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!

NA1 Don't miss Mª Jesús's latest posts! Great stuff for File 3C.

 Click here and   here to check out. It's excellent listening practice on  the topics of fears, risky situations and children's safety  we're dealing with in File 3C. Make the most of it to expand your vocabulary on the topic.

"Death at a Funeral" Wednesday 9th February, 19.00 (Salón de Actos)

Click here to watch the trailer and read the film review. See you there. Thank you Juanma, for posting it.

Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

NA1 Describing the weather...Watch the weather forescast.

•  Do you usually watch the weather forecast in the news? Train your listening skills and expand your vocabulary on the topic watching the latest weather forecasts for UK and Europe and a news report called `Snow causes travel chaos in US´on Sky News and on the BBC

• Watch the video below to revise and learn ways of answering the question "What's the weather like?" from real people interviewed in the street...

NI2 What's your shopping pet peeve?

A pet peeve or pet hate is something that you dislike very much, or that makes you extremely angry. For example, my shopping pet peeve is struggling with my packed trolley through the aisles, because, as everybody knows, they tend to turn right when you just want to go straight on to reach the long queue at the checkout.

Click here to watch Paul talking about his shopping pet peeve. On the right, there are links to do a quiz and to check the transcript.

Paul's told you his shopping peeve and so have I. How about you? Leave your shopping pet peeve in Comments.

EOI NEWS

• For my NI2 students: As you know, you are sitting your B1 Certificate Exam in June. I think it is really important that you are aware of what you will be asked and expected to do, therefore take your time to read La guía del candidato carefully. Focus on the information about your level: Nivel Intermedio B1.

NI2 File 6A "Love in the supermarket" (Extra Practice)

 Watch this video and follow the tips to improve your vocabulary.

• Vocabulary: "Shopping":

Read and listen to the names of shops 

Shopping crossword 

Shopping wordsearch 
Odd word out 
Useful language to communicate in shops 

• Grammar: Reported Speech: 

Revise changes in tenses, listen to lots of examples and repeat them Revise changes in modal verbs, listen to examples and repeat 
Changes in time and place references ... 
Changes in questions... 

Exercises:
Statements and questions (New English File)

Statements 1 

Statements 2 

Questions 1 

Yes / No Questions 
Mixed questions 

What do you hear?

Commands (Orders) 

Say, tell and ask

NA1 How To Secure Your Home (Home Security)

Yesterday we were learning some tips to prevent our homes from being burgled. I've found this video providing further information.  

Watch  How To Secure Your Home (Home Security) once, then watch it again while you read the script below to check how much you understood.

NA1 File 3A Extra Practice

•  Vocabulary

Do this listening comprehension activity to get  familiar with Some legal terms. I took it from   ELLA English Language Lab Asturias, a site where you can do activities on-line. I strongly recommmend it.
Mª Jesús has posted some links to revise and extend vocabulary of Crime & Punishment in her blog. Click here to see them.

• Grammar

Revise the Passive Tenses and Active Equivalents and practise here and here
Passive Voice: Forms, Uses & Exercises

New links...Browse the right column, you might find something useful, interesting, enjoyable...

I've recently added some new links, I hope you find them helpful and take advantage of them to improve your English.
Be practical and sensible, I mean, don't try everything- you might get lost and waste your time. 
For example, if  your weakness is pronunciation,  browse the pronunciation  sites, bookmark / add to favourites those providing the practice you need and visit them now and then.

• Grammar:

Grammar Aquarium

• Pronunciation:

Listen & Repeat: Improve your Intonation...

Listen & Repeat: Adjectives...

Text-to-Speech

• Listening:

Read & Listen to Biographies

Learn English with Barack Obama...

• English through music:

Amazing site! Watch, listen, read the lyrics... 

NA1 Telling stories

Do you like reading stories?  I've found a great website where you can read and listen to American stories written by well-known authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Mark Twain... 

• Would you like to improve your reading, listening and pronunciation while you enjoy a good story?

Pick up a story and listen to it on-line or download the mp3 file    
Read the scripts here

• Stories are normally told in the past tense, so it's really important that you pronounce the past forms correctly.

Watch this video and `copy´ the pronunciation of -ED

Practise with some of the verbs in this Regular Verbs List

Revise 20 Common Irregular Verbs with this video

• Mini-saga competition: (Textbook p.28)

Are you a good story teller? Could you write a story in exactly 50 words?

Why don't you try writing your own `incredibly short stories´and leave them on comments?

The readers of the blog can vote for their favourites. Let's make this blog a lively and interactive place!

 

New Year Resolutions

A new year has just begun and people all over the world have made their new year resolutions. You can read some of them in the links below.

Popular New Year Resolutions

Funny New Year Resolutions

Healthy New Year Resolutions

How to keep New Year Resolutions

You can also do this listening exercise   and watch this nice video if you like

Have you made any? Would you like to share them with us? Write them down on Comments.

Some Christmas stuff

Learning a language is also learning about the people who speak it, their culture, customs,  traditions...


First find out about  Christmas Traditions in Britain 

Then do these activities:

Christmas Word Puzzle

Christmas Vocabulary Quiz

Christmas Dinner Crossword
Christmas Shopping Word Search 

Christmas Word Search

Christmas Conversation


Finally practise your listening skills with these popular Xmas songs 
"Twelve Days of Christmas" Wordmatch Exercise 
"Last Christmas" Gap Fill Activity
"Let it Snow" Gap Fill Activity

Merry Xmas, guys!

This is  my Christmas gift for you all, some of my favourite Christmas songs. 

• Happy Christmas (war is over), by John Lennon & Here you can read the lyrics 

• Last Christmas by Wham & The karaoke version

• Do they know it's Christmas? by Band Aid (1984)  & Band Aid 20 version (lyrics)

• Santa Claus is coming to town by Bruce Springsteen   & By some children

• Please come home for Christmas by Eagles   &   By U2

•  All I want for Christmas is you By Mariah Carey (Great video!)  

• Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra

• White Christmas by Bing Crosby (with lyrics)

Best wishes!

 

Don't miss Mº Jesús's newest post.

The digital story of the Nativity.

NA1 Mª Jesús's blog

As you know we're going to start File 2B, the topic it deals with is "Air Travel". Mª Jesús has posted a video on the recent events at Spanish airports. Click here to watch it. It's a great warm-up for the lesson. Have you ever had a similar experience? Share it with us.

NA1 Sutton Foster's makeover story

Click here  to watch the extract ( on the right you have the links to watch parts 1 & 3 if you're interested in watching the whole story), and here you are your own listening comprehension questions.
Congrats, you are great!

NA1 English accent vs American accent

 

Watch this extract from Ellen DeGeneres's show in which she plays a game with Hugh Laurie (House). They have to guess the meanings of some British & American slang 

(words or expressions  that are very informal.Some slang is used only by a particular group of people)

Do you understand what these words mean?

• Flossing
• Chin wag
• Ba-donka-donk
• Chuffed to bits
• Shawty 

If you fancy watching the whole inteview, click here . I wasn't able to find it without subtitles. So click on play and minimise the screen, just listen. Then watch it and check what you understood and and if you got the right answers for the slang exercise.

Find out differences between British & American English with Misterduncan.