ENGLISH EXTENSION / AMPLIACIÓN DE INGLÉS

Eight-day course in Dublin

2011-12-07T09:06:00.000Z

Ha'penny bidge - Dublin

We travelled to Ireland for 8 days to take an English course in Dublin at the end of June and the begining of July. We were 17 students and teachers. The students attended Swan School which is in the very centre of Dublin (Grafton Street). We lived with Irish families, two students of the same age in every family. All the students were very happy with the school, the families, the city and the Irish people. We visited a lot of interesting and amazing places. Glendalough, for example, was a wonderful trip.
At the end of thhe week ALL the students said that they have learnt a lot. All of them would like to come back to Ireland again.
We traveklled to Ireland with Lenfex company which organized the English course, the families, plane tickets, connections and everything.
All in all, it was a great experience for both teachers and students. Something worth doing again.

Picture by AHH.

LA LENTE chosen best newspaper of Madrid Community

2011-06-12T19:35:00.001+01:00

The newspaper LA LENTE DE LORANCA, written by our school students of 4th ESO and 1st Bachillerato, has been chosen the best newspaper of the Comunity of Madrid in El País de los Estudiantes journalist-students programme. The 18 best newspapers from all the counties in Spain will attend a ceremony in El País on 22nd June. There, it will be known which three newspapers get the final prizes. We wish them good luck!

Open publication - Free publishing - More extraescolares

Ireland course

2011-06-12T19:28:00.000+01:00

Next Wednesday we will meet in order to give you all the information about our course in Dublin. Remember it is at 17:00 pm in our school.ç
Here you have the information about our departure and arrival:

-IDA: Miércoles 22 de junio
Salida Madrid: 17:55 (Terminal 1)
Llegada Dublín: 19:30 (Hora Irlanda)

-VUELTA: Jueves 30 de junio
Salida Dublín: 13:50 (Hora Irlanda)
Llegada Madrid: 17:20 (Terminal 1)

La compañía aérea es Ryanair

IES Barrio Loranca becomes an English bilingual school

2011-02-13T16:47:00.001Z

Our school has been chosen as a new English bilingual school for the next academic year. We are not only having a new English programme but we will also keep the Frech one. Thus, students in Loranca will have to options to choose in our school: they can join the English bilingual studies or the French bilingual studies. On the whole this is a very good piece of news as languages have become a key issue in present day studies and are key to get almost any kind of job. IES Barrio Loranca will provide students with an outstanding background in languages, helping students to live in a world without frontiers in which knowing a language is substancial.
We congratulate all the teacher staff and the whole educational community in IES Loranca who have bet on languages and worked on providing this interesting offer to students. Now a new cycle starts which is filled with enthusiasm and joy. Congratulations!!

Intermediate and advanced listenings

2011-01-31T09:09:00.002Z

I'd like to suggest a web page full of listening exercises from elementary level to advance level. In the followinig link you will get to the page in which intermediate listenings are. You are asked to do at least 5 listenings along this week. Then you have to report here how you have done it. Therefore, you should do 5 listenings and report about them before the 6th February.
Here you have the link:
http://www.agendaweb.org/listening/intermediate.html

http://www.agendaweb.org/listening/advanced.html

http://esl.about.com/library/listening/bllis_joblikes3.htm
Cheers

The Beatles Project

2011-01-21T17:51:00.004Z

The Beatles are the band which have
sold more records ever in music
history.

Working with The Beatles has always been and will always be both a pleasure and a need to understand nowadays music. This band is also a capsule of British cul- ture, a door towards a period of time, a moment in history which is worth analysing.

We are going to work on The Beatles with the aim of get- ting to know the history of the band, some of their most famous songs, their lyrics and trying to understand the importance of the band in music. The aim of this project is that students give a speech on different issues related to the band.

