like it so much, subscribe. Problems? If so, watch this video. Otherwise, you might as well skip it.
2.You can also go to some websites which function as search engines for podcasts. Take, for example, Podcast Alley. You can also go to the site and listen to it online, with streamed audio and/or video if you're not interested in subscribing yet.
3.There are also some directories with podcasts specially created for teaching English as a second language. Probably the best is Englishcaster. The good thing here is that you can choose the contents and they're sorted out by levels, target audience, type of accent...

Even though your teacher's explanation has been outstanding -or... hasn't?, do not hesitate to ask him if you can't make head or tail of it and you're stuck.
What do you have to do? Homework (or rather, not more homework, this is fun) for next week is- choose only one of the podcasts you've been listening to and fill in the questions in the file I should already have given out. Do not feel disappointed if you find it difficult, think that some of the podcasts are programmes for native speakers! Choose one that you find suitable, prick up your ears and enjoy yourself.

To finish, why don't you give this one a listen (I'll be watching out for giggles, I'm warning you) then think it over and come to class with a few tips or suggestions?






If you want to check how this audio file looks on a website, you might want to check it here.

That's all, peas in the pod.

Monday, November 10, 2008

(Avanzado 1 & 2) Sing along, it's the jukebox!


If you're a teacher, it's always difficult to choose which song it is that you students will listen to and some of you, barely a few maybe, will even like it!!! You know that I play some music in the background while you're doing some of the activities (for details look out for information and the regular update on the sidebar, at the bottom of the blog-What was the music in last week's class? section), but I'll also play some songs throughout the year because:
a-They're in the book (don't expect much, though, be warned)
b-I can exploit the lyrics to practise vocabulary or grammar we're dealing with in the lesson. Not easy but sometimes a song is clearly about crime, fashion, or whatever, or else there is a lot of passive sentences or phrasal verbs or 2nd conditionals and teachers can use it in class for practice.
But have another look at the title of the post-What is a jukebox, anyway? An old-fashioned gadget that allows to choose with a flick of the finger what to listen to next. Like every year, I've made up my mind that we're going to listen to some songs just for fun, for the sake of listening to songs in English, and that... is your part.
You have to choose the song (if possible) and/or artist (if you just can't decide, you like so much all of his/her/their stuff) you want to listen to in classes. You will have to write a post into the blog about your suggestions. I will check for feedback so that by the end of next week, hopefully, I should have a whole lot of ideas and songs you want me to play.
That's the homework- a collection of students' all-time favourites, that catchy tune you have never been able to get out of your head, that song they were playing when you were lucky to pick up a girl/boy, those lyrics that your poor English prevented you from understanding and always wanted to know what they were saying... Just anything.
Bear i
n mind, though, that we'll be playing one song every other week or so, that makes a total of about 12 songs altogether. That means you'll have to make up your mind which your definite request is going to be, as only those songs/artists which are most valued by the other students will go into the final selection and be played in class.
Do not forget to write your name (complete with the surname, please), level, and this time the group you belong to, because it might happen that one group chooses different songs from another. Your post should resemble something like this: your name, level Avanzado 1, Group M., my song for the jukebox is...If you want to tell the others why that song is so special, please do.
And that's it. DJ Carl is ready to play your tunes.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

(Avanzado 2) TLK2UL8R

Er...elephants using text messages? If you think that this can only be a joke read the transcript of the BBC article that we listened to in class (October 30) and find out whether the latest gadget might actually turn out to be handy sometimes.
Do you think banning mobile phones (cell phones or cellulars in the US) in some places, e.g. restaurants, would be a good idea? It bugs me when people start speaking loudly so you can't help noticing them, but there are more important reasons to ban mobiles in some other places or to some other people. You have the transcript for the other listening here.
I know this is not South Korea but students are quite alike everywhere. I hope I'm not giving you any ideas about cheating in my exams if you read and listen to another article. Just in case I'll cut you off...

Also, here's the first issue this year of The Guardian Weekly. We'll be doing this some time so as to improve your reading skills, especially if you've set out to get the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). As usual, it's authentic material, not abridged or adapted, taken from The Guardian newspaper. Just read it for practice. We won't be reading this in class, we'll just deal with problems or doubts (if any, I might be underestimating you...) Click on the link below and download the reading in pdf format (you will need Acrobat Reader, if you don't have it get it here). You have the key at the end of the document so all you have to do is simply check how well you did.
Emoticons_advanced-1.pdf

What's the homework? Send a comment either about noises or situations which bug you, annoying things which really piss you off, e.g. mobiles ringing in the middle of a film, or- send a comment about a time you cheated in an exam, like the students in the article. Did you get away with it or you had to go through the embarrassment of being caught out by the teacher?
Thats's all. CU ;-)

Friday, October 24, 2008

(Avanzado 1) Gossips, gossips!!

