English through Music

English can be fun and entertaining too. So, whether you're good at music or not, here's a list of some songs for EOI Basic:

Colours by Donovan Leith. [.pdf, audio]

What a wonderful world by Louis Armstrong

Stand by me by Ben E. King

How do you do? by Roxette (English and Spanish Lyrics)

The best by Tina Turner (English and Spanish Lyrics)

ABC: American alphabet by Kids TV123 Production

Love me do by The Beatles (English and Spanish Lyrics)

Michelle by The Beatles (English and Spanish Lyrics)

Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Bublé (English and Spanish lyrics)

Need you now by Lady Antebellum (English and Spanish lyrics)

Feel by Robbie Williams (English and Spanish Lyrics)

I just called to say I love you by Stevie Wonder (English, Spanish lyrics & Spanish version)

ABC by The Jackson Five (English lyrics)

10 little numbers by Kids TV123 Production

Eternal Flame by The Bangles

Everything by Michael Bublé (English and Spanish Lyrics)

Diana by Paul Anka (English and Spanish Lyrics)

Take it easy by The Eagles (English (1) and Spanish Lyrics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_It_Easy

Songs for Basic 1:

Songs for Basic 1

Little boxes by M. Reynolds & by WOTE (Expressing possesions)

Songs for Basic 2:

Songs for Basic 2

 Songs for Intermediate 1:


Songs for Intermediate 2: 






Songs for Advanced 1:

At The Hop by Danny & The Juniors (English Lyrics) 

Songs for Advanced 2: 

If you have children, maybe you'll feel like singing these songs to them. Some Nursery Rhymes songs for children.  



Karaoke list 1

Karaoke list 2

http://musicenglish.co.uk/
http://www.songsforteaching.com/esleflesol.htm
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/index-ex.htm
http://www.esl4kids.net/songs.html
http://bussongs.com/
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/musicchild.htm

I hope you enjoy them very much.

Grammar lovers: The next week or next week? -ING or to + Infinitive

Today we've got a date with Grammar. So, what's the difference between: "The next week" and Next week? 

At Basic level, this is quite difficult to answer without complicated grammatical explanations. However, let's read this BBC clarification.

Although Gerunds and Infinitives are perhaps a bit complex for the Basic level of English, here're some notes about the verb LIKE + -ing & LIKE + TO + Infinitive. I'd also like to recommend the reference grammar book by Michael Swan, which is entilted: Practical English Usage. I hope you find this information useful. 

Still interested in Basic Grammar, you could have a look at these two short and simple grammar e-books by www.espressoenglish.net  (Basic 1, Basic 2 ), but please remember that they are not complete, simply because it's Basic Level, that is, not every single grammar exception.

For further grammar and examples, please click on here.

Gerunds and Infinitives through YouTube

Here's a good advert to practise the usage of like:

 

What to read

What to read in English? 

Profe, mira. Me gusta mucho leer y quiero empezar a leer en inglés. ¿Qué puedo hacer?

Look, teacher. I like reading very much and I'd like to start reading in English. What can I do?

Well, what do you like to read about?

• News                 Horrors / thrillers

• Novels               Myths and legends

• Short stories     Magazines

• Comedies         Signs

• Fairy tales         Articles

• Adventures       Fiction 
• Fictional Detective

Reading Practice for Basic 1: 
Personal Information, KET TESTS for Basic 1, 


Reading Practice for Basic 2: 
Homes, Gatwick Express, A London brochure, Describing things (Adjectives), Lynn (A Primary school teacher), 

EOI Reading exam 2008 (answer sheet)

Reading TEST from Navarra KEY 

EOI Reading TEST from Madrid (Task 1, Task 2, Task 3, Task 4) KEY.

Reading Practice for  Intermediate 1:

Reading Practice for  Intermediate 2:

Reading Practice for  Advanced 1:

Reading Practice for  Advanced 2: 
Sherlock Holmes 
_____________________________________________

 
Are you willing to write a book review?

If so, here are some good book review guidelines for you to follow. 





______________________________________________________________________________

For more topics, please click on here.

Handshakes

To learn a new language, you need someone to talk to, and often you'll meet someone new.  More than anything else, you've got be relaxed in the classroom. So, let's break the ice and have a look at the different ways of greeting.

When saying hello & good-bye for the first time, what do you normally do?

When people meet, they should shake hands, smile and say: I'm ... (name). Nice to meet you.

or 

Hello (name of the person)

Nice to meet you again. How are things?

Hello

Hi

Pleased to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

How do you do?

A handshake

A hug

Kisses

Tap on one's back

Make eye contact with the other person

Hold the handshake for a few seconds

Smile

- Hello
   How are you?

- I'm fine thank you. And you?
- Not bad, thanks.

- Goodbye!. Have a nice day.
- See you this morning!

