Hi everyone!

I’d like to write these post on behalf of Carlos, Cristina and Jesús, who have contributed these days to the climate change debate with videos, links and all sorts of information.

1. Everything started with this video suggested by Carlos, which was the trigger of a highly interesting discussion. There had been a related post in the past, in the intermedio’s blog.

2. Later, Cristina suggested these online articles for us to read:

• E-mail scandal: how scientists may have cooked the facts
• Hiding evidence of global cooling
• Hackers reveal global warming scandal

3. And last but not least, Jesús has written this article plus some graphics:

“First of all, from the robbed e-mails to a Climate Research Unit (University of East Anglia) by a hacker, I don´t see that the scientists are lying or a global conspiration. If  you read the emails, you will see different opinions about the conclusions about the results (they are trying to explain us the results as better as possible). Moreover, you will read that they have had technical problems with electronics device or the personal relationships among scientists. There are problems in all jobs. Here you are the link: http://www.eastangliaemails.com/

Secondly, what would happen if the temperature rises 4ºC? here you are a link showed by the British government:

http://www.actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk/content/en/embeds/flash/4-degrees-large-map-final

Thirdly, here you are more links:

• Website of Climate Research Unit: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/
• Other link of this group with news about the hacker attack: http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/CRUstatements

Finally, I attach a pdf file and the link from Nature Magazine, one of the most prestigious scientific magazine, about the research on climatic change in 2009:

http://www.nature.com/climate/2010/1001/full/climate.2010.134.html

Futhermore, a link of NOOA about CO2 in the atmosphere:  http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/

Thanks for your interest and participation in the debate, guys!

Hello guys. As you know the mid-year exams are around the corner.  They will have the same format as the Pruebas de Certificación that you will have to pass at the end of the level (this June for the Avanzado 2 students).  So here are some links where you can find samples from different Autonomous Communities around Spain.  Keep in mind that the exams here might be somewhat different, but you can get an idea of what to expect.

• Madrid
• Catalunya  These ones include a grammar exam (Ús de la llengua), which is not part of our Pruebas de Certificación
• Euskadi
• Asturias You will need to download the publication in PDF format.  Obviously the audio files for the Listening Comprehension part are not included, but the sources where you can find those files are listed.

This is a start-up list for you to start sampling.  Feel free to include more links to other webpages with exam samples that you find by posting a comment to this entry.  This way we´ll have an updated list for everybody.

Thank you for all the interest and debate you brought to class around this topic, guys. It was really fruitful!

I’ve been talking about it to some friends and they recommended me two films: one is 8 minute long and the other is 1hour 30 minutes- don’t be discouraged by the length, since it’s really captivating.

Here you are the long one: HOME. It’s been released in youtube in High Definition. If you watch it in full screen, it’s got great quality.

This is the description they wrote in their website: “We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film. HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.”

(How to activate the subtitles: click on the arrow located on the right-hand side corner, at the bottom of the little screen. Then click on “Activar títulos”.)

On the other hand, we have Venus, the city of the future. It’s an interesting project introduced like this: “Imagine a world where war is outdated, there is no shortage of resources, and every human being enjoys a high standard of living.”

I hope you have the chance to watch them and give me your opinion about them.

Good luck in your exams next week!

Hi there!

You know that you’ll probably have an excerpt taken from the news in your Listening exams, don’t you? The news is an example of what we call “authentic” texts, i.e. they haven’t been adapted or modified for students of English.

Then, why not visit this amazing site? It’s called VOA News and you have tons of current news with the audio or video enclosed.

All you have to do is access the website and select a piece of news. Pay attention to the symbols beside the headline: they’ll show you whether the news is on audio or video format. If you have the audio, you can listen to the news and read the transcript at the same time.

Here you are an example about the dangers of Swine Flu being exaggerated:

Finally, you can also access the Going Green section, with videos exploring “new trends and technologies in environmental science”. It will be interesting to check out this site before next class, since we’ll be talking about the Climate Change.

Remember: the more you listen, the more you’ll understand!

Hi my dear students,

I hope you had a wonderful holiday. I wanted to share this jewel with you: Ángeles Fernández, a teacher in Coruña (sección Culleredo),  is developing a website with resources to help students of English in Avanzado 1 level. They’re using our textbook too, so all the material she suggests is directly related to the vocabulary, grammar and skills we’re studying.

