Videos about Education

If you want to practise listening comprehension you can use these videos about education:

• an introduction of Suzuki method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1-LcxNdccI
• about Steiner system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhHQwihcOfY
• Why Education in Finland Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntdYxqRce_s
• A piece of news frm BBC News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYHWpRR4yc

If you wnat to practise reading here you have two articles:

• This is about Steiner system: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/education/4633601.stm

This is an article about education in Spain, just in case you want to expain it to other foreign people

Modal Verbs of Obligation

A modal verb is the one that gives you the clue of what the speakers want to say, I mean, it's a way of saying something; in this case, haow to express obligation or necessity:

• I have to lose some weight  --- I have a necessity of losing weight

Sometimes the modal is also an auxiliary verb but sometimes it isn't as it happens with HAVE TO; besides, a modal can change its meaning depending if you use it in afirmative, negative or interrogative form:

• I can play here (I'm allowed)    I can play the piano (I know how to do it)   I can't play the piano here (It's forbidden-prohibition)   Can I play here? (I ask for permission)

Here you are some links about modals of obligation and some of them also have exercises at the end: here you have one of them with a chart so click here; this one is with the form ought to, a form that is not very used, click here; or this one in which other modals are included, click here

If you want to practise, you can do these exercises:

• exercise 1    exercise 2       exercise 3

For those who want to improve their English in the future, you can use this site with many more possiblilities, but it's for a much higher level; click here.

See you in class!

Present Perfect versus Past Simple

The main difference between these two tenses is the reference of time:

• Present Perfect: no clear reference (twice in my lifetime) or anything referred to UP TO NOW.
• Past simple: this tense needs a reference to past (last summer, 3 week ago, in 2012, when I was young, etc.)

Exercises:  exercise 1    exercise 2     exercise 3

Surf on your own on the internet by using past simple versus present perfect and you'll find plenty of exercises. Enjoy your surfing!
If you want to practise present perfect/past simple orally you can use these sentences we saw in class:

• Have you seen a good film recently?
• Has a friend of yours ever been to Africa?
• Have you bought a present recently?
• Have you ever been abroad?

To solve the problem with GONE or BEEN go to these links: explanation and exercise
but if you need more help remember how to translate it: she has been to NY (ha visitado, ha estado en NY) she's gone to NY (se ha marchado a NY)

DO versus MAKE (lesson 4.1)

"To DO or to MAKE... that's the question" Seriously, this is a difficult problem to solve, especially for Spanish speakers. As a general rule, MAKE is more connected to actions related with constucting, building or using your hands, while DO is more general and you use your brain. But there are a lot of exceptions and the best way is to do a lot of exercises. Let's start.
Exercises:

• http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/doormake.html (grammar and an execise at the end) 
• a long exercise
• explanation in Spanish + an exercise
• another exercise
• some more: exercise 1   exercise 2  and this link with plenty of exercises; click here

To finish with I think you should practise using a context such as:

I do my homework every day. Then I do exercise and when I finish I make lunch; meanwhile my friend is making the bed because we share the housework: I do the cooking, the ironing and the cleaning and he makes the bed, does the dishes and the laundry. We both do the shopping.

A Day in Alcalá de Henares

At the end of lesson 3 we are asked to write about a day out in our town and here you have a video about Alcala; click here. To have some model sentences you can watch this video with photos and some comments (no audio); click here.
If you want to see more examples here you have some videos about other cities:

• Toledo
• Madrid

To finish with here you have the videos about Christmas in British Council; click here and here