In order to do that, we are going to work individually and in pairs on the following topics:

1. Liverpool

2. The Beatles birth, development and split

3. John Lennon with The Beatles

4. John Lennon solo career

5. Paul McCartney with the Beatles / solo career

6. Ringo Starr

7. George Harrison

8. Songs and Lyrics

Students will work on one of the following topics in order to prepair a 3-minute speech. This speech will be recorded in mp3 format and used in a video or power point presentation so that it can be showed to the rest of the group. Besides, every student (we are just 8 in class) will choose one song by The Beatles and with the help of the teacher they will prepare two activities for each song. One of these activities must be on Phonetics (ie. underline all the words in the songs which contain a particular sound, match the phonetic transciption of a line (or two) with the actual line, ...). Once they have been checked, they will be used in class.

As a warm-up, you can visit the following web page and watch a video on the early Beatles. There are quiz questions for you to answer. Good luck!

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/liverpool/beatlesquiz.html

Picture by ahh

/ə/ - schwa

2010-12-17T09:03:00.003Z

It is the most frequent of all English vowels because historically it has replaced many unstressed vowels. It has a restricted distribution: it only appears in unaccented syllables.

a. Description: it is very short and weak. The middle of the tongue lies in a relax position and the lips are neutral (neither spread nor rounded).

b. Spelling: this sound only appears in unaccented syllables and it may be spelt with any single vowel or combined with consonants:

-"a": about, woman, chocolate
-"e": sister, the
-"i": impossible
-"o": synonym, photograph
-"u": suggest, Saturday

Vowels are distinguished by distribution: /ə/ can only appear in unaccented positions and /I, ʊ/ in both accented and unaccented, the rest of the vowels always requiring some kind of stress.

ACTIVITIES:
1. Watch this video about how to pronounce schwa and practice several times with the examples given in this webpage:

2. Schwa prediction
3. Pronunciation practice:
     3a. Open this chart, click on vowels-monophthongs, then click on central: listen and practice the schwa.
     3b.Watch this video and practice.
     3c. Listen, read and practice in this webpage.
4. Visit this ESL pronunciation web page and do the exercises provided to practice the schwa.

Breakfast in English in class

2010-11-10T12:20:00.000Z

We have just had breakfast in English. This is an activity which consist of having breakfast in class. Students play the roles of customers and waiter/waitress and serve and eat real breakfast. It is very easy to organize: most products are available at the school cafeteria (milk, toasts, jam, butter, hot chocolate, fruit, orange juice...) and those which are not are brought by some students (muffins, bums...). We displayed two tables together as a counter and they had to order something to drink and eat. No mistakes in English are allowed. In case they don't know how to ask for something, they won't get it. In order to control this I started playing the role of a waiter.
Previously, we had worked in class the following points:
- vocabulary: cutlery (fork, mug, napkin, spoon, etc), food (muffin, a piece of toast, olive oil, etc)
- ordering: 1. Customers: "Can I have the menu, please?", "I'd like...., please", "Could I have.......?", "I think I'll have...", etc.
                 2. Waiter/waitress: "Can I help you?", "Are you ready to order?", "Would you like to see the menu?", "Anything to drink?", etc.
- expressing opinions: "That sounds good", "It is delicious", "It is tasty", "It is crunchy", etc.
- intonation in questions: 1. rising intonation in yes/no questions: Can I see the menu, please?, can I help you?, etc.
                                     2. falling intonation in open questions: What do you recommend?, "What would you like to drink?, etc.

I find this activity very motivating as students really enjoy what they are doing (they are having breakfast!!) and there is not one single students who doesn't like this. Therefore, they do their best to know how to order and how to play the waiter/waitress role paying special attention to how words are pronounced and how questions are uttered with the proper intonation.

It is time for you, customers, waiters and waitresses, to evaluate this activity. Please write a comment on it focusing on the following points:
a. Do you think you could order food in an English cafeteria after having done this activity?
b. Value how you have improved:
                  1. Vocabulary related to food and cutlery.
                  2. Vocabulary and structures to order food and drinks.
                  3. Vocabulary to express your opinion on food.
                  4. Intonation in questions.
c. Would you like to do this activity again? If so, say why.