- I'm sorry I'm late.
- I'm sorry.
- Excuse me!
- Don't worry.
- That's ok.
- Really?
- It doesn't matter.

As you can see above, you've got plenty of examples to practise all through this post. So, now it's your turn to grab a classmate and put your greetings into practice. Let's get it started!

For more videos like this one, please click on here.

For the different parts of the day, please click on here.

Finally, in order to assimilate all these common expressions, I think it would a good idea to record your final performances about greeting each other and decide the best introduction or greeting ever. The winner will win the opportunity to get his or her greeting uploaded as a podcast through this same blog. How do you feel about it? Please feel free to leave your comments. So, let's greet all day long!

For further and intermediate or advanced expressions about Essential Social English, please feel free to listen to the following podcast by teacher Luke, but please do not panic, you're not supposed to understand every single word. (Transcript)

My student Profile

Before starting off, I'd like to know something about your language profile. So, let's do this questionnaire about your language experience.

Please do not panic about your level of English, because I'll guide you all the way through the questions; and the more you tell me about your language experience, the better supervision you'll get.

Angola

Today, we'll be talking about Angola, which is in Africa. However, before we start, can you guess the exact place in the photo to the left here?

Yes, that's right. Well, let's see if we can ask someone from there, and you'll probably find the answer shortly.

We've got a new student from Angola, so I've just decided to prepare something special for him. I've been looking for a book about Government and Rule and I've found some information about it. Please click on here to read a pdf about Angola and its Democratic Rule. For further information, please feel free to have a look at this document, which was taken from Wikipedia.

I hope you find this information useful and you'll get more about on countries in our next post: "Countries and culture" 

Phonetics

Hello, dear EOI students! It's been a while since I've written something for you all. Well, I've been quite busy podcasting and teaching at another school. Okay, here you are; some explanations about the word again and its pronunciation, together with some other varieties and features of English Pronunciation. I hope you find this useful somehow, and please remember, if you'd like to share your thoughts or ideas, feel free to comment on any post. Enjoy your English!

Who's expected to shoulder all the blame for the Crisis?

Well, hard to answer, isn't it? TIME's magazine has just published an article about the top 25 people to blame for the financial crisis, trying to find out a little bit more about the same issue. However, this is simply an excuse for me to make you think about a controversial topic and then you'll hopefully have a go and practise your English Writing with this simple writing Task.

After having written about the economic Crisis, are you able to shed some light on the problem by any chance? If not, you could try to think about a country like Iceland.


Finally, this is a good explanation for the Crisis:

cannot or can not?

Oh! my goodness! What's wrong now? Simmer down, Danny. It's only students, asking about Grammar Rules. They are a bit obsessed with them lately. So, if you tell learners what's right or wrong between cannot and can not, their data will never be changed. Therefore, be careful with your answer. 

Ok, then, I'll tell you what: I was taught at the EOI too, and my former teachers told me to write cannot as a single word. Later on, as I became a teacher, one of my first students at a Secondary School disagreed with me about this grammar point. Oh, dear! Well, then with more experience as a teacher at the EOI, my students are still wondering about the same thing: cannot or can not, for goodness' sake!

Finally, here's a whole forum about the same topic. Ok, dear learners, I think it's time for you to read the forum and reflect upon it for a while for a change.

Glued to the telly

Do you normally get glued to the box? Perhaps, not normally, but from time to time. What I do think is that you've ever left your problems aside with a good movie. Do you remember the last time when you got totally involved into the action and characters of an entertaining film? Here's a listening by the BBC about Movies and Science. I hope you find it helpful and pleasant too. [audio, script]

What makes you happy?

These days, I've tried to look on the bright side of life in class, by making up some positive speaking prompts, as far as possible. So, I think we could also talk about your top little pleasures in life, or if we only raise the question: What makes you happy? 

For further practice about the same topic, please feel free to click on [happiness, audio] 

Making a mountain out of a molehill

Please,  do not panic... we are not going up any mountain today. Don't worry about it. This is just another idiom in English, which is used for exaggerating the importance of something. 

As learning English is like climbing up a mountain, we'll see how to add some meaning for our speech and writing, whenever we need to overstate, inflate or simply clarify what we're talking about. But before we do that, why don't we watch The IT Crowd? 

For more practice about Emphasis and some emphasizers, please click on here.

The IT Crowd Yesterday's Jam from Daniel Rouco on Vimeo.

The IT Crowd Calamity Jen from Daniel Rouco on Vimeo.

Out of force of habit

When something is done out of force of habit, it has become automatic through frequent repetition. For example: "Why do I always park here? It's force of habit I suppose." This is only an English idiom, however, learners shouldn't do grammar exercises out of force of habit, or in other words, they ought to stop and think about the reasons why you should write certain grammar structures this or that way, i.e. is the relative pronoun necessary or not?

Well, in this section we'll learn how automatic or mechanical grammar practice won't be of much help for your language fluency, context and production.


