School Library

ESCUELA OFICIAL DE IDIOMAS DE ALBACETE

SEMANA A

·      Lunes            21:00 a 21:50

·      Martes          13:00 a 13:50   y   17:00 a 17:50

·      Jueves          17:00 a 18:50   y    20:00 a 20:50

·      Viernes         13:00 a 13:50

SEMANA B

·      Lunes            21:00 a 21:50

·      Martes          17:00 a 17:50

·      Jueves          17:00 a 18:50  

·      Viernes         13:00 a 13:50

	SEMANA A	SEMANA B
Noviembre	12 - 16	5 - 9
	26 - 30	19 - 23
Diciembre	10 - 14	3 - 7
	------	17 - 21
Enero	14 - 18	7 - 11
	28 - 1 (Febrero)	21 - 25
Febrero	11 - 15	4 - 8
	25 - 1 (Marzo)	18 - 22
Marzo	11 - 15	4 - 8
	25 - 29	18 - 22
Abril	15 - 19	8 - 12
	29 - 3 (Mayo)	22 - 26
Mayo	13 - 17	6 - 10
	27 - 31	20 - 24

Listening Diary

If you want to make a record of your experience listening to English either on the radio or watching some TV programmes, you can record it HERE and give it to me at the end of the course

When we were young

Concurso de vídeo

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What kids really want ( A perfect summer's day)

Click HERE to read the article

Extra Grammar Units

Click HERE to do the grammar activities of Unit 1(the first one has already been done in class)

Click HERE to get the key to the exercises for the whole course

SharedTalk

Interested in finding people from other countries to practise your English? Why don't you try this website? http://www.sharedtalk.com/

Constructing the Indestructible

A nice story about an object that is `indestructible´: http://video.on.nytimes.com/#100000001891050

Jeremy Irons

You may have read the text on page 13 of the Workbook about a TV programme called Who do you think you are? which deals with family history of famous people. Here are some extracts from the programme, which you'll understand better after you've read the text. The sound's not great, by the way

According to Wikipedia, Chartism was a Victorian era working class movement for political reform in Britain between 1838 and 1848

Reading for pleasure

The class reading club serves two purposes:

1.     Read authentic literary texts in English

2.     Provide material for the oral exam in March (we’ll do the monologue in December, interaction-Book club discussion-in March and both in May)

Students have been organised in groups of 3, each one having to talk about one aspect of the book they’ve read: passage, culture and connector. Besides, everybody will have to do the part that deals with vocabulary

Don’t get too obsessed with vocabulary. Some students may think that bringing up very literary or difficult words will make a good impression. On the contrary, I see reading original texts as an activity that helps us mainly to consolidate language we already know. Of course, there are always words or phrases that appear again and again and we should take advantage of that as well

The roles are pretty open and you can focus on the aspects you think most relevant. If you’re going to read the short stories, it’s probably best to concentrate on some of them and not all. You don’t have to remember every single detail of what happens or the names of all the characters

All in all, I’d be happy if you found reading a pleasure and not a tiresome task. In my opinion, that’s precisely what really matters in the long term

Obama's victory

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20240953

Electing a US president (in plain English)

Writing a CV & covering letter

Click HERE to see two examples of CV (one British, one American) and a covering letter to apply for a job

Reading club - participants

Click on the LINK to see the groups

The power of half

Click HERE to watch the video again

Hurricane in Brooklyn

This and more stories here: http://video.on.nytimes.com/#100000001874961

The `readers´ are ready

The two books I ordered last week are ready to be picked up from LIBRERIA POPULAR

See eye to eye

Does this idiom always go with a negative verb? Check out the different contexts of  `see eye to eye´ : http://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/search?source=auto&query=see+eye+to+eye

Another vocabulary problem that came up in class the other day: what's the difference between RELATION and RELATIONSHIP ? Click on each word to see the definitions

See eye to eye (literal meaning)

Spain recession

Look up this vocabulary first:

economic crisis
recession
a real estate office
the construction boom went bust
hold real estate debt
a bailout from Europe
credit is still very tight
unemployment rate more than 24%
seen their salaries frozen or cut
businesses have filed for bankruptcy
many that remain open are struggling
my income has gone down
my taxes have gone up

Now you can watch the video here: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/world/2012/10/26/lklv-goodman-spain-recession-neighborhood.cnn

GRAMMAR - HAVE - ANSWERS

PAGE 8 STUDENT'S BOOK:

Exercise a:
1-F
2-G
3-E
4-H
5-A
6-C
7-D
8-B

Exercise b:
Main verb: B, D, G, H
Auxiliary: A ,C, E, F

PAGE 137:

