TUESDAY 13 JUNE 2017

Do you write in English?
Writing can be a  great way to practise using the new words, phrases and grammar you have learnt. You have more time to think about what you want to say and how you want to express yourself.
Why not find a penfriend?

https://www.mylanguageexchange.com/Pen-pals/Language/English.asp

You can copy and identify phrases that mother tongue peeople use. This will help you to sound more natural. Ask me for the sheets.

Also in Cambridge writing exercises it is important to start and end well. Using fixed phrases is a great way to do this.

You can find a list of useful phrases here

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/preliminaryenglish/writing/phrases-for-informal-letters.htm

It is important to practise as much as possible, and you can send your writing to me for correction.

In the First exam you are also asked to write giving your opinion about  a subject.

Sign up to the Flo Joe writing class to practise.

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/

FRIDAY 9 JUNE 2017

Before an important meeting or conversation, we can imagine what type of words or phrases we will hear, for example if you have an interview you can think about the questions the interviewer can ask you and you can prepare some answers. You can use the same skill for English.

We tried the listening exercise on Page 22 of Pet Result. Listing everything you can see in the photos can help you to identify words to focus on while listening. 

We also did the listening on Page 20. As we did for the reading exercise last lesson we can read the questions and think of different ways of saying the same thing so when we listen we know what words to focus on. 

Ask me for the tapescript and audio files.

In the tapescript, we can identify the past simple, used to talk about finished actions in times that are finished and have no connection with the present.

You can try some exercises on affirmative, negative and question forms in the past tense in the grammar book, Units 11 + 12.

https://vk.com/doc8069473_207129479?hash=94cd970d0d980ac461&dl=5a539c9622c51a9bc2

We used the past simple to talk about a past holiday

http://www.eslbase.com/downloads/pdf/past-simple-last-holiday.pdf

To practise using past forms and travel vocabulary, try the writing exercise on Page 23.

WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE 2017

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 the example with travel we saw yesterday

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

In the first chapter of the book, PET Result, you can learn some vocabulary about Holidays and Travel.

There are  lists of vocabulary in categories from Page 113.

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

We did a true or false reading exercise on Page 18.

You need to compare a question with the text to decide if it is ‘true’ or ‘false’ but you will not find the same words in both. So it is important to read the questions, underline the key words and think of alternative ways to say the same thing or the opposite.

TUESDAY 6 JUNE 2017

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. For more information on this see

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

We looked at some useful vocabulary regarding travel

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

Use these discussion questions to think about your experience of travelling

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

WEDNESDAY 31 MAY 2017

19 OCTOBER 2016 - 16 - 18

Italian and English are two very different languages, so is a good idea to recognise phrases that mother tongue people use in certain situations and copy them, just like children do. This is the best way to sound natural and avoid translation. 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

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/

For more phrases to use in Social situations, see here

http://yasemintasbasi.jimdo.com/english-resources/social-expressions/

To introduce yourself, use 'I'm ....' and 'Nice to meet you'.

You can also learn these phrases by watching TV in English. Look at these clips. How do they introduce others?

https://youtu.be/NeEJhW0_gqA

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

A good way to continue a conversation is to ask questions. 

We practised asking questions and added more questions.

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

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

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

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 30 MAY 2017




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

WEDNESDAY 26 APRIL 2017

Thinking of synomyms for words that we commonly use is a great way to build your vocabulary.

When you learn a new word, think of words that are in the same family. Are there any related verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, synonyms and antonyms?

Look at this example with the verb employ.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_B2HZ_bIslWktZNUg0M3I1Qmc/view?usp=sharing

and try to do the same with the word friend.

Here there is a lot of information about prefixes and suffixes. They can help to discover the meaning of a new word by seperating it into parts.

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/prefixsuffix.html

You can find more exercises here

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/word_formation.htm

This is also useful for the Use of English Part 3.

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/strategy/p3pt5a.htm

In one exercise, 'Dress Code' there are similar verbs about clothes.

See here for an explanation

http://www.slideshare.net/inmadom/wear-put-on-and-dress