Our real upper intermediate English blog

Thursday, March 15, 2018

BBC interview: Shopping and business ideas

Check your understanding with the script here:

Friday, February 2, 2018

The Book Project Awards

Our Book Project is successfully over! Congratulations to all the participants from groups A, B and D! You managed to read a book in original version and to talk about it in such an interesting way in your group OPs. So let´s celebrate your work with some awards... All the winners get a prize so come to the classes next week to pick it up!

BEST SPEAKERS:
group A : Alex (clear ideas, pronunciation and diction)
Marina and Carlos (good fluency, rich vocabulary)
group B: Eva and Jorge (clear pronunciation and organization)
Marina and Lucia (natural fluency)
group D: Mercedes (rich vocabulary, good fluency)
Dolores (clear pronunciation, easy to follow)

MOST INFORMED SPEAKERS:
Fran (group B)
Jose Manuel (group A)
(for the well researched info on Botswana)

MOST ENTHUSIASTIC READERS:
Raquel (group D)
Tomás (group B)
Pedro (group D)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: (this one really sounds like an Oscar...)
Tabinda (group B)
(for the performance of the Rosa Parks bus incident)

BEST PRESENTATION IDEA:
Adriana (group B)

BEST POWERPOINT:

group A: Daiana (Rosa Parks: My Story):

group D: Andrea (Rosa Parks: My Story):

group B: Carmen (a quiz with useful language from How I Live Now):

Monday, January 29, 2018

TED talks about happiness

Homework for next week : 7-8 February
Click to choose a talk about happiness from the TED website.

Recommendations:

Less stuff more happiness

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness

All it takes is 10 mindful minutes

Want to be happier? Stay in the moment

How to buy happiness

The hidden power of smiling

The paradox of choice

1. Watch the video and take notes on the main ideas (disable the subtitles to train your ear!!). You can listen again and again or hit stop and replay as many times as you want.

2. When you have finished listening you can read the script or watch again with subtitles for any words or ideas that you have missed.

3. Prepare a short presentation ( 3-5 min.) for your classmates where you explain ( as clearly as possible, you might need to simplify some ideas) what the video is about. ( you can use your notes while speaking).

4. Optional: include your own opinion about the topic. (under the video you have people´s comments, which can help you with critical thinking).