Exercise a:
1, 2, 4, 6, 9:  correct
3. Does your husband have
5. have you had
7. had many problems
8. haven't had

Exercise b:
1. hasn't got / doesn't have any brothers...
2. to have a family photo taken...
3. visitors to this site have to wear...
4. hasn't seen his father since 2009
5. hasn't got / doesn't have the right...
6. don't have to / hasn't got to do...
7. had a swim every morning
8. have you got on
9. to have the central heating fixed

SING - GARY BARLOW

First, with the lyrics on the screen:

Now, the real thing:

Atención al alumno

Hora de atención al alumno: viernes de 10.00 a 11.00 de la mañana

Email address: eoidmanu@gmail.com  (nuestro horario no contempla dicha atención ya que la Administración no lo acepta como horas de trabajo, pero seguiré manteniendo esta forma de contacto en atención a los alumnos y a mi ética profesional)

Reading Club

I popped into LIBRERÍA POPULAR this morning to order the books, I'll let you know when they'll be ready for collection

You can click HERE to see the different roles, but next week I'll tell each one of you which one you'll have to do more specifically

Accents of English

Collocations exercise - answers

MATCHING

tricky situation – wedding reception – luxury hotel – religious festival – golden opportunity – organic farming – speak fluently – sleep deeply – live dangerously – die peacefully – walk briskly – give generously

CLARIFYING COLLOCATIONS

SPEAK: your mind, English, more slowly please

TALK: utter nonsense, behind someone’s back, rubbish

TELL: the truth…, lies, me what you’re thinking

SAY: one thing and do another, what you’re thinking, the first thing that comes…

WORD ORDER

Fairly average monthly salary

Extremely costly mistake

Very happy working environment

Rather delicate matter

Amazing photographic memory

Stunningly beautiful rose garden

IMPROVEMENTS

1.     harmful – 2. Dire  - 3. Exhausting  4. Filthy  5. Severe  6. Miraculous  7. Distorted  8. First-rate

COMMON VERBS

MAKE: amends, a fortune, time, a profit, or break, something up (invent)

DO: the washing, evil, housework, nothing, the ironing, some work, something up , time (in prison)

GET: the sack, lost, a cold, wet, your hair cut, moving

HAVE: a good time, a baby, a good memory, no choice, your hair cut, a problem, a cold, time, no objection

Leonardo's exhibition

What's special about Leonardo da Vinci's paintings? Find out here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2011/nov/11/leonardo-da-vinci-national-gallery-video

Pronunciation in slow and fast speech

To listen to the recordings you must go to FILE and then click on DOWNLOAD

A16

A17

A18

A19

A20

The LOGICOOOL SONG!!!!!

A lost generation

Read the article from The Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/22/europe-lost-generation-costs-study?intcmp=122

This is more specific about the situation in Greece, Ireland and Spain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/22/europe-generation-future-on-hold?intcmp=239

Grammar - Discourse markers KEY

2)   consequently

3)   so as not to

4)   in case

5)   though

6)   Although

7)   but

8)   As a result

9)   so that

10)                 However

11)                 Despite

12)                 As

13)                 so as to

14)                 so that

15)                 because of

Interesting words / phases: I was thrilled when I got the job / To make matters worse…. / For some reason,… / asking me to sort something out / had just dropped me off with all my stuff / I tripped and fell / I got really behind with my essays / I made loads of new friends / had terrible trouble adjusting to the new lifestyle / easy to give it up overnight / somehow it wasn’t the life we had imagined / wasn’t keen at first  / etc

Just a Family

To watch the New York Times video, click HERE

Phonetic transcriptions

Click HERE to get a pdf file with the phonetic transcriptions of many of the words and phrases we're going to learn this year

How to be popular

be popular

Marry your cousin

What's wrong with marrying your cousin? Read the news story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/10/121012_witn_marrying_first_cousin.shtml

 

Reading Club

So what are we going to do about reading a book? I suggest organising a kind of reading club so students could  discuss the books in groups, each person talking about it from a different perspective (roles). These are the steps we're going to follow:

1. Choose ONE of the following books:

HIGH FIDELITY, Nick Horny
OR
CRIME NEVER PAYS, Short stories

2. Write your name on a list I'll bring to class so I can order the books at a local bookshop in Albacete

3. You'll be given a role by the teacher so you should be reading considering that role and taking notes

4. Students will be arranged in groups and you'll be having a discussion / debate at the end of March 2013 (and that will be the oral exam of the second term)

Friendship Overload

Click HERE to read the article

Personality

Click HERE to read the definitions and their corresponding adjectives

Javier Bardem

An interview with the Spanish actor in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/12/javier-bardem-skyfall-bond-interview

Listening practice

What about doing some listening practice this bank-holiday weekend? http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/pages/level3.shtml

How to ace a job interview

sample job interviews

innocent Drinks

The official website: http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/

Click HERE to watch a BBC programme about innocent Drinks

Verb patterns

Pretty clear, isn't it? I mean, the explanation, not the sound

8 secrets of success

Mika

This is the interview with Mika we read in class today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/26/mika-interview

TED

Riveting talks by remarkable people...indeed!!! http://www.ted.com/

Class videos

These are the videos recorded on the DVD that's going round the class now.

