A Christmas Carol

I'm sure you have heard of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and you have probably even read the book or watched one of the many films based upon this story.

Well, here you have a nicely and slowly spoken version of the story, just for you not to forget your English! ;-)

I wish you all a great Christmas time and a lovely New Year, full of success in your English-learning process and fun in your English classes! :-)

Cyber Monday

In class we have been talking about sales in different countries: Black Friday, Boxing Day, 7th of January... But have you ever heard of Cyber Monday? Well, I guess it's now here to stay!

But what is ist excatly? As I read on The Week, "It is essentially the online equivalent of Black Friday but with less risk of serious injury. It falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. Instead of battling with rival shoppers to grab the latest bargains in the shops, consumers head to the internet to spend billions of pounds or dollars on limited-time deals".

Listening Practice and a Game

Some of you have been telling me how difficult you find to do the listening exercises. Well, here you have a web page where you can do very easy listening exercises searching by topic.
You can also browse the British Council Learn English website, with tons of exercises, links, games, videos and much more.
As my recommendations today, here you have quite an interesting video about something I'm sure you'll find interesting - the English language itself!

And also, if you have a couple of minutes to spare, try doing this wordshake game here and then tell me in class how many points you got! :-)

Films in English

The so-called Aula de Cine at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras is currently offering a very interesting cinema programme. All movies are broadcasted in their original languages and many of them were shot in English, so it's a great opportunity for you to enjoy these all-time masterpieces:

All showings take place at the University Library (Salón de Actos, that's the building next to the Casa de las Lenguas) at 4 p.m. Here you can check the programme. 

I hope you enjoy the movies! :-)

Sk8ter Boy

Welcome everyone!

I think music is the best way to start everything off, so there we go with this Sk8ter Boy song we did in class:

We'll be using this blog to share things, ideas, opinions, just anything! And to learn a bit more than just what's on our book. To be able to download materials, please send me an e-mail to carmen.quijada.cl@gmail.com and I'll tell you how to get started. Enjoy! :-)

Good bye!

Dear all!

The school year is over and we are heading for the summer (although the weather doesn't seem to agree...). It's been a great year with all of you and I just hope you keep up with English and you come back next year! :-)

The best way to say good-bye is singing, don't you think? :-)

I wish you all a great summertime! Please stay in touch!

About Fracking

I don't know about you, but I've been wondering what fracking exactly is... And I haven't found a satisfactory and easy-to-follow explanation about the topic yet. Thankfully I found this self-explanatory video, which, I admit, I've had to watch more than once (I won't confess how many times!). I hope you too find it interesting:

And now watch this CNN video, very clear and well-explained too:

 

 

Question Tags

Aaah... Question tags... What a wonderful topic! ;-)

Just to remember what we've learnt in class, take a look at this very complete explanation if you have 8 minutes:

Question tags aren't so difficult to build, after all. We just have to focus on the auxiliary we have to use (or else in the verb be, have or modals) and also check if we should make an affirmative or a negative question tag, that's all. Here you can do some extra practice and here is another exercise.

The problem arises when getting to speak them out... Pronunciating questions tags with a rising or with a falling intonation varies the meaning of the sentence! 

We've been practicing this issue in class and we've been trying to (another difficult task) incorporate question tags to our everyday discourse. Here you have a link to a nice exercise on how to pronounce questions tags correctly. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, won't you? ;-)

Movies to borrow

Como la mayoría de vosotros ya sabe, en la Casa de las Lenguas tenéis acceso a una pequeña videoteca de la que podéis sacar en préstamo películas en inglés acompañadas de un libro con ejercicios muy útiles para practicar diversas destrezas y habilidades en función de la película.

Para poder llevaros a casa estas películas durante el plazo máximo de una semana, deberéis enviar un correo electrónico a clenguas@uniovi.es indicando vuestro nombre y dos apellidos, el curso que realizáis en la Casa de las Lenguas y el título de la película que queréis ver. Una vez realizada la petición de préstamo, se podrán recoger las películas en la conserjería del centro, a donde deberá devolverse en un plazo máximo de una semana. No se realizarán préstamos sin solicitud previa.

Para acceder al listado completo de las películas a vuestra disposición, podéis pinchar aquí. También tenéis un enlace permanente en la columna de la izquierda, bajo el epígrafe Casa de las Lenguas Stuff. Os recomiendo vivamente que empleéis este utilísimo recurso o que, por vuestra cuenta y en función de vuestros intereses, veáis películas, series o breves vídeos por Internet para practicar siempre un poquito de inglés. La constancia hace muchísimo en el aprendizaje de un idioma. 

