FRIDAY FEBRUARY 16 2018

We learnt some words for talking about education on Page 28 of PET Result.
You can put the words into different sub categories as we did before with the holidays and travel words.
A good way to learn new words is to practise describing a 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

To learn how to talk about position in a photograph see this document, pages 3 and 4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslMUNSTUZkc2lwcms/view?usp=sharing

For more information on how to describe a photo see PET Result Page 28, Speaking exercises 1 to 3.

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

am/is/are (not)  + verb +  ing

The students are doing research.
One boy is raising his hand.

Try the Grammar exercises on the Present simple and present continuous on Page 27 of PET Result.

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

Use these pictures to describe other trends in society.

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

For homework try the writing exercise on Page 29.

WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018

There are couples or sets of words that we usually put together like 'fast food' or 'science fiction'. Knowing these can help you to sound more natural in English.

For more information see here

Collocations | EnglishClub

Breakingnewsenglish.com. is a website that everyday publishes an article about something in the news - current affairs, the environment, culture. There are many exercises that can help you learn new words and expressions and very useful to prepare for the PET and FCE exams.

You can find the article here

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/1405/140513-teenagers.html

Scroll down and look for the PHRASE MATCH that can help you to learn the new words in the article.

It is important to know many different ways of saying the same thing for the Cambride exams, because you need to paraphrase questions to find the answers easier.

Some words just naturally go together, like for example fast food, some verbs are followed by prepositions and the next exercise Phrase match can help you with that.

One exercise on the site, Language cloze, is typical in both the PET and the FCE exams.

There is a test with some gaps and you have to chose the right word to complete the phrase.

It is a good idea to follow this method.

1. First read the text and think what word you would use to fill the gap.

2. Read the options and choose the answer that correspons most to yours.

Practise more here

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/preliminaryenglish/vocabulary/pet-collocations.htm

FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018

Today we talked about different free time activities and the best way to do them and chose the most appropriate solution for people with different needs. This is a good way to practise giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, focusing on relevant information in a text, skimming and scanning and paraphrasing.

We started with the Lead in exercise on Page 24 of PET Result.

To do this exercise it can be useful to know some fixed phrases for giving your opinion, agreeing and disagreeing.

You can find some phrases here

http://www.vocabulary.cl/Lists/Opinions.htm

An alternative to the Cambridge exams are Trinity. The Trinity GESE is a speaking exam, so it can be a good way to start if you haven't done any exams in the past.

At B2 level, there is a part where the examiner explains a situation or problem and you have to ask questions to understand the situation better and then make comments.

An example is this

In this task, I’ll start by telling you something. You’ll have to ask me questions to find out more information and make comments. It’s your responsibility to maintain the conversation. Are you ready?

My friend and I would like to do a hobby together in our free time, but are finding it difficult to agree on what to do.

You can find more examples here

http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=3108

Then we did a reading exercise in PET Result on Page 25 on Adult Education. This exercise corresponds to the second part of the reading test.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 7 2017

Today we just did lots of practice for speaking! Ask me for the worksheets and for another book for exam practice!

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 2 2017

Today we did a true or false exercise about a holiday in Thailand.

To do this kind of exercise it is a good idea to first underline the key words in the text and think of synonyms and antonyms, that is words that express a similar or an opposite meaning. Then you can look for these words in the text.

Thinking about synonyms, or paraphrasing is a good way to explain the meaning of an unknown word but is  also very important in the Cambridge exams and a good way to expand your vocabulary.

http://esl.about.com/od/learningtechniques/a/Synonyms-Antonyms-ESL.htm

We applied the same technique for listening.

Ask me for the audio files and transcripts for the book.

WEDNESDAY 31 2018

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, like this example with travel.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslazd5c1ZFX0pTN0k/view?usp=sharing

We did an example together with the subject 'Holidays and Travel'.

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 and other exams, 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 

CAE - http://www.e4thai.com/e4e/images/pdf/Test%20Your...Vocabulary%204%20(Upper-Inter%20to%20CAE)%20-%2049p.pdf

IELTS - http://www.ycdc.gov.mm/download.php?pdffile=ebook-13

Here you can find a vocabulary list per CEFR level.

http://www.englishprofile.org/wordlists

FRIDAY 26 JANUARY

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 listenaminute.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 and sentence 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 24 JANUARY 2018

To start we looked at some expressions that you can learn by heart to use automatically when we meet for our lessons

Try to match the questions to the answers

1. Good afternoon

2. Sorry I'm late

3. I'm...

4. Come in

5..Have seat

6. Thank you

7. How are you?

8.  Goodbye

9. See you later

10. Have a good evening

A. See you

B. Don't worry

C. Thank you

D. You're welcome

E. You too

F. Nice to meet you

G. I'm fine thanks

H. Thank you

I. Good afternoon

J. Bye

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

Here are some common acronyms

http://reallifeglobal.com/acronyms/

Can you spell them?