Final Project (II)

2010-10-07T17:15:00.001+01:00

Here you have another example of a video recorded for the last term of 1st Bachillerato. It was part of the oral exam for English Extension I (Ampliación de Inglés I) in the last term. It was made by four students whose names are Marta, Yaiza, Beatriz and Natalia. They wrote the dialogue, practice the conversations and recorded the video and I think they did a good job. I hope it can be useful for students who have to do a similar project so that it can inspire them to do something similar.

Test your English pronunciation

2010-09-30T20:39:00.001+01:00

How many times do we meet a written word and we don't know how to pronounce it? Everyday, I'm afraid. That makes learning English difficult. However we have phonetics to help us. Phonetics is an essential tool to learn English. Here you have a webpage with a test on phonetics. Try and do it in order to check how much phonetics you remember from our last year course.

http://www.antimoon.com/how/test-pronunciation/test.php
After having done this text, write a commentary on how successful (or unsuccessful) you were.

Final project

2010-09-24T20:31:00.000+01:00

The final project of every student last academic course was to record a video on any subject as long as the sounds practice in class were used. Here we have one of them that can be seen as a model for future videos. Some students starred this video. They did a great job as they had to write the script, practice the speech paying attention to individual sounds, linking, fluency and intelligibility and create the charming character of the deaf grandfather. Have a look at it and enjoy it.

This video was created by Ainhoa González, Alejandro Fernández, Jorge Tuda and Carlos Monroy (1st Bachillerato, 17 years old).

Welcome back!

2010-09-24T20:18:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody,
I hope you have rested and enjoyed your holidays. We are back at the school ready to start Ampliación en inglés II as a 2nd Bachillerato optional subject. This blog, which was created in the subject of 1st Bachillerato, is intended for both courses. Here you will find resources to practice oral English. Besides, we intend to use this year as a place to show some of the oral practice done by you, the students. So, I hope you find it useful and entertaining.

La Lente awarded the Endesa Prize in El País de los Estudiantes

2010-06-23T22:15:00.005+01:00

LA LENTE has been awarded the ENDESA prize for the best Enviromental section of the newspaper, a national prize given by El País de los Estudiantes. The prize consists of going to Galicia for 5 days including a visit to a mining electric complex of Endesa. We will fly there, stay at a hotel in A Coruña and travel to As Pontes to visit the mine.
This prize is one of the four big prizes given by El País: there are three prizes for the three best newspapers and this ENDESA prize for the best Enviromental section given by the main sponsor of El País de los Estudiantes.

You can watch the video of the ceremony here.
All the information about the programme, the newspapers and prizes can be visited at:

http://estudiantes.elpais.com/

Congratulations to all the students who have written the newspaper and enjoy the trip!!!!!!!!

Picture from Entrega de Premios IX Edición de El País de los Estudiantes (EL PAÍS)

El País de los Estudiantes awards ceremony

2010-06-21T10:01:00.000+01:00

This ceremony is held on Monday morning at El País in Madrid. The Education Minister, Ángel Gabilondo, will preside over the ceremony which will be attended by the 18 final newspapers published in Spain. La Lente, the newspaper published in our school - IES Barrio de Loranca, Fuenlabrada- has been elected the final candidate for the Comunity of Madrid.

You can have more information about the event at: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/periodistas/futuro/aprenden/rebelarse/elpepisoc/20100614elpepisoc_5/Tes

We wish them good luck!!

Text reconstruction

2010-06-16T09:02:00.001+01:00

Here you have two listening exercises which consist of writing the story you are listening to. Type your text in the Type box and the use the chech and help buttons to help you. Once you have finished, you can check your text and have a look at the solutions.
This one is easier than the second one:
http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/uploads/ressources/academic/text_reconstruction_exercises/17_warming.htm
This one is more difficult than the previous one because you have to write the whole text. No help is provided:
http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/uploads/ressources/listening/herethere/01.htm

As a final activity you can listen and then read the texts several times paying attention to the sounds we have worked on in class as well as intotation and fluency.

