Idioms

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Idiom of the day:

A necessary evil.

Something that you do not like but which you know must exist ot happen.

Exams are a necessary evil, they are the best way to make people learn!

B1 class 21/12/2015

Merry Christmas everybody!

Last day of the course before the Christmas holidays. We started the lesson with the idiom of the day: a necessary evil. An example of this could be exams, and that's why for homework students must write an essay discussing the importance of exams.

Then we corrected the exams discussing the solutions and we concluded the class wishing everybody Merry Christmas!!

B1 class 16/12/2015

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Good evening dear students!! We've finally had the first exam today and remember that it only counts 10% of the overall mark so do not worry too much if you think you'll get a poor result.

What's the importance of examinations? Some people think that exams make students study and therefore, they can prove they are learning. Other people believe that exams are not effective and usually demotivate students.

What do you think? Please share your opinions about the importance of exams in the comments section below.

Composition 3: The best way so as to know continents of the world ? Arturo

Most people spend time in order to travel around the world. People enjoy going on trips around unknown places.

On the one hand, some people use guide books in their journeys. They believe that using a guide book they can choose the most interesting places to visit. Furthermore, they watch different points of view in Internet blogs. Guide books include the landmarks of different places. Therefore, guide books is are a tool to go abroad.

On the other hand, some people don't prefer using guide books. They enjoy discovering unknown places. In addittion to this, in some guide books the info is not up to date. However, you need a map of the city so as not to get lost in big cities.

From my point of view, I prefer travelling with the guide books but I like medium level guide books. Besides, I enjoy visiting a lot of places without missing fun.

B1 class 14/12/2015

Monday was the last day before the exam and we spent most of the class solving doubts about how the exam was going to be and which things students should pay more attention to.

We also checked the homework, which was quite a lot. First of all the rewriting exercise; this is a complicated type of exercise but with some practice students shouldn't have big problems doing it.

Then we checked the letter with the missing words that had to be filled in with the words from the box. This exercise was more complicated because there were too many gaps.

Finally we checked the exercise about derivation on page 27: how to form adjectives from nouns and nouns from adjectives.

See you all next Wednesday in the exam.

Improve your skills: Listening

Watch and listen to the interview with Tony Wheeler, co-founder of the Lonely Planet travel guide books. Choose the best option that finishes each statement.

Rewriting II

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Idioms

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Idiom of the day:

While the cat's away, 
the mice will play.

This idiom is frequently used in the context of work or class. It means that when there is no one in authority present (the cat: the boss or the teacher), people (mice: employees or students) do whatever they want, usually not related to what they are supposed to do (work or study). 

Guidebooks: a travel book required or outdated?

Is it necessary to purchase a guidebook or we can we get similar information from other resources? Has “the digital era” made the guidebooks outdated or are they still required?

Ten years ago, when someone planned an independent trip, they went to the bookshop to pick up travel guidebooks because they provided us with a lot of information about our destination but, with the arrival of the Internet and the applications (apps) for smartphones, things began to change. 
Travel guidebooks created websites (for instance, “The Thorn Tree” by Lonely Planet) for travel advice, maps, … In this way, we can read and print out the information to for our travel instead of buying guidebooks.

In spite of that, travel guidebooks are in the bookstore. Why? Let’s take a quick look at the  their advantages and disadvantages of theirs.

On the one hand, travel guidebooks offer us a lot of information about historical, cultural and geographical references of the country where we are planned planning to go. Besides, we can learn some phrases that we can use during our travel, and guidebooks provide us information about where to eat, what to see as well as where to sleep. What is more, they are very easy to use because they have an index and follow a logical format. In addition, a travel guidebook, which may be a paperback or e-book, comes in handy while we are travelling. We can have easy access to these books because they don’t require batteries, internet access or cell phone coverage! We shouldn’t forget that in a rural area or in a developing country there isn’t internet access.

On the other hand, the information provided in guidebooks is limited; for instance, we (can) might want to know something that may not be in the guidebook. For that matter, travel guidebooks can be outdated and we might be using outdated information about timetables, hotels, restaurants, shops or any information relevant for us our travel plans. Moreover, guidebooks are heavy to carry them everyday and besides, they can be expensive compared with travel websites or free information available on line.

In conclusion, I believe the key aspects are what kind of information we need and if we are willing to pay for it. If we need only basic travel information it isn’t necessary to purchase a guidebook but if we want detailed and oriented information, we may be need one or two guidebooks. Moreover, in spite of travel websites and apps, I think travel guidebooks nowadays are an important and essential information source.

Congratulations Mayte!! Very good composition in terms of structure and you have included lots of connectors as well.
The vocabulary you have chosen is very appropriate and you prove you know how to use it in the right context.
The arguments 'for' and 'against' are well supported with examples and I can see the writing flows. 

B1 09/12/2015

Hello everyone, it's been a long weekend and some of you have decided to extend it a little bit.

