Monthly Archives: November 2014

A word on Grammar: Old or Elder, Farther or Further

Very often I have been asked this question in class. What’s the difference between Farther /ˈfɑː.ðər/  and Further  /ˈfɜː.ðər/ and between Older /əʊldə/ and Elder/ˈel.dər/?

Farther /Further

Distance: both  farther and further are used to talk about physical  distance . There is no difference between them.

 Ex :    Leon is further /farther away than Oviedo

Additional: Further  is used  when we want to mean ” additional” ” extra” “more advanced”.

  Ex : For further information, see page 153.

 ♥Older/Elder

We use Elder when we want to talk about the order of birth of the members of a family . They are only used before nouns, ie, in attributive position

Compare:

My elder /older daughter has just found her first job

My sister is two years older than me

My eldest /oldest daughter has just found a job

Peter is the oldest student in his classroom

Now, fancy doing some practice?

Lesson Plan : Money

Level: Intermediate

Step 1.  Warm up

A: Students watch the video. Unless they beg for more, I would just play the first  15 seconds, enough for students to focus on the pronunciation of the word “money” which they tend to mispronounce, and on the chorus Money makes the World Go Round, which students will later need to discuss.

B: This second warm-up is a great one. I got it straight from George Chilton‘s blog Designer Lessons  I copy/paste from him–, which I highly recommend.

Ask your students how they would spend a day in their city/town/village without spending any money. What activities could they do? They’re not allowed to stay at home, they have to be out of the house for the whole day.

Put them in small groups and get them to come up with a plan of the day – from 10 am until 8 pm. Conditions – They are allowed to drink water from city water fountains and any food that they find. They should present their plans at the end of this activity.

Step 2. A Bit of Fun with Translation.

Previous to this exercise students have studied Vocabulary related to money, so now it’s their time to show what they have learned.

Students work in pairs or in threes. To make things easier for me, I’ll provide them with slips of paper so that when the time’s up they can raise it up and I can have a quick check. Sentences with mistakes will be automatically discarded and the correct translations will get one point. Time limit: 90 seconds.


Step 3. Speaking. Speed Dating Technique.

♥Photo and explanation of the technique here 

♥Money Questions here

 

Scary Stories for Halloween

If you had asked me like twenty years ago  what my favourite stories  were, I would have loudly proclaimed HORROR stories but  this was back then when I  was brave enough to play with the ouija board  in a badly lit church without fearing anything, when me and my gang broke into abandoned houses with the legend of being inhabited by spirits or gathered around a fire to share  the scariest stories. This was back when one of my favourite writers was Stephen King and my favourite film was Carrie. I feared nothing and nobody. Yep. Those were the years  horror stories were my favourite.

I still like stories with a bit of something , but not like back then. I don’t remember when horror stories started to take a back seat but I guess it was when I began to have nightmares .

These two stories have a touch of mystery and they have been kindly sent by two of my intermediate students. I hope you enjoy them.!!

SNAKES ON THE PLANE  by  Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente

One of my passions is travelling and learning about other cultures and countries so last month I travelled  abroad.

I don´t really like flying but to go from Istanbul to Frankfurt I had no choice but  to travel by plane. The weather was sunny so the plane took off on time.

My trip was perfect until suddenly the  pilot said “We are heading for a storm and there will be turbulence”. I was nervous and worried because the sky was dark and there weren’t any lights inside the plane. I couldn´t see anything, I just heard screams.

When the light returned ,I couldn´t believe what I  saw. There were hundreds of snakes inside the plane. They were furious and they were attacking all passengers.

Then, I ran to the cabin but it was too late. The pilot was dead and I just saw blood everywhere and snakes.

I thought my end had come.

Luckily, when the biggest snake attacked me I woke up and understood that everything had been a bad dream caused by my fear to fly and my snake phobia.

LOOKING FOR SUSAN DESPERATELY by Noelia Espinosa

As every year, I had a Christmas dinner with some friends who lived outside Asturias. We went to a restaurant in Avilés  and after desserts, coffees and some glasses of cider, I felt tired and decided to go home. While I was in the restaurant I noticed a guy  staring at me . When I looked his way , he greeted me  and although  I couldn´t remember him I said “hello”.

When I left the restaurant, I felt that somebody was walking behind me ,very close, and I began to feel scared  so, I started  to walk faster but the person following me also walked faster. Suddenly,  he shouted: “Susan, Susan please, wait for me”. I told him: ”Sorry, I´m not Susan, you´re wrong” but he didn´t care and he went on shouting : “Susan, you´re my wife, we have two children, don´t leave me, please”. I thought “Oh, my God, he´s  crazy!!”

I stopped a taxi and I explained the situation to the driver. He called the police and I went home.

The next day, I read in the newspaper that “A DANGEROUS MAN HAD RUN AWAY FROM THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL” . There was photo of the man. It was him!.

Word of the day: Go on Holiday or Go on Holidays?

Happy, happy Monday!  Today is my son’s birthday, 15 years  in this world and every minute of it making me feel the proudest mum on earth. Lucas , I love you to the moon and back!!.

I have had lots of English teachers in my life so I wouldn’t know who to blame, if any, for some of the mistakes I ‘ve made  when teaching English. Some of these mistakes I have been correcting over the years and  as about the others, I´ll let you know as soon as I spot them. The truth is that  one is never aware  what  one is saying is wrong  until suddenly the penny drops.

When I first began teaching, like 24 years ago, I believed that as the teacher I always had to be perfect and know everything there is to know about English. At the beginning , when my students asked me to translate into English a word I didn’t know I’d make one  up and if I made a mistake sometimes I would cover it up.My only excuse is that I was 23 and my students were much older than me.  When I realised that I was not a machine but a far from perfect  human being , only then did I begin to enjoy what I was doing and only then did my lessons begin to get better , mainly because I was enjoying myself and finally putting all my heart into it.

♥Going on Holidays was one of my mistakes. It is easy for a Spanish student to make this mistake as we translate as Ir de Vacaciones and we use the plural here. But speakers of British English use (be/go) on holiday or return/get back from holiday

I met my husband while I was on holiday in Cuba

I am going on holiday next month

Speakers of American English use (be/go) on vacation

♥The plural Holidays is used with the/my/your etc

During the summer holiday(s) my son is going to work in a shop.

She doesn’t want anybody to know where she is going for her holiday(s)

 

♥By the way, do you know what a (BrE) bank holiday/public holiday (AmE) is ??? An official day when banks and most businesses are closed.

In Spain ,12th October is a bank holiday.