Here are some tips for reading website and email addresses

http://www.londonschool.com/language-talk/language-tips/signs-and-symbols/

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

FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2018

Welcome to our course. I am sure we will do a good job together.

It is important to listen to and read English as much as possible.

Here are some useful websites for practising.

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish

www.breakingnewsenglish.com

www.listenaminute.com

www.esllab.com

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/

http://www.manythings.org/

www.elllo.org

http://www.englishclub.com/learn-english.htm

www.englishpage.com

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

Here you can find a very useful grammar book

http://ilsclasses.com/Essential%20Grammar%20in%20Use.pdf

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqkuTHKvGhyV-iy0Gj4YjM36O652Z46cXT7dcH9QCreQCQpA/viewform?usp=sf_linkhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqkuTHKvGhyV-iy0Gj4YjM36O652Z46cXT7dcH9QCreQCQpA/viewform?usp=sf_link

SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2017

In English we make a difference between finished and unfinished time. When thinking of the past we must think about the time in which the action happened. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslVXc3VjQ0VVVRZ0U/view?usp=sharing

When we talk about a past action in a past time, we use the past simple. When we talk about a past action in an unfinished time we use the presesnt perfect have / has + past participle.The uses of the present perfect are 
1. To talk about a past action in an unfinished time - I have drunk two coffees today
2. To speak about an experience at an unspecified time of the past - I have been to America
3. To speak about something that started in the past and continues now -I have lived in Italy for 8 years
4. To bring something from the past closer to the present because it is news, or because there is a consequence now.
You have cut your hair!
This is a good book for grammar, Units 7 + 8 and 13 + 14. - http://vk.com/doc8069473_202956457?hash=5ce925651868f7ad3c&dl=aa922cf229371819a9

Irregular verb forms can be hard to remember. You can try putting them in groups of verbs that change in the same way.

Try these worksheets

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslVksxcWZ2aFRPYkk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslUGgxV0JnQXZkZnM/view?usp=sharing

or watch these videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zhFJlCAbGU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNaDvAYC0Jw

Then complete the questions on Page 3 on this document.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslS3N4cFl2N3VGRlk/view?usp=sharing

WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2017

Reading can be an excellent way to learn new words and review grammar in a natural context. However reading a book in the original version can be difficult. There are books, by famous authors or biographies or non fiction books written in simplified English so that they are not to difficult to understand. one publisher is Macmillan.

Here you can read sample chapters from their books before you decide what you want to buy.

http://www.macmillanreaders.com/resources/sample-chapters

For example here is the first chapter of Frankenstein

http://www.macmillanreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Frankenstein.pdf

You can but the book with a CD on Amazon

http://www.amazon.it/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=macmillan+reader&tag=slhyin-21&index=stripbooks&hvadid=24992154275&ref=pd_sl_1rlmfv3k54_b

Or you can sometimes find them online.

http://mggu-sh.ru/sites/default/files/frankenstein.pdf

I have some books in pdf format. Ask me if you are interested.

When talking about the past, as well as the past simple you can use the past continuous and the past perfect to add different levels to your story.

You can read about these tenses here

http://www.vivquarry.com/wkshts/narrative.html

and also on Page 121 of PET Result

There are some exercises on these tenses on Pages 21 and 51 of PET Result.

and try the exercises on narrative tenses here

http://www.eltbase.com/quiz/201_02.htm

Two ways to understand these tenses better are 
1) reading and
2) using them to talk about your life or experience

Think of  year in the past, for example, 2005, and answer these questions thinking about your situation at the time.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslVE45VDRIaEk2a0U/view?usp=sharing

MONDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2017

Watching films is a great way of learning more informal English, that can include -

- contractions e.g. I'm, I'd

- phrasal verbs - get on, get off

- abbreviations - CDs,  ATM, ASAP

- informal phrases - catch you later!

- incomplete sentences - got the time?

For more examples of informal language, go to English Club

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions-informal.htm

In the above list, perhaps the most difficult are the phrasal verbs. These are verbs composed of one verbs and one preposition that can have literal or figurative meanings. It is impossible to learn them all, but you can start to understand them better by considering verbs that you can make matching a common verb with different prepositions

http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/take-phrasal-verbs

Or by thinking of verbs to use in common situations

http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/your-english/phrasal-verbs/your-english-phrasal-verbs-in-the-news/551473.article

This is a great book for learning phrasal verbs

https://vk.com/doc177534154_437754297?hash=958f73f9bcc3b17fb3&dl=875b31c6888dbc1d77

SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2017

When talking about the past, as well as the past simple you can use the past continuous and the past perfect to add different levels to your story.

