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

After couple of listens...

After a couple of listens, you'll probably get the gist of Anna's podcasts easily. This is just a question of practice. As the English idiom goes: "Practice makes perfect". So, there's no time to lose, the more podcasts you listen to, the better listener you'll become. It's like the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood: "Grandma, what big ears you have! All the better to hear with, my child."

Ok, then, going back to present time, let's move on and listen to Anna's podcast on Chores, which is also very related to the class topic on how to express hospitality. Here's the Chores handout and the mp3 audio for you to use as many times as necessary.

On the other hand, we dealt with the theme of  Education all through the past unit, and Anna helped us with her podcast on Starting to read, where you can drew the conclusion that learning to read is quite complicated, even for native speakers. (Starting to read handout, mp3 audio)
Sources:  http://acupofenglish.libsyn.com/starting_to_read_ and http://acupofenglish.libsyn.com/chore-time-

To conclude, I hope you find this post useful for your English practice, if not, please feel free to drop some lines, telling me how you feel about it. Your comments will be very appreciated, specially the positive ones. Anyway, just let me know how your English is going on.

Misunderstandings

Have you ever misunderstood anything that made you laugh out loud?

If you have and you wish to tell us about, please just send us your misunderstanding anecdote. This is the right writing section for learners to share and have a great time too. Our first learner, Manuel, is telling us about Peter and Alice’s confusion. I hope you enjoy it. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s put your English into practice and send us your anecdotes.

Here's another writer, Enrique, who's telling us his personal language misunderstanding. This is full of fun and it's well-written too. Thanks so much for your writing contribution.

On the other hand, before you write your first words, you'd better think about some good ideas to write about. However, this is not so easy at first and sometimes, you'll have to read something about the same topic. So, do you need any inspiration for your writing? Here's a love misunderstading by the BBC. A little bit of British humour:

The EOI-Santiago Book Clubs

Do you like READING?

Join the EOI-SANTIAGO BOOK CLUBS!

DISCOVER the pleasure of reading real books in English

SHARE your impressions and comments with other readers

IMPROVE your English and your language skills





GENERAL INFORMATION:

- The Book Club is addressed to intermediate 2 and advanced students. Former EOI students are also welcome. Meetings will be held once monthly.

Extensión de Noia: Tuesday, 22nd November at 8pm (language lab) jlago@eoisantiago.org

Extensión de Ribeira: Wednesday, 23rd November at 8pm (room 103) dpastoriza@eoisantiago.org

Extensión de Santiago (IES de Sar): Wednesday, 23rd November at 8pm (room 10) alosada@eoisantiago.org

Visit the book club blog: http://novelteaclub.blogspot.com/


  So, there's no time to lose. Why don't you read and comment on your best books ever? , exactly the same thing as the well-known movie: The Jane Austen Book Club. Come on, readers! Let's get your reading started.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a 2004 American romantic fantasy film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories, scripted by Charlie Kaufman and directed by the french director, Michel Gondry. The film uses elements of science fiction, psychological thriller, and nonlinear narration to explore the nature of memory and romantic love. It opened in North America on March 19, 2004, and grossed over US $70 million worldwide.

Kaufman and Gondry worked on the story with Pierre Bismuth, a French performance artist. The film stars an ensemble cast starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Jane Adams, and David Cross.

The title is taken from the poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope, the story of a tragic love affair, where forgetfulness became the heroine's only comfort:

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

The film was a critical and commercial success, developing a strong cult following and receiving a myriad of accolades, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film was lauded by critics as one of the best and most thought-provoking films of 2004. 


In class, we watched the first half of the film and after that, we drew our own conclusions: there're so many flashbacks that it's sometimes hard to be followed and perhaps a bit aggressive too. However, I think we need to wait for the second part to understand the whole film. Meanwhile, I'd like to drop you some more lines on the same topic of our mind and memory. The following notes were taken from Straightforward Advanced Teacher's Book, by Roy Norris: "Cultural notes: Alzheimer's disease is a serious illness affecting the brain, which makes it difficult to remember things. It gets worse over time and affects older people in particular. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the film starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslett. It presupposes that you can go to a clinic and have bad memories erased from your brain. In the film, Jim Carrey, whilst undergoing the treatment, fights against losing his memories. The moral is that memories are what make us what we are - even the bad ones.

Do you have a memory like an elephant?

Well, this question doesn't seem to be so easily responded at first. Memory is a quite complicated process, as it's depicted through this photo. There're many different steps and stages going on within the grey matter and thus, testing our intelligence quotient (IQ) may vary to a greater extent, depending on the assessing criteria to be applied. On the contrary, our mental capacities can be trained and improved. However, this is not only a question of numbers, tests or IQ, but taking into account that our brain is similar to another muscle of our entire body, though it's true that we need the right stimulations and environment to obtain our best potential and develop more talents and capacities. Finally, to quote an example, I'd like to recommend you to look for some information about Sir Ken Robinson. Here's a well-known video by him:

For further listening, (Handout, mp3), vocabulary, reading and speaking practice on Memory, please click on the appropriate words above.

Listen to this

Hey! Please, listen to this. Here's another listening task for Advanced learners of English. We're currently dealing with the topics of Mid-life crisis and Education. This time there's no noise at the background, but still some listening skills to be developed. So, there's no time to lose. Please, feel free to click on the handout and have a look at the activities, then, play track 7 and track 8 as longer as needed. Listening skills usually require time, patience and effort, therefore, that's exactly one of the benefits of this blog, that is, the classroom bell won't make you stop practising and you can also listen to it again whenever you feel like doing it, and thus you'll become a much better autonomous learner of English.

Word-building or Word-formation

Basically, we could start off by studying some basic word-formation suffixes and prefixes, which will help you to guess the meaning and grammar of English words.

So, here's your WORD-FORMATION theory and practice to do your best at your English school. Remember that there are not magical RULES for word-formation, and it's only a question of practice and loads of English exposure.

Let's put it this way...it's time for more words... - from Intermediate to advanced level.

Learning a language is like building a house. We need plenty of bricks to be able construct a venue with well-laid foundations and suitable enough for our living expectations: good sights, full of light, and comfortable for our family. By the same token, to produce a fluent speech, it’s necessary to manage a whole array of words, which must be assimilated, practised and used regularly, rather than only translated into the target language. Word-building takes time and what’s even more important: suffixes and prefixes must be recognized; otherwise you won’t make the most of your word-building. For further word-formation practice, you’d better click on words, words, words.

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