Would you like to have a look? This is her website. How to use it? Go to the section that appeals most to you. You can also go straight to the units we’ve been studying, e.g:

- File 1

- File 2

- File 3

In these links, you’ll find documents explaining the grammar, exercises to practise it, videos about the topics of the lesson, extra texts to read, and the answer key to the tests at the end of the unit.

Thanks for letting us know, Ángeles.

For more videos to improve your English, check the blog written by the English Department in A Coruña.

The Avanzado 2 students have written their autobiographies, and I, the teacher, have been the only person who has been able to enjoy them.  Why don’t you let other people know about your background and your achievements?  There’s a website called The Biographicon where ordinary people like you and me can publish their autobiography. The website helps you create your life story by posing a series of questions that you can elect to answer. Go to this page for detailed instructions.  You can also search for both famous and common people’s biographies, like John Lennon or Rafa Nadal.

Hi again!

Just a quick note to let you know how to revise the contents of the course so far. There are many ways, but I’ll only suggest a few:

1- Visit Oxford’s website and explore it. You’ll find grammar exercises, vocabulary, a pronunciation guide and so on.

2- Last day you were concerned about listening. Why not visit the following websites?

* English listening exercises: a website devoted to the practice of this skill.

* For a more realistic approach try English Conversations. Recordings of real everyday conversations.

* The Voices recordings: a BBC project with clips capturing 1,200 people in conversation. “Some of the clips are people talking about language – slang, dialect, taboo words, accents. Other clips cover all sorts of subjects and simply offer a flavour of how we talk today.” NOTE: (you need to install Real Player to listen to these voices).

* In the mood for some fun? Then go to Comedy Clips and Funny stuff, also within the BBC site.

Hope you get more confident when listening…

Aren’t you sure about the grammar units we’ve been working on this first term?

Here you can access a document where I’ve noted down the correspondence between our textbook (File Upper intermediate, Oxford) and our grammar book (English Grammar in Use, Cambridge). You can click on the option “File” and then on “Download as” and select “Word”, so that you keep a copy in your hard disk, if you want.

I’ll be updating the document online in the same link, as we go through the rest of the book.

Enjoy the grammar experience! : )

Hi my dear students,

I was wondering… Would you like to work in Ireland for 10 days next summer? Are you interested in helping ill children? Have you ever done some volunteer work before?

There is this international camp in Ireland I’d like to recommend. The staff recruitment session has just started, and I thought maybe some of you would be interested in applying to work there. There are both paid and volunteer positions.

The one I would apply for if I didn’t have a lot of free time is “volunteer interpreter”. Interpreters are needed to help children understand the activity leaders and also to communicate with children from other countries. If you prefer to work the whole summer, go ahead! It’s a long summer (from June to September), but it’s really worth it.

If you are interested, these are the dates available: look out for those where Spanish children attend the camp.

Want to have a look? Here is the VIDEO section of their website.

Still interested? Then it’s time for a virtual tour.

The first thing you’d need to do is download the application form and send it as soon as possible, along with all the other documents required. If you are selected, they’ll probably want to have a little chat with you.

After that… who knows? Hopefully you may have an unforgettable experience. Good luck!

Did you enjoy reading and writing the mini sagas? I hope so. Please click here for advice on how to write them. You’ll be able to read samples written by students from all over the world too.

Would you like to know “how to get simple quick writing practice and how to give and receive feedback and criticism of your written work“? Go to Nick Peachey’s blog and follow the instructions to write a very short story based on five pictures.

Your classmate Carlos also told me about the following short stories competitions: SMS contest: Write a story in no more than 154 characters.  SMS contest in Spanish: max. 160 characters.  Twitter competition: max. 140 characters! Could you accomplish such a challenge?

For those brave enough to try, feel free to use the comments section as a playground. Good luck!

Yesterday in class we had a look at the world of clothes. Would you like to expand your vocabulary? Choose from this list of different activities:

By Dheeraj Harjani

1- Vocabulary:

• Idioms: what does “dressed to kill” mean? What about “putting on your thinking cap”?  What’s a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”? Click here to find out.
• Verbs: wear or dress? Check out this list to enlarge your vocabulary on verb phrases.

2- British fashion: Is there such a thing? Read a nice article here (taken from Visit Britain) . If you are interested in the national dress of each country, click here.

Do have a look at the following websites: (taken from Learning English) “For Mens and Ladies clothes – urban wear and designer wear try The Clothes Store. Two of the most famous (or infamous) designers in the UK are Zandra Rhodes and, slightly less controversial; Paul Smith, check out their web sites and see what you think“.