Why don't we do a bit of gossiping? We've just read about the things the members of Abba had to go through, the problems they had with the media.
If you really want to see the difference between the so-called tabloids and more serious newspapers, check these ones- The Sun and News of the world online editions with dramatic, big headlines and fascinating stories, and something quite the opposite but a very good newspaper, The Guardian.
This is what you have to do. Flick through a few pages or headlines of the tabloids and choose your favourite juicy gossip to send in a comment and tell your partners about it. Also, page 3 is quite famous in The Sun. You'll have to find out why (but don't get too carried away by imagination, boys)
Finally, if it's not personal, have you ever been the subject yourself of some gossip, true or not? You know neighbours make up stories, acquaintances spread rumours, especially if you come from a village. Anything you were involved in, according to the rumour mill?
That's all. We'll gossip a bit next class!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

(Avanzado 1 & 2) There are not sex symbols in the band!

Or there are not six cymbals in the band?
Oops, phonetics is important or else you might be saying something rather embarrassing. Do you like the piss and quiet or the peace and quiet? Or someone asks you after the show what you think of the drummer...or the drama? And what you can see over there is a ship or, rather, a sheep? Have you got two uncles or two ankles?
We've just started with phonetics, so don't fret. You'll soon become familiar with those strange symbols.
Whenever you want to hear the sounds of English language you can go to a few pages I recommend- you can get some practice with vowels, diphthongs, stress or intonation in this Cambridge site, in Fenetiks and Antimoon.
For those who are more into getting a very distinctive American accent (a few cases in Avanzado 2 I can think of), you can try this dictionary of American pronunciation.
Also, you can look up in Howjsay the pronunciation of words you don't know the meaning of or you have doubts about how to say it correctly.
I've got a friend who's got a friend who knows someone...well, it was me, I admit it- Once I happened to be in a flat alone and the plumber came over to fix the heater. He asked me for a cloth with a strong Wolverhampton accent and even though I didn't understand what he might need it for I fetched him a...clock! Have you got any other embarrassing misunderstandings, a gaffe you can recall because of mispronouncing? Send in a comment with an anecdote.
See you!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

(Avanzado 2) Tag this question

You are students, aren't you? And I'm your teacher, aren't I? And you want to improve your pronunciation, don't you? And now we've done some exercises about question tags, you can tell the difference between rising and falling, can't you?

Well, go to this page, read and listen about Giovanni's problem and see if you finally understand when and why to use which intonation.
Why don't you send in a comment to the blog telling your partners what it is that makes English a bit more difficult for you?
Was the listening difficult? It shouldn't have...
See you!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

(Avanzado 1) What's in a name?

Superman? Arsenal? Gandalf?
You must be kidding! How could you name your child after your favourite football team? Read this article (notice that you can also listen to it at the same time) about parents deciding names on a whim and then send your comment telling if you think it should be allowed to name your child after anything you come up with or if there should be some restrictions.
I remember we had, for example, a female sheep, 'ewe' (Inés) and a 'poem or song' (Carmen) in Latin and another 'ewe' (Raquel) in Hebrew in class. If you want to know the meaning and history of your name, go to this link and find out what exactly you are saying when you say your name.
Then do a game about names. Go to this page and on the left handside you will see different things you can do about this theme- an article, a word game, trivia, links... Click on "word game" and you will learn a few idioms, as long as you can work it out! It's a drag and drop game. You will see different squares and you have to drag them to the grid on the right so you can form sentences. Then send a comment telling the others about one of the idioms and its meaning.
That's all about names!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Welcome students

Hello students!
Holidays are over, you feel miserable that you're starting classes again and to make things worse your teacher decides to start a brand new blog for you. It will be more work for me but hopefully I will be able to cope with it. Look out for new messages, as it will be updated with more activities or interesting links for you.
Just for some fun this time (it's the first post, I don't want to frighten you...yet), why don't you have a look at these videos about English? As you can see here pronunciation could even save your life. Or perhaps make you famous for your catastrophic English... It is also important to learn English so you know exactly what the lyrics say, as you might be dancing to some weird chorus, like this family. An to finish, however absurd it may sound, some people don't realise they can speak English!
What do you have to do? Just watch the videos and (to make sure you will be able to drop a few lines in the message box when the teacher asks you to, and see if you had any problems to do so) tell the others if you liked them.
Also, what do you think about this blog? Do you think you'll find something interesting, do you think it's not going to be much use anyway, do you think it's a waste of time? Write a few lines about what you expect. Don't forget to write your name and surname and your level.
That's all for now. See you!