EOI Boadilla - Intermedio 1E & Avanzado 1C

Happy holidays

2011-06-30T18:31:00.008+02:00

The course is now finished and I would like to wish you all a happy summer. Congratulations to those who passed the exam in June, and for those who have to resit in September, please don't forget to look at the dates and times of your exams, which are published on the school notice boards.

I hope you enjoy yourselves this summer, and keep up your English too!

BTW, the booklet with the compositions that entered the competition Cuéntame lo que pasó has been published only in digital format, you can see it here.

Exam dates

2011-05-22T20:13:00.017+02:00

There are only a couple of days left to finish this course and I would like to remind you of the dates of your exams.

Intermedio 1:
Written: Thursday, 2nd June, 17:00, Room A-5
Oral: Thursday, 9th June, from 16:00, Room A-6

Avanzado 1:
Written: Thursday, 2nd June, 16:00, Room A-6
Oral: Tuesday, 7th June, from 16:00, Room A-6

Please don't forget to register for the oral exam on the sheets provided on the class' notice board.
I hope you do well, and wish you lots of luck.

A few websites

2011-03-21T20:28:00.005+01:00

Explore the following sites that are loaded with new ideas to work on your English:

Learn English by reading the news in Voxy
Join a social network, make friends, and learn other languages
Learn with the masters

Hope there is something for every taste!

Readings

2011-03-21T19:51:00.003+01:00

I thought I would include here the link to the story students of Avanzado 1 have to read for tomorrow, The happy prince.

For Students of Intermedio 1 who have not been attending classes recently, we are reading The sign of four, and doing the exercises on understanding that come at the end of the book, chapters 1 & 2 for tomorrow.

Happy reading!

Original video

2011-03-14T20:09:00.008+01:00

I have seen this video published in one of the blogs I follow (La mansión del inglés), and I think it deserves to be given a bit of promotion, as it is such an original piece of work. If you find it hard to understand, read the transcript here.

Hope you enjoy it!

Test your English

2011-03-02T20:07:00.007+01:00

Dialang is a software that allows you to test your English knowledge in five different skills, and it reports your level against the European Framework for Language Learning.

You can download it here, and by taking the test, you will have a better idea of how you are doing, the areas you need to work harder on, or what you are best at.

(Notice the warning about Dialang server being offline from 4 to 7 March)

I1 - Advertising

2011-02-28T20:34:00.002+01:00

Watch this video to find out more about the world of advertising, and have a good laugh as well. To make your life easier, you can watch it with Spanish subtitles.

Happy Valentine's

2011-02-14T17:02:00.005+01:00

Today is Valentine's day, a day to celebrate love and affection with your loved ones. Here it is usually just a celebration of romantic love, but in the anglosaxon culture you also celebrate with family and friends.

I hope you have a wonderful day and I leave you with this song and video that talks about love in a much wider contest. Enjoy it and sing along!

Where is the love?

Theatre in Madrid

2011-02-09T13:36:00.005+01:00

I believe it is a good idea to relax after the exams, and I am glad to suggest two ideas that you may like.

On one hand, The Madrid Players are performing Love changes everything, just for a few dates, so if you are interested be quick to book. On the other hand, FacetoFace Theater Company are performing Titanic: Fish and Ships, a play for the whole family.

Have a look and let the show begin!

Winners of the Writing contest II

2011-02-02T20:03:00.002+01:00

BIKING IN MOROCCO - Jacobo Asensio, Intermedio 1

In the summer two years ago I achieved one of my dreams combining travel with my partner and sport.

In September 2008 my girlfriend and I took off from Madrid and landed in Marrakech with our mountain bikes to live a wonderful adventure, crossing part of Morocco by bike.

For six days and five hundred kilometers we biked across the Atlas Mountains. In the course we visited some villages where poverty was present, but despite of it their inhabitants always gave us their food and offered their hospitality.

