Christmas

Merry Christamas and Happy New Year from Galicia !  See you soon...

Slang Phrases

This is a new link. Here, you can learn some of the most famous slang phrases in English language.

Slang Phrases

Halloween

Here you have some activities about Halloween. This is an interesting book with great material.

HALLOWEEN

And more activities in this fantastic blog: English Teacher

Project EPG (European Profiling Grid for language teachers, EPG)

The main objective of this project is to help improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching foreign languages ​​through the "Grill language teacher profile" .

This grill is intended to be an innovative, valid and reliable for quality improvement and professional development of teachers of foreign languages. The advantages that can benefit teachers, academic managers and trainers of different institutions and organizations that impart language classes will include:

•     Compare qualifications of foreign language teachers internationally.
•     Define tiered objectives ongoing training colleges.
•     To facilitate the selection of teachers with an evaluation system that promotes seamless mobility.
•     Detect training needs.
•     Having reliable measures and self- assessment of professional skills of the teacher.
•     Providing a tool for teachers, trainers, academic managers and human resources departments.

You can read more informatin in this site:  European Profiling Grid

European Day of Languages

Today we are celebrating the European Day of Languages!

Learn Moodle

These days we are doing an online course where we are learning how to use the Moodle platform. The course name is Learn Moodle and it is developed in English language, but there are forums in Spanish language and also the possibility of reading subtitles in Spanish in the explanatory videos on YouTube. This is a very interesting activity that allows us to create our own online course on any matter . Once chosen the subject , we can arrange multiple ways to organize the material because the platform offers the ability to use lots of activities . Of course , you can upload text in PDF , establish links to other pages , use videos ... all types of resources. You can create your own activities on the same platform , some of them very similar to what can be done with HotPotatoes but are easier to use ( they are also more simples) .

Students can participate in forums, create wikis, glossaries and resolve common issues in groups. They can submit their own work from Moodle, can upload files or write messages to deliver to the teacher. The work of correction may be easier because it has a section in which are recorded all people accessing the course, the moment that pupils enter in it, the activities in which they participate, and so on.

The configuration of the course is quite simple and intuitive, but if we want to offer a course that is interesting and productive for students, we have to develop quality activities. As in most of these platforms, the main thing is to have enough material and interesting things to upload to network. Moodle provides the means but the activities we have to carry us. The truth is that if we have a good bank of resources already developed and we are able to meet all the virtues of Moodle, a course can be truly comprehensive and useful . Otherwise, we will have to devote some time to elaborate but we believe it is worth because there are spectacular results .

We opted to start creating a Basic Galician Course. It has very little activity and we are doing only the essential that we ask the teachers because we do not have much time these days. Every Sunday , we are invited to a meeting at the computer to see the tutorial where they  explain what we  will do throughout the week. This Sunday, we have a very great surprise to see that our course appeared in the live tutorial and the teachers spoke of him in front of other colleagues. We assume that between a lot of courses in English,  our Galician Course  has called their attention. We left here the video tutorial which shows the comments of teachers. About minute 31:57 you can hear your views. 

Comenius 2013: the end

What a pitty! We are in Ourense, but we are thinking of Cambridge: the 20 degree temperature (here 30 °), in dinner at 18:00 pm, classes with sweet and wonderful Anna Young, in my inseparable companions Isabel, María and Virginie (our Spanish girl), in the rain, the walks around the city, in conversations with Sabina, Irina, Atsuko ... so many wonderful people that we had the opportunity to meet in this two weeks of the Bell Teacher Campus.
Now I have to put order in the pictures, in the memories and also in the tasks. Our idea was to write everyday a post in the blog to tell what we were doing in class, but it was totally impossible due to the intense activity that we had throughout the day. Morning classes, workshops, conferences, tourism, and cultural excursions in the afternoons and in the weekends ... so many things to tell you do not know where to start. We will be rearranging all the material that Anna Young provided us and the different ideas she shared with the class. In each of the former entrances write a summary of what we did that day. Could we make a new post with the current date, but we respect the principal idea and complete then the information pending.

