HAVE FUN WITH ENGLISH C1

Unit 2 has been very fruitful. We have learned a lot of new vocabulary on environmental issues and focused on how to write a problem-solution essay. However challenging the task has proved to be, the results are amazing! Judge for yourselves! As usual, I have built up our composition collection for C1 students to use as a guide to revise and boost their writing skills! Thank you so much to all of them for their generosity when sharing their personal writing tasks!

The C1speaking test in Galicia will definitely include a new task this year: Mediation . Students will have to mediate with each other and will be assessed according to their performance. But what does that exactly mean? They will be exposed to a text on a particular issue and will have to relay information and discuss the writer's attitude. Luckily, there are some useful expressions and collocations students can use to manage to pass on the information and convey the writer's message. This game below may help English students organize the chunks they can use to mediate effectively and pass the exam with flying colours!. Once the meaning is clear, just be ready to invoke the muses to inspire you during your exam!! 

I told you! Genially is totally addictive! To bring Unit 2 together I have just designed an alphabetical game to revise vocabulary on urban issues. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did in class. 

Now that we are about to finish the unit, I have asked my students to make a list of those words that are a bit demanding for them in terms of pronunciation. Ready to face the challenge? Figure out how to pronounce the words below first and then get ready to click on each of them to come up with its accurate meaning and flawless pronunciation! Good luck! 

My students have been working hard these days and the resulting work is as awesome as the padlet board below. They have been debating about a huge mass tourism project a real estator is planning to develop on Granville Island, a tropical haven in the Caribbean. Regional authorities, conservationists and journalists held a real meeting... in class! The students performed different roles to try and reach an agreement on whether the whacking seaside resort should be developed, which will also help them rework modal verbs. Anyone asking for more!?

My C1 students have been preparing earnestly to share their first writing with our online community! A cover letter. The tasks we did in class included learning useful expressions for cover letters, studying models and correcting their draft versions. Eventually, they shared their writings on google drive. I feel really proud of their work. No doubt more writings are about to make the scene, but far and away less challenging than the first one!

Our last class on unit 1 was partly devoted to revising some of the work collocations we had been working with. I tried to give it a nice atmosphere by adding a new tool: Mentimeter . Students worked in groups to come up with employment expressions after watching a video on how to ace a job interview. I hope they have enjoyed the lesson as much as I did. And this is how I prove it: Work and Employment vocabulary de Paula Gómez

Clearly, each of the sentences we worked with in class needed an adverb, either one that tells how, when or where. Adding an adverb to each statement surely completed its meaning and created a rather well-structured compact sentence. This activity will definitely come in handy to activate the use of this kind of expressions! What I am basically saying is, colour your speech by using a great deal more of adverbial expressions!

Last week´s class with our language assistant was lots of fun! We learned quite a bunch of new words related to personality traits and used them to talk about different occupations. What is a politician like? What makes a good leader? Use the words below to brush up on your personality adjectives!

As a teacher, I am particularly interested in finding a balance between education technology and more traditional teaching methods. I am deeply concerned about using technology as an empowering tool to increase students' engagement and retention and enhance significant learning in class. But am I going too far with it? Am I shaping technology to my teaching style or is it just the other way round? I have asked my C1.2 students to prepare their initial assessment monologue on the issue. Their performances will  help me assess their level and also find out what their real motivations are and how suspicious they can be on using technological devices in class. I will also use their contributions as a guide to my own attitude towards using technology with them! I´ll keep you informed!

We have worked in teams in today's class. The goal of the task was to find out how many useful expressions we remembered that helped us build structured speeches. Being able to produce well-organized presentations is a must this year! After letting the groups cooperate for a while, here are the expressions they came up with. All in all, not bad after all! Have a look at the publication here to judge for yourselves.

We have just had a great time in class. I always devote it to getting to know each other activities and a bit of grammar and vocabulary revision from previous years. At the end of the class, I asked my students to write some catchy headlines highlighting their opinion on the lesson. Read their own suggestions and let me know what you think! I assume this will definitely be a great starting point!

According to the  Common European Framework of Reference for Languages  (CEFR) there are six standardised levels that a learner can aim at when studying a foreing language. It describes C1 level as follows: " the ability to communicate with the emphasis on how well it is done, in terms of appropriacy, sensitivity and the capacity to deal with unfamiliar topics ". Are you perfectly at ease with the language? Do you understand its subtleties and registers and do it without losing a hint of your motivation? If so, you have already achieved a high level of English ability to be used in both academic and professional contexts. If you don't... just don't panic! You have just enrolled the perfect course to meet the challenge and achieve the goal. You will not only gain certification for an advanced level test but also prove your high level of achievement in English. Follow the tips on the video below and you will rock! Be prepared for both academic or prof...

Here we go! It´s time for a new beginning. Time for 19-20 school year challenge. My brand-new C1.2 students are about to embark on a new and empowering adventure and I´m really looking forward to it. Just for a promising start, here is the presentation we are going to discuss in class and the document that tells everything we need to know about this both demanding and inspiring level. Can you meet the challenge? Welcome to C1.2 de Paula Gómez

We are about to finish the course, which means that it is high time you worked hard and with motivation. I know that you are mostly worried about your speaking exam but I can definitely state that your writing task will also be a daunting one. That is why looking back and trying to gather all the writing skills  you need is crucial to successful writing. Have a look at all the proposals on traffic calming measures you have written yourselves. They are all great pieces of work. Nice samples of the strategies you can implement on your writing tasks! Good luck and keep hard work up!

