How to practise oral exam

TOPICS TO PREPARE THE ORAL EXAM – NB1 (2nd term)

• Going shopping (Practical English 3-p.42,43)
• Describing your house in present or past (lesson 8B-8C)
• Describing your town (lessons 5C-10A)
• Going to a restaurant (Practical English 5-p.74,75)
• Comparing things, animals, towns, people... (lesson 9C)
• Habits about food (how much/how many) (lessons 9A-9B)
• Talking about past events, stories, etc. (lesson 7A-7B-7C-8A-8C)
• Talking about memories (lessons 7B-7C)
• Giving directions (Practical English 4-p.58-59)
• Things you can do or you learnt how to do (lessons 5A-5C-can/could/past)
• Rules and prohibitions (can't/couldn't/questions+lesson 5B)
• Habits, likes and dislikes (enjoy+----ing) (lesson 6B)
• Reading in English: your book (lesson 6A)

Verbs followed by infinitive (lesson 11B)

There are some verbs that are followed by infinitive. Here you have the most common ones:
WANT     WOULD LIKE     PREFER    HOPE     HAVE     NEED     PLAN     PROMISE     DECIDE
If you have a look, there is a certain idea of future.
Here you have a link to see some verbs followed by gerung (-ING form) or by infinitive; it's quite simple but it helps. Go to this page for the explanation and here for the exercise
If you want to practise further, here you have some more grammar explanation and the following exercise about it; click here

Revision of prepositions

In lesson 8C we have prepositions of place and movement but we have already seen them before. Here you have some exercises to practise with them:

• exercise 1: this is a simple exercise to start with
• exercise 2: here you have a long explanation and a list of prepositions with exercises at the end
• exercise 3: a huge (enormous) list of exercises, some videos and so on about prepositions
• exercise 4: these exercises are very simple and without the key but you can use it to practise your writing. This is the one we've done in class.

Enjoy the exercises!

Other versus Another

The main difference is that OTHER is used for plural but ANOTHER is for singular (an + other); it also has the meaning of one more, one different from the others. Have a look to these examples:

• Some people like cinema and other people prefer TV
• Can I have another coffee please?

You can go to this link with a good explanation and an exercise to practise. Click here. Another good page is this one; click here

I hope you understand this grammar point.

Giving directions

Here you have some links to help you to give directions. Have a look:

• a simple video with the simplest instructions: click here
• another video with directions: click here
• this is the BBC page for directions with listenings; click this

Irregular verbs

We have studied that the regular verbs have the pattern A - B - B like in work - worked - worked.
Irregular verbs have 4 different patterns as you can see here:

• A - B - B like think thought thought
• A - B - C like drive drove driven
• A - A - A like put put put
• A - B - A like come came come

The most usual ones are the two first patterns and there are very few in the last group, as you can see in the photocopy I gave you in class.

If you want to practise with irregular verbs, here you have some exercises:

• a long list with pronunciation; click here
• here you have a blog with irregular verbs, exercises, videos... click this
• another list with pronunciation (but not with the meaning); click here

If you just want to do exercises to write or choose the correct form, here you have some:

• exercise 1: a list of exercises
• exercise 2
• exercise 3 : apart from this exercise you can find some more at the end of the text.
• exercise 4: another list of exercises but this time with levels

Hope you have enough!

See you in class.

Past Simple: regular forms

There are two forms:

• regular: you add -ED
• irregular: the form changes in past and/or past participle.

Let's work with the regular forms. The problems you find are how to pronounce and how to write the forms, but it's very similar to the 3rd person in singular (-S or -ES). The principal rules are:

• consonant + y ------ ied ; copy -- copied
• consonant + stressed vowel + consonant -------- double consonant; stop -- stopped
• ending in -E you only add -D -------- arrive --  arrived

The principal problem is pronunciation. Let's see the rules by using this link  and this or this video

There was/were

We have already seen this impersonal form to work with past simple of the verb TO BE. Have a look at these exercises:

• exercise 1
• exercise 2
• exercise 3
• exercise 4
• exercise 5
• exercise 6

This grammar point will be completed in lesson 8B and 8C in your book.

Lemmon Tree + Pressent tenses

Here you have an exercise to work with present simple and present continuous. Go to this link.
This is the song of lesson 6C with the lyrics. Here you can find both tenses, especially

Going to a Restaurant

This is a post for That's English! students. Here you have the listening we couldn`t see in class. Go to this link (but it's a bit difficult) :
http://www.elllo.org/Audio/A0501/512-akane-restaurant.mp3
Here you have the vocabulary and a typical situation to practise; go to this link:
http://esl.about.com/library/beginner/blwouldlike.htm
To finish with, here you have a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5dkB_Bcb_M

Saint Valentine's Day

On February, 14 there are a lot of celebrations for Saint Valentine's. It's a very romantic day and it's when you tell your friends or family you love them. Here you have some links to "celebrate" this day:

• This is a traditional love song bu Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender
• This is the typical song that children sing for their parents: You are my sunshine
• This is a link with vocabulary about the topic 

Happy Saint Valentine's!

Lesson 6A: personal prononouns

In class we've been working with subject and object pronous. To have a general idea go to this link where you can find exercises and good practice; click here.
Here you have some exercises to practise with personal pronouns.

• exercise 1

• exercise 2.

Clothes and shopping

If you want to practise with vocabulary you can use these links:

• a video with clothes but no spelling for the words and another one with words to show how to write it. 
• here you have a really good link with vocabulary and the pronunciation. It also have exercises and if you want to pass the page of the book, just click on the number of the page. Click now

You can watch this video about shopping but they use MAY instead of CAN. They are synonyms in this context. Another example is this As a curiosity you can watch this trailer on Pretty Woman about shopping.