I feel very lucky because had it not been for this assistance I received the Comenius program probably would never have the chance to take a course as complete as offering Bell Cambridge. Classes perfectly designed, the height speakers Martin Parrott and Jeremy Harmer and wonderful people from all over the world. Rarely have the opportunity to share conversation with colleagues from Japan, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Peru ... and know how to work our colleagues in other countries. A totally enriching experience that allowed us to open our minds to other forms of teaching, more active, dynamic and participatory, away from the comfortable textbook.

Never forget all that live, learn and share in these two weeks. Never.

Days 11 and 12: Cuisenaire Rods

                                                      About 100 new words in two weeks!

Thursday, August 8

The first activity of the morning you know it has to do with vocabulary. The sun and the clouds, which were empty on the first day, now are full of interesting words that have been drawing attention to each of us: evensong, Toff, brolly or hubby are some of the terms that we will not longer forget .

Thursday, we make first a small debate in class: which do you prefer, dogs or cats? We make two groups, one supporter of  puppies and another prefer cats. From here, each of us has to discuss with the partner about this: which of these animals is better or which  company gives less problems. In pairs, we have to argue and give our reasons to try to convince the other person that our choice is correct.

Then, we have to do three groups: one with people who have dogs, other group with peopel who have cats  and one for people who do not have pets. In these groups, we initiate a debate about the corrections that the teacher should do: when to do it, the reason for correcting and who should make them. Amid the debate, the teacher  says the word carota, a term that brings  all what we should review in the  activities carried out by students .

C-content/argument

A-accuracy/use of grammar and vocabulary

R -range of language

O-organisation/paragraphs ( intro , main body and conclusion )

T- task Achievement

A- appropiacy ( register / style )

In the second session of the morning, we discovered a fascinating activity: Cuisenaire Rods. The Cuisenaire rods are normally used in the world of mathematics, but, lately, also used in language teaching, especially the so-called Silent way method that uses silence as a teaching technique. The teacher conducts the necessary silences in his speech and thus invites the student to speak once that he or she feels safe in the development of the task . The Cuisenaire rods can be used to create stories, to learn vocabulary, intonation, spelling ... On our YouTube channel about Bell Teacher Campus, we have several videos with the activities that made ​​Anna Young session with Cuisenaire rods.

             
                                                 Activities with Cuisenaire Rods

Here we leave some of the links we recommended our profe.

Speaking Activities

Speaking extra

Reading extra

Spelling City

Afternoon : workshop with Anna Young ( Splng , Spelng , Spiling ... A creative approach to spelling ) . Activities with letters to build words .

 Friday, August 9: Last day  : (

Today we work with all of the words you select in our mural vocabulary. We put them on the table, beside a picture of a traffic light. If you know the meaning of the word, place it near the green traffic signal. If you do not know, red in color. At orange, we put those terms with which we have doubts. Among the groups, try to remember the meanings of all the words.                                                                                                        

                                                                       The light


More activities to develop vocabulary:

-A person has to give the definition of the word that touches and others have to guess what it is.

-We place all the words on the table. One fellow thinks and defines a word. The others have to quickly grab the card with the word corresponding to its definition.

Game-points: draw on paper 25 points. We need two contestants and a referee. The referee reads definitions and the contestants have to guess the word. Person who can draw first a line between two points. Win  who ends up making a square.

                                                                              Dot Game


Poems-named: create poems with the names of classmates. Here I leave you the poem made ​​about me ...

We ended the class with delivery of certificates and giving to our wonderful teacher, Anna Young, a tiny detail (full of affection). Next, we place the farewell ceremony at the Auditorium.


 
In the afternoon, last excusión the beautiful town of Bury St Edmunds

And finally, awesome farewell party!

Day 10: journalist

After doing the usual review of vocabulary, we continue with the binomials. One person reads the beginning of the binomial and other has to say the second part to complete the expression:

                                                               Back and - Forth

We continue to work on vocabulary: one person says a word and the other must give the definition of that term.

