ICDL= International Children´s Digital Library

To all book lovers,

this is a video on the basics of the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) website and how to do a simple search for a book - and read it online: you can browse by age, genre, book length, character types and even the color of a book´s cover! (and, of course, by language, writer, title…)

Quiz: Are You A Good Language Learner?

Are you a Good Language Learner?

1.  Do you like working

a.  with other learners in pairs or groups? 

b.  on your own/alone?                

2.  During the lesson, are you usually  

a.  relaxed and comfortable?

b.  anxious and uncomfortable?            

3.  While speaking English, are you

a.  confident and relaxed?   

b.  inhibited & shy?             

4.Do you

a.  look for opportunities to use English in and out of class? or

b.  forget all about English when you leave school?     

 5. Do you

a.  prefer not to wory about grammar rules? or

b.  worry about grammar so much that you can’t speak?      

 6. Do you

a.  Keep a well-organised notebook from which you can revise easily? or

b.  often have to ask your friends for their notes?    

7.  Are you

a.  Aware of your own mistakes? or

b.  Unaware of your mistakes ?      

8.  Are you

a.  Able to notice others’ mistakes? or

b.  unable to spot them?              

9. Do you feel

a.  relaxed about making mistakes? or

b.  worried about making mistakes?        

 10. Do you

a.  recognise similarities and differences in language or

b.  is this difficult  for you?         

11. Do you learn better 

a.   by seeing words and pictures or

b.  by  listening to the language or is this a mystery to you

 12. How do you feel about learning English?

a.  You enjoy it  

b.  You hate  it

13.   Do you 

a.  enjoy participating in classroom activities or

b.  do you prefer to just watch and listen?        

14.   Do you prefer

a.  challenging activities or

b.  easier activities?      

15.   Do you prefer to

a.  experiment with language or

b.  repeat only sentences you were taught?         

16.   Are you 

a.  prepared to take risks or

b.  do you avoid  risks and prefer to be safe?       

17.   Are you 

a.  prepared to be playful and not serious or

b.  are you afraid of appearing foolish?            

18.   To understand a message do you feel

a.  Comfortable if you don’t know all the words or

b.  Uncomfortable unless you know all the words

19.    Do you attempt to communicate orally

a.  even if you don’t know every single word, or

b.  only when know all the words  

20.   Do you 

a.  feel comfortable in your new class or

b.  miss your previous teacher and fellow students?         

21.Are your feeling towards native English speakers

a.  a.positive?

b.  negative?

22.    Are you

a.  an adolescent/adult or

b.  a younger or very young learner?     

23.   Do you know if you are

 a. an analytical learner or 

 b. not sure of what type of learner you are?         

24.   Are you better at

a. listening orb. reading? 

Your Score

Quite obviously, the more  a answers you have managed to collect, the closer you tend to be to the ideal profile of the Good Language Learner. Most Good Language Learners average a score of about 70%.  If you have scored more than 90%, well then, you are a rare creature indeed!

If you did not score high

If your score is less than the Good Learner average, identify the areas of difficulty and plan a course of action for yourself.
For instance, if you answered B for Question 23, make it a point of training yourself to be a better listener by listening to more tapes, switching regularly to watching English speaking TV  channels, You Tube videos and films, listening to TED talks on topics of interest.

Idea copied from Marisa Constantinides´s blog; TEFL Matters

Spain is Different 2

Read more about it: click here to be linked to The Telegraph

What do you think about this idea?

"The Local," Spain´s News in English

The Local  is an online newspaper in English; the Spanish edition focuses on news related to Spain. Its pieces of news are not long and they should not be difficult to read for a student of English with an intermediate level. 

Have a look at this piece of news published last week (4 June, 2013):

Singing pilot diverts flight in sightseeing stunt

A pilot with Spanish airline Iberia on Monday changed his flight plan to allow passengers to take in the sights of the historic Galician city of Lugo.

"He asked if he we could divert from our route a little to take in the beauty of the walls of Lugo," passengers on flight IB 0512 from Madrid to A Coruña told the newspaper La Voz de Galicia.

Passengers on the flight could hardly believe their ears, but moments later they found themselves above the famous Roman walls of the city.