To have a good time here you have a Mr. Bean's video about going shopping. Click here. You can practise if you say what he is doing.

The weather

We are studying the weather. Remember we can use two questions; they are very similar but not the same:

• What's the weather like? ---- You use this to describe the weather: It's dry, with little rain and very sunny.
• How's the weather? ---- You say a short comment: It's cold today

However, you can see both sentences when talking about the weather. 

If you want to revise the vocabulary or learn more words about the weather you can go to this link

If you want to have a good time, go to this link where you can find a lot of videos

London

In lesson 5C we speak about London. Here you have some web pages to know something about this amazing city:

• Activities about London; click here
• The top ten museums in London
• London for kids
• A video about London like postcards but this one is short and with vocabulary
• Another video about London

See you in class!

We are a family - Revision of Saxon Genitive ('S)

Here you have some exrcises to work with this topic. Let's start with a video to revise the vocabulary and the Saxon genitive ('S). Click here.

If you want to do some exercises you can use these links:

• Saxon genitive: explanation and exercises. Click here
• Family: click here and do this exercise here
• The Simpsons: vocabulary here

Here you have a video with idoms or expressions connected to the family; it's a bit difficult for beginners but it's quite interesting and you can practise some listening if you are not a beginner of English. Click here to see the video.

Reading in English

Here you have some pages for reading. I hope you'll find something according to your level. If not, don't worry. Wait until you feel confident enough to read stories. See you in class!

• Very easy stories: http://www.eslfast.com/supereasy/index.htm
• Stories for beginners, but you need up to future, past tenses, etc.: http://www.eslfast.com/easyread/index.html
• Stories for little children with drawings: http://www.cookie.com/kids/stories/viewallstories.html
• Short stories with exercises oriented to children or learners: http://www.elcivics.com/worksheets/reading.html

Present continuous versus habitual present

In lesson 5B we are studying present continuous. The form is very easy:

•  TO BE (AM / IS / ARE) + ________ING

Here you have some examples:  I am playing with my children     She's writing an email

This tense is used for specific time, especially now or at the moment, but it's also possible with short periods of time like I'm a teacher but now I'm working as a shop-assistant.
Here you have a video to practise present continuous. Click here. 

There is a problem with the spelling of the -ING form: you must double the last consonant if the infinitive ends in CONSONANT + VOWEL + CONSONANT and the vowel is stressed. Let's see some examples:

• get --- getting        swim ---swimming      BUT    open --- opening     listen --- listening 

If you have problems with the spelling go to this page

Once this is clear we have the problem to choose between present simple or present continuous. Remember present simple is connected to habits or routines and you usually have it with frequency adverbs or answering the question how often?, while present continuous is referred to a precise action. Look at the example:

• I usually go to the gym but today I'm going to the swimming pool

If you need more information about these tenses go to this link. The differencse between these two tenses are in lesson 5C in our student's book.

If you want to practise here you have some exercises:

• exercise 1      exercise 2     exercise 3 

Here you have a song Eternal Falme to practise with both tenses.

the verb CAN

The verb CAN is used to speak about "poder" or "saber" in Spanish. The main characteristics of CAN are:

• it's a modal: it is used to say "poder" or "saber" . It means ability / possibility / permission / impossibility / prohibition; depending on the form and the context.
• it's defective: with NO -s in the 3rd person, NO infiniteve (to be able to) and NO past participle ( been able to)
• it's auxiliary: you use it in interrogative and negative forms Can you open this?  No, I can't

To practise with listening, here you have this song with CAN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lpcWqecyak

Saxon Genitive

There are plenty of teachers who use blogs to teach Englsh, like me. Here you are a link to one of those with a lot of exercises to practise: http://elenacarriles.wikispaces.com/THE+SAXON+GENITIVE but you also have these links: click here or this one (but this includes past tenses)
To finish with, try to do oral exercises using this structure:

• Sara has a dog. It's black --- Sarah's dog is black
• Joe has a cat. It's white --- Joe's cat is white

Howerver, be careful with nouns ending in -S or sibilant sounds like in the following examples. The pronunciation changes a lot:

• Alice has a daughter --- Alice's daughter (you have to pronounce an extra syllable /ælɪsiːz/)

However, you don't write or pronounce the extra 'S with plural forms

• My cousins have a house --- my cousins' house ( /ˈkʌzənsiz/ )

Notice that if it's ending in -S you don't write an extra -s like in the Simpsons' dog.

See you in class.

New Year's Resolution

Here you have a couple of videos about New Year resolutions, a typical thing to do in anglosaxon countries. I hope you'll enjoy them.

• Ten new year's resolutions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-xS5flexx0
• Two weeks later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_sZQP36bt4

Happy New Year 2013

Here we are again after Christmas. Let's come back to class and here you are some pages to start with reading:

• simple present story with exercises: story 1 story 2
• simple stories with different exercises: click here and choose the exercise you like
• http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/beginner.html : stories for KET level
• http://www.newsinlevels.com/ : this webpage is about news. There are 3 levels and the first one is very simple but if you have problem, don't worry; it's normal.

If you want to read something more interesting you can do it by using the tourist information of places you like; have a look here:

• London: http://www.projectbritain.com/regions/london.htm 
• New York: http://www.nyc.com/visitor_guide/orientation__information.75830/editorial_review.aspx

You can read a lot of kind of texts, but try to do it without translations. Enjoy your reading!