Category Archives: Listening

Need to improve Pronunciation and Listening??

14 March 2013Audio, Listening, Resourceslistening, listening sites, onlineCristina Cabal

Yes, yes … if you want to know, it is still raining in Asturias. No wonder it is always green!! And though visitors ohh and ahhh over our beautiful landscape and mountains these days we, locals, are a bit fed up with the weather. Monday to Wednesday I’ll be taking 42 students on an English Immersion Camp and this weather is going to spoil all the fun… but … it’s no use crying over what you cannot change.

This little site SoundsEnglish can be quite useful for students wishing to improve their Listening and pronunciation skills. In this site you can get practise at all levels. It has a simple layout and two or three tasks for each listening. To practise pronunciation you can read the tapescript along with the audio.

Hope it is useful!

The Voice:Blind Auditions. Revising Physical Descriptions

19 December 2012Funny Stuff, Games, Listening, Music, Speaking, Students' Corner, Vocabularyfun, games, methodology, picture description, videoCristina Cabal

Whether you are a fan of this kind of programmes or not, nobody can deny this talent show has been a big success worldwide. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about The Voice is a singing competition that consists of a blind audition where four coaches (famous singers ) select the members of their teams, a battle phase and then the final, where the audience selects The Voice. It started in The Netherlands like two years ago and since then the format has been sold to many countries where it has also been a big success.

The idea for this activity came from the French teacher in my high school, Yolanda (see picture). Just by chance she commented on how much fun their students had just had doing this activity and right away I asked her to borrow her idea for my English class.

The instructions are fairly simple.

♥Students in pairs and with their backs to the whiteboard listen to someone singing but they won’t be able to see them, that’s why it’s called Blind Auditions.
♥Working with a partner, they decide what the person they are listening to looks like (see handout).
♥When the audition finishes and without turning their backs, they need to decide whether they want this person in their team to be THE VOICE. If they want them, they should raise their hand making the V gesture and saying I WANT YOU!
♥Now, they’ll have to compete against the other students who also want the singer. The singer will belong to the team who has the most accurate physical description of the singer.

I have selected these two videos you don’t like the game, at least enjoy the music!!

Jack-o-Lanterns in Halloween History

28 October 2012American Cultural aspects, ListeningA2, B1, customs, halloween, listening, videoCristina Cabal

I hope you’re not getting sick of so many posts about Halloween. This, if my memory doesn’t fail, is my third post about this tradition but I’m afraid you haven’t seen the last of it as we’ll be throwing our Halloween party on Wednesda . I’ve boarded the Halloween train and I have no intention of getting off .
As if cooking and decorating were not enough for my students, this video about the history of Jack O’Latern will set the mood for the halloween party and do the trick

QUESTIONS FOR PRE-INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS. Click here

QUESTIONS FOR INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS . Click here

Stonehenge: one of the world’s most ancient landmarks.

22 October 2012freeware, ListeningA2, listening, online, videoCristina Cabal

and one of the most mysterious , too! In fact, over the course of years, scientists and philosophers have tried to attribute their origin to Merlin the wizard, to druids and even there are some crackpots who think aliens were involved but the truth is that even nowadays, after countless studies, nobody can say for certain why it was built. Was it an observatory, a temple for sun worship, a healing centre, a place to bury the dead or a giant calendar? How did they manage to carry the huge stones and then, without any metal tools or machinery build this impressive, unique structure?

I’ve selected this video about StoneHenge for my elementary students. I have chopped the original from YouTube using TubeChop because it was too long and probably too difficult, too. Hope it is useful!

I have decided on the True/Flase exercise because I think it is easier than the Open Questions option.

AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO, DECIDE WHETHER THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ARE TRUE OR FALSE AND CORRECT THE FALSE ONES.
1. StoneHenge is in Northern England
2. According to the Medieval legend Merlin, the wizard, built it.
3. According to recent scientific studies,it was built 500 years ago.
4. Each of the stones weighs between fifty and eighty thousand pounds
5. The stones were carved using metal tools.

Wanna sing along with Rihanna?

2 October 2012Listening, MusicA2, fun, songCristina Cabal

Probably a bit too early in the course to be singing songs but as I’ve already mentioned in one of my previous posts, Unit 1 of my pre-intermediate course is about Music.