Category Archives: Speaking

Some Priceless Topic-Based Videos to Help Students Prepare for the Speaking Test

Hi, hey! How are things?
Have you read my last post?? It’s all about first-day activities to get to know my new students. Are you going to be one of them? I hope so!
Lessons start on  5 October  and I am totally in teaching mode. In September ,some  of my students will need to take the oral exam again and I thought it might be a good idea to share with you some priceless videos that I found on youtube  this summer.  I wish I had shared them with you before exams in June, but I didn’t know about them just then. Anyway, I hope you can still make good use of them.
What I am going to show you in this post is the website of an English teacher, Marek Connell ,and his awesome videos on how to answer the questions in the Escuela Oficial de idiomas Intermediate (B1) and Advanced (B2)speaking exams. I have to say here that in my region (Asturias) EOI exams  don’t  follow exactly the same procedure Marek explains in his videos, ie, students cannot take notes and they do not have 10 minutes to organise their speech, but what I like about his videos is that he shows how a fluent speaker would answer the questions related to a given topic.

For each topic I will show you:
From my own website: some questions you could be asked
From Marek Connell ‘s website, his own videos showing how  a native speaker (himself) would answer  some of these questions. Click to visit Marek’s website

So, pen and paper at the ready? Here we go.

1. FAMILY, FRIENDS, RELATIONSHIPS

Questions about Friendship,

Questions about your dream partner

2. WORK

Vocabulary and Questions

3. CLIMATE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Questions about the weather

Questions about the environment

4. EDUCATION

♥Vocabulary and Questions about Education

5. SHOPPING AND CONSUMERISM

Questions about Fashion and Trends

Questions about Going Shopping

♥Questions about Money 1

Questions about Money 2

6. ANIMALS AND PETS

♥ Questions about Pets

7. SPORTS

Questions about Sports

Questions about Violent Sports

8. STEREOTYPES

Lesson Plan about National  Stereotypes with Vocabulary and Questions
 

9. CRIME  

10.PROGRESS AND SCIENCE

You’ll find more  topic -based questions  on my website Blog de Cristina. Click here,please 

Two Wonderful Sites to Practise Listening and other skills

So, you’ve done all the listening exercises in your textbook, workbook and on my website 😉  but still, you feel you really need to go the extra mile?

Here you are two wonderful websites where you can find tons of Listening exercises to practise before the exam.

1. ESOL COURSES. Choose your level and then choose the skill you want to practise; they are all great!

2. ESL Lounge Students: on this site, you can also practise all skills. Scroll down the page and on the right sidebar, choose the skill you want to practise and your level.

 

Blog de Cristina is also on Facebook. Follow me! 🙂

Conversation Starters: An Interesting Site to Help you with the Speaking Test.

“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy – I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” Art Williams

Of all the parts in the English exam  my students, without a single doubt, fear the speaking test  the most.

Oral exams require lots of study and preparation. Don’t dream for a minute of taking this exam without putting  some real elbow grease into it. It’s only the very skilled ones who feel at ease while facing a board of two or three teachers asking questions and taking notes.

Very often my students feel frustrated by their inability to react to questions; they mention things such as their mind going blank, panicking, having absolutely nothing to say on the issue, words not coming etc. While it is true that in an oral test you have to think on your feet  and some students don’t have this ability, it is also true  that, very often,  you know  or can guess what  topics you can expect  in the exam (  they are quite a few, yes, I know 🙂 ) so before the test, why don’t you  practise  how you would  answer some questions and see what vocabulary you need to study ?. If you do it, you’ll be absolutely fine!

So, my nothing-to-write-home-about tips

♥ Write a list of all the topics in the exam

♥Think of some questions you might be asked for each topic

♥ Study relevant vocabulary to talk about these topics. If you are talking about Technology, you might want to use the expression” keep in touch” or the word “gadget”

♥ Practise how you would answer these questions

♥ Record yourself

♥ Concentration during the speaking test is essential.

♥ Be positive. “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there”

To help you prepare for this part of the exam, I am going to share with you a nice site to practise your responses to questions you might be asked in the test. The site is called Conversationstarters .com  and it generates random questions for different topics. So, click the button and start practising!!

 

Blog de Cristina is also on Facebook. 

Picture Description Intermediate: New Technologies and Food

Once again I thank my students for  kindly contributing to this blog. These  two examples of Picture Description have been sent by Noelia and Carmen from the Intermediate Level.

Thank you girls! Well done!

FOOD by Carmen Gayol

These pictures are clearly both connected with the topic of food.

