FCE part 3: some expressions

good luck !!

Time Fillers

some techniques to deal with speaking tests

	Technique	Explanation and examples
	Repeat the question	You can buy yourself time to think by repeating the examiner's question. Examiner: What different types of food do people eat in your country? Candidate: Okay, so you would like to know what kinds of food people eat in my country. Examiner: How does television influence children? Candidate: Hmm...how does television influence children? Well....
	Express a lack ol opinion	If you are asked for your opinion on something, you can begin your answer by expressing a lack of opinion. Examiner: What does success mean to you? Candidate: Hmm. I haven't really thought about that...
	Use conversation fillers	Conversation fillers are simple words and phrases like hmm: umm. well, let's see. difficult question, interesting question, basically rlmm...difficult question. Well, basically 1 think that sport can help us to live a much healthier lifestyle.
	Combine techniques	If you need a lot of time, consider combining several approaches. Examiner: What different types of food do people eat in your country? Candidate: Hmm...so you would like to know what kinds of food people eat in my country. Hmm...interesting question. Can I think about it for a moment? Well, I guess our traditional cuisine is still popular.

Kirsten Dunst Selfie Short Film Called Aspirational

what happens if you meet a celebrity and there is no photographic evidence?

what's more important, to enjoy the experience or to share it with your followers?

A video about the absurdity of selfies

How to accept or refuse an offer

A classic

Discussion   Topics                 

        This is not new, I know; but I simply love this type of activities. They are very enjoyable and allow students to assume a position and defend it till the end, even if they don't agree with it! You can adapt them to suit different needs. I usually use these type of activities with a group of FCE students. 

Choose somo interesting topics and decide on the time you'll set for the discussion. Sometimes I choose less topics and I tell my students that they belong to different political parties and that they have to defend their arguments on a tv show. I give them some minutes to think of ideas and we start.

we set the scene,  I have them speaking, motivated and thinking of logical arguments; and they enjoy a lot !

here are some discussion topics but if you google them, you´ll find longer lists !

• Women are less intelligent than men.   vs   Men are less intelligent than women.

• Men gossip more than women.     vs         Women gossip more than men.

• Friendship is the most important relationship in life.     vs       Family is the most important relationship in life.

•  Doing a job that you like is more important than earning more money.       vs     Earning money is more important than doing a job that you like.

•  Team work is more useful and works well.       vs     Individual work is more useful and works well.
• Camping holiday is more exciting.            vs         Staying at a hotel is more exciting.  

• Oral examination      vs     Written examination

• Living in a large city    vs     living in a small town

• Giving money to beggars is stupid.      vs    Giving money to beggars is a good way to help them.

• You cannot have a happy family life and a successful career at the same time.          vs Having a happy family and a successful career at the same time are possible.

•  Being a student in Single-sex school          vs    Being a student in Mixed-sex schools

• Arranged marriage      vs      Love marriage

• A woman’s place is her home.      vs      A woman should both work and take care of her home at the same time.

• Video games make kids violent.      vs    Kids can learn a lot from video games.

• First impression of a person is quite important.    vs  We should not judge a person with his/her first impression.

 

Some ideas to generate interest when teaching English

 

1. Base a lesson on a topic that is very relevant. To do this, you need to know your students' interests and preferences; of course, this is easier in small groups but not impossible in large classes.   

2. Try to choose a topic which the students are likely to have strong opinions. Controversial topics are great to trigger conversation ( just careful when choosing one, students' ages are very important !!)

 3. If we show interest in what our students say, their opinions and ideas, they will be more likely to be interested in the lesson. 

4. Try to choose topics of which the students already have some knowledge. Letting them explain things to us (be the teacher for a while) is profitable for both parts ! 

5. sometimes, letting  them know in advance what the topic will be raises expectations and helps us motivate them for future classes. furthermore, they may have interesting items of their own to bring to class

6. Bring something into the classroom to create interest. This could be a picture, a musical instrument, a movie, a collection of things, or even an interesting person. 