When you have finished, come back to the blog a write a comment on the activity.

LA LENTE reaches the final of El País de los Estudiantes

2010-06-08T20:16:00.001+01:00

The newspaper La Lente, written by our school mates, has been chosen the best newspaper of the Comunity of Madrid. The 18 best newspapers from all the counties in Spain will attend a ceremony in El País on 21st June. There, it will be known which three newspapers get the final prizes. We wish them good luck!

LA LENTE 2010 EL PAÍS DE LOS ESTUDIANTES

Gerald Fitch, Nicoloz Tskitishvili and Chris Thomas interviews

2010-05-13T20:23:00.004+01:00

After having interviewed three basketball players who play for Ayuda en Acción Fuenlabrada, we have finally published them in a newspaper written for El País de los Estudiantes. Here you have the whole newspaper. Notice that the first pages are written in Spanish, but the last section, which includes the interviews with the basketball players, are written in English. It is also worth reading the article about London: don't miss the picture of the foggy view of the Thames from the London Eye; it was taken by Marta.

ENGLISH BOX 2010 EL PAÍS DE LOS ESTUDIANTES

"It's worth keeping an eye on that blog"

2010-05-09T17:39:00.001+01:00

Our blog has been included in the Top 10 of a blog called English without end by teacher at EOI Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) called Laura. We really appreciate that! This Top 10 is part of an initiative called Vale a pena ficar de olho nesse blog ("It's worth keeping an eye on that blog"). So, according to her opinion, our blog is worth visiting. Now, I must point out 10 blogs I value. I've been thinking about my Top 10 and it is a hard task to elect just 10. But here we go (notice, no ranking is intended, just alphabetical order):

Alpozo's Phonetic Blog
Batxillerat Collaborative Class
Bibloranca
Ciencias Naturales
English in Brunete
English without end
My English Printable Worksheets
Shakespeare in love
Sing your English
Tecnoloranca

LA LENTE or our newspaper at El País de los Estudiantes

2010-04-17T09:58:00.004+01:00

IMPORTANT: THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED: now you can read the whole newspaper here.
LA LENTE de LORANCA has just published their newspaper. This is the third newspaper published by a group of students of our school. We have participated in the programme El País de los Estudiantes, organized by El País, for three academic years. Here you have just the cover but if you want to have a look at all the sections you can visit http://estudiantes.elpais.com/, choose Madrid (or any other region) > PERIÓDICOS > VISUALIZA OTROS PERIÓDICOS > MADRID > IES BARRIO LORANCA (1A).
Cheers!

Nikoloz Tskitishvili - Ayuda en Acción Fuenlabrada

2010-03-27T10:46:00.017Z

Here you have the first part of the interview with Nikoloz Tskitishvili. When you finish the listening questions, please report your mark to me (use this information: teacher code: alberto; class id: none). Finally, write a comment on this post explaining how difficult it was. Hope you enjoy it!!

Nikoloz Tskishvili

Video edited by Daniel Tierno

Interviewing ACB basketball players

2010-03-19T11:09:00.009Z

We have just done the most motiviting activity I have ever been involved in. We have interviewed three ACB basketball players who play for Ayuda en Acción Fuenlabrada: Gerald Fitch, who is the leader of the ACB top scorers classification, Chris Thomas and Nicoloz Tskitishvili, who has played in the NBA and Chris Thomas. This has been done thanks to the cooperation of Ayuda en Acción Fuenlabrada basketball club. They allowed us not only to interviewed them, but also use Fernando Martín Sports Center, mainly the court and the press room. We are really grateful for that.

This activity has provided real oral practice, both speaking and listening. It was necessary to practice and review all the sounds we have seen so far this year and to practice falling intonation in questions. Although most part of the interviews was controlled practice (the questions we had practiced in class), there was also open conversation (introductions, giving personal/group information, asking for pictures, autographs...).

