Giving reasons

These expressions are for you to give reasons and explanations:

 

To start with,                                               That's why...,

The reason why...,                                       That's the reason why...,

For this reason...,                                        Many people think....,

Spring Break Assignments

Hi,

For those who couldn't make it the last day, the homework assignment is:

Speaking practice:

• Monologue on Friendship, page 50
• Habits in the past, p 49

Handout:

• Cloze Test
• Rephrasing sentences

Writing:

• Tell a story about a disastrous journey (Tuesday & Thursday group)

Expressing Opinions, prefereces

Hi,

These are some expressions that you may learn to express your opinion:
 

I think...,                                           The way I see it...,

In my opinion...,                                 I suppose...,

I'd like to...,                                       If it were up to me...,

I'd rather...,                                       As far as I'm concerned...,

I'd prefer...,                                       I'm pretty sure that...,

I suspect that...,                                 Without a doubt,...

It is fairly certain that...,                      I strongly believe that...,

I'm convinced that...,                          I honestly feel that,        

Podcasts

Hi,

These are wonderful podcasts for you to listen to on your mp3 player, mobile, etc. You are also asked to repeat key phrases and expressions.

This link to dropbox will enable you to download them as well as the transcript for extra help.

Source: Englishpod

Have fun!

Speech on Canada

Let's review

Hi,

It's time to review. Why don't you go over these exercises related to the latest contents given in class?

• Grammar
• Vocabulary on Relationships

Don't forget that you can build your own test in this Oxford Universty Press link:

• Online test

Happy father's day to all dads! Just take into accound that this day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June in both UK and USA.

Burial site of 'Don Quixote' author Miguel de Cervantes confirmed

Scientists say they've found the burial place of the influential author.

Miguel de Cervantes died in 1616

(CNN)"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd," wrote Miguel de Cervantes, the Shakespeare of Spain. And the quest to find his remains has sometimes seemed both, even (dare one say it) quixotic in a time of recession. But forensic scientists have persevered, and appear to have triumphed.

 

Almost 400 years after Cervantes' death, a team led by Francisco Etxeberria announced Tuesday that they were confident they had found Cervantes' coffin in the crypt of the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in the Barrio de Las Letras (Literary Quarter) in Madrid. Historical records indicated Cervantes had been buried there, but the convent had been substantially rebuilt since. (Etxeberria, incidentally, performed the autopsy on former Chilean President Gen. Salvador Allende, confirming he had committed suicide.)

At a news conference in Madrid on Tuesday, Etxeberria said that while there was no mathematical proof or DNA test available to completely verify the findings, there were "many coincidences and no discrepancies" in the examination of "Osario 32," a common grave in the crypt that contained the remains of 16 people.

 

Mystery Story

A short mystery story to present narrative tenses in English, including past simple, past continuous and past perfect. Click this link for a worksheet, transcript, grammar explanations and a free podcast.
Luke's English podcast: http://teacherluke.co.uk/2009/11/12/mystery-story-narrative-tenses/

15 top tips for increasing your range of vocabulary!

Vocabulary is a key part of learning a new language. But what’s the best way to pick up new words and remember them? Here are our top tips for building up your vocabulary.

1 Read & listen!
The best way to learn new words is to do it the natural way: by reading and listening to lots of English. And if you read and listen to things that you’re really interested in, you’ll improve your range of vocabulary without even realising it as you absorb language within interesting content.
2 Guess!
Interestingly, studies have shown that the more effort you put into working out what a word means, the easier it is to remember. So, instead of reaching for the dictionary, try to guess the meaning of any difficult words.
3 Focus!
There are thousands of words and expressions in English. But which ones do you need to learn? The answer is simple: high-frequency words. You can find high-frequency words in dialogues or conversations. Interestingly, a study by Oxford Online has found that the top 3,000 words in English make up 70% of the words we use.

