END-OF-YEAR VIDEO

To finish the course in a good mood, nothing like the end-of-year video of the EOI. Thank you to you all for being there till the end!!

IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS

To practise your listening skills further. There have been sites listed on the right-hand side bar of the blog all year long, but anyway, these are some of the most popular sites among students: 

• Saberingles Listening comprehension exercises in American English in three levels (your level is probably "Medium").
• Esl-lab Choose your level (medium), click on a story and answer multiple choice comprehension questions. To finish the exercise, you can listen and read the script at the same time
• Elllo Most activities include images, an interactive quiz, transcript of the audio and downloadable MP3. Just browse and look for something your level.
• Podcastsinenglish listenings for Intermediate level to listen to online or to download. Disadvantage: if you want to have access to the transcripts and the exercises you have to register.

IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION

If you want to brush up on your pronunciation before the exam, this is the pronunciation channel of Vaughan System, where you´re going to find lots of videos about the pronunciation of chunks which can be tricky for Spanish students (it´s a..., shouldn´t have..., etc). Highly advisable.

This is the blog of an American teacher who´s been teaching in Spain for many years, so he knows well the mistakes that native Spanish speakers make when pronouncing English. Here you can find some of his most popular posts (with audio). They´re written in Spanish and he´s got a sense of humour:

• Final -s
• Pronunciation of -ed 1
• Pronunciation of -ed 2
• -s and -sh
• y- and j-
• vowel+r
• words beginning with s+consonant
• could/should/would
• -tion, -ture, -cial

UNIT 8B - PASSIVE VOICE

-Choose either the active or passive form of the verb.
-A rephrasing exercise for statements 1 (mixed tenses)
-A rephrasing exercise for statements 2 (mixed tenses)
-Questions in the Passive 1
-Questions in the Passive 2
-Change sentences from passive to active.

UNIT 8A - EXTRA LISTENINGS BEAUTY AND KEEPING FIT

- Beauty pageants in Venezuela (click on the quiz button to see the multiple choice questions).
- Nathan talking about going to the gym (click on the quiz button to see the multiple choice questions).
-Two different sports centres (two exercises: "which gym?" and "check your understanding").

UNIT 7B - INFINITIVES AND GERUNDS

In this video there´s a lot of information about the verb patterns we were talking about. You can watch until minute 5:11, after that I don´t recommend watching because it´s more advanced and can make you feel confused:

Some exercises to practise the use of infinitives and gerunds:

Exercise 1 Gap-filling (-ing or to)

Exercise 2 Gap-filling (-ing or to)

Exercise 3 Choose the right answer

Exercise 4 Choose the right answer

UNIT 7B - EXTRA LISTENING ENTERTAINMENT

• Stuart and Amy are making plans to go out with their friends. A multiple choice exercise, vocabulary exercise and the script.
• A programme about the Inside Out Festival in London. You have some comprehension questions at the top and can download the script and audio. To listen to the piece, click on "download". 
• Mel talks about horror movies. The PDF to download includes a vocabulary exercise and the script, but no comprehension questions.
• Stephen and Ashley meet up for a night out in London. With comprehension and vocab exercises and the script.

UNIT 7B - PRONUNCIATION /ə/, /ɔː/, /ɜː/

In this unit we did a revision of the pronunciation of the phonemes /ə/, /ɔː/, /ɜː/. 

Here´s a video on the pronunciation of  /ə/ with examples to listen and repeat: 

This video is about /ɔː/:

And this is about  /ɜː/: 

A test on the pronunciation of ¨o¨.
A test on the pronunciation of ¨o¨ 2.

UNIT 6B - EXTRA LISTENING RESTAURANTS

• Alex talks his favourite French restaurant (click on the quiz tab to close the script and see the multiple choice exercise). 
• Danny talks about his favourite Japanese restaurant (click on the quiz tab to close the script and see the multiple choice exercise). 
• A video about food in Britain (click on the tabs "task 1" and "task 2" to see the exercises. Once you´ve done it you can click on thet transcript tab).
• A video about how to order a drink in a British pub (click on the task tab to see the comprehension exercise. Once you´ve done it you can click on thet transcript tab).

UNIT 6B - EXTRA LISTENING SHOPPING AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

Exercise 1. Listen to Todd and Rebecca talking about shopping and customer service.