Confidence has played an important part: students do not only have to speak in English but they have to do it with a famous basketball player whom they have seen on TV, newspapers or magazines. So, in order to be successful in the interview they must have confidence on themselves.

Motivation has been another important aspect as a result of having done this activity. There is an after and a before this activity. I know it has been incredible for most of you to have been understood in English and being able to have a short conversation in English.

In future posts, we are going to do some listening practice using the audio recordings of these interviews. But before that, and although we have done an evaluation sheet on the activity in class, I would like you to write a comment on this activity explaining what you have learnt and how you felt and referring to confidence and motivation.

Thank you.

Pictures taken by Alberto Hidalgo

CONFIDENCE is one key to learn a language

2010-03-19T10:49:00.001Z

There are many key aspects when learning a language that students must bear in mind and teachers must help to accomplish. One of them is confidence. When learning a language a student must be aware of what they CAN communicate (and not of what they can´t communicate). So, it is important to learn in an atmosphere of confidence, making students feel what they know and pushing them a step forward.

Developing confidence is more important than learning new vocabulary or using a determined grammatical structure. It is the basis for a longlife language learning. It is the key to use one's knowledge of a language, making mistakes and learning from them, and also to build bridges towards new unknown areas. It is a necessary tool at any stage in the process of speaking a second language.

Confidence has played an important part in the out-of-school activity we have just done. I will comment on this activity in the following post and I will refer to confidence in it.

Australia

2010-02-22T17:24:00.007Z

What do you know about Australia? Is "kangaroo" the first word that comes to your mind when you think of Australia? What interesting places can you visit there? Who was Captain Cook?

Well, if you don't know the answers, don't worry. In the link below you can find a listening about Australia which includes all the answers for those questions and much more information about the country.

This is a different listening activity from those we have done in this blog before. You are given the whole text you have to listen to with a lot of gaps and, obviously, you have to complete the text.

After doing this listening activity and checking your answers, try to read aloud the whole text yourself. Listen to it as many times as you need, paying attention to how words are pronounced. Then repeat it several times (three times or more).

Here you have the link:
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~adelegc/listening/Australia/Australia.html
Cheers

Comfortably Numb by PINK FLOYD

2010-02-12T22:32:00.013Z

Comfortably numb

Maybe you already know Pink Floyd, but maybe you don't. In any case, it is worth visiting this web about the band.
This song is taken from the record "The Wall". All the songs in this album tell the story of a boy who builds a wall around him to be protected against the outer world. Each bad experience in his life means a new brick in the wall. When he grows up, he becomes a singer and in the video we have him just before giving a concert. Well, this is not really a video, this is part of the film "The Wall", which was made after the album. The film deals with the story of this man following the lyrics of the songs, because there are no dialogues, but just songs. Here you have just a little bit of the story. If you want to know the whole story you will have to watch the film...

I hope you enjoy this song and do the quizz well. Please, add a comment on your results.

Greetings

A new blog in the school

2010-02-06T20:08:00.001Z

We welcome the students of 3º Diversificación who have just created a new blog and are posting pictures and comments on our school. They are the ones who take the pictures, write the comments and posts. They say it is easy and that they enjoy a lot. Long live their blog!
You can visit it at:
http://divloranca.blogspot.com

/i:/ vs /I/

2010-01-14T19:56:00.002Z

Here you have a webpage to practice these two sounds, firstly in single words (minimal pairs), and then in a sentence. Listen and repeat the words and practice the sentence several times.

http://www.shiporsheep.com/page1.html

PS: don't forget writing a comment on this post telling us if you find these exercises helpful.