We were very surprised because although they lived in very bad conditions, there were many smiling children, and when we went out of the villages they ran behind the bikes to say goodbye and then a smile was painted in our faces.

Finally the last day we arrived to the Sahara Desert biking in the same place where the pilots of the famous rally named Paris-Dakar drive. It was a special feeling riding on the dunes, besides, it is very difficult because the wheel sinks into the sand.

As you can see in the picture, only for the panoramic it is worth the hard work with the mountain bike.

Winners of the Writing contest I

2011-02-02T19:54:00.005+01:00

A LIVING CHURCH IN A DEAD TOWN - Miguel Angel Paez, Avanzado 1

This is the picture of a living church in a dead town. It is alive because at first glance it does not look very different from any other town’s church, but we could say that it is hurt or disabled somehow. If we look at its sad and elongated dark eyes, formed by the hollows where the bells are placed, the right eye from the spectator point of view is empty. Its eyeball is missing, it has no bell. Apart from this fact, it is complete, it breathes, although it shows its age, its wrinkles, its tiredness, and the many years enduring the lashes of severe winters in the Pyrenees landscape.
It is a Romanesque Mozarabic church, typical of the Pyrenees of Huesca region with a nave and a semicircular apse in very good condition. It stands in the middle of a ghost and abandoned village, called Otal.
At the bottom left of the apse, we can see something strange, something like a rectangular window which does not match the original built, as a patch out of place, as an alien. It is a niche, which was built years later to house deceased people in the apse guts and which gives it a more gloomy aspect –death embedded in the wounded church walls–.
The human figure walking towards the church provides life to the defunct picture. He is Juan, a friend responsible for creating an aura of mystery about this enigmatic town as well as the need to visit it. When Juan discovered the place and its church, he made himself a promise: “someday I will visit that dead village with its living church”, and that is how he persuaded a group of friends among whom was myself.
The snapshot was taken on October 30 2010, after a complicated and long journey of more than three hours walking in the rain and mud.
I will always remember Otal and its mystery, its collapsed houses, its ruins emerging from the colorful autumn, the mud on my boots, and above all, I will remember Juan’s face after seeing one of his most desired efforts fulfilled, and of course, for its living church in the dead town.

European contest

2011-01-26T14:31:00.005+01:00

A new competition is being organized by the European Commission. Its aim is to demonstrate how many different ways people can benefit from learning a language, and citizens over 18 from 31 countries are invited to share their stories on the advantages of learning languages.

You can talk about how learning a language has changed your life, or made you happy, or surprise you somehow, made you proud, or just made yourself useful. You can find more information here.

Share your story with Europe, and encourage and inspire other people to learn languages!

A1 - Speaking about animals...

2011-01-26T14:14:00.002+01:00

I have found on the web some information you may find interesting. First, read here about new research carried out on dolphins that suggests they try to find a common language when two different species meet. Or here you can find out about how chimps are capable of deactivating tramps set by human hunters. Or here how butterflies medicate their sick children. Are we really so different?

Exam dates

2011-01-19T20:06:00.009+01:00

Students of Intermedio 1 have the written exam on 9th February, 17:00, room A-6, and the oral exam on 10th February, from 17:00. Make sure you register on the sheets provided.

Students of Avanzado 1 have the written exam on 8th February, at 17:00, room A-6, and the oral exam on 10th February, from 19:00. Make sure you register on the sheets provided.

Practice speaking

2011-01-19T19:22:00.008+01:00

This is important information for students of both groups - the registration for the school's speaking groups is now open, and you can sign up for the second term at the office.

To practice your speaking, intercambios are also a good opportunity. An intercambio is a language exchange between two or more people in order to practice each other's native tongue. One of the longest-running intercambio organisations is Multilinkual, they hold exchanges four times a week and there are also out of town trips during summers or long weekends. You can contact them at puestres@yahoo.es. Another massive intercambio group is MadridBabel, they meet weekly, and you can contact them at madridbabel@yahoo.es.

