Just a few words...

...to say thank you all for being such good students. I had a very good time in class and I hope you did too! :-D

All the best for the future!

And have a great...

Last minute advice

Only kidding! :-)
See you tomorrow guys!

Equivalencias entre titulaciones

Take a look at the first table on this website. I hope it's useful!

Syllabus for the exam

Syllabus

Regarding the final mark, it breaks down as follows:

- Exam -> 40%

- Oral presentations and participation in class -> 40% (1/3 each)

- 3 compositions written at home -> 20%

More on "had better / would rather" & reported speech

- Handout 4B "Had better / would rather"
Answer key


- Reported speech

Practise

Exercise a & b
Solutions ex a
Solutions ex b

Online exercises

# Exercise 1: General
# Exercise 2: Statements
# Exercise 3: Questions
# Exercise 4: General

Fun bits: The English Study Group

Some English students meet at the cafeteria. Each one has a particular problem with the language: grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary or stressing words correctly. Watch the video and see the hilarious results.

And here is the script if you want to look at it.

Breaking news: Royal baby on his/her way!

The British await the birth of the third in line to the throne ;-)

Kate in labour as world waits

Informació exàmens

Dimecres 24/07 - Prova d'expressió escrita de 12.30 a 13.30h

Dijous 25/07 - De 9.30 a 11 aprox., proves de:

- comprensió oral (3 listenings amb preguntes de comprensió)
- escrita (2 textos amb preguntes de comprensió)
- gramàtica i una mica de vocabulari (40 preguntes de selecció múltiple)

Nota: L'assistència mínima per rebre qualsevol certificat és del 80%, és a dir, mínim 16 dies dels 20 lectius. Si un alumne no arriba al nombre mínim d'hores d'assistència no rebrà cap tipus de certificat. Si un alumne suspèn el curs, rebrà un certificat d'assistència sense nota.

Team building exercises

• If you liked the activity that we did today, check out similar ones:

Survival scenario exercises

Team Building Activities for Survival Scenarios

• Had you done a similar team building exercise before?

World Swimming Championships

- Sport picture of the day 

- Dive into Barcelona's Olympic swimming pool
Video


Articles from 'The Guardian'

And once again...

Class docs (July 19th) and more on 'For & against' essays and infinitives & gerunds

Gerunds and infinitives
Extended Theory

Additional exercises
Ex. 1
Ex. 2
Ex. 3
Ex. 4

'For & against' essays
Add. example
Useful language

Recommended links to look for a job abroad

Thanks Jéssica for your suggestions!

- http://becasargo.es/portal/web

- http://ec.europa.eu/eures/main.jsp?acro=job&lang=es&catId=52&parentId=0

- http://www.learn4good.com/jobs

- http://www.hays.es

Composition 3 - Writing an article

In case you want to start working on the last composition:

Composition 3

Write a 'for and against' article (approx. 125-150 words) – To be handed in by Tuesday 23rd July at the latest

Option A:

Write an article called 'Mobile phones – a great invention?' (see handout from class)

Option B:

Advantages and disadvantages of fast food

Class docs (July 18th) and more

- More exercises on articles
Exercises
Answer key


- Comparatives & Superlatives

Form

Class docs (July 17th) and more

- "Being a good guest"
Expressions

- More about eating insects (after today's video)
Reading: FAO asks us to eat insects

And not only insects, but also jellyfish!
The U.N. wants you to eat some jellyfish with those insects

But let's stop talking about insects and let's cook something different tonight! :-)

BBC Food recipes
British recipes

Useful site for pronunciation: Text-to-speech

I strongly recommend you this site. Someone told me about it today and I think it could be very useful for you, for example to practise for your oral presentations.

Text-to-Speech Demo

You can choose US or UK English, and even choose a female or male voice!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

More curious news: A new letter for the English alphabet

Is is that useful? :-)


Letter of the alphabet for 'the' invented

Class docs (Tuesday 16th) - Pronunciation and more

- Vowel sounds exercise

- English rhthym and stress
Handout - Explanation
Extra exercise

- Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
Episode 1 Part 2 - Link
Episode 1 Part 3 - Link
Episode 1 Part 4 - Link
and you can see the other episodes on YouTube too...

- Quantifiers
Extra exercise and answer key

Online exercises
Ex. 1
Ex. 2

Funny news: "No more frying eggs please!"

And we thought it was hot over here! :-)

Death Valley cracks down on sidewalk egg-frying

Class docs (Monday 15th) and more

- Modal verbs - Ability and possibility
Extra handout 3C
Answer key

- Pronunciation bank
English sounds
Sounds and spelling - Vowels
Sounds and spelling - Consonants

More on pronunciation

- Pronunciation tips from the BBC

- EFL / ESL pronunciation exercises

Class docs (Friday 12th) and more

- Composition 2 - task

- More phrasal verbs for romantic relationships
Online pdf

- Additional exercises on used to/get used to/be used to
Theory
Exercises
Answer key

- "The Visitor" - activity with key

Class docs (Thursday 11th) - Listening comprehension

Today we listened to a psychologist giving some tips to help people when they disagree with someone about something.

