Picture Description

Speaking

How would you describe the picture below? Click on the photo for some useful tips.



What about this one? Look at the picture carefully and then do the activities below.



To express your impressions you can use :
Look + adjective
Look like + (a) noun
Look as if + sentence

Expressing degrees of certainty.

I'm sure it's a dog- It must be a dog
I'm sure it isn't a dog- It can't be a dog
Perhaps it is a dog- It could/might be a dog

Listening

• You have to draw a picture. Listen to the recording and draw the picture described.

• Identify the fathers and mothers with their sons and daughters.

Visit Helendipity Weblog to find interactive activities and work with the corresponding units of English File Upper Intermediate, our textbook. It's very useful and highly recommended.

Thank you very much, Helen, for sharing all those interesting materials with all the blogging comminity. Yours is an excellent blog.

Once Upon a Time in America

The following set of activities was designed for my intermediate level students at E.O.I. Aviles. While some of the tasks are quite easy, others are more challenging. As all of you have guessed by now, they are dedicated to the U.S.A. You can improve your English as well as your knowledge of the States at the same time.
Come on! Have a go! You don´t have to do all the exercises or follow a fixed order, you can pick up the ones you feel like doing from the index. I encourage you to try and do all of them, though.

and start a journey to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

Linkers to write an essay

Click here to find some connectors and linkers that will help you organize your essays and articles of opinion. You don't have to use so many of them but you have to try and use some in oder to make your work more cohesive and well organised.

Present Perfect Simple/Present Perfect continuous

Click here if you want to do some exercises with the Present Perfect Simple and the Present Perfect Progressive.

Cute little girl singing the Alphabet song

How cute!

Kids

This section is dedicated to all your beloved little devils : your children , your younger brothers and sisters, your nieces and nephews , etc.
I have two young children myself and I'd like them to improve their English having as much fun as possible while they learn. There are so many games and interactive activities on the Internet which can make this task much easier, and of course, fun !
Everybody knows how much kids love computers, so why don't you invite them to give the following activities a try?

Activities for children:
The Alphabet

• Learn the Alphabet
• Watch this video
• Listen to the Alphabet Song
• Game: Alphabet Antics
• Game: ABC Gulp

The body

• Name the following parts of the body
• Game: Click and drag
• Came: Match these parts of the body 1
• Game: Match these parts of the body 2
• Game: Match these parts of the head

The Numbers

• Count with Number train.

• Numbers 1-100

Time
Let's learn how to tell the time!

What's the time, please?

8.00 _______It's eight o'clock _________________________________________It's eight
7.45 _______It's a quarter to eight ___________________________It's seven forty-five
6.05 _______It's five past six _____________________________________It's six oh five
3.25 _______It's twenty-five past three _____________________It's three twenty-five
4.30 _______It's half past four ____________________________________It's four thirty
5.55 _______It's five to six. ___________________________________ It's five fifty-five
4.40 _______It's twenty to five ____________________________________It's four forty

• Telling the time

Days of the week

Months

• Crossword

Animals

• Game

Listening Comprehension

Click on the following links to find different types of activities to practise your listening skills, such as answering questions and doing multiple choice and gap-filling exercises.


Randall's ESL Cyber listening Lab


La Mansión del Inglés

How to Describe Pictures

Describing a photo from Angela Ruiz Montero

Email Writing

Exercises on how to write semi formal emails.

Present continuous used for describing pictures

Click here to practise your present progressive and picture description skills.

Describing Pictures

Picture description from Maribel Gonzalez

MODELOS PRUEBAS DE CERTIFICACION 2011-2012

Desde aquí puede acceder a muestras de ejercicios de los exámenes de certificación de las convocatorias de 2011 y 2012. Recuerde que estos ejercicios son sólo un ejemplo del tipo de tareas de las que constan los exámenes de certificación. Para saber con más detalle qué tipo de ejercicios puede encontrar, consulte la Guía del Candidato 2013. Esta guía estará disponible en esta web al menos un mes antes del comienzo de las pruebas.

Puede descargar los archivos y guardarlos en su equipo.

Los ejemplos de Comprensión Oral y de Comprensión de Lectura incluyen las correspondientes respuestas.

Book Review

During the second therm, you will have to write a book review( 150-200 words) and your writing  should be organized somewhat like this:

Introduction, which gives facts and background information concerning the book and its author.

Main body, usually made up of three parts. The first giving a concise outline of the plot, the second mentioning the main characters and their role in the story and thirdly any relevant themes the book touches upon while it unravels.

Conclusion, which should include any general comments and opinion as well as a positive or negative recommendation supported by reasons.

The style of your review or oral presentation very much depends on your audience, therefore it can either be formal or semi-formal. Present tenses are normally used as well as a variety of adjectives to make the speech more interesting.

Useful language
Recommendations:

· It’s well worth reading

· It will change the way you think of….

· I wouldn’t recommend it because….

· It’s bound to be on the best sellers list

· I highly/strongly recommend it

· It’s a highly entertaining read

· It’s a bore to read

· It’s certainly at the top of my list of favourites

· Fans of this author will no doubt be thrilled with this latest edition

· It’s a must!

· Don’t bother with this one

· I definitely recommend that you add this to your collection!

Choose the vocabulary according to your level using adjectives and expressions like the ones below:

ELEMENTARY: amusing, boring, brilliant, enjoyable, exciting, funny, great, romantic, simple.

INTERMEDIATE: dull, entertaining, hilarious, moving, predictable, remarkable, shocking, surprising, tragic, unpredictable, violent, a cliffhanger, blackly funny, breathtaking, deeply moving, dull, heart warming...

Your can read the whole post giving advice about book reviews at our Library Blog, About Reading. Thanks to Mª José and Alison for their excellent tips.

If you feel like giving voice to your writings or to the texts you are reading, you can use this tool. It does not sound very natural, but it is not bad either. You can give it a try and see if you like it.

You will find more interesting reading material at English Story Reading Room. All the books there are available for free.

Christmas Wishes

I wish a merry Christmas for all of us and lots of nice surprises for next year.

After all, 2014 must be better than 2013, I can't see how it can be worse. And no , we don't want to see if things can go worse, we want a nice holiday to share with our family and friends , lots of presents , happiness and prosperity for next year, as usual.
Oh, I forgot, we'd like to win a good lottery prize just for once!

Love,

MJ

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It'd be nice if you wrote your own Chistmas greetings and sent them as comments. You just have to click on the comment icon below. Come on, Xmas is coming again; it's time to celebrate!

If you need some ideas, you can find them here.

Tests

2st year basic level

14th November: Listening comprehension
14th November: Reading Comprehension
21st November: Writing

2nd year intermediate level

21th November: Writing

Asking Questions

Tag Questions
Usage
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Embedded Questions
Usage
Exercise 1
Exercise 2

ESL POD,Podcasts in English

Nacho, 1st year basic level student at EOI Aviles recommends you this podcast site to practise your listening skills. The site offers you the script for all the poscasts to make it easier for you.
Click here to get to the site.

Sports Vocabulary

Click on the image above and play the game
(activity taken from acliltoclimb.blogspot.com.)

Learn the name of some sports and sports equipment with these picture vocabulary activities.

• Now do the following listening comprehension exercise



• Test your vocabulary 1,2,3



• Listening Comprehension: Text completion quiz



• Now watch this video clip on the topic of health and exercise, and then answer the questions based on what you see and hear.

Unit 1- Exercises

Click on the title below and do the exercises: