Thursday, September 30, 2010

DESCRIBING PEOPLE


In this unit we will learn to describe people in terms of both physical and personality traits. After learning some useful sentences and phrases to describe people in English, you will listen to some descriptions on famous people, and finally write your own description. Good Luck!

Printable Copy of the DESCRIBING PEOPLE worksheet.

EXERCISE 1. A QUIZ
Have some fun with Describing People Quiz. Click on link and see how many words you know.

EXERCISE 2. SENTENCES AND PHRASES
Listen to some sentences and phrases for describing people in ESLGOLD. Write them down on your notebook and practise saying them with your partner. Click on the Headphones for audio.

EXERCISE 3. ORDER OF ADJECTIVES.
Are you confused about using more than one adjective in a sentence? Remember the golden rule that ALL adjectives are put BEFORE the noun. Believe it or not, there is a specific order that ajectives follow when English speakers are describing something. In this exercise, a teacher of English describes this order. This is helpful in writing as well as speaking. So watch the video on Order of Adjectives in English.



A) Adjective-order 1. Choose the correct word-order for each noun phrase.
B) Quiz. Order of adjectives.
C) British Council. Practice with a grammar game.

EXERCISE 4. FACE MATCH.
Listen to a description of a person. You'll see six faces. Which is the right person? Choose button and find the face that fits the description. Click the link on British Council to start this game.

EXERCISE 5. PERSONALITY TYPES.
Listen to a person describing a personality type in ESL-LAB. Then choose the woord that describes that personality type. Score your quiz.

EXERCISE 6. LISTENING.
You will be given a worksheet. Listen to the different listening and complete the worksheet. Hand it back to your teacher.
Listening 1 (elllo.org). Guess the Girl.
Listening 2 (elll.org). Guess the Guy.
Listening 3 (elllo.org). Hair Styles.
Listening 4 (esl-lab). Haven't we met before?
Listening 5 (esl-lab). Lost in a Crowd.
Listening 6 (esl-lab). Party Time.
Listening 7 (esl-lab). What is she like?
Listening 8 (esl-lab). Clothing Styles.
Listening 9 (esl-lab). Clothing and Fashion.

EXERCISE 7. A LITTLE BIT OF FRENCH.
Work with descriptions but pay attention! The instructions are in French.
A) Vous allez pouvoir entendre des ADJECTIVES DE PERSONNALITÉ et observer leur traduction.
B) Some more practice with DOCUMENT ICONOGRAPHIQUE.

EXERCISE 8. WHAT ARE THEY LIKE?
Look at some pictures. Which books and characters can you identify? There are 11 writers you should think of ... Did you find the 11 writers? Just look at the next pic to see if you found them all. Now do you know what they look like? Do the activity, I am sure you will be surprised!


(Activity created by Renée Maufroid, Quia)

EXERCISE 9. A PERSONALITY TEST.
Find out with the "What Am I Like?" test what your personality type is.

EXERCISE 10. THE ART OF CRIME DETECTION.
The Art of Crime Detection is an interactive Web activity consisting of an introductory animation, two crime-solving scenarios, and a open-ended drawing tool. You help to solve annoying but rather innocuous crimes (e.g., toilet-papering a tree) by using both the left and right brain to draw composite sketches of a perpetrator.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

PRESENT SIMPLE OR PRESENT CONTINUOUS


Englisch-hilfen.de
An easy and funny way to learn English online. You can test your knowledge about the Simple Present and the Present Progressive. You choose how many parts of the test you want to take.
1.- Simple Present - Complex Test - 1
2.- Simple Present - Complex Test - 2
3.- Present Progressive - Complex Test - 1
4.- Present Progressive - Complex Text - 2
5.- Comparison Simple Present - Present Progressive/Continuous - Complex Test 1
6.- Comparison Simple Present - Present Progressive / Continuous - Complex Test - 2

INTRODUCING MYSELF (14th October)

JOBS AND OCCUPATIONS.
1. Jobs and Work Vocabulary.
Useful Vocabulary: Double click on any word to listen to the pronunciation.
Build Up: Work, What do they do? Where do they work?
Naturally Speaking: The most common questions asked in a normal interview.
Dialogues Games and Tests. All the games and tests open in a new window.
2. What do you do? (club.telepolis.com)Vocabulary (jobs)
3. Jobs and occupations from Manythings.org. Choose the activity you want to do with the list of vocabulary.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

DAILY ROUTINES.