The dice story: a paper, write six locations, six famous people, six ways to travel, six activities to do on vacation, six things that can go wrong on holiday and six ways to end the holiday. We took the dice and up to six times the number that comes out at a time, will mark the parts of the story that we create. To us, we have the following items:

                      Paris - Beckham - by car - trecking - loose your wallet - Buying souvenirs.

Journalist: we have a peculiar picture one for each group. We are journalists and we have to look for information about the news (6W). We make questions, then we  write them  beside the photo and change them with another group to write the answers.

                                                                    Our story...

In the afternoon, Plenary Talk: Jeremy Harmer and Yes, But Why Do we need teachers at all? Interesting information on these links:

Hole in the wall

SOLE

And then ... Punting on the River Cam!

Day 9: to talk more

Recall vocabulary.

We have colored paper, dice and chips. In three papers of different colors, each of us writes an important date in our life, a touristic place in our country and our favorite word in our language. In my case: 1977, Santiago de Compostela and "bolboreta". Then put those words on the table and built a board with them. We took the dice and the person who touches, speaks for 30 seconds about one of the words ( the other person tries to guess the meaning of these three elections).

The most important part of the class is when we take the issue of contemporary English. The creation of new words is something fascinating in this language. From Brangelina to brolly, veggie, Wags, Bridezilla, de-friend ... and not forgetting the binomials: hustle and bustle, odds and ends, wine and dine... We have new words from blending, clipping, loanwords / borrowing or acronyms.


In the afternoon workshop: Poetry with Jim Carmichael. Escape to The Orchard Tea Garden and visit to Cambridge University Bookshop.

Day 8: Multiple Intelligences

Days 6 and 7: weekend trip to London (London Eye, Stamford Bridge) and Oxford.

New week and eighth day in Cambridge. We keep collecting vocabulary for our mural.

Debate in circle. Put the chairs in two circles and talk with the person you have in front of you. What are the five senses? What are the nine intelligences?

Senses V-visual (sight) A-auditory (listening) K-kinaesthetic (touch) O-olfactory (smell) G-gustatory (taste)

 To use the senses in class: Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Teoría das Intelixencias Múltiples, Howard Gardner.   

  Affective Filter.

Teaching for Success, Mark Fletcher

Fun Class Activities, Peter Watcyn-Jones

10 Commandments for Motivating Language Learners

 Who are you in the picture? You have to invent the lives of people you see in this picture and try to guess which of this characters  wants to choose your partner. In that part of the picture you would like to be?

                                                         Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

 Describe the same picture but with different points of view. One likes the city, the other field ...

                                                                         New York

Image of famous person in two parts. We have to find other means of descriptions, without saying the name. Once we have, we do a short interview (90 seconds) to try to get information about that famous.

Ranking: list of dangerous sports, to magical places, with tips for unemployed people ...

Preview: think about how you can be someone (Charles, the chocolate maker).

In the afternoon, Cultural Talks: Toff, keys and middle-classes: the British class system, with Lindsay Warwick.

Day 5: pronunciation

Last day of the first week. Recall vocabulary before, like every day. Today pronunciation. Practice the sounds of English. The teacher distributes letters with the  phonemes and we pronounce them in different words. We do groups of families according to the affinity of sounds. The book, Ship or sheep?  by Ann Baker helps us in this task of identifying the minimal pairs. Also what happens in this video lets you see how important it is for a speaker to distinguish these sounds good ...

 Another activity is to look for  words in a picture, select them in the lyrics of a song or group verses.  In class, we work with this song by Noah and the Whale.

Again, the teacher wants us to move the class and gives us a paper with a verse of the song. When sounds this single verse, we have to get in line to complete the song.

Before the end of class, one of the companions showed us this video with the accents and their problems ...

In the afternoon we have an interesting excursion to Ely to see its impressive cathedral and enjoy a tea at Peacocks Tearoom.

