WHERE CAN LANGUAGES TAKE YOU?

I loved this inspiring poster and had to share it with my students.

 

MADRID OFFICIAL CERTIFICATE EXAMS WEBSITE UPDATE - NEW SAMPLES!

https://www.comunidad.madrid/servicios/educacion/certificacion-nivel-idiomas

PANDEMIC HUMOUR - THE ANTIDOTE TO GRAVITY IS LEVITY

IF YOU ENJOYED IT, CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE:

CORONAVIRUS: THE WORDS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE NEWS

Hello everyone,

I'm posting some useful links with vocabulary related to COVID-19. You will need to know some of the words  in these articles to talk about the current situation. Click on the icons below for the links:

Also, you might find useful reading the news in English to enhance your vocabulary, you will learn a lot while you keep informed.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Hello everyone,

These days I've been searching for resources for our virtual class. Sometimes I come across things I post on Google Classroom related to your lessons and sometimes I find more general things that I think you might find useful. 

I'll just post a couple of them which I will add to the PADLET wall you will find on the side bar on the right of the blog. This can serve as a reminder for you to use the useful links there too.

I'm aware many of you have less time than they used to at the moment, but others have more spare time than usual. So just in case you find it useful. Those of you who don't have time now, can always explore it whenever you want in the future. So here are some useful links:

The following are great resources for improving your writing skills and learning vocabulary:

This one is a great site to improve your reading and listening skills.
They are classified according to level and you can both read and listen to the texts before completing the multiple choice tests that are proposed. 

I hope you find them useful.

Take lots of care and stay safe

B1 - SECOND READING ASSIGNMENT

Write a BOOK REVIEW of a book of your choice for a magazine for students of English.

Don’t forget to include the following points:

- Background information (title, author, type, setting…)

- Main points of the plot

- General comments on the plot, the main characters, the writing style…

- Your recommendation

* But do not reveal the end of the story!

- LENGTH: 175 words

- DEADLINE: April 1st

The book should be FICTION and have at least LEVEL B1

 * Ask the teacher for a handout with useful vocabulary and a sample of a book review.

VOSCREEN

How can I improve my listening skills?

This is probably one of the most often asked questions by students.

My answer is always the same: Practice. There is no other secret to it, there's no magic formula.

So the point is to practice as much as you can while you enjoy.

I've found a nice application which might help you improve little by little while having fun.

Its name is VOSCREEN and it is free, although you need to sign up. This app allows you to test your listening skills while you listen to short video clips from films, series, songs ...

You will be asked to choose the best translation (if you set the language to Spanish) or the best rephrasing (if you set the language to English) of the phrase/extract you hear in the short clip to check your comprehension.

You will listen to real English in all the videos but you can choose the level of difficulty, the grammar structure you want to appear in the clip or even the number of words of the phrase you will hear.

You can use it on your computer, your tablet or even on your mobile phone.

I hope you find it useful. If you try it, let me know how it went.

IS ROWAN ATKINSON THE REAL MR. BEAN?

Dear students,

I hope you enjoyed the sketch that we watched in today's lesson. After telling your anecdotes in the class and watching Mr Bean, I thought you might enjoy this interview with Rowan Atkinson telling a personal anecdote.

I also recommend the videos on this YouTube Channel from Graham Norton's show. They're really fun to watch.

Enjoy!

WRITING ASSIGNMENT B1 - NARRATIVE: A NIGHTMARE TRIP

Write about a nightmare trip you’ve had (or invent one). Include the following information:

- When was the trip? Where were you going? Who with? Why?

- What went wrong? What happened?

- What happened in the end?

Length: About 150 words

Deadline: 4th March

THEATRE PLAY: SPEECH BALLOON

Dear students,

I hope you can join us for our next cultural activity next Wednesday 12th, at 7p.m. in the school auditorium.

GETTING READY FOR THE OSCARS

Who else is excited about the Oscars? Are you making your predictions?

We'll get a chance to talk about them in the next unit, where we will be dealing with films.

In the meanwhile, here's your checklist for next Sunday night

Let me know if you ticked off many items ;) 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC AND YOU'RE HUNGRY

Before you play the videos below, here's a challenge for you:

Pieces of well-known songs appear in these two videos, can you identify any of them playing the video with the sound off?

In this two funny videos the comedian Bec Hill creates humour with a common phenomenon I'm sure you have all experienced at some time when listening to songs in English: MONDEGREEN.

Mondegreen happens when a misheard word or phrase that makes sense in your head, but it's in fact entirely incorrect.

When we listen to something we don't clearly understand we try to extract meaning from "the noise". This happens a lot when we listen to songs, even in our own language, as many times songs tend to have lyrics that are a bit unexpected or unusual.

If you enjoyed the videos you might also like the following website, an archive of misheard lyrics:

Enjoy it (but avoid creating your own mondegreens in listening exams!😉)

DEAR BASKETBALL

Dear students,

For those of you who love sport and those who prefer the cinema too.

Kobe Bryant, was not only a 5-time NBA champion and a basketball legend, he was also an Oscar winner. These days, in tribute to this brilliant player, many of his fans are sharing the short animation film that won him the film academy award  in 2018 in the Best Animated Film Category.

The short film, Dear Basketbal, is based on a poem that Kobe himself wrote and describes his love for the game since he was a kid. Really touching. #mambaforever

https://vimeo.com/258552634

READY, STEADY, DRAW!

Do you like drawing? 

I've just found a fun game you might enjoy. Its name is Google Quick,Draw!

Actually, it is a tool from Google that tells you to draw an object and gives you twenty seconds to do it using the mouse or a touchscreen. People around the world have drawn one billion images using it and Google uses them to help researchers learn about "machine learning". You will be asked to draw six items the computer will try to identify. You will get information about what the computer thinks you are drawing and you will be able to compare your creations to other user's.

It's a fun way to improve your vocabulary (and your drawing skills!). I should warn you, though, it's incrediby addictive too...

Give it a try and see how many of your doodles can be recognized.

Enjoy!


Here's my own attempt, I got six out of six!  But you're allowed to laugh! 😁😂