ELLLO : Practise.Listening.Comprehension

31 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

Are you looking for a site to do some Listening Practice? Then ,you have just found it!

ELLLO stands for English Listening Lesson Library Online and it’s an amazing site with tons of listening activities to help you improve your listening skills with audio, video,quizzes and vocabulary.  It is created by Todd Beuckens, an English teacher based in Japan.

The activities contain the tapescript and some  comprehension questions , vocabulary quizzes and  also images to help you understand.

Choose your level (beginner to advanced) and then choose the activity.

♥Interviews : natural conversations with various speakers of English that offer multiple listening options

 ♥ Listening Games : where students listen to audio about a topic and choose the picture that matches the audio.

♥Mixer: a survey that features six different speakers answering the same question. Students can easily follow the topic and compare the various responses. Each speaker’s segment comes with two questions that appear at the end of the audio segment to develop test taking skills

♥News Center :an animated newscast. Each newscast has six stories. For each story, students can try to answer questions about each news story

ELLLO is worth a visit!

Posted in In the Computer Room, Listening. No Comments »

VEO: A video Converter

28 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

VeoVideo Converter is a site in Spanish which converts any type of video online. It’s versatile and very handy. Paste some video URLs or upload videos from your PC and convert them online to MP4, FLV, OGV, AVI, MP3, OGG y WebM  to name a few.

What I like most about this site is  that not only does it convert your videos so that you can see them in your PC  but also in your  Android, iPhone o Windows Phone and tablets.

The only thing you need to do is register for free and paste the URL  or upload the video you want to convert and you’ll receive a link in your email with the link to download the video.

Another important feature of VEO is that it offers the posibility of downloading  just the audio from Youtube .

Posted in Audio, freeware. No Comments »

Dear Mum

25 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

Oh My dear Mommy!

When I found this piece of writing I could  hardly believe what I was reading. I had always thought my mother was unique, especially when nagging  or pestering me but after reading this ,it suddenly dawned on me that mothers have been using the same  pet words, warnings and threats all over the world .

Useful vocabulary:

♥ To Straighten up= to reform  or become reformed

I used to get into a lot of trouble, but after I had my daughter I straightened up for her.”

“If Derek doesn’t straighten up, his girlfriend is going to leave him.”

♥Osmosis=

1. It means the diffusion of fluids through a membrane

2. A gradual, often unconscious process of assimilation or absorption: learned French by osmosis while residing in Paris for 15 years.

♥ESP means ExtraSensory Perception

♥Barn =A covered building used chiefly for storing grain, hay, and other productions of a farm

Do you have the same impression ?Does your mum tell you some of these things?

OMG! I’m a mother now! I’ll have to pay close attention to what I say to my kids.

Posted in Funny Stuff. No Comments »

Game: Predicting the future with Will

23 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

This is a very simple game which requires very little preparation and which you can do as a cooler at the end of the class.

Tell the students you’re a gypsy and that you have the ability to tell their future. Tell the students that they can only ask you one question, so they have to choose carefully what to ask you. (if students are not very confident , ask them to write their question).

Answer their questions by asking them to give you a number (any number up to the number of cards you have created) and then shuffle the cards and  lay them face down on the table ,- if they have chosen number 4  place three cards face down on the table and ,with a lot of drama,  the card which comes fourth  face up on the table. This is the answer to their question.

Posible words on the cards: Yes, it is in the cards/No way/ It’s not likely/ Not a chance/ Absolutely/ Most certainly, no!/Not in this life!/ Most decidedly so!/If you play your cards right/Not in the inmediate future/My crystal ball is cloudy, ask again!

Laura: Will I be rich? Fortune Teller: No way!

David: Will I pass all my final exams? Fortune Teller: Yes, it is in the cards

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A word on Grammar: We are six!

21 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

One of the most common mistakes  my students make is due to their translation of the Spanish equivalent . “Somos seis”

Teacher: How many people are there in the class?

Student: We are six

“we are six” actually means ” we are six years old” so when the teacher asks

How many people are there in the class?  the correct answer must be

There are six of us

 unless, of course, you really are six years old, which I very much doubt if you’re reading this . Do you make this mistake? If so, now you know how to answer properly!

