Tag Archives: exam

A Cue Prompter to Help Students Give their Speeches

freeware, Speaking, Tutorial, , ,

This year is slightly different for me since I don’t have as much time as the previous years to update my blog. This year I have found myself with a job to go to , a rural house to run and with no domestic help. I wasn’t sure I ‘d be able to post, if I’d have time or if I’d feel up to it and heck, I am still wondering where I find the time to do everything. But the thing is that here I am, still pumped to post.Today I want to share with you a little tool you might find useful .
This little tool is a cueprompter. My students need to, in two weeks’ time, give a speech of two minutes maximum and I find this little tool can help them a lot monitor the time it takes them to give their speech as it has adjustable speed feautures.
How to use it
♥Copy/paste the text into the prompter text window
♥You can set screen size, font size and colour
♥Start the prompter and adjust the speed
♥ Use the Space Bar to stop/start the cueprompter

Tutorial here

Picture Description .Intermediate Level.

Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Picture Description, Speaking, , , ,

Yes, yes I know classes have finished. So what? If you haven’t taken your speaking test, this post might still be useful .

I just couldn’t let it pass. I saw it and I immediately thought about you,  struggling at home, getting  no help at all and feeling utterly miserable without my wise guidance 🙂 ha,ha,ha

Well, let’s stop rambling and get to the point. What you’ll find below are two pictures and someone comparing the two pictures.

Well, they are clearly both connected to the topic of science… but in two quite different contexts. In the first one, there are two people- they’re probably lab technicians from the coats they are wearing- or I guess they could be research students or something like that. Anyway, they seem to be watching some kind of monitor but I am not quite sure why. The guy in the foreground seems to be holding something which might affect what they can see on the monitor. … it’s not all that clear.

In contrast, the second picture is of four schoolchildren, probably in a science class. They’re all wearing plastic yellow glasses of some sort… probably to protect their eyes from chemicals or something. They are sitting at the same desk. the one on the right, .. he is holding what looks like a plastic bottle.. which must have liquid in it.  There’s some kind of tube-like thing and plastic containers on the desk.

Picture Description: Holidays in the City or on the Beach

Lesson Plan: Elementary, Picture Description, Speaking, Students' Corner, , , , ,

I wouldn’t like to finish the course without publising another example of picture description. This  time for the Elementary Speaking exam and kindly sent by Noelia Fernández.

Holidays in the city or on the beach


In both photos we can see two very different holiday destinations: a big city and a solitary paradise beach.
The picture on the right was taken at the famous street of New York Times Square. This street is always crowded with tourists, and in this photo I think there are too many. They are carrying photo cameras, video cameras or taking photos with their mobile phones. They are wearing summer clothes because it might be July.
In the other photo, there is a beach with clean sand and clear calm water without waves. In the foreground we see five sunbeds and palms.
In my opinion, the perfect vacation is a mixture of both destinations, a few days in the city to visit museums and emblematic buildings, to see a musical or a theater, to do some sightseeing and to make all the activities that you can, and then, other days at a resort to relax and enjoy the sun, the beach, sleep and enjoy the food.
If you’re looking forward to going to New York ,you need to save money because it is the most expensive city in which I have been, but it seems as if you are in a movie with all the famous places and you think ” I know this and that”.

Picture Description: Fashion

Picture Description, Speaking, Students' Corner, Writing, , ,

Another example of picture description for the Intermediate speaking exams. Thanks to Eloy Menéndez for kindly sending it.

These pictures are related to fashion and clothes.
To begin with, the photo on the left shows a group of young people wearing eccentric clothes, with a very particular style: most in black, large boots, fishnet stockings. Many people would say they look scruffy. Probably, they are in a music festival or in a concert and they seem as if they are having fun. In the other photo, we can see a catwalk, in which high-heeled models are wearing very expensive garments, probably from famous designers. Maybe, such events are more targeted towards shopaholics, who are always trying to be in the limelight and constantly renew the way they dress.
From some years up to now, clothes have become a distinguishing factor.

There are multiple urban tribes, some of them wearing outrageous clothes, others with colourful and bright garments, but each one with its own particularity, and they don’t care what others may think about them. They dress in the way they want. I am more keen on how the “skins” dress: shaved hair, tight jeans, suspenders, military boots. On the contrary, most of the teenagers are very fashionable because they are influenced by the media and constantly being fed with “tips” about what it’s cool to wear or not.

I would say fashion is cyclic and so are trends. Styles from the past are re-invented by designers or they just return in the same way they were many years ago: for that, vintage clothes, patterns, accessories and colours have become trendy nowadays.

One of the most widespread stereotypes is that women pay more attention to their appearance than men do. I think that used to be so in the past, yet today more men are worried about how they are seen by the opposite sex. So therefore, most fashion ads are directed to both sexes.

I believe everyone has to wear those clothes which match their own styles, their thoughts and moral convictions. If you think the most expensive shirt, the old-fashioned skirt or the most ragged jacket fits you, that’s what matters. Dressing well or badly is something subjective and if you feel comfortable with that garment, go ahead.
Eloy Menendez

More Role Plays for Elementary Students

Lesson Plan: Elementary, Role-plays, Slides, Speaking, , ,

Happy Tuesday!!

Hope that if you follow my blog  and you are not one of my students, you still feel the curiosity  to drop by from time to time; although it seems to me that, lately, all my posts have been  fully dedicated to helping my students practise for exams , but what can I do ??? I cannot just rest on my laurels and let them face the music without all the help I can offer them. I have very little time but  I cannot play possum when I know my students need me. I know, I know… I am an angel!!! I hope God will reward me with a cracking summer! Here they are some more role-plays, just cooked! 🙂

GOING TO THE CINEMA

JOB INTERVIEW

INVITATION TO GO TO A PARTY

HOPE THEY ARE HELPFUL!!