ISE I: To wear vs. to dress

Here you have a really good presentation about the difference between these two verbs. See you next week in class!

Wear, put on and dress from Inma Dominguez

Useful English expressions: Agreeing and Disagreeing

Here you have a limk to a web page where I have found some more expressions that you can use to agree or disagree with a statement. I think these are really useful for you, specially to use in your oral exams!

Expressions for agreeing and disagreeing

ISE I: Useful expressions

As I already told you today in class, here you have some useful expressions an examples of language to use in class as well as in your exams. 

If you have any doubt about the meaning or the use of the expressions, do not hesitate to comment in this post or to contact me. 

Click on the following link to download the file to your computer.

ISE I Language

Hope you use them!

See you next week!

ISE II: Useful language

As I already told you today in class, here you have some useful expressions an examples of language to use in class as well as in your exams. 

If you have any doubt about the meaning or the use of the expressions, do not hesitate to comment in this post or to contact me. 

Click on the following link to download the file to your computer.

ISE II Language

Hope you use them!

See you next week!

ISE: Conectors

As you already know, we use conectors to link our ideas in a composition or in speechs.

We use conectors to add information  to a paragraph, to sequence, in a logic way, what we want to say, to compare two or more ideas, to contrast information... etc

That's why I leave you in this post some files including lots of conectors, so that you can use them in your writing assignments.

Conectors_01

Conectors_02

I hope that they are useful for you. I expect to see some of them in your next assignment!

ISE II (B2): Portfolio Tasks. Second Task.

Here you have the different tasks for the second porfolio composition. Remember that you have to keep the corresponding structures and that you have to use all the vocabulary related with the topic and the grammatical structures we have been using in class.

See you next week!

Portfolio tasks. Section 2: Factual Writing. ISE II (B2) from Anabel Blasco Martín

ISE I (B1): Portfolio Tasks. Second Task.

Here you have the different tasks for the second porfolio composition. Remember that you have to keep the corresponding structures and that you have to use all the vocabulary related with the topic and the grammatical structures we have been using in class.

See you next week!

Portfolio tasks. Section 2: Factual Writing. ISE I (B1) from Anabel Blasco Martín

ISE II (B2): Relative sentences

In this short presentation you have some information about relative sentences. Remember that, in  enlgish, we have two types of relative sentences: defining relative sentences and non-defining relative sentences. all the information you need to know about these types of sentences is in the power point presentation below:

Relative clauses. from Anabel Blasco Martín

ISE II (B2): Expressions for agreeing and disagreeing

Here you have some more expressions for agreeing and disagreeing to complete the theory we have been seeing in class today. Remember that I expect you to use them in your writing assignment as well as in the speaking exercises that we do in class. 

Have a good week!

Expressions for agreeing and disagreeing from Anabel Blasco Martín

ISE: Pronunciation

Here I post a little presentation  about the pronunciation of two similar sounds in English: d and th. Hope it is useful for you!

Pronunciation from Anabel Blasco Martín

Diferencia entre “to say” y “to tell”

En esta entrada vamos a ver la diferencia entre los verbos to say y to tell que se traducen al español por “decir o contar”.

To say se utiliza cuando informamos a alguien de algo. Lo usamos tanto en estilo directo como en estilo indirecto:

          Examples: She said ‘This is horrible / He said that he wanted a drink

También usamos este verbo cuando hacemos una pregunta sobre un idioma (Example: How do you say ‘book’ in Spanish?) y con expresiones como to say hello/goodbye/ please/ thank you/ happy birthday/ Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year/ Congratulations…

Por el contrario, usamos to tell cuando queremos saber cómo llegar a un sitio.

          Example: Can you tell me where the bus station is, please? [NOT: *Can you say me…]

También lo usamos con las wh- words (Examples: He told me how to send a fax/ Tell me when you want to have dinner) y con expresiones tales como to tell someone the time/ a story/ a joke/ your name/ address/ telephone number…

 

Pero la diferencia más importante es que to tell va seguido de un objeto indirecto, es decir, inmediatamente después de este verbo tenemos que indicar la persona a la que le decimos algo. To say no puede ir seguido de un objecto indirecto.

          Example: He told me his name [NOT: *He said me his name]

En el siguiente vídeo, tenéis más información acerca de esta diferencia:

ISE I (B1): Formal letters

Here you have the link to download the writing assignment for this week. Remember that you must write a formal letter.

Formal letter.

In the following video you have some advice that you must follow to write your formal letter correctly:

Finally, I also leave in this post a document with useful expressions to write a formal letter. I hope you use some of them in your writing assignments.

