Practising with reading

Here we have some pages with graded reading exercises but be careful because they're not the same as the ones we have for the exam:

• http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/marketing/sfesl/practicereading.html here you have answer key
• http://www.miguelmllop.com/practice/intermediate/readingcomprehension/readingcompindex.htm : a lot of readings but without answer key
• http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/: with on line exercise and 3 levels (beginner, intermediate and advance)
•  http://www.5minuteenglish.com/apr1.htm : a ture/false exercise; a bit simple

Improving your speaking

The only way to improve your speaking is to practise. If you are lucky and you can do it with native speakers, tha's great but most of you can't so you should do it on your own or with your mates.
Here you have some tips to work alone:

• Prepare your speaking before: pay attention to the structures required and the vocabulary (suggestions, advice, explanations, etc.)
• Record yourself while speaking: watch the time and then you'll be able to correct yourself, no only the mistakes but the entonation, fluency, richness, etc.
• Once you've done that, do it again to improve the first performance. You'll see you've done it better.

Here you have a link which has a performace of a student of nivel básico 2. It gives you a clue about what to do to practise on your own:

• https://sites.google.com/site/speakingactivities/basico-2-test-tasks

Improving your writing

When you want to improve the way you write, you should pay attention to the following problems:

• structure of the composition: think that the person who is reading the paper doesn't know what you want to say. Write to be read and understood at first.
• following the line: guide the reader so use linkers, references, examples and so on to let the reader follow you throughout your writing.
• variety: try to avoid repetitions, use synonyms, contraries, different types of sentences to make your writing more interesting
• mind the mistakes: especially with spelling, tenses, adjectives and nouns, singular and plural forms and so on.

To practise with that last part, remember to leave some minutes in the end to check and correct your mistakes. Use these links to help you:

• http://tonigarcia-iesmbv.blogspot.com.es/2011/07/most-common-errors-when-writing-english.html: especially target for Spanish speakers
• 
  

Preparing the certificate exams

Here you have all the sites you can use to prepare the exams. You should look for the language and your level within the page:

• Comunidad de Aragón: http://www.educaragon.org/arboles/arbol.asp?sepRuta=Sistema+Educativo%2F%3Ca+href%3D'%2Feducacion_no_uni.asp'%3EEnse%F1anza+no+Universitaria%3C%2Fa%3E%2F&guiaeducativa=&strSeccion=PPI02&titpadre=R%E9gimen+especial&arrpadres=$Ense%F1anzas+de+Idiomas&arrides=$113&arridesvin=$&lngArbol=1786&lngArbolvinculado
• Comunidad de Cantabria:: http://www.educantabria.es/ensenanzas_de_regimen_especial/ensenanzas_de_regimen_especial/ensenanzas-de-idiomas/pruebas-cer-idiomas-09-10

• Comunidad de Murcia:  http://www.educarm.es/admin/webForm.php?ar=637&mode=visualizaAplicacionWeb&aplicacion=ARTISTICAS_IDIOMAS&web=92&zona=PROFESORES&menuSeleccionado=
• Euskadi/País Vasco:  http://www.eoieuskadi.net/es/pcertificacion.php?pag=modelos
• Comunidad Valenciana:  http://www.eoivalencia.es/es/ultima-convocatoria.html  
• Comunidad de Navarra:  http://irati.pnte.cfnavarra.es/einadisw/examenes.php?conte=exmodelosin&ver=2%20(ingl%C3%A9s)
• Comunidad de Castilla-La Mancha:  http://www.educa.jccm.es/educa-jccm/cm/educa_jccm/tkContent?idContent=60113&locale=es_ES&textOnly=false
• Comunidad de Galicia:  http://www.eoidevigo.org/images/stories/certificacion/2011-2012/probas_eeooii.pdf

Web pages to learn English

The following are some websites that may help you with your process of learning English in a more autonomous manner. I found them at EOI Salamanca and I think they could be useful for you. Let me encourage to check them out in order to see which ones are best for you, althoygh there are many you've already known because we've use them in class or on the blog.
National Public Radio (US) http://www.npr.org
BBC (UK) http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml
CBC (Canada) http://www.cbc.ca
Dave’s ESL Café http://eslcafe.com/
English for Internet  http://www.study.com/
The Internet Public Library http://ipl.org/
Grammar and Writing http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Agenda Web http://www.agendaweb.org
English at Home http://www.english-at-home.com
E.L. Easton’s Page http://eleaston.com
Learn English – British Council http://britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
BBC Skills Wise http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
Curso inglés http://www.curso-ingles.com
World English  http://www.world-english.org
English learner http://www.englishlearner.com
Auto English http://autoenglish.org
English exercises online http://www.smic.be/smic5022
Vaughan radio station http://www.vaughanradio.com
Online dictionary http://www.wordreference.com
Videos and games http://www.eslvideo.com
Others:
http://www.learning.english.com
http://better-english.com
http://manythings.org
http://mansioningles.com
http://englishclub.com
http://a4esl.org
http://englishaquarium
http://letssingit.com
http://www.stuff.co.uk/english.htm
http://www.esl-lab.com

Official certificate exams in Asturias

These are the certificate exams of Asturias. Have a look and try to practise with them but remember they could be differente from the ones we've got in Madrid.

• http://www.educastur.es/media/publicaciones/apoyo/innovacion/modelos_pruebas_eoi.pdf : this is the link for the exam paper but all the languages and the levels are here so you should look for your basic level (if you feel confident, have a try with the intermediate one)
• http://www.educastur.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2708&Itemid=54: this is the previous page and at the end you can find the audios.

Revision of pronouns - introducing relative pronouns

Sometimes it's good to revise things we already know to check we don't have problems. That's the reason why I've seen this presentation really useful. But it introduces something we haven't seen very well and we should revise in class next week: relative clauses using relative pronouns as linkers. Here is the presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/Marimerry/relative-clauses-6131978
Once you've seen this, go to this other presentation about the relative clauses (oraciones de relativo) but don't worry too much if you can't understand everything because we'll see it in classs next week. About relative clauses go to:
http://www.slideshare.net/mluisavm/relative-clauses-10934852
If you've been able to understand most of the explanation, go to these links to practise but remember you should practise these sentences by saying them aloud to get used to them:

• http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/relative_pronouns.htm : to revise relative pronouns
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses/exercises?02 : more about pronouns
• http://www.eflnet.com/grammar/relpronoun.php: and some more
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses/exercises?07 : how to join sentences; this exercise is more useful for preparing your writing exam
• http://www.esltower.com/GRAMMARQUIZ/intermediate/relative%20pronoun.htm : similar to the previous one but simpler and faster. Good for revision
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses/exercises?08 : another one for revision

I hope this entry will help you but I'll revise this in class. However, if you've alredy seen all these explanations we'll do it very quickly. See you.
PD: for those who love exercises here you have a huge amount with different levels
http://www.agendaweb.org/grammar/relative_pronouns_clauses-exercises.html