What are your family doing at the moment?

My husband is working at the moment. Perhaps he is sending an email or talking with a client. My children are playing with their toys in the living-room.

My parents are in their house and I'm sure they are watching TV while my sister and my brother are working.

What are your family doing???

Tell me in a comment ;-)

Remember to use the present continuous to talk about actions that are happening at the moment we are speaking.

The importance of writing

Hello everyone,

This is a quick post about writing to remind you about its importance. 

In class we normally focus on speaking and listening because these are the skills you need the most. However, we cannot overlook the importance of writing.

You normally practise writing at home when you do the grammar activities, answer the reading comprehension questions or when you do a composition. In class we hardly ever write and, when we do, is normally very small things. For this reason you need to write more. You need to find opportunities to learn new things and revise the language you already know and writing is a good method.

Writing gives you a good opportunity to learn new words, revise the words you already know and expand your knowledge of them. Writing also helps you to practise grammar structures and patterns studied at the previous lessons. In addition, the more you practise the better you write. By practising writing your reading, listening and speaking skills also improve.

All the works you hand in are marked and corrected very accurately for you to learn from your mistakes, but sometimes you need to write just for the sake of writing and communicating and this is what you need to do more. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes, it doesn't matter if your text isn't perfect, the simple fact of writing will activate your knowledge and this will help you learn and fix the structures in your brain.

Try to find opportunities to write (and therefore learn):

1. Write your shopping list in English

2. Write your "To do list" in English

3. Text or whatsapp your friends in English

4. Write the comments in our Facebook group in English

5. Write comments to my blog entries (this is particularly useful because you always have a writing sample that you can copy so it's an excellent opportunity to revise the language we've seen in class)

Can you think of other ways of improving your writing?

Do you reckon you will start writing more in English from now on?

What do you usually do on Saturdays?

I don't work on Saturday, so I like to have a lazy morning on Saturdays. I usually get up about 8 o'clock when my children wake up ;-P . I give them their breakfast and my husband goes to buy some bread. We have breakfast together and then I cook some lunch while I listen to music and my husband does some housework. Then, we always go for a walk or we take the kids to the park. 
We feed the kids and then we have lunch around 2 pm, while the girls sleep we watch a film. We often have lunch with our family. In the afternoon we go to the swimming-pool or to the beach. We sometimes meet our friends or invite them to have dinner at home.




What do you usually do on Saturdays???

Tell me in a comment :-)


Remember to use the present simple to speak about routines and use the frequency adverbs to say how often you do something.

Coffee OR tea??

What do you prefer coffee or tea?


Listen to some people answering this question:

I'm a coffee person! I like drinking my coffee every morning in front of the computer, but sometimes I also enjoy a nice cup of tea.

What about you??

Writing Emails (informal vs formal)

It's very important for your exam to know how to write emails and the differences that there are between informal and formal email. Have a look below to check the format, lay out and useful language you can use.

When you're down, what makes you happy?

Listen to some people answering the question:

When you're down, what makes you happy?

Listen to Pharrell Williams' song Happy. Do you like it? Does it make you happy?

What makes you happy?

Tell me in a comment :-D

Biographies

Write a biography of a famous person who is alive.

Look for some information on the internet in English.
Write down the important dates and events. Do NOT copy full paragraphs!!
Write a biography of about 150 WORDS.

Include the following information:

ABOUT THE PAST:
When / born?
Where / born?
What / do after school?
(get a job, go to university, get married, have childern)

ABOUT THE PRESENT:
Where / live now?
How long / live there?
What / do?
How long ...?
What / do in his/her free time?

Write your biography as a comment to this post.

To write a comment you have to do the following:
1. Click on "comments"
2. Sign in with a google account (a gmail account)
3. Write your text where it says: Enter a comment
4. Click on "publish"

Shopping

1. Do you like shopping?

2. What do you prefer shopping centers or High Street shops?

3. Have you ever made a shopping trip?





Tell me in a comment ;-P

What did you do at the weekend?

Did you go anywhere exciting?

Did you do any housework?

Did you study English?

Did you do anything relaxing?

Did you meet any friends?

Did you watch an interesting movie?

What did you do last summer?