The Big Bang Theory (with subtitles)
Coupling- Dressed (with questions)
Episodes
Friends – Princess Consuela (with script and questions)
The IT Crowd – The Outing (with questions)
 Jamie Oliver – Tomatoes (with subtitles and questions)
Merlin
Miranda (with questions)
The Museum of Life
Outnumbered- Airport (with subtitles)
The Worst Week of my Life
Wonders of the Solar System (with questions)

Listening to the radio

Fantastic site if you want to listen to British radio stations: http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/

My favourites are BBC RADIO 4 and LBC, but you can browse and find your favourite ones

I've also got a few apps on my Iphone: IRadioUK, UKRadioRecorder and BBCNews

Online dictionaries

It's absolutely necessary to have both a monolingual and a bilingual dictionary for the course. There are are a lot of good dictionaries on the web but these are the two I'm going to recommend:

- Monolingual (English-English): MACMILLAN http://www.macmillandictionary.com/

- Bilingual (English-Spanish, Spanish-English): WORD REFERENCE http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp


Sometimes I need to translate a word or phrase into Spanish and then I like to check on LINGUEE, as it gives me the opportunity to see different translations in different contexts. Check out what it says about the word `overall´: http://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/search?source=auto&query=overall


There are a lot of expressions we say in Spanish that we need to translate into English but there's no English equivalent for that. What do we do then? Ask at a forum: http://forum.wordreference.com/
For example, there's no such thing as a `colegio concertado´ in the UK, so rather than translate, we should EXPLAIN what we mean. Check out this discussion here: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=108346&langid=24

Wish you were here

Being a huge fan of both Pink Floyd and Ed Sheeran, you can imagine I absolutely love this song. Difficult to understand what the lyrics mean, but it's good listening practice, anyway

Reading a novel in English

I think it'd be a good idea to read a novel in English in order to consolidate and learn vocabulary and structures and get more exposure to the language you're learning. In the last few years I've organised a class reading club so students had to choose one of the books I suggested, read it and prepare a `role´ and then explain that aspect of the book in class at the end of the second term, in groups of 4 or 5 people. That would be the oral exam of the second term, actually. So what do you think?
These are the titles I'm going to suggest this year. Remember, you'd have to choose JUST ONE. Click on the title of each book to find out more about it.

- Nick Hornby, HIGH FIDELITY

- Khaled Hosseini, THE KITE RUNNER

- CRIME NEVER PAYS, Oxford Bookworm Collection (short stories)

Habla Mejor Inglés

This is Zac Tobias's blog to help Spanish speakers improve their English. I've been teaching in class most of the things he says here, but isn't it great to have it all written down? Please check it out and tell me what you think: http://www.hablamejoringles.com/indice/

File Advanced

If you've got problems with the MultiROM, you can always log on to the official FILE ADVANCED website clicking HERE 

Further austerity in Spain

You can read this news story from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19733995

I'm sorry

As you probably know, Nick Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems), a political party that joined a coalition with the Conservative Party after the last general election in the UK. Mr Clegg announced just a couple of days ago that he was sorry because during the campaign he made a pledge (promise) not to raise tuition fees (tasas de matrícula) for students. But they have, surprise, surprise!!!!!

Read this article from the BBC Worldservice website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/09/120924_witn_dep_pm_sings_im_sorry.shtml

Now you're ready to hear the song. Can you imagine any Spanish politicians apologising for all the lies they tell us? Unthinkable, really.

Lyrics training

I absolutely love this website. You can listen to songs in different languages and complete the lyrics that appear on the screen for you. You can try your listening skills with a song by Adele.

http://www.lyricstraining.com/play/8805/adele/someone_like_you

- First of all, log on to the website and stop the song playing
- Then select a GAME MODE (EASY because it's not so easy!!!!!)
- Listen to each line and complete, the song will stop waiting for you to write the correct word
- If you want to try again, use the UP ARROW and if you give up, press the TAB key (the one you use for capital letters). Anyway, you can always press HELP for instructions

Welcome

Welcome to the new course!

