Second week

Hello everyone,

Last week was dedicated almost entirely to the study of the phonetic symbols and their physical realisation. Remember it is not impossible to produce the sounds. It just requires practice and the only way to get it is by imitation of sounds. You should use your Multi-ROM and continue practising the sounds.
On the right hand column, there is a also a link to Sephonics under "Phonetics and Phonology Program". I am sure if you practice with it, you will make progress. Don't forget you must make the effort to forget Spanish sounds to speak English and produce the new sounds. As a recommendation, I think you could improve your speaking skills if you record yourselves and then you listen to your own speech.

Here you can download the phonetic chart that I used in class.

We started talking about food, and Benjamín gave us a speech about some tips on how to eat more healthily, so thank you Benjamín!  You had to read something related to healthy eating on http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/. On this website, you can also listen to what you are reading, although some of you found some problems. I hope you can all can do it.

Next Tuesday, Juande is speaking about the food pyramid. You can find a funny game and information about it here ,   here (this one is for kids, but you can also listen as you read!!) and here (this one is more serious). He is preparing his oral exposition, but all of you must read and learn about it, as he or myself will be asking some questions. OR if he cannot come to class (just imagine...) anybody else could come to the front and tell us about the food pyramid. Juande, remember, JUST 5 MINUTES, don't worry about giving too much information or speaking for a long time.

How are you doing with phonetic symbols? We learnt a lot of new vocabulary on food which you had to transcribe. Next day I will ask for that list. I just want to check that you are more familiar with phonetic symbols now, as we will be using them every day.

Well... and I think that is all!
Have a nice weekend and see you on Tuesday!

Welcome everyone to this new course at EOI de Granada!!

We are starting a new course. We all have fresh energy and I know we will get the most of it.

I would like to welcome all the new students and let the old students know that I am so happy to see them again being or not their teacher this year.

Last week was a bit "messy" with all the changes in timetable and room. Remember we will be in room 17 ath 19.00 every Tuesday and Thursday. I am sorry if that change caused any trouble. If that is the case, please tell me and I will try to solve any inconvenience. I know some students had to change their group...

In any case, we started getting to know each other and we were reading about some learning strategies which will help us improve our communicative skills. I hope you practice as many as you can this year (hopefully all of them) and I am sure you'll see the results.

It was useful to hear you speaking and I know it will be very illustrating to read your short compositions next week. Don't forget to write your activity for Tuesday. (Well... if you follow the tips, you should have written it by now!!)

Well... I think this is enough for today.

Again, welcome Inma, Lidia, Cristina, Ana, Tíscar, Juande, Javier, Benjamín, Daniel, Jessyka (do you spell it that way??), Pablo, Eva, and all the rest to come. Feel free to make comments or write me emails to mariaelena@eoidegranada.org

I hope you enjoy this year as much as I will!

Some tips for holidays

Hello everyone,

I was thinking about you today and how you could keep up to date with your English this summer.

Here you have a list of websites where you can find interesting listening activities:

http://www.esl-lab.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/
(I specially like "Private lives" series

http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topicsmenu/listening.html

http://television.grupovaughan.com/

http://www.vaughanradio.com/

http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00.htm


You also have other links on the right-hand side of the blog, for example, audio books and other resources.

It is also a good idea to watch films in English (try not to use subtitles progressively) as well as to read books. You could even start reading authentic books! I mean, not adapted... Well.. but you already know about this!

Have a nice summer (and don't forget to add some podcasts to your mp3!)