The unusual in-flight entertainment had already started at take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport when the pilot, Ángel Aznárez, greeted them with a sung greeting in English.

It was a big surprise "but nice", one of the passengers said.

After take-off it was all quiet on board until the pilots starting singing again. 

During the flight, the knowledgeable captain introduced each city along the plane's route and provided historical information on aspects of Spanish history.

The stewards enjoyed the show as well, according to passengers. 

"They told us the captain's joyful behaviour was normal and that he was a really nice guy to both the crew and the customers," another passenger told La Voz de Galicia.

Aznárez' show was greeted with plenty of appreciative applause when the plane landed. 

Lugo is the only city in the world with intact Roman walls. These date from the 3rd century and are a UNESCO  World Heritage sight.

George Mills (george.mills@thelocal.com)

Free E-Book Download: "The Da Vinci Code"

Have you read  Dan Brown´s book The Da Vinci Code? This mystery novel became a bestseller as soon as it was published, in 2003, and has sold over 80 million copies all over the world - it is up to you to decide whether this information is valuable or not in relation to this book, if you have read it.

If you haven´t read it, here´s a good chance for you to do so. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of its publication, it will available as a free download on some ebook platforms until March 24th.

Click here to be linked to the free downlad for the Sony Reader

Click here to be linked to the free download of Barnes and Noble´s ebook, Nook book

This piece of news was published on the Galleycat a couple of days ago.

If you have no idea what kind of a book this is, have a look at the trailer of The Da Vinci Code, the film based on it; it may help.

Pronunciation of -ed

This post is copied from Denilso de Lima´s blog Ingles na Ponta da Língua. It is a podcast and I think it is really good to practise the pronunciation of -ed, which is what we are working with in 1º BAC these days.

Click to listen to the audio and read the transcript at the same time. 

Hi, this is Kristen Hammer again with a new post. This post is about pronunciation. Today I’ll be talking about the suffix –ed.  This little guy seems to cause a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.

Many words in English have an –ed ending. Mostly we see this with verbs that are in the past tense. So, in this case, the infinitive verb “to paint” becomes “painted”(They painted the chair). We also have the past participle form of the verb “to paint”, which is also, “painted.” (The chair was painted yesterday). And finally, we have the participle in the adjective form (The painted chair is beautiful).  

n all my time teaching English in Brazil, I have found just a handful of people who correctly pronounce the –ed endings on words. Believe it or not, there are actually THREE different ways to pronounce the –ed suffix. There is the  /ɪd/ sound, which adds an extra syllable to the word. This is the one Brazilians always seem to use! We have the /t/ sound.  And lastly, there is the /d/ sound.

There are three main rules that you should know in order to pronounce these endings correctly (I am copying these rules from a website I found):

1. If you add –ed to a word that ends with a /t/ or /d/ sound, then the –ed sounds like /ɪd/ and is pronounced as an extra syllable. Example: faint-ed.
2. If you add –ed to a word that ends with voiceless consonant sounds, then the –ed sound is like /t/ and is not pronounced as an extra syllable. Example: forced – pronounced /fɔːrst/
3. If you add –ed to any other word that does not fit the above rules and has voiced consonant sounds, or ends with a vowel sound, the –ed is pronounced with a /d/ sound, and also has no extra syllable. Example: waved is pronounced /weɪvd/.

[If you don’t know what a voiced sound is, there is a very simple exercise to find out:  put your finger on your voice box (vocal chords).  Now make the sound. If you feel a vibration, then it is a voiced sound. If you do not feel a vibration, it’s an unvoiced or voiceless sound.]

So now I’m going to read the words in this list. Pay attention to the correct sound ending.  Is it a /t/?   Is it a /d/?   Or is it an /ɪd/?

Before you go on with the audio, classify these words according to their pronunciation following the rules mentioned above - which are those we explained in class. Reading the words aloud will help. Then listen to the audio and check:

• exited                
• collapsed 
• crawled
• faded
• grasped
• scanned 
• heeded
• faxed
• sealed
• aided
• trapped
• stared
• jaded
• gripped
• aimed
• riveted
• focused
• realized 
• anticipated
• increased
• rolled
• tilted
• looked
• pictured
• protected
• faked
• fumbled
• entrusted
• locked
• crumpled 

(It’s important to note that it’s the sound that is important on the ending of the word, not the letter or spelling. For example, the word “fax” ends in the letter “x” but the sound is /s/.  And the word “like” ends in the letter “e” but the sound is /k/.)