Comprehension questions

Transcript part 1, 2, 3 & 4

Boomerang kids

Have you ever heard about the "boomerang generation"?

Take a look at these articles:

- Planning to move back home with Mom and Dad? You aren’t the only one

- Third of parents see ‘boomerang’ grown-up children moving back into family home

- Radio programme

Modal verbs - Additional handouts from today

Answer key

Handout 3A Modals of obligation
Handout 3B Modals of deduction

Class docs (Tuesday 9th) - Third conditional and Speed dating

Third conditional - Theory
Add. exercises
Answer key

Speed dating
Listening - Transcript part 1, 2 & 3
Discussion questions


- 2nd conditional - Additional exercises online:
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4

- 3rd Conditional - extra exercises online for you to practise:

Exercise
Exercise 1-5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7

Answering specific grammar doubts

Hi!
Some of you asked about these specific grammar points. Take a look at them and see if your questions have been answered. Otherwise we can have a look in class.

- So and such

- Neither...nor

- Another / other(s)
Extra explanation

- Book/hire
Can you "hire a language course"?
You book a course - you are filling one of a number of limited slots. You can hire a private teacher to help you pass a course - you then book certain hours with that teacher. You book an appointment at the hairdressers, book a table at a restaurant for a particular time. So book is more about hiring someone's time for a specific period/slot. Hence, book tickets for the theatre. Book a chef to go to your house for a specific purpose for a specific amount of time, but hire a chef to work at your restaurant.

Class docs (Monday 8th) - Future forms and conditionals

Future forms - Theory
Add. exercises
Answer key

First conditional + future time clauses - Theory
Add. exercises
Answer key

Second conditional - Theory
Additional explanation and typical mistakes
Add. exercises
Answer key

Answer key to class docs + homework (Friday 5th July)

Travelling advice Open cloze - answer key

Narrative tenses exercise 1B My exam nightmare - Answer key 

Relative clauses - More online exercises
Ex. 1
Ex. 2
Ex. 3

Recommending a website

Your classmate Jéssica recommends:

LearnEnglishKids - British Council

"This web has a lot of videos with subtitles in English. They are just cartoons, but they are funny and easy to understand to practise your listening and comprenhension."


Cheers Jéssica!
Bea

Useful online resources

Check out this list of online resources if you have extra time to practise.

Composition 1 - Details

Write a story (approx. 125 words) – To be handed in by Tuesday 9th July

Option A

Write a story and use this sentence to begin: What a strange dream that was!

Option B

Write about a nightmare journey you had.

Option C

Write about an adventurous or interesting time you had on a vacation.

More about body language - Videos

- Video 1
Are you good at picking up body language signals? Watch the video and find out more about this other way of communication.

Power of body language

- Video 2 

Pre-watching exercise:

Try to guess which of these body signs/gestures can show you are feeling afraid or insecure:

Stare around the room

Have a dry mouth

Talk too much

Look at your watch

Cross legs and arms

Trembling lip

Sweat

Gasp

Avoid eye-contact

Yawn

Rub forehead or throat

Wipe yourself

Hold breath

Now watch the video to confirm your predictions.

Examples of Insecure Body Language 

Present perfect - online links to practise

If you want to do more exercises about the difference between Present Perfect and Past Simple, you can check these links:

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

-Ing / -ed adjectives - online material

If you want to practise a little bit more, check out these links:

BBC World Service

Exercise

Class docs (Tuesday 2nd) + Extra material

Present simple vs Present continuous - State vs action verbs

Theory
Exercises
Speaking task

Listening comprehension - What's your position in the family?

Comprehension exercises
Transcript


EXTRA MATERIAL

- Extra homework - Action vs. non-action verbs
Answer key

- Personality adjectives - Vocabulary bank: exercises

- More personality traits
If you didn't have enough with all the personality adjectives from this morning, take a look at this worksheet.

- Adverbs
Today we had a quick look at adverbs of frequency. If you want to know a bit more about other types of adverbs and adverbial phrases, check this out.

- Strong adjectives
Presentation

Video comprehension: Life in the slow lane

This morning we talked about how some of us are always in a hurry and need to slow down a bit.
You can watch this video about the same topic, also seen from another point of view (companies, and in particular, Google). It may be a bit difficult but you can give it a go and do the comprehension exercises if you want.

LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE

Watch the video and answer the questions below:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4824206

1. What is the “slow movement”?

2. What has the Google company decided to do?

3. What results have they obtained?

4. How did the woman use to spend her evenings?

5. What changes has she made to her lifestyle and what are the consequences?

Watch again and complete the sentences below with one or two words:

1. We’d all be better off if we put the brakes on the _____________________ pace of our lives.

2. If you could go faster, how much more could you __________________ in a day?

3. People on projects that are trying to _____________________ make twice as many errors.

4. The Google company resists _________________ its employees.

5. I would just watch hours sort of _________________________

6. She even found time to write a thoughtful letter (on paper) to a

_____________________ friend.

7. “She’s sending me something via ______________________”

Class docs (Monday 1st July)

These links will take you to the first listening we did this morning:

- Are you a morning or evening person?
Questions
Transcript

- Homework - Workbook
Answer key