                                                                       Ely Cathedral

Day 4: philosophy for children or Thunks

The first thing to do is remember one of the words that came yesterday to put the mural vocabulary. Then continue with a new activity, in this case My friend Tessa. The task is to say what things have in common sentences that the teacher is saying. "My friend Tessa likes swimming, but she does not like water; she likes beer, but she does not like wine; she likes running, but she does not like walking ..." All the activities and things Tessa likes have the double letter (swimming, beer, running ...). This is related to Thunks, a kind of philosophy for children who want to take advantage of the critical thinking of the children.

We continue with the class and passed back to the vocabulary. Now we try to present the words in different ways to better understand its meaning and remember the relationships established with other words. We can use the definitions and background, photos, antonyms, mime, scale graduation ... but always remembering the initial MPF (Meaning, Pronunciation and Form). In this session appears the concept of Lexical Approach by Michael Lewis that relies on that to learn a foreign language, it is more useful study the vocabulary and placements of certain words than study  the grammar. To see how a few words, with verbs that are usually or structures that appear, we can go to the page Just the word and there, to enter the word coffee in paragraph Combinations, see all the statistics related to it. Another tool that is used for this type of activity is The Collocations Dictionary. Once you enter the word in this dictionary, are its main combinancións with other verbs, adjectives or names. In addition, there is a wide range of apps such as My Word Book, The Learn Pronunciation or Learn Bots.

The trick that gives the teacher to memorize new words we learn is to relate their sound with a word that sounds similar in our language, connections between the mother tongue and the language they are learning (Psychology for Language Teachers) .

And in the afternoon a new workshop, this time with Lindsay Warwick: What did you say? Helping Students listen. Then visit to the Botanical Garden and to end the day, a Shakespeare's play at outdoors. It is to celebrate the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival and have the chance to see in the gardens of Homerton College the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. A real delight!

Day 3: inventing stories

We started the morning remembering the words of the day before, the mural and extending vocabulary. Then, we begin to look for  5-4-3-2-1, which is to look for that number of objects in the classroom (five murals, four windows, three boards ...). Then, in pairs and in groups, discussed the best way to introduce grammar to students. The teacher, again, writes a series of letters: M-P-F (Pronunciation-Meaning-Form).





These correspond to initial Pronunciation-Meaning-Form. Introducing the vocabulary or grammar in a natural context for students to understand, explain its corrected form and pronunciation. For example, to teach the present perfect, the teacher shows two pictures, one a boy and one a girl.

 From these pictures, we make our own history. We put full name to each of them, studies, profession, hobbies, relationships ... and decided that today is the birthday girl. To surprise her, her boyfriend prepared a romantic dinner and made ​​the housework. When she arrives at night, everything is clean and nice with a decorated table with candles. Once we got to this situation, we began to develop the sentences using the appropriate verb tense: When she arrives, he's  cleaned the room. They are the students who create the story, which create a context they understand. In that context they prepare, find it easier to understand the meaning of this verb tense. The teacher is limited to explaining the results and correct pronunciation, especially in contractions (he has, he's).

 To verify that the student understand the explanation, students will have to prepare questions and answers appropriate to this situation.

                                                                           Book

 Finally, two creative activities, with a Johari window and another with drawings.

                                                                    The Johari Window

In the afternoon, a new seminar with Martin Parrott about changes in the teaching of English: Grammar, correctness and language evolution: what to teach in?

                                                                       Martin Parrott

At night, Touchable Dreams with Jeremy Harmer and Steve Bingham: combination of music and poetry. Do you know this issue?

Day 2: reading

On the second day of our course, we continue to do activities to know and to "break the ice". Today we have to ask our colleagues for their birth year to sit them from left to right, from the oldest to the youngest. Once we have assigned our site, we do is ask the person who is sit next to us  for her birthday more special then he or she have to explain of the rest of colleages. An activity as simple helps us to memorize the names of tod @ s and talk a little between us.

The second activity is to remember some of the words that we learned yesterday, discuss with the class and write it to stick it in one of the murals that we have in the class.