Of oral exams and how to mark them

2009-12-22T22:56:00.002Z

One of the most difficult issues of this brand-new subject is how to evaluate our students’ oral productive skill. When taking oral exams, we have to face two problems:
a) Oral exams take a long time (and our groups are quite large)
b) How do I mark my students? What´s the criteria?

a) Well, that’s a fact. If we have a group of 20 students, let’s give them about 5 minutes each student. That makes 100 minutes plus the necessary time between every student’s turn: 3 lessons. However, what if we make our students examine in groups of 2 or 3 people? In fact, that’s what I have just done in the first term. I asked my students to make groups and hand in a project containing oral texts recorded in any type of files they liked. All of them (the group is made of 17 students) decided to make a video. We watched all the videos in class, which took us two lessons (100 minutes).
b) Talking about the marking of oral exams, I firstly thought of using a single mark to evaluate every student, but I realized that it wasn’t fair. Finally, I decided to mark four different aspects:
1. Pronunciation
2. Fluency
3. Intelligibility
4. The project
Points 1-3 evaluate their speech and point 4 does the video. So students get 4 different marks (the final mark comes from finding the average) and that helps them to know which parts they have done well and which areas need more practicing.

Well, I haven’t written all this for my students, but for any teacher who may read it and wishes to comment on it. I would really appreciate if you post a message talking about your experience on doing and marking oral exams. Thank you very much!

Tongue Twisters

2009-12-18T22:31:00.006Z

Time for speaking practice. Watch the video and try to repeat the tongue twisters... as fast as you can... ;) This exercise will help you improve your fluency, which is very important if we don't want our listeners to fall asleep.

more about "Tongue Twisters", posted with vodpod

Short listening tests on English news

2009-12-18T18:47:00.005Z

This is part of your Christmas homework. Try these short listenings about different pieces of news. There are 5 tests (click on Listening tests to open the menu). You can follow the instructions in the webpage and if they happen to be difficult, you can check the text of the listenings.
After doing all the tests, come back to our blog a post a message commenting on how difficult/easy they were.
http://www.olt.orlandocarcamo.com/promo1.html

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

2009-12-18T12:25:00.004Z

Although it is not an oral activity, I find this quizz very appropriate to play along your next holidays. I think you will enjoy it and have a lot of fun. So, play and report how far you get.

Good luck!

more about "Gamezfly - Who Wants to be a Milliona...", posted with vodpod

Phonetic Chart of IPA symbols

2009-12-18T11:17:00.003Z

This phonetic chart can be very helpful. Here you have all the phonetic symbols along with an example of them. You only have to press one symbol to here the sound in a word. Besides, you get the word written on one side.

more about "Phonetic Chart of IPA symbols", posted with vodpod

What do you think?

2009-12-17T10:46:00.002Z

First term is over. It's time to think and evaluate it. Your opinion is very important to make any changes if necessary. So please, write your opinion commenting on the following items:
a) What do you think of
1. this new subject?
2. the book
3. the photocopies
4. the blog
5. the speaking practice done in class
6. the listening practice done in class
7. the oral exams (both speaking and listening)
b) Suggest any activity you would like to do next term.
c) Comment on any other aspect you like related to the subject.
Cheers

Concordia Prize awarded to students at IES Loranca

2009-12-14T18:17:00.003Z

The students of the school choir and the journalists of LA LENTE (who participate in El País de los Estudiantes) have been awarded the Concordia Prize, given by Fuenlabrada city council. Three students in our class have received this award: Marta Martínez, Jorge Tuda and Daniel Tierno. Congratulations to you three and all those who have taken part in any of these projects!!!
You can read an article about these awards at:
http://www.ayto-fuenlabrada.es/index.do?MP=1&MS=12&MN=2&IDR=&TR=&id=2329&r=1093*614
Cheers

Choose a listening of your level

2009-12-11T12:17:00.008Z

Here you have a webpage with a los of listening exercises classified into three levels: basic, intermediate and advance. They have many different activities. Go ahead and try firstly one listening from each level. According to your marks, decide which level is more appropriate for you and try more listenings.

http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00.htm

When you finish doing your practice, come back to our blog and post a message with the following information:
a. the most appropriate level for you
b. the number of listenings you have done
c. the listenings you liked most
Cheers!

