Intermediate and advanced listenings

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:
INTERMEDIATE LISTENINGS

ADVANCED LISTENINGS

INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED LISTENINGS

Cheers

The Beatles Project

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!

Picture by ahh

/ə/ - schwa

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 class in English

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)

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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