Friday 24 December 2010

Xmas and New Year's Greetings

Here it goes my Xmas for all the readers of this blog. It is a word cloud created with imagechef.com. It allows you to do amazing clouds with almost any kind of picture. Although wordle and tagul are still my favourite, imagechef is an option to bare in mind for its originality. The only downside is you have to pay if you want more advanced features.


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY 2011

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Congratulations ELLA (English Language Lab Asturias)

They say no news is good news, but this time there is news and very good ones. ELLA (English Language Lab Asturias), a site devoted to integrate language learning and new technologies, has been awarded the European Seal for  innovative initiatives at foreign language teaching and learning by the European Council. 


This award means an institutional recognition to several years of hard work and passion on the grounds of English teaching. With this post I would like to pay a tribute to the ELLA team who are not only very good friends, but, most important, a model to follow for those who are trying hard to make from technology a fundamental tool in ESL/EFL teaching.


Very well done guys!!! 


PD: Here is the link to a previous post on ELLA.

Tuesday 30 November 2010

English Central: A fun way of dealing with pronunciation.

http://www.englishcentral.com/en/videos
First of all, I must thank Maria from EOI Santa Brígida for the tip. English Central is a new attemp to make English Learning fun and effective. The idea is to watch a video, record your own voice repeating  the lines on the screen, then their speech recognition technology will analyze yours and give inmediate feedback. The aim is to help ESL students with their   pronuntiation by comparing their speech with that of a native. If you are a group of students who enjoy on-line gaming, you can also set a challange for your group and compete to see who is the best.  There are more features to this brilliant site, but I'd rather let you discover them by yourself. 

Monday 29 November 2010

CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Recently I've made this presentation to help my students to understand conditional sentences. Hope it is of help for you as well:


Tuesday 2 November 2010

Useful links

Hi again. It's been a long time since the last entry but it has been a hectic two months. Anyway, I'm back and here goes this first post of the new academic year.

Recently I have created a visual presentation with many of the links to the resources I have talked to you about and some I have discovered but haven't had the time to post here (will do soon, though). The novelty of this presentation is that you don't need to click on links and open windows, everything is displayed on the slide itself.

It`s called Useful Links and the contents have been arranged in tabs for each of the  four common skills, plus some additional ones for grammar and dictionaries.

This project is open to contributions from all of you, so don't be shy and tell us about any other resources you think are worth including. Click on the icon below and get started.

Sunday 15 August 2010

Easy Reading for the Summer

Hi, everyone!!! I hope you are all having a great summer. Just wanted to talk you about this great site which could be of great use for what it is left of the summer and getting ready for the coming school year.

This site is made of short stories of various levels together with activities and crosswords to help you building up your vocabulary.


ESL/EFL Reading - 365 ESL/EFL Short Stories

Do not forget to give feedback on the site!!! Keep enjoying your summer holidays and see you in September.

Sunday 18 July 2010

Listening for the summer: Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

Well, before we all pack definitely for the summer I'd like to share with you this fantastic site devoted to the listening skill with thousands of material to work one of your worst nightmares: understanding what it is said naturally, without the editing of a language lab. Give feedback so visitors know a little bit more about the site from your experience.

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Monday 5 July 2010

How to video chat easy and for free


Well, this is another one of Google 's brilliant ideas: the possibility of  having a face-to-face chat for free. And really easy to set up. There's no excuse now not to have a proper conversation with those you like, love or both.What's more, just imagine the great tool this could be to improve your speaking skills. Take a look at the video guide the guys from Google have made to introduce this fabulous tool.


 Grandmother's guide to video

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Saturday 3 July 2010

Prezi: a new concept on in-line presentation and storytelling

Power of storytelling - Prezi is simple: You Write, Zoom, Arrange.Using these simple means, you can express many things - with great impact.Here are some basic examples such as timelines, TOC, Zen likes.


demo-bg.png

In their words:

"Prezi is an application - an editor that lets you create prezi presentations. However, unlike many applications, Prezi can be used directly from an internet browser (e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari) without the need to install anything. Prezi can also be installed (we call this Prezi Desktop) so you can use it without internet access.

We support both ways of working with Prezi, since there are many advantages.

By using Prezi from an internet browser, you can:

  • Easily share your prezis for collaborating with others
  • Easily send your prezis and show them to non-Prezi users
  • Log in from any computer, access your prezis and work on them
  • Our licenses include the ability to export a Portable Prezi, which can be used without internet access so you can safely hold your presentations anywhere

 

By using Prezi Desktop you can:

  • Work on your prezis without internet access
  • Quickly insert large media files - there is no limit to file size
  • Easily upload prezis to Prezi.com, so you can enjoy all the advantages listed above"

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Sunday 16 May 2010

Mock exams for "Examenes de Certificado"

Do you want to have some practice before the exams for "Certificación" take place in June? Go to the web page of EOI Bilbao where you will find last year's samples for all levels. Follow this link and it will take you to the exam section straight way. I would like some feed back on the site, please.

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Wednesday 21 April 2010

"Vale a pena ficar de olho nesse blog".


