English Over Easter

Try and do something in English over the 2 week break. It's holiday time so do something which is pleasurable: try and watch 1 film in English (maybe with subtitles?) and read a short book.

For those in Martin's class, here a wordsearch containing 30 words from the vocab bag. Click here and then print it off.

Also, if you haven't looked already. Go to the previous post on Pronunciation and try out some of the activities. In the Tuesday / Thursday 15:55 class, we're going to do a lot more on pronunciation in term 3 so any work you can do familiarizing yourselves with the symbols would be apprecicated

Happy holidays!

CALL room lesson / 1-to1 counselling

Part of today's lesson will be in the CALL room - this is to give me a chance to talk to you individually about your progress. So, here are some computer-based activities to work on - some are based on software found on the computer, others are internet-based:
Do the activities in whatever order you fancy. Also, work with another student where possible. So:

1. Network English (advanced) grammar connectors
2. Network English (advanced) grammar conditionals (3rd and mixed)
3. Network English (advanced) words law and order
4. Pronunication Suite (stress and rhythm) moving stress
5. Pronunciation on the web (look at the posting below on Pronunciation, follow the links and try out some of the activities)

When you finish, write some comments about which activities you enjoyed. Were they too easy, too difficult or just too boring?

Pronunciation on the web

There are some great sites on the Internet for practising pronunciation. Here are just a few:

1. Elementary Pronunciation If you have never studied pronunciation before, this is a good place to start. Simple diagrams with recordings of the sounds + practice activities to help you sensitise to them.
2. Ship or Sheep Say 'ship' and 'sheep' out loud. Is there a difference? Many students have trouble distinguishing between 'minimal pairs' like 'ship' and 'sheep'.
3. Iowa University Phonetics If you have trouble making certain English sounds, then this may be the site for you. Although it's American English, this site uses diagrams of the mouth to show you exactly how to make the sounds.
4. Stress Monsters This a game and it's good fun as well as being useful. Here the focus it on word stress. I recommend you skip the elementary level game and go straight to intermediate.

Let us know which of these sites you found the most useful. And if you know any others, please share them with all of us.

CH Just click on the CH and you'll get the Inbox worksheet

Podcasts for listening practice

A colleague of mine has just found these podcasts on a British Council site. They're similar to the ones on this blog. They come from a site called Learn English Professionals so you might find some of them a bit too business and work orientated.

I haven't looked at them in detail but they all seem to have the script + some exercises for you to do. Please comment here if you try out the 'listening' especially if you've got any recommendations.

Click here to access the site.

PS If you want to find the 'listenings' on this blog, go to the LABEL section on the left and click on listening practice.

MY LUCKIEST MOMENT LATELY...

I don't need to search deep inside my memories to find a lucky moment in my life. In fact, a month ago I'd an exam, it wasn't much important but I needed to pass it anyway. I hadn't study enough and I was almost sure I was going to fail it.

However, the day before the exam a friend of mine in an upper year told me the questions of the exam they'd done the year before. I flicked through them not giving much importance because I couldn't imagine that, the of course brilliant but also lazy teacher wasn't going to change the exam and it was going to be the same as the year before.

Well, so it happened and at that moment I felt like the luckiest person in the world. Now I am sure I'm going to pass the exam, think so!

Pink Floyd

WISH YOU WERE HERE – PINK FLOYD

So, so you think you can tell ______from Hell,
blue _____from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a ____ ?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot _____for trees?Hot air for a cool______?
Cold _______for change?
And did you ________a walk on part in the war for a ____role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls ________in a fish____, year after year,
Running over the same old______.
What have you found? The same old_____.
Wish you were here.

You can listen to the song in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DXCHa9BYfE

LUCK

Tell us about some lucky moment in your life.