myskypeenglishteacher: June 2016

Thursday 30 June 2016

WEDNESDAY 29 JUNE 2016

Look at this picture and try to describe it. What do you think is happening?

Sometimes it is difficult to understand exactly what is happening.

When you describe a picture, you can talk about facts ( The sky is blue ) or impressions ( It looks like summer (for more phrases with look ask me for a worksheet)).

Here are some more ways of talking about your impressions and opinions:

- might e.g It might be someone's birthday

- I think e.g I don't think they're going on holiday

- perhaps / maybe e.g Perhaps she's tired

- probably e.g It's probably summertime

We can use modal verbs to describe how certain we are about something.

100% - must - He must be a thief

50% / 60% - could - The door could be broken

30/40% - may - The keys may be lost

10/20% - might - He might be a mechanic

0% - can't - He can't be the owner

What do you think is happening in this situation?

You can also use modal verbs to speculate about the past. In this case use the modal verb plus have plus past participle

See here for more examples

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslSGhRUGhfaWFWRGM/view?usp=sharing

and practise here

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive?ltmpl=drive

For more grammar exercises on modal verbs, see this book

https://fernandamaterial.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/cambridge-grammar-for-first-certificate.pdf

TUESDAY 28 JUNE 2016

A good way to learn new words is to practise describing a photo.

What can you see in the photo?

When describing a photo you can think of different elements.

You can find them here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIsleU15QlFXakhKSFE/view?usp=sharing

You describe what the people are wearing, what they are holding and what they are doing. You can use the present continuous.

For more information on the present continuous see Page 121 and 27 of PET Result Students' book

We can also use the present continuous to talk about tendencies in society, when things increase, decrease or stay the same.

See here for more examples.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslZllEaXhZWDR5bzQ/view?usp=sharing

You can also describe these trends using phrasal verbs, which are verbs and prepositions.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslUU45R3pDUFNsemc/view?usp=sharing

Use these pictures to describe other trends in society.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslTno2RlJPcXQ5VFk/view?usp=sharing

Try describing the photos in exercise 4, page 16 of PET Result Students' book.

THURSDAY 16 JUNE

English is an international language and so is useful in many travel situations.

Putting words into categories according to subject helps to remember them better.

Let's start with thinking of some words related to air travel.

Try to put the words in the box in the different sub categories.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslTk9TeHJpVTlPbTA/view?usp=sharing

You can read and listen to some airport announcements here.

https://www.englishclub.com/english-for-work/airline-announcements.htm

In part one of the Listening test there are short dialogues or monlogues in different common situations. You can prepare for this by learning words and phrases for particular situations. It is important to predict the phrases and vocabulary you will hear.

Because English and Italian are very different languages, it can be useful to create a phrase book of useful phrases and words to use in everyday situations.

On this website there is also the translation in Italian and audio.

http://it.speaklanguages.com/inglese/frasi/

On this site you can find pdfs that will allow you to learn several words and phrases associated with everyday situations.

http://englishpower.jp/moodle/course/view.php?id=224

Look in particular at the moderate section.

Here is a document about taking a taxi

https://is/file/d/0B4EN8MtjAE4dTGprMFBoNldQQ3M/view

Look at this situation related to train travel

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslTmYxbGNZUlo0NmM/view?usp=sharing

You can use these situations to review question forms.

You can also ask questions indirectly.

You can review these in Units 49 and 50 of English Grammar in Use.

WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE 2016

Listening can be the most difficult skill. It is important to practice as much as possible.

A great website to help you with this is listenminute.com

On this website you can find 500 small texts in conversational English. These texts can help you to improve your pronunciation and identify common words and phrases that mother tongue natives use. Learning and copying these can both help you to sound more natural in English.

In the lesson we looked at one the texts about travelling.

http://www.listenaminute.com/t/travelling.html

Here you can the worksheets we used.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslTGNaUVpfUEttTWM/view?usp=sharing

In the text we looked at you can find many verbs expressing likes and dislikes.

