Learning and mastering English pronunciation can sometimes feel like a daunting task. I have been marking heaps of exams lately and now it’ s time for the oral test and if you want to know the truth… I ‘m dreading it!! Students insist on mispronouncing words they have heard a thousand times, like the word “since”, which they insistently pronounce as /sains/ and the “l” in words such as: walk, talk, should, half .… and would, when I’m well aware they know the “l” in these words is never pronounced.
By the time you finish watching this video, I bet you won’t forget how to pronounce “would”.
This clip from the movie “The Pink Panther” is probably one of the funniest I have ever seen and Steve Martin is at one of his best performances
If only I had known first I’d have paid more attention to my mother when she persistently tried to teach me and my siblings good table manners, but when you are a child you can’t see the point of not getting a bit of fun out of flinging crusts of bread, making a mashed potato snowman or getting my brother and sisters’ hair red with tomato sauce (my mother would have never allowed ketchup to enter her kitchen).
My mother was educated in a nun’s school. It was a time when subjects such as Maths or Languages were not as important as knowing how to knit or embroider. In a way it wasn’t as different as the education received by the female characters depicted in “Jane Eyre” by Charlote Brontë or in “Pride and Prejudice” by my very much admired Jane Austen.
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One of the things my mother was taught was good table manners and since me and my siblings were very young we were insistently reminded of things such as keeping elbows off the table, eating small bites, sitting straight, placing the napkin on our laps and …. a long etc I’m not going to bore you to death with.
What I didn’t know and have just found out is that good table manners can help you lose weight so as I’m a bit on the plumpish side my mother might not have taught me so well.
That’s why I have paid careful attention to this videowhere Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, an Australian and an etiquette expert, explains how good table manners can help you lose weight. Watch the video here and do the activity
If you are interested in this theme, Click hereto see a whole lesson plan I have prepared for my pre-intermediate students on Restaurants and Food.
This site from the BBC is great if you don’t have much time and want to know what’s happening in the world.
You only need one minute and it will certainly help you improve your listening skills. Go to this website http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and then click on the small text which says Watch ONE-MINUTE WORLD NEWS, as shown in the image.
I never say “no” when one of my friends phones me to suggest going shopping. I love it!!!
Although I like going shopping a lot I don’t see myself as a shopaholic: I am definitely not a compulsive shopper although I am one of those who sort of view going shopping as a hobby. It helps me relax but I certainly do not spend money I do not have and I am not drowning in debt because of my purchases. Well, this is what I tell my mother every single time she tells me off for wearing new clothes.
Anyway, this is a video from the film Pretty Woman, which I’m sure all of you have seen.
You can do three things:
♦ Just watch and enjoy it
For students in the elementary level
♦ Watch the video and do some exercises ♦ Do a whole lesson plan on going shopping Here
And now that we are on the subject what about learning some expressions containing the word shop?
→ talk shop
if people who work together talk shop, they talk about their work when they are not at work Even when they go out in the evening, they just talk shop all the time.
→go window-shopping to go about looking at goods in store windows without actually buying anything. Joan said she was just going window-shopping, but she bought a new coat.
→shop around(for something) to shop at different stores to find what you want at the best price. You can find a bargain, but you’ll have to shop around.
→be like a bull in a china shop
to often drop or break things because you move awkwardly or roughly.
Rob’s like a bull in a china shop – don’t let him near those plants.
I might be wrong but I think that adding some sort of digital content to my classes somehow spices them up. I have tried different slideshows services and so far this is the one I like best . http://www.photopeach.com
♥ It is easy to use
♥ You can add music
♥ You can add a quiz or a caption
My students at pre-intermediate level have been working in the field of “Clothes and Going shopping ” and this is what I have created for them. It is very easy to do.
