More exceptions than rules

Today's question is related to the grammar of English. As I've been teaching the article usage for Intermediate 2 learners, we've found out that it's not only grammar what we need to study, but also a bit of general knowledge is even more useful for the true understanding of the language. Grammar rules must be always accompanied by common sense, current language usage and some broad culture.

No wonder you've got some trouble with the article usage, simply because in English we need to take into account that there're many exceptions to the grammatical rules and regarding the article, we could put the following examples:
You write the article the for a group of islands (The Canary Islands) and you don't write it for some countries (Spain). Exception: Polynesia is considered to be a country by itself, so no article there; unless we'd like to refer to individual islands within its country. Other exceptions are countries like the USA or the UK. As you can see now, be careful with rules in English, 'cos there're many more exceptions. For more information, please click on here.

Still obsessed with Grammar RULES, please have a look at this teacher, talking about the Present Perfect in English:










For further practice on the article and the topic of Tourism, please listen to Anna talking about The Alps. (Handout, key & script. Audio)

On the other hand, let us now consider the matter of GRAMMAR from the opposite point of view, and think about part of Luke's podcast comments as follows: "James is a normal educated professional Londoner, but as a native speaker, I wanted to ask him some questions about Grammar, because often learners of English are very surprised that native speakers don’t really know anything about the RULES of Grammar, even though they speak the language perfectly.” For the complete Luke’s podcast about grammar, please feel free to enjoy his useful clarifications by playing the whole podcast below:

How to write a leaflet

Today, we've gone through some steps to design and write a tourist brochure and we've become aware of the fact that there are many decisions to be taken. This is not like following simple instructions of any activity from the textbook. On the contrary, firstly we need to think about a country and a city. Secondly, we have to decide the type of details and data to be used for our leaflet, whether we'd like to help tourists with some culture shocks as they arrive at our country or even, if we prefer to promote a certain city. In both cases, we have to describe and explain some cultural habits and customs. Thirdly, we need some useful words and expressions and common vocabulary about the same topic: Tourism. Finally, we could have a look at some real leaflets written in different languages, so that we can have a model to follow, though there's no other way for us to start writing in English, rather than our everyday writing practice.

For further information about writing skills, please have a look at these documents about writing techniques and examples.
 

As the English set-phrase goes: Practice makes perfect, let's now put our English into practice and take a butchers at our first writer, who decided to send us her leaflet about Burges. Thanks so much, María. I'm sure that we'll read your excellent leaflet before going to there. For more leaflets' samples, please click on here. Thank you very much indeed, dear writers. Well-done and well-written too for all of you. 

Wind of Change

As you can see through these two photos, I've decided to talk about a well-known song by a heavy metal band called Scorpions. This song is mainly based on some historical important events, especially related to Germany and it's also around the topic of a change for the better. Wind of change is a wonderful ballad from the early 90's and it makes me think about my past teenage years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. However, before we listen to the song, here are some questions for you to answer. Then, you could check them with the KEY. For further information on the same topic, please click on here; or you can always post your comments, right at the end of this post and have a look at some You Tube clips.

More or less

More or less is one of the most common expressions for Spanish people speaking in English, however, do we have other different ways of expressing Approximation? Of course, we have. In conversation, we may need to talk about figures and numbers or even something which is only approximate, so for that reason, we'd better have a look at the following approximating expressions and sentences:

This book cost me four pounds something.
I took around two weeks or something like that.
There were just under / over / roughly / very nearly / upwards of / somewhere in the region of / some two thousand people there.
I've been here for twenty odd years. (odd= approximately, colloquial; Spanish: y tantas, -os; y pico)
I've been working as an accountant for something like five years now.
About; around.
Sort of, kind of, -ish...

To conclude, I hope you like this post and thus, you satisfy some of your language teaching expectations about Approximation and for the next time you need to express yourself broadly or generally speaking, you'll have, at least, some expressions to use and incorporate into your everyday language.

Source: Paraphrased from Straightforward. Advanced Student's Book by Roy Norris

How to write through Finding Forrester

Generally speaking, there are several writing techniques available for writers to apply, however, depending on the type of text and the number of words, you may need to use one method or another. We have just learnt how to do some Free writing, but this is just part of the first steps to write about 5,000 words, as you could see throughout the film: Finding Forrester. For any shorter writing production, you'd rather do some thinking and brainstorming first, and then drafting and editing before you provide your final writing version. In short, writing is more like rewriting, rethinking, rereading, editing and improving your words and expressions to create something interesting to be read and what's more remarkable, to catch the reader's attention, and thus, hopefully, readers will read your writing again.