LISTENING ACTIVITIES.

Listening 1. English Media Lab. First you will hear the audio about a husband and wife's routine. Listen carefully and answer the questions. Printable Worksheet.
Listening 2. Esl-lab. Listen to the conversation about a family's daily routine and do the activities. Printable Worksheet.
Listening 3. Eslwonderland. Listen to people talking about everyday activities and routines.Printable Worksheet.

READING ACTIVITIES.
Some more readings and examples of people from Russia, Italy, France and Chile talking about their daily routine. Click here.

CLASS THEORY.
Check your notes and see if you wrote everything down correctly. Click here.

How to talk about your daily routine.

We should use Present Simple.
We should use either an adverb of frequency or a time adverbial to indicate how often we do an activity.

Some examples of adverbs of frequency are:
always - usually - often - sometimes - hardly ever - never, and words like:generally, normally and basically.

The position of adverbs of frequency in a sentence.
1.- Some adverbs may come at the beginning or at the end of your sentences, but in general they come before the verb, for example: "I usually go home after work".
2.- When you are using verb "to be", then the verb comes first, like in the following sentence: "My brother is often late for school".
3.- Examples: "I never go to the cinema", "Sally sometimes goes shopping after class", or "Sometimes Sally goes shopping after class", or even "Sally goes shopping after class sometimes".


Time adverbials are basically expressions which answer the question "when". Some good examples of time adverbials are:
every day - every week - twice a day - twice a week - twice a month - once a day - once a week

Words like after and before are also frequently used to talk about time. Check out the following phrases:
after lunch - before dinner - after work - before I go to the gym - after my wife gets home

As you can see, we can use words like every, twice, once, or even phrases like three times, four times and so on combined with words like day, week, month to form a time adverbial. These expressions normally come at the end of a sentence. For example:
Peter goes to the supermarket twice a week, Peter goes to the supermarket after work twice a week, Every day Mary takes her children to school by car, Every day Mary takes her children to school by car after lunch.

There are also some other very common expressions used to express frequency or routine, such as: all the time - from time to time - every once in a while - every other day. Example: I check my e-mail all the time, from time to time me and my wife go to the beach together.

Also, it's important to say that sometimes we combine adverbs of frequency and time adverbials in the same sentence to form even more complex sentences. Check out these examples: I usually go to a restaurant every day, Jack always does his homework before going to bed.

Finally, you can link your sentences with connectors so as to set the chronological order of events. Some good examples of connectors that can help you do that are:
Then - after that - later on - while - as soon as - when

Adverbs of frequency usually come before the verb, unless the verb you are using is verb "be" and time adverbials usually come either at the beginning or at the end of a sentence.

Just a quick recap... When we talk about routine we should use Present Simple combined with adverbs of frequency and time adverbials or both. Also, remember to link your sentences with connectors to make them sound more natural.

EXAMPLE OF A COMPOSITION.
A Teacher's Daily routine.
"Well, during the week I usually get up early, get dressed and leave home. I'm an English teacher and in the morning I teach private classes in my office. I usually teach 3 or 4 classes in the morning. Then, at lunchtime, I normally go home to eat something. After that I take my 2-year old son to the crèche and go back to my office. As soon as I get back to the office I check my e-mails and prepare my next classes. In the afternoon I generally teach one class in my office, and after that I drive to Canoas where I teach English in-company four times a week. Basically every day, but Friday. I leave Canoas at 7:00 pm and drive back to Porto Alegre where I live to pick up my son at the crèche. We finally get back home at about 8:15. Then, in the evening, I usually have a shower and after that I talk to my wife while she makes dinner. We have dinner together and then either I watch TV with my family or I go to my home office where I use the Internet to read or to prepare materials or even to talk to my friends."

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

THE WORLD OF COMPOSITIONS

You might use:
AND, BUT, SO, BECAUSE, WHEN, THEN, AFTER THAT, LATER ON, BEFORE, AFTER, ALTHOUGH, HOWEVER, ON THE OTHER HAND.