Intercambios online are perfect for those who feel less inhibited in the virtual world than in a real life social setting. If this is your case, why not look at http://www.myintercambio.com/. You can also find a lot of intercambio ads at http://www.inmadrid.com/.

Welcome back

2011-01-10T20:13:00.011+01:00

First of all, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year 2011, I hope you enjoyed your holidays and come back full of energy to start your regular routines.

I would also like to congratulate my students Jacobo (Intermedio 1) and Miguel (Avanzado 1) on winning the school's writing contest, well done guys!

Let me remind you that on the week starting 7th February we'll do a mock exam in class, so that you can have an idea how the exam in June will be.

See you soon!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T17:28:00.008+01:00

Just wanted to wish you a Jolly Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year. Hope you have a great time this season and may all your wishes come true!

Holiday assignments

2010-12-22T16:16:00.010+01:00

There is a long holiday ahead and I hope everybody can have a bit of everything they want: fun, relax, time for themselves, ... in any case, I hope you all can find some time to keep working on your English.

Students of Intermedio 1 have to finish reading Slumdog Millionaire, and then they have to write a review following this structure:

Paragraph 1: Introduction (title, name of author, any other background information about the story)

Paragraph 2: Summary of the story (don't include the end, don't spoil the reading to future readers)

Paragraph 3: Your personal opinion and recommendation.

Students of Avanzado 1 have to finish reading The curious incident... and they'll have to answer some questions on the book after the holidays. I would also like you to write a story or narration, real or fictional, about any topic, but why not tell a story set at Christmas time. Read a story and get some inspiration.

I1- Jobs

2010-12-13T18:28:00.002+01:00

Watch this video where people talk about their jobs and write down the names of new occupations you learn. The second part comes with subtitles, in case you have some trouble understanding the first time you watch it.

How many different ways can you use to ask somebody "en qué trabajas"?

Theatre in Madrid

2010-12-07T20:34:00.009+01:00

The company Face to Face is performing A Midsummer Night's Dream in Teatro Alcázar this December. The show is entirely in English, and this is a good chance to see this classic at an affordable price. This version is set in India and it is suitable for all ages.

Pick up a date and enjoy the show!

School trip

2010-12-07T20:17:00.004+01:00

The school is organizing a trip to Edinburgh for next March. You can find all the details on Ray's blog and if you are interested there's a meeting in the school next Friday. Have a look and join us in this exciting cultural journey to the land of the shining rivers.

Learn English with songs

2010-11-29T18:13:00.005+01:00

We all like music and we all have our favorite groups or singers, and using song lyrics is a great way to work on your English.

On this page you can find an amazing collection of videos by different artists, old and new, even the latest hits, with lyrics included. The game consists on listening to a song and doing a "fill in the gaps" exercise at the same time. There are different levels to choose from, and by choosing the artists you like the most and writing the lyrics, you can practice your English and have some fun.

Try it out!

It's Thanksgiving day

2010-11-25T13:33:00.004+01:00

Today is Thanksgiving day, a very important holiday in the United States, but a date that is also celebrated in other parts of the world.

Today we are going to do a few activities in class to learn more about this holiday, but if you have time I recommend you watch some of these videos:

or any of the many more that you will find at history.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To get hooked on

2010-11-22T18:45:00.005+01:00

I was surprised nobody in class (neither one, because this expression has come up in both) knew this old song with the expression "hooked on" in it, so I thought about including it here, and I am sure you'll recognize it right away. Here is the original version, and here the lyrics.

Remember: to get hooked on something means to become obsessed or addicted to something.

By the way, I found this version by David Hasselhof, he's got a nice a voice, but my goodness, what was he thinking about when he filmed the video?

A1 - Pronuntiation issues

2010-11-18T12:08:00.006+01:00

English pronuntiation is something that gives us Spaniards a lot of trouble, the sounds are difficult to articulate and there is not a direct correspondence between the spelling and how the word is pronounced.

