Tag Archives: A2

The Article in English: Explanation, Exercises and a Challenging Quiz

8 January 2017A word on Grammar, Grammar and ExercisesA2, articles, B1, B2, C1, English, errors, exercises, grammar, quiz, students, videoCristina Cabal

Although the use of the article in English seems a priori an easy subject to teach, the truth is that some students struggle with the use and omission of it.

What can you find in this post?

Intermediate level:

Animated video with some rules on the use and omission of the articles “the, a/an”
Some links to exercises from around the web to consolidate knowledge.

Advanced Level:

An engaging quiz with feedback notes featuring some difficult cases related to the use and omission of articles.

Grammar. Watch the presentation. Pause it as often as necessary to understand and assimilate the rules.

Exercises: Links to interactive exercises from around the web to consolidate knowledge.

Pronunciation of the article “the”
Exercise 1 (a/the/zero article)
Exercise 2 ( use and omission of the article “the”)
Exercise 3: “a” or “an”
Exercise 4: a quiz (a/an or the)
Exercise 5: a, an, the or no article

The quiz

The Writing Process and 13 Tips to Raise your Essay Score

14 November 2016General, Writing, Writing skillA2, B1, B2, C1, exam, writingCristina Cabal

Writing is a process. For some students it might seem like a daunting task, but if you look at it as a succession of small steps to follow instead of looking at it as the big final product, writing can be fun and easy.

Useful Links:

Six amazing websites that make your writing stronger.
Checklist
PDF
Presentation

Part 1. The Writing Process

Brainstorm for ideas

Write down all the ideas you can think of. You can try mind mapping your ideas. It is a good technique to generate ideas and expand on them. You can begin by writing a big bubble in the middle of the page with the topic and then use arrows to draw new bubbles with ideas and again arrows with more specific points or observations about this idea.
At this stage, don’t worry about spelling or grammar mistakes.

Organise your ideas

Decide which ideas to keep.
Group similar ideas together.
Organise your ideas according to the writing task.

Focus on language

Think of words and expressions you will need in your work.

Write a draft

Write quickly. Don’t worry about things such as accuracy or neatness.
Use a pencil so that it is easier to make corrections and erase things.
If you are writing your draft by hand, leave a wide margin for notes and space between the lines for additions and corrections.
If you can’t think of a word in English, write it in your own language. You can look it up in a dictionary later.
If you don’t know the spelling of a word, write it anyway you can. You can look it up in a dictionary later.

Improve your draft

Do it slowly and conscientiously.
Check spellings in the dictionary and look up any word you felt unsure of. Here’s a very useful post Six Amazing Websites that Make your Writing Stronger.
Use a checklist to improve your work. See the one my students use here.
Read your draft aloud. Circle the things that need to be improved, reworded or clarified.
Take a break from writing and reread your draft after 30 minutes. Does everything sound right?

Write a final draft

Copy your corrected work neatly on a clean sheet of paper.
Make sure your paragraphs are clearly indicated.

Adapted from Burlington Books

Part 2. Writing an Essay

An essay consists of several paragraphs about a topic. Although there are many different kinds of essays, they all have the same basic structure.

Opening

It is the general presentation of the topic. Try to get the reader interested in your essay. How can you do that? For example, by beginning

With a surprising fact.

Humans usually imitate the speech of someone with a strong accent due to empathy and to create a bond and assimilate with them.

With a short anecdote.

“If you could interview anybody in the world, who would you choose?” asked the teacher. “Nelson Mandela”, I replied.

With a question.

Did you know that there is an island in Japan that has more than 450 people living above the age of 100?

The Body.

The body can have one or more paragraphs which develop the topic. The first paragraph should contain the strongest argument or example. The second paragraph the second strongest argument and the third the weakest.

A paragraph consists of several sentences about a certain topic. It has the following parts:

A topic sentence, i.e. an idea.
One or several supporting sentences to expand on the idea.
A concluding sentence.

The parts should flow logically and the ideas should be easy to understand.

Go from general to specific. Give a general idea and then expand it.
Avoid unnecessary repetition by using pronouns to refer back to nouns already mentioned.
Use connector to join sentences and show the connection between ideas.

The Closing

It is the paragraph that summarizes the main idea or presents a conclusion, depending on the kind of essay you need to write. Some things to bear in mind:

It should not bring new ideas.
It shouldn’t be very long.
It can be similar to the opening, but presented in different words.

13 Tips to Raise your Essay Score

Read the assignment thoroughly, several times if necessary and underline anything relevant. Sometimes there is a question or several. Make sure you cover all of them. Focus on the purpose of the composition, on the tone and the style required and also on the length requirements.

Plan your writing. You need to dedicate several minutes to planning what you are going to say and how you are going to say. It makes a big difference.

Write a first draft. Use pencil, if possible, to erase or correct errors.

Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence and then write some supporting sentences about this topic sentence. 1 idea= 1 paragraph.

Use a variety of vocabulary and grammar structures. Avoid repeating the same words over and over again. Use synonyms or paraphrase. A thesaurus or a lexicon is useful as a source of alternative words. Use a range of grammar, sentence structure should be varied and clear.

