Friday 30 August 2013

Lesson 8

Let's go on holiday! Why not?

When did you last go on holiday?
Where did you go?
Who did you go with?
What did you enjoy best?
What didn't you like about your holiday?

Holiday activities: what do people do when they are on holiday? Watch this video to find out...


Useful vocabulary for your holiday 
(try again and again until all new words appear)

Plan a new holiday:
Where will you go?
What's the difference among these 4 sentences?

I probably will go to...
I won't go to...
I'm going to visit...
I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 10.30

Will/won't future




Remember some wh- question that can be useful while travelling: read this page.

Read the following text about planning a holiday and complete the quiz.

What's your favourite type of holiday destination?
Get some ideas from the following exercise

Enjoy your next holiday!

Monday 26 August 2013

lesson 7

I LOVE SHOPPING!

Do you like shopping?
What do you prefer to buy?
Do you like clothes accessories?
What are your favorite shops?
What's your "shopping style"? Do you buy anything you like or do you pay attention on how you spend your money?
What do you like to wear? Find out what your clothes say about yourself: answer this test.

Have you ever heard about people that can't stop buying things and become shopaholic?
Watch a trailer of a famous movie about shopping


Downloadable version of the same quiz

Where do you usually go shopping?
Who do you go shopping with?
Let's assume that today we are in Liverpool, why don't we go shopping in town?

If you want to go shopping now and be prepared for it, you probably need some money :) and some vocabulary practice:



Have a nice shopping!

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Lesson 6

A comfortable life!
What can you see in the picture? 
How does it work?
Have you got one at home?
Could you live without it?
What did people do in the past when there wasn't any appliance like this?

Survey: How comfortable is your life?
Have you got...?  :
  1. an air conditioner
  2. a mobile phone
  3. a tumble dryer
  4. an expresso maker
  5. a computer, laptop or tablet
  6. microwave oven
  7. freezer
  8. washing machine
  9. hair dryer
  10. blender
  11. dishwasher
  12. iron
  13. kettle
  14. mixer
  15. printer
  16. i pod, MP3 player
  17. television
  18. toaster
  19. vacuum cleaner
  20. fax machine

  • If you answered "Yes" to the majority of questions (from 16 to 20), you are living a very comfortable life and you could hardly survive without electricity; 
  • if you answered "Yes" to a number of questions from 11 to 15, your life standard is quite comfortable, but you could still have a little possibility of surviving without electricity; 
  • if you answered "Yes" to 10 or less questions, you must be declared "species under protection", because you are endangered, but you have the highest probability of surviving without electricity.
Apart from this survey, that is not serious at all, is there any device you are particularly fond of? And which one is not important at all?

Describe a device that you find useful.
You should say:
- what it is
- what you can do with it
- how often you use it
and explain why you find it so useful


Now watch this video and meet a very special refrigerator...

Runaway from Paper Planes on Vimeo.

Home sweet home... but what's behind our life style?
  What happens to our appliances after use?


What did people do in the past without all our home appliances?

When people didn't have any air conditioner, they used a fan.
...

Revise vocabulary

How much do you know about appliaces? find out answering this quiz

Are you curious about what kind of tech user you are? take part to this survey

A listening game about home appliances

Grammar
Some more exercises about Past Tense







Simple Past (regular verbs) 
Simple Past (all verbs) 
Simple Past - easy 
Simple Past - medium 
Simple Past (verbs in bold) 
Simple Past (verbs in bold - irregular) 
Simple Past (all verbs) 
Questions in Simple Past - Exercise 1 
Questions in Simple Past - Exercise 2 
Simple Past - Exercise 1 
Simple Past - Exercise 2 

Some more verbs to study:
 
____________________________








Tuesday 13 August 2013

Lesson 5


Look at the first image of this video: can you predict how the video is?

Short, long, interesting, boring, funny, serious, odd, owesome, surprising, clever, pleasant, stupid, confused,
easy, difficult, good, bad, slow, fast, romantic...

Now watch the video and find out how it really is.

Confirm or correct your statements about the film:

It is more interesting than I expected, shorter..., as funny as...

Watch the video again with subtitles

Grammar

Comparatives by Marina Priest


Read the title of the following texts: which one could be the most interesting?
and the most difficult? and the worst?

In my opinion the most interesting could be the text about... I think that...

Now read the texts and find if your predictions were correct or if you changed your mind after reading

After reading the text i think that the most interesting one is...
Intelligence pills
Robot birds
Star wars





Let's end up with an exercise about comparatives and superlatives


Sunday 11 August 2013

Friday 9 August 2013

lesson 4

"A" stands for Alphabet

One of the first questions at the speaking exam is "How do you spell your surname?"
In English spelling is important because often sounds and letters don't match.
Let's try with some questions:
  • What's your name? ....  How do you spell it?
  • What's your surname? ....  How do you spell that?
  • What's your email address? ....  Can you spell it?
  • Where do you live? ....  Could you spell that please?
Sometimes you need to write words (during a telephone call, for example), and you have to be ready for it. 

Listen and write words in the following exercise 

Letters letters letters...

How many letters are there in the English alphabet?

  • What's the first letter?
  • And the fifth?
  • The tenth?
  • The twenty-second letter?
  • And what's the twenty-third letter?
  • And finally what's the last letter?
Did you know that there are some letters that are more poetic than others?

Watch the short video to find out




I & U = WE: that's nice, short but nice!

Letters are often used in abbreviations, and many of them are common in sms, social network and chatting.
For example, what does RUOK stand for? (Are you ok?)
And CT? (City)
Now work in pairs and find out some more abbreviations asking each other what they stand for



Another place where you listen to letters and numbers is the airport: try a listening exercise

Now try to ask and give information about the flights on the display:
ex: What gate is flight AA343 boarding at?
What number is the flight to London?



Have a nice spelling day!


If you need to revise the alphabet, here are some links: 

Alphabet 1
Alphabet 2
Alphabet 3
Alphabet 4

Wednesday 7 August 2013

A new song for you

A new song for you in order to learn English having fun at the same time!




Tuesday 6 August 2013

Lesson 3

ABILITIES AND PASSIONS

Can you describe your family: how many people are there? who are they? what do they do? have you got cousins? apart from the members who live with you, is there anyone special in your family (a grandpa, an uncle, a  cousin...)?
Describe him or her (appearence and personality, occupation, special features...)

Watch a video about Hal Lasko, better known as Grandpa, who worked as a graphic artist back when everything was done by hand. His family introduced him to the computer and Microsoft Paint long after he retired.



The Pixel Painter from The Pixel Painter on Vimeo.



If you want to print and repeat the test off line:



What do you like doing?

Grammar: Past Simple

Was/were




Past simple





Learn some irregular verbs
(Click on the flag button)





Friday 2 August 2013

Lesson 2

When is your birthday?
What's your Zodiac sign?
Discover something more about your Zodiac sign  and your date of birth...


If you want to get to know yourself better, add some more information about your personality with the following test

Personality



Practice:  http://quizlet.com/24801699/adjectives-for-describing-personality-b1-flash-cards/

Let's revise some grammar:

TO BE



LIKE+ING



PERSONAL PRONOUNS (POSSESSIVES)



PRESENT SIMPLE



CAN / COULD