After revising your Letters of Complaint, I’ve discovered some mistakes that should be revised in depth. Take a look at the following presentation and try to learn the correct form for each of them.
Tag: writing
Preparing for your final exams 2015
Certificate exams and final exams are round the corner and this blog is full of recommendations for you. Let’s talk about all the possibilities we offer here once again. Don’t say you don’t know where to start from!!!
speaking
- Watch these videos of students taking their English exams, revise the teachers’ notes and try to improve your skills.
- Watch these videos by the British Council, they give you advice about what to do and what not to do during your speaking test.
- Saro Rosales, a teacher at EOI Las Palmas GC wrote an article for her students giving advice for the speaking test, don’t miss it.
- Would you like to do a language exchange? Here you have a list of sites where you can do them.
- Intercambio de idiomas, a website where you can find out about places to practise English with other learners and native speakers. People gather together to practise while having a drink.
- Here you are a list of the topics you might be asked about during your exams.
- Finally, here you have a list I wrote for my students back in 2009, why don’t you take a look at it?
- Examples and tips to pass your speaking test, level Avanzado 2.
vocabulary and expressions
- Read this document written by my friend María Valdés, it contains expressions that can help you both with your writing and with your speaking.
writing
- This post contains a slideshow presentation with a summary of the different types of texts you could find in your certificate exam.
- Guidelines for writing, a slideshow presentation with lots of tips.
- Formal letters.
- Reviews.
- Letters of complaint.
- Sites to practise writing.
- Paragraph punch, online writing tool. This incredible website gives you clues and tips to write your text step by step.
assorted skills
- Try to follow the advice given in this article, where you can find tips to practise listening, writing and reading.
- Do you know ELLA? Here you can practise all skills.
- Busuu helps you with all skills, and you can even practise Engish with other students and native speakers. It’s a great community to learn different languages.
listening
All levels:
- Randall’s Cyber ESL Lab: Listening activities for all levels.
- Podcastsinenglish.com: Weekly podcast with video and activities. Good for all levels. Podcasts are free, but to download activities you need to pay for a subscription.
- BBC Learning English: Different podcasts with activities, video and a series.
- RepeatAfterUs.com: Plays, prose, poetry, fairy tales, etc.
- Everydayenglish.com: Videos with grammar explanations for all levels.
- English Listening Practice: Listening activities and other resources.
- Voa News: News with an American accent.
- mansioningles: listenings with differentiated tasks for all levels.
- EFL club movies: Activities with movie trailers and videoclips.
- EFL club songs: Activities with songs
- Free Audio Books: Download audio books in English in different formats (mp3, iPod, etc.).
- Arlyn Freed’s Listening Resources: List of links to assorted listening activities.
- The Internet TESL Journal: Assorted links for all levels.
- Learn English through movies
- Esl Lounge: Assorted online tests.
Básico:
- Randall’s Cyber ESL Lab: Listening activities – do the activities for the easy level.
- Podcastsinenglish.com: Weekly podcast with video and activities. Do the activities for Level 1. Podcasts are free, but to download activities you need to pay for a subscription.
- mansioningles: listenings with differentiated tasks – do the activities for level ‘Básico’.
Intermedio:
- ELLLO: Real life conversations with different accents. Good for Intermedio 1 and 2, y Avanzado 1
- Global English Salon: Artículos actuales que se pueden escuchar (con acento americano) y leer
- Breaking News English: news articles for reading or listening. Good for Intermedio 2 and above.
Avanzado 1 and 2:
- BBC Four Interviews: interviews with actors, composers, singers, politicians, athletes, etc.
- Cinema Activities: Online activities based on movie trailers.
- English as Second Language: Several activities for this level, it also includes some indications to improve your listening.
Certificate exams
Remember that the Consejería de Educación del Gobierno de Canarias has published some examples which contain the certificate exams used last year. You can see them here, and if you want to practise even more, please visit these links, which contain examples from all over Spain.
Writing reviews
The last kind of text we are revising (you had seen all of them before) are reviews. Here you have all the materials you need to write a good review of a movie or book. Just help yourselves!!!
Apart from what you can see in the presentation, don’t forget all the methods we have learnt to attract the reader’s attention, to use vocabulary related to the subject-matter and to use topic sentences.
For further information, you can check the following links.
For and Against Essays
As promised in class, here you can see the presentation I used to explain this kind of essays. There you have everything you need to write a good composition. Remember that “for and against” and “advantages and disadvantages” follow the same scheme.
Below the presentation you can see some examples.
If you want to see some examples, just check the following links:
Describing people and places
A good start for stories is always a description. There are lots of resources to make your descriptions better, but adjectives can’t be missed. Below you have a list of resources to enhance your descriptions. See you!!!
Check this website for additional vocabulary and tips to write your description of a person.
List of vocabulary for people.
Check this website where you can find vocabulary to describe places.
English in Guía 