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.