Second term, eighth week

Hi there,

Last week was a short one; after the bank holiday we only had one class.

In that class we practiced conditionals with a role play (Thanks Dani and Rocío!!) and we started talking about houses and architecture. I am sure Benjamín will have a lot of things to teach us. So far, we now know what a loft exactly is. We also learnt some more new vocabulary like penthouse, utility room, lounge, "all mod cons", among others.

We also learnt how to make wishes, for example "I wish my house didn't have a dome", or "I wish I had brought my coat". You have a handout to practise all that. For extension, click here.

Next week we will continue dealing with houses, furniture, decoration and architecture. Don't forget to do the activities on page 151 and to choose a house from the link I gave you (click here) to describe it. We will also check the handout "Describing places", as that will be your next writing activity.

Did you like Charlie and Lola? Watch this!

Second term, seventh week

Hello again!!

Well, I am here again to describe what we have been doing in class this week...
We started with the topic of Education and conditional sentences on Tuesday.

Education in the uk

View more presentations from mariaelenatapia.

Jessyka was talking about a new proposal by the British Government regarding Education: they might raise the age when students can choose to do vocational studies to 14. We were also saying our opinions about it.

Then, on Thursday, we continued revising giving opinions about some aspects of education and school organisation, which you can find on unit 4A. We were also revising conditionals and we learnt that we can have mixed types. Here you have some more practice, if you want, though I will give you some handout to practice conditionals next week. Last week we listened to a song, and this week Daniel has recommended us another one, which is beautiful (well... a bit sad though). You can find it in the comments to the previous blog entry.

We will start describing places next week too, so I gave you three handouts dealing with that topic. Have a look at them try to learn any new vocabulary.

Well, to finish, I would like to share with you a cartoon series which I am a fan of. Do you know Charlie and Lola? :-) Have a look at it and revise city vocabulary.

Don't forget to prepare your roleplays!

See you next Thursday...

second term, sixth week

Hello everybody,

This week we have been dealing with mobile phones and revising relative clauses. Chanelle proposed a discussion about the nature of St. Valentine's day which was rather interesting. I discovered there are not many romantic people in our class...

Here you have the answer key of handout 31.

We were also learning the features of informal letters, and you have to write one. The deadline is next Thursday.

To finish, we listened to a song illustrating how to give advice with conditional clauses. Dani gave us the link in a comment (Thanks Dani!), but here you can watch it again. I hope the song is not in your head the whole week!!

Second term, fifth week

Hello everyone,

Last week we were dealing with cultural problems (cultural shock, cultural gaffes...) we might encounter when we travel abroad. Paco was also talking about some foreigners' conceptions about Spanish people. Thanks Paco!

You have the activity Cultural Gaffes in the School Virtual Library, with the code 0000000293, but you can also find it by its title Cultural Gaffes. There, you will be able to watch the video again and check the answers to the activities.

We finished with a review of modal verbs, which I hope you can now understand and use more and more.

We were also doing some vocabulary activities on mobile phones (or cell phones as Benjamín would call them... you know why!. You can also find the activities and the listening in the Virtual Library, title Cell Phones or code 0000000294.I hope the sound is better in your computers; I must apologize for the technical problems we had in class. Next Thursday, Ana Fajardo will speak about her experience with mobile phones. She is expected to use that vocabulary as well as modal verbs,and the grammar we have been studying so far. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Someone else could also speak about the same topic too

Then we started with relative clauses. You have some handouts to do and I will soon upload the answer key.
An advanced topic was raised, and it was about the difference between Cleft sentences and relative clauses. It is a topic even linguists don't agree on. If you want more information about it, click here and look for "Structural Issues", in the fourth paragraph, but I insist: you will study this point next year or even more likely in Avanzado 2.

Wel... that is all for now...
See you on Tuesday with Chanelle.

Cultural gaffes

Hello everyone,


Here is the link where you can find the video to do the activity on Cultural Gaffes. I hope tomorrow you can see it in the Virtual Library with the key of the activities. Look it up by its title Cultural Gaffes.

See you tomorrow!

Second term, fourth week

Hello everyone,

Last week we were learning many new and interesting aspects. First, we revised how to convey how certain we are about something with modal verbs of possibility. Then, we also revised how to convey ability with can, could and be able to in all verbal tenses and we finished with modal verbs analysing how to convey obligation, lack of obligation, advice, stronger advice and prohibition with must, have to, don't have to, should, had better, mustn't and can't. Next week we will continue practicing modal verbs and we will also learn some cultural aspects about different countries.

I strongly recommend you to (you'd better) do the activities in the workbook in unit 3A. There is also some vocabulary related to mobile phones, which we will also revise next week. Meanwhile, if you have time, have a look at this link and this one.

We were also learning the difference between adjectives ending in -ing and those ending in -ed.

Click here for more practice.



Feelings alphabet

And now... let me remind you of your homework:
- Don't forget to read the links about the symbols and characters in The Birthmark. Ana Moya will be talking about that on Tuesday.
- Handouts: revision of modal verbs, phonetic transcriptions of adjectives, reading: "Do the right thing"
- Workbook unit 3A (and complete 3B and 3C if you haven't yet).

By the way... only Jessyka commented on your future teacher!! I am waiting for your comments...

See you on Tuesday!

Second term, third week

Hi there,

Last week we were learing how to make guesses, either when we are pretty sure from the evidence we can see or when we are not so sure.
We have been making guesses about people's personality from their appearance. But don't forget that looks can be deceiving!

Why don't you add a comment below and say what you think about your next teacher? Imagine this is a picture of him: :-P

Don't forget to use modal verbs...






Do you like Oasis? Here is a song by them. Do you understand the title? Why do they use "might"?

Click here for the lyrics

We were also introducing modal verbs which can be used to speak about our ability, not only present ability, but also past, future, "always/never in my life", etc. and you had to think about examples of your past, present, future and ever-in-your-lives abilities.

As homework, you had to read the text on page 43, and I recommend you to complete unit 3B in the workbook.

You also had to read the links to understand Young Goodman Brown better. On Thursday we will have an oral presentation about it.

See you!