Mind Your English!

Hi, there!

Well, Easter holidays are round the corner and I guess you are packing your luggage for your trip to the beach or thinking about staying at home and relax. I thought it would be interesting for you to tell us what you are planning to do at Easter or whether there are any traditional activities you are going to take part in, or any special food you are going to eat, etc..... You can use the comments to do so or write a new post if you are one of the contributors to the blog. I am waiting for you to drop a line or two......don't be lazy! ;-)

And now, let's get down to business: yesterday we basically talked about your coffee drinking habits and learnt how to form superlatives. Here you can find more exercises to work on them:
Superlatives (1)
Superlatives (2)
Game

Now, watch this video and complete the sentences below:

(See transcript here)

Extra listening:
Do you prefer coffee or tea? (with video)
Coffee song

And that's all for now, folks! Enjoy your Easter holidays and mind your English!!!

Published by Mariluz en 7:55 PM Comments

Hey, foodies!

Well, yesterday we basically talked about your eating habits and listened to a radio programme about slow food as opposed to fast food. If you want to know more about this topic, read this text about fast food facts and try to answer the questions.

Now, we also learnt about how to make comparative adjectives. Here you have exercises to practise:
Comparative adjective 1
Comparative adjectives 2
Comparative adjectives (game)

Extra vocabulary:
Food
Vegetables
Fruit
The big food quiz

Extra listening:
Daily Diet
Making a sandwich
Favorite fruits
Food and Health
Do you eat much fast food? (with video)
Fast food factors

Extra reading:
McDonald's + matching exercise + general comprehension exercise

For homework, please do exercises 1 and 2 of the Grammar section on p 59, read the text "Coffee break" on p 60 and do exercises 1,2 and 3 on the same page.

Enjoy your meal!

Published by Mariluz en 9:29 PM Comments

Hi, guys!

Just in case you didn't know, today is Father's Day in Spain (in English-speaking countries they celebrate it in June), and to celebrate it I want to share two of my favourite songs with you: the first one is Father and Son, a beautiful song where the father gives advice to his son about what he's going to face in life, by British singer Cat Stevens, and the second one is Tears in Heaven, which Eric Clapton wrote for his 4-year-old son Conor, who died when he fell out of a 53rd floor window in the apartment where his mother was staying in New York City. I hope you like them!





BTW (=by the way): I just found this fantastic site where you can read and listen to real English. It's called LingQ. Registering is free, so once you register you can jump right in and start lessons. Lessons are short little dialogues, or sometimes short descriptions that link every word to a dictionary, so you can build vocabulary and pick up grammar on your own. You can also write things and have them corrected by a tutor, and also speak in English with a tutor, but this isn't a free service.

Published by Mariluz en 9:21 PM Comments

Hello everyone!

Yesterday we finished unit 5 by reading about different kinds of holiday. Surfing on the net I found the Poseidon Undersea Resort website, a really different sea holiday experience!

We also learnt some verb patterns and practised speaking with a travel agent-clients role play.

Now, watch this video to learn more about verb patterns (people in this video are American, that's why they usually say "like to do" instead of "like doing") :

Exercises about the video
(Video transcript)

Finally, I asked you to write your next assignment: an e-mail to arrange a trip (exercise 6 only). Try to include the verb patterns studied in this unit and the language expressions used in any formal e-mail. Please, hand it in or send it as an attachment by e-mail (DOUBLE SPACE) before the end of Friday, March 26th (before Easter).

To revise this unit, download these files:
Unit 5 test
Unit 5 test (answer key)
You can also do the Revision test of unit 5 on page 152 of your Student's book and check your answers here.

Extra listening:
Great places (+multiple choice quiz)
Resort game
Vacation game
New York (+cloze exercise)
New York City Top 5 Things to Do (+cloze exercise)
California (+cloze exercise)
Adventure game (+multiple choice quiz)
Immigration and customs (+multiple choice exercise)

Extra vocabulary:
Holiday crossword game
Holiday wordsearch game
'Journey', 'travel' and 'trip' quiz

That's all for now, see you tomorrow and
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Published by Mariluz en 6:51 PM Comments

Hi, there!

Just a quick post to tell you about the grants that the Ministry of Education is offering to study English abroad.  Don't miss this opportunity and apply for the ones you like, some are really interesting. And be quick, the deadlines are near!

Published by Mariluz en 12:30 PM Comments

Hi, folks!

Well, this week we are back to regular classes after a neverending exam period. Yesterday I gave you out this worksheet to check the most common mistakes you made in your writing exams. Then we basically learnt some vocabulary related to hotels and talked about the best and worst hotels you've been to. I also explained the use of WILL for spontaneous decisions in contrast to BE GOING TO for plans. I told you to do exercise 3, p 51 as well as this worksheet for homework tomorrow.

Extra exercises:
Future forms
Future forms game
Will or Be going to?

Extra listening:
Hotel check-in
Checking into a hotel
Hotel life

Extra video:
Complaining in a hotel
           (See transcript here)

HOMEWORK FOR NEXT MONDAY: Read the webpage on p 52 and do exercises 1, 2 and 3 of the Reading section and exercise 1 of the Vocabulary section, p 53.
Enjoy!

Published by Mariluz en 2:15 PM Comments

Hi mates!!

What about your exams? Let's share your pain with me!!

Published by joe en 8:50 PM Comments

Hi, guys!

As I promised you, here is the exam that you did in February with the answer keys and transcripts of the audio files. You can download the files to your computer by right-clicking your mouse and choosing "Guardar destino como" on each one:

Comprensión lectora
Comprensión oral
Claves (CL y CO)
Audio 1, Transcript 1
Audio 2, Transcript 2
Audio 3, Transcript 3
Expresión escrita
Expresión oral

And remember that tomorrow we'll have an ordinary class, not the usual Friday oral practice, ok? See you then!

Published by Mariluz en 2:32 PM Comments

Hi!

Today 1st March is St David's Day, the national day of Wales. Follow this link and find out how much you know about Wales. Finally, here is a list of useful organisations and Internet sites about Wales.

Good luck for the students who are going to sit for the oral exams this afternoon and see you all next Wednesday in class!

Published by Mariluz en 2:30 PM Comments