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How to approach part 2 of FCE

For my FCE students, the presentation we discussed in class

here it goes

Fce speaking 2 from Ceci Sosa

English for the real world

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) refers to the use of English as a medium of communication between people with different mother tongues. For example, the language used between a French, a Russian and an Argentinian chatting at a coffee break of an international conference held in Germany


ELF has its own characteristics; I mentioned some of them in the presentation on Teaching Pronunciation two weeks ago.

This concept is very important, especially if you are teaching English to learners who need the language to communicate with people from different nationalities (for example, the cases of English for travel, Business English, English for the hospitality industry, etc).


Here I'm posting two videos on the topic, explained by David Crystal. Veeeeeeery interesting!!

tutorial de como subir una presentación power point a tu blogger

Presentation on Teaching Pronunciation

Teachpron todo from Ceci Sosa

Emma Watson at the HeForShe Campaign 2014 - Official UN Video

Emma Watson delivering a speech at the NU. Apart from being adorable, she says very interesting things.

You can find more versions of this video on youtube, with or without subtitles; and you can adapt it and use it with intermediate and upper lessons !

hope you like it

Poor man !

A bit of humor ! Remember to buy something nice to your mums !!

And more ways of !

How Children Learn Language

Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition was and still is controversial. The purpose of this essay is to briefly go back over some of the main aspects of his theory so as to reflect upon their light.

By the mid 20^th century, Chomsky came up with his nativist theory as a response and critique to the accepted behaviourist theory of language, which posed that reinforcement was essential in language acquisition (for correct grammar to be repeated and incorrect grammar to be eliminated). Chomsky differs from Behaviourism mainly in that he understands that human language acquisition is an innate biological ability that all humans possess; in this regard, reinforcement would play a secondary role.

Chomsky postulates that human beings are equipped with a mechanism, which he calls Language Acquisition Device. This device is responsible for the acquisition of any human language in any child. According to him, the LAD analyses the primary linguist data (input) the child hears, so as to set the parameters of the Universal Grammar. 

Universal Grammar is a set of principles and parameters shared by all human languages. According to Chomsky, children can acquire their first language, naturally, without special instruction, because of UG. He states that UG facilitates acquisition because it consists of innate grammatical categories (pronouns, nouns, verbs, etc.) which are activated in accordance to the stimulus the children receive. Such stimulus is said to be poor and scarce, however, “our knowledge of grammar is complex and abstract”. This represents one of the main tenets of Chomsky’s innatist theory. He says that “the things that are missing from the input are added by the UG”. The reason why we can get to have such a complex knowledge of grammar out of limited and imperfect stimulus is attributed to the innate properties of the mind.

The way I see it, it is very difficult to go deep in Chomsky’s views since they are complex and require a lot of research. In my opinion, some of his postulates may be arguable, especially because there is no concrete evidence of them. Even though his postulates may be difficult to picture, I agree with his poverty of stimulus argument. I think that if language acquisition was merely dependant on input, it would be impossible for children to acquire the tools to produce the amount of sentences they utter. 

In addition to this, I think the poverty of stimulus argument does account for the fact that language acquisition could be innate to some extent. This element in Chomsky’s theory proves that language acquisition is more than just imitation. There must be an internal process, as Chomsky states.  Furthermore, apart from being surprising, the fact that children from all cultures of the world follow a similar pattern in their language development (production of the same kind of grammatical mistakes,  readiness to acquisition, non-production of certain grammatical errors such as word order) could explain the existence of a universal grammar innate to human beings.

On the other hand, I do not agree with Chomsky on his view about input and experience. In his theory, he states that experience is just needed to activate the innate processes for language acquisition. However, I think those factors have a more important role in acquisition. The primary linguistic input involved in language acquisition is different from other kind of input (such as dialogues in a tv programme). I think the tone of voice, the rhythm, and the gestures which accompany the input in motherese play a significant role.

As a concluding remark, I think that language acquisition is such a complex process that not one theory can account for it fully. Skinner was criticized in the same way Chomsky was. The same applies to Piaget and Vigotzky’s claims. In my opinion, language acquisition involves innate aspects that facilitate it and are common to all children. At the same time, I think that the experience and the social environment of the child also play a part; not only in providing him with the appropriate linguistic input, but also in supporting the child’s language development.

