Quantity in English: Some, any and so on

To express Quantity in English, we need to take many things into account. 

Not only grammar, but also a bit of common sense.

General rules in English are definitely not enough. So, we'd better consider exceptions, together with some suitable grammar reference books.

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.

 Some, any, a lot of, Numbers,

Thanksgiving Day

What’s Thanksgiving day?

Well, roughly speaking, Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, when people usually spend some time altogether at home. It's also called the Turkey Day, as you can guess by the picture below.

For some YouTube videos about the Thanksgiving Day, please feel free to click on here.





 For more information, please feel free to have a look at this blog about the same topic.

Prepositions

  

Prepositions together with collocations and phrasal verbs are perhaps the three most difficult issues of the English grammar, simply because they must be mostly learnt by heart. On the whole, there're no magic rules to apply and so, we'd better read, write listen and speak as much as possible, so that we can put the following exercises and clarifications into practice.

For further practice on Prepositions, please click on the links below:

Prepositional list (Intermediate and Advanced)
Preposition to (Intermediate)
Order of Prepositions (Advanced)
Prepositions for purpose: To & for (Intermediate)
Prepositional verbs (Intermediate)
Prepositions used with adverbs and participles (Intermediate)

Basic exercises for Basic:

52 sentences Prepositions of time, by Irina
Find this and other prepositions exercises in English Exercises .org
127 sentences to practice PREPOSITIONS OF TIME, by Irina
Find this and other prepositions exercises in English Exercises .org
PREPOSITIONS, by Nancy
Find this and other prepositions exercises in English Exercises .org

Here's a good advert to practise some prepositions

For more Youtube videos about prepositions, please feel free to click on here.

English through sketches

In this section you'll find all the sketches used in class, together with some other resources to get the most of all your theatre talents on stage. So, off we go and let's act those sketches out all day long. 

• The ticket inspector

• The Passport Office
• Fire Practice (audio 2)
• Fire Practice on YouTube

• The Bus Stop 

• Tea Break
• The King of Boonland
• The Restaurant
   

• Sketches
• English Sketches
• Theatre and drama at YouTube
• Theatre and drama for ESL.

And now it's time for the students:

• Congratulations, Berta from Basic 1. What a great job! Here are your three sketches below:
One more time, please!

Listening to English

English can be music to your ears. That's just a question of practice and dedication. This does take a lot time and the more you do it, the better for you.

So, there's no time to lose and let's get it started.

Basic 1: 
Listening practice 1, KET TESTS for Basic 1 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5), Exam Practice for Basic 1

Listening practice for EOI Basic 1

Basic 2: 
Listening practice 1, An Estate Agent (houses), Fearless Felix (Worksheet, Audio, Transcription _Success & Past tenses), India,

Galician EOI listening exam 2008 (Audio: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3, Answers)

Listening exam - Navarra_Tudela (Audio: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3, Answers) 

Listening EOI TEST from Madrid: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3 (Audio:Task 1, Task 2, Task 3. Answers)

Writing in English from the scratch

 Here we'll see many writing tips and activities to start writing in English from the scratch.

Tip 1:

Before you start writing, you could also get some inspiration from reading or listening to some English, which is related to the same topic you plan to write about. Even you could have a look at some typical mistakes at Basic level.

Tip 2:
To write a description, you could have a look at some adjectives first. Then, a model text would be the world of good for your writing success too.

Tip 3:
Try to find some Basic Guidelines to be followed all through the editing, writing and revision process. Here're some good Basic Guidelines.

Tip 4:

Functional language for EOI Monologues and Interactions

Tip 5:
Language for Thinking

Tip 6:
Checking that someone has understood you

Tip 7:
Use the Cambridge English section: Write & Improve (BETA). You'll get instant feedback on your writing! Very worthwhile trying!

The most common mistakes in English.

Basic 1: Penpal, Writing Practice for Basic 1, 

Basic 2: Improving Style: David Guetta, Writing Practice for Basic 2, 

Some essays, descriptions, dialogues, and so on, which were written by some students of mine. Well, here are our authors:

Isabel (Trip to Cies and an e-mail to Emma)
Mercedes (the description of a house)
Sandra (The Tower of Hercules)

Congratulations! and Very well-done! for all of them. Good job! Let's now write about...

Writing TEST from Navarra (Basic 2) KEY

Writing EOI TEST from Madrid (Task 1, Task 2)(Basic 2)

Resources: 
Liz and John Soars (2011): New Headway Elementary Student's Book.

Top 10 Learning English Websites

 I've been mulling this post over for quite a long time and finally I've decided to get it published. I hope you find these websites useful somehow. Any more suggestions? Please feel free to leave a comment about your best web pages.

