Happy New Year!!!

English Humour

Solve this puzzle about English Humour...

Key to the puzzle.

Sorry, but I love stupid jokes!!!

Key to Cloze Activity

Check your answers to the cloze activity: key (22nd Dec.)

Old World Language Families

When linguists talk about the historical relationship between languages, they use a tree metaphor. An ancient source (say, Indo-European) has various branches (e.g., Romance, Germanic), which themselves have branches (West Germanic, North Germanic), which feed into specific languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian). Lessons on language families are often illustrated with a simple tree diagram that has all the information but lacks imagination. There’s no reason linguistics has to be so visually uninspiring. Minna Sundberg, creator of the webcomic Stand Still. Stay Silent, a story set in a lushly imagined post-apocalyptic Nordic world, has drawn the antidote to the boring linguistic tree diagram.

Also worth checking out is the page before the tree, where she gives a comparison chart of words in the Nordic languages, and illustrates what an outlier Finnish is with the concept of “meow.”

English Style Guide

For American English see The Chicago Manual of Style

Changing Education Paradigms

Vox Populi nº 46 (Revista EOI Pamplona)

Vox Populi nº 46 EOI Pamplona. A wonderful magazine to read: interesting, varied and written by EOI students and teachers.

Good, Cheap & Fast

Read and Watch News

Do it on Sky News... I recommend the 3 minute catch up. Be patient with buffering...

Reasons to watch SKY NEWS everyday

 You keep yourself informed about current affairs in the world.

 You listen to different types of register: formal (newsreaders) and informal (people interviewed)

 You listen to different types of accents: people from all over the world and from everywhere in the UK or the USA.

 In only three minutes you hear about several different topics: politics, sports, economy, society, music, environment...

 The news are very similar to the ones you’ve heard in your mother tongue, which helps your understanding.

Global: December solstice | Onestopenglish

Global: December solstice | Onestopenglish: This infographic lesson looks at interesting facts about the December solstice.

Cloze Activity

Key next week!

Squid and chips to replace fish (cod) and chips

Squid & Chips from The Telegraph

Médicos sin Fronteras

Proyecto solidario en nuestra EOI con Médicos sin Fronteras.
Para más info habla con tu profe.

! Murcia Today - Murcia And Spanish News Round-up Week Ending 16th December 2016

! Murcia Today - Murcia And Spanish News Round-up Week Ending 16th December 2016

What's on weekly bulletin

Last class of the year

Not my cup of tea... but tomorrow we'll be reviewing the grammar points from the first three units (pp. 159-161) of the textbook: intensifying adverbs, emphatic structures (cleft sentences and negative inversion) and past modals (1st part of session).

We'll also be doing a riveting activity with Christmas specific vocabulary (2nd part of session)!!!
... and deadline for essay assignment, hand it in o email it, please!

SUSPENDIDAS LAS CLASES LUNES 19 DE DICIEMBRE

El Ayuntamiento de Cartagena y la Consejería de Educación han decidido suspender las clases el lunes 19 de diciembre debido al tiempo e intensas lluvias en este municipio

Xmas Voc

Save Sheffield Trees!!!

Ellie wanted me to share this with you...

www.savesheffieldtrees.org.uk 

Inventions their creators regret

Read this article by The Guardian and do the suggested activities. If you want to read The Guardian's Monthly News Lessons, click. (Choose advanced ones) If you want to read Spanish News from The Guardian, click.

Xmas Card Contest

Present an Invention

Follow the instructions from the slides and be ready to present your New Invention!
(Tim Warre's activity)

Mindmap for writing

Let's thank Tim Warre once more!

Writing your Essay

Essay Writing Basics

Writing Task: Essay

Write a 350-word opinion essay on a free topic.
If you cannot find a topic, you can use one of the following:

• Is a lottery a good idea?
• Are smartphones dangerous?
• Should students be allowed to grade their teachers

More topics here. Deadline 21st Dec.

Argument / Opinion Essay Writing

First thing, check The Essay Writing Process. After that, if you want to learn some tips for essay writing, have a look at this. Interesting information on argument and opinion essay writing and two samples (one for each) for you to read.

Formal Writing

Handout (Both by Tim Warre)

13th December latest English language films at Las Velas in Los Alcázares

13th December latest English language films at Las Velas in Los Alcázares: Jack Reacher, Office Christmas Party, Allied, Moana and Deepwater Horizon A feast of cinema treats for filmgoers in the Mar Menor area are on offer at the Las Velas cinema in Los Alcázares on the evening of December 13th with these English language originals: 20:45 Tom Cruise stars in Jack Reacher Never go Back Click for film trailer 16:00 and 18:30 Office Christmas Party with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman Click for film trailer 16:00 and 20:45 Allied starring Brad Pitt and Marion C.
Ticket prize 4.50 euros

Can you pass the UK citizenship test?

Check here. Do this 20-question test. [I passed !!!]

21st Century Communication...

... is a series of English textbooks for all levels by National Geographic based on TED Talks. You can find here 8 titles for you to see. Definitely worth watching (and inspiring)!!! Look them up on the link above!!!

Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes

Wednesday class

We'll start class at 9.00 and it'll last 90 mins., as I have a meeting in Murcia. Sorry for the inconvenience!

English Breakfast

Did you have breakfast? Have a look at the typical English Breakfast and others...
Don't miss the 22 slides with photos of breakfasts everywhere in the world --delicious!!!

Murcia Today

Whats-on-weekly-bulletin

Shakespeare's 12th Night

The British Council colloborated with SBTV who brought together musicians and lyricists for a special Twelfth Night-inspired piece. Watch the music video and find out more about British Council events and activities taking place around the world in 2016 on the Shakespeare Lives website.