I hope you'll like this video. It's Steven Pinker talking about the talent children have to for learning language
How Children Learn Language

Greetings !

When it comes to Greetings in English, identifying the level of formality is very important.

Some expressions, such as How do you do?,  are used in formal contexts mainly. You should use this expression when welcoming an important visitor to your company, or in a first meeting.

This is a veeery funny video where we can find examples of greetings and introductions. When watching it, think of the level of formality of each situation

More alternatives to avoid repetitions !

More ways of

Today is the turn of "LOOK"

To see    To percive with the eyes.  "Seeing" is passive.Light comes into your eye when your eyes are open. Seeing is different from looking because looking is active- you actually try to see something.

"Did you see that car accident on route 12 last night?"

To look  to turn your eyes towards   something so that you can see it. "Looking" is active. We physically make an effort to see something. We usually look quickly and for a shorter period of time. 

"Look at that guy with pink hair!"

To watch

When we watch something we observe something happening in front of us.

We might watch a movie, watch a performance, or watch an argument.

We don't have to be actively involved in the thing that we are watching.

" Last night we watched the thunderstorm until midnight."

To glare

 

When we "glare" at someone, we are usually showing them that we are angry.

A glare usually lasts for a long time and we often have a frown or a dark look on our face.

A child might glare at his mother when she has punished him.

"The kid glared at his mom when she said that he had to go to his room."

To stare

 to look fixedly at someone or   something. "Stare" is similar to glare, but it isn't necessarily a negative thing.

 " The kids in class stared at the teacher, completely confused."

To glance

  We use this word when we move our head quickly to see something, but we don't focus on that thing for very long.

We might not want people to know that we are looking at something or someone so we "glance" at it, very casually and naturally without making it obvious. "I quickly glanced at the gas prices when I drove by the gas station."

To glimpse    

to see someone or something by chance for a very short time.

I glimpsed a figure at the door of the house.

To wink: to shut one eye briefly as  a signal or to show that something  is a joke. 

She winked at me and I knew she was joking. 

Vocabulary building

This week I'll be sharing some ways of saying words, by means of other, more natural words. Let's avoid repeating ourselves !

Today: ways of saying SAID

If SAID is dead, use these instead !

Focus on materials development

Although I use coursebooks with my classes, I´m always in need of materials since many times, the content suggested in the coursebook is not enough, or  doesn't match students' needs. I usually turn to the web to get ideas and then adapt them to suit my learners' needs. However, I must reckon this is very time-consuming :/

This talk is quite interesting, I hope you find it useful. BTW, by the end of the video, the speaker shares links with useful resources for material design

Focus on materials development

my favourite !

I read this book two years ago and I still find this quotation exquisite!!

 From Alice in Wonderland

When to use INSTEAD

You use ‘instead’ on its own as an adverb.    I tried to make her laugh, but instead I offended her.

But when it’s used as a preposition, you say ‘instead of’.   I offended her instead of making her laugh.

Notice that you use the –ing form after ‘instead of' and not the infinitive (making, not make)

Because sometimes it's better to SPELL the words

Amazing Conversation between Mr. Knott and Watt

Amazing

Crotchety ( adj) : often annoyed and angry

used to describe an old person. 

The most fantastic graph I've ever seen

 if you're dealing with present perfect this is great help !!

Facial Expressions

It always happens

Ways To Provide Effective Feedback For Learning

We all know that providing feedback throughout lessons is very important.
Feedback for learning can transform a student’s learning.

When feedback is predominately negative, it can discourage student effort and achievement. That´s why when correcting, we don´t have to mention only the errors the learner has made; she must also comment on the things they have done well.
Most of the time it is easy to give encouraging, positive feedback. However, it is in the other times that we have to dig deep to find an appropriate feedback response that will not discourage a student’s learning. In this article we’ll take a look at how teachers can use these different methods to provide feedback in the EFL classroom.


