Our Last Classes

We read about two female writers famous for their detective novels, Ruth Rendell and Agatha Christie.

We used Agatha Christie’s biography to talk about her lifeline. It’s true that you are very young and your lifelines are short, but even though, you told me about them.

If you remember, Agatha Christie’s biography was written using past simple, that’s because she is dead and everything belongs to her past. On the other hand, Ruth Rendell’s life is told using both tenses. That is because there are finished, completed actions that belong to her past (past simple) and also things that have happened so far but could still continue. They are not completed or finished, yet. That’s why Present Perfect is used.

Agatha Christie wrote over 80 detective novels.

Ruth Rendell has been awarded with different prizes during her career.

Another use of Present Perfect is linking past with present, talking about duration.

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          Present Perfect    She has lived in the countryside for nine years

___________________________________________________________________|__              

 2005                                                                                                                 2014

Past                                                                                                                   Present

Moved to the countryside                                                                   Lives in the countryside

Agatha Christie's quiz

Ruth Rendell's Biography

As it was the last week before Christmas, we did a "Winter Quiz."

         ·            Do you know why Christmas is often given the abbreviation “Xmas”?

         ·            What part of the body is special about Rudolf the Reindeer and why?

         ·            What do the carols “Silent Night”, “Noche de Paz” and “Stille Nacht” have in common?

         ·            Do you know where turkeys originally came from? Turkey?

Enjoy your Christmas holidays, relax, do some homework and I’ll see you in 2014, 8^th January.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year

Life experiences

Week 9^th – 11^th December

We have started talking about experiences in our life.

We used “Have you ever…?” because they are general experiences and we don’t ask or say “when” we had them.

The structure of present perfect is the same as in Spanish, but its use is different, so don’t translate from Spanish into English!!!!

Have you ever found any money in the street?

Have you ever won a prize?

Have you ever asked anybody famous for their autograph?

Have you ever forgotten an important date?

We use have + participle because we are asking in general.

How much did you find?

What did you do with the money?

What prize was it?

When did you win the prize?

How did you feel?

We used did (past simple) because now we are asking about the details of a past event or situation.

To sum up: Use “Have you ever…” to talk about general experiences. Use “Did (past simple)” to ask about the details, (follow – up questions).

And, bear in mind (= take into account / consider) that in English “been” and “gone” are used differently.

Read the following dialogue for clarification:

             ·            Loli isn’t in class today.

             ·            Where has she gone? (she is not here, with us)

             ·            I think she’s gone to the bank.

             ·            (Knock, knock! Loli is coming into the classroom)

             ·            Hi Loli. Where have you been? Gone? (She has come back from the bank)

             ·            I’ve been to the bank.

In short:   He’s gone to the bank = he’s not here, he’s at the bank.

                  He’s been to the bank = he went to the bank and now he’s come back.

And I’m sure you are looking forward to knowing about your homework!

Here it is:

Answer these questions according to your own experiences. When the answer is “yes” give details about it.

Example:

Have you ever been to London? No, I haven’t.

Yes I have. I’ve been to London twice. The first time was in 1998. I went there in summer with some friends…etc.

Questions:

             ·            Have you ever been to Paris?

             ·            Have you ever lost your passport /identity card or travel card?

             ·            Have you ever had a terrible holiday?

             ·            Have you ever seen a film in English?

             ·            Have you ever been to a fortune teller?

Have a nice weekend! CU on Monday

Present Perfect Conversation

Travelling

Week 2^nd – 4^th

Last week we finished listening to the song “White Flag”.

The answer to the question, “Who usually goes down with his ship?” is …the captain. Of course!!

Usually doesn’t mean always. Take as an example the captain of the “Costa Concordia,” which crashed into a rock in Italy two years ago…

“When does somebody hold up a white flag?” When there’s a war or battle and one of the two sides surrenders (=gives up).

We read about horoscopes.

 Most of us don’t believe in those predictions but, nevertheless, we keep on reading the horoscope. By the way, there’s a majority of Gemini in our group!!

We talked about types of holiday and holiday activities.

We played “The holiday game”

We had to pick up (select) a card from three different stacks (piles of cards). In one of them there were numbers, in another one, letters and in the 3^rd one, types of holidays,  e.g. safari, cruise, backpacking, sightseeing etc.

Looking up the letter + the number on a photocopy with a series of objects, we had to make a sentence like this: “We’re going on a safari holiday and we’re taking a typewriter because…if we are attacked by a lion, we can throw it the typewriter and run away (escape).

And to finish talking about holidays, we listen a dialogue at a souvenirs shop.

Do you remember the meaning of these verbs :

  Break up /split up         She wrote the song after splitting up / breaking up with her boyfriend.

Go down                        The Titanic went down after crashing into an iceberg.

Break down                   My car broke down and I had to call the tow away car.

Listen to a vacation postcard

Plans, arrangements, promises, offers & predictions

Week 25^th -27^th

It seems that “We’ll keep in touch” is the most difficult promise for you to keep.

PROMISES:

Make a promise, keep a promise, break a promise…

Keep in touch / get in touch / lose touch

Do you still keep in touch with friends from school?

When was the last time you got in touch with your friends? Last month, year, weekend?

We learnt verbs + back.

This particle gives the meaning of “returning.”

·           Could I pay you back (returning money ) at the end of the week? I don’t have money right now.

·           “Where are you going?” “To the library. I’m taking back ( returning) the book I


borrowed last week”

·           Could you give him back (return) his calculator? He needs it.