COMPOSITION 1. DAILY ROUTINES (Deadline: 24th September)

You can use the following questions:
What’s your name?
How old are you?
What do you do?
Where are you from?
What time do you wake up?
What time do you get up?
Do you have a shower?
What time do you have breakfast?
What do you have for breakfast?
What time do you leave home?
How do you get to school?
What time do you start school?
Where do you have lunch?
What do you have for lunch?
What time do you finish school?
What do you do after school?
What time do you arrive home?
What do you do before dinner?
What time do you have dinner?
What do you do after dinner?
What time do you go to bed?

Vocabulary


Daily Rouintes 1
Daily Routines 2
Daily routines 3
Frequency adverbs

COMPOSITION 2. INTRODUCING MYSELF (28th September)

Name, Age, Hometown, Job, Family, Possessions, Best friends, Favourite subejcts, Hobbies, Likes and Dislikes, Physical description and personality.

Some readings from other schools.

COMPOSITION 3. THE TOWN WHERE I LIVE (Deadline: 30th September)

Answer these questions. Use a dictionary. Say more if you want.
1. Where’s your hometown? How big is it? Number of inhabitants.
2. What’s it like?
3. What’s the weather like?
4. What places, buildings, stores and shops are there?
5. What is it famous for?
6. What’s the best thing about it?
7. Do you like living there?

Some adjectives you might use:
busy • crowded • dangerous • dirty • industrial • lively • noisy • old-fashioned • picturesque • unique • wealthy • touristy • deserted • historic • modern
Some City Adjectives
City: active, bustling, noisy, busy, clean, dirty, windy
Traffic: loud, congested, snarled
Buildings: old, shabby, rundown, crumbling, modern, futuristic, sleek, towering, squat
Buildings (walls): brick, stone, marble, glass, steel, graffiti-covered
Monuments, statues: stone, copper, carved, ancient, moss-covered, faded, green, bronze
Sidewalk: concrete, cement, slick, cracked, tidy, littered, swept
Paint: fresh, weathered, peeling
Signs: neon, weathered, worn, bright, welcoming, flashing
Buses, cars, taxis: belching, crawling, speeding, honking, waiting, screeching
People: hurried, bundled, smiling, frowning, eager, rushed

COMPOSITION 4. MY BEST HOLIDAY. (Deadline: 5th October)

Write a short report of a holiday you enjoyed. Answer the questionnaire.
1. Where did you go?
2. When did you go there?
3. Who did you go with?
4. How did you get there?
5. Where did you stay?
6. How long were you there?
7. What did you do?
8. What did you see?
9. What souvenirs did you buy?
10. Why do you recommend it?

Example:
I went to Ghana in August 1992 with my girlfriend. We went by plane.
We stayed in a lot of small hotels. We were there for three weeks. We travelled around the country by bus. We saw some lovely beaches and beautiful villages. We bought some cassettes, a painting and a stool.I recommend it because it’s exciting. The people are really friendly and the weather is great!

COMPOSITION 5. MY BEST FRIEND.(Deadline: 7th October)

Find a picture of somebody special to you. Write a description in four paragraphs.
Paragraph 1: Name, age, job, hometown, possessions, languages he/she speaks.
Paragraph 2: Physical description (height, size, hair, eyes, special features) and clothes.
Paragraph 3: Personality and habits.
Paragraph 4: Likes and interests.

COMPOSITION 6. MY SCHOOL, MY SUBJECTS AND MY TEACHERS. (Deadline: 14th October)


What subjects do you study?
Which subjects are you good at? (what are your strong subjects?)
Which subjects are you poor at? (what subjects are difficult for you?)
What classes do you not like? Why don’t you like them?
Do you enjoy studying English, math, science ... ?
Who is your favourite teacher? What course does he or she teach? Why do you like him or her?
What are the major characteristics do you think a teacher should have?
Have you ever been late for class? if so, why? when was the last time? did the teacher get angry?
How much homework do you do everyday?
What do you like best about your school?
What do you like least about your school?
What time does your first class begin?
How many pupils are there in your school?
How long are your lessons in school?