You won’t probably need to be reminded that in the Certificación Oral Test there are two parts. No matter what level you are taking there is always an Interaction with the examiner and then another part where you’ll be on your own talking about whatever is shown in the pictures the examiner will offer you.
Today I want to help you practice the Interaction at Elementary level. I hope these slides help you. More will be coming , so keep posted!!!.
I shouldn’t be saying this but I have to… I hate teaching modals and I am not a hundred per cent sure I am the only one to blame for this.
Maybe grammarians should reach an agreement on how best categorise them ?
Anyway, let’s face the teaching of modals with some speaking activities to help lift spirits. Mine, of course!
ACTIVITY 1.EXPRESSING ABILITY: CAN
Work with a partner. Take turns asking your partner questions about the abilities in parentheses. Use Can in your questions and Can or Can’t in your answers. Demonstrate you can -let’s have fun, shall we?- where necessary:)
♥ (say the alphabet backwards)
♥ (wiggle your nose)
♥ (read in a car without getting sick)
♥ (touch the end of your nose with your eyes closed)
♥ (curl your tongue)
♥ (remember your first teacher’s name)
♥ (raise one eyebrow without raising the other)
♥ (cross your eyes)
♥ (pull your fingers backwards to your wrist)
Do you have any other outstanding abilities?
Ready to continue…?
ACTIVITY 2. In pairs once again, talk about the following…
I want to share a few pics that I am planning to use in today’s elementary classes to practise Picture Description. I published this activity last year and it worked so well that I guess I’ll be forever using it. So here it is again!
For this activity the students are sitting in pairs, one student facing the board and the other with his back to the board. Using the OHP, a picture of people performing something is displayed. Now, the person seeing the picture has to describe it in as much detail as possible and the other person has to draw the picture. Allow them four or five minutes and then choose the best picture. Below are some of the photos I’m going to use and some expressions they need to use. (note: we have just begun describing photos, so right now I am teaching the basics. Hopefully, I’ll be teaching the contents in this photocopy soon ( Click here to see it)
Introduce the photo: This photo shows…. I can see
Location: on the left/right , in the middle, at the front/back
The people (appearance and actions) She looks sad. He is reading
Your opinion: I think…. I like it because…
Easy Peasy! Have a nice weekend!
I just love this section in the British Council website. Word on The Street is a co-production of the mighty BBC and 
the British Council. If, on their own, they produce superb material you can only imagine the outcome when they decide to join efforts and work together in the production of short videos (4 or 5 m) to teach everyday life and different aspects of the British culture. The videos are easy to watch, some of them accompanied by captions that help elementary students follow and divided into scenes for a deeper understanding. There are several tasks you can do after watching the video and you can also have a look at the tapescript. Some of the most popular videos are: Oxford, Travel and Transport, Camden, Animals…etc. Aren’t you dying to try some of these? My favourite will most definitely be Camden. I am in love with the market!
It’s always a pleasure to share with you the work of my hard-working students.
The task was either talking or writing about their hometown and I have to say that I was gladly surprised when most of my students, who had never ever given a speech in English, decided to give a beautiful speech about their hometown. I had some beautiful contributions in written form (like Rodrigo’s and Carmen’s ) but most of them were given orally and sometimes even accompanied by slides like the one just below, given by Manuel.
These were the guidelines they had to follow and necessarily include in their presentation.
To publish Rodrigo and Carmen’s work I have used Issuu
And Manuel’s beautiful presentation of Avilés shared in Slideshare.
Thank you guys! Well done!
