Test yourself at Xmas

Click here and test yourself.

Language exchange

The best way to become truly proficient at speaking and understanding English, is practising, mainly with native English-speakers. Unfortunately, such opportunities can be hard to find. Not everyone has the opportunity to study abroad in the US, UK, or other English-speaking nations.

The Internet offers a world of possibilites to learn and practise languages, you don't have to travel abroad to become fluent. From the convenience of your own home you can converse with other people.

Visit Laura's blog to find out more about exchanges with native people.

Speeddating

Dear all, I sincerely hope you have had a pleasant day today. It was really nice sharing the speeddatinng with you. I hope you enjoyed the class as much as I did. I have uploaded the photos I took today. I'm looking forward to another week of good work with you , hopefully with fun, laguhter and humour. Have a good weekeng and see you next Tuesday

Modal verbs of obligation

This is the video we watched in class today.


Need more practice?
English grammar secrets
Aula facil

Telling a story

Telling a Story
Here you'll find two stories

More listening exercises

Start the week practising your listening skill here.
It has a lot of cultural videos with quizzes and exercises.

Comparatives and superlatives

Unit 106 is about the comparatives we have studied in class this week. Click on EXERCISES below, learn the lesson and do the exercises. Watch the videos to reinforce your learning.


Key

EXERCISES. You can download them here

Base versus Strong Adjectives

Strong Adjectives

Check here the answers to the exercises
To know more
and watch this video

Intermediate 1 (10-12) Writing with the Present Perfect and Past Simple

Dear students,read the previous post and do the same.

Intermediate 1 (8-10) Writing with the Present Perfect and Past Simple

Better late than never
Sorry but I have been very busy this weekend and I haven't had time for the post.
Now you can write your compositions.
Note: I'll copy the ones that some of you have left in the previous post, so you don't need to write them again.

money

vocabulary
If you want to delve into the vocabulary of money,go here and here to review both vocabulary and pronunciation.

And here you'll find the phonetics of descriptive adjectives we have been studying so far, by Marga (NI1-2)

PRESENT PERFECT OR SIMPLE PAST?

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PRESENT PERFECT?

Visit these sites:
ompersonal1
ompersonal2
edufind1
edufind2
edufind3


Watch this video to revise the differences between the present perfect and past simple, then do this exercise

Money matters

Here you have three idioms related to money. They all have a link to a listening exercise. Learn the idioms and do the exercises.
The first two are for intermediate students, the third is real English, so don't get frustrated if you don't understand everything
Time is money
Love/Money makes the world go round
Put your money where your mouth is

NI1 Group2 (10-12) Describing my classmate

Intermediate level students, group 2 from 10-12 in the morning. Read the previous post and do the same.

Describing my classmate

Only for NI1- 1 students, (from 8-10 in the morning).
Remember to leave your descriptions in "enlaces a esta entrada" . Don't write the real name of the person, and try to guess who you are.
Note: Use only positive adjectives to describe people's personality.

Describing people

Describing

NOW GO TO THIS SITE AND HELP POLICE TO FIND THE MISSING PEOPLE.
I have copied this url from Dulce's blog where you can learn and do some quizzes with adjectives.

vocabulary unit1

Dear everybody, the promised vocabulary of this unit

Unit1

View more documents from rrrosaco.

And the crossword to practise some of that vocabulary

Talking about the family

Two listening exercises about the family. The first one is a multiple choice and the second (EXERCISE ABOUT THE FAMILY)is a dictation. Hope you enjoy them.
They are both from ello.org

EXERCISE ABOUT THE FAMILY

The Past Tense

Some of you have told me you need more practice with the past tense.
The following sites are worth visiting.
englisch-hilfen.de
English Grammar Secrets
Aula facil
Learning English on the web
Using English
English page

Pronunciation of the final -ed

Pronunciation of -ed

Pronunciation Of Ed

View more presentations from rrrosaco.


