Who is Banksy?

Banksy

Hi!
This is the the BBC video we watched in class by recommendation of my colleague Michel. Try to answer the following questions. You may drop your answers on the "comment": 

• What's the news item about? 
• Why are they removing Banksy's grafitti? What are the Council's arguments? 
• How long had it been there before? 
• Do neighbours agree? Are they happy about it?  
• What does Richard Howard- Griffin think about it? Is he happy about it?
• What do the authorities say the'll do with the mural?

Business English Rules

Do you have to be at work by a certain time?

Most workplaces have rules that workers have to follow - but do they make life easier?
Are rules and regulations a necessary evil? Feifei and Neil talk about workplace rules - and explore language for talking about rules.
Key phrases when talking about rules and regulations:

• Smoking in the office is against company policy.
• Accepting gifts is against company policy.
• I'm sorry, but we're not allowed to give out personal details.
• I'm afraid that's a no-no.

Source: bbc 6-minute programme

Alice Munro, 'Master' Of The Short Story, Wins Literature Nobel

On Thursday, Alice Munro became the 110th winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and only the 13th woman to win the award in more than a century. The Canadian writer was hailed by the Swedish Academy as a "master of the contemporary short story." Over a four-decade career, Munro has written 14 collections of stories and one novel.

Listen to All things considered program from npr.org
Transcript

I encourage you to read some of her stories posted by my colleague Cris on her class blog.

David Beckham Retirement Interview

Retirement

Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the age of 71

Footballers do it in their 30s while most of us have to wait until our 60s. When is the right time to stop your job and retire? Perhaps when you're too old to carry on working, or maybe when you've just had enough?

This week's question:
What is the official retirement age in Japan?
a) 60
b) 65
c) 70

Listen to the 6-minute-English programme to find out the answer.
Don't miss the script with great vocab!! 

Little Boy To Kenya Gunman: ‘You’re A Bad Man’

Militant spares four-year-old after the boy shames him 

A four-year-old British boy survived the bloody Kenyan shopping mall attack after standing up to a terrorist gunman and telling him: “You’re a very bad man.”

Elliott Prior, from Windsor in southeast England, showed great courage when men with AK47s stormed the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi on Saturday, the Sun reports. He was protecting his mother Amber, who had been shot in the leg. As a gunman approached him, his mother and his six-year-old sister Amelie, he shouted: “You’re a bad man, let us leave.” 

Surprisingly, the gunman appeared to take pity on the family. After going so far as to give Elliott and Amelie candy bars, he allowed them to escape with their mother, saying, according to the Sun: “Please forgive me, we are not monsters.”

Amber, a 35-year-old film producer, also rescued two other children from the mall, including a wounded 12-year-old boy whose mother had been murdered, and pushed them outside in a shopping trolley. Dramatic photos of the distraught-looking Amber, Elliott and Amelie coming out of the mall were then flashed around the world.

Source: Time Magazine

Go!

Dear all,
 
Why don't we start by practicing basic grammar points at Oxford University Press website?

• Lesson A question formation
• Lesson B auxiliary verbs
• Lesson C present perfect (simple and continuous)

Check what you know

Hi!
 
I think it would be a good idea to revise intermediate grammar points with activities from New English File Intermediate:

• Present perfect and past simple
• Passive
• Future forms
• First conditional and future time clauses
• Modals of deduction
• Gerunds and infinitives
• Reported statements and questions
• Relative clauses

Welcome to this new school year!

Dear NI2 students,

I'd like to welcome you to this new accademic year 2013-2014. I hope it will bring plenty of learning experiences and that we will learn a lot from each other.

Our coursebook will be Outcomes (Upper Intermediate)
Heinle Cengage Learning
Authours: Hugh Dellar (Author), Andrew Walkley (Author)

All the best,
M.ª José

Modern Love: Falling in Love at 71

September 12, 2013 By Arthur Jones

Nora Johnson, long divorced, wasn't looking for love when she met George, a widowed 83-year-old. It just happened.

How different is love at 71 from when you are younger?

Related Article: Age Is No Obstacle to Love, or Adventure

Business: Asking permission & polite requests

Hi there!

Don't miss this 6-minute English programme.

Making requests in a polite way is an important skill. Most people learn how to say 'please' and 'thank you' at a very young age – but what about politeness in the English-speaking workplace? What do you say if you want someone to open the window, turn down the air conditioning or tidy up the office?

Join Feifei and Neil as they argue about air-conditioning and explore the language of asking permission and making polite requests in English.

Don't forget to go over the polite language used when asking for something on the transcript.
BTW What type of officie do YOU prefer?

Town and City Vocabulary

Dear NI2 students,

This is a nice post on how to showcase your expressions referring to Town and City. Although the dialogues of the IELTS exam is not the same as our school exam, it might inspire you to talk to your partner or to elaborate your monologues.

