TERESA MARTÍN

Literature: Jane Eyre

2012-01-04T18:25:00.004+01:00

“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Open the door for translation, for talking, for debating: Literature, oh great work!

Express English: National stereotypes

2011-12-01T13:00:00.000+01:00

Stereotypes

2011-12-01T12:58:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYJXNkMKgX8&feature=player_embedded#!

About you

2011-09-09T13:33:00.000+02:00

What’s Your Favourite...?

· What’s yourfavourite colour?

· What’s yourfavourite food?

· What’s yourfavourite fruit?

· What’s yourfavourite vegetable?

· What’s yourfavourite chocolate bar?

· What’s yourfavourite drink?

· What’s yourfavourite day of the week?

· What’s yourfavourite time of year?

· What’s yourfavourite film?

· Who’s yourfavourite film star?

· What’s yourfavourite book?

· What’s yourfavourite time of the day?

· What’s yourfavourite word?

Year 2011-2012

2011-09-05T13:24:00.002+02:00

Ready to follow the map of learning?

Proverbs and idioms

2011-05-01T22:23:00.001+02:00

Today's phrase:

Make no bones about something.

Maybe, not surely, about ... learning.

Quote: Jim Lawley

2011-04-29T07:05:00.002+02:00

"Many classroom activities after all are little more than thinly disguised tests of students' knowledge of English"

Proverbs and idioms

2011-04-26T11:16:00.003+02:00

What does the following phrase mean?

Is there a similar one in your language?

Do you agree with it?

Still waters run deep

Little Miss Sunshine

2011-04-26T07:58:00.002+02:00

The following phrases appear in a scene in Little Miss Sunshine. Guess what happens in the scene. Then watch and check.

Little Miss Sunshine

Ø Grandpa won’t wake up.

Ø He’s had a long … eventful life …

Ø But whatever happens we’re a family.

Ø Are you the family of Edwin Harvey?

Ø He’s passed away.

Ø These are the forms you need to fill out.

Ø That ain’t gonna happen.

Ø You can’t abandon the body.

Ø We’re not going to leave him.

Ø We’ll take him with us.

Ø Dwayne, don’t you dare!

Ø Okay! Here we go! One, two, …

Ø Be cool. Be cool. Almost there.

Ø Okay, I’m putting it into gear …!

St. Patrick's Festival Parade, Dublin, Ireland

2011-03-17T12:43:00.000+01:00

Shamrock

2011-03-16T06:28:00.002+01:00

Good year for shamrock. A bit of reading:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0316/1224292261897.html

Saint Patrick's Day is near

2011-03-09T07:42:00.003+01:00

Time for stories is near. Enjoy your reading, always enjoy your reading.

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-09T15:07:00.003+01:00

Any resolution round the bend?

I will ...

David Crystal - Words Words Words

2010-12-14T07:33:00.000+01:00

David Crystal on It's Only a Theory. Interesting, isn't it?

2010-12-14T07:28:00.001+01:00

Description or feeling?

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Description or feeling?

o Amazing

o Attractive

o Beautiful

o Brave

o Broken

o Confused

o Delicious

o Embarrassed

o Embarrassing

o Good-looking

o Handsome

o Nervous

o Nice

o Ordinary looking

o Perfect

o Pleased

o Pretty

o Serious

Description

Feeling

The adjectives are taken from a story we have read or we are reading and then it is time to talk and use vocabulary.

warm-up: mimic

2010-09-17T11:35:00.001+02:00

You want to show that you agree with somebody or something.	You want to show that you disagree with someone or something.
You meet a Japanese person and you greet him/her in their traditional way.	You want to get to another village but you have no money and no car.
You take a train and from it say goodbye to the person who took you to the station.	You show you do not understand, without speaking –of course.
You cannot believe your eyes.	The joke you have just heard is really good.
You meet a friend you have not seen for a long time.	You meet a very important person.