Love has no labels

While the vast majority of Americans consider themselves unprejudiced, many of us unintentionally make snap judgments about people based on what we see—whether it’s race, age, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability. This may be a significant reason many people in the U.S. report they feel discriminated against. Subconscious prejudice—called “implicit bias”—has profound implications for how we view and interact with others who are different from us. It can hinder a person’s ability to find a job, secure a loan, rent an apartment, or get a fair trial, perpetuating disparities in American society.

The Love Has No Labels campaign challenges us to open our eyes to our bias and prejudice and work to stop it in ourselves, our friends, our families, and our colleagues.

LA and Hollywood

You can watch Loreto's presentation on LA and Hollywood again. Well done!

Writing exam samples

Hi,

These are some of your classmates' compositions in the exam. Read them and analyze the good points like:

• information distribution,
• opening and closing,
• use of vocabulary and
• complex sentences.

Why sitting is bad for you

Sitting down for brief periods can help us recover from stress or recuperate from exercise. But nowadays, our lifestyles make us sit much more than we move around. Are our bodies built for such a sedentary existence? Murat Dalkilinç investigates the hidden risks of sitting down.
Source: Ted Ed

 

#like a girl

Hi,
Today it's time to share some thoughts with you. What is it like to be a girl? When did like a girl become an insult?

Patricia Arquette's call for wage equality

Patricia Arquette won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Richard Linklater's Boyhood. During her acceptance speech, Arquette hurriedly thanked seemingly dozens of people, including Linklater and the Boyhood cast and crew, then made a call for gender equality in Hollywood.

"It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America," she said, before music ushered her out.

It was a brief, scattered, and rushed call to action, but it was met by a fist pump of agreement from Meryl Streep and wild applause from the audience. Watch it below:

text neck

You may find the need to talk about how you feel when you've spent a long time looking down to your mobile, Tablet, pc, etc. This is a new Word in English:

text neck noun [uncountable],  damage to the neck muscles and spine caused by frequently bending over a smartphone, tablet device, etc for long periods of time

 

'A newly coined condition – text neck – reveals that slumping over your mobile phone for hours on end heaps so much pressure on your spine, that we're giving ourselves long-lasting back problems.'                Mid Devon Gazette 9th December 2014

 

 

Text neck is a newly identified ailment which is caused by the neck being flexed for a long period of time, typically whilst hunched over some kind of hand-held device. The condition occurs because the joints and tissue in the neck are not naturally built to withstand being flexed for longer periods, so peering down at a screen puts them under stress which causes pain and irritation when the neck returns to its normal position. The root of the problem appears to be our heads which, weighing in at 4–5 kilos, are harder to support when we bend over – a little like carrying a weight at arm's length rather than closer to the body.                         Macmillan Buzz Word

Did Shakespeare write his plays?

Some people question whether Shakespeare really wrote the works that bear his name – or whether he even existed at all. Could it be true that the greatest writer in the English language was as fictional as his plays? Natalya St. Clair and Aaron Williams show how a linguistic tool called stylometry might shed light on the answer.

Eight ways to learn English Grammar!

How useful is grammar for learning a language? And what can you do to improve your knowledge of it?

Grammar alone isn’t going to help you speak a language. However, learning some basic patterns can be useful. For example, if you know the negative past tense is formed with didn’t + a verb, you can produce hundreds of useful sentences: I didn’t go, she didn’t see it, we didn’t do it…” So, what can you do to improve your knowledge of grammar? There are two things: firstly, you need to learn how to form sentences; secondly, you need to know how to use the structures. Here are 8 things you can do to achieve those two objectives:
Forming basic structures

1 Verb tenses
When it comes to studying grammar, the best thing you can do is to focus on verb tenses as this will help you communicate in English. Firstly, you need to find out how the tenses are formed. In order to do this, simply get hold of a grammar book, choose a tense and read about it. Then, do some basic exercises online or in an exercise book to practice forming the structure.