Hi!

I just want to give you a link - as I promised Angel - in case you want to review in the summer.http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Blue%20Level/Blue%20Level.html

You can find all kinds of things there: grammar lessons, reading and listening, pronunciation, dictation, etc.

Use the blue and the red levels.

Well, here I am again. It's so hot, so hot, I find it hard to remember the blogs.

Anyway, last week we spent both lessons practicing the Simple Past tense. Students are making an effort to learn all those new words: the past form of irregular verbs.

So, what did you do last weekend?

Did you go anywhere?

Questions are easy because all we have to do is use did instead of do or does. It is the same thing with negative sentences, we say didn't + the base form of the verb.

If you want a little more practice, go to this link:http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Listening_Lab/Listening_Lab_Exercise_13_past_tense_verbs.html

Yes, I know we haven't studied some of the verbs, but it is very difficult to find something with only the verbs you know.

Hello!

I was glad to see the four of you in class. Let's how many more times we get it. Well there are only a couple of weeks left.

Last week we first worked on asking questions about various people's daily life, using, of course, the Persent Simple tense of the verb and using frequency adverbs: usually, often, sometimes, hardly ever, always.

Example:

What time does Judy usually go to work?

In our second class I explained how to make the Simple Past. I insist that it is easy even if we have to learn all those irregular verbs.

Remember: regular verbs make the past by adding the ending -ed

Talk    talked

Play     played

Listen  listened

Watch  watched

Cook    cooked

Some of them, the ones that end with a -t or -d sound add a syllable in the past.

Want   wanted

Paint    painted

Decide  decided

The past form of irregular verbs is different from the infinitive and you have to study it. Some examples are:

Read      read

Go         went

Buy       bought.

Eat        ate

To make questions we use an auxiliary, just like you do with the Present Simple, but this time the auxiliary is did, the past form of the verb to do.
Example:

Did you eat lentils yesterday?

Did she sing that song in the concert? ( As you can see, the 3rd person singular is just like the other ones, so it's easier than the Present).

We also studied the prepositions on, in and at to talk about units of time. On for days, in for years, months, weeks, seasons, at for time.

Hello,

Last week we only had a class. We reviewed the frequency adverbs  and watched a video on that.  Here is the link to the video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEVIKyTgL40

You can also watch this one to review daily actions; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZGsnv9ZEQo

We keep practicing both the Simple Present, which is used when we talk about what we do in a general way- what we do during the working days, or what we do every summer - and the Present Continuous, for specific and individual actions; what we are doing now or today. But we can also use the Present Continuous for actions in a very near future, for instance, tonight, or tomorrow or in the summer, as there are only 2 weeks left  for the summer.

What are you doing in the summer? Do you have any plans? Are you going to the beach? Are you working in July? Are you working in August?

See you tomorrow, are you coming to class?

I can imagine you will not get to read this. Anyway, I hope there are more people in class today. i suppose everybody has their homework, as you are very efficient with the wasap.

Last week we did a lot of questions starting How often and review possible answers:

once a day
             a week
             an hour
             a month
             etc.
twice a day
             a week
             an hour
             a month
             etc.
3 times, 4 times, 5 times... 
             a day
             a week
             an hour
             a month
             etc.

We also practiced frequency adverbs: always, usually, often, sometimes, seldom, never.
When we make sentences with the verb to be we use these adverbs after the verb: He is never too happy.
When we use other verbs we place the adverbs after the subject: I usually play tennis in the evening.

We also used the verb can for ability:
She can drive very well.
And talked about thing we like doing or we don't like doing.

We can say, for instance:

She doesn't like driving but she can drive very well.

See you soon,

Hello!

Last Thursday students were asking each other about things they like doing in their free time. The questions are:

What do you like doing in your free time?

How often do you __________?

When do you ____________?

Who do you _________ with?

We also studied some sports. When we talk about team sports or the sport involves the use of a ball or something similar we use the verb play.

We play football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, tennis.

We use the verb go for other sports:

We go swimming, cycling, skiing, running. 

Still, there are some other sports that require the use of the verb do.