Lost? No, we know we are in Dublin.

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O'Connell Street

Findindg our way around the English world

2010-09-10T12:23:00.001+02:00

Directions

Is there a post office near here?
Is there a police station?
Is there a library?
Is there a hospital or a doctor surgery?
Is there a school?
How many schools are there?
How many libraries are there?
Is there a fishmonger’s near here?
Is there a baker’s?
Is there a newsagent’s?
Is there a butcher’s?
Is there a chemist’s?
Is there a bank?
Is there a furniture shop?
Is there a clothes shop?
Where is the nearest supermarket?
Is there a park?
How many parks are there?
Is there a bookshop?
Is there a bus station?
Is there a railway station?
How many railway stations are there?
How can we get to the nearest park?
How can we get to the nearest newsagent’s?
How can we get to the nearest bank?
How can we get to the nearest chemist’s?
How can we get to the library?
How can we get to your house?

Now, let's take a map of Dublin.

In Dublin

· Find: the National Library, Trinity College, a park, a cathedral, the river Liffey, the Temple Bar, the General Post Office (GPO), a railway station, Dublin Tourist Centre, O’Connell Monument, Dublin Castle, James Joyce Centre, Guiness Storehouse, a shopping centre, the Garden of Remembrance, the Grand Canal Docks.

You are at Trinity College:

· How can we get to St Stephen’s Green?

· How can we get to Tara Station?

· How can we get to the City Hall and Dublin Castle?

· How can we get to Temple Bar?

· How can we get to the National Museum?

· How can we get to Merrion Square?

· How can we get to Custom House?

· How can we get to the GPO?

· How can we get to Jervis Shopping Centre?

· Where would you like to go? Why?

· What means of transport would you prefer: train, bus, tram, or, maybe, your own feet?

· Would you vist the Writers’ Museum?

· Would you visit Guiness Storehouse?

· Would you visit Phoenix Park?

Signs. Reading.

2010-09-03T16:41:00.003+02:00

While moving around,

we never forget words,

languages.

New School Year

2010-09-01T16:21:00.002+02:00

It is time to get back to work, to study, or just to go on. A language is something alive, and it is never on holidays, and that's the magic in it. Words, words on walking all around and inside.

Study

2010-05-01T09:04:00.001+02:00

Language

2010-03-19T08:47:00.002+01:00

You go along the street, worried and tired of your everyday routine, and, suddenly you see something that powerfully attracks your attention, moves you to invisible or quite visible tears, and suddenly you feel it is worth walking: it is what happens when you hear a piece of speech in another language and unconsciously you understand it, or when you read something in your mother tongue or in another language and you understand the beauty of language. A language, any language is worth reading, learning, enjoying, living. Languages can be lived, are actually lived while living.

Happy day

2010-03-17T08:50:00.003+01:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

And merry tales

2009-12-23T06:54:00.004+01:00

Happy New Year

2009-12-23T06:52:00.003+01:00

Useful words

2009-10-25T09:52:00.000+01:00

Also

Although

And

As a result

Because

But

So that

However

In addition to this

Moreover

Therefore

Too

What's the weather like?

2009-09-23T08:45:00.002+02:00

http://www.irishtimes.com/weather/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather

http://www.nytimes.com/weather

Being polite

2009-09-23T08:38:00.004+02:00

Don't forget some useful words:

Excuse me

Please

Pardon?

Thank you

You are welcome

They are always around.

Describing

2009-09-23T08:30:00.005+02:00

How would you describe these paintings? Let's use some adjectives:

Beautiful

Meaningless

Intelligent

Ridiculous

Crazy

Skillful

Creative

Ugly

Funny

Unusual

Horrible

Weird

Imaginative

Fascinating

Interesting

Boring

Describing paintings

2009-09-23T08:23:00.004+02:00

One lesson or is it lesson one?

2009-09-17T18:29:00.001+02:00

One lesson or is it lesson one?

