Improving your writing

I've just found a link with some help for writing. The author is a teacher called Jennifer, who has a blog and a webpage for learning English, and I think it's worth a visit but be patient because it takes time to see all the videos. If you are interested, go to this link by clicking here

Another long, deep explanation about how to write in English is in the following site but I think it's too difficult for your level of English; click here

This last web page has quite a lot of information about rules for writing (spelling, capital letters, etc) but it's rather extended; anyway, if you are interested here you have the link

Don't worry too much about these links. I think it's better to write little by little, hand out compositions regularly and keep them to see what mistakes are the most common ones when you write and try to avoid them.

Remember I'm there, in class to help you so ask me as much as you like.
See you!

Making a phone call

Speaking on the phone is very difficult when you are learning a new language but sometimes it is very useful, especially when you want to call home from abroad, to book a table in a restaurant, to check your flight tickets and so on, but it's also really useful for business. You have some models in Unit 3.3 and here you have some links with useful vocabulary or videos to practise:

• phone call vocabulary; click here
• a chart with typical sentences; click here
• if you work with English, this link gives good advice about how to speak on the phone; click here
• here you have a simple example for starting with business phone calls; click here
• this video is with a higher level but the quality is not great and the end has Arabic subtitles but it's a good example; click here
• this video gives you some examples of phone calls, in informal and formal style; click here

See you in class!

Invitations (unit 3.1)

There is an exercie on the book about how to make invitations. It is for writing skills but I think it's more usual when you speak. Nevertheless, if you do it well when you say it, you can do it when you write it.
If you want to see some typical expressions to invite, go to this link. Then you can do this listening comprehension here.

As a curiosity here you have a video about Pollock and how he used to paint; click here

About grammar, here you are a clear video with an explanation (click here) and then try to do some exercises to work with questions without auxiliaries:

• exercise 1        exercise 2         exercise 3         exercise 4
• watch this video of The Beatles and pay attention to the questions; click here
• but maybe you prefer something funnier and more modern; click here

See you in class!

Unit 3.1: London for free

In this unit we are working with future wit two similar forms: Present continuous or GOING TO.
As you can see from the grammar section (p. 132) the difference is rather small and it's only depending on the inner meaning:

• I'm going to have dinner with my parents next weekend (your plans, your intention, NOT arrenged yet or not fixed but something I want to do in a close future)
• I'm having dinner with my parents (everything is arranged, with a fixed time/place)

On the book they say that GOING TO is more common when other people are not involved in the action but I prefer to explain that this form is connected to WANT TO, which indicates your intention, what you want to do in a close future.

If you want to practise you can do these exercises: exercise 1    exercise 2    exercise 3

To know something about London and practise with listening you can watch these videos:

10 popular sights in London    10 things to know about London    London (with subtitles)

You can also go to this link with a lot of material about London for English students; click here

Unit 2: Work

This unit deals with work so I've taken some links to hear people talking about their jobs. Here you have them:

• here you can find a link form BBC Learning English. Although it's difficult at first you can use the script when you've listened to it several times. Click here
• this is the opposite to work: to get redundant. You can listen to this person and his experience; click here
• here you have a game about matching  what you hear with a photo; click here
• this listening is about a dream job for a girl; click here
• a memory game about jobs; click here

About grammar you have present continuous or present simple. You can go to a previous entry in this blog; to do it faster click here

If you want to practise more or you've alredy done the other exercises, here you have some extra ones to do

• exercise 1        exercise 2
• exercise for frequency advebs: click here and here
• a video with clips of songs working with present simple; click here but I prefer the song Tom's diner by Suzanne Vega or this version of Abba's song I have a dream
• if you have children, you can use this really easy video about present simple; click here