We started the lesson with the idiom of the day: While the cat's away, the mice will play. A couple of students got the meaning right. I'll post tomorrow the explanation for it.

Then we continued the lesson correcting rhew homework: ten sentences for rewriting. You can also do the exercise online if you click here. Also for homework we checked exercise 6 on page 25. This was related to present perfect simple or continuous. Then in pairs we did the exercise 3B on pages 102 and 107: students asked each other the questions using the present perfect simple or the past simple.

Then in pairs again students corrected the reading exercise on page 26: two young people who went on a volunteer holiday and tell their experience.

We concluded the lesson with a listening exercise about India in which two people asked for recommendations about the things to do there. We also completed all together exercise 3 where we studied different ways to recommend things.

For homework students must do exercise 5 b and d from page 27 and I gave them two photocopies with the a cloze exercise you can also do online and another rewriting exercise. You can download these exercises here.

Improve your skills: reading comprehension

Read the following interview with Tony Wheeler, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guide books. Match the questions to the appropriate answers. There is one distractor.

Hotel review

My wife and I stayed at the Wellington hotel for 3 nights. Our experience there was not completely satisfactory; the bed was quite uncomfortable and the TV had only 4 channels.

I can understand they didn’t change the bed sheets but I was hoping we would get fresh towels after the second night, the towels we had were a bit humid.

Breakfast was included in the price but just a cup of coffee with milk and a croissant is not exactly what we would expect, a little more variety would be nice from them.

On the contrary, I must admit that the staff were very helpful and we were provided with lots of information about things to do in the city.  

Please write in the comments section your own review of your last stay at a hotel mentioning the good and the bad aspects.

Improve your skills: reading & writing

Read the letter asking for advice and fill in the gaps with the correct word.

 
Now that you have completed the task, what advice would you give Fiona? Write your comments in the comments section below.

Idioms

Idiom of the day:

To have itchy feet

A very strong or irresistible impulse to travel to different places.

You have just come back from India and you're now planning your next trip to South Africa, have you got itchy feet again?

Improve your skills: Writing

When students are planning a composition the structure is one of the things students sometimes neglect, especially when they haven't had formal training and they must write an essay during an exam. The use of connectors is as important as checking the right tenses and appropriate vocabulary.

First thing that must be taken into consideration is the title of your essay; it must be appropriate for the topic and tell the reader what you are going to write about.

In the introduction give a general overview of what you are going to discuss afterwards adding a contrasting point.

In the second paragraph state the advantages. Mention a couple at least and provide examples that support your arguments.

In the third paragraph state the disadvantages. Again mention at least a couple and provide examples as well.

In the final paragraph state your conclusion giving your personal opinion about the topic.

Below you've got a sample of what a discursive composition might look like and what the position of connectors would be. You can write a for and against composition using this model on any of the following topics:

- Guide books are a thing of the past.

- Package holidays give you very little freedom.

- Mobile phones: we are too dependent.

Some of the aspects that are taken into consideration when evaluating your piece of writing are the following:

Organisation: is the organisation of your piece of writing clear for the reader? Bear in mind the number of paragraphs and the information in each paragraph.

Style: have you used in your text a level of formality in accordance to the type of writing? Bear in mind the use of contractions, vocabulary, connectors… 

Accuracy: have you used grammar and vocabulary appropriately and correctly? It is very important that verb tenses are introduced properly and the vocabulary is carefully selected.

Cohesion: have connectors been introduced correctly in order to link sentences and paragraphs so that the text has coherence?

Quality: depending on the level, the student is required to introduce certain grammar structures and vocabulary which are part of the syllabus for that particular level. 

B1 class 02/12/2015

We started the lesson yesterday with the idiom of the day: to have itchy feet. I'll publish a post with the explanation soon.

We focused the lesson on speaking and writing. First of all we checked the homework on page 24: vocabulary related to travelling. We saw which expressions go with travel, get and go on. Using this vocabulary students discussed in pairs the advantages and disadvantages of using guide books when travelling and with that information they must write a for and against composition. You can see a sample structure of a for and against composition here.

Then they discussed their experiences using guide books: the last time they used a guide book on a trip.

We finished the lesson I explained the difference between using present perfect simple and present perfect continuous.

Present perfect continuous: it's used to talk about activities that started in the past and continue in the present.

I've been studying English since 9 o'clock.

Present perfect simple: it's used to talk about states that started in the past and continue in the present.

I've had my car for more than ten years.

For homework students must do exercise 6 from page 25 and exercise 4 from page 26. And also write a composition about the advantages and disadvantages of using guide books.

Idioms

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Idiom of the day:

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

This idiom means that it's better to go for something that is certain than to go for something of more value but which is not sure.

A bird in the hand is yours, and it's not going anywhere unless you let it go. But if you leave it and go for two in the bush, there is no guarantee you'l catch them and you might end up with nothing in the end.

Rewriting

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