3- Feel like watching some videos instead? Why not start with a piece of advice on Fashion Fundamentals and move on to Fashion Rules and (your favourite section, I’m sure!) to other videos categorized under “All About Shoes“.

4- Clothes quiz: Please browse through the following shops and answer these questions:

1- What’s a hoodie?
2- What’s a duffle coat?
3- What’s a waistcoat?
4- Why do we end these words with “wear”?: swimwear, knitwear, leisurewear, nightwear, footwear…

Men’s catalogues
Burton
Marks & Spencer
JcPenney
Saks Fifth Avenue
Bhs

Women’s catalogues
Debenhams
Top Shop
Saks Fifth Avenue
Dorothy Perkins
Next

I’ve found an interesting blog that gives readers advice on healthy habits.

Taken from Zen Habits

The different thing about it is that they’re not “medical” recommendations, but “alternative” ones (getting organized, breathing, simplifying your life, focusing, meditating, etc). Go and check it out here: Zen habits.

I have some questions for you guys.

• To what extent do you care about your health?
• Do you believe in alternative medicine? (acupunture, homeopathy, etc.)
• What’s your opinion about the Zen Habits blog? All sorts of opinions are welcome.

Thanks for your participation.

My dear students,

These days we’re looking at new vocabulary on different topics. Ever wondered how to do to expand your English vocabulary? Guest blogger Karen Schweitzer tells where to go in her post, kindly written for us. Hope you like it!

20 Places to Practice and Learn English Vocabulary

There are a wide variety of tools that English learners can use, such as virtual flashcards, dictionaries, translators, and chats, to practice and learn English vocabulary online. Here are 20 tools that can make study sessions fun and effective:

WordAhead – WordAhead is a free online vocabulary video site that can be used to practice and learn English vocabulary. Videos can be viewed in a study room or through a word list.

VerbaLearn – Students who want to save time studying vocabulary words will enjoy VerbaLearn. This online vocabulary flashcard site provides virtual flashcards in audio, video, and text for maximum retention.

Cramberry – Cramberry is a flashcard site that allows users to create and study vocabulary word lists online. With this site, students can track progress, view troublesome words more often, and choose from thousands of pre-made flashcard sets.

EnglishPage.com – This site allows English learners to study more advanced vocabulary lessons. EnglishPage.com also provides weekly lessons, a grammar book, vocabulary lists, verb tense practice, and more.

Hi there! I’m glad to have met you all and start working already.

Photo by el_davo

The first Internet site I’d like to suggest today is Q&A, a series of interviews published weekly in The Guardian. There you’ll find public figures supplying interesting answers to very particular questions. Why not check it out? You’ll find people such as Bruce Willis, Pamela Anderson, Amy Winehouse, Marilyn Manson, Lily Allen, Annie Lennox, David Hasselhoff (The Knight Rider)…

Another series that caught my attention was the one called “This much I know“, in which “Celebrities share the lessons life has taught them“. A different style of interview altogether.

Tired of reading? Do you feel like listening to a different sort of famous people then? There’s a website on the BBC called Audio Interviews; it’s no longer updated but it still contains a whole load of audio interviews of people of all times (dead and alive!). No transcriptions are available, but the interviews are worth listening to (Coppola, Bob Marley, Dalai Lama, Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie…)

Which of the three series do you prefer? Are you interested in the lives (or at least in the opinions) of celebrities? What kind of well-known people catch your eye? (writers, pop singers, politicians, actors…)

Hello everyone and welcome back!

Did you have a nice summer? I hope so.

I’m very glad to remind you that we’re meeting next week: for those who have signed up for a Monday-Wednesday class, lessons will start on Monday 14th.

For those belonging to the Tuesday-Thursday class, lessons will start on Tuesday 15th.

Are you happy to be back? Me too!

See you next week.

Hi my dear students,

Than you all for making it up to the very end. These days we’re having our exams and we’ll soon be done. The summer is here already, and I’m sure you will miss the school (won’t you?). I’d like to write the last post of the year, recommending you some sites you can try and visit to keep your English up to date.

I firstly recommend you to read this post: “Cómo aprender inglés sin dinero para cursos“. The teacher here suggests interesting things for a linguistic immersion. For example, she talks about language exchanges. Why not start one now? We can do that on the Internet, without having to travel! She and her readers suggest the following (I know this is not the first time we talk about this):

- Busuu
- Shared Talk
- My Language Exchange
- Language Exchanges
There you can practice your the 4 skills!