This is going to be the blog for the advanced-level students this year. I hope you find the material and information posted here useful and entertaining.

The textbook for the course is NEW ENGLISH FILE ADVANCED, but we'll be using lots of extra material to practise listening, speaking, pronunciation, reading etc

The class times are:

GROUP 6º 18J

  Mondays & Wednesdays, 6.05 pm- 7-45 pm

GROUP 6º 18J

  Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6.05 pm- 7-45 pm

GROUP 6º 18J 

  Monday to Thursday, 8.10 pm- 9.00 pm

English Vid

Check out this webpage with lots of videos for learning English: www.engvid.com

Enjoy it!!!

Stockholm's jumbo jet hostel

Cool idea!!!

Click HERE to watch the video.

The Lewis Chessmen

King Arthur

Click HERE  to watch the video about King Arthur we saw in class yesterday. To download it, go to "File" and  then "Download".

Hampton Court Palace

If you're into history, there's a place near London you should visit: Hampton Court.

The People Watchers

You can click HERE to watch the episode we talked about in class but there are many more episodes!!!!

Phrasal verbs with Jennifer (parts 1 & 2)

Weak forms

Click HERE for Listening 1

Click HERE for Listening 3


Go to File and then Download

USA calls for ban on in-car phone use

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Innit?

Interesting, innit? http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1453_uptodate3/page8.shtml

Paul Gassol

Penelope Cruz

English at Work

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/englishatwork/2012/02/120208_english_at_work_introduction_v2.shtml

The sounds application

I haven't tried it myself but this app looks fun and useful: http://www.soundspronapp.com/

How to use SatNav

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-get-around-using-sat-nav

Here you can watch the video again and even read the script.

Vaughan Radio

Great radio station for learning English and consolidating vocabulary and structures: http://www.grupovaughan.com/vaughan-radio

The Apprentice - BBC

Series 7 - episode 14, part 1 of 10. For the rest of the programme, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSzfewMW41g

Extra listening and pronunciation

Listen to Hannah describing her daughter. Click HERE to get access to the link. Then go to `File´ and `Download´


Now you can practise the two sounds:

- Track 26
- Track 27
- Track 28

Entrepreneurs

Click HERE to do some listening practice and don't forget there's a lot of interesting material on the BBc web page to practise reading and listening.

Work from home

You can click HERE to read the article from the Daily Mail of 10th July 2010

Dinner Menu

Homework for the holidays. Have a look at this menu which belongs to the restaurant of one of the branches of the Premier Inn Hotels in the UK. You can choose to be:

- either a married couple with two children (a young child and a teenager)

- or four adult friends

Write on a piece of paper what you would order: starters, a main dish, dessert and (perhaps) coffee and briefly justify your choice. Please give it to me after the holidays

Here is the MENU (for best viewing, click on `File´ and then `Download original´)

Phonetic transcript (type in words and you'll get the pronunciation)

Recommended websites

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
BBC Learningenglish
Podcasts in English
Elllo
Videojug
Batlyrics
Listenaminute
Watchmojo
Cambridge pronunciation

ONLINE PAPERS

The Guardian

BBC News

New York Times Video

BBC Radio 4 Podcasts

El País in English

ONLINE DICTIONARIES:
Wordreference
Macmillandictionary
Linguee

Forvik Island

Better communication skills (for the interaction)

Extremadura's architecture

Plastic surgery

Lots of videos on the New York Times site: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/02/18/nyregion/100000000649693/plasticsurgery.html

Listening practice

Some more listening practice for the exam. Remember it's going to be a video, which you'll hear and watch twice.

News about the news

New restaurants in Barcelona

This is a video taken from The Guardian website which is in Spanish but with subtitles in English. Have you ever wondered: how could I say that in English?

Keep your English up-to-date

That's easy with the BBC web page. Check out this section called `The English we speak´: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theenglishwespeak/

Cool listenings

From PODCASTSINENGLISH (exercises not available, just the recordings). http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/pages/level3.shtml

Lingro

I've discovered this web page that I'm sure you're going to love: Lingro. This page allows you to type in a web address and then you'll be able to click on a word and get a definition of it. You can also get a translation of that word into Spanish. Try it, you'll find it pretty useful: http://lingro.com/

Multiple Intelligences

Listen to Howard Gardner talking about multiple intelligences. Listen and take notes:

- First time you hear it: write down the main idea in each section.
- Second time: pay attention to the details.

Listenings from ELLLO.ORG

Some listenings about topics that might appear in the exam (you never know!!!):

- The dole
- Eco tips
- School grades
- Online reading
- Online dating
- Food labels

Forensic science video

Foundations of CSI:
Forensic Science