·           What time do you go back (return) home after work?

·           I’m busy. Can you call back (phone again) later?

We learnt the different ways of talking about the future.

Here’s a summary

Will/ won’t	decisions (instant / unplanned decisions)	“We are going to the cinema.” I’ll go with you.”
	predictions (based on opinions or wishes)	It’ll rain if you have a barbecue in the garden.
	promises	“I’ll phone you tomorrow.”
	offers	“I´ll help you with your homework.”
Shall	offers (only for I, We; only in questions)	Shall I help you with your case? It looks heavy!
going to (to be + going to+ infinitive)	decisions (planned decisions or arrangements)	He’s going to have dinner with his parents next weekend.
	predictions (based on facts)	Look at those clouds. It’s going to rain.
	intentions	I’m going to boil some water to make spaghetti.
present continuous (to be + ing)	plans or arrangements (things you write in your diary. E.g. : going to the dentist, meetings, talking to your kids’ teacher etc.)	He’s having dinner with his parents next weekend.

For definite plans ( arrangements) it’s better to use “present continuous”, but you can also use “going to.” Both are correct.

I’m talking to the teacher tomorrow. I’m going to talk to the teacher tomorrow.

We started to listen to the song “White Flag.”

 But we’ll have to finish tomorrow because we ran out of time! (time finished)

"An optimist? A pessimist?" "Promises, Promises"

Week 18^th - 20^th November

This week you told me how you see life. Things are difficult at the moment but I’m lucky because I have optimistic students!!

So, you are optimists.

Adjective	Noun
I am an optimistic person.	I am an optimist.
I am a pessimistic person.	I am a pessimist.

But before talking about optimism and pessimism, we wrote a news report. The news was really interesting. “Kangaroo saves farmer’s life.”

Remember: we use present tense in headlines, (the “titles” in the news) so the item of news looks more interesting or shocking. After that we use a variety of tenses, past simple, continuous or present to report the piece of news.

Look out! News is uncountable in English and takes the singular form of the verb.

I’ve got two news. I’ve got some news. 

The news are bad.  The news is bad.

We also learnt to use “will / won’t” for predictions and promises.

Which promise do you find the most difficult to keep? Why?

Think about it and tell me on Monday!!!

And finally, we made sentences with some opposite verbs and also some confusing verbs.

Do you often lose your glasses?

Have you missed any English lessons?

Have you ever missed a bus? And a plane?

What things do people lose more frequently?

Do you lend money to friends? Why/ why not?

Do you borrow money from friends? Why/ why not?

will vs. going to

The worst film, the hottest place I've ever been to & "La Isla Bonita"

Physical Appearance

Week 11^th -13^th November

Hello again!

This week we talked about:

 ·          The coldest place in Spain. Somebody said it was Burgos.

 ·          For another one of our classmates, the worst film s/he has ever seen is “Torrente.”

 ·          The most intelligent person ,in one of our classmates family, is her husband.

 ·          The healthiest person that one of our classmates know, is her granny.

 ·          For another of you, tennis is the most boring sport to watch on T.V.

And so on...

We brainstormed vocabulary on descriptions.

We played 10 Questions, a guessing  game. Find the celebrity through questions on their appearance.

You are much better than me and you beat me!

We also learnt that in indirect questions there’s no word inversion.

Do you know who is he? Do you know who he is?

And we ended the week with a song: “La isla bonita” by Madonna.

Do you remember the meanings of these words:

Lullaby / long to / pray / breeze/ siesta ?

                                                          

For homework, don’t forget to describe someone in your family.

Adjectives - Appearance - pronunciation

Future Plans and Arrangements

Hello Everyone! Nice to meet you!

Last week was my first week with you. On Tuesday 5^th and Wednesday 6^th,we did some exercises on plans and arrangements.

We learnt that we can use either going to or present continuous for plans or arrangements. Although present continuous is the best choice when we talk about arrangements e.g.: going to the doctor’s, seeing friends etc.

We do not use present continuous for future predictions. In that case, we use will or going to- depending if the prediction is an opinion or something based on evidence.

We planned our diary for the week & made suggestions or invitations to our classmates in order to fill in = complete, the free time we had.

“Are you free on Monday?” “Sorry, I´m going to the dentist’s.”

“Would you like to come to the gym with me tomorrow?” “I’m afraid I have to look after my niece.” “What about Friday morning?” “Perfect.”

“How about going to the cinema on Saturday?” “I’d love to.” “Where shall we meet?”

Do you remember the meaning of these verbs: look forward to + ing / look up /look after  and look for? Fantastic! Because you have to write a couple of sentences with each of them!

See you!

This week we have talked about our daily routines.
What time do you have a shower?
What time do you get to work?
We have also reviewed how to ask questions (how long do you...? what do you....? When...?) and the difference between presen simple and present continuous.
How do you celebrate your birthday? And mother's day? And Christmas? Do you exchange presents? Do you visit your relatives? And what about carnival? We got some great ideas for the next fancy dress party, didn't we?
We have also learnt how people celebrate birthdays in other countries.
Finally, we have started seeing how we use the present continuous tense or "going to" for future arrangements.
Here you have some exercises so you can start practising:
http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-present-continuous-2.html
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/multi/1.htm
http://www.adelescorner.org/grammar/pres_cont/pres_simple_cont.html



One last thing, remember that we have change the class next Monday. We won't be having any lesson on Monday 28. Instead, we are having class Monday 4, Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 next week!

Have a nice weekend!