At last, we've got our first writers with their reviews. Thank you very much indeed for all of you. Here's Manuel with his paragraph about the movie above.

For further information and writing practice, please have a look at this writing section.

Loud and clear, please

We were listening to some people on holiday as a part of a listening task at the classroom and there was too much noise at the background. In theory, Advanced students are supposed to understand most of it even with some background noise, but in practice, it wasn't loud and clear at all. Oops, we need more practice, me myself included. On the contrary, I'd just like to point out that in other everyday situations, inside a Pub, for instance, we may feel very unconfortable, unable to get what's going on there in any social encounter. So, let's listen to Jackie and Christine with some background noise. (Handout, 1st Part MP3, 2nd Part MP3, Key, 1st Part Transcript, 2nd Part Transcript)

A song Project

After reading through all the speaking TIPS below, you'll probably be totally prepared for a little project about music. Firstly, you need to have a look at some vocabulary on music, together with an outline on the different musical genders throughout the history of music. This outline was taken from a book entitled Music and Song by Tim Murphey, written in 1992, so that's why some types of music are missing. New genre-bendings have appeared since then. As you can see, there's no time to lose. Wade in and enjoy your music selection and preparation. You may feel like podcasting, that's great, but please share your recordings with us.

On the other hand, whether you're a bit stuck, unable to think about any song or simply you don't understand what you have to do or how to start, you may need to have a look at this post, which will guide you all over the processes to create the final Song project, together with the whole preparation. Through this post, I hope you find it a bit easier to begin with, or at least you'll have a model to rely on.

Roughly speaking,

You should interact with people who speak the English Language fluently. You'd better make sure that you converse with these people regularly and get a feedback on areas where you need to improve. At periodic intervals, you should also record your voice which will help you gauge the progress you are making. Podcasting seems to be an appropriate option and you could also exchange your recordings with other podcasters.
Right before podcasting, make sure that you immerse yourself in English just before any speaking task, test or lesson. Try to read books, magazines and newspapers in English. Watch British or American films, TV or even listen to the radio if possible.
Paraphrased from:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/forum-topic/how-improve-speaking-listening
For further reading on Speaking tips, click on the word TIPS.

Let me your ears and...

I sing you a song. Yes, alright, these are some lyrics from the well-known song by the Beatles: With a little help from my Friends. So, perhaps you haven't got excellent ears for music, however, this is not a problem at all. To learn English, all you need to do is simply train your ears as longer as possible. The more you listen to, the better English you'll produce. No matter how fast or difficult English may be for you. All you have to do is just practise and listen to songs, talks or any snippet of English information or conversation. Since practice makes perfect, there's no time to lose. So, first let's listen to some people talking about their family. (headings, mp3, solution). For further information, please have a look at this article on Listening tips by the BBC.

Please do not panic...

Please do not panic about prepositions in English. This is not so complicated. A. V. Martinet and David Crystal will help us to understand our last doubts about the Prepositions on and to for location, whether they are on a absolute position (the room) as in on the left, at the back of, at the front of, on the right of, in the middle of, or to a relative position (the girl) as in to the left, behind, in front of, to the right of. So, first of all, take it easy and then, please have a look at these two grammar books.

On the other hand, you may find prepositions difficult to use when you've got to decide whether you write them, you don't or even both cases. Here's a good example: I'll meet you and I'll meet with you.

Finally, for some Youtube videos about prepositions, you could always check out these prepositions.

Believe it or not...

Believe it or not, we sometimes use the pronoun it talking about a baby, especially when its name is known. For further information, please click on here to read Leech's explanations about it.

With a little help from my friends

Hello my friends! I'm sure this song rings a bell for the most of you. Yes, it's by the Beatles and I think it's quite easy to be followed, isn't it? Well, let's compare it with Bon Jovi's version. Can you see the differences? Here's the solution for you. But, hey! hang on! You should first try to write it after you've listened to Bon Jovi:

On the other hand, you may need to have a look at some speaking on friends that we did at the classroom. In case you'd like to practise a little bit more, here you have the two handouts. Finally, I'd like to encourage you to keep on speaking in English as long as possible, simply because practice makes perfect and thus, the more you speak and practise, the better English you'll get at the end of the day.