Verb tenses external links. Autonomous Practice

This is a link to a post  written by  Ingrid Chavarria
Click HERE to go to Ingrid's Post

Ingrid has grouped links to a variety of verbal tenses so that you can practice autonomously.
The links include, among other items.

• Present simple
• Present continuous
• Past simple
• Past continuous      
• Present perfect
• Past perfect
• Future (will/ to be going to)
• Modal verbs
• Conditional
• Passive voice
• Reported speech
• and more!

Click HERE to go to Ingrid's Post

Many thanks to Ingrid Chavarria for having put together all of these links for us :-) 

Biligual dictionaries. Why on line translators don't work

Aim: Understand that word for word translation does not work.

Learn how to use a dictionary by observing the information that a dictionary provides.

Level: Students need to be able to produce sentences in the past simple to carry out this task.

Warning! This task is has been designed for Spanish speakers. 

If you are not teaching Spanish students, don't bother to download the task!

Download the materials HERE

Sample task

Materials:

• Power Point Presentations 


• Teacher's Key 

Download the materials HERE

See other bilingual dictionary tasks for Spanish  speakers under the LABEL bilingual dictionaries

Bilingual Dictionaries. Choose the right word. Intermediate to advanced.

This task has been designed to suit the needs of Spanish speakers.  Due to the complexity of the examples  that I provide this task caters for intermediate or advanced students. For easier examples, check the label BILINGUAL DICTIONARY in this blog.  

Aim: by carrying out this task students should understand that grammar class and general meaning of a sentence are crucial before looking for a word up.

Sample task. From English to Spanish

Materials:

• English/Spanish dictionary. Ideally students  should do the following exercise in the computer room using the dictionary in www.wordreference.com Students may also use a traditional paper bilingual dictionary.   
• Power point with examples of sentences to translate 

You can download the related Power Point by clicking HERE

Procedure: The teacher gives the students three types of exercises. Examples and solutions  are provided in the Power point. These are the 3 types of tasks the Power Point includes:

•  Translate from Spanish to English. Students become aware of the many different meanings of Spanish words before translating into English.
• Translate from English to Spanish. Students become aware of the many different meanings of English words.
• The third ones are challenging and the worst part is that they are real! Students try to figure out what bad users of dictionaries really meant!!

Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah

Pre-watching task included in attached Power Point

Possible special occasion: Christmas. This poem reflects on the selfishness  and consumerism  that rules the celebration of Christmas.
Level: lower intermediate and higher.
Aim: students carry out pre-watching tasks before listening to a  fun poem about the feelings of turkeys before Christmas. Students become aware of the variety of English accents.

Materials

All materials are available by clicking HERE 

• Video of Bejamin Zephaniah reciting the  poem Talking Turkeys. You can watch it online underneath or download it from my site by clicking HERE 
• Teachers' notes to lead you through the Power Point.
• Power Point with pre-watching tasks to project in class. 

You may want to visit Benjamin Zephaniah's website. Click HERE

Coca-Cola for Everybody Ad. Describing People

Aim: students listen and watch an ad that contains lots of words for describing people.
Suggested procedure:

• Students watch the ad and note down the words they understand.
• Students compare their list of words with other students and watch the ad again.
• You may want to project the text of the ad after the second viewing.

Attention!: The  pace is prettty  fast. If your student's level is low you may want to run the text through the teleprompter  before watching the ad  (see below for teleprompter link). 

Passive sentences. EXTENSION 

•  For higher levels you can ask the students to describe how the adjective is represented on the ad. For example: The kissers are represented by (a folded cap), the tanned are represented by (a cap located at the top left, representing the sun), those who add are represented by (two bottles which contain each a part of a sentence ) ...

Sample language:  fat,skinny, tall, short, near sighted, optimistic, pessimistic, bikers,jugglers,different,clowns etc. 

Materials:

You can download the materials by clicking HERE 

• Video (watch it online or download it)
• Script of the ad for you as a teacher or to show to your students (project it on the board)

Tip!: if you want to project the  script  on the board, I suggest you use a Teleprompter. If you want to use a Teleprompter, I suggest you use this one HERE

Thanks to Stephanie Williams, speaker at the 2012 British Council Conference, for providing me with this idea.

Phonemic Chart with Examples.

Listen to Adrian Underhill's talk (1hour) on how to teach pronunciation and use his chart (posted below) to teach your students how to recognize phonemic symbols and improve their pronunciation.
 