WATCH LISTEN AND REPEAT

Past Tense Ending -ed

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by dentsadventure | Upload your own presentation
Need more practice?
EXERCISE

Want to play a game? Click on the badge below

Listening exercise. Sports

Listen to five extracts from the news and answer the questions. Don't lose heart if you don't understand much the first time, remember that listening is a skill that improves with practice.

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER

I believe that it is important to create a climate of communication in the classroom. The more we know each other the easier it is to share, to have fun, to be relaxed.....
The exercise we have done in class today about sports is for getting to know each other much better. Write what you have found out about your partner in "Enlaces a esta entrada" and read what others have written. Don't worry about the mistakes, the most important ones will be corrected in class. Have fun.

eating in a restaurant

This week we will keep on studying the topic of food and restaurants. The following listening exercise is about eating in a restaurant. It's quite easy you just have to write down what the man and the woman ask for.
Exercise
Taken from "about.com"

Our Recipes

Here you have the site of the recipe we watched in class. Remember to write your own recipes in "enlances a esta entrada" below and then in "post a comment".

ENGLISH MANIA

As you already know, listening is vital when we are learning a new language. It's the most difficult skill to understand and the one which requires more practice when learning a new language. So the more you listen, the better you get at understanding.
Here you have a listening exercise. Start by doing some exercises related to new vocabulary, then watch the video with the English subtitles and then again, but this time without subtitles. You'll see you'll understand a lot more, then do the next exercise and finally listen again but this time try to be aware of the pronunciation, intonation and how words are joined. I hope you enjoy this video.
First do the following
two exercises

Now watch the video


Do the following exercise:

and finally listen again to focus on how things are said and expressed.

Want to change your look this summer?

Tired of the same look?Watch the powerpoint presentation and change your image for the summer while having fun and learning new vocabulary. ENJOY IT

Who is it

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by rrosaco | Upload your own presentation

Please, leave your comment and tell me which Saro you like most

A tribute to Michael Jackson

"One picture is worth ten thousand words."
Chinese proverb


And now do these two exercises (a Listening and a Reading) to know a little bit more about the King of Pop. Adapted from Voa News and CNN News

How MINDMAPS can help you to learn a language

What's a mindmap?
A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. They hold information in a format that your mind finds easy to remember and quick to review. They help you to make associations easily. And if you find out more information after you have drawn the main Mind Map, then you can easily add it in. You can refresh information by glancing at it. As such, they engage much more of your brain in the process of assimilating and connecting facts, compared with conventional notes.

So how to draw a mindmap?
Start at the centre of your blank page.Imagine you want to learn the vocabulary related to cinema (as my own slide below). So your central concept is cinema, then draw branches that converge to the central theme, for example, cast, films,... and then connect subbranches to this, for example to films: action, adventure, love....
and so and so and your mindmap builds and builds and your language learning gets better and better. Remember
have one word per branch,
use images and symbols (even if you are not an artist) and use colours

Watch and listen to Tony Buzan, the man who has popularized mindmaps, have a look at my first attempt and try to draw your own.

Mindmap Cinema

View more OpenOffice presentations from rrrosaco.

And read this interesting article about mindmaps and dyslexic people

Learning English

Well people, the course has just fisnished and summer is just round the corner. Most of you have passed but that doesn't mean everything is over; quite the opposite, now it's time to have some discipline and try to study a little bit during our summer holidays. Teacherfred, who I met the other day on the net, says something quite interesting about learning a skill.


Does this sound familiar to you?. Let's start by doing an exercise
to test if you have understood Teacherfred.
Anyway, the net is full of resources to practise all the different skills. Laura in Guía has written a fab post to keep your English alive this summer. Visit it.

Tony's awards

The Tony's awards are regarded as the theatre's equivalent to the Oscars. The annual awards were established in 1947 by the American Theatre Wing and are intended to recognize excellence in plays and musicals staged on Broadway. Awards are given for best play, best musical, best play revival, and best musical revival, and in categories such as acting, directing, music, choreography, set design, and costume design.
This 63rd edition was presented on Sunday, June 7, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. "Billy Elliot, the musical" swept, winning 10 awards. The musical which is based on the film with the same name, tells the story of a ballet dancing schoolboy in a mining town in northern England. Elton John, who suggested the film be adapted for theatre, wrote the music for the production.
Click here if you want to know more or watch the video below to listen to one of the fabulous songs of this musical.

