Reading Comprehension: Pre-Teaching Vocabulary

General, Reading, Vocabulary, Vocabulary Games, , ,

All my lessons last 90 minutes and even though I like to think that students don’t normally get tired or bored, changing gears several times during the 90 minutes is quite important to maintain their level of attention. In this sense, fortunately, teaching a language is not the same as teaching some other subjects where the range of activities you can do is a bit more restricted.
When it comes to Reading Comprehension there are some activities I have tried over the years that seem to have worked pretty well. This week I am planning to use a different activity with my intermediate groups to pre -teach the vocabulary in the Reading Activity, which I would like to share with you. It will require that they leave their seats and walk around the class, talking to their classmates. I’m sure they will appreciate the opportunity to move their legs.
Steps.
Step 1. Decide the vocabulary you want to teach (that goes without saying, doesn’t it?)
Step 2. Prepare two sets of cards. One card contains the word and part of speech you want to teach and the other card contains the definition.
Step 3. Students stand up and find their partner ( I have large groups so it’s going to take a while).
Step 4. Students sit down with their partner and write a sentence containing their word.
Step 5. Students read their sentences and explain the meaning of the word /expression being studied.
Note: I have very large groups, like  thirty students  per class but I never know how many  will be attending on a particular day. For this kind of activities I need to make sure I have cards for all the students. So, if I run out of words to pre-teach, I’ll prepare some cards containing the phonetics for the targeted words.

Thanks for reading!

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Role Play : Renting a House

Slides, Speaking, , ,

This year I am teaching  two different levels, the  2nd course in the Elementary Level and the 2nd course in the Intermediate Level.  Teaching the last courses within a level means my students will have to, necessarily, take the Certificación exam if they want to pass to the next level. The exam has different parts but I know you’ll agree with me if I say that the most stressful one is the Oral test. I know it is not everyone’s cup of tea to face a board of  two or three teachers  listening, very attentively, to every word you say. Haven’t you always wanted to be centre of attention 😉 ?

The oral Exam in the Elementary Level has two parts. The first part is a Role-Play. Here, the students will have to interact with the teacher. Students will be presented with a situation and they will have to take  one role, while the teacher takes the other role.

To prepare my students for these role-plays, I often use PhotoPeach, an online tool which allows you to create a free slide show in seconds. Dying to try my other slideshows with Role-Plays? Click here

This is the last I have uploaded: Renting a House. Prior to this online Role-Play, students, in pairs, have written an advert for a house/flat for rent and from this advert they have written a dialogue, which they have later performed.

This is the last step.

2 Interesting Sites to Learn English through Videos

Audio, Listening, Resources, , ,

These are two sites to learn English and practise Listening through films.

♥Learn English through Movies : Practise your English with trailers and  video clips. Basically, you need to watch the video  and do different tasks. You always have the choice of taking an easy or difficult  Fill in the Blanks Exercise Quiz .

♥Lingual.net which  provides interesting movies, with subtitles, scripts, and quizzes, to help you practice English listening. They have a variety of videos: music, comedy,…etc  They also have some games  like Listening Master you need to try.

Hope they are useful!

Word of the Day: Sick vs Ill ♦Toothache vs A Toothache ♦ Ache vs Hurt

Speaking, Word of the Day, , ,

Every time time I need to write something related to Medicine I cannot but think my father is smiling at me from up above. He wanted me to be a doctor  but  even though I might have done  it, just to please him, the truth is that I would have made an awful physician as  , unfortunately, my knees still go weak whenever I see blood or someone happens to mention the gory details of an accident or operation. Well, that’s me!, the proud daughter of the best doctor ever, who cannot even stand the sight of a needle!

So, daddy, here it is, another post in your memory!!

Sick vs Ill

♥Ill is often used to mean ‘unwell‘ in British English. In American English ill is unusual except in a formal style. Note that we use ill after a verb.

She is ill.
♥In Attributive position (before a noun), many British people prefer to use sick. Sick is also the normal informal American word for unwell.

The President is sick.
♥Be sick can mean ‘vomit‘.

I was ___ three times during the night

sick

[collapse]
The problems faced by mentally ___people need to be dealt with

ill

[collapse]
She is never sea-__

sick

[collapse]
His mother is seriously ___ in hospital

ill

[collapse]

 

Toothache vs  A Toothache

♥ Illnesses are usually uncountable in English, including those ending in -s : measles, flu…

But some more common minor ailments such as: a cold, a headache, a sore throat, a nose bleed, a cough, a rash… are countable, ie, they take the indefinite article (a,an)

♥While in British English, toothache, earache, stomach-ache and backache are uncountable. ( I have earache) in American English , they are generally countable if they refer to particular attacks of pain.

Compare:

I have toothache (BrE)  //  I have a toothache (Am E)

(Source Practical English Usage – Micheal Swan)

Ache vs Hurt

♥ What ‘s the difference between My leg hurts and My leg aches?

If your leg aches you have a continuous, dull (not intense) pain.

If your leg hurts, it is often stronger and sudden. Ex. Ouch! My leg hurts!

♥On the other hand, ache is used both as a noun and as a verb whereas hurt is only used as a noun.

I have a(n) ___ in my stomach

ache

[collapse]
The pain in the small of his back was worse and there was a dull __ in his arms

ache

[collapse]
I ___my hand on that broken glass

hurt

[collapse]
He ___ my feelings by ignoring me

hurt

[collapse]

 

And, now that we are on the subject, how do you fancy answering some questions about this issue? If you need to revise the vocabulary , click here

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Word of the Day: To Fall Back

Word of the Day, ,

Yeah! Once again it’s this time of the year when it finally dawns on me that winter is coming. There is no way I can keep on pretending this hot weather is going to last. On Sunday 27th October , our clocks will fall back, and we’ll gain??? one extra hour

This practice, called Daylight Saving Time (DST) is done as a way of making better use of the daylight by setting the clocks forward one hour during the summer, and back again in the autumn. But, in Spain, some people are beginning to ask the government to end this time change practice and keep daylight saving time all year.
A bit of history is due: In Spain Daylight Saving Time was first introduced in 1918 but it was introduced and abolished several times throughout the years. But since 1974 , after the 1973 oil crisis, daily saving time has been observed every year. What do you think? Should we end this practice or keep it?

Anyway, don’t forget to fall back this Sunday! Saturday night will be one hour longer!