"Can"

Hello everybody,

Last week we corrected the First Term Revision and we started Unit 4. On Monday / Tuesday, we talked about things we can do and things we can't do; we talked about our abilities.

• I can swim
• I can drive a car
• I can't take good photos
• I can't play the guitar

We also learnt that can and can't also mean possibility (I can go to your party on Saturday; I can't go to Madrid at the weekend) and permission (Can you open the window, please? Can you come here a minute?)

Click here for an online exercise with the verb can.




Remember that can is a special verb like be: we NEVER use the auxiliary verb do/does; don't/doesn't:

(+) You can programme a video
(-) You can't programme a video - we add not to the verb.
(?) Can you programme a video? - we change the subject-verb order.

On Wednesday / Thursday, we talked about shopping: things we like buying and things we hate buying. We talked in pairs and then we listened to four different people talking about their personal preferences.

With these conversations, we learnt that the verbs like, love and hate are always followed by a verb in     -ing:

• I love going to clothes shops.
• I like going to the supermarket.
• I don't like going to big shopping centres.
• I hate traveling by boat.

Basic Level E had one hour with Lauren, the language assistant. I hope you liked the lesson! :)

For homework, you have to do the exercises in Grammar Bank 4B, page 129.

See you tomorrow / on Tuesday!

First Evaluation Session

Good evening everyone!

La semana pasada tuvimos la primera sesión de evaluación, y el miércoles / jueves ya os di los resultados. He de decir que estoy muy contenta con todos vosotros, sobre todo por la parte oral. Es fundamental que perdáis el miedo a hablar en otro idioma, en este caso inglés, y que os déis cuenta de que "speaking" y "listening" son las destrezas que más vais a utilizar cuando salgáis a la calle. Así que enhorabuena a todos.

Mañana ya empezaremos el segundo trimestre, y entraremos de lleno con la unidad 4. I hope we all continue learning a lot and enjoying the lessons.

See you in class.

PS: By the way (por cierto), remember that you have to send me your vocabulary list / glossary about England before the 30th January.

CNN news: smoking ban in Spain

Hello everybody,

This week we mainly focused on revising several basic aspects for the first evaluation session, which will take place next week. We also did a mock oral exam, so that you could get an idea of what is expected from you in this part of the test. Finally, we had one lesson with Chanelle, where we compared cities and their means of transport.

With Intermediate E we had time to watch a CNN report on the new Spanish law which bans smoking (up to 1'20'' only). I post it here, with the exercises and their answers.

(The following video is from youtube, but you can access the original item of news here).






Spain's Smoking Ban Begins

I hope you're having a good weekend!

Adriana's Theatre Play

Entrada de Adriana Moyano - Nivel Básico E

Meigas Teatro Presenta: 

No Me Quejo !

4 Actrices, 12 Historias

Viernes 14  y Sábado 15 de enero a las 21.00h

en El Apeadero

Callejón del Ave María s/n (entre calle Molinos y Santiago)

Aforo Limitado

(El sábado 15 la obra se representará a beneficio de la Campaña Rumbo a Gaza (www.rumboagaza.org) 

Actúan (por orden de aparición):

Raquel Hernández, Olga Cárdaba, Beba Jiménez y Nadia Hindi

Dirección:

Adriana Moyano

How to make your homework less work / how to improve your study habits

Hi everyone,

Here I post a video about how to make your homework less work , and how to improve your study habits.

Click the play button in the center of the video to begin; click the pause button is you need to make notes at any point; click the re-wind button to go back to the start of the video and watch it again.

  

Think about the suggestions made in the video and write down any tips you could use to improve your study habits.

Task reflection:

Do you plan to change your study habits after doing this lesson? Why/why not?
Did you learn any new vocabulary?
If so, what new words did you learn? Make a note of any new vocabulary you have learnt in this lesson.

Stories of Suspense

Hello guys,

This entry is related to the first reading book of the course: Stories of Suspense, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As we saw in class, it has three short stories:

• "Young Goodman Brown"

• "The Birthmark"

• "Dr Heidegger's Experiment"

It also has comprehension activities and two cultural sections: New England and witchcraft; The magic of alchemy.

As we said before Christmas, I want you to read each story carefully and choose one to make a comment on the blog (minimum 2 paragraphs - 10 lines). After that, I want you to read your classmates' comments on the other stories and write about two of them (minimum 5 lines). This way, you will write a little something about the three stories in the book.

Below you have three different entries, one for each short story. These are the entries where you will upload your comments.

Remember that the deadline is 30th January, 23.59h

If you have any questions or doubts, please ask me.

Preparation for the exam: oral expression & interaction; listening practice ("men are the weaker sex"; families")

Good afternoon everyone,

Today I've started sending off my feedback on your oral presentations (if you haven't received it yet, you'll receive it shortly, don't worry).

Two of the most common comments are (i) that you didn't include enough information (the presentation was incomplete) and (ii) that you didn't use the grammatical structures and/or vocabulary we've seen in class.

As you know, in two weeks' time we have our first evaluation session. As regards speaking, you will be asked to talk about one of the topics we've covered in class:

• Food, eating habits
• Ordering at a restaurant
• Families and relationships
• Stereotypes and differences between men and women
• Money, stress, quality of life
• Changing your city (Slow cities)
• Comparing cities and means of transport

How can you prepare for this at home? Well, take one topic and think about all the things you could say about it. As the exam will be done in pairs, think also about relevant questions that you could ask your partner.

Once you have the ideas, the content, think about the best ways to express them in English. Remember that you are expected to use the grammar and vocabulary we've been working with in class. And, please, use also the expressions we have seen to express our opinion, agree and disagree.

Here you have two links where you can listen to Yvonne and Rob discussing two of the topics we've seen in class. You also have activities and vocabulary:

• Men are the weaker sex

• Families

(This series of podcasts is called "6 minute English", and you can subcribe to it).

See you on Monday / Tuesday!