I do agree with her opinion on Listening everyday. If you try and listen at least 5 minutes, you’ll get used to the sounds of English and it’ll become easier and easier. My recommendation here is for you to download i-Tunes (it’s free!) and subscribe to podcasts (that you can later transfer to your MP3 player and take your English with you to the gym, to the supermarket, to the beach..!). All you have to do is (once you get the program) click on i-Tunes Store, later on Podcasts and then browse according to your interests: you can select the language, the channel or the topic you are interested in. Then you subscribe to the podcasts that you like: their updates will be downloaded immediately everytime you connect to i-Tunes again. Isn’t it wonderful?

You can also visit the wonderful site of TED Talks; it’s an “annual conference that brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” The topics are on various subjects: technology, education, entertainment, design… And many videos have subtitles in different languages (please choose English!) at the bottom, on the left-hand corner. Certainly worth a look!

More ideas on Writing: apart from checking the websites checklisted in this blog, you could also start a journal in English or even a blog yourself! (Try blogger) If you write on a regular basis, you’ll need to use a dictionary and thus will learn new things everyday.

Finally, what about Reading? Are you thinking of taking some English book to the beach with you? Good idea. Why not visit the library? You can borrow books for the whole summer now. Otherwise, you can buy them online; Amazon is quite fast with deliveries and they also offer you the possibility of buying second-hand books for really reasonable prices! Short of ideas?

Here you are some suggestions (light and fun reads, I think):

- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
- Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes
- Completely Unexpected Tales by Roald Dahl
- Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Have a great summer you all!

There are lots of pages where you can practise, although they’re no great fun, but at least they’re useful! You can practise questions ,  see the changes , a bit of it all together, introductory verbs, or an explanation with exercises. Elblogdeinglés has a long clear explanation.For grammar practice, go here , here , here or here

Or you can always play football…Good luck!

We’ve talked about this girl before, remember?

Just in case you weren’t in class that day (or you’ve forgotten), here you are a reminder of this wonderful online help. The website is called Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing and you can visit them whenever you want to solve your grammar doubts and improve your writing and vocabulary. You can also listen to her if you click on the PLAY button. Do you want to take it away with you to the gym (or wherever)? Then click on the DOWNLOAD button. It’s all free!

For example: What’s the difference between “if” and “whether”? She tells you here. Further explanation on the BBC website (of course!) + a quick one here.

Would you like to receive daily tips from her? Then click here to fill in the form.

Hope you like it.

You’ve been studying English for a while now. You’ve done your homework, you’ve written lots of formal letters. But still there are some issues you’d like to solve. You know one of the “typical” writing tasks of the final exam Why not visit the following sites?

1. General tips on how to write a formal letter: layout, rules, content, abbreviations, etc.
2. Saro’s post on how to write a formal letter: it’s aimed at intermediate students, but it can remind you of interesting stuff. You have a useful presentation plus some exercises to practice.
3. Travel plans + seeking employment: samples on how to request information, offering a house exchange, booking a campsite, making enquiries + applying for a job.
4. Here you have samples of letters related to jobs: resignation, thank you, reference, salary history and cover letters.

I hope these were helpful. Enjoy writing!

Did you know that there’s a crowd of experts out there, willing to help you with your English grammar doubts?

Yes! From now on, you’ll have instant answers to your questions. There are several websites that can help you, but today we’ll focus on BBC Learning English, one of the most interesting and complete.

How to use the site? I’d suggest 3 ways:

1- If you have a grammar doubt, there are chances someone else has had that doubt before. Why not check their list of question categories? All the doubts are neatly classified into different categories, so that you can find yours easily. You can either read or listen to the answers. Nice, isn’t it?

2- Can’t you find your own doubt solved? No problem! At the very bottom of the same page, you have an application form under the heading “Send us a question”. All you have to do is send your own question and- hopefully- it’ll be solved in a few days.

3- Are you in a hurry and can’t wait for a few days? Then, why don’t you ask your question to the Learning English community? All you have to do is become a member here and start a new discussion in the message boards. The answer will come within minutes!

For example… What’s the difference between “as” and “like”. You can find an explanation here . Would you like to do some exercises? Then Mr. Google can help you out:

• As or like? Exercise with answers in the “Grade me” button.
• Better English lessons: as or like.
• More exercises in ToLearnEnglish.com

Enjoy!