We do judo, yoga, aerobics.


I hope you enjoyed your weekend.I´ll see you Tuesday.

Hi!

How is it going? Are you having a nice weekend? I am glad it's not so hot any more. It's a bit windy though.

Here is a link for you to study food partitives. You must click on the video, the one on top. http://www.englishmedialab.com/elementaryvideos/food%20qty/food%20qty.html

You can also practice those partitives playing this game. http://eslgamesworld.com/members/games/vocabulary/memoryaudio/food/index.html

Hi everybody!

Last week we reviewed and practiced the verb tenses we have studied: the Present Simple and the Present Continuous through a very interesting exercise. We focused on the 3rd Person, singular and plural. Students had to ask each other about various people usual activities and also about their activities one particular day.

When we ask about what somebody usually does we use the Present Simple and  say:

What does he/she usually do in the morning?
or
What does he/she usually do in the afternoon?
or
What does he usually do in the evening?

If we are asking about 2 or more people we say:

What do they usually do in the morning?
What do they usually do in the afternoon?
What do they usually do in the evening?


I f we are asking about what are doing a particular day, today, for instance, we use the Present Continuous and say:

What is he/she doing today in the morning?
What is he/she doing today  in the afternoon?
What is he/she doing today  in the  evening?

If we are asking  about 2 or more people we say:

What are they doing today in the morning?
What are they doing today in the afternoon?
What are they doing today in the  evening?

We also practiced the verb like. This verb is just like any other verb in English (not in Spanish) so we have to be careful. The subject is always the person (or animal), not the thing.
This time we also practiced the 3rd person. We watched a video: in the video a boy and a girl had a conversation about foods and drinks they liked. Then we practiced the questions:

Does the girl like chicken?

Does the boy like rice?

Do the children like spaghetti? 

And the short answers:

Yes, she does or No, she doesn't.

Yes, he does, or No he doesn't.

Yes, they do or No, they don't.

Well, I hope this little summary is helpful. See you next Tuesday.

Last Thursday I had a face to face lesson with Luis. He promised he would send you the homework: he has more technical means that I do, which is great.

Anyway, last week we practiced talking about clothes again so you don't forget: we also described people again. Remember:

I am wearing a blue sweater and jeans.

Notice that when we say something singular, such as sweater, we need to say the article a, but when we say jeans, which is plural, we don't use an article.

If we want to ask about somebody's clothes we'll say.

What's he/she wearing?

Then we continued with the food and saying what things we like, what things we love and what things we hate.
We practiced the determiners some and any and asked questions using:

Is there...? (for countable singular nouns and uncountable nouns)

Are there...? (for countable plural nouns)

Have we got any...?

We also learned the terms starter, main course and dessert. 
We practiced conversations of people who are making a shopping list. We read the conversations and tried to role played them.

I hope you enjoy your weekend. I'm sure Luis will, riding his motorcycle. By the way I saw it in the news in TV. Lots of people travelling to Jerez on their machines. And yesterday I saw a group on them on the road.

Hi guys! (This is an American greeting).

Today it's raining. This is not a surprise, I heard it on the news: they said: cloudy and rainy on Sunday.

We started a new book and the first units are all about food. You already knew the word Breakfast.

I often ask you at the beginning of the lessons: What do you usually have for breakfast?

The other two meals are lunch and dinner ( and supper).

Some students in this group only have coffee with milk for breakfast. Nothing to eat. I can's understand how they manage to go through the day.

Anyway, we studied the names of

Fruits: bananas, oranges, apples, pears, watermelon, peaches, apricots, strawberries, cherries, lemons.

Vegetables:  carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, garlic, broccoli, cucumbers, potatoes, mushrooms, green beans, green peas, beans.

Meats: beef - steak-, lamb, chicken, pork. 

Dairy products: milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, ice-cream.

Other foods: cereal, rice, bread, biscuits, jam, eggs, sugar, salt, oil, coffee, tea.

Cooked or prepared foods:  soup, salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, omelette ( made with eggs), fries, baked potatoes.

I am sure there are things I've forgotten. But I hope this little summary is helpful.

