Alexandria

Hi,
This is Zarko's presentation in class about the City of Alexandria. Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to get access to its ruins?

Adverts

Hi,

These are some ads posted on the school board. Would you like to answer any? Send your reply to the comment box in this post.

 

The Benefits of Bilingual Brain

It’s obvious that knowing more than one language can make certain things easier — like traveling or watching movies without subtitles. But are there other advantages to having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? Mia Nacamulli details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how knowing more than one language keeps your brain healthy, complex and actively engaged.

Say and tell

What's the difference between "say" and "tell"? It may be difficult for you but there are some gramar rules to help. Watch this video to find out. Then do a practice activity to test your understanding.

Grammar practice

For some more grammar practice, work on these exercises:

• So and such 1 
• So and such  2

Future forms:

• Future forms 1
• Future forms (2)
• Future expressions
• Future forms: will/ shall and going to
• Future forms: will/ shall and going to (2)

Question Tags:

question tags (1)

question tags (2)

Carbon footprint

Today, the term “carbon footprint” is often used as shorthand for the amount of carbon (usually in tonnes) being emitted by an activity, person or organization.

travel vs trip

Source: https://twitter.com/learn2langs

10 ways to improve your English outside of class

Source: ELT Learning Journeys Posted on June 16, 2015 by Daniel Vincent 

When it comes to learning a language, you can only do so much in class. At some point, we all need to look beyond the classroom walls if we’re to put our abilities to the test and hone those hard-earned skills. Luckily, the age we live in has no shortage of options for the motivated learner.

Here are 10 ways to improve your English outside of class:

1. Watch TV series and films in English

TV and film are great ways to practice listening skills because the visual element helps to make the context clear. However, if you’re watching something in order to improve your English, be methodical. Watch once without subtitles and then once again with them (in English). Rewatch difficult scenes over and over until you’ve really grasped what’s being said. If you’re watching a DVD, remember that these days many have an audio description option for the sight-impaired. This additional element makes for great extra practice.

2. Find a language exchange partner

One-to-one exchanges are a great way to practice your language skills in a relaxed setting – over a coffee, say, or even a beer. The key to a successful exchange is to find someone who has a similar level in your language as you do in English, otherwise the temptation is to drift into the stronger of the two. Be strict with one another as well: half the exchange in your language, half in English, or alternating languages every time you meet.

3. Join a language club

A great way to meet new people and hone those conversation skills is to join a language club, where like-minded people gather to improve their English either by getting together to chat or by taking part in an activity – walking in the countryside, for example, or visiting local galleries. Many of them are joined by native speakers looking to make friends in a laidback atmosphere. Sites like meetup.com are ideal for finding out what’s going on in your area.

11 top tips for making small talk in English!

You may be able to give expert speeches, wonderful presentations and professional talks on topics of your choice, but can you make small talk*? There are times in life when you need to chat and make casual conversation. For example, as you’re waiting to be served in a shop, while you’re travelling in a bus or train, or while you’re sitting in the waiting room at a dental clinic. And in business, the social aspect of a business relationship is often as important as the professional one. Here are our top 11 tips for making small talk.

1. Listen!
The number-one rule when making small talk is to listen. Make a conscious effort to remember what the other person is saying. Then, you can use this information to generate more conversation.

2. Ask questions!
In order to keep the conversation going, ask lots of open questions with question words such as who, why, what, when and where. For example:
■ What did you think of the conference?
■ Where did you go for your last holidays?
■ Who did you see at the party last week?

12 ways that TV series can help you learn English!

Watching TV series is a great way to improve your English. Here are 12 reasons why. 

1. There’s a lot of conversation, so you’ll be learning lots of useful spoken language. Also, the dialogues are often short and easy to follow.

2. Watching a TV series is great for your listening ability, which is THE key skill in language learning. Once you can listen and understand, you’ll learn English easily and effortlessly.

3. By watching a TV series, you’ll hear English in context, so you’ll see how and when the language is used. And although the dialogues have been scripted, they’re designed to sound as natural and authentic as possible.

How to show interest

Are you having an informal conversation with someone? Do you want to show you are interested in what they are saying? We teach you some expressions.
Why don't you copy them and make an effort to use them next time you speak to your partner?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish

Question Tags

Hi,

You can practice the grammar we learnt in class in these links.

Grammar Aquarium: http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/gr.qutags.i.htm

Eglish Hilfen:

Question tags – Exercise 1

Question tags – Exercise 2

Question tags – Exercise 3

Articles:

Pronunciation of the article the in English – Exercise

The articles a/an, the – Exercise

Talking about fear

Hi,

Let's learn expressions to talk about "fear". After you can take a quiz to see how much you've learned:

This is a wonderful link that Ángel suggested, www.engvid.com. There are plenty of videos divided by levels and topics.

How to complain in English

Hi,
In this sheet you can learn how to complain in English. You may listen to it as well.
Source: Hot English

6 ways to prepare for an English exam!

Are you thinking of taking an English exam? Perhaps you should. They’re a good way of motivating you to study. Here are our top tips on how to pass an English exam in five months. This is the first part of a series on doing exams.

Let’s imagine you’ve got five months to prepare for your English exam. You can prepare yourself with just an hour a day over the five-month period before the exam. Here’s what you should be doing.

 

1 General preparation
Most exams test your general ability to communicate in English. So, in order to prepare you for this, you’ll need to work on the four key communication skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. The best way to do this is to immerse yourself in the language, and to do a bit every day to increase your general level. Language learning takes time, and in order for it to take place, you need to read and listen a lot in order to get enough exposure to the language. In fact, language learning takes place through input (reading  + listening) and practice (speaking + writing).

Space Oddity, Christ Hadfield

This is a revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

The fascination of Egypt

Hi,

As commented in class, we are going to visit The fascination of Egypt exhibition in Canal. In relation to the field trip we will do, you can read the following leaflet. These are the topics that we are to present in class from now till March.

Topics	PRESENTATION DATES
Egypt and the River Nile	Jan 27, 28
Pharaohs	Feb 1, 2
Ptolemaic Dynasty	Feb 3, 4
Alexander Magnum	Feb 10, 9
The city of Alexandria	Feb 15, 11
Serapis, Osiris’ Judgement and Isis	Feb 17, 16
Debod Temple	Feb 29, 18
Cleopatra VII	March 2, 1
Egypt a province of Rome	March 7, 3
Cleopatra and the arts (films, plays…)	March 9, 8
Mummification	March 14, 10
Art in Egypt	March 16
Valley of Kings	April 4
Sculpture of Nefertiti	April 6
The Book of the dead	April 11
Citizen journalism in Arab spring	April 13

Cleopatra VII

Do you like history? Are you fascinated by the life of Cleopatra? Listen to this video and take note of the information that you didn't know before.

The Pig, poem by Roald Dahl

Is English an easy language to learn?

Is English an easy language to learn? Here are a few arguments in favour of the idea that English is fairly simple. What do you think? Express your opinión in the comment section.
Listen to this HotEnglish document.

PluralsPlurals are relatively easy in English. In most cases, you simply add an “s” to the end of the word. For example: one chair, two chairs. There are very few exceptions to this. Some other languages have several different types of plural endings, which can get quite complex.

NounsIn general, nouns in English don’t have any gender as they do in other languages. For example, it’s a horse or a cow. But in languages such as Spanish, words can be either masculine or feminine. So, “a horse” in Spanish is “un caballo” (which is masculine), and “a cow” is “una vaca” (which is feminine).