PRACTISE ENGLISH DURING YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Some tips to practise English in summer: 

Summer is the time of the year when you should put into practice all the English learnt this academic year. This post is devoted to giving you some recommendations to keep up your English!!!.

1. If you go to an English speaking country, either to do an English course or simply for leisure, make the most of it and immerse yourself in its culture.
2. If you go on holiday to a tourist resort and you have the chance to talk to English speaking holidaymakers, don´t be shy and do it. Simple dialogues such us asking or giving directions, talking about  the weather, or about free time activities... will definitely improve your English skills and your self-confidence.
3. If you are not going on holiday abroad, it is not a problem, you can still listen to your favourite English songs. Don´t miss the opportunity to learn new vocabulary and revise grammar. There is a website where you can listen to your favourite songs and practise your English by doing some exercises with different levels and at your own pace . This is the link: http://www.subingles.com/
4. Films: there is always a film for every taste. Remember to watch films in their original version with or without subtitles depending on your level. 
5. It is always good to be updated with what is happening around the world. That´s why I  recommend reading and watching the News in English: http://www.euronews.com/
   

         ENJOY YOUR SUMMER!

ESL VIDEO QUIZ: HAPPY

Practise the use of Auxiliary Modals with the following song:                      HAPPY by Pharrell Williams.
Here is the link to the quiz: http://www.eslvideo.com/eslvideo_quiz_lowint.php?id=18307

 

COLLOQUIAL FORMS IN SONGS

Colloquial language can be defined as informal spoken language.
 Today we are learning to identify and use the colloquial contractions “wanna, gotta, and gonna.”and other informal words you can hear in some modern songs. You should definitely not use them in formal written English (reports, research papers, formal e-mails, etc), in which case, you need to spell them out in long form. But learning to use them correctly in your speaking and writing will make your communication much more effective.
Here is a short video that shows some colloquial forms in different songs:

                            As an extention activity, you can do more exercises about English informal language in the following link: English informal language

WHITE CHRISTMAS CAROL

You are going to listen to two different versions of the traditional White Christmas Carol:
Which one do you like the most?


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

LET IT SNOW !!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New year !!!
Today´s Christmas song:

TEACHING ENGLISH WITH SONGS

Dedico la entrada de hoy a la enseñanza del inglés a través de canciones.

Readyteacher.com

Aprender idiomas con canciones y música ayuda a motivar a los estudiantes. Se pueden realizar actividades para aprender ó revisar vocabulario, estructuras gramaticales, pronunciación, hacer  traducciones...como por ejemplo, ejercicios donde se escucha una canción y luego se rellenan huecos, se reorganizan párrafos ó bien se puede trabajar con proyectos donde los alumnos pueden hacer una exposición oral dando su opinión de una canción elegida...
La intención es aprender inglés divirtiéndose. Una idea que ha desarrollado la UNED con un curso llamado "English through songs" en el que sus alumnos han perfeccionado este idioma con las letras de las canciones de grandes grupos como The Beatles, The Police o los Rolling Stones.

" The British Council " también ofrece algunas páginas sobre como enseñar inglés a través de la música en clase con actividades ya programadas. Me remito a sus enlaces:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/conversation-lesson-music
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/music-great
/www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-use-songs-english-language-classroom

Aunque hay varias páginas en Internet que enseñan inglés con canciones, destaco el siguiente enlace :
Subingles
Las canciones están clasificadas alfabéticamente, se actualizan regularmente y se plantean diferentes ejercicios con distintos niveles de dificultad. los alumnos pueden practicarlas en clase ó bien en casa como tarea.
Incluyo el vídeo de la última canción de Adele que aparece en esta página con varias actividades propuestas.

MAROON 5

" Sugar"en español "dulzura"

Spectacular Maroon 5 as always, playing "Sugar", their song from their last album called V.

ALL THAT JAZZ !!!

Teaching English with Jazz Chants.

I am going to devote this post to Jazz Chants and how we can use them in our classroom.
But what is a jazz chant? According to Carolyn Graham,  a jazz chant is a rhythmic expression of spoken American English. She, as a musician, a teacher and a teacher trainer, realised that the sound of spoken English reflected exactly the rhythm of traditional American Jazz. She has also experienced that a student can easily memorise any material if you present it with rhythmic patterns.
On her website, you can find examples of Jazz Chants with teacher´s notes, their scripts and the audio  MP3 files. She also gives students instructions on how to create their own jazz chants: http://jazzchants.net/

You can use jazz chants in a variety of fun ways. You can practice stress and rhythm with your class, to help your students sound more natural when they speak English. Also, because each jazz chant focuses on different vocabulary and grammar, you can use them to review important words and structures! The following link gives some ideas on how to use these jazz chants with your class. Besides you can find MP3 files and recording scripts from starter to intermediate level: http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/listening/jazz-chants/

Finally, I will include a clip with an example of a jazz chant to practise the structure: how´s Jack/ how are you?
All jazz chants follow a similar pattern: they are short and simple, repetitive, with a rhythmic pattern, catchy and easy to memorise.

SHAUN THE SHEEP TV SERIES

Shaun the Sheep Activity.

I would like to devote this post  to Shaun the Sheep TV Series and how we can use its episodes with our students in the classroom.
First of all, I will include some information about this series:
Shaun the Sheep is a British stop-motion animated television series, a spin-off of the Wallace and Gromit franchise. It has been very popular not only in the U.K but also around the world.
Besides, a film called "Shaun the Sheep the Movie "has recently been released at the cimenas which I strongly recommend.  For further information you can look at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_the_Sheep.

Each episode is very short so it is ideal for a lesson, since you show the video and then you do the exercises related to that episode. Additionally, it is good fun, the students love it. It could be used as a warm-up or cool-down activity to revise vocabulary for example in a different lesson.

I will add a Reading Comprehension activity which I created and did wih my  2º ESO students aged 12/ 13. This is the link: Shaun the Sheep Activity

Finally, I will embed one of the episodes that includes the song that students can sing along at the end of the lesson.

Shaun The Sheep - Shaun goes Potty por f100000876713522