But today we are going to focus on contemporary English, on how the language is changing and creating new words that are supported by the  new speakers. Many of them come from the media and the people in the cases adopting their usual vocabulary. In this video, we hear some of them.

                                     

Comenius 2013: in Cambridge

Now, I am in my new home during these two weeks. Yesterday, we came to London (with kindness of Ryanair, no problems) at seven in the evening and after a short wait, take the train from Stansted towards Cambridge (over thirty minutes ride). On our arrival, we were surprised because when  we said that we are from Galician, everyone cared about the rail crash in Santiago de Compostela.

After this touching welcoming,  we found another student of the course in  Bell Teacher Campus, also Galician and colleague with whom I knew at my first job in the IES Lama das Quendas in Chantada. It is seen that the world is smaller than we think! Inspects the facilities of Homerton College and then we went to sleep because here people usually get up early.

Monday: we had to got up early because they serve breakfast at 7:30 pm. Then, a short presentation of what will be our program activities and meeting with leaders that we have in these two weeks. Our teacher is called Anna Young and was responsible for teaching us the different classes we have, from the library to the computer room.

Our group consists of 20 people from 8 different nationalities (Japanese, Russian, Italian ...) and this first session, the activities were designed to break the ice and introduce. First, we had to sit in alphabetical order by which this activity forced them to ask the names of our colleagues.

The next task was to put an adjective to the person who was beside us who started the first letter of her name. Then, in a sheet we had to write our name and our adjective, we took the folio on our back and the other person had to write him a question about our personal and professional lives to count ten questions. With our answers, we come to make a small group mural. Among four people, we had to write this information in a colorful cardboards and adorn with some designs to put on the wall. These activities appear in the book Being Creative, Chaz Pugliese.

The second part of the class focused on idioms in English. Once explained their meanings, once again we had to search among those attending the course, people who felt identified with these expressions. The phrases we use in this activity are included in the book English Idioms in Use, McCarthy / O'Dell and Check Your Vocabulary for Phrasal Verbs and Idioms, R. Wyatt.

In the afternoon finished our first class. Lunch break and then, at two o'clock we started the class. Hour and a half we did on a test of general culture on the UK (Group work - Intermeditate, Peter Watcyn-Jones) and at the end, we analyze the different activities we did today to be able to adapt to other circumstances. The truth is that the class passed quickly and the course looks like it will be interesting. Try to get the blog up to date but it will be difficult because we will not have much time.

                                                                      Our presentation

Comenius 2013 in Cambridge

Finally! I will travel to Cambridge to enjoy my English course for teachers which will take place in  Bell English (Language and Methodology Refresher Secondary / Adult)   this Sunday. I will spend 15 days at Homerton College, a student residence in downtown campus and all thanks to the scholarship that the EU Comenius have given me. I have it all planned: trip to Santiago to catch flight towards Stansted Airport in London and from there direct train to Cambridge. Classes begin at nine in the morning and every day I'll comment you this nice experience, and speak about the cultural activities (visits, trips ...) that have been organized since the Bell English.

Greetings in Galician language (with LivingJunction)

LivingJunction is a free tool that lets you create digital magazines and books. Although its configuration is in English, is a very easy to use. With it, you can write all the texts you need using different fonts and colors, as well as put them wherever you want and set the links you need. You can also upload your own photos or choose which offers the application from Bing (you will have to delete the link that appears on each of them to prevent jump to that page). Another option offered is to upload YouTube videos to supplement the information you want to present.

Once issued your magazine, book, unit ... you can reedit it whenever you want, expanding or reducing content. You can always vary the positions of the elements, making them larger or smaller, play with colors...The final result is open and that will depend on the imagination of its creator or creators because you can invite others to collaborate on your project.

This is our first test: a short introduction to the presentations and greetings in Galician.

En Galego: presentámonos

Galicia: your experience, your way...

Galicia: your experience, your way... is the title of our new and little magazine about this beautiful land. You can create your digital magazine with LivingJunction. You can choose videos, photos, texts and links and create your own book. 