First of all, you'll find the repetitive exercises about the relative pronouns at pages (195-205) and some more theory about the relative pronouns, here. For further grammar theory and practice, please click on here.


Secondly, after talking nineteen to dozen, I mean, after doing so many grammar exercises automatically, mechanically and without being aware of what is going on about their usage, let's stop to consider the following: 

• What are the relative pronouns used for?
• News (to add extra interest to their content) 
• Informal speech (as a kind of parentheses)
• Formal speech and formality (whom)
• To express a possessive relationship (whose)
• Who or whom?
• What about the reduced relative clauses?

Finally, this grammar post is just for you all to reflect upon the importance of language context and everyday usage, which should build your English up from strengh to strengh.

Source:  Making Sense of Grammar, by David Crystal

2011 year in review

2011 year is now over and perhaps you feel like remembering it somehow. This hasn't been an easy year: crisis time and many disasters all over the world, although there must have been something good to be recalled. Well, let's see your views by doing the following tasks with this video below.

For more video watching about the same topic, please click on here.

Elevator Music

This is not intended to be elevator music but all about the English usage through music.

 First of all, let's rely on the BBC learning English and one stop English.com to do some reading and vocabulary practice, as well as some listening & speaking [audio]. How is your English through music going on? Please, feel free to use the commentary section below.


Secondly, we could learn a bit more using some different vocabulary on-line resources like mind maps, word lists, fill-in-the gaps exercises and idioms.


Finally, we could enjoy English learning by having a look at the video below or even have a go and sing some songs, following this karaoke Youtube playlist. 

Happy New Year!

Once again, it's time for us to think about resolutions and achievements all through the past year. Let's be extra positive for a change,  no matter your results or personal goals. 

What makes you happy?

Below you'll find some ways of saying good and well-done to people around you. Always nice to get super feedback from friends, workmates and family.

Dealing with The January "Blues"

Now,  it's time for new resolutions and promises, isn't it? Well, thinking about learning English, let's watch this video before you start writing your never-ending resolution lists. This may be of some help for you.

In today's chat we were talking about people's resolutions for 2012. Some students got lost in this activity, they didn't know what to talk about. Well, I guess this is so simple that I just took it for granted, my fault. I'm very sorry about that. So, here's some more help for your resolutions for 2012, or if you will, your hopes for 2012. [BBC Hopes for 2012, script, audio]

Recycling and Pollution

Are you aware of the main considerations about the topic of Recycling and Pollution? How do you contribute to heal the world?

 And what about? Plastic pollution

Do you recycle?

 Here's a listening from the BBC Learning English:

Join Dan and Kate this week as they talk about pollution. How is plastic affecting the environment and what can we do to make the situation better?
This week's question:
How many pieces of plastic are there in each square kilometre of the world’s oceans? Is it:
a) 22,000 pieces of plastic
b) 38,000 pieces of plastic
c) 46,000 pieces of plastic
Listen out for the answer in the programme!

For further practice on the same topic, you could have a look at this vocabulary handout.

On the other hand, we could also read some about Pollution by the New York Times:

 Obama Seeks to Curb Auto Pollution

President Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration's past rejection of a California application to regulate auto pollution.

By the same token, today we were reading through a text about Organic food, however, we find it a bit complicated, so we'd better work on some vocabulary and words through this glossary, which is organised according to the words'order from the very first word until the last one. I hope you can find the glossary and the answer key useful for the better understanding of the whole text.

Being creative

After the recent Government change in Spain, I wonder if there’ll be another change in Education shortly. Changes are said to be changes for the better, nevertheless, do you think that it’s only a question of a new Education system? Well, at least some food for thought.  

Rather than Educational changes,  we need new ways of thinking and in terms of Creativity and Innovation.  It’s like going to the doctor for some pain-killers or something like that. At hospitals, you’re very likely to wish your doctor to be up-dated, fit for purpose and practical too, and Medicine has evolved to a greater extent. On the contrary, teaching has reminded the same in the last 60 years, with some reforms, but quite the same thing. Therefore, we firstly need to take into account that “Creativity is  been maligned, neglected, and misunderstood” by Society over the last decades. However, according to Sir Ken Robinson, who led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, “people see creativity and critical thinking as being opposed. It's partly because people associate creativity with being totally free and unstructured. But what we really have to get hold of is the idea that you can't be creative if you don't do something”. For further reading, please have a look at this blog.

Another author also deals with the topic of Creativity, Chaz Pugliese, writer of the book entitled  Being Creative and here he is, talking on the same topic.

I hope you find this post interesting or at least something to reflect upon for a while. Please, remember that all comments are well-appreciated. Bye for now and until next post on Education.

Sources:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Why-Creativity-Now%C2%A2-A-Conversation-with-Sir-Ken-Robinson.aspx
http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/titles/methodology/being-creative