The picture on the left shows two women who are cooking in a kitchen. One of them is younger than the other, but they seem to  get on well; I’d say that they have a lot in common, they could  be mother and daughter or have  a close relationship.

In the picture on the right, we can see a young couple eating. I think they are in a restaurant, an oriental restaurant because the decoration that can be seen in the background.

 We all need to eat to live, but It‘s clear that the food, in our society, is something more than nutrition. Nowadays, we all use the meals to socialize. We have family meals, business meal, and we all enjoy eating with friends.

Sometimes we prefer eating at home, like in the photo on the left, but other times, we eat out.

However, the main problem isn’t where, but what we eat. In my view, today people tend to eat fast food because they don’t have enough time to prepare a meal and they are always in a hurry. This food isn`t   always healthy, it is many times junk food which contains many calories and carbohydrates and there is a good chance  people will get overweight.

If I had to choose one of the photos, I’m sure I’d choose the first, because it makes me remember old times with my mother , and in addition, I believe that it’s a good way to enjoy eating and cooking.

INTERNET AND THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES by Noelia Espinosa

These two pictures show a connection with the topic of new technologies ,especially with the  internet.

In the first photo there is a woman sitting behind  a desktop and she has a tablet between her hands; probably she is in an office, maybe her workplace. In the second one, a little girl looks as if  she is surfing the internet and she  seems very interested in what she is seeing.  Although I can´t be sure ,I think  she is at home.

Nowadays, both pictures are very common in daily life, although in different ways. The first one shows a typical day at work in all the offices in the world.It is generally accepted that today no company would be operative without the  internet and the  new technologies because they would be unconnected and inefficient. And in the second one, children tend to be connected to the internet every day. When I was child, there was no internet, mobiles or computers, only some privileged people could afford them, but I was very happy playing traditional games with my friends in the street, for example with a  ball,  my dolls …

In my opinion, internet is very important in our lives, I couldn´t live without my mobile, my laptop etc… everybody surfs the net, everybody knows Facebook and even some people work vía Internet. However, I believe sometimes it could be dangerous especially in teenagers and children because there are parents who don´t control what their children are uploading or downloading onto the web and who their children are in  touch with.

You might also find  this section interesting. Check it out!

SPEAKING:PICTURE DESCRIPTION

 

 

Inspiration from Ellen Degeneres Show: Never Have I Ever

I firmly believe that the way you present things to your students matters. From boring points of grammar to challenging speaking activities, there is always a way to get their attention. I am of the opinion that students learn much better if you completely discard from your teaching the idea of boring master classes where the only person in the room seems to be the teacher and choose instead a more interactive approach. I try hard not to forget this student-centered approach during the whole lesson.

There is also something I try not to forget. You learn better when you have fun! And here we go, for a lot of fun!!

Image by Michael Rozman/WarnerBros

Skill: Speaking

Level: B1 upwards

Aim: using the Present Perfect to talk about experiences.

You never know where and who you’ll get inspiration from! I got the idea for this Speaking Activity watching Ellen Degeneres show.Have you ever seen her show? It’s hilarious! Anyway, she’s got a section called “Never Have I Ever” where she asks her guests questions and they need to put up a sign with the words Yes, I Have or I Have Never.

This hilarious speaking activity is fairly simple and requires little preparation.
♥Ask students to write on a different sheet or slip  of paper the short answers  Yes, I have and I have never “

♥ Tell them you are going to ask a question to the whole class.

♥ Ask them to answer  your question by putting up the YES, I HAVE or I HAVE NEVER sign

♥ Ask some students to explain their answers.

It’ll certainly be funnier if you choose to ask some spicy questions like the ones Degeneres posed to her guests.

Do you want to try? How would you answer these questions?

  • Have you ever skipped school?
  • Have you ever fallen asleep in the cinema?
  • Have you ever been to a nude beach?
  • Have you ever done something you regret?
  • Have you ever read a whole Harry Potter book?
  • Have you ever drunk while underage?
  • Have you ever had an accident?
  • Have you ever kissed someone on the first date?
  • Have you ever read the Bible?
  • Have you ever aced a test without studying?
  • Have you ever passed out?
  • Have you ever slept until 5 pm?
  • Have you ever eaten food that fell on the floor?
  • Have you ever tried to cut your own hair?
  • Have you ever lied to get a job?
  • Have you ever regifted something that was gifted to you?
  • have you ever given a stranger a fake phone number?
  • Have you ever met someone famous?

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Learn English and Have Fun!