Thank you

I want to thank every one of my students who I have shared this year with. It has been really great to know you and I wish you all the very best.
I also want to share this wonderful Chinese story my friend Norberto told me some years ago. I hope you enjoy it.

The Wise Teacher and the Jar

Publish at Scribd or explore others: tales Story

I'D LIKE TO KNOW YOUR OPINION ABOUT THIS STORY
use your artistic name

Susan Boyle, right or wrong result?

"Susan Boyle is still a "winner" despite coming second in the final of Britain's Got Talent, said Scotland's first minister.

The debate is open. Should she have won? Apart from the critics and cynics, she has become a social phenomenon in only seven weeks. Only on Saturday night, the final was watched by an audience of more than 18 million. But who has won here? Many, not only her.

Here are some comments from British and American people:

"The irresponsible media that do nothing but play on people like victims for their own benefit to selling papers,capturing media time and scandalizing the hard working efforts of in this case a person who sacrificed and has had one load of issues in life to get through.She's a real winner for sure. She will succeed and she is the winner and the media loses once again to it's pathetic and horrific scum attitude".

"I really wanted Susan Boyle to win as she has a great voice and I got goose bumps when she sang. I think that it was a shame that the bad press she got before the final influenced people to vote for someone less deserving in my opinion".

"Susan was brilliant, despite being a victim of a hate campaign started by the media and papers. Please stop it everyone".

"Susan won a lot of people's hearts. She had none of the back up other acts had. Please stop putting her down".

"Susan Boyle is a gifted singer".

"Susan should have won the competition. Susan's voice is a gift that most people study professionally and academically to achieve. Best wishes to Susan, her dream has been achieved".

"Susan will be in my heart forever!!! It does not matter that she lost!!!! She won big over Diversity!!!! People are stupid!!! Dancers around the world can dance lake them, but Susan is special!!!!! I am very disappointed with these shows!!! I have the feeling that the results are manipulated!!!"


When she first came on stage she said she'd like to be a professional singer and as successful as Elaine Page. Here you have an interview with Elaine Page and what she thinks about it.
Try to do the quizz to test your listening skill

ELAINE PAGE » Make A Quiz

Listening Practice for NB2 students

Dear NB2 students,
I know you are really worried about the exam on Friday 5th.
Some of you wanted to have more listening practice. Here you have some websites where you can listen and do the exercises. Have fun and see you on Monday.


ello for beginners
visit general revision in guia
podcards in Ireland

Barcelona: great football and great champs

Barcelona has proved to be the best team in the world by beating Manchester United 2-0 and getting the most wanted trophy in Europe: the Champions League
Pep Guardiola has guided the Catalans to the Spanish League title, the Spanish Cup and now the European Cup.
Barca were brilliant. The first early goal put United off balance and the second goal killed all
hopes of winning the match.
They were fantastic and they deserved to get the trophy. Congratulations Barca.

Oral Exam

One of the most difficul things when students start studying English is how to ask questions.
As you have been informed, the second part of the oral exam is a conversation with a partner where you may have to suggest something or complain or ask about and answer questions to a given subject.
In the document below you'll have some of the topics we have studied in class this year, with some questions that you might find useful.
Oral

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Study Guides, Notes, School Work tips exam

María Valdés has written an interesting post for advanced students and the oral exam in her blog.

Remember Susan Boyle? She has reached the Final

Scottish singer Susan Boyle has secured a place in the final of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, after performing live on television for the first time.

The 48-year-old woman became a worldwide sensation after her audition performance of I Dreamed A Dream last month.

Sunday evening's show was watched by nearly 12 million viewers.

When Ms Boyle heard the result of the public vote - after her rendition of Memory from the musical, Cats - she gave a victory dance for the studio audience.

