TASK 7.- Write a short story about Hannah’s bad day

After the activity we did in class. I would like you to write a short story about Hannah. You can begin either the day she met her boyfriend or the day she had the accident. Remember to use only past tenses (simple past or past continuous) to write your story.

Happy Christmas!

Reading comprehension: British Newspapers

• Daily Express
• Daily Star
• Edinburgh Evening News Online
• Financial Times
• London Daily
• London Evening Standard
• Daily Mirror
• Sheffield Star & Telegraph
• Sunday People
• The British Daily Telegraph
• The Guardian
• The Herald
• The Independent
• The Sentinel
• The Sun
• The Sunday Herald
• The Sunday Post
• The Sunday Sun
• The Sunday Times
• The Times

TASK 5- A photograph

Many people love photographs and some keep their memories in photograph albums.

We would like to know about your favourite photograph: where, when and where it was taken, who took it, what you can see in it and why you like it so much.

Thank you for writing and share your precious work with us

Ángeles

BÁSICO 2- Grammar revision

Weekly grammar practice:

Here is a presentation with a revision of some basic verb tenses. You will find essential information about form and usage. You can have a look at the presentation. Try to remember the main points and then answer the quizzes whose links you will find after the presentation:

Present simple:

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimple/exercise1.swf

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimple/exercise2.swf

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimple/exercise3.swf

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentsimple/exercise4.swf

Present continuous: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentcontinuous/exercise2.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentcontinuous/exercise3.html

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/presentcontinuous/exercise4.html

Podcasts for listening comprehension

Today there are a few webs where you can find podcasts to get familiarised with the English language as a student.

Some of them have free access to all the podcasts and exercises. Some others charge a fee, but you can get extra materials and resources togeteher with each podcast. There are all these news sites where you can get podcasts made for a general audience, which are suitable for more advanced students such as news programmes, reports, weather forecasts, etc.

The most problematic aspect for a language teacher is to find webs with a good assortment of podcasts with a script. Scrpts allow them to prepare exercises easily and adapt the students’ listening practice to their own class necessities.

Many Europeans are used to the British accent and there are many American podcasts. Having podcasts with different aspects is good in my opinion, since the students should get used to all kind of foreign accent. However, beginners or elementary students rfind it difficult to get adpated to accents they don’t usually use in the Foreign Language class.

There is a list of Listening sites in this blog.  It includes all kind of places where you can get podcasts for your students of English. The list should be updated to each one’s needs, but it still works. Click here to get it.

ESL Video Quiz

ESL Video Quizz is a good site to do video listening with qizzes on-line.

The videos are divided by level and categories. Just an example of what you can find for your students. I hope you like it!

[iframe http://www.eslvideo.com/view_quiz_inframe.php?id=2206 450 900]

[iframe http://www.eslvideo.com/view_quiz_inframe.php?id=2206 450 900]

Blups! I’m trying to find out why the post code does not work.

Well the WordPress support has informed me that this service is not supported by WordPress, so it’s useless to copy their code here.

EFL WEB EXPLORER: VOICE TOOLS

Starting up voice forums and discussions for the Foreign Language Class is now possible with a couple of new tools which have been active for the last few months.

- One of them is Vaestro. This is “the first site on the internet to intiate voice discussions in a forum format”. You can talk to your friends, host interactive podcasts, or use it like an audio blog. You can even use it on your web site for free.

This software may be valuable in education as you can use it to start Asynchronous Voice Discussions, which will leave students some time to organize their ideas and prepare the points they will explain in advance. Everybody can listen to classmates voices and arguments in class or outside. In Foreign Language Learning it is a valuable tool to practise oral tasks and share them with the rest of the class group or level.

The only thing you need in order to start a FORUM is to registre, then you can use a microphone or upload an MP3 file.  You can even set up international FORUMS without having to rearrange your schedule based on timezones .

-Another good one is Voxopop, which has already been tried for language practice. The Education, Learning and Language Forum started in February 2009 and has already more than 2,000 members. There are some other language forums such as English I Talk, Talking about 6 minute English , or BBC MB members. I will start my own language practice forum with my students next year. I hope I can talk about the results then.

These two webs add to the suite of voice resources and software that many teachers have been using in their language classes so far.

I will do a quick revision to  the most popular ones:

- Audacity is some recording and sound editing software to be used off line. It is free.

- Podomatic is a  podcast site where you can record or upload your podcasts and show them in your “Podcast” (a pocast blog). It includes a new tool to create slidacasts.

- Blip TV, Odeo, iTunes, the Internet Archive, Wikiworks are webs where you can host language podcasts online to be heard in class or by your students at home. They are also useful to create slidescasts, since they provide you with the necesary URL link required in sites like Podomatic.

- Voicethread is also a collaborative tool to create podcast, text and image presentations. A good tool for collaborative work.

If you want some more information about the tools you can use for your Language Class, you can have a look at Web 2.0. an English Course, my content based course on the use of Web 2.0. to express yourself and communicate in English.

COURSE RESULTS AND REVISION- BASICO 2

The results have already been published today. Those students who want to see their exams can go to classroom 405 at 19:30 on Friday, 5th June.

Those of you who want to get in contact with me another day, just drop me a line through a comment to this post.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION PRACTICE FOR STUDENTS OF BÁSICO 2:

Practise your listening skills at the following sites:

• At About.com

http://esl.about.com/od/listeningbeginners/Listening_Skills_for_Beginning_Level_English_Learners.htm

• At ESL.com, find a listening appropiate to your level:

http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bllisteningquiz.htm

• At La mansión del inglés.com:

http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00.htm

• At ELLLO.com:

http://www.elllo.org/september/norman/neuro.htm

http://www.elllo.org/english/0551/560-Jeyong-Overseas.html

• At News from ELLLO.com

http://www.elllo.org/english/NewCenter.htm

http://www.elllo.org/english/Points.htm

• At Mini lectures (from ELLLO):

http://www.elllo.org/english/Points.htm

• At Listen to English.com for ESL learners:

http://www.listen-to-english.com/

http://www.listen-to-english.com/index.php?date=2006-12

Revision activities for Basico 1 (EOI)

• Mixed activities/Actividades variadas:
  http://angeleshernandez.wordpress.com/0eoi-08-09/basico-1/refuerzo-en-internet/ 
•  Dictation/Dictados:
  DICTATION ‘A’ Greetings & Personal Info

   DICTATION ‘B’ Colours, Nationalities & Jobs

   DICTATION ‘C’ Days, Time & Numbers  

   DICTATION ‘D’ Schedules, Numbers & Letters 

   DICTATION ‘E’ Buildings & Street Directions

•  Vocabulary/Vocabulario:

    http://www.mansioningles.com/Ejercicios00.htm

•  Grammar/Gramática:

   http://www.mansioningles.com/Gramatica.htm