This is part of an initiative called "Vale a pena ficar de olho nesse blog". The chosen blog has to copy the picture, with a link to the blog from which it has received the award . Then write ten more links to the blogs which are well worth a visit.
Thank you Saro Rosales for mentioning my blog.

This is my list:

Monday 5 April 2010

Englishpage.com


If ever you need to check any difficulty you have with any grammar point or any of the skills, englishpage.com is there to help you. It is simple, efficient and easy to handle. Obviously, it is not only a tutorial, each section includes a a good bunch of on-line exercises to help improve or correct any deficiency any student or speaker may have.

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Saturday 3 April 2010

Lyrics Training

Every year students ask for more music, specially their favourite songs, to be introduced in the lessons, but most of the times we do not devote enough time to implement this resource in the classroom. Sorry, I must say I do not devote enough time, I shouldn’t include my efficient colleagues who, I know, have seen long ago how much music can help their students to improve their learning, language speaking, of course. But now there is no excuse, a friend of mine has just sent me a link to this wonderful site which has made me reconsider my ideas about it. Lyrics Training is here to help teachers and learners use songs and lyrics as a tool for ESL, in their own words: “Lyrics Training is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages skills like English through the music and lyrics of the songs.” Do I need to say more… follow the link and do not waste time,

http://www.lyricstraining.com/index.php

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Thursday 1 April 2010

MULTIMEDIA ENGLISH CLASSROOM

I have already talked about this site on this blog, but I thought it was a good idea reminding those who are new to all this. MEC is a multimedia website meant for English learners to improve their language skills. Here are a few words about themselves and their aims: “(…) a free online classroom to learn English, designed for students from all around the world. It uses authentic material and is targeted at students of English who already have a basic knowledge of the language, but there's also a complete section for beginners. If you can read this and understand it (at least the general idea), then this virtual classroom is for you!(…)” Below you have the link to their website, there is also the possibility to follow their posts on Facebook.

http://www.multimedia-english.com/

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Saturday 27 March 2010

Phrasalverbdemon.com

There is a constant issue that worries students when they get to certain levels of language command; phrasal verbs: their use, meaning, formation… One of these linguistic tricks we all have had to face sooner or later. Well! This a good start point to visit phrasalverbdemon  a website inspired by and for phrasal verbs, written by an ESL teacher from the Canaries. The site is useful for students and teachers alike, so do not rule yourself out and grab the opportunity.

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Wednesday 24 March 2010

ELLA: English Language Lab Asturias


Reading the blog by one of my colleagues in Santa María de Guía, I found a post about this site which I bet you will all adore from the very beginning. There you can find all kinds of activities sorted by levels and skills. There are no words to describe it, you need to link to the site and start learning... And enjoying!!! Oops I almost forgot, click on the pic and you will be directed to the site straight away.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Language Studying Problems? Here's a solution.

    Hi again! Browsing the net on the search for new resources for you, I came across with this simple, easy and effective site where you can find lots of useful tips on how to study and improve your language learning. For some, it may be extremely basic but I bet you all will find some nice tips to help with those dark areas of your grammar or spelling, for example. Pay a visit to the place and let your skills grow like foam! Ooops, I nearly forgot, the name of the site is "How-to-study.com" ;) (If you click on the pic it will take you straight there)


Monday 8 March 2010

Multimedia English Classroom


No many words needed to introduce this new site, they have done that themselves. Here you have a brief and consistent explanation about their work:
"MULTIMEDIA ENGLISH CLASSROOM is a free online classroom to learn English, designed for students from all around the world. It uses authentic material and is targeted at students of English who already have a basic knowledge of the language, but there's also a complete section for beginners. If you can read this and understand it (at least the general idea), then this virtual classroom is for you!"

Interesting, isn't it! Don't miss out and visit now Multimedia English Classroom

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Campaign for Level C to become part of the EOI's curriculum


The AAEOIM (Asociación de Alumnos de Escuelas de Idiomas de Madrid) has started a campaign to claim the inclusion of level C in the curriculum of EEOOII. This campaign consists of individual letters to the Spanish Ministry of Education,  which the association would collect themselves and make sure to hand them in via the proper means (registered, stamped, endorsed an so on). Pay a visit to the AAEOIM web page ( http://aaeoim.jimdo.com/) where they have a detailed post about their aims and a sample of the letter they want those interested to send them. The deadline is March, 23. You are still in time to help with this serious matter which is of general interest for all of us, learners and teachers.


Sunday 10 January 2010

Pronunciar Ingles: An interesting blog to help with pronunciation


Hello everyone! Hope you have had a nice start of the year. I bet in the resolutions for 2010 there is a place for your English learning. Know you well, don't I? Well, I would like to introduce you to "Pronunciar Inglés", a blog set by Iciar, a Spanish girl living in London who has decided to put an end to her problems with pronunciation and, therefore, helping others to do so. Aware of the difficulties Spanish speakers have with the sounds of English, she decided to devote her time to showing us how to improve our Achilles' heel. "Pronunciar Inglés" is in Spanish and there you will find very useful tips, exercises and even videos leading to a better understanding of how the sounds of both languages work and help those with pronunciation problems and bad habits.

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