Useful expressions.

See you next week!

(This post is for B1 students who go to class on Satuday)

ISE I (B1): Portfolio Tasks + subject areas of the exam

Here you have, first, the five portfolio tasks. Remember that you have to select one from the list and write a letter or an email between 70 and 80 words for next week.

Portfolio tasks for ISE I from Anabel Blasco Martín

Secondly, I leave you as well the topics for both the controlled written exam and the oral exam:

Remember that you cannot choose the topic for the oral exam from the list above. Also, notice that all the areas are in your books (topics 5 to 8).

All the areas above coincide with topics 1 to 4 of the book.

I recommend you to start doing a little glossary of vocabulary in which you must include all the words related to the topics. This will help you study for the exam.

Have a good week!

ISE II (B2): Subject Areas for the exam

Here you have the list of topics for the exam I have shown you in class this afternoon.

Remember that the topic you have to select for the oral exam should not be selected form the list above.

The next image contains the topic for the portfolio and the written exam.

I recommend you to start doing a vocabulary glossary containing all the words you need to know. As you can see, the topics in the exam are the ones we are studying in class, so you have to study them as much as you can! 

Have a good weekend!

ISE II (B2): Exercise 9b, page 18

If you remember, a couple of weeks ago, we did an exercise about the oral part of the exam, specifically the conversation part in which I read some prompts and you had to write some question you can ask related to the topic. Then your classmates revised them and added some ideas. Finally and after two weeks, I have ordered your questions and put them together in a file. You can download the file by clicking in the following link:

Exercise 9b, page 18

Sorry for the delay and see you on Thursday!

ISE II (B2): portfolio tasks,first section

Here you have the five portfolio tasks of the correspondence section. Remember you have to choose one between them!

Portfolio tasks. section 1. correspondence from Anabel Blasco Martín

ISE III: Portfolio tasks + easily confused words

Here you have the five portfolio tasks of the correspondence section. Sorry for  the delay in posting! Also, I leave you the presentation we saw about the words rob, steal and burgle which, as we learnt last Monday, easily confused.

Have a good week!

Portfolio tasks. section 1. correspondence from Anabel Blasco Martín

Easily confused words from Anabel Blasco Martín

Artículo determinado "the"

El artículo determinado en inglés tiene una sola forma, the, que es invariable en género y en número, de manera que nos sirve para traducir los artículos españoles el, la, los y las.
 

Debemos hacer una distinción con respecto a la pronunciación del artículo determinado: si la palabra que sigue al artículo the comienza por consonante, este se pronuncia /de/, mientas que si la palabra que sigue al artículo comienza por vocal o h muda, éste se pronuncia /di/. Esta distinción no es muy importante puesto que esta regla no es siempre respetada por los hablantes ingleses que pronuncian /de/ o /di/ indistintamente.

Usamos el artículo determinado the en los siguientes casos:

• Para referirnos a algo que ya ha sido mencionado previamente para determinar o definir aquello a lo que estamos haciendo referencia. Ex: The book is rather good (La persona con la que estamos hablando ya sabe a que libro nos estamos haciendo referencia).
• Con nacionalidades: Ex: the Spanish, the Japanese…
• Con adjetivos que se usan para referirse a una categoría determinada de personas: Ex: the poor, the young… 
• Con el verbo “to play” + el nombre de un instrumento: Ex: Allison plays the piano very well. 
• Con sustantivos que se refieren a lugares públicos: Ex: I like going to the cinema. 
• Con sustantivos que tienen referencia única: Ex: the sun, the moon, the stars, the sunset…

 

Informal letters: some useful expressions

Here you have the presentation we saw in class about informal letter containing some useful expression I would like you to use in your compositions:

Informal letters: some expressions from Anabel Blasco Martín

Also, in the links below you can download the task for next week as well as a document containing more expressions and some examples of informal letters:

Task

More expressions

Examples (click on the following links):

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

Diferencia entre "too" y "so"

En esta entrada vamos a ver, a través de un vídeo, la diferencia entre las "too" y "so", dos palabrasmuy básicas y simples que a menudo son confundidas. 

Ambas tienen  el significado de "algo más". Sin embargo, no se usan en los mismos contextos. 

SO - tiene un significado positivo. Expresa el tamaño de las cosas, cuando hay más cantidad de la que creíamos.

TOO - tienen un significado negativo.

 Veamos primero el vídeo:

En resumen:

Para hacer una actividad relacionada con el vídeo, haz click en el siguiente enlace:

Too or so?