There are exceptions to these rules. Aren’t there always exceptions!?  So, we have some adjectives like aged, blessed, crooked, naked, wicked, ragged, learned, etc.  Some examples of these adjectives in a sentence are: “The aged man walked across the street” or “The professor was a truly learned man”.

However, when used as verbs, the normal rules apply. So we have, “Wow, Bruce Willis sure has aged quickly!” or “The students really have learned the material well”.

I found a short story online that uses a lot of –ed endings. I’m going to read the story with the correct pronunciation. If you would like to do this exercise first, before listening to the correct sounds, pause the audio file and fill in the answers.  Put “T” if it should sound like /t/, “D” if it should sound like /d/, and “ID” if it should add a syllable, and sound like /ɪd/.

Once again, do the exercise on your own before playing the audio:

The bear jumped (   ) out of its cage and into the crowd. She must have realized (   ) that this was her best chance to escape. The bear’s trainer looked (   ) as though he were about to faint from the terror of it all; it seemed (    ) like his worst nightmare come true. He scrambled (   ) to his feet and started (   ) waving his hands and shouting to get the bear’s attention. She stopped (   ) her wild rampage only for a moment at the sound of her trainer’s pleas. She quickly turned (   ) back to the crowd and resumed (   ) knocking people to the floor. The trainer suddenly had an idea. He reached (   ) into his pocket and pulled (   ) from it a large chocolate covered (    ) treat – a known favorite of the bear. He shouted (   ) the bears name once more and she turned (   ) to face him. She saw the treat and ran in full gallop towards him. He threw the treat into the cage and the bear followed (   ). He locked (   ) the door behind her and fell to the floor in relief. Apparently, the bear valued (   ) food more than freedom.

Ok! So I hope that clears thing up a bit.  Not only will this help your pronunciation of the English language, but also, native speakers will have a better understanding of what you are saying!  Pronunciation really is important.  I offer classes online via Skype for anyone who might be interested.  See you later!  Bye! [MP3]

What Things in Your Life Make You Happy? 2

A few days ago I wrote about this topic, What Things in Your Life Make You Happy?, and here I am insisting on it - being happy is important, you know, and sometimes it is difficult to achieve but other times we just don´t know what it takes so let me give you some ideas.

This is a video about 88-year-old Johnny Barnes, a man from Bermuda, who considers himself a happy man and who devotes six hours every day to smile and wish a good day to people driving around in their cars (most of them on their way to work). 

This video, directed by Matt Morris, has won a few awards, the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the AFI/Discovery Silverdocs and the Best Documentary Short Film at the Sidewalk Film Festival, among others, so it may be worth giving it a try. From the point of view of English, it can be used to practise your listening (very rarely do we get the chance of hearing someone with his accent). To check how much you understand, click here to read the transcript.

Mr. Happy Man from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.

What Type of Learner Are You?

In our first lesson in 1º BAC this year we have been reading about Dr. Howard Gardner´s theory of 8 multiple intelligences; do you remember the intelligences he refers to?: 

• linguistic / verbal : good with words, with spoken and written language; it involves the ability to learn languages.

• logical / mathematical: good with math and logic; it involves being able to analyze problems logically, to carry out mathematical operations

• musical: good with rhythm; it involves skill in the performance, composition and appreciation of musical patterns

• bodily / kinesthetic: good with activities - using one´s whole body or parts of it to solve problems

• spatial: good with pictures - recognizing and using the patterns of open spaces and confined areas

• interpersonal: good with communication - understanding the desires, motivations and intentions of other people

• intrapersonal: good at analyzing things - understanding oneself, one´s fears, feelings and motivations

• naturalist: they enjoy interacting with nature

Do you know what intelligences are strongest for you? If you don´t, this quiz  or this one may help you. Remember Dr. Gardner thinks people use more than one type of intelligence 

Once you have found out the types of intelligences that work better for you, click here to see (and do) some activities classified according to the different types of intelligences.