The best thing to improve your pronuntiation would be to listen to as much English as you can. Reading aloud, concentrating or pronuntiation rather than comprehension, is also a very good exercise, as well as saying tongue-twisters, you can find some here.

Nevertheless, it is sometimes comforting to see that even native speakers hesitate or have different opinions on how to pronounce words. Watch this video and read the article to find out how the pronuntiation of certain words in English is changing nowadays. As you can see, there is always a different version on the same problem!

I1 - Past tense

2010-11-15T18:52:00.008+01:00

You can practice the past tense in different ways, for instance:

do some grammar exercises
read and listen to interesting biographies, such as Pocahonta's or The Marx Brothers'
do some listen and repeat exercises to learn irregular verbs
watch this video to practice pronuntiation of regular verbs

And don't forget the famous quote, Learn the past, watch the present, and create the future (by Jesse Conrad, actor and singer).

Christmas pantomime

2010-11-12T11:59:00.005+01:00

The school is going to the theatre on 10th December. We are going to see Alice in Wonderland, a pantomime played by the well-known group The Madrid Players.

The price is only 10 euros, and the deadline to sign up is 16th November.

Come on and join us, you won't regret it!

Writing contest

2010-11-10T21:08:00.008+01:00

The school is organizing a writing contest for students of all levels. The theme is Cuéntame lo que pasó, and you have to choose a picture that you love, or that it is important to you, and write about the moment when the picture was taken (where, how, when, what you felt,...).

Students of Intermedio will have to write about 180 words and students of Avanzado about 230 words, and also enclose the picture you are writing about.

The deadline for submission of your works is 13th December, and you can hand it to me, or directly at the office.

There is a prize for each level, and the winners will see their works published in the school magazine. Awards will be given at the Christmas party.

If you need more information, ask me and I will give you more information and help. Come on, tell me what happened!

A1 - Collocations

2010-11-10T19:33:00.006+01:00

Learning collocations is essential to improve your vocabulary at this level, and they are a key feature that will make your English sound more natural.

You can find a good introduction to what a collocation is here, and you can practice some exercises here. There is even a dictionary of collocations here that may come in handy when writing your sentences.

I1 - Meet the ultimate pet

2010-11-08T20:30:00.002+01:00

Watch this video and find out about the latest trend in pet breeding. You can then answer the questions to see how much you understood.

Will we soon see some around our parks? I'd love to, they are so cute!

Listening Comprehension: Micro-Pig Craze

Language quiz

2010-11-04T12:11:00.005+01:00

How much do you know about languages?

Well, you can now test your knowledge by doing this language quiz which is full of amusing facts and anecdotes. The good thing is that you can take it in nearly any European language, so pick and choose, and you may be surprised at how much you can understand in other languages. Have fun!

I1 - Revise and practice

2010-11-03T18:41:00.003+01:00

Now it is time to go over what we have already learnt in class. Doing grammar exercises on the computer is easier than on paper, and you have the advantage of getting immediate correction.

Practice the difference between present simple and present continuous here, or here. And on this page you can find a short and clear explanation of how to make questions in English, plus exercises to practice.

A1 - Twins separated at birth

2010-11-03T18:18:00.007+01:00

Following the interesting story about Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein, the twins that were separated at birth, you can watch this video where they are interviewed about their amazing experience. You can also read the text we did in class here, and these are the answers to the exercise:

1. bout
2. toddler
3. to be strained
4. squalor
5. to bicker
6. appalled

Cool video

2010-11-02T12:43:00.006+01:00

In the future I will try to provide you with activities suited to your level, but for now let me just show you this cool video and a very short activity that comes with it, which I hope all of you can do with no much effort. Enjoy!

Rise up

Welcome to my blog

2010-11-01T13:22:00.005+01:00

Here you will find extra information and activities regarding what we are doing in class, as well as information about things going on in the school and the world of English around us. I hope you come here often and leave your comments, and I wish you all a very good year.