We present Galicia in this magazine, its  four provinces (A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra), its main towns and villages and its capital, Santiago de Compostela, the end of way of St. James.

What do you know about Galicia?

What do you know about Galicia? is an interactive game in Blubbr. You have 20 questions with videos and information about this green land in Spain. Where is Galicia? What is an "hórreo"? Where do you can eat oysters and drink Albariño wine? Watch and play it!

San Xoan's Day

San Xoan's Day or Bonfires of Saint John is a Festival of National Tourist interest in Galicia which takes place the night of 23 rd June and lasts till dawn, coinciding with the summer solstice.

For this festival, people gather together and create large bonfires from any kind of wood, such as old furniture and cardboard. Thousands of bonfires along the  beachs  and in each of the cities' neighbourhoods, bringing together groups of friends, families, to dance and participate in a banquet of barbecued sardines and boiled potatoes or "cachelos" and eat them with bread and wine. This is most common on the coast but it´s being extended to the rest of Galicia.

 In Galicia, Midsummer night is the night of miracles and enchantments.

The traditional ritual is jumping over the bonfire an odd number of times. San Xoan´s bonfires have purifying qualities: they stop people being jinxed and cure different illnesses.

That night the water from saint and miraculous fountains has a greater power. Sick people go there to have a bath or even to drink from it.

In Galicia it is very usual for people to collect flowers and different herbs during the afternoon and evening. Then, they put them into water and leave them there the whole night, until dawn. This way, they can get wet with the dew in the morning. One can wash oneself with that same water.
These herbs are called "San Xoan's herbs" and include several kinds like: "fennel", "camomile", "mallows", "lemon verbena", "laburnum", "rosemary", "rose", etc., having different healing qualities.

To language learners...

Are you thinking about learning a new language? Maybe, you should see this video because you have to know that... you can learn a new language in one year!! 

The Lernen to Talk Show

This is what it looks like to learn a language in one year. from Mickey Mangan on Vimeo.

Bloomsday

Ah, June 16...the day on which Irish author James Joyce set his epic novel Ulysses. The weighty tome (all 700 or so pages of it) takes place over the course of just one day - June 16, 1904 - as the main character, Leopold Bloom, wanders the streets of Dublin, thinking deep thoughts and meeting all sorts of folk. If you want to know more about Bloomsday, you can visit the James Joyce Centre in Dublin or read more in English Teacher.

National Gallery of Art

If you're an art fan, check out this great link from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. They have made more than 25,000 works of art available to view in high resolution online! Do you have a favourite artist? Tell us about them here! 

HyperGrammar

Here's a useful grammar course from the University of Ottawa in Canada. It has useful exercises on building phrases, building clauses, building sentences writing paragraphs as well as lots of general grammar and punctuation activities. If you want to work on your writing, check it out!

 HyperGrammar

 

English pronunciation and sounds

Here you have a new video about the pronunciation of short /I/. It is made by Úrsula Kirsten Torrado (University of Vigo and Centro de Linguas)

Galician Literature Day: Roberto Vidal Bolaño

The Galician Literature Day (also known as Día das Letras Galegas) is a holiday in Galicia and is celebrated on May 17th  each year. It was created in 1963 to commemorate the 100 years since the publication Cantares Gallegos, by Rosalía de Castro. The publication of  Cantares gallegos marked the start of the cultural renaissance of the Galician language, known as the Rexurdimento. This annual celebration was introduced by Galicia’s Royal Academy (Real Academia Galega).

 In 2013, Galician Literature Day is dedicated to playwright and actor Roberto Vidal Bolaño (Santiago de Compostela, 1950 - Santiago de Compostela, 2002). He was one of the greatest architects of the professionalization of the Galician theater and he started in the theater world with the Group Antroido. He wrote drama,  worked  visual arts and made television scripts for TV Galician and Spanish. He was also one of the first directors who participated in the institutional theater with CDG (Centro Dramático Galego). 

