The students say...contribution by Pepe Delgado (2º B)

Sometimes, without knowing why, we get into really complicated discussions with our students, to a point that we start not knowing what we are saying anymore, and we need to stop, go home, relax and think about it to give a good answer in the following class. But that's the magic of teaching. Your students surprise you, and find the solution themselves. This pdf was made by José Delgado Cáceres, a student from 2ºB. I tried to explain the difference between "go back to", "go back from", "come back to" and "come back from"...Tough question, that!! Pepe designed these diagrams below and I post them, with Pepe's permission, of course, for your benefit.

Enjoy!!

Go Back And Come Back[1]

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And the nominees are...

Next March 7th, at 5PT (Pacific time) /8ET (Eastern Time) - for more info about time zones in the US, click here - the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles will host the 82st Academy Award Ceremony. If you want to participate actively in this important event, you have come to the right place.

MAKE YOUR BET!

Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards® were announced on Tuesday, February 2, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress and Academy member Anne Hathaway:

Why don't you try guessing who will win in each category? Here you have the Oscar official Ballot with all the nominees:

Oscar Ballot

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Although if you need some help, and want to learn about the nominees or watch the trailers of the nominated films, you can click here.

For more info, click on the following links:

The Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Ok, maybe you don't have the time to fill in the whole ballot. So why don't you take a minute to vote for the BEST FILM OF THE YEAR in the survey you will find on the side bar of this blog (just under our Google search engine)

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...

In the year of the Tiger...

We have celebrated, on the 14th of February, the Chinese New Year in such important cities as London, New York or San Francisco. Every year has the name of an animal. 2010 will be the YEAR OF THE TIGER. Those who will be born this year will have the personality of the tiger. What year were you born? Would you like to find out which is your Chinese horoscope sign? Click here.

(Good to learn personality adjectives!)

Listening workshop - 16 Feb 2010

Hello everyone!

Last Tuesday we worked hard. We worked with two listenings. The first one was extracted from the New Inside Out Pre-Intermediate book, and was titled "The Greens go green!" We made a preparatory reading first, where we learnt some vocabulary related to THE ENVIRONMENT. (Click on the underlined words for a list of words on the subject.) And then we made the listening and the corresponding exercises. You'll find the text and the listening exercises below.

And then, as we like challenges, we watched a video about the tragic train crash in Belgium that took place last week. If you want to give it a try, here you have the video and the exercises on it.

And these are the questions we answered about the video:

Train Crash Tragedy Halts Eurostar Service

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See you in the next workshop!!

"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul" - INVICTUS

Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela, a South African anti-apartheid leader, was released from prison after serving a 27-year sentence in Robben Island and Pollsmoor. There would be, therefore, no better occasion than this to invite you to go to the cinema with us.

COME TO THE CINEMA WITH US!! NEXT 17/18 FEB AT 5 p.m. AT THE AVENIDA CINEMAS (next to the Plaza de Armas bus station)

We'll meet there at 4.30!!!!

Based on "The Human Factor", by John Carlin
Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon.

SYNOPSIS

“Invictus” tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

Watch the trailer here:

Let's take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more about that historical Final of the Rugby World Cup and about the man behind, Nelson Mandela, and his country, South Africa.

About South Africa...

"It always seems impossible until its done"

Nelson Mandela

Reading workshop - 9 February 2010

Hello everyone,

As it couldn't be otherwise, this week we have dedicated our reading workshop to ST VALENTINE'S DAY. We have read a chapter from the excellent book BRITISH AND AMERICAN FESTIVITIES, and we have made some comprehension questions about it, applying the reading techniques of SKIMMING & SCANNING that we have talked about.

As we cannot reproduce the whole of the chapter here, I want to make up to you and offer you other you other ways of learning about this festivity and its history. Did you know that in the UK the festivity is only for couples, as in Spain, but that in the US you can send Valentine's cards also to your family or your friends?

Here you have an excellent video from HISTORYCHANNEL.COM where the story of the festivity is explained. It has no subtitles, but that's nothing to you, isn't it? ;-) Watch the video as many times as you wish!!!

