ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING TIPS FOR SPEAKING TESTS

And here a funny example of the importance of understanding and speaking good English. Can you notice and copy down some of the big mistakes made by foreign students here?

RUSS - A STRANGE NORWEGIAN TRADITION

In Norway, high school students in their last year before University participate in a tradition called the russefeiring ("russ celebration"). Basically, everyone who is about to graduate has to participate in this three weeks long event.  They all wear a pair of overall or dungarees; the colour is dependent on their stream at school, although most of them are red for academic; they are not supposed to take off these overalls for the entire three weeks!  These three weeks are officially from the first of May (although some started earlier) until the Norwegian National Day (May 17)

There is a list of about 100 tasks printed in the local newspapers every year and the Russ students are supposed to complete as many as possible.  When they finish a task they are given an item, a knot (?) or just the pride of having accomplished this task.

 Here you can see this video about  some creative tasks they had to do such as decorating buses, performing  songs, , or other much funnier activities as in example dyeing their hair in the colour of their  russ (black, red or blue), spending a night in a tree (earns a stick from the tree), crawling  along Karl Johans ( Oslo´s Main Street ) to Slottet (the Royal Palace)  as it is showed in some of the photos I took while I was  in Oslo. 

SHORT STORIES FOR EXTRA READINGS

HERE  you can find a lot of short stories.

WEBQUEST ABOUT WATER

LEARN MORE ABOUT WATER BY FOLLOWING MY WEBQUEST

WORLD WATER DAY 2013

The solution to the water crisis is not simple. It is a big problem that needs a big answer. The water crisis is only going to end when we all work together to help those in need. 

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 Watch these  videos  and then copy some parts of the message on your notebooks:

World Water Day 2013 from Water to Thrive on Vimeo.

THE HISTORY OF SAINT PATRICK

IRREGUALR VERB WHEEL GAME

  Spin the wheel to test your knowledge of irregular verb forms Be careful , it’s addictive!

TODAY IS MOTHER´S DAY IN UK

Mothering Sunday, sometimes known as Mother's Day, is held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It is exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday and usually falls in the second half of March or the beginning of April.

   Learn more by clicking on this link about :

• What do people do?

• Mothering Sunday in other countries

OH NO !! THE TRANSLATOR AGAIN !!

This is what I think when I am correcting some of your homework.

As an example, here is a menu from a place in Galicia someone has done with the help of a computer translator* and a friend of mine has uploaded it in facebook just for fun.

* Machine translator is defined as a computer program that converts instructions written in one language to another without changing the initial logic or meaning in terms of computer language.

HOW TO ASK IN ENGLISH

There are different kinds of questions. Some of them need to use an auxiliary verb others don't. Some of them will be answered with a 'Yes' or a 'No' and others will just give more infomation.

 I think it's time we revise all this Grammar again before moving into another thing.

 Click on the following link and read about it:
  Quesion order
And now do the following exercises:
  Exercise 1
  Exercise 2
After that watch this funny video and copy twenty questions on your notebooks.
( Avoid the ones made by Manuel because they are not correct !! )

INTENSIVE READINGS

Think of some good tasks you can design yourselves to show me you are all reading  your graded books this term:

• Culture Shock (1º Bachillerato)
• Frankenstein (4º ESO)
• Jane Eyre (3º ESO)

 Some ideas :

- Copy all the new words and list them alphabetically.
- Write questions from the chapters.
- Learn  or read aloud some passages by heart with a good pronuntiation.
- Identify sentences and who said them.
- Complete information about the main characters.
- Create  puzzles /  games  with the vocabulary lists learnt.
- A Multiple Choice questionnaire from the book.
- Summarize the story and add some nice drawings / comics
- Role play some chapters with your group.

(There are some more suggestions at the back of your books too)

WEBQUEST ABOUT SAINT VALENTINE

CLICK HERE ON MY WEBQUEST TO LEARN ABOUT SAINT VALENTINE´S DAY

As Saint Valentine’s Day draws near, love idioms and phrases are increasingly popular. While some universal idioms are easily translated, many idioms on love can be difficult to comprehend. Here are 12 popular love idioms and phrases that are used frequently but are quite confounding:


1. Blind Date
2. To Fall For
3. To Find Mr. Right or Miss Right
4. To Get Back Together
5. To Get Engaged
6. To Get Hitched
7. To Have a Crush
8. Head Over Heels
9. To Be Hung Up On Someone
10. To Patch Up a Relationship
11. To Pop The Question
12. Those Three Little Words
 

Click on the watch to get more information about these idioms  ->

PEACE DAY AT SCHOOL

Imagine all the people sharing all the world
imagine people living in peace with no wars
you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one...

MOVING

Spanish rock group Macaco collaborated with National Geographic and stars, like actor Javier Bardem and musicians Juanes, Juan Luis Guerra, and Carlinhos Brown, on this video  about the movement of people into different  countries.

 

ARE YOU LEFT OR RIGHT BRAIN?