A word on Grammar: have and have got

24 September 2013A word on Grammarconfusing words, grammar, have, have gotCristina Cabal

Now , this is one of the most common mistakes in English. I have heard lots of students saying: I haven’t a dog, which I’m afraid is wrong. If you want to say that you have or don’t have something you can say “I haven’t got a dog” or” I don’t have a dog” and if the sentence is positive you should say “I have got a dog” or “I have a dog“. Same if you want to ask, both” Do you have a dog?” and “Have you got a dog?”are correct.

While it is true that there is a BBC radio show called “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” the truth is that native speakers also make mistakes and this is only correct as long as it is considered an idiomatic expression.

While both forms are used to express possession ( I have/have got a car), relationships (I have/have got a brother), illnesses (I have/have got a headache), and characteristics (I have/have got long fair hair), there are some things to take into consideration when using them

♥The form “have got” is more British English and “Have” is more American

♥ The interrogative and negative forms for “I Have got two sisters” are “Have you got..?” and “I haven’t got…”

♥The interrogative and negative forms for “I have three sisters” are ” Do you have three sisters ” and ” I don’t have three sisters”

♥ The past of “have got” is “had” and the future is “will have”: “I have got a dog now but three years ago I had a cat and next year I’ll have a parrot”.

♥”Have ” is never contracted in the positive, while “have got” can be contracted. I have a dog … I’ve got a dog

♥ Got-forms of “have” are not used in short answers or tags. “Have you got a dog? No, I haven’t/ You’ve got a brother, haven’t you?.

♥When we are talking about repeated states, got- forms are less often used. Compare
I have got a headache/ I sometimes have a headache

♥If “have ” expresses an action, then we need to use the form “have”:

I have a shower or I have dinner

♥We can use have (got) +infinitive to talk about obligation or certainty. The meaning is similar to Must
Sorry, I can’t leave. I’ve got to finish writing this essay first.
I don’t believe you. You’ve got to be kidding

Exercises here,and here

The Passive: Grammar and Exercises

19 September 2013Grammar and ExercisesB1, B2, C1, exercises, grammar, online, onlinetools, passiveCristina Cabal

Tired of always looking for exercises for different grammar points I have started putting together everything I need, related to a certain point of grammar, on the same page.

Today I have uploaded The Passive. On the same page I have put together Grammar and Exercises for pre-intermediate/intermediate levels. Exercises cover practice for:

♥ basic and more complex tenses,

♥ active to passive and the other way round,

♥ questions in passive sentences,

♥ sentences with two objects,

♥ the prepositions by and with,

♥ impersonal passive (it is said/believed) ,

♥ be supposed to

♥ have sth done

Hope it is as helpful to you as it is to me.Now, I can safely take them to the computer room, ask them to go to this url where they’ll find everything they need to work on. Very useful too, to do as homework or revise just before exams at their own pace.

Click on the picture to give it a go

Below I have embedded A MentorMob Playlist with all the Grammar and Exercises already published. More will follow; I hope!

Create your own Playlist on MentorMob!

VOA Learning English: Interesting Site to Read and Listen to American English

17 September 2013American Cultural aspects, Audio, In the Computer Room, Listeninglistening, listening sites, listening skills practice, online, reading, videoCristina Cabal

Voa Learning English really needs some serious exploring. Though I have to say that, in my opinion, the site is a bit of a mess, it could be a great help to some autonomous learners.

What does it offer? The site provides interesting articles based on news and information. The stories are read slowly, or at least at a slower speed and it allows you the possibility of reading the story and listening to the audio at the same time. The mp3 audio can be downloaded, which is also very helpful.

What about the level? Difficult to say because although the stories are read quite slowly, the vocabulary is quite advanced. You’ll just have to try and see.

Stories are divided into Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 and very often there are exercises following the audio.

if you further explore the site, you will find a section “Learning English TV” with captioned videos that will allow you to watch a story while reading the rolling script.

But there are two sections that I absolutely adore that deal with idioms and expressions:

♥ Words and their Stories and English in a Minute where each week idioms and expressions that many learners of American English find difficult to understand are explained. Don’t miss them!