Examiner: What is it like where you live?

Christiane: I live in a residential area of a busy town in the south of Spain … we have all the facilities you need … good public transport … a good shopping centre … it’s nice …

Examiner: Do you like living in the city?
Andrea: Yes I do … I like going out with my friends and there are lots of lively bars and restaurants within walking distance of my apartment … I’m a bit of a culture vulture as well so it’s great to have access to art exhibitions and that kind of thing …

Examiner: Do you get many tourists visiting your area?
Mandy: Not really no … I live in the inner-city and the area is a little run down … it’s basically a lot of high-rise flats and many of the shops are boarded up … so nothing to interest tourists really …

For more expressions on IELTS Vocabulary practice for Speaking click here

English speaking tips

Hi!

I thougth you might want to have a look at these expressions to practice for your oral exam. 
I wish you good luck!!

• Talking about the holidays
• English conversation tips
• Talking about the news in English
• Talking about fear in English
• Saying how happy or sad you are
• Giving and receiving presents in English
• How to keep an English conversation going
• Talking about your hobbies in English
• Telling a story in English
• Talking about the weather in English
• How to ask for things in English
• English greetings
• Talking about your opinions and beliefs in English
• Talking about likes and dislikes in English
• Agreeing in English
• Making generalisations
• Suggestions and advice in English
• Speaking about hopes in English
• Making invitations
• Making appointments
• Complaining in English
• Talking about probability and making predictions
• How to make requests and offers in English
• How to express shock in English

Arranging meetings

So many offices, so many meetings Neil's been listening to the news this week. There are so many important people getting together discussing important things - and it's got him thinking about the skill of setting up meetings effectively.

In this 6 Minute English business edition, Neil and Feifei practise the language of setting up meetings with the help of our BBC Learning English Business Language expert.

Join them as they role-play a business conversation - and pick up a few useful phrases to take away with you!

Have a look at the script as well  so you can memorize the key phrases when arranging meetings. How about practicing this situation with a partner on the phone?

Consider your career

FREEZE: Consider Your Career from Bruce Kasanoff

Language tip of the week: increase | Macmillan

This week’s language tip brings you some useful advice on other ways of saying increase:

Be/go up: to increase; used for talking about prices or levels House prices went up a further 12 percent last year. 

Push up: to make something increase; used for talking about prices or levels It is feared that the new taxes will push up fuel prices. 

Rise: to increase The number of complaints rose to record levels. 

Soar: to increase quickly and to a very high level; used mainly in journalism Stock prices have soared to an all-time high. 

Rocket or skyrocket: (informal) to increase quickly and suddenly; used mainly in journalism Bad weather means fresh fruit prices are set to skyrocket. 

Mount: to increase steadily The CEO is under mounting pressure to resign. 

Be on the increase: to be increasing steadily New cases of breast cancer seem to be on the increase. 

Double: to increase to twice the original amount or level Oil prices have more than doubled since last year. 

Triple: to increase to three times the original amount or level The last six months have seen the company’s value triple.

Going where the work is

In this week's 6 Minute English, Rob and Jennifer talk about why people move around the world to find work. These people are known as global migrants.

Some 214 million people are international migrants, living in a different country from the one in which they were born. There are plenty with high-level skills who end up working for at least part of their careers outside their home country.

Some take work they are overqualified for, because it still pays better than what is available at home. This has led to a brain drain from some developing countries.

Find out what this means as well as some other vocabulary associated with migration.

This week's question:
According to figures from the United Nations, which one of these countries has the largest number of immigrants as a percentage of its national population? Is it:
    a) United States of America
    b) Qatar
    c) Turkey
Listen to the programme to find out the answer.
Text

NI2 Reading Comprehension

Dear NI2 students,

Find some reading practice in these links. I hope you find them useful:

1. Wole Soyinka (Cloze)
2. Reality TV (Multiple choice)
3. Pirahnas (Cloze)
4. The fastest Dinosours (Cloze)
5. Liverpool (T/F/DS)
6. When you have a sore throat (Multiple Choice)
7. Sale-Rabat Tramway (text exploitation)
8. Black English (Text exploitation)

NI1 Reading Comprehension

Hi!
As some people are interested in practicing reading comprehension for September exam, I'm showing some nice links for you to go through. 
I hope you are having a great summer and enjoying your free time  :-)

1. The first computer programmer
2. Airbus Crisis Over
3. Visit Angkor Wat
4. Biofuels and the Environment
5. Bully for you
6. Child labour
7. Papua New Guinea Reconciliation
8. The Digital Divide 
9. Arthur Conan Doyle
10. Adolescents in Britain
11. The Librerian