sábado, 20 de diciembre de 2014

Learning how to write

Hello!

The fourth session will we deal about how to write correctly. As English students, we write a lot but as ordinary people we use more speaking. Difference from speaking, something written  is more serious. People generally write either to communicate something to other people like letters, messages,e- mails, reports, forms, instructions,...etc, or for their personal use such as study notes, diary, lists, adress books...etc. 

In writing things are more important because mistakes are permanent there, but of course if you make a mistake you can change. In writing, all paragraph have to have minimum + 2 lines. Depending the type of writing, you'll have to be structured in a way or another.

Besides, formality is very important because it is used a different range of vocabulary, grammar, expressions..etc.


NFORMAL LETTER                                                                    FORMAL LETTER




If you want to write something in your mother tongue, you will not write it perfectly first time. Writing have a process: 

PLAN- DRAFT- READ THOUGH- REWRITE

1. Before starting to write, decide what do you want to say and make notes but not with excess just the main points.

2. Write your draft. This can help you to look at what you did it wrong and what you don't. It's better to write a draft before you draft your final version than just write the final version.

3. Reread the first draft and look it all the text. Look if there's any mistake, if it is in the correct order, if it makes sense, if you put commas, if you use the correct grammar, vocabulary, expressions etc..

4.Then, you can start to write your writing!.


Here, you have a video that show you how to write correctly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liyFKUFCQno

Learn how to speak

Hello!

This third session will be about speaking skills. I'm sure all of you once in your life did an oral presentation or speech in front of "x " number of audience . It's typical  be afraid , nervous or shy when you have to explain something to another people because you're not used to it , so I'm gonna help you  giving you some useful advices and strategies so that you be succesful!.


-Do relaxation excercises before starting the presentation. You will feel more secure and probably you will not make mistakes. Also, visualizing yourself doing well help to send off your negative ideas.







But of course if you wanna be success you have to do/not do next:

DO's

1. Using gestures to accentuate points.
2. Using humour when appropiate
3. Speak with the audience
4. Be clear, convincing and understandable
5. Make questions
6.Watch the reaction of the audience
7. Use accurate vocabulary to make the presentation more interesting
8. Enphasises the key words and concepts
9. Highlights the end of the presentation
10. Have a careless attitude
11. Wear the appropiate clothing

DONT's

1.Make long sentences
2.Be funny all the time
3.Speak slow
4.Learn by heart
5.Read from the slide
6. Speak in a monotonous way

REMEMBER: The beginning and the end is the most important part of the presentation. You don't have another opportunity to be good in front of your audience.

"The simple, the better"

here you have a video that you how to when a presentation is bad/good

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5c1susCPAE

viernes, 12 de diciembre de 2014

Learning how to listen

Today, the protagonist is Listening. Listening is an important skill of English because even we know lot of grammar, if you don't understand when a native speaker speaks it wont be possible to comunicate and be communicated. So that's in what will consists this session, in how to improve your listening skill. 

A basic Listening strategy is to predict and anticipate. The more you predict and anticipate, the more you will understand.
If you have to listen for specific information the next strategies will be useful to you:

First of all, imagine a situation: you're in class doing an official CAE exam and you're preparing your listening part before starting to listen. What would you do? Here you have some strategies that might be useful to you:

1. Firstly, in multiple choice questions underline the key words. This strategy will be very useful to know the relevant information.

2.Secondly, listen for words which have the same meaning as the key words. This can be helpful to underline or choose the correct answer. But remember: the first time you listen dont underline the answer, just listen and then at the second time underline the answer.

-In sentence completion, you mustn't have to write the exact phrase or word you listen. You have to express in your way. But beware with gaps in sentence completion: be sure where you put "x" word you heard. If there's 2 gaps it means that you have to put long word (e.g: well-made) so don't get confused and put just one. If you're not sure where you can put a word, let it be and move on the next sentence.

LINKS
http://www.esl-lab.com/
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice







sábado, 29 de noviembre de 2014

Reading strategies: Reading a text ( Part 2)

In the previous session, I gave some strategies that might be helpful and useful to you in how to read . In this session I will give to you some advices about how to read and understand a text, so that will help you to become a more effective reader.

1.There are 3 types of reading ( this strategy depends on enphasis)

A) SKIMMING: READING THE TEXT QUICKLY JUST TO UNDERSTAND THE MAIN IDEAS.

B)SCANNING: LOOK AT THE TEXT QUICKLY IN ORDER TO HAVE AN SPECIFIC POINT IN MIND OF THE TEXT.

C) READING FOR DETAIL: READING THE TEXT VERY CAREFULLY FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION.

* These strategies can be used in texts, science, books....

2.This is what you have to do if you have a text in front of you:

2. 1. Look quickly at the text to get an idea of what is about. It will be more easy to understand when you'll read again.
2.2. Read the text more carefully. If the text has quite long paragraphs, write down the main ideas of each paragraph. This strategy will help you to have an idea of the main concepts.

2.3.Write down the words which you did not know before you read the text but which you now understand.
This strategy is very useful  if you want to understand all the text. Also, your vocabulary will be enriched.

2.4. After you have read the text, try to write down three pieces of information you have learned or three ideas you have met


3.-If you're a faster reader you will have advantages like not get bored, mental or physical work.

4- If you're a bad reader and you read below 100 words per minute, you will get bored and you don't understand the text.

5- Don't read with your finger. When we read we don't have to point the words because it makes our brain more slow down.


REMEMBER: "A GOOD READER DOESN'T STOP AND LOOK AT EVERY WORD"



LINKS
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading-skills-practice
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/reading.php#.VK6zW1L5Ph8



jueves, 27 de noviembre de 2014

Reading Strategies: How to read? (Part 1)

 Sometimes, when we're learning English and we have to read something we cannot understand the meaning, the idea or the concept that has been written there. It is normal to not understand many words because we are not native speakers, but of course it depends on the time you spent it.


Here you have some strategies so that learning how to read:

1. A word is important when it appears many times.

2. Attitude is the most important: if you like or not reading, is an important part of English that helps you to acquire words.

But be careful: if you're reading a text and you have to circle a lot of words and search on the dictionary, you will lost it. This is means that the book which are you reading does not corresponds to your level, so select a low level.

HOW WE CAN UNDERSTAND A READING THAT IS IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE?

Have you ever tried to read a text in another language without know their meaning ? Many people, think that if you don't understand the language used in the text you will not be able to read and understand. Obviously, this is not true. For example, if you have a magazine in Dutch and you don't know the language, obviously it will be difficult to know what is written there but not impossible. There are many ways that it might be useful to you :

EXAMPLE:

"Gisteren was het erg koud . De straten waren leeg "


A: Compare with another language ( Dutch/ English).

B: Read carefully.

C: Look at the pictures.It is easy to understand with pictures.

D:Look at the words, maybe you can find symilar words into your language.







- If the text has a picture+composer, it's much easier to understand.