If you have Flashplayer and sound you can use:

•  the MacMillan interactive chart with sounds and examples of words  HERE  
• the  Onestop English,with sound and model words HERE
• the video  by the English Language Club I have embedded below. 

If sound or flash-player are not available, you can  project this chart:

 

If you need help to transcribe a word, I suggest you use this tool HERE 

English Language Club video

Thanks to Julian Jahanpour, speaker at the Barcelona 2012 British Council Workshops for providing me with these materials. 

Text to Phonetics

Text  to Phonetics is an online application that transcribes small English texts into broad phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Click HERE to go to the Text to Phonetics page.

Autonomous Learning. Randall Listening Lab. Listen to everyday conversations and answer the questions.

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own

Randal Listening Lab:

 Aim: practice your listening skills by listening to a wide range of conversations. Everyday topics such as going to the hairdresser's or making an emergency call.

Access Randall Listening Lab HERE

Autonomous learning. BBC wordmaster

Aim: practice vocabulary in context and listen to sentences.
There are 3 levels:

• Easy 
• Medium 
• Difficult

Easy is not that easy

Procedure (copied and pasted from the BBC page)  

1) Beat the clock to maximise point score.
2) Use the clues if you’re stuck, but be careful – clues reduce your time.
3) Get the right pronunciation – click listen to hear the sentence.
4) You can also use your keyboard to enter letters and characters such as hyphens (-.).

Access WordMaster  HERE

ESL teacher toolbox. Glogster

The label ESL teacher toolbox contains a list of on-line tools that facilitate the teachers' task.

• Use Glogster to create digital posters. Apart from photos and texts, students can upload videos, sound and images from their computer.
• The service is free although you must create an account. 
• The range of styles is pretty wide. This tool can be useful for both children and adults. 
• If Internet is slow ask your students to produce their poster at home and present it in class. 
•  See my very simple glogster underneath. It took me 10 minutes. 

  Thanks to Xavi  Gumà for providing us with the link to this resource. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

ESL teacher toolbox. Teleprompter

The label ESL teacher toolbox contains a list of on-line tools that facilitate the teachers' task.

A teleprompter is a device used in television and moviemaking to project a speaker's script out of sight of the audience.

Procedure:

Teleprompter

• Open the teleprompter (see link underneath)
• Copy and paste a text
• Choose speed, font size, etc.

 Use a teleprompter for;

• Speed reading 
• Speed note-taking
• Lyric learning 
• Poetry reading 
• Guess what comes next

Access the teleprompter HERE

Thanks to our teacher trainer Mike O'Neill for providing us with the link to this resource. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

Autonomous learning. Lingro webapage dictionary

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own.

 Aim: read any webpage with the option of having unknown words translated.

 Procedure: 

Copy the URL you want into box 1, choose your dictionary and click unknown words

• Copy the link of the webpage you want to read
• Open the lingro page See link underneath
• Paste the link of the page you want to read into BOX 1. See picture
• Choose the dictionary.  In our case we have chosen  English to Spanish.Feel free to browse other options
• Read  your webpage and click the unknown words to obtain a translation into the chosen language

Access the lingro website HERE

Thanks to our teacher trainer Mike O'Neill for providing us with the link to this resource. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

Autonomous learning.What does your presentation sound like?

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own.

 Use a text to speech page to ensure the correct pronunciation of your speech.

Imtranslator: write your text and listen to it!

• Use any of the websites below
• Copy and paste excerpts of your speech into the window you'll on the right
• Choose speed, language (English) and avatar
• Listen and take notes 

Link to imtranslator  (see picture) page:  HERE  
Link to acapellla page: HERE  

Link to natural readers page:  HERE



Thanks to our teacher trainer Mike O'Neill for providing us with the link to  the natural readers page. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

ESL Toolbox: find the script of a film

The label ESL teacher toolbox contains a list of on-line tools that facilitate the teachers' task.

Do you need  the script of a film? 

• Go to the script-o-rama page and find out if the script is available (see link underneath).
• Once you have found the script,  look for the except you need by going to EDIT (top tool bar) or by using the shortcut Ctrl +F. This will open a small window at the bottom of your page. Type a word/sentence that you know that appears in the except you need. 
• Copy and paste the excerpt in Word (or similar).