Infographic: original source: OnlineCollege.org

What kind of jobs would you associate with the different types of intelligences? Continue the list: 

• linguistic: writers, lawyers, speakers...
• mathematical: scientists, computer programmers, chess players...
• musical: musicians, singers, conductors...
• spatial: artists, designers, architects...
• kinesthetic: athletes, actors, dancers, soldiers...
• intrapersonal: psychologists, counselors, philosophers...
• interpersonal: teachers, politicians, social workers...
• naturalist: farmers, naturalists...

"Prohibited Education"

Do you think we need a different kind of education?

Prohibited Education  is a documentary released last August about a fundamental question, what does it mean to educate? As a teacher I have found it extremely interesting to start me thinking about several points of view regarding education.

I am afraid it is long (145 minutes) but it is worth every minute of it. It starts with Plato´s allegory of the cave, which, I hope, many of our students will know thanks to their philosophy lessons, and it goes on to explain the beginnings of education: the documentary bases the roots of education on totalitarian regimes and I must admit I found the whole explanation astonishing, just like many more data presented.

The film´s original language is Spanish ("La educación prohibida"); there are quite a few interviews with school teachers in seven countries in Latin America and Spain who have extremely interesting suggestions and ideas. Anyway, I have embedded the Spanish original version with English subtitles, which, I think, are very good (thus, good reading practice)

Watch the trailer first and I hope you ´ll feel like spending two hours and a half to decide whether to change your idea of what education is.

Let me guide you through the film: watch it trying to find out the answers to the following questions:

1. when did the current educational system start? what was its objective?
2. the current educational system doesnt´prepare students for...
3. what values should be encouraged in the family?

Answers to my questions: 

1. ˙ǝɔɹoɟʞɹoʍ dɐǝɥɔ puɐ ʇuǝıɔıɟɟǝ ǝɥʇ ʇǝb oʇ ɯǝʇsʎs ǝɥʇ pǝpunɟ suoıʇɐɹodɹoɔ ןɐqoןb ǝɥʇ ɟo sɹǝpɐǝן ǝɥʇ ˙sɹɐʍ ssǝןpuǝ ǝɥʇ uı ɯɹoɟɹǝd oʇ ʎpɐǝɹ puɐ spuɐɯɯoɔ ʎq pǝbɐuɐɯ 'uoıʇɐןndod ʇuǝıpǝqo ʇǝb oʇ sɐʍ ǝʌıʇɔǝظqo sʇı puɐ ǝdoɹnǝ uı obɐ sɹɐǝʎ 002 ɹǝʌo pǝɯɹoɟ sɐʍ ɯǝʇsʎs ןɐuoıʇɐɔnpǝ ʇuǝɹɹnɔ ǝɥʇ
2. ˙sʇuǝןɐʇ ɹıǝɥʇ sןןıʞ puɐ sǝıʇıןɐuosɹǝd sɐ ʍoɹb spıʞ ǝɥʇ dןǝɥ ʇ,usǝop ʇı 'sǝpısǝq ˙buıɥʇou uɐǝɯ sʞɹɐɯ puɐ sǝןʇıʇ ǝɥʇ ɟo ʇsoɯ puɐ 'ǝɟıן ןɐǝɹ ɐ ɹoɟ sʇuǝpnʇs sʇı ǝɹɐdǝɹd ʇ,usǝop ɯǝʇsʎs ǝɥʇ
3. ˙suoıʇɔɐ puɐ suoısıɔǝp ɹǝɥ/sıɥ ɹoɟ ʎʇıןıqısuodsǝɹ ǝɥʇ sɐ ןןǝʍ sɐ ǝsooɥɔ oʇ ɯopǝǝɹɟ ɐ uǝʌıb puɐ pǝʇɔǝdsǝɹ 'pǝʌoן ǝq ןןɐɥs pıʞ ɐ ˙ǝɔıoɥɔ ɟo ɯopǝǝɹɟ puɐ ʇɔǝdsǝɹ 'ǝʌoן :sǝnןɐʌ snoıʌqo puɐ ʎןıɯɐɟ ɐ uı sǝıן ɯǝʇsʎs ǝɥʇ ǝbuɐɥɔ oʇ ʎǝʞ ǝɥʇ

Any comments anyone?