The work of Roberto Bolaño Vidal  is marked by the aesthetic of defeat  and the critique of modernity. Our author defended a recovery of the popular culture, but cultivated the historical theater too. His works collected and mixed aesthetic currents of realism, symbolism, surrealism and expressionism. They are pieces where we can see  the dialogue with the public. Its production is characterized by a commitment to the country and the language

RVB highlighted as an actor, director, producer and illuminator. Some of his works are:

Agasallo de sombras
Animaliños
As actas escuras
Bailadela da morte ditosa
Cochos 
Criaturas
Daquel Abrente
Días sen gloria
Doentes
Laudamuco, Señor de Ningures
Rastros 
Saxo Tenor
Touporroutou da lúa e do sol

 Many cultural events take place on 17th May all around Galicia, particularly in Santiago de Compostela.

Mother's Day - Mothering Sunday

Mother's Day is the first sunday of May in Spain. It is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home-made cards to their mothers. In this BBC's link, you can know more about the history of this celebration.

Mothering Sunday

And now, let's watch a video on the history of Mother's day in the USA (celebrated on the second Sunday of May).

 

How to text in English

You can find some common expressions about how to text in English in this blog, The world is your oyster. This can be a new language in the future!

Essay Map

With this tool, you can write your own essay map and share them with us. You will remember the most important topics with your little map.

                                                       www.readwritethink.org

Digital Public Library of America

The Digital Public Library of America is a huge collection of digitized artifacts and exhibits from museums and libraries across the United States. Through the DPLA you can find documents, books, images, audio recordings, and video clips. 

David Crystal: Which English?

 Which 'English' should we teach our students? This is an interesting question and, maybe we will have more answers tomorrow (Tuesday, 9th April, from 9:00 to 10.25)  in the Plenary Session by David Cristal with  IATEFL - Liverpool Online.

Origins of English words

What is the origin of  robot? Try to find the solution with this English language quiz (by The Telegraph).

Poetry Idea Engine

Maybe, you are a romantic person and  would like to write a beautiful poem, but you don't have ideas...Poetry Idea Engine is the solution for your problem. You can write a haiku, limerick, cinquain or a free verse poem. Choose your words and you will feel like an autentic poet!

Liverpool Online: IATEFL 2013

Liverpool Online Promotion v2 by Ilda Vázquez

Rowing in Cambridge

Cambridge is famous for many different things. Its history, its buildings and its university attract people from all over the world, but there is another important part of life in Cambridge that we haven’t mentioned; rowing. There are a lot of races that take place in Cambridge, on the river Cam, but the most famous race in Britain is The Boat Race, which has been running since 1829.
The race itself involves two crews of eight rowers and one person to steer the boat, called a Coxwain or ‘Cox’, one from Oxford University and one from Cambridge. They race side-by-side on a 6.8km course on the river Thames, in London. It takes place in March, this year on the 31st, and hundreds of people go to London and stand along the river to watch. Thousands of people all over the country also watch the race on the television. Cheering on either the light blues (Cambridge) or the dark blues (Oxford). Now all you need to do is decide who to support. (Bell English).

 Watch The Boat Race live BBC One from 15.15 BST on Sunday 31 March.

 To find out more about The Boat Race, have a look at the official website here: http://theboatrace.org/

Pronunciation

I would like to improve my pronunciation. How can I do it? We have in this page a 10-part interactive pronunciation tutor that introduces students to the sounds of English and to the phonemic chart. Listen and repeat!

Pronunciation

NASA - The Space suit

Would you like to travel to the moon? And around the universe? You can visit this page from Nasa about the space suit. Learn more vocabulary in this "space web".

The space suit

Galician Language

If you want to know more about this beautiful language, you should read this page. Orbis Latinus has several links about different languages and one of these is for Galician language. You can learn more about Grammar and our fantastic Medieval Literature. 

Galician Language

Comenius 2013: Cambridge!

I am very, very, veryyyyyy happyyyyy today!!! I have my Comenius founding for this summer and I am going to Cambridge. I am going to take a course with Bell Teacher Campus, in Homerton College, about "Language and Methodology Refresher". This is amazing!!!