You can read about these tenses here

http://www.vivquarry.com/wkshts/narrative.html

and also on Page 121 of PET Result

There are some exercises on these tenses on Pages 21 and 51 of PET Result.

and try the exercises on narrative tenses here

http://www.eltbase.com/quiz/201_02.htm

Two ways to understand these tenses better are 
1) reading and
2) using them to talk about your life or experience

Think of  year in the past, for example, 2005, and answer these questions thinking about your situation at the time.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslVE45VDRIaEk2a0U/view?usp=sharing

FRIDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2017

Reading can be an excellent way to learn new words and review grammar in a natural context. However reading a book in the original version can be difficult. There are books, by famous authors or biographies or non fiction books written in simplified English so that they are not to difficult to understand. one publisher is Macmillan.

Here you can read sample chapters from their books before you decide what you want to buy.

http://www.macmillanreaders.com/resources/sample-chapters

For example here is the first chapter of Frankenstein

http://www.macmillanreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Frankenstein.pdf

You can but the book with a CD on Amazon

http://www.amazon.it/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=macmillan+reader&tag=slhyin-21&index=stripbooks&hvadid=24992154275&ref=pd_sl_1rlmfv3k54_b

Or you can sometimes find them online.

http://mggu-sh.ru/sites/default/files/frankenstein.pdf

I have some books in pdf format. Ask me if you are interested.

Reading these books we can learn about the past simple in English.

You can read about the past simple in PET Result page 121.

We also use 'used to' to talk about habits in the past.

Try the exercise on page 99 of PET Result.

MONDAY 13 NOVEMBER 

Each Cambridge exam has its own handbook

PET (B1) - http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/168150-cambridge-english-preliminary-teachers-handbook.pdf
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/167804-cambridge-english-advanced-handbook.pdf

FCE - http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/167791-cambridge-english-first-handbook.pdf
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/167804-cambridge-english-advanced-handbook.pdf

CAE - http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/167804-cambridge-english-advanced-handbook.pdf
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/167804-cambridge-english-advanced-handbook.pdf

You can also find practice tests here

PET - http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/preliminary/preparation/

FCE - http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/first/preparation/

CAE - http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/advanced/preparation/ 

You can find more practice tests here

https://www.examenglish.com/

https://www.flo-joe.co.uk/

There is a lot of speaking and listening practice on Youtube

Listening - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=first+certificate+listening

Speaking - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=first+certificate+speaking

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 and other exams, 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 

CAE - http://www.e4thai.com/e4e/images/pdf/Test%20Your...Vocabulary%204%20(Upper-Inter%20to%20CAE)%20-%2049p.pdf

IELTS - http://www.ycdc.gov.mm/download.php?pdffile=ebook-13

Here you can find a vocabulary list per CEFR level.

http://www.englishprofile.org/wordlists

SATURDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2017

We started with a general knowledge quiz.

see Unit 29 of this book

https://www.slideshare.net/beathetrix/236901188-rewardelementaryresourcebook

All the questions use comparatives and superlatives.

Today we learnt vocabulary for talking about films.

Watching films is a great way of learning more informal English, that can include -

- contractions e.g. I'm, I'd

- phrasal verbs - get on, get off

- abbreviations - CDs,  ATM, ASAP

- informal phrases - catch you later!

- incomplete sentences - got the time?

For more examples of informal language, go to English Club

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions-informal.htm

In the above list, perhaps the most difficult are the phrasal verbs. These are verbs composed of one verbs and one preposition that can have literal or figurative meanings. It is impossible to learn them all, but you can start to understand them better by considering verbs that you can make matching a common verb with different prepositions

http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/take-phrasal-verbs

Or by thinking of verbs to use in common situations

http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/your-english/phrasal-verbs/your-english-phrasal-verbs-in-the-news/551473.article

This is a great book for learning phrasal verbs

https://vk.com/doc177534154_437754297?hash=958f73f9bcc3b17fb3&dl=875b31c6888dbc1d77

Try to describe a film you saw recently in the writing task on Page 43 of PET Result.

FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017

Today we talked about our progress so far.

When comparing methods use comparatives and superalatives.

Flo joe has some interesting exercises on this and other points of grammar.

http://www.flo-joe.com/preliminaryenglish/pet-grammar.htm

Here is a very clear explanation video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G096Jdl2XVo

On this site you can learning some more interesting adjectives

http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/what-are-extreme-adjectives

https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/extreme-adjectives

https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/extreme-adjectives-0