10 "English things" to do this summer

Are you short of ideas on how to keep you English alive this summer? Here you are a few:

1. Watch short videos and do exercises in Lingual.net and Yolango (you have to sign in for the second one, but it's worth it).

2. Find an exchange to speak and write to. Some possible websites are Shared Talk and My Language Exchange.

3. Do an online course in Livemocha or Mango Languages.

4. Revise English grammar with comics here. Make comics yourself here or here.

5. Are you brave enough? Read and listen to stories here or here.

6. Test and learn vocabulary here: The Internet Picture Dictionary.

7. In the mood for playing? Then try these games at BBC and Wordpower. Play Scrambled Sentences here.

8. Would you like to practice your Writing skills? Try this website to create a fairy tale, make a poem here or visit this site to get general advice on writing, tools and games.

9. Want to go a step further? Learn what Proofreading is here.

10. Finally, why don't you go back and read old posts in this blog? I'm sure you didn't have time to check it all. Scroll down and try clicking on "Older Posts" to access what has been published all year. You can also look for posts in the "Topics" section on the left.

Enjoy your summer and good luck with English.

Love,

Laura

How to pronounce -ed endings correctly

How's your pronunciation these days? Do you feel you need some more practice with final -ed in verbs?

Some useful sites for you:

- Short interactive lesson here.
- Explanation + audio here.
- Drag and drop exercise here.
- BBC Grammar Challenge here (again!).

Hope you enjoy them.

Take care and have a nice weekend.

English made special for you

Would you like to get some more practice in American English? Voa News has a section of news that can be read and listened to at the same time- the language they use is "Special English". This section is specially designed for people like us, whose native language is NOT English. Here you have the explanation they give:

"On October 19, 1959, the Voice of America broadcast the first Special English program. It was an experiment. The goal was to communicate by radio in clear and simple English with people whose native language was not English. Special English programs quickly became some of the most popular on VOA. They still are. Special English continues to communicate with people who are not fluent in English. Over the years, its role has expanded. It helps people learn American English while they learn about American life and stay informed about world news and developments in science."

Why not give it a try? Click here to get started.

Hope you like it!

Health Websites

Hi there again!

Do you remember the activities we did last week? You can do some more on the Internet. Try the following websites:

- Click here if you want to access an interactive site for children: you can read about getting ready for hospital, getting treated and getting around. Lots of vocabulary and fun activities!

- A similar interactive site for children here.

- General health vocabulary + images here and here.

- Would you like to have the transcriptions to the words read aloud? Healthy habits read aloud (karaoke style) here.

- An interactive tale about going to the doctor here.

- Conversations at the doctor's here.

- How to make an appointment here.

- A telephone conversation here.

Hope you enjoy!
Take care.

Chocolate cake (by Cristina Belver)

Thanks for sharing the recipe with us, Cristina. Here it goes:

I’LL TELL TOU HOW TO MAKE A CHOCOLATE CAKE

YOU’LL NEED:

1/2 cup of dark cocoa

1/2 cup of boiled water

1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate

100 g of softened butter

2 cups of sugar

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

¾ cups of milk

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees
• Grease a cake recipient
• Put cocoa, boiled water, salt and bicarbonate in a little bowl
• In a separated bowl beat the eggs, butter with sugar, mix with flour and baking powder
• Mix all this with the cocoa
• Pour into prepared recipient
• Bake at 180 º C until a knife inserted in centre comes out clean, approximately for 30 minutes
• When the cake has room temperature, place cut in half horizontally and whip with dulce de leche.
• Put chocolate on the top and around the cake
• Put the cake into the fridge for one hour.

If you prefer you can add rhum to the dulce de leche and chopped walnut on the top

Work on your pronunciation

What? Are you saying that you don't understand the phonetic symbols yet? That you find English pronunciation difficult? That there's no way to guess how to pronounce a word?

No more excuses!

Now you have YAKIToMe! A wonderful site that speaks back to you. All you have to do is:

- register (it's free)
- type (or copy and paste) a text and push the PLAY button.
- or upload a file (doc., pdf., txt.) and push the PLAY button.
- and listen! They will read your text aloud with a nice, understandable pronunciation.

Finally, if you want, you can also convert it into an audio file and take it with you in your mp3 player. Isn't it great?

Hope you make the most of it.

Modal Verbs: let's play!

Hi again!

Today we'll revise modal verbs.

Some of you were asking for a sort of summary or table about modals. Here you can download a very complete one.

Do you prefer a complete lesson? Click here to access one.

Would you like to test yourself? Here and here you have some exercises. Also here and here.

Enjoy!

Songs to improve your English

Do you like songs? Do you use them to improve your English?
Here is a site where you have lots of quizzes arranged by levels. Have an example to see if it's useful for you. Select the right word in each question, and finally click on "See how you did" to check your answers. Finally, you can also look at the transcript to read the lyrics of the song.