See here for more

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/communication-lesson-likes-dislikes.php

You can also mark the text to remember some important aspects of pronunciation, in particular word stress. For more information on this see

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/

Use these discussion questions to think about your experience of travelling

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIsldG9tbzJXQkRCMHM/view?usp=sharing

Wednesday 15 June 2016

TUESDAY 14 JUNE 2016

How do you learn new words?

To improve your English it is important to learn new words. To remember new words it is important to be organised. Putting words into categories according to subject or word type can help you to find the words again, and memorize them through word association.

Try to put these words into categories and then add more words to each category.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIsleURIQlM2SUI0SG8/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslWVBYbzZkRlpGRW8/view?usp=sharing

You can do this in a list form or in a more visual way.

List form - http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blwordgroups_weather.htm

Visual - http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/nblvocabtrees.htm

Let's make an example with the subject of food.

For food we can think of four sub categories - ingredients, methods of food preparation, adjectives to describe food and kitchen equipment.

Use the menu on Page 19 and 20 of this document to find examples of different ingredients and methods of preparation and add more.

http://www.ujaz.feec.vutbr.cz/texty/practical_english.pdf

Here are some adjectives to describe the taste of food with a quiz.

http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/adjectives-describe-tastes-foods

On this website you can find lots of words for actions and tools in kitchen.

http://www.say-it-in-english.com/inthekitchen.html

For the PET exam there is are lists of vocabulary that you should know. You can find them here.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/84669-vocabulary-list.pdf

For FCE, there is no list, but the following books can help you to increase your vocabulary in some common areas.

PET - https://ymerleksi.wikispaces.com/file/view/Check+your+vocab+for+PET+Book.pdf

FCE - http://vk.com/doc243798239_300780464

Tuesday 14 June 2016

Wednesday 8 June

A good way to continue a conversation is to ask questions. We listened to two conversations to find examples of subjects to talk about when you first meet someone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslS2h4V01BdFNySnc/view?usp=sharing

Here is the tapescript for the audio file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslclcxMG5ScVNzUVU/view?usp=sharing

Ask me for a copy of the audio file.

We added more questions and then practised asking familiar questions, using exercises 5 and Exam Practice for Part 1 on P77 of Insight Into PET.

Answering familiar questions are the part of the Cambridge speaking tests.

Revise the grammar in this grammar book, Units 2 + 7

https://psv4.vk.me/c521512/u539443/docs/87be530ae9c2/Essential_Grammar_in_Use_by_Raymond_Murphy_Ed2.pdf?extra=w46Xldkh803pJpA618V0EJseNNBLpEFu5eiMzV8B3AZH61GpZoxhgiHt9-BVrS0_I6KJhTiZYoV8GgLMBFYRmMoEZdh4PnyUq50dVyQY

Listening is very difficult. On English club you can find many dictation exercises that start from short phrases and questions. These can help you to understand the difference between how words are pronounced and how they are written.

https://www.englishclub.com/listening/dictations-short.htm

Englishclub also has some excellent information on pronunciation

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/

TUESDAY 7 JUNE

To start we looked at some expressions that you can learn by heart to use automatically when you meet someone for the first time

To learn more phrases to use when you meet someone for the first time see here

Greetings power point - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslamZwNkx2MGhoVDA/edit?usp=sharing

Greetings worksheet - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslR0d4WDd4TW1JZlk/edit?usp=sharing

Here you can listen to some phrases - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslbnJJQTI4VXAxWTg/edit?usp=sharing

But that is the easy part. After that you need to continue the conversation. A good way to do that is to ask questions on personal information. The exercises here can help you learn some important words and questions.

https://sirteachenglish.wikispaces.com/file/view/M01_LPD_WKS_GLB_5650_PDA.pdf

You may have to spell or ask for the spelling of some words. To do this you can use the police or international alphabet.

http://www.englishgratis.com/1/risorse/corsodibase/0-scheda-spellingtelefono.htm