We practiced talking about things we like, things we love and things we hate.
Students only hate a couple of things. Somebody hates cucumbers and somebody hates broccoli.
And they love many other things, such as fries and watermelon.

We had mentioned it before, but we studied using some and any for countable and uncountable nouns.
Examples;
Do we have any potatoes?
Yes, we do. But we don't have any eggs.

What do you need? There is some rice in the cupboard and some tomatoes in the fridge.

Get ready to say what you had for lunch next Tuesday. See you then.

Hello! Did you have a nice weekend?

Last week we studied the clothes and practiced asking: What are you wearing? 
and saying I'm wearing a red shirt and gray trousers, for example.

We also practiced describing people and learned some new words: beard, mustache, bold,earrings, so we could play Who is who.

We started working on the new book. The first units deal with food, a very tasty topic

Just as in Spanish there are words for foods that are uncountable, such as rice or salt and words that are countable, such as bananas or biscuits.

We can use some or any with both countable and uncountable nouns.
When we use them with countable nouns some and any are the plural indeterminate article.:

A banana.

Some bananas. (We don't know the exact number). Ex: There are some bananas in the fridge.
We use any for questions  instead of some. Are there any bananas?
We use any for negative sentences, always with a negative verb. They haven't got any bananas in that shop.

When we use some or any with uncountable nouns we can translate it as algo de. 

Put some butter on the plate.
Is there any butter in the fridge?
There isn't any butter here.

See you next Tuesday. I hope this is helpful for you.

Hello!

In our first week of the term we were reviewing some of the topics we had studied before Easter vacation.

We were describing people, practicing the Pr. Continuous and using There is and There are.
Next week we'll start the new book.

We  also worked a bit on pronunciation, trying to figure our the number of syllables in various words and deciding where the stress goes. We know, for instance, that the word nurse only has 1 syllable; that the word optician has 3 syllables and we stress the second syllable.

HOMEWORK

1. On page 99 do the Spot the Differences exercise. Use There is and There are. Example:  In Picture B there is a plant at the window but in Picture A there aren't any plants at the window.

2. Write about your daily routine using verbs in the Present Simple. Write 10 sentences. Example:
I get up at 7 o'clock and have a shower.

EXTRA HOMEWORK
Check this video if you have the time. It's fun. It's a collection of scenes from TV shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVuVrVr4dvI

Some verbs you don't know are: 

bother: molestar
tweet: write in Twitter
gossip: cotillear
Laugh at (somebody): reirse de alguien

Write 5 sentences. Example: In one scene a boy and a girl are studying chemistry

Hi!

Here are the links for your homework, just click on  them, then double click on the Ir al enlace.

They are on page 91. The first one, where it says WE WATCH is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGPLBCZi85s

WE PRACTICE

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/giving-directions

Here you listen to a recording and complete the gap filling exercise immediately underneath.

That's all for now, if I have some more time I'll make a summary of what we did last week.

Hello!

I will remind you of the things we are studying at the moment:

We are studying the Present Simple, which we use to talk about routines and actions that we repeat in time.

It's important to remember that the third person singular of this verb form has an -s at the end. The rest of the persons are the same.

For questions we use the auxiliary do or does for the third person singular.

Do you cook Italian food on Monday?

Does Stanley cook Italian food on Monday?


Same thing for negative sentences.

We don't cook Russian food in this restaurant.

Stanley doesn't cook Spanish food.


In order to practice the Present Simple and because it's time we learn how to talk about our routines and regular life we studied actions that we perform everyday:

wake up, get up, have breakfast, wash your hands and face, get dressed, and so on.

We are also studying how to describe a town or city. To do that we learned some adjectives:

Historic, modern, old, industrial, noisy, quiet, etc.

Since we were talking about cities, we learned some places in the city: 

bakery, supermarket, library, and so on.

And we practiced questions about those places:

What can you buy at a supermarket?
What can you do at a zoo?

And that's about it. .t is a lot of material, so we'll keep practicing it

Don't think I am lazy because I am writing the blog on Sunday. Yesterday I was very busy.

