NI2 Listening practice to improve your listening & speaking skills.

Listen and do the quizzes, then read the transcripts, when available. You can also use some of them as models to practise for your Speaking test.

Best place to meet people: Six people discuss where they think the best place to meet people is.

What is your daily routine?

Do you like to cook?

Do you prefer to cook or to eat out?

What qualities do I like in a restaurant?

Is transport good in your country? 

What sports do you like to watch on TV?

Are grades overemphasized in school?

How long should the school day be?

Where do you want to study?

How grad school difer from undergraduated?

Should people get unemployment?

Help wanted: Listen to two college students discuss possible part-time jobs and do the quiz.

Have you ever had a bad work experience?

Do you like apartment buildings?

Where do you shop for bargains?

How does your hometown area differ from the rest of the country?

Why should people keep fit?

Have you ever had a techno nightmare?

What is your country's biggest environmental problem?

What is an environmental problem in your country?

What are you worried about environmentally?

Listen to news

What's your favourite season?

My favourite movie

Perfect match: Listen to six people describe the type of person they would like to date.

Who is the man? : Describing feelings and reasons.

Free time

Recycling

Text messaging

My favourite city

Anyway, browse this site  for more examples. 

NA1 Going through the year

Grammar:
Agreeing & disagreeing: So do I / Neither do I / I do / I don't

Revising condicional sentences, posted by Mª Jesús

"I wish / If only": A reminder of its uses + Exercise + "Wish you were here." by Pink Floyd

Have something done

Used to / Be/Get used to

Had better / Would rather

Dive into The Grammar Aquarium,you'll find explanations and online exercises on anything you need to practise.

Reading:

Read the articles below  to revise and extend your vocabulary on some of the topics we've done this year. They also provide loads of examples of tenses, passive forms, reported speech, reporting verbs, conditional sentences, connectors...

Fashion:   

Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron choose British designers 

Michelle Obama fights to control summer dress in windy London.

Air travel &  natural and man-made disasters:  

Barack Obama cuts short Ireland trip to avoid ash cloud  

3.5 minutes of terror: Air France crash dropped at 10000 feet a minute
How Japan tackles its quake challenge 

Relationships:

Why do people get married after having children? 

Carla Bruni humiliated her husband Nicolas Sarkozy with ex-boyfriends, author claims

Health: 
Germany: Ten die from E.coli -infected cucumbers 

NHS nurses think care of elderly is beneath them.   

Edwina Currie says doctors are too posh to wash hands.  

Cities:

Globe Trekker shows Europe: Barcelona.

Listening:
Crime:
Man accused killing daughter girl 10 poisoned.

Music:

David Garrett rocks classical music.

Cities:

Globe Trekkers: " New York City: 10 things you need to know "  (Do not miss it!)

Climate change:

Interview with New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg . (Do not miss it!)

Wael Ghonim: Inside the Egyptian revolution

One of my NA1 students  would like to share this link with you all. It's on TedTalks an amazing website where you can listen to incredibly interesting people. There's an interactive transcript you can open if you need it. 
Wael Ghonim is the Google executive who helped jumpstart Egypt's democratic revolution.
I also think  it's worth watching. Thanks to Benito for sending it.

Read about Spain local & regional election in English

BBC News:"Spanish socialists suffer election losses"
Read more on Mª Jesús's blog

NA1 "Weather expert describes flying near Iceland's ash cloud" & "Volcanic eruption in Iceland 'to reach UK' soon"

Click here  & here to watch these two BBC reports. Great to practise and extend your vocabulary on `Natural disasters´ and `Air travel.´

Spain rocked by protests

Spain's `indignados´summon spirit of 1968. Click here to watch the report on Channel 4. And here to listen to and interview with a Ana Cavero, one of the thousands of young unemployed protesters, on the BBC.
Read about the 15-M movement  in Wikipedia.

 José Luis Sampedro analyses the 15-M movement.Click on the arrow, then on cc to display the English subtitles.

NA1 The press

Here you are the links to some popular British and American newspapers. Reading the press is a great way to improve your English, so why don't you make a habit of it?

The Telegraph

The Mirror

The Sun 

The Times

The Guardian 

The New York Times 
New York Daily News 

USA Today

President Obama's speech: Osama Bin Laden Dead

Click here to watch it with full transcript.

NA1 Mª Jesús's newest posts

Have a look at Mª Jesús's newest posts. Great and useful practice, as usual.

• How to write letters of complaint
• Reporting verbs (File 5C)

If you need to revise how Reported speech works or need further practice, click here, here, and here.

NA1 Counting sheep. (File 5B)

If you're concerned about sleep disorders click here and watch some interesting videos on the topic.

NI2 Weather & Climate change

Let's warm up a bit before we start dealing with our LAST topic this year!

Weather vocabulary 

Watch this video and learn to describe the weather

Watch this video and learn some weather vocabulary and sayings 
What can we do to keep the world clean? 

Get familiar with Climate change

If you're "a green person", you'll like reading Greener Earth a blog which gives tips for living a greener lifestyle.

How technology can affect our health.

Watch  iPaditis and find it out.

Thanks to my colleague and friend Concha Lana for sending it.

NA1 Gerund or Infinitive?

Click here  to find out when you have to use each form.

NI2 Discussing public/private medicine.

The UK NHS, the national health service, is a system that provides free medical care and is paid for through taxes. On its website you can find out plenty of information related to health issues.

As we are going to discuss public/private medicine in class, why don't you read About the NHS?  In addition to getting some information to support your opinion it will help you to compare it with our own national health service. 

You can also find lots of videos on how to prevent and cope with  some  health problems, like flu , which is worth watching.

NI2 Fecha de pruebas unificadas junio 2011 y Inglés- Guía del candidato 2010-2011

Click here    and  here  to find out about them.

NA1 How I trained my husband (File 4B)

Mª Jesús has posted a link to an interview with Amy Sutherland talking about the article "How I trained my husband" you can read in your textbook (p.57). If you are interested in listening to it, click here. There are also some  questions you can try to answer.

 I strongly recommend Equals and Four great talks for International Women's Day (don't miss Isabel Allende's talk, it's brilliant!), also posted in Mª Jesús's blog.

NI2 Health

As we are about to start dealing with the topic of "Health", let's revise and learn some useful vocabulary. You can listen how the words are pronounced.

The body 1

The body 2 (Bones  and organs)

The Digestive system 

Heath problems and Quiz

Medicine 

Exercise on body parts: Whole body

Exercise on body parts: Head 

Exercise on body parts: Face 

Listen to a collection of dialogues on health topics 
Listening practice: Staying Healthy

• Listen to Keren talking about her healthy lifestyle and what she does to stay in shape. 
• Listen again and do the Slide quiz.
• Finally, listen and read the script. 

NA1 Japan massive quake

Click here to watch the BBC coverage of Japan earthquake and here if you want to watch a CCN report Mª Jesús has posted.

And the Oscar goes to...

If you couldn't stay up late last night and missed the ceremony, click here to watch Oscars 2011 highlights and   here to find out all the details as well as to revise  and expand your vocabulary on cinema.

Listen to a special English report on the ceremony and this year's nominees here. ( Don't read the script the first time you listen. Take notes of any vocabulary item or useful phrase you want to learn and use).
 

Happy Valentine's Day , guys!

 Here you are a selection  of Valentine's Day trailers and video clips. It's my gift to you all to celebrate this day. I hope you enjoy it!