Another interesting feature in this site is that it has a built-in dictionary. You just have to click on any word to get its meaning. You really need to give a go to this interesting site, especially if you like reading the news and are interested in American English.

First Day : getting to know my students

12 September 2013Games, Speakingfirst day activities, fun, games, icebreakers, speakingCristina Cabal

I’ve been teaching for a long, loooong time and one might expect I don’t have to suffer from first-class stress . But I’ve come to terms with myself and admitted that no matter how long I’ve been in the business, it is always going to feel like having a bull ( past the butterfly feeling) in my stomach. So again, I’m hunting books ,posts, and the Internet for ideas to use on the first day to get to know my students and to give them the first chance to use the language. These are the ones I’m considering – in case you want to use them.

By the way, these are the ones I used last year if you want to have a look https://www.cristinacabal.com/?p=2694

♥Interviewing your partner: Tell students they are going to interview four or five people they don’t know in the class. Ask them to write three or four questions to ask these people. Once it is done, students get up and walk around the classroom.

♥Get to Know you Bingo: this one requires a bit of preparation but it’s not like you are already loaded with exams, is it? Let’s play bingo, then! Now, the first thing you need to do is prepare a bingo sheet with some questions ( a grid of 4×4 , for example). Make sure students know how to play bingo- this is quite important, as you can guess. Students get up and walk around asking questions to everybody in the class but they have to have a different name for each grid. So if a student asks a question to a student and this student says “yes”, he should write the name of that student in the grid and move on; if the student says “no”, he can then ask this same student a new question. The first person to get a line down or across shouts “LINE” and the first person to fill in all the boxes with a name shouts BINGO.

I would , of course, encourage follow-up questions when checking, with the students providing the questions- of course.

♥Who Am I..? I love this game to introduce myself to my students. It is played in teams and there is a winner. If you have been reading me for some time you know I am very competitive; that must be the reason why I am definitely going to use this one this year. The game was written by Paul Adams and here is the link

♥Five Questions. Divide the class in five groups and ask each group to write a question they would like to ask you. In turns, one member of each group comes up to the board and writes the question. The students decide if the question is correct in terms of tenses, spelling …etc. Finally, the student asks the question. Before you tell them, give the students the chance to guess your answer.

♥Writing Sample – I’m thinking it might be a good idea to use this warm-up after doing some oral practice. The idea is to ask students to write a bit about themselves to get an idea of how advanced they are. Some ideas might be : Why are you learning English and why are you taking this course? or What’s your favourite hobby ?

Hope you can use some of these ideas!!!

Goodbye to High School Teaching

10 September 2013GeneralCristina Cabal

…and it is with sadness that I am waving good-bye to this stage in my career.
I’m returning to the EOI Avilés for good. I can hardly believe it was three years ago that I shared with you my fears about a change of career I was ,willingly,about to face. What I originally planned to be one year in a high school soon turned into three and the truth is I am glad I took the decision. I have learnt so much.
This is my big thanks to all who have worked and probably put up with me and my lack of experience in all the red paper involving teenagers throughout these three years. You have certainly changed my mind about what teaching in a high school involves.
I have learned that being a good teacher is not teaching to those who want but to those who don’t. Highly motivated students, students who love learning languages are really so easy to teach but what is really challenging is facing a group of students who clearly wish to be somewhere else but right there, staring at you.
I remember my first term being a teacher at the high school as something close to a nightmare , so used was I to students always wanting more, never seeming to have enough, always eager to collaborate and participate… that when I faced my new students , most of whom had everything but learning English on their minds, I nearly dropped dead on the spot .Being the new girl on the block , I was assigned the not-so-good groups, if you want to put it kindly and ,in some classes , I distinctly remember my new students slumped in their seats, legs stretching across the aisle and the horrified faces as I addressed them in English. For three years, I’ve had to be a mother, a father, a friend, a counsellor, a psychologist, an actress, a lawyer as well as a teacher. I have had to be motivating, energetic, enthusiast, flexible, understanding, compassionate, well-mannered, tender, well-balanced as well as hard and strict and I have loved every minute of it.