Saturday, March 29, 2008

Publicity might help us... have fun

For the last couple of weeks we have been working with modals of speculation or deduction. I thought these interesting (as well as funny) commercials will help us prove how accurate we have become when it comes to PAST MODALS.
Shall we try?

Activity 4:
General questions for all five spots:
1. Watch the commercials.
2. What product/service is being advertised?
3. What is the name of the company?
4. Which aspect of the company are the publicity creatives trying to point out?
4. How did they do this?
5. Describe which might be the target audience they are aiming at.
6. How successful do you think they were?





After watching:

Watch the video again and state three ideas each of the people involved in these sticky misunderstandings might / must or can't have thought.

1. At the hospital
2. Driving back from the concert
3. Turbulence
4. Romantic dinner
5. Hands-free cell phone

e.g. They must have thought he was trying to rob the market.

Please, comment your opinion on the publicity campaign and get your sentences ready for next week.

You can also perform a webquest for more of these spots in youtube and post them in our blog.

Hope you've liked them!
See you, Jimena

Reporting once again

Activity 3:

1. Watch the video.
2. Take down at least 6 characteristics of the gadget presented in the video (e.g. solar-powered).
3. Report the conversation between the two friends.
4. Choose one of your tech gadgets and describe it using 3 or 4 compound adjectives. Remember to use the correct order too.



Be ready to correct this next class.
See you, Jimena

More to report

Activity 2:
1. Watch this video.
2. Report the conversation between Jane and Christine.
3. List at least 10 technology-related terms mentioned in the conversation.




See you, Jimena

Revision on Reported Speech and class work for today

Notes on Reported Speech Notes on Reported Speech jcastel

Hi, as I promised, here go the notes on Reported Speech:

Let’s say you and your friend, Rebecca, are eating dinner at a restaurant on Saturday night. Rebecca tells you all about her boyfriend Joshua. She tells you what Joshua told her on Friday. She can say it in two ways.The first way is called “quoted speech.” Quoted or direct speech is EXACTLY what the person said. Here is an example:Joshua said, “I need to take a taxi.” According to the above sentence, Joshua said EXACTLY those words.The other way of repeating what a person says is called “reported speech.” Reported or indirect speech is NOT EXACTLY what the person said. It is like a summary or paraphrase of what the speaker said. Take a look at the following example:Joshua said that he needed to take a taxi. This is NOT EXACTLY what Joshua said.

Read these notes. You can view them here in different sizes and also e-mail o print them if you wish. I hope they help.


Activity 1:

1. Watch the video.

2. Pay attention to the differences between say and tell.

3. Report the conversation between the shop assisstant and the client. You may write it down or type it on Word (open a new window). We'll correct it in class today.

See you tomorrow, Jimena

Thursday, March 27, 2008

IMPORTANT

Hi! This is just to remind you to include ONLY your first name and the two or three first letters of your surnames in your profiles on this blog.

Example: Ariel Ben, Maia Le, or Jimena Cas.

How?

1. Go to "Panel"

2. Choose "Editar Perfil" on your right


3. Go to "Identidad"/"Nombre Mostrado" and type your name and just 2 or 3 letters of your surname

4. Remember to save the changes by clicking on "Guardar Perfil" at the bottom of the page.

Consult me or the Lab assisstants if you have any problems in doing so.
See you, Jimena

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Classroom CHANGES!!

Hi people, I just want to post the new classrooms we will be meeting at during April.
Please, take them down and keep them handy.

Tuesday 1st: Room 301 (Building II)
Tuesday 8th: Room 302 (Building III)
Tuesday 15th: Room 102 (Building III)
Tuesday 22nd: Lab
Tusday 29th: Room 201 (Building III)

Thursdays (2°C) and Fridays (2°P) stay the same.

I hope you won´t get lost since I´ll be waiting for you ON TIME. I suggest you print this information for further reference.

On Friday 28th we are NOT meeting at the CEO Lab, but the regular classroom (2°P).

See you there.

Bye, Jimena

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Congratulations!

Great results, people, congratulations!

Those who still haven't posted your results, please do within this week.

If you want to learn more about the FCE, try the blog we read in class today

http://www.ortenglishnews.blogspot.com/

or the Cambridge ESOL web site

Remember to bring your coursebooks next class (Thursday 27th)

Bye, see you soon, Jimena

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Level test



Please complete this LEVEL TEST to assess your knowledge of English language.
Are you ready for FCE?

On this same page you may practise with some very useful multiple-choice activities with instant on-line correction. Please complete the intermediate level test and tell me your result (you may include it in a comment on this post).


Today`s class

Hi, click on the following links to access some revision pages we will be using today.

Past modals examples

Try some exercises on past probability here and past recommendation here

Using modals to talk about the past: revision

You may also try these past modals quiz 1 and quiz 2!

Tired of grammar? Now try this reading activity, enjoy it!

Good luck, consult me if you need to.

Jimena

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Creating a Gmail address

I´ve already received several email addresses from you but some are still missing.

Remember you can create a new Gmail account at: www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount




Please edit your Gmail profile including your name and surname (you may include just the first three letters).

Soon you will be receiving an invitation to join the blog, accept it please, and you will instantly become an authorised author of the blog.

Good luck and consult me whenever neccessary! Jimena

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Special welcome

Franco and Germán are new members of our class. We hope to get to know more about you very soon and we´re glad you´ve joined us.

This could be a great oppoortunity for you to introduce yourselves. Want to tell us something about you? We´re eager to learn about your interests, family, friends, or whatever you want to share.

Send me your gmail addresses so I can invite you to post on this blog.

See you soon, Jimena

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Welcome

Welcome to 4th year English classes!

We already know each other, but here goes my intruduction:

I´m Jimena Castellión, your English teacher this year

You can reach me at: jcastellion@ort.edu.ar or you may as well post comments on this blog.

We´ll be meeting every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon. This is our timetable:
Tuesdays 13.10 English Lab
Thursdays 16.10 Building I (Yatay) Room "2ºC"
Fridays 13.10 Building I (Yatay) Room "2º P"

For our first classes we´ll be using your last year coursebooks:
Opportunities Intermediate (Student´s and activity books)