When the show's hosts asked her how she had coped with the pressure, she said: "What pressure, I really enjoyed myself, I enjoyed every second. I'd do it again!"

The grand final will be on 30 May and the winner will get a £100,000 cheque.

Ms Boyle's first appearance on the television talent show received more than 58 million hits on the internet site, YouTube.

That earned her a number of famous fans, including rock musician Jon Bon Jovi and actress Demi Moore. She has also been interviewed on American television shows Oprah and Larry King.
Adapted from BBC News.

Want to listen to Memory and do the activity?

No more doubts..... ever!

"Is it with -ing or infinitive without to? "And "I said him or I said to him?"
You can get the answer to these and other grammar problems if you read this post by Laura in English in Guía Nivel Avanzado about English grammar doubts. Have a look at it, it's not to be missed.

Tips for the Exam

Exam Tips

View more presentations from Dulce Rosales.

Dulce has left some useful tips for the exams in her blog. And always keep in mind:
If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.

Henry Ford

Beyonce in the listenings

Here you have the exercises we were talking about in class. The first two listenings are about Beyonce and the other about computers. And a reading comprehension exercise to learn some proverbs.

SCRIPTS

Revising this year vocabulary

Remember the vocabulary you have studied this year?

By Saro Rosales

Exam practice

There are only a few weeks left to finish this school year. I have prepared two exercises for you to practise. A reading exercise with two parts about Marylin Monroe´s life to review the relatives and a listening exercise about a story I read some years ago. The other day I bumped into it in youtube, and I want to share it with you.
“The Good Life” takes you to a chance meeting between an MBA (abbrevation for a person who has a Master of Business Administration: an advanced degree in business)and a fisherman on a small island. The MBA tries to teach the fisherman about business, but the fisherman teaches him about life. Enjoy!

Story by Mark Albion

CLICK HERE to watch the video and do the exercise.

Relative clauses

Here you have a powerpoint presentation by Carmen Torres where you can study the defining and non-defining relatives clauses

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by torrestorres

Writing a formal letter

Learn how to write a formal letter in general and the steps to follow to write a job application letter and a letter of complaint. The homework to do is in the last slide.

Formal Letter

View more presentations from rrrosaco.

Let´s practise with these exercises
exercise 1
exercise 2
exercise 3
And go to Dulce´s blog to know more

How to make a complain

As I told you, here you have the link where you can study how to make a complain.

Mother's day

"Motherhood is neither a duty nor a privilege, but simply the way that humanity can satisfy the desire for physical immortality and triumph over the fear of death." -- Rebecca West


Some years ago I took part in a workship on Family Constellations. In these worships the person who wants to work on a personal problem chooses some people from the audience to play the role of a member of their family; everyone is intuitively placed in a position, including an individual that takes the place of yourself whereby the family constellation comes to life. Those who represent family members begin to feel the emotions, fears and desires of the persons concerned. It is very interesting.
In this particular workship there was a woman that had had serious problems with her mother. She chose some people from the audience to be her mother, her grandmothers, and her greatgrandmothers. They were on a line and you could feel the connection among those people who didn´t know each other, the wisdom that women pass on through her daughters, granddaughters..... But what really struck me was that she was there,alive, because of her mother, grandmothers and all her ancestors. And so are we.
So today I want to dedicate this post to my mother, my grandmother, my greatgrandmothers ....,my sister, my daughters and all the women that have helped us to be here(men will have another post)


Quotes on Mothers:

• "Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter." -- Betty Rollin

• "There was never a great man who had not a great mother -- it is hardly an exaggeration." -- Olive Schreiner

• "A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's." -- Diana, Princess of Wales

• "By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Mother's Day is celebrated at different times of the year in countries around the world. Although most countries celebrate Mother's Day in May.
Find out more here

Revising Unit 6

I hope you enjoy the following exercises

by Saro Rosales

American National Poetry Month

This came to me while I was pottering around this afternoon and I want to share it with you:
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.
One of America´s great poets, and my favourite, is Walt Whitman
Listen and complete the text to know more about him.