Ways to provide Feedback

• Verbal Feedback Strategies 

During lessons, teachers use a lot of verbal feedback to let students know how they are doing and also to transition from one section to another. Short expressions such as “Great!” or “Good job!” can be used to praise students for correct answers. Rather than tell students directly they are incorrect, it is better to ask them to try again or reconsider their answers. The goal is to elicit the correct answer from the class and students should not be afraid of being wrong s jo keep your reactions positive. You can summarize how students did and introduce the next topic for transitions by saying “Alright! You did so well talking about food. Now let’s move on to ~.” This will reinforce the fact that students should keep up the good work. If student responses are a little lackluster, you can point that out in your comments too. By saying “I know it’s Friday but I need a bit more energy in this next section, OK? *wait for student response* OK! Great, now we’re going to talk about ~.” you show that you empathize with students while still pushing them to do their best. It is easy to include verbal feedback in every stage of your lesson.

• Visual Feedback 

Visual feedback can come in two forms. The first is any expression or gesture you use with or without verbal feedback that indicates how students are doing in class. A smile or thumbs up would be one form of visual feedback. When using visual feedback, it is not always necessary to add verbal feedback and could save you time when working through an activity quickly. You can also prompt students to reconsider their answers and self correct using visual feedback. If you use the same expression each time students say the incorrect answer, they will pick up on that. This visual feedback allows you to give students another chance without verbally telling them they are wrong. Another form of visual feedback can accompany written evaluations. This may take the form of stickers, stamps, or even charts that reflect student accomplishments. You may choose to have a display in the classroom that visually represents how well the class is doing in reaching their goals so that students can see how much progress they have made and stay motivated.

• Written Feedback 
• Teachers often have the opportunity to give students written feedback on homework assignments, on exams, and at the end of each term. These are great opportunities to point out what students did well and what areas they still need to work on. You should provide students with some suggestions of what they could do to improve and offer to assist them by meeting with them for tutorials or providing them with extra study material. You can also allow students to provide feedback for each other. Categories could include pronunciation, creativity, and performance so that the presenting students are marked on how well they were understood, the quality of their script, and the quality of their acting. 

adapted from http://busyteacher.org/4272-how-to-provide-quality-feedback-in-the-esl.html

Run out of ideas?

Some interesting ideas shared in http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/minimal-resources/

Starter level

• Speech bubbles: speaking
• 
  

• For lower-level students, choose a picture in their coursebook (or magazines - choose famous stars) that has several people in and have them think about what each person is saying.
• This could be as simple as What’s your name? or How are you? but encourage students to be as creative as they can.
• Give them time to think of their ideas, then tell them to write what they think each person is saying in a speech bubble on the picture.
• Finally, put students into groups to practise the conversations they have made.

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Pictionary: speakingThis is a good game to review vocabulary that students have covered in class, such as household objects, animals, jobs, food, sports, etc.

• First, make a list of twelve or fifteen words that you want to review.
• Then draw a line down the middle of the board to split it into two sections.
• Divide the class into two teams and explain that one person from each team must come to the board and draw a word that you give them.
• Explain that the students in their team must correctly guess the word.
• When their teammates have correctly guessed the word, they should sit down and another person from their team should come to the board and draw the next word.
• Explain that they have to guess as many words as they can in the time available.
• The team with the most number of correct guesses at the end is the winner.
• Tell each team to elect one person to go first. Give them each a different word from your list to draw and begin the game!

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Elementary level

Describe the picture: speaking

• Choose an interesting photograph or illustration from your course book and put students into pairs to describe what they can see. You might want students to concentrate on using a target structure you have recently covered. For example, an elementary class might review the present continuous by saying what each person in a picture is doing. She is sitting on a chair/He is speaking on the phone, etc.
• You could turn this into a game by putting students into groups of three or four and having one student ask a question (e.g. What is she doing?/Who is speaking on the phone? etc.) while the other students compete to be the first to answer. Students gets one point for each correct answer. The winner is the person at the end of the game with the most points.
• Alternatively, choose a picture that allows them to recycle the vocabulary they have covered in the class, such as clothes, adjectives appearance and character, etc. He looks shy, I think she’s very intelligent.

