Spelling: some common words

Here are some words that learners have spelt wrong in some tests. Please make sure you know their meaning and that you can spell them accurately.

Spelling: 50 A words

Here are 50 words beginning with A which you should practise spelling:

Level 1 Writing

Here is a link to a useful website where you can improve your writing skills: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/interactive-resources/literacy

You need to scroll down to "Level 1 From Move on Site" near the bottom of the page.

There are links to practise punctuation, verbs and understanding the purpose of a text. Explore and have fun!

Withington Level 1 Homework

Here is the homework for next week and the holidays:

Spelling:     I’m going to put 50 words on the blog. You need to practise spelling them and show me your practice in January.

Marisa, Anna and Roma:      You need to watch the documentary about Spain on BBC on Tuesdays or catch up on BBC iplayer website. You can watch with the subtitles and then without? You could write something about it: what did you learn? Or find interesting? Tell me about the programme next year. Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06rwgp7/blood-and-gold-the-making-of-spain-with-simon-sebag-montefiore-1-conquest

Everyone else:    I want you to explore the website www.breakingnewsenglish.com   I will put a link on the blog. There are many lessons on that website to practise your reading/writing and listening.

Making questions

Here is a link to a very useful grammar website.

Learners taking the Trinity Speaking exams (on the Jobseekers' course) need to practise making questions in different past tenses. This website will help you. You need to look at:

past simple
past continuous
present perfect

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/questions.html

There are exercises at the bottom of the page.

Introducing a presentation

Here are the phrases which you may find useful to introduce your presentation if you are an Everyday English student:

Speaking: giving advice

We can give advice using

Strongest
must
have to/ has to

Medium
should
ought to

Least strong
could

After these verbs, you need to use the base form of the next verb eg you must go, he has to leave, you could try...

Some spelling and maths games

Here is a link to some simple games: http://www.arcademics.com/games/ I think they are mainly aimed at children, but you might find them useful and fun. The Spelling Bee game is particularly useful for you, and so is the Giraffe Karte subject-verb agreement game.

Reading: some short stories

Here is a website with lots of short stories. Each story has some comprehension questions and some vocabulary tasks. http://www.rong-chang.com/eslread/

Writing: Linking words in reports

Here are some common linking words we use when we write reports. Linking words make writing easier to read and help to connect our ideas. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5X7HCGNCa_6SlhuUHRZSU00TDg/view?usp=sharing

Many learners need to develop their writing skills. If you want to practise using linking words and writing reports, a good list of topics can be found here. http://www.ieltsbuddy.com/ielts-writing-questions.html These are questions for the IELTS exam, not the exams which you will take. The topics may not be similar, but the IELTS questions do you give you the opportunity to write about a controversial topic. You do not need to write a full report, but it might help your writing skills if you write a paragraph every week about one of the topics.

Speaking: giving your opinon

Here are some common phrases we use when asking and giving opinions. These will be useful in your speaking exams. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5X7HCGNCa_6aGxhd2tmdXE3NHc/view?usp=sharing

Videojug

There are lots of examples of How To videos on the website http://www.videojug.com/

Here is the link to How To Cook Lentils: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-cook-lentils

Many of the videos have the words underneath, so these are good for listening practice.

Job Seekers Speaking Exam Practice

Here is a link to the videos of the speaking exam: http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=3236

This website is for Job Seekers only. If you are an Everyday English student, you do not need to watch these videos.

Vocabulary Game

Use the letters to make words

http://www.slimekids.com/games/spelling-games/spellingfiles/whizz.swf

Vocabulary website

This website has got a lot of vocabulary for many different topics. It could be a useful site for practising spelling and checking how many words you know.

Here is the list for "family": http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/family.shtml

This is the Dolch List. The Dolch List of words is a list of the most common words in English. You MUST be able to spell these words correctly. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/dolch.shtml

HOMEWORK

Please complete this quiz on subordinate clauses: http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/identifying_subordinate_dependent_clauses/quiz3637.html

Read the sentences and choose which clause is the subordinate clause.

Good luck and enjoy your break!

Useful vocabulary: PET

PET is a Cambridge exam. The level is similar to Level 1. The vocabulary you need for level 1 is not exactly the same as PET, but the PET vocabulary list is a useful list for checking vocabulary AND SPELLING. The list is here: http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/24934-vocabulary-list-document.pdf


You can also find some vocabulary tests here:
1. http://www.examenglish.com/vocabulary/B1_vocabulary_topics.htm
2. http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_vocab.htm


and some PET grammar practice here:
1. http://www.examenglish.com/grammar/b1_grammar.html
2. http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_grammar.htm

Present perfect or Past simple?

Do you need more practise of these tenses? Here is a link to some more practise:

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-simple-present-perfect-1.html

English File

Oxford University Press publish many coursebooks. One of the most popular is English File. Here is the link to their website (there are two links because there are two available editions of the book):

1. https://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en
2. https://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate3/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

You can try many different types of activities on the website and they are all free.

Listening, Reading, Writing

This website is very useful for practising your listening skills. http://www.newsinlevels.com/#

The website is updated every few days. You should watch the video in Level 3. How much did you understand? If you found it difficult, you can read the transcript of the video.

You can then use the topic of the video to write a response. What is your opinion of the story? What questions does it make you ask? Can you write a short report or newspaper article based on the story?

Listening

Here are some websites where you can practise your listening skills:


1. http://listenaminute.com/
2. http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/tae_private_archive.shtml
4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/talkaboutenglish/2009/07/090727_tae_1st_sight.shtml
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic-group/speaking-and-listening

Vocabulary: Family

Here is the vocabulary we have used to talk about families:

Skills for Life Unit 1

Here is the link to the course unit: Life in the UK. http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/content/etf789

You can find the charities and organisations which you need to research on page 16.

Use the unit for additional reading practice and to develop your vocabulary.

Writing a report

Here is the model answer for writing a report about local facilities:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5X7HCGNCa_6MG5hOUxISTl5WjA/view?usp=sharing

Comparative and Superlative

Here is a link to the practice exercise on Quizlet.com: https://quizlet.com/93420954/comparative-spelling-flash-cards/

There is more practice here: http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/adjectives-comparative-and-superlative.html

Here is a link to the quiz we did in class: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5X7HCGNCa_6NlE3WDlOOWJMNmc/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to the worksheet we completed in class: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5X7HCGNCa_6ZTFuZ0UzYXlDTWc/view?usp=sharing