Personally I think that the following sites are excellent for your English learning for one reason or another, however, please don't get the wrong end of the stick. At the end of the day, it's your everyday effort, which will definitely make the difference through your English learning success.

10. http://es-mx.livemocha.com/invite/r:YlTwd46v (Learning progression and network)
9.http://lang-8.com/ (Learning progression and network)
8.http://www.vocabulary.com/ (Vocabulary games and learning progression)
7.http://www.examenglish.com/ (Test yourself & all levels)
6.http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ (Forum, different sections & tasks )
5. http://www.englishontherocks.com/index.php (All levels, sections and tasks. Spanish )
4.http://elblogdelingles.blogspot.com.es/ (Learning tips all levels and all sections. Forum)
3.http://www.wordreference.com/ (Excellent on-line dictionary. Pronunciation. Forum)
2.http://www.lyricstraining.com/ (Excellent site for lyrics. Learning progression)
1.http://www.verbling.com/ (The Best interactive web site ever! One-to-one talking in both English and Spanish )

For further reading, please click on here.

Halloween

Halloween is coming and I wonder if you usually celebrate such a famous festivity in your town. 

Halloween is also very well-known in Galicia, so let's go trick-or-treating all day long, but before that,  we could know a bit more about this ancient celebration through the following basic text with its audio below. Then, you could also have a look at  this advanced task about the history of Halloween by the BBC.

How to make a Pumpkin Witch

YouTube videos about Halloween 

More about Happy Halloween!


Pumpkin Pie recipe. Yummy!

Do you like scary stories? Have you ever written one? Here's mine, which is entitled One Halloween Night. Now, it's time for writing your spooky story.

EOI Monforte Halloween 2015 contest Photo album

This year, 2013,  we're trying to carve some Pumpkins and then, we'll do a little contest in our school. Here're some photos for you to have a look. Any other ideas about Halloween? Enjoy Halloween and Samaín traditions:







10+ Halloween Activities to Engage Learners from Shelly Terrell

Words, words, words

This section is specially created for  vocabulary. Here you'll find plenty of words for you to write about many different topics. This post will constantly be  growing, simply because everyday is a school day, and we always learn new words. 

So, please feel free to contribute with your own words and vocabulary questions, so that we can build our personal dictionary.

Basic 1: Numbers (writing numbers), Countries (saying some countries), Family and Friends, 

Basic 2: Family and Friends,  Jobs, my sweet home, Christmas Vocabulary, 


Intermediate 1:

Intermediate 2:

Advanced 1:

Advanced 2: Christmas Vocabulary, 

Jobs and professions

2010 = two thousand ten or twenty ten?

 

Pronunciation and lip-reading

What's the point of Pronunciation? Before we try to answer this question, let's watch some videos about Phonetics.

• Problems with spelling and pronunciation, for example, nice /naɪs/ and niece /niːs/. Please, be careful when you're speaking in English and make sure that you've choosen the right pronunciation. 

• To read one's lips and guess English words, specially when there's a lot of noise at the background. Check these lip-dub videos to practise your pronunciation.

• To  begin to incorporate pronunciation into your everyday English.

•  For further Pronunciation practice and theory, please feel free to have a look at this Phonetics and Pronunciation document.

•  

Whenever you've got any question about the pronunciation of a word or even single letters, you could use the following websites: http://www.wordreference.com/ , http://www.howjsay.com/ and http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/phonemic-chart You can also click on the photos below to get to those webpages.

Speaking time

Through this section, we'll practise our speaking all day long. Below you'll find some documents, which will guide you to become a successful speaker of English. They are based on some communicative ideas and everyday common situations, to use the language that you've learnt so far.

So, there's no time to lose and let's get it started!

• A2: Somebody like you,  The seven Families game, Family who's who?, A daily routine of a teacher,  Where are they from? Famous people, Mystery objects (adj.),  Same or different (Adjectives),  How often (Frequency Adverbs), Chit-Chat,  Language race, Say it!, A good job!,  Who, where and what?, Guess my job, Dangerous and stressful jobs, Tour Operators, In my free time, Free time activities, Weekend (like & hate), Quiz Time, Clothes Shop (Adjectives), Personal Possessions, Job Interview (Modals), Can & Can't (jobs), Can & can't ( Find someone who),  Past Simple, Past Experiences & Stories_Really?, Directions (), 
• Speaking Practice for Basic 2
• Speaking TEST from Navarra.
• Speaking TEST from Madrid (Task 1, Task 2)

Tips for the Oral Presentation by the
 British Council

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Functional language for EOI Monologues and Interactions

Language for Thinking

Checking that someone has understood you

Language TIPS by Bernabé Tierno
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