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Describe the picture: writing

• Tell students to find an interesting photograph or illustration in their coursebook and to write a few sentences to describe what they can see.
• Monitor and provide help as necessary. When they finish, put students into small groups and tell them show their picture while they read aloud their sentences.
• You may wish to make this more challenging by telling students to include three factual errors. For example by writing The man is wearing a blue shirt when the shirt is actually white. As they read their sentences their partners must listen carefully to identify the three errors.
• Note: You might want to include useful language for describing a picture, such as In the foreground/background, on the left/right, in the middle, I think it may/might be…because…, etc.

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Intermediate level

Story building: speaking

• Choose an interesting picture from the coursebook that includes some people and put students into groups to talk about it.
• Tell them to choose one person in the picture and to think in detail about them; they should decide on the person’s name, age, job, what they are saying or thinking, where they are going, why, who they are going to see, etc.
• Encourage students to build up as big a story as possible using the picture as a prompt.
• Explain they have to remember all the details as they cannot make notes.
• When students are ready, mix the groups and tell each student to say who they chose and then talk about the story they made up about them.

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Vocabulary definitions: vocabulary

• Put students into pairs with one person in each pair facing away from the board so they cannot see what you are writing.
• Write on the board about ten words that you want to review from work previously done in class.
• Tell the students facing the board to choose a word and describe it to their partner.
• Give them a time limit and tell them to record how many words their partner can guess.
• When they finish, have students swap chairs and repeat the activity with a different list of words.

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Grammar mime: grammarYou can review grammar structures such as the past simple and past continuous through simple mime, by making a story.

• Write Last night on the board and then mime to the class what you did (watched television, ate dinner, etc).
• Have the class call out what you did as you mime each action. When you finish, repeat the mime with students all calling out what you did. Then put students into groups to do the same.
• Encourage them to think up their own original stories and mime them to their classmates.

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Vocabulary mime: vocabularyYou can use mime to review certain vocabulary sets, such as sport, jobs, character adjectives, etc.

• Begin by putting students into groups to make a list of as many words as they can connected to each vocabulary set you want to review.
• Have the group with the most words write their list on the board. Check spelling and add any additional words, then model the pronunciation and have the class repeat after you.
• Then choose one word from the board and mime it to the class. For example, pretend to play tennis, be a doctor, be miserable, etc.
• Encourage students to call out the word you are miming. Mime a few more as examples and then put students into groups to do the same.

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Upper-intermediate level

Link the pictures: speaking

• Tell students to turn to a page in their coursebooks that has several pictures and to try to think of a situation to connect all the pictures.
• Tell them to build up a story with as much detail as they can. Then tell each group that they must prepare a role play of their story to the class.
• Give them time to decide their roles and what each of them says, then tell them to perform their role play.

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Good for any level

How many … can you find?A good way to revise grammar is to choose a text from the coursebook and tell students to count the number of times they can see a certain structure. For example, ask How many examples of the past simple can you find? or How many irregular verbs are there? You can also focus on word forms this way, by askingHow many adjectives/adverbs are there? etc.

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Spelling check

• Choose ten new words that students have recently covered from a unit in the coursebook.
• Write them at random on the board.
• Give students one minute to memorize them, then erase the words from the board and tell students to write down every word they remember.
• Have volunteers come to the board and write the words. Then tell students to turn to the unit where you took the words from and to find each word and check the spelling themselves.
• Finally, practise pronunciation and review the meaning of each word.
• As a variation, rather than choose the words for this activity yourself you could tell the students to look through a unit and make a list of words themselves that they think are difficult to spell. When they finish, have them dictate their list to a partner.

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Word jumble

• Choose ten words that you want to review and write them on the board but with the letters jumbled up. For example, jantosirlu (journalist), roeevrttx (extrovert), etc.
• Tell students to unscramble the words as quickly as they can. Then have them look through a unit they have completed and choose five words to jumble for their partner.