Enjoy!

The world of Prepositions

Are prepositions a nightmare for you? Never more! I'll try to help you, but you also have to work hard to learn them once and for all.

You can start by reading a general summary here.

IN, ON AT: Are you never sure about how to use IN, ON and AT? Here you have a very good explanation and an exercise. Would you like to try the BBC's Grammar Challenge to see how these prepositions are used to talk about TIME? Then click here.

MOVEMENT: You can read about prepositions of direction here and do an exercise too.

Do some more EXERCISES about prepositions of time and place here. You have more exercises here and here.

GAMES: Listen and pick the right picture in this game. Another game about prepositions here. A very nice interactive game here. Would you like to play basketball and practice your prepositions? Then go to this site to try.

Good luck!

Vaughan TV and radio: your teachers at home

No time to practice English? No opportunities to learn it at home? No teachers available?
Enough!

No more excuses not to learn English: why don't you try Vaughan TV?


Click here and register (you will have to sign up for an account). You'll have access to lots of short English lessons on many different topics and with different teachers.

Remember: you can also try Vaughan Radio.

Both sites are updated on a regular basis. Keep visiting them from time to time!

Hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday. Take care.

Invitation

Hi everyone!

We're nearly through unit 4 and ready to get started with unit 5. Today we'll mix content from both units:

- giving directions
- and party language

Can you guess what we're going to do? We're going to invite our classmates to a party at home. Click here to access the page and follow the instructions. Remember to include directions on how to get to your flat / house!

By the way... Who's cooking? (I can already imagine a person or two)

Language in Ads

Have you ever noticed the amount of COMPARATIVES and SUPERLATIVES we get in ads?

Try to match the following slogans with their corresponding products. Good luck!

“Coffee at its best”	Gillette razors
"Probably the best lager in the world"	Disneyland
“The best a man can get"	Apple Computer
"The happiest place on Earth"	Maltesers
"Be the best"	Coca Cola
"The toughest job you'll ever love"	Carlin Black Label lager
“Keeps going and going and going."	CNN
“No battery is stronger longer."	Maxwell House coffee
“Think different"	Peace Corps
“The lighter way to enjoy chocolate"	Energizer Batteries
“The real thing"	Nescafé Gold Blend
“Your best bet for a fuller flavour"	Carlsberg
“The most trusted name in news"	British Army
"Good to the last drop."	Duracell Batteries

Present Perfect Vs. Past Simple

Hello everyone, it's time to revise the verb tenses...

Would you like to listen to the explanations from the BBC? Then visit their Grammar Challenge page here.

If you prefer to read, click here to access a thorough explanation of the Present Perfect.

You can also do exercises here and here.

Enjoy!

Fashion fundamentals

I know you are all looking forward to listening to Kool Keita again. Who is Kool Keita? The stylist we listened to in class the other day! Don't you remember? He spoke about what is HOT and what is not.

Listen again and feel free to explore other videos too. Click on the following links to access them:

- Fashion fundamentals.

- Fashion Dos and Don'ts.

- And your favourite: All about Shoes.

But remember! It's dangerous to become a fashion victim.

Clothes vocabulary

Where to find more clothes vocabulary? In online shops, of course.

Please browse through the following shops and answer these questions:

1- What's a hoodie?
2- What's denim?
3- What's a waistcoat?
4- Why do we end these words with "wear"?: swimwear, knitwear, leisurewear, nightwear, footwear...

Men's catalogues
Burton
Marks & Spencer
JcPenney
Saks Fifth Avenue
Bhs

Women's catalogues
Debenhams
Top Shop
Saks Fifth Avenue
Dorothy Perkins
Next

Reading is fun

Hello everybody!

With all these exams going on, we sometimes forget to have fun. Why don't you go and check the following websites? They were created for children, but can also be useful for you:

1- Stories for children: you can read and listen to the story at the same time, karaoke-style!

2- Story Place: an interactive site to create your own stories.

3- I'm Reading!: this lovely website has lots and lots of different stories to choose from.

All you have to do is try these stories and feel like a child again.

Enjoy!

How to speak better English

Hello my dear students,

For those who are anxious about the speaking test this week (and for those who aren't!)... I found an article in a colleague's blog that you'll find interesting. It's called "Cómo ganar fluidez al hablar inglés" (the article is in Spanish!), and it has nice tips for you.

Click here to read it.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Happy New Year presents

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas break.

I would like to give you a couple of presents to start the year:

- The first is a fun website that can help you write stories in English. Click here to access the page: all you have to do is click on a story, follow the instructions and start creating!

- The second is an online game in which you have to find objects for your backpack and words for a secret journal. You will learn English and have fun at the same time!

See you tomorrow...