(You can add subtitles if necessary)

Magnus Carlsen

Do you know Magnus Carlsen?
See here and here (Place the cursor on the matches if you want more info).

Wordlists LIFE (Unit 3)

Top 15 Mannequin Challenge Videos

Gradable Adjectives

Review Gradable Adjectives.

SPEAKING LESSON (Wednesday 30th Nov.) Landmarks and city description

Check some specific vocabulary and phrases here to use in the activity.

You can also have a look at Cartagena Website in English: What to Visit? The following are just suggestions:
· Teatro Romano (Roman Theatre)
· Barco Turístico (Tourist Boat)
· Castillo de la Concepción
· Fuerte de Navidad (Fort of Christmas)
· Muralla Púnica (Punic Wall)

Speaking activity:

Be ready to talk about:

• a landmark in Cartagena (or in your home town / city) for 3 minutes.
• a village / town / city you've visited recently which impressed you. Give reasons and as many details as possible. (3 mins.)

If time allows, tell the rest of the class the type of tourism you can do in another place (different from the ones you chose for the first activity)

•     Leisure time
•     Gastronomy
•     Sports
•     Night life …

Remember:

o       Be extremely specific in your speech

o       Avoid “good, bad, nice, beautiful, go” and basic vocabulary in general

o       Be ready to ask and answer possible questions about your and your classmates’ recommendations.

! Murcia Today - Murcian And Spanish News Round-up Week Ending 27th November

! Murcia Today - Murcian And Spanish News Round-up Week Ending 27th November

Week ending 4th Dec.

End Violence against Women

End Violence against Women

• Domestic violence kills one woman every 12 minutes
• I can do something!: as a victim  as a policy maker   as a citizen
• 1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence during her lifetime
• 200 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation
• Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria.
• 1500 women are victims of acid attacks every year

Black Friday

 I'm happy, I don't need to buy anything today.

Wordlists LIFE (Units 1 & 2)

You will find below a wordlist for every unit. They are in .doc format so that you can work with them. All the words / phrases appear in red. You may delete the words you already know and add information to the new ones for you. Add pronunciation / meaning / translation and an example of the word in context (or the four of them!) according to your needs.

It can be a useful tip to improve your vocabulary

Unit 1 Lessons for Life

Unit 2 More than a Job

Thanks for visiting so much an so often!!!

Webquest: Thanksgiving | Onestopenglish

Learn about this important day in North American tradition:
Worksheet
Teacher's Notes

How to survive political disagreements with relatives this Thanksgiving (The Washington Post)

Vocabulary to describe spaces and architecture

Life after Death by Powerpoint 2012 (Don McMillan)

Would you walk people for a living?

Meet the man who does it on this The Guardian article.

Chuck McCarthy has created a service to stroll with strangers...

More about Presentations

Haven't you decided yet which presentation you are going to do? If you've already made up your mind, have a look at how to make it. You'll find it useful.
Remember possible topics to talk about: IT, your hobby / hobbies, a trip, a famous person, a celebrity, a discovery, a sport, how to do smth., or any other theme you may find interesting ...

How to give a presentation in English

Presentations...

Just a reminder ... 
You have to do / give / make a presentation before the end of the (academic) year. It will help your oral skills dramatically / enormously / immeasurably / significantly / tremendously.
Tips to start working on it. 

Acronym or Abbreviation (Dictionary.com)

Acronym or Abbreviation: Is there a difference between acronyms and abbreviations? Yes. An abbreviation is any shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase. An acronym is a specific type of abbreviation formed from the first letters of a multi-word term, name, or phrase, with those letters pronounced together as one term. OPEC—or the O(rganization of) P(etroleum) E(xporting) C(ountries)—is an acronym because we pronounce it as one word, oh-pek. This is distinct from an initialism, which is another form of abbreviation in which each letter is pronounced separately, like FBI. To complicate the issue, there are hybrid forms—part initialism, part acronym—like CD-ROM and JPEG—for which one term is as good as the other...
To learn more about these type of words click here.

Abbreviations

First of all a little bit of theory here. Then, look up ABBREVIATIONS on Oxford Dictionary, or on Your Dictionary and written abbreviations on Macmillan Dictionary.
Some activities here (key) and here (key).

More on 30.1.14 on this blog

! Murcia Today - Murcian And Spanish News Round Up Week Ending 18th November

! Murcia Today - Murcian And Spanish News Round Up Week Ending 18th November

Murcia Today

Natives vs Non-Natives Episode 1 | Onestopenglish

Episode 1 | Onestopenglish: This month the panel discusses natives vs. non-natives, Brexit and its effects on ELT, modern perceptions of the ELT teacher and Formal, Informal and Non-formal Learning. Special guests include Rob Hughes, DELTA-qualified teacher currently studying for a masters in applied linguistics, and Mike Riley, teacher engagement manager at Macmillan.

8 Spanish Words You'll Struggle To Pronounce (If You're Not Spanish)

Many Spanish students usually complain about the difficulty of pronouncing English sounds. It's just the same all the way round!!!

8 Spanish Words You'll Struggle To Pronounce (If You're Not Spanish): Spanish can be a tricky language to pronounce, but here are some tricks that will help you pronounce some challenging words — watch and see!

Key to ON activity (3rd Nov.)

ALL phrases use ON. Check the rest here.

Let's talk about politics!

We'll be doing this Tim's Free English Lesson Plans activity in class on Wednesday. You can check this voc sheet about political vocabulary after doing the activity.

! Murcia Today - Murcian And Spanish News Round-up W/e 11th November

! Murcia Today - Murcian And Spanish News Round-up W/e 11th November

Murcia Today