2009-09-17T18:29:00.000+02:00

Poetry

2009-09-10T17:07:00.003+02:00

See:

http://www.lne.es/cuencas/2009/09/10/nueve-mil-alumnos-vuelven-aulas-repunte-ciclos-inferiores/806267.html

Not just in Spanish, but within the English lessons poetry, literature, is there, ready to be used, to be enjoyed.

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Alice in onderland

2009-09-09T18:21:00.006+02:00

Today we are going to have some reading: Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Do you remember the characters in the book?

Some help. And here you have some sentences they say, but who says ...?

Why don't we organize a Caucus-Race?

What's a Caucus -Race?

The race is over!

Who is the winner?

Everybody is the winner and everybody must have a prize.

Prizes! Prizes!

But she must have a prize, too.

I only have the box.

Please take this beautiful box with our thanks.

I miss Dinah!

Who is Dinah?

Dinah is our cat. She's very good at catching mice and she eats birds too.

Nobody likes Dinah down here but she's very dear to me!

Perhaps it's the mouse.

Alice	Wonderland
the White Rabbit	the Caterpillar
the Duchess	the Cheshire Cat
the March Hare	the Hatter
the Dormouse	the Queen

Food or easy thing?

2009-09-08T08:27:00.002+02:00

Pie!

pastry, tart, timbale, quiche, trifle, tipsy cake, strudel, puff?

mere child's play, simple twist of the wrist, cinch, snap, pushover, duck soup, piece of cake, sitting duck?

Isn't language a wonderful game to be played at any time, in so many situations, using so many word combinations. Vocabulary is so important, but so often left aside.

Learning a language is as easy as pie

2009-09-07T12:55:00.002+02:00

A treat on Sunday

2009-09-06T09:27:00.004+02:00

Sunday, isn't it?

Let's heve some treat: food vocabulary and a question,

What are we having for breakfast, brunch or lunch?

A crêpe (or crepe) with one topping and we choose from

some...

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS.

It is not so difficult. It is just a treat, the same as the crepe (or crêpe) we are going to enjoy, if just, or not, in our imagination.

Vocabulary power: the weird effect

2009-09-04T15:18:00.002+02:00

Qué mejor forma de empezar: un cuaderno y muchos lápices, un montón de palabras listas para ser descubiertas, vividas, un sombrero de imaginación, y, cómo no, un té y unas galletas de jengibre. Ready! Let's start with some synonyms, are they?

weird

uncanny

eerie

supernatural

preternatural

unnatural

unearthly

ghostly

spooky

mysterious

strange

bizarre

odd

queer

peculiar

'I am weird, my friend'

Suelo decir eso en las clases, cuando dicen que el inglés es raro, que los compañeros les dicen que son raros, que la pronunciación de esta u otra palabra es rara. Everything is weird. Y puede ser realmente fuera de lo 'ordinary' con un poco de imaginación, mucho vocabulario, muchos sonidos en los oídos, y, tal vez, unos cuantos tés, y todas las galletas que sean necesarias.

Is it weird, my friend?

New year, new energy

2009-09-03T18:49:00.003+02:00

A lot of things to do, a lot of things to learn.

Knowledge is life.

2008-09-25T19:36:00.011+02:00

2008-09-24T15:36:00.024+02:00

Working together, learning

from each other's effort.

These are some of the wonderful pieces of work some of my dear students (kids) have done. We usually put them on the wall to be read by all of us. Then, we work on the language use, and that is why mistakes have not been corrected .

Click on each entry to see it:

Carlos
Dani
Esther
Jorge
Juan
Mario
Olaya
Rosana
Ulises

How to work with English
language in a different way.

Click on each entry to see it:

Big Quotes

Tea

Market

Market

2008-09-24T15:35:00.004+02:00

Tea

2008-09-24T15:35:00.003+02:00

Big Quotes

2008-09-24T15:33:00.004+02:00