You all know Cupid, that winged baby-boy that is supposed to be responsible for people falling in love. But did you know that, according to ancient mythology, he fell in love himself? Click on the photo of the wonderful sculpture of EROS & PSYCHE by Antonio Canova (currently in the Louvre Museum in Paris) to learn about this beautiful story.

Why don't you answer a few questions about the story? You can write a COMMENT to this post your answers:

a) How many sisters does Psyche have?

b) Why couldn't Psyche find a husband?

c) Which famous goddess was jealous of Psyche?

d) How did Psyche discover the identity of her husband?

e) How many tasks did Psyche have to accomplish to win her husband back?

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return" (Moulin Rouge -Baz Luhrmann)

HAPPY BELATED ST VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Writing workshop - 2 Feb 2010

In this workshop we worked about writing short biographies. The task to carry out was to read a model biography about a celebrity, and then write another one on another famous person. For that, we read a short biography of the famous English novelist JANE AUSTEN, one of my favourite writers ever (click on the photo to read about Jane Austen - her bio, and much more):

Allow me to introduce you to a film that has recently been made on Jane Austen's life, called BECOMING JANE. I take advantage of the situation to remind you that this film is available for you in the school library, as well as a graded version of the book it is based on:

Jane Austen was the autor of six of the most popular novels in the English literature, among them SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, EMMA...I wanted to give you the opportunity to know another one that is less famous, but also worth reading and watching: PERSUASION:

The other famous writer we had to write a biography of was the American writer, Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Laureate TONI MORRISON:

If you click on her photo, you'll read a biography of this remarkable woman, still active. One of her most famous works is the novel BELOVED (click on the book cover for the plot summary):

This novel was the source of a film starred by Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover:

See you in the next workshop!!

Speaking, pronunciation and phonetics workshop - 26 Jan 2010

Phonetics and the English phonemes are always a bitter pill to swallow for students. So in this occasion, we decided to revise the whole of the phonemic chart (the truth is, we didn't have the time to finish it up!) and watched some videos that can help you pronounce the English sounds.

The excellent site BBC Learning English provides us with video explanations by Alex Bellem, where she tells us about a particular sound, explaining us how to pronounce it correctly, and giving us examples of words that contain the sound in question. Please click on Tips for Pronunciation to get into the site and start practising. Click on the sound you want and watch the video. Follow Alex's instructions and you'll see how your pronunciation improves!

We also spoke about a very interesting site of the University of Iowa, where you can see the position of the different speech organs when we pronounce a specific sound (please notice that this site works with American English sounds).

Well, this is enough to work on until our next workshop. Enjoy!!

1º NB (A1) Have a look at...the Imperative! (please)

Our student's book does not deal with the imperative as such, so I have prepared this presentation for you. It includes some grammar about the imperative form in English together with some photos of different signs that I took last summer, when I visited the UK. Take some time to have a look and try to look for the imperative forms in them!!

The Imperative

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The cartoon below has been extracted from the English Is Fun blog (http://englishisfun-andressa.blogspot.com/), and includes several imperative forms. Can you find them?

Don't tell me it's not easy...

Listening workshop - 19 Jan 2010

Hello everyone,

Just to make a summary of what we did on our last listening workshop, we had a pending task. We listened to Fred and Edna speak about their relationship, always applying the techniques we discussed on our introductory workshop. This listening exercise was extracted from NEW INSIDE OUT PRE-INTERMEDIATE (Ed. MacMillan - Cd 1 track 13)

Sorry I cannot publish the track on this blog!!

Edna and Fred's story comes in handy for the oncoming St. Valentine's Day, next Sunday 14!!! Have a look around the blog from time to time for some ROMANCE...

All we are is dust in the wind...

Last Thursday, in our 1ºNB class, we listened to our "first" song. It had to be an easy but also a beautiful one, and I chose a classic, released in 1977: Dust in the Wind, by the American band Kansas, which is still active. Take some time and listen to the song and read the lyrics. And you can also take advantage of the opportunity to notice how fashion and hairstyles have changed over the years...
Please find the lyrics below:

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone
All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind.
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see.

Dust in the wind.

All we are is dust in the wind.

Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky.
It slips away, all your money won't another minute buy.

Dust in the wind.

All we are is dust in the wind.

Dust in the wind.

Everything is dust in the wind.