El departamento de inglés de nuestra Escuela Oficial de Idiomas y el programa ESTO (ESpañol en TOledo)  están colaborando para realizar un intercambio lingüístico entre estudiantes universitarios norteamicanos y alumnos de nuestro centro. Se os podría asignar a un alumno americano para que fuera vuestro compañero de conversación y así vosotros podríais practicar inglés y ellos podrían practicar español.  Estos alumnos/as tienen edades comprendidas entre 17 y 25 años.
Tenemos noticias de todo esto desde septiembre, pero hasta el miércoles 14 de diciembre no nos pasaron los datos, por lo que nos ha resultado imposible informaros a vosotros antes de que empezara el periodo de exámenes. Así pues, desde el departamento de inglés os pedimos que si tenéis forma de comunicaros con vuestros compañeros de la clase a través de vuestro grupo de whatsapp / facebook / email / etc, lo hagáis, porque creemos que es algo que os puede aportar muchos beneficios para mejorar vuestra competencia en inglés. 
Os pedimos esto porque debemos mandar los perfiles de la gente interesada el día 22, por lo que sólo podemos recibir solicitudes hasta el miércoles 21 de diciembre.
Para ello, debéis cumplimentar el profile que os adjuntamos aquí y enviarlo a esta dirección:   angelra80@gmail.com 

Por favor, informad a vuestros compañeros, recordad que tenéis hasta el día 21 para mandar los perfiles rellenando el documento aquí adjunto y tened en cuenta que sólo hay 29 estudiantes americanos, por lo que habrá gente que podría quedarse sin compañero/a de conversación.

Para descagar el formulario, Click here

How to write a story/narrative.

In the attached handout, you will find some information that is worth reading before writing your story. Please, check it out and try to follow the advice given there.

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Assessment charts

These are the charts that we will be using during this year to assess written and oral production.


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Interview to Malala Yousafzai

In our class, we watched a video in which Ellen Degeneres interviewed the Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. Listen to her inspiring story and write questions for the answers I gave you in class.

Click here to watch the interview.

English Stereotypes

Read this information to find out what people think about English people (not British!) around the world. Remember that they are all stereotypes and are only based on generalizations.Click here

Stereotypes

Watch this video that we analysed in class to check some of the most common stereotypes from Brazil.

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Practice online

1. These are interesting websites that you can use to improve your ability to understand talks and conversations in English:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ --- British radio
http://www.voanews.com/ ---  American news (including videos)
http://www.esl-lab.com/ --- Audio and quizzes. Go to the "Difficult" section for advanced level.
http://www.elllo.org/ --- Tracks that include scripts and explanations of expressions.
http://www.audioenglish.net/ --- Dialogues, narrations, phrases, pronunciation and role plays.

2. To download podcasts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts --- to download some radio programs and news, British English.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php --- to download some radio programs and news, American English.
http://voicesinthedark.com/content.php?iContent=50 --- to download stories.
https://catalog.librivox.org/search.php?title=&author=&status=complete&action=Search --- to download audio books.

3. Pronunciation:

http://www.howjsay.com/
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

4. Dictionaries (which include pronunciation if you click on the icon):

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.wordreference.com/

5. Our website:      

http://eoiraimundodetoledo.es

European Language Levels (CEFR)

This is a grid that may make you understand the requirements for each level according to our legal base, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

Click here to check it out.

Talk: History of Rock and Roll

Talk in English offered by Oxford University Press

Day:  12^th May 2016

Time:  5.30 pm – 6.30 pm

Place:  Room I, Escuela Oficial de Idiomas La Equidad

Talk: Symbols of the United States

SYMBOLS OF THE UNITED STATES

Talk in English offered by Oxford University Press

Day:  12^th May 2016

Time:  4.15 pm – 5.15 pm

Place:  Room H, Escuela Oficial de Idiomas La Equidad

Inspirational Speeches: I have a dream.

This is the link to the video showing the very famous speech given by Martin Luther King. Listen to it and try to understand as much as you can. It is worth it.

Click here to watch the video

A report

Read the rubrics below , choose one of them and write your report:

1. A)     An international magazine is doing a feature on your town and wants to include information about healthy places to eat.  You have been asked to write a report about one of the health food restaurants in your town. Include the following information:

-          Where the restaurant is

-          The décor

-          The atmosphere

-          The quality and variety of the food

-          The staff and the service

-          Other possible ideas

1. B)     You work for a travel magazine and the head editor has asked you to write a report on a holiday destination in your country to be included in next month’s issue. Include the following information:

-          Where it is located

-          How it can be reached

-          Where visitors can stay

-          What there is to see

-          What there is to do

-          Other possible ideas

Pronunciation

This is a practical website that you could use to improve your pronunciation.

Click here

Alive Inside: Music to treat Alzheimer's disease

This is a very tender, moving example of how music can transform people and make us feel alive.

Henry seemed depressed and  unresponsive.  Check his reaction when he listened to his favourite tracks. 


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Article about Austin Chapman

This is an article related to the text you read (page 55). Check it out  if you are interested in the subject.

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Series to develop your listening skills

This is a link to a article published in El País. It is in Spanish, of course, but you have some advice on what series to choose to improve your listening skills. I hope you can find a good one among the series they mention.

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Music

These are some vocabulary activities related to music.

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If I had an extra day in the week, I would...

This is the short film directed by Anurag Kashyap, starring Radhika Apte and Sandhya Mridul, that we will watch in our class. Check out what this young couple would do on that "everyday".

Click here to watch the video

Feelings and emotions

Here you have some adjectives related to the expression of feelings and emotions. Some of them have been learnt some time ago, but it is always good to keep them in mind.

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