My students are becoming extremely creative right now. Pity the course is coming to an end! Here are the mindmaps they have designed on Unit 10. Anyone teaching or learning with New Language Leader Advanced?  Take good advantage of these awesome summaries on Unit 10 vocabulary! 

Beleive it or not, the school year is about to finish. It´s been almost eight months of hard work, studying and learning together. At this stage of the course, I always find it useful to look back and reconsider how much my students have evolved in the year. With this idea in mind, Padlet has just come in handy! I started the course recording some of my students' performances and uploading them on Padlet and I would like to get to the end by doing just so.... and then you can judge by yourselves. The board below will give my students the chance to compare their monologues at two different stages of their learning: the beginning and the ending of the school year. Hopefully, they have improved, progressed and matured and, most important of all, they might have also enjoyed the journey! Pity that farewell time is just round the corner... Anyway, I will always remember this as my first C1 teaching year. There'll be more students to come, and we will all benefit from th...

In the unit we finished not long ago students practised how to write an article of opinion in English. Following an infographic and a sample task they have come up with nice pieces of work on news consumption nowadays.

Part of this week´s classes have been devoted to try and figure out how to succeed in the C1 oral test students are about to take.  Certification Exams in Galicia are held at EOIs every June and EOI teachers assess candidates according to the standards given by the Xunta de Galicia . So, what are the main goals of these standards? How can students acknowledge what they are expected to do? Analysing the grid EOI schools use to assess their oral exam and discussing the pros and cons of a monologue performance in class have both been really inspiring activities. Here is what my students came up with after discussing the statements in the oral assessment grid in groups: With these ideas on the board, students assessed each other's performances and got very stirring feedback from their peers! Most important of all, they have learned how to enhance their speeches avoiding sloppy language:

At the end of unit 6 my students were assigned a report . After working on their draft versions and coming up with well-structured pieces of writing here comes a classic for every single unit. Our online magazine on the task. Hope you enjoy it: 

Hi everyone, a map of mind is a great tool to gather the most relevant ideas on any topic. It lets you organize thoughts and information in a visual and effective way. By organizing content in hierarchies, the human brain learns to build connections effectively and memorizes even in a better way. So, here are your great mindmaps to revise unit 8. Use them to consolidate content!

In unit 5 my students have worked hard on how to write the summary of an article. They have been learning to highlight important information after scanning a text and to use objective formal language. Have a look at the results and judge by yourselves. Am I showing off a little too much or do they deserve the praise?

Our teacher assistant carried out a very enjoyable activity on idioms. I realized that you all had a great time and that learning tough vocabulary does not necessarily have to be dull and boring. Don't you think? You can have a look at the presentation below to check all the idioms my C1 groups of students have been playing with. There is quite a bunch! Can you guess them all? Enjoy!

Here are the final versions of the health proposals you wrote during the exam period. As the course moves forward, I keep getting fewer writings! I would like you not to give up the hard work. Continuous learning is key to success so keep it up! Do not lose your enthusiasm and go on loving what you are doing at school!

February is the second month of the year and also the shortest! with 28 days in common years and 29 days in leap years. At school it is also a time to look back and reconsider learning habits. After having been through exams, my next class is going to be devoted to revision, checking and moving forward! We will be dealing with exam results, trying to figure out why the reading comprehension test has been so hard this time when it is likely to be the easiest task of the exam. We will also try the listening comprehension task again, with the script this time, to come up with difficult vocabulary and we will also be dealing with one of the most relevant issues in the oral exam: subject - verb agreement . Most of my students seemed to have problems with singular or plural forms. To revise those, we are going to use a great quiz a colleague from Asturias has designed for English learners. I'm sure you will have no doubts at all after completing the quiz, or... will you?

My students have done a new piece of collaborative writing. After the instructions, each group wrote a single paragraph based on information they got from a listening activity. Then, they mixed up to come up with a final version. Judge for yourselves! They already know how to write a proposal in English. Well-done!

This time my students have done a great job with their letters of interest. Have a look at the instructions, the useful expressions and the sample answers. Provide your students with the input they need and you will come up with awesome pieces of writing! Congratulations, everyone!

Here are the exam dates for the first term. We are about to finish it! Hope you don't have any problems with these dates. Just let me know as soon as possible if you do. You shouldn't miss exams because even though they don't count on your final score, practice is always welcome! Remember that you will have to register for the oral exam in class. There'll be an oral exam control list on the classroom board soon! Good luck everybody! I am 100% per cent sure you'll do a great job! Group Time Listening / Reading / Speaking Writing / Speaking Speaking C1.2-2   10.20 Wednesday 23 January Monday 28 January Wednesday 30 January Group Time Listening / Reading / Speaking Writing / Speaking Speaking C1.2-3   16.00 Friday 25 January Tuesday 29 January Friday 1 February