Now we are studying the Simple Present. Students already made questions and answers about it. And there are still some doubts about its use.

Remember: we use it for regular actions - habits - also  for permanent situations: She works in a travel agency.

We studied the verbs to talk about daily routines:

get up
wake up
wash your face
wash your hands
brush your teeth
get dressed
have breakfast
brush your hair
comb your hair
cook dinner
have dinner
go to bed
sleep
shave
get undressed

There is a very nice video I watched with the children where  the Present Simple is used. Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxbw8V42BlE

Take a look at it if you have time. We will see it in class anyway.

HOMEWORK

Remember you must ask questions about the places in town that are in your book.

What can you buy in a book store? In a book store you can buy books.

What can you do at the zoo? You can see animals at the zoo.

You said it was too many questions and I think you are right. So don't do all of them. You may choose 15.

Good job with your presentations, everybody!  You should be proud that you have been able to speak in English for so long. And to make yourselves understood, of course.

Last week we studied vocabulary  to talk about cities, towns and villages. We learned some adjectives to describe them:

beautiful, friendly, industrial, tourist, quiet, noisy, crowded, historic, modern, clean, dirty, polluted, etc.

Students picked up a picture of a city and chose the sentences which described them. Then they talked to each other about their city/town/village. They asked each other:

Where do you live?
Possible answer: I live in Chicago.

What's Chicago like?
There are many beautiful skyscrapers and it's near Lake Michigan. 

We also studied places in the city: hotel, restaurant, cafe, post office, police station, gas stations, fire station, bus stop, bakery, pharmacy, supermarket, fitness centre, church, night club, music hall, cinema, theatre, shop, and more. Do you remember other places?

We practiced this type of question: Is there a pharmacy in your street? or Is there a hotel in your neighborhood?

You know better than me what you have for homework because you have the book with you. I think you have to finish the reading and answer the questions.
Check this video if you have the chance. We'll do it in class anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzfMUrpN-Go

Last week we started a new unit, but we also continued practicing the Present Continuous, which is a very important verb tense in English.

In our new unit we are studying the rooms in a house or flat and objects that we usually have in those rooms. To talk about the rooms and objects we use:

There is (singular). Ex: There is a table in the kitchen.

There are (plural). Ex: There are five books in the bookcase.


To ask questions we change the order of those words:

Is there? Ex: Is there a table in the kitchen? 

Are there? Ex: Are there five books in the bookcase?


To make negative sentences we add not to the verb. And we usually make the contraction:

There is not or There isn't. Ex: There isn't a table in the kitchen.

There are not or There aren't. Ex: There aren't five books in the bookcase.


Little by little we are acquiring vocabulary and grammar structures that can help us give more detailed information. Previously we had learned prepositions of place so that now we can say things like:

My bedroom is next to the kitchen. And the living room is opposite my bedroom. There is a sofa and two armchairs in the living room. The TV is opposite the sofa. Between the sofa and the TV there is a small table. There is a tall lamp next to the sofa and two shelves on the wall. There are 3 photos and a porcelain flower on one shelf. There are books and papers on the other shelf.

That was an example (incomplete) of how we can describe the place where we live, our flat or house.

If you have time (EXTRA HOMEWORK) you can describe a room in your place (your flat or house), but I already gave you some homework and you need to practice your presentation, so don't feel pressed.

Hi!

You did a good job with the conversations.

I know you are getting a little mixed up with all those verbs. So here is a list of the verbs I really want you to learn:

talk
listen
read
write
eat
drink
say
look
close
open
play
work
do
go
sleep

That's 15 verbs. A number I'm sure you can handle.We'll practice them next week reinforce your learning.

Last week we did many exercises to practice the Present Continuous. But it's difficult to remember that it is not only the verb in its -ing form as in talking but that we must use the Present of the verb to be: I am talking. If we didn't we wouldn't know who is talking or when (the present) that person is talking.
As for questions, remember we must change the order of the words: Are you talking? Is John talking? Is his son talking?