M. Elena

Speaking test call

Hello everyone,

there were some changes yesterday in the speaking test call for the 9th of June regarding times. Here you have the new one:

16.00
16.15 Juan Antonio López Ogáyar Ana Olalla Carmona
16.30 Esther Campanario Orantes Gracia María Campoy García
16.45 Ana Arévalo Matas Verónica Navarro Martos
17.00 Francisco Barranco Ruz Ana Genaro Moya
17.15 Juan Román Sánchez María José Ramírez Campos
17.30 Damián Pérez Pérez José Antonio Campaña Ruiz
17.45 María Tíscar Sánchez Lorigo Juan Francisco González Peinado
18.00 Jorge García Camarero Raquel Carmona González
18.15 Juan de Dios Gómez Jiménez María Cecilia Granero Parra
18.30 José Miguel Rodríguez López Francisco Antonio Iglesias Cañas
18.45 Cristina Patricia Sánchez Rojas Ana Isabel Moya Martínez
19.00 Felipe Fernández González María del Pilar de la Plata Sánchez
19.15 Esperanza Benítez Martín María Noelia Bugos Leyva
19.30 María Jesús Fernández García María Dolores Orantes Arcas
19.45 María Carmen García Plata Natividad García Peña
20.00 Francisco Olvera López
20.15

Don't forget to come 15 minutes earlier to prepare your speech and dialogue.

This call will be published at our classroom door (room 4).
Marks will be published on the 22nd of June, at the school notice board.
We will be revising exams on the 22nd of June in room 4 at 19.00.

See you then and good luck!

Thirty-third week

Hello everybody,

The first thing I want to say is that THERE IS A COMMENT BY OURCLASSMATE AND FRIEND NURIA from Italy!! It is on the previous entry. Below the text, just click on "1 comentario" to read it. She is wishing you luck.

This week we have been learning what reported speech is. I know it was a lot in a short time, but I'll be happy if you know what it is, and even more if you can use it somehow.

If you need more practice apart from the workbook, here you have some examples of sentences

More sentences
Questions
Mixture of speech acts

Other things we learnt this last week was how to write a covering letter. We were reading Loli's, which was very well done. Loli, you would just have to complete the company's address, as you didn't write the post code and the city. Here you all can see it. On the second page, if you have a look, she forgot to write "be". This is a passive sentence.

As we did not have enough time in class to study passive voice, I am uploading here a power point presentation I did for my last year students in the second course. I think it will be easy for you.

Passive voice

View more presentations from mariaelenatapia.

Here you have the speaking activity we did in class.


See you next Tuesday at 15.30 in room 4 to do the reading, listening and writing tests. Good luck everybody!

It has been a great pleasure to have you as students... but this is not a good-bye! I hope to see you round the school next year, you studying the first course of Advanced level! I really wish you luck.

Thirty-first and thirty-second weeks

Hello everybody!!

These last two weeks we have been learning many different things!

- When to use gerunds and when to use infinitives.
- Vocabulary about jobs.
- Shopping vocabulary and how to write a CV and a covering letter with Patricia.
Don't forget to write one and send it to me as homework!!
You have to take into account register: it is a formal letter, so it shouldn't contain contractions or informal expression; there is a specific format and formulae for this kind of letter.
- We started learning reported speech, and we will continue this week.

This week we will focus on solving questions and on practicing speaking, so try not to miss classes, please! (I know you always do your best)

Thirtieth week

Hello everybody,

Last week we were talking about the first chapters in The Woman in White, and next Tuesday we will spend 10 or 15 minutes on that too.

We were talking about how we can make our own luck. We all agreed that sometimes, if you think positively, good things happen to you. We were also reading a text about that topic, and funnily enough, yesterday I watched a documentary about that topic as well! Did you?

We did a listening activity, which was the final test in Aragón, and I was quite happy that all of you passed!! So, once again, we checked that if you think positively and are relaxed, you get better results in class, in particular, and in life in general.

Talking about relaxing, on Thursday WE COULD REALLY RELAX in the Yoga session. I must confess I learnt a lot about Yoga, and I am thinking seriously (as well as Juan de Dios) about taking up Yoga.

If you are interested, visit this website. It contains yoga session podcasts in English.


We only have three weeks left, so these techniques will be quite useful as you have to get ready to work hard.