Use connectors to join ideas. They also play an important part in stringing together sentences and paragraphs.

Time management. Organize the time you are given to write the essay. If you have one hour to complete the task, dedicate 10 minutes to planning and organizing your ideas and allow about 10 minutes at the end to proofread your essay before giving it to the teacher. You will still have 40 minutes left to write and develop your ideas.

Keep to the topic. Don’t write about things that have nothing to do with the assignment.

Sound natural. Just because you know lots of connectors, it doesn’t mean you have to use all of them.

Punctuation. Pay attention to punctuation, especially to the correct use of commas and periods. Your text can be confusing if you don’t use them adequately.

Style. Think about the purpose of the assignment and the audience it addresses and use the correct style and tone. If it’s informal, you can use colloquial language, simple and shorter sentences, contractions, abbreviations and emotional language. On the contrary if it’s a formal assignment, you will need to use more complex sentences, avoid contractions and abbreviations and you should definitely avoid emotional language or colloquial expressions.

Proofread your essay. Have a coffee or go for a walk. Come back, take your essay and reread it aloud. Does it sound “right”? Then, it’s ready!

Read a lot and try to write about anything for 30 minutes every day. You’ll soon get better.

Thanks for reading!

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Spinning the Wheel: an Engaging and Productive Speaking Activity.

19 October 2016Funny Stuff, Games, SpeakingA2, B1, B2, C1, fun, games, onlinetools, speaking, vocabulary, wheelCristina Cabal

This is a very simple communicative activity that works wonders because it is highly engaging, students love it and it is very productive. It takes 2 minutes to create and it is adaptable to any topic of discussion and suitable for all levels.

Aim: activating new vocabulary through discussion questions.

Levels: all

PROCEDURE.

Easy peasy! Just go to wheeldecide.com and fill in one wheel with the target vocabulary and another one with the questions you want your students to discuss.
Students in pairs
Spin the wheel containing the questions and then, the wheel containing the word/ expression you want your students to use when answering the question.
Student A has 2 minutes to talk about the question and use the target vocabulary. If he does, he scores a point.
Spin the wheels again. It’s student B’s turn.

NOTE: When creating the wheel, go to the advanced section to choose colour and whether you want the option to be removed after it is landed on or not.

If you are a student and you’re preparing for exams or studying on your own, you probably have your own studying strategies, but I invite you to try this new one. I’m sure you’ll find it engaging and productive.

I ‘d like to thank Cristina Serafim for bringing wheeldecide to my attention.

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Getting-to-know-you Bingo with a Fun Twist

13 September 2016Funny Stuff, Games, SpeakingA2, B1, B2, C1, fun, ice-breaker, speaking, studentsCristina Cabal

I can’t believe summer is coming to an end and well, here we are again. Another school year is about to begin and once again, as every year for the past 25, butterflies are beginning to gather in my stomach. It’s a nice sensation and one I welcome ‘cause it means that even after 26 years dedicated to teaching English I still feel like a newbie aiming to impress my students.

Now, be honest! Wouldn’t it be nice to start the course with a fun activity? A getting-to-know-your-classmates activity after which, students leave the class with a smile on their face and chatting animatedly with their peers?

This is the aim of this fun human bingo ice breaker designed to get students talking to each other about themselves while having a nice laugh.

The game is easy to customize, so feel free to edit the cards to include or exclude prompts

Materials: bingo cards, pens or pencils and a small object to grab: for example, a rubber.
Optional online tool: Osric
Time: about 30 minutes
Level: A2 and above

BEFORE THE CLASS

Prepare 25 prompts for the students to talk about
Prepare a Bingo card (5x5grid) for each student with the prompts (see mine below).

There are lots of bingo card generators online which will randomly generate as many cards as you wish once you provide the desired input. Osric is the one I used for this activity.

Cut up all the 25 different prompts and put them inside a bag or a box.

PROCEDURE:

Explain that they are going to play a human bingo to get to know each other. To win the game they will need to mark off the prompts on their cards as they are drawn randomly by a caller. The winner will be the first person to mark off five squares in a vertical or horizontal row.
Give each student a Bingo card and a pen/pencil. Allow them one minute to read the 25 prompts on their bingo cards and decide on their strategy.
Explain that although this is a whole-class activity, students will be playing in pairs and they will need to sit together or put their desks together.
Ask each pair to place a rubber (or any other small object ) on the table. Explain that to win the game they will only need a bit of luck and quick hands.

How do you get to mark off your square?

Tell them that you’ll draw a prompt from the bag and read it out. Students listen and if it is true for them, they quickly pick the rubber on the table. Only the student who has the rubber will get the chance to mark off the square. To do so, they will need to talk about the prompt for one minute or do as the prompt says.

Who wins the game?

The first student to fill five squares across or down shouts BINGO! and the game is over.

The winning card is checked to make sure the student has not made a mistake

Rounding off the activity. Check that the winner has marked correctly all the squares by asking him to read the cards he has marked on the winning row. Ask him to talk about one of the things in the card and then choosing another prompt, challenge another student to talk about it for one minute.

These are the prompts I have used