VOKI, a way of practicing your speech.

Hello, once more I've been browsing the Internet and came across this fantastic gadget which, I think, may help you with your speech competence. It is called VOKI and allows you to give your voice to a kind of cartoon character which you can "model" your way. Here you have an example I have created. Why don't you try to create one and send it to me by email. I will publish it here and assess it. Looking forward to hearing your vokis.




Get a Voki now!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR HOPE YOUR WISHES WILL COME TRUE IN 2009
CARLOS


And for you to sing along this beautiful Xmas carol I have done this activity.
The Twelve Days of Christmas

Publish at Scribd or explore others: lyrics christmas

And the last bit. A more cheecky version sang by model Janice Dickinson. The lyrics are on the last page of the previous document. Enjoy!

TWILIGHT

Hi in less than 24 hours! I was surfing the net on the hunt for resources to offer you and came across this powerpoint slideshow about a book called Twilight. I have not read the book but it has a few pages with the description of the characters in it and many other details you may find interesting and, why not, helpful. Let me know what you think. Cya!
Twilight

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Education alice twilight

Some help for the oral exams

Hi again! God two post in less tha a week, I'm going mad!! But I have found so many things on the net that I've thought it would be a good idea to share them with you. For example here you are a link to an article of a blog tackling traffic issues. Maybe you can grab a few ideas for the oral exam. Remember the topics are educaction, holidays, traffic, changes in life and news. Cheerio!

Click here to go to the post

Exercises on Present Simple vs Continous

Hi again! I have just discovered this site where you can find exercises of all sorts. Here you have a link to an exercise about present simple and continous, one of your major problems. Hope you find it useful.

click here

By th way, I have included a widget by wordreference, one of the most famous on-line dictionaries and not a bad one.

Hugs.
Carlos

Descriptions (Basic)

Hi everyone! I'm posting an activity I created last year for the studnets of Basic 1 with pictures of well-known celebrities as a means to practise the description. It is very basic but it is always helpful. Enjoy!!!

Tip for vocabulary!!!

Two months have passed, quickly I may say, and I can already give my opinion on what I have observed your problems are in the classroom.

I have seen how much you all struggle when speaking. In many cases, the reason is the lack of the exact word you want to use what makes your efforts useless and you get disappointed. Final result:you block and no conversation takes place (in the classroom, there is a side effect: Spanish takes over).
One tip that might help you is the use of paraphrasing. This technique consists on using a description of the word you want to say or giving an example. For example you want to say that the delivery people have broken the sofa you had bought, but you do not know the word 'delivery' so you can say: " the people who bring things home broke the sofa I have bought." Maybe you can sound a bit silly or feel stupid because you think you should know the word, but communication is successful and that is the most important thing.
How would you paraphrase these words: Binoculars, pendant, file, lump sum? Looking forward to your answers.
Carlos

New school year!!!

Hi everyone! Another year ahead and new fresh ideas are boiling in my mind to make this blog useful for you all. As I said last year this blog is a tool for my students to improve their communicative competence outside the classroom as well as a way of keeping in touch with English language community.Do not hesitate and post your thoughts or doubts and I will reply as soon as possible.