Talking about Ireland

2009-12-09T16:53:00.002Z

Here you have the webpage with the information of the trip:
http://www.lenfex.es/

LA LENTE elected candidate for the Concordia Prize

2009-12-03T12:43:00.002Z

Our schoolmates of the newspaper LA LENTE DE LORANCA have been elected candidates for the Concordia Prize. This prize is awarded by the City Council of Fuenlabrada which has organized an event next Thursday to award an individual and a collective prize.
La Lente is annually published in El País de los Estudiantes (http://estudiantes.elpais.com/, click on Madrid, then PERIÓDICOS, then HEMEROTECA: edicion 2008 and 2009), a project organized by El País. It was firstly published two years ago and it has always been elected finalist of Madrid Comunity (1st and 2nd positions). Last year, Laura Caballero's interview with Boris Izaguirre was elected the best national interview. The students involved in the newspaper last year and at present are: Leyre Samper, Laura Caballero, Rafael Mora, Carlos Vázquez, Iván Al-Akhdar, Héctor Torrijos, Daniel Hernández, Irene Agudo, María De Blas, Carlos Melero, Lara Torres, Alba Casillas, Rosario Ortega and Marta Martínez Pallares.
This academic year, there is a group of 12 students already working in the next number which will appear in April 2010.
Congratulations to all the young "journalists" of La Lente. And good luck next Thursday.

Learning from songs

2009-12-02T21:00:00.002Z

As we have long bank holidays, you'll probably have time to listen and enjoy a song. I have chosen one by The Killers, and I suppose you already know it. It is called Human.

Listen to the song and try to fill in the gaps of the first paragraph of the song. Use the following words: Cut, Eyes, Heart, Kind, Line, Open, Platform, Sometimes

I did my best to notice
When the call came down the ______________(1)
Up to the ________________ (2)of surrender
I was brought but I was __________________(3)
And _________________(4) I get nervous
When I see an _______________(5) door
Close your _________________(6)
Clear your ___________________(7) ____________________(8) the cord

Check your answers and get the whole lyrics at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4jR9P9YJGo (notice the mistake: dancer -not denser).

When you have finished, add a comment on the blog answering the following questions:
a. Do you usually listen to songs in English?
b. Do you learn any vocabulary from songs in English?
c. Write the title of any song you would like to listen in class
Remember to write your name at the end of your comment.
Cheers!

Long or short?

2009-11-28T11:24:00.002Z

As we have started dealing with long /:i/ and short /I/ in class, it will be interesting to practice this minimal pair. So, visit this webpage and follow the instructions below:

http://www.manythings.org/e/pronunciation.html

Click on: Minimal Pair Practice & Quizzes
Go to: Minimal Pairs - Lesson 23: eat-it, ... and START.
Use your headphones or make sure you have your speakers on.

When you finish, post a comment on our blog explainig if it was easy or difficult, if the webpage is interesting and if you will use it again on your own.

Thanks!

Shall we do some listening practice?

2009-11-19T10:51:00.002Z

Visit this webpage:

http://www.elllo.org/

Click on KIWI ADVENTURE. Then, on the right menu, click on Audio Slide Quizz. Play the listening (twice or three times) and try to answer the 5 questions below. Check your answers by clicking on "show score".

Practice with other listenings. Feel free to explore this web page. When you finish, come back to our blog and write a comment on it.
Thank you!

Hope you enjoy it!!

2009-11-19T10:50:00.001Z

Here we have. A new blog for our new subject. This site is intended to be an extension of our classroom: a place to find different activities to help you develop your oral skills. It is a participative place: your opinion can help your classmates and you can follow the recommendations of others as well.

My intention is to provide you with different websites including different types of activities, mainly listening and pronunciation practice. After having visited them and done different activities, your opinion is welcome, so please write a short comment on any website you use. Thank you and enjoy your new blog!!