Dreamed a Dream

A 47-YEAR-OLD Scottish charity volunteer who claims never to have been kissed has become a media sensation.

A video clip of Susan Boyle's stunning singing debut on the Britain's Got Talent television show last weekend had been viewed by over 12 million people on YouTube, with the numbers rising fast.

The apparently unremarkable woman from Scotland was mocked by the television audience when she initially took the stage, telling the judges she wanted to be a singing star.

She’s now a hot favourite to win the show and follow in the success of opera star Potts, who has made a fortune since winning an earlier series of the show.

US actress Demi Moore posted the comment "It made me teary" on her Twitter page, after viewing the clip.

Read the lyrics while you listen to this amazing voice.

Lyrics | Fantine - I Dreamed a Dream lyrics

Adapted from Herald Sun
WRITE YOUR COMMENTS AND IMPRESSIONS ON THIS VIDEO in comments

Shopping and Reported Speech

Well we are in the final stage and we can´t rest on our laurels. Try this test to check what we have studied in class this week.

vocabulary and grammar » Make Your Own Quiz

Listen also to Dong Junand Noelia talking about the reported speech
and practise with these exercises

Easter

Well Easter Holidays at last. But even at this time of the year we can have a little time to practise our English. Here you have a test to check units one to five (grammar and vocabulary) and a reading exercise with a cloze test.

And if you still feel you need more visit this bbc page

Writing a Review

When we write a composition in an exam or for homework, we sometimes feel that it´s a lot of work after the time we have spent learning how to do it and write it and only the teacher is going to read it. For this reason, as I commented in class the other day, I´d like to upload your reviews. Here you will find how to write it and your own reviews.

A Film Review

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Creative Writing writing

April fool´s

"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year."
--Mark Twain

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. Spanish counterpart of April fool´s is "El Día de los Inocentes".On 'April Fools' Day', people play practical jokes and pranks (a kind of joke that is intended to be amusing but not to cause harm or damage) on each other, and then when the victims are taken in by surprise, all the witnesses shout 'April Fool' at once. Read this article and watch this video to learn more about this day.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Chicken Soup for the .... is a series of books, usually featuring a collection of short, inspirational stories and motivational essays.
I have read some of these moving stories to my students and I highly recommend them. I have prepared a reading exercise with one of these stories, and if you want to read more...

Killing two birds with one stone

This is an exercise to revise the pronunciation of the final -s and the vocabulary of transport and travel. Every time you see a new slide say the word aloud in the plural. Remember the suffix -s is pronounced:
*/s/ when the noun ends in a(n) /f/,/t/,/k/,/p/or /θ/

*/iz/when the noun ends in a(n)/s//z//ks//ʃ//dʒ//ʒ/tʃ/

*/z/ when the noun ends in any other sound.

A good pronunciation is more important than it seems to be. English has not correlation between the sounds and the spelling, for this reason is extremely important to know the phonetic symbols and how to pronounce them. The more we practise, the better our pronunciation will be. In these website pages will find a lot of information to help you in acquiring a better pronunciation.

Repeat after me,bbc,ship or sheep

The Third Conditional

So far we've studied the first and the second conditional, now it´s time for the third.
The third conditional is used to talk about things which DID NOT HAPPEN in the past. . It is often used to express criticism or regret. Like the other conditionals, a third conditional sentence consists of two clauses, an "if" clause and a main clause.

Jennifer explains in the following video how it is formed and used.

And if you want more practice do the following exercises:

exercise 1
exercise 2

III Premio Espiral Edublog 09

Dear all, I´m going to take part with this blog in III Premio Espiral Edublog 09. I´d be very pleased if you could leave your comments and suggestions here.
The English teachers at la Escuela Oficial de Guía have also signed up to participate as "Blogs de Centro", so why don´t you visit these fantastic blogs(links on the right side of this page) and vote for them? Click here
Thanks

Saint Patrick´s day

St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday celebrated all around the globe to honor the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick.Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated each year on March 17th.

Read on and watch this video while you do the exercises. Lucky Saint Patrick's day