Posted in A word on Grammar. No Comments »

Writing Elementary (A1): Write about a popular group

17 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

It’s not easy to find writing activities  that motivate students but Writing about Music is one of the most popular among teenagers. From my point of view, at this stage of their learning, writing should be partially guided and this is what this activity suggests.
This is the writing task my A1 students had to undertake. I thought I might share it here as I always find it hard to find activities such as this one. Hope you find it useful, too!

Step 1. Students think of a group they know and like and then they provide the following information about their group.
Name:
When popular:
Members of the group:
From:
Instruments:
Songs

Step 2. Students write  about this group , using their notes above.As I suggested , at this stage students need a lot of help and encouragement , so it’s really a good idea to give them a model they can refer to.

This is the model I gave them

The Fray are a popular group in the United States and all over the world today. In the group there are four musicians: Joe King, Isaac Slade, Dave Welsh, Ben Wysocki . They are all from the USA. They sing, write songs and play the guitar, the drums and the piano. Two of the group’s most popular songs are How to save a Life and All at Once.

Step 3:I decided to give my students an extra point if they gave a presentation about their group in class. Most of them did and they even brought along  some flash drives with the group’s most popular songs.

Presentations given by Karen and Alice . Thank you girls!

 


Who said English is boring?

Posted in Writing. No Comments »

Introducing Have Something Done

14 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

This is how I am planning to introduce the structure Have Something Done. I hope it is helpful!

Situation 1. Students are shown a picture  such as a wedding  . Ask leading questions such as Would you like to get married? What sort of preparations are required for  this event?  Make sure students become aware that  one person cannot do it all alone. Ask the students what the solution is or how they cope to elicit that they pay people to do it for them.

Students will most probably tell you that the bride goes to the hairdresser’s and pays someone to do her hair or to paint her nails.

This should be the right time to introduce the structure.

Exactly , so the bride has her hair done at the hairdresser’s and her nails painted at the beautician’s.

Some  more hints :
Wedding dress/ design
Hair /do
Photographs /take
Nails /do
Wedding cake /decorate
Invitations / send
Music at the ceremony /play

 Situation 2. Being rich

Students imagine they are rich and could have all sorts of things done for them , like annoying everyday chores that nobody likes doing plus some luxuries that money allows for.

I’d have my back massaged every day.

Encourage students to use their imagination  and ask them to try to come up with something very extravagant . You can put them in groups of four and vote for the most extravagant luxury  within the group and then within the class. This will encourage everybody to participate and have a nice laugh while learning.

 Grammar and some exercises here

Posted in A word on Grammar. No Comments »

And we wonder why our students think English is confusing?

10 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

Posted in The English language. No Comments »

Writing and Speaking Elementary : Describe a game

6 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

Of all the skills a student has to become fluent at when learning a language  writing is ,for me ,the most boring one. I don’t think it’s the hardest by any means, this prize is awarded to Speaking but the truth is that students find it boring and we, teachers, almost always put off marking essays for as long as we can.

On the other hand, I find that it’s much easier for students to write a worthy piece of writing  if you provide a model , some guidelines to follow and also give them a topic  they are mildly interested in .

Last week’s topic for composition was Writing about a Game .I asked students to think of a game or a sport and answer the following questions

♥What’s the name of the activity? ♥How many players are there? ♥ How does a player start the game?♥What do the players do then?

I also asked some students to record their work and this is what they did(I used a tool called Fotobabble . I wrote about Fotobabble here) . Thank you folks, good job!
Lucia Gonzalez Hide n Seek


Alba Feito “Marbles”

Laura Alvarez The Secret Object

Carolina Macas The Handkerchief

David Díaz The Liar Dice

Posted in Pictures, Speaking, Students' Corner, Writing. No Comments »

Video Lessons: TedEd-Lessons Worth Sharing

2 Mayo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

I’ve known about TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) for quite a long time but although I found their videos very interesting I thought they were too long or too difficult for my classes. Now TED has launched a  new  site, called TedEd,  with  a collection of educational video lessons you can choose by subject and view in class or assign as homework. Every video is accompanied by a lesson with Quick Multiple Choice questions that check your general comprehension. If you have one wrong, you can always check with the video hint and you can also have Think questions that further explore the topic.

For teachers , one of the most powerful features is the FLIP THE LESSON where you can customize the lesson by editing the title, giving your own instructions, select  or deselect any multiple choice questions…etc.

This is a lesson I have flipped for my students. I used the video Questions No One Knows the Answer To to give my students some practice using Reported Speech Questions. You can see my lesson here

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Posted in Audio, Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Listening. No Comments »