Last summer, we decided to have a different holiday. We like travelling and we always try to visit a new place every summer. However, last summer we decided to do something different and new to us.
We rented an apartment in the South of the island and stayed in Los Cristianos for a month. We really enjoyed the experience. We had a relaxing beach holiday which was what we were looking for. We used to go for a walk in the morning, take the kids to the park and have a coffee in one of the many nice and cosy cafés there. We would then go to the apartment, have lunch and let the kids sleep the siesta. After that, we went to the beach in the afternoon and spent there all afternoon swimming, sunbathing and playing with the kids on the beach.

We loved it! The kids had a great time, we relaxed and really enjoyed the experience.

What did you do last summer???

Tell me in a comment.

Remember to use the past simple to talk about past finished actions and time sequencers and connectors to order events in your text.

My best friend

Do you have a best friend or a very good friend?

Why is he or she your best friend?

Listen to the podcast and check how people answer the question.

My best friend is Jess, I met her at school so we know each other since we were children. 

She is a nice and friendly person and a very good friend.  She is fun and we share some hobbies so there are many things we can do together. I know I can tell her all about me because she likes listening to my things. She is very talkative and extrovert. When we are together we always have fun.

When we were teenagers we used to do a lot of things together. Now we both have a family and don't meet so often but we ring each other every week. 

Although I don't see her very often these days, I know she is always there when I need her! And this is why she is my best friend.


Now, tell me about your best friend! Write something about him / her and leave it as a comment ;-)


Remember to use the personality adjectives you already know when talking about your friend.

How healthy are you?

Do you think you...

• eat enough fruit and vegetables?
• do enough sport or exercise?
• drink enough water?

Write your answer in a comment ;-P

Housework

I love cooking and I don't mind cooking everyday, but housework.... housework is a different story!

Washing-up is ok, laying the table is not a problem either, but I never make the beds although I think I should do it and I hate ironing, I think it's really boring.

What about you? What house do you like? What things don't you like?

Do you think housework is fun? Can it be enjoyable?

Watch this video giving us advice on how to do housework happily ;-P

What things does she mention to make housework fun?

What do you dream about?

Listen to some people answering the question:

What do you dream about?

And what about you? What do you dream about?

Write your answer in a comment.

Writing an article

Articles

Your first day at school

Do you remember your first day at school?

• What happened?
• Who did you meet?
• What did you think of the school?
• How did you feel?

Tell me in a comment and follow the instructions for writing a blog entry.

Writing a blog entry

What is a blog entry?

A blog entry is a post you write to be published online on a blog.

What is a blog entry about?

It is generally informal and very personal. You can be asked to tell a personal experience, an anecdote, a story, etc.

How do I write a blog entry?

A blog entry should have a title, summarising what the post is about.

You should start with an interesting sentence or question to make the reader want to continue reading.

You should also finish with an attractive sentence to leave a good impression on the reader.

Making direct questions and inviting the reader to leave a comment is recommended to personalise your post.

The register is usually quite informal so bear this in mind when choosing your connectors and vocabulary. Make it brief and catchy to attract the reader’s attention.

How do I structure my post?

As any other piece of writing, the entry blog will have the following structure:

1.     the opening paragraph (where you will introduce the topic or set the scene)

2.     the body (where the main composition of the entry will be posted, mention here the facts, events, your opinions, etc.)

3.     the closing paragraph (where you will try to round up everything)

Where do you live?

• Do you live in a village, a town or a city?
  

• Where is it?

• How big is it?

• What's it like?

• Do you like living there?

Tell me in a comment!

Writing Test Tips

Whenever you write a composition you have to follow these steps:

1. PLAN your IDEAS (what are you going to write about?)


2. PLAN your LANGUAGE (verbs, adjectives, nouns... which language do you need?

3. PLAN the STRUCTURE (what order are your ideas going to follow?


After these three steps you can write your composition, but remember to answer the questions with the number of words specified.


When you finish writing, REVISE your composition and look for the mistakes you usually make.

Some come mistakes are:

• Final -s third person singular
• Plurals
• Possessive Adjectives
• Articles
• Subjects

The Flatmates: New Year's Resolutions

Watch this episode of The Flatmates from the BBC and listen to them talking about their New Year's Resolutions.

You already made in yours in class, but if you didn't come to class or want to tell me again,

write your New Year's Resolutions as a comment.

Next year, I want to read more and I want to start a diet after I have my baby.

What about you??