I hope you enjoy watching movies! :-D

This week in the news

It's been all over in the news this week - Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, died aged 87. Controversy arouse as some people started celebrating her death while others were mourning. There's no dobut that she was one of the most important political figures of the 20th century. If you want to read about the controversy, click here. And if you're interested in this historical figure, here you can watch some quality videos by the BBC.

To do some English-learning activities related to this piece of news, click here.

Irregular verbs

Nunca es ni tarde ni mal momento para revisar los verbos irregulares. Los alumnos de Inglés 1 empezáis ahora a familiarizaros con ellos, mientras que los de Inglés 5 solo tenéis que repasarlos de vez en cuando. Hoy quiero compartir con vosotros algunos ejercicios muy sencillos:

• Ejercicio 1: aquí podéis seleccionar ejercicios de distinto nivel de dificultad
• Ejercicio 2: también aquí se puede seleccionar el nivel de dificultad. 

Tanto en uno como en otro se os pide también la forma del Past Participle (dejad este hueco en blanco los estudiantes de Inglés 1).

• Ejercicios variados: aquí podéis acceder a múltiples ejercicios de muy diversos tipos, desde listados convencionales de verbos a crucigramas. Al seleccionar el ejercicio, fijaos en que sea de vuestro nivel (el cuadradito azul con el número indica el número de años que el estudiante lleva aprendiendo inglés).

Por petición de Belén (Inglés 5), aquí os dejo un enlace con la transcripción fonética de los verbos irregulares.

And now just for fun, here you have a nice Coyote cartoon:

Searching for Sugar Man

Last week I watched this incredible documentary about Sixto Rodríguez, an American songwriter and singer who plays really beautiful songs and I was truly moved by his story. I really recommed you to watch this movie! Here is the trailer:

This is Rodríguez official webpage and here you can listen to one of his songs, Sugarman, I hope you like it!

I think it's the perfect example of how a life would have been different if... (third conditional!).

 

Happy Easter holidays to all of you! :-)

IELTS Tests

La Casa de las Lenguas abre el plazo de inscripción para una nueva sesión de Pretesting del IELTS (simulacro de estas pruebas que certifican oficialmente el conocimiento de la lengua inglesa). La sesión, que será gratuita, tendrá lugar en La Casa de las Lenguas el próximo 19 de abril a las 9 de la mañana. Hay 50 plazas disponibles y el plazo de inscripción estará abierto desde el 18 de marzo hasta las 14 horas del 10 de abril. Para inscribiros, seguid estas instrucciones.

En este enlace encontraréis más información acerca de las pruebas. Good luck! :-)

Animated shorts

I've just found this very interesting page with short animated stories and you can add English subtitles to them! :-)

Here you have one of the stories I've found most moving. Enjoy!

Aula de cine

It's always a great idea and a very interesting activity to watch a movie in English (with Spanish subtitles!), so don't miss this opportunity at the Aula de cine, organized by the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. This is the programme:

 

Projections take place at 4 p.m. at the Salón de Actos at the Library (Campus del Milán) and are followed by a very nice talk lead by students and professors. You're all very welcome! :-)

How to improve our pronunciation

It's nice to see that other professionals say exactly the same that I've been telling you in class over and over again:

British Immigration Exam

Do you want to try out how many right answers you get if you were to take the British immigration exam? Well, here you can find a selection of questions. Take the test and then tell us in class how many of them you answered correctly! :-)

The Great Spanish Crash

The BBC broadcasted this intersting documentary on our (sadly) world-famous economic and financial crisis. This is not a happy nor nice post, but I guess it's necessary to be up-to-date with what's going on around us:

One Pound Fish Man

Have you heard about "One Pound Fish Man"? Well, you should have! If not, here you have the piece of news telling you all about him and here you have two interesting videos. Enjoy!

Here is the original video in Queen' Market in London:

And here you have the now world-famous song and video:

Isn't it incredible, what the internet can do?

Welcome to your English learning blog!

Dear students,

Welcome to this blog! I hope you find this tool useful for your English learning process. Here you will find interesting information, funny posts, extra exercises and a weekly summary of what we do in class. You'll also find here the handouts given out in class and additional information to improve your skills in English.

Please feel free to post comments and to make suggestions of all kinds!