Week 31: May 6th, 2020- We will survive! With a new router!

Independent.co.uk

- We had one class with no freezing problems. I couldn't be happier!
- We talked about the organisation of distance learning and our own experience.
- We also talked about positive outcomes of the coronavirus crisis.
- We met Captain Tom, a charity hero in the UK these days that just turned 100 years old a few days ago. We saw this video, examined some expressions of this handout and listened to his nº1 hit in the charts. You have some more information about him here.
- Video poem: we saw a poem written by Darren James Smith that deals with racism and fear in the coronavirus crisis: You clap for me now.
- We revised coronavirus pronunciation with Pronunciation studio, a great site.

Homework:
- There's the possibility to send me a recording of what you've read about positive outcomes of the coronavirus crisis. Organised and trying to use new words so that you can expand your vocabulary.
- You can also work your reading skills and vocabulary building with a news report on Emboldened animals in the coronavirus time. Have a look at the key to the exercises.

Week 27: April 1st, 2020- Destinations from home

- Dear students, although through technical problems we tried to do the following activities:
- You told the class about spring film releases, anecdotes, myths and legends about the spring.
- We tried to answer some questions about travelling, now that we're only travelling with our imaginations with the video Top 10 Budget Destinations for 2020.
- We practised consonant-vowel linking with BBC Learning English.
- We listened to Lemon Tree, by Fool's Garden and answered some questions about what the lyrics say.
- Lemon Tree is one of the songs in Lyrics Training. It's a wonderful website in which you get dynamic exercises to practise vocabulary and structures. You get different levels for the same song and it's fun and a really productive tool to learn.

Homework:
- For the Easter holidays I'm going to open a Padlet virtual wall with different tasks or challenges that I'll post on different days. The first one will be published here tomorrow!! Stay tuned to complete all the challenges! I'll also contact you with the information about the Book Club!

Here we have our virtual wall for your Easter homework, I hope you like it!!

Be careful... Easter break might be full of English!!!

Week 25: March 18th, 2020- Resuming our class after the coronavirus attack

- Dear students, last Wednesday some of you connected over a videoconference using a link I sent you five minutes prior to the class.     
- Although it is not like face to face interaction, I think it more or less worked well. I particularly like the chat part to be able to use it as a kind of blackboard. Each session is theoretically 40 minutes long but we can probably have three in a row or one long one if the system allows it again.
- Last Wednesday we had a little warm up about the reading you had done on nuclear energy. This could have been recorded and sent to me, you can still do so.
- We then shared the proposals Bill Gates had in his 2015 TED Talk and extracted some interesting vocabulary from it.
- We plunged into coronavirus language with Alanna Shaikh's recent TED Talk, for which we answered the questions I had given you in the last entry.
- We revised Stress and Intonation in English. The most interesting idea is that English is a stressed, not syllabic language.
- We then practised the pronunciation of contracted 've with a BBC site.
- I also showed you an extraordinary part of the BBC site, News Review, in which they do as I always tell you to do: pick up some words for vocabulary adoption. In the one we did they picked up: unprecedented, bouncing back and soar.

Homework:
- We're reorganising our presentation schedule, decide if you want to prepare a short presentation for the rest of the class and let me know. I'm also ready to give you a hand if you need it.
- Have a look at the videos below and organise information about these extraordinary animals. You can send it to me in a recording for me to give you feedback on the speaking production but it will be the topic of next class's warm-up:

• Pangolins (40-minute video)
• Pangolins (4-minute video)
• Bats (7-minute video)

Thank you so much for your wonderful attitude and see you next Wednesday!!

Week 4: October 10th, 2018- Film and music

news.av.club

- We told each other about our research on our chosen actor.
- We practised pronunciation of letter e: /ɪ/, /e/, /ɜː/  
- We did a listening about the childhood dreams of two girls.
- You received the feedback from your recorded productions and the diagnostic listening.
- We practised the difference between /j/ and /dʒ/
- We filled in the gaps of the lyrics of Carly Simon's You're so vain given in phonetic transcription.
Homework:
- Go to NPR's page (National Public Radio) of StoryCorps.
- Pick up a story you find interesting and listen to it until you understand it. I know the recordings have the transcription but you should read it only after you've listened to it at least two or three times. Then listen while reading and listen again without reading to see if it unfolds clearer than the first times,
- Take notes, NOT sentences to follow the story so that you can later remember it.
- Write down three words whose pronunciation you needed to practise.
- Write down two structures from the listening  that you understand, you never use but you'd like to start using.
- Bring everything to class and share!

Week 3: October 3rd- Phonetics and cinema!!

elpais

- We revised the passive structure: I was told about/He was/She was told about...
- We revised the pronunciation of:         -diphthong /əʊ/ (as in told, home, mole, Rome or bone)
     -/ð/ as in the.
     -long and short vowels as in sheep/ship, work, car,
     -/ed/ endings as /t/, /d/ or / ɪd/
- We read aloud the text with past verb forms.
- We did a diagnostic listening that I collected.
Homework:
- You have to choose a Hollywood star that made films in Samuel Bronston's film company when it was established in Las Rozas.
- You have to read a little bit online about the star's life and experience in Spain, and pick photos or words to use to tell the story to a classmate at the beginning of next day's class. All the students in the class already chose a star but there are some left unpicked from the list: Debbie Reynolds/ Grace Kelly/ Bing Crosby.
- You can have a look at the place's web and its photos.