Christmasy

Merry Christmas to you all!
I would like you to share your Christmas spirit by writing what this festivity  means to you.
Is it about family or presents? What are the traditions which are important for you? What can you do without in this time of the year?

Tell us all about it in the comment box.

reading and listening

We are going to do some work today. You are going to listen to a song and then read the lyrics

 Somebody that I used to know in  a version by Matthias Harris  (Thanks a bunch Marta)

Then you are going to do several excercises:

1st. Find these words in the text: /eɪk/, /rʌf/, /ðəʊ/, /hʌŋ/, /wɜːd/

2nd. Find a word or words that mean the same as:

-sometimes

-to have a clear meaning and be easy to understand

-say, pretend

-finish

-(idiom) to drop your moral standards far enough to do something bad or unpleasant

-stop having a friendly relationship with someone

3rd. "Have your friends collect your records and change your number

 I guess that I don't need that though"

Do you think you could express this idea with a different connector?

-"But had me believing it was always something that I'd done"

Can you tell me why the author has chosen this tense and not another?

Let's go back to childhood

How did you learn to speak your mother tongue? I guess we cannot remember. What about English?
Let me propose something and let's go back to "clean slate neurons". Try to overcome the fact that it IS for children and make the most out of it.

Let's play with English

Are you up to working with headlines? Enter this website and match the headlines you can read there with the section in the newspaper they belong to.

don't you?

This is for you to practice and relax. Enjoy it thanks to Judith.

Homophones ....

.....  are words which sound exactly the same but have different meaning and spelling. Getting to know them could help you with your pronuntiation and your listening skills.

I am going to give you two sentences, an easy one -to build up your confidence- and a difficult one -to challenge you- so that you tell me the homophones, which I give you just with the phonetic transcription:

Your /sΛn/  was playing in the /sΛn/.
The /stɔ:k/ ate the /stɔ:k/ of the cherry.

...and now ... could you think of more examples using homophones in the same sentence??? Please share your examples in the comment box.

Let's do magic

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day Parade

    Today, I would like you to learn more about this tradition. I hope this image  makes you  want to find out something else.

For those of you who don't read the comments, here you can read what  my friend wanted to share with you about this festivity. Let me tell you that although she comes from Europe, she's been living in the US for 20 years.

Hello, argh the joy of Thanksgiving. As a foreigner, who has been living in the US for over 21 years, i must say this holiday has been growing on me. It is not about the Turkey or the gravy (i despise both, as i do not eat meat) or the green beens, but about enjoying the day in itself. We have been visiting my hostfamily every year for this holiday enjoying a not so traditional feast, because my hostfather's background is Lebanese. So in addition to the turkey (which hardly anyone eats anymore) a middle eastern feast is presented. And to describe it in one word it would be: scrumptious. What i enjoy about this holiday is the part of slowing down for the day, sleeping in, taking a walk (not this year however), watching the parade (yes it is a big thing..i heard people prepare for it a year at a time) and visiting with friends. Simple as that. Sometimes it is a good day to see a movie at night and sometimes it is just good coming home after consuming 1 million and 5 calories and putting the belly up in the air. Many individuals of course enjoy preparing after a day of eating for Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. This year, it was a bit controversial, as many big stores opened on T-day evening or at midnight. Many workers were planning on demonstrating etc. I certainly do not understand the frenzy of shopping in the middle of the night for the newest tech gadget or worse camp out in the front of the store a week prior to the opening of Black Friday. But then again, this is America.

On that happy note, i will rest my belly (as i continued overeating today) and enjoy a quiet Black Friday in the comfort of our home, listening to the wind outside blowing over Lake Erie while snow flakes are coming down...(yesterday we had 13 degrees and sunshine)...

Greetings

Tanja

For those of you who are interested in current affairs, here you have the article published in Speak up Magazine (326) about the Presidential elections that will take place next Tuesday the 6th of November.

US Elections


If you want to know more.

Something old with new ears

We are going to start our activities having fun with sounds. With that purpose I have thought of a classic, Francis. It's a song you all know very well, so I'll ask you to approach it "with new ears".

It's easy, you just have to listen to it concentrating on the sounds, rather than on the way you would expect to hear the words according to our Spanish sounds.

Let me propose an activity. Listen to the song and then find words that contain the following  sounds:
 /dʒ/ as in jazz,

 /iz/as in  watches,   
 /a:/as in car,  
 and a very easy one - /ai/ as in light,

... and don't miss the final dooby doooby dooo for /d/.

Lyrics

You have four days to think about it, and after those days, you are welcome to write your results in the comment box.  Enjoy the sounds!

Hey students, where are your answers!!??!!??

Here we go!!!!

Dear students,

I approach this web log with mixed feelings. On the one hand I don't think I am good enough to create a blog that is there  for everyone to read  or see but, on the other hand, I embrace this idea with huge enthusiasm since I view it as an excellent opportunity to share with you those things we have no time for in the hectic lessons of ours.

As you can see, on the sidebar,  there are some links to web pages you can visit -I have decided not to include  too many - they vary from those where you can  keep yourself in touch with news in English to those in which you can just be listening to current music while you are working, the difference with your local radio station is that you will have advertisements in English or you will hear about the traffic in London. You also have dictionaries, or podcasts.

I hope you find it useful and get to enjoy English outside the classroom.

Here, I'd like to have a place where we can keep on practicing English with curious things, articles, songs or games.  You will be able to comment, participate and have debates with other readers (if there are any).

For those of you who find it too corny, I hope you can overcome the looks of it and find something worthy in the contents.

Welcome to our blog!!!!!