HOMEWORK

Remember you must prepare your  presentation. The new topic I proposed is talking about a country.
An example:

Chile is a country in South America. It is very long and narrow. It's next to the Pacific Ocean. It has got very high mountains: the Andes. Its capital city is Santiago. Its flag is red, blue and white. It has got one star. (You can show a picture of the flag).
The language is Spanish, but there are other languages.
I have a friend from Chile, her name is Myra and she lives in Valdivia. She is a nurse. She is married and has got three children: two daughters and a son. She also has many brothers and sisters. Families in Chile are very large. My friend is medium-height and and thin. She has short black hair and black eyes. She is very friendly and talkative. People from Chile are usually very friendly.
A famous person from Chile is Pablo Neruda, a poet. Everybody knows one or two poems by Neruda. Gabriela Mistral, another poet, is also from Chile. She has the Nobel Prize. 
Another famous person from Chile is Allende, the president of Chile before Pinochet. I also remember Victor Jara, a folk  and protest singer of the 60s. 
Violeta Parra, another singer, is also very famous. 
Roberto Matta is a painter and artist from Chile. He has got the Principe de Asturias Prize.
A special animal from Chile is the Chilean llama: its name is the guanaco. 
A typical food from Chile is the empanada. Myra always cooks it. A typical drink from Chile is the Pisco. Pisco has got much alcohol. You can buy many things as souvenirs. You can buy a copper plate or a bag made of llama hair.

Here we are, in the middle of the winter. And we are studying the Present Continuous.

Last week we practiced many verbs. And we tried to practiced  all the persons. It takes a while to get used to it. Specially when it comes to asking questions. Remember the English language is very strict with the order of words: we need to put the subject between the auxiliary (am, are, is) and  verb+ing.

Are you reading the newspaper?

Is your son studying English?

Am I talking too much?

We also reviewed the possessive case: This is my brother's girlfriend.

Aunt Mary's daughter is my favorite cousin. 

I can't lend you this book, it is not mine, it is Jack's (Jack's book).

In our last lesson we reviewed phrases and questions that we need to use in class, like:

Can I come in?

How do you say... in English?

What does...... mean?

Can I borrow your pen?.

How do you spell...?

Can I ask a question?

Etc.

HOMEWORK

You probably remember better than me. 

I know you have to do: the False and True exercise on pg. 61 of your book.

Some extra homework:  go to this link:

http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Listening_Lab/Listening_Lab_Exercise_12_present_continuous_tense_verbs.html

Click on the arrow to listen and fill in the gaps. You may not know some of the verbs, so you may look them up in the dictionary or just look at the solutions at the bottom. 

See you Tuesday.

Welcome back and Happy New Year 2015

We started the year with a new unit. In this unit we study what it's called the Present Continuous. It is the form of the verb that we use when we talk about actions we are doing now, or today or at this moment. 

You can look at it on page 59 of your book, Lesson 12.

How do we make it?

We use the Present Simple of the verb to be and we add the verb + ing

Example:

I am                                            listening

You are                                      listening

He/She/It is                                listening

We are                                        listening

You are                                      listening

They are                                     listening

If we want to ask a question we must follow the usual order of words for questions in English:

Auxiliary + subject + verb...?

In this case the auxiliary is the verb to be, so we say:

Are you listening to me?

Are they listening to the music?

Am I drinking Coca-Cola?

Is she reading the book?

When the answer is negative we add not after the auxiliary and usually make the necessary contractions:

I am (I'm not) not listening to you.

They are not (aren't) listening to music.

You are not (aren't) drinking Coca-Cola.

She is not (isn't) reading a book.

After practicing the Present Continuous for a while we went back to Lesson 11, and practiced the Possessive in English, which we had already studied last term. We reviewed the names of family members.

HOMEWORK

Look at the picture on page 60 and write 5 sentences saying what people in the picture are doing.

Also, answer the Who questions. Only the ones that begin with Who.

After reading the passage Vicky's family, which we read in class ( it begins at the end of page 53), do the second exercise under WE PRACTICE, that is, write a sentence about each one of those people in the list. Example: Ben is Vicky's brother.

Also, complete the next exercise: fill in the gaps.

See you next Tuesday.