Access the link HERE

Thanks to our teacher trainer Mike O'Neill for providing us with the link to this resource. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

Autonomous learning. Freerice quizzes on English vocabulary, English grammar, humanities, maths... etc

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own.

Aim: practice English vocabulary (from level 1 to level 60), your grammar (from level 1 to level 5) and also other topic such as Maths, Literature or Geography...

Participate!  you are donating 10 grams of rice every time you hit the correct answer.

Access the web HERE, choose your topic and start donating.


Freerice is a non-profit website that is owned by and supports the United Nations World Food Programme. 

Autonomous learning. BBC crosswords

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own.

Aim: 

Students read a definition and find word. All crosswords are related to a topic.

Works better if students have dealt with the topic in class and use this as a revision task.

Level:  medium to high. Lower, if students have had prior contact with the topic.

Range of topics: huge: cars, whales, adverts, volcanoes, yoga, Easter, emotions, fast food... You name it!

It is possible to print the crosswords.
 
Access the link HERE

Autonomous Learning. Newsround. Read about current affairs in simple English.

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own.

Aim: read about current affairs in simplified English.
Level: The site aims at young native speakers of English, not at ESL students.
This site  is recommended for intermediate ESL students. 

Procedure:

• Access the link and read about current affairs 

Enter the site  Newsround HERE 

Thanks to our teacher trainer Mike O'Neill for providing us with the link to this resource. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

Autonomous learning. Dictation. Intermediate to high

Choose your level under each provided dictation.

The Autonomous learning label contains tasks that students can carry out on their own. Level: this site works better with intermediate to high levels Skills: listening and spelling Type of task:  students listen to a recording and write what they hear

Procedure: 

• Choose your level  (in green). 
• Choose FULL mode if you don't want to sign in
• Choose QUICK mode or BLANK mode if you want to sign in

 You are ready to start your dictation. This is the link: HERE
Thanks to our teacher trainer Mike O'Neill for providing us with the link to this resource. Course 77 at the British Council Summer 2012.

Second conditional prompt. If I were a boy by Beyonce

Download provided Power Point to guide your students through the task

Aim: fun practice of second conditional by using Beyonce's song If I were a boy.
Level: students need to have prior practise of  second conditional sentence structure.
Vocabulary: vocabulary needed for the task is provided in attached Power Point presentation. Vocabulary ranges form easy (go to drink beer, understand how it feels...) to medium (roll out of bed, take somebody for granted...).
This tasks is suitable for a multilevel classroom.

You can download the Power Point and videos from this site HERE

Materials:

For the students:

• If I were a boy video (download it or watch it on-line underneath)
• Tasks provided in attached Power Point
• If I were a boy karaoke video  (download it or watch it on-line underneath)

For the teacher:

• Lyrics for the song If I were a boy 

Procedure:
Follow the steps in the provided Power Point presentation.
Summary of steps in Power Point:

• Introduction to the vocabulary of the song by means of task 1. Are boys or girls more likely to...?
• Students watch first video, which tells us the story of what Beyonce would do if she were a boy. 
• Students answer question in task 2: What would Beyonce do if she were a boy?
• Students answer the same question about themselves.
• Students  sing along with the prompt of the second video so  as to memorize new vocabulary and remember the second conditional structure.

 
You can download the Power Point and videos from this site HERE

Did you finish the task? (View task in provided Power Point)

You are ready to watch the video

Beyonce. 

If I were a boy

 Now, sing along with Beyonce

KARAOKE 

You can download the Power Point and videos from this site HERE
 
Thanks to Mike O'Neill for this idea.
Mike O'Neill was our Teacher Trainer at the British Council. Summer 2012

Accepting and declining invitations

Level: lower intermediate and upper

To download the handout with language items and procedure click HERE. 

Language items: 

a) Structures for invitations such as: (see handout for more)

• Do you want to . . .
• Do you wanna . . . (informal)
• Would you like to . . . (more polite)

b) Structures for accepting invitations such as: (see handout for more)

• Sure, I'd love to. What time?  (or any other question)
• Sounds like a great idea. (Ask a question)

c) Structures for turning invitations down such as:   (see handout for more)

• No thanks. I'm kind of tired right now (or other possible excuse)

• I'm terribly sorry. I have other plans for that night

Marterials. 

• Handout  (Provided below)
• Whiteboard

To download the handout with language items and procedure click HERE.
You may want to project  the language structres provided on the Whiteboard