Sitio Web Oficial: http://www.educacionprohibida.com

Mapa de Proyecciones Independientes:http://proyecciones.educacionprohibida.com/mapa/

Closed for the Summer

My summer break applies to classes and to the blog as well. I do not know if I am more stimulated to blogging when I am teaching but I do know it feels right to take a break (both for me and my readers).

Here are my suggestions for the summer holidays:

1. Read: you may find something that suits you here or here. If you are looking for teen or young adult literature, click here and here 

2. Listen to English; podcasts are a good idea: try here and here. Songs are also great to practise both listening and pronunciation; have a look here. By the way, besides making you feel good, singing songs is encouraging as for English learning: have you noticed people have accents when they speak English but not when they sing? Isn´t it weird?


 From Millan.Net


Here´s a video that shows what a podcast is and how it works:



3. Play some games online. Try this one: Placefy - fun geography game, twitter game, travel game. Besides, there are different types of games in my Delicious links as well.

4. If you are willing and able, you can take a special summer course; you can choose any of these:  an elephant camp in Thailand, learning ice-cream making in Italy, learning Senegalese drumming and dance traditions in Senegal... for these and many more, click here 

5. Watch films or documentaries in English. You will find some very interesting ones in this link, SnagFilms:

Watch more free documentaries

6. Dream: if you cannot go anywhere, dream of the day when you´ll be able to travel and visit places like these:

And this is a wink to my colleagues: here´s to all those of you who are real superstars -not the celebrity-type, though:

Teachers as superstars:

If you need me, send me an email or write a comment in any of the entries... If you miss me, browse through the pages of the blog... Happy Holidays! I will be back in September

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

Writer Ray Bradbury has died. He was 91. He is well known for his science-fiction novel, Farenheit 451, whose title refers to the temperature at which paper catches fire and burns. This book presents a future society where books are outlawed; it tells the story of the protagonist, Guy Montag. At first, Montag takes pleasure in his profession as a fireman, burning illegally owned books and the homes of their owners... would you like to know how the story goes on? HERE IS HOW TO CONVERT FAHRENHEIT INTO CELCIUS. Determine the temperature in Fahrenheit. Using your calculator, subtract 32. Multiply the result times 5. Divide that answer by 9. Your final answer is the temperature in Celsius. Since you will be enjoying your summer holidays in less than a month, here´s a good reading for the start of your vacation.

fahrenheit 451 full text pdf

View more ebooks on ebookbrowse.com

You can download the ebook here

If you are not much of a reader, you might like to watch the film, click here to watch it in English with subtitles in Portuguese, which I am sure you will all understand.

Our World

Survival International has launched a campaign to persuade the Minister of Justice in Brazil to send away the invaders -loggers mainly- who are killing the very few Awá people who still remain in the Amazon.

The campaign's goal is to persuade Brazil's Justice Minister to send in federal police to clear out the invaders.On the "Survival International" website, visitors can send a pre-coordinated message to the Minister of Justice in Brazil or share the information on their social media pages.

According to National Geographic the Awá are one of only two nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes left in Brazil. This unique tribe has a profoundly warm relationship with their forest, which provides them with food, shelter and spiritual solace.

The Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth supports this campaign; this is his speech in the video below:  

Many Awa remain uncontacted, they are the most threatened tribe in the world. Their forest is being illegally cut for timber. When the loggers see them, they kill them.When the loggers see them, they kill them. Their bows and arrows are no match for guns. And at any other time in history, that's where it would end. Another people wiped off the face of the Earth, forever. But we're going to make sure the world doesn't let that happen.Here´s the plan

One man can stop this: Brazil's Minister of Justice. He can send  in the federal police to catch the loggers and keep them out for good.But But right now it's just not his priority. We have to change that before its too late. We need enough people to message him so that he takes notice: you, me, our friends, our families, everyone counts. But we don´t have much time, when the rains stop, the loggers will be back. This is our chance right now to actually do something. And if enough people show they care, it will work.

Here´s a piece of advice for you to practise your pronunciation: 

• watch the video once (listening exercise)
• play it a second time while reading Colin Firth´s words above; pay attention and make sure you get the message. 
• Then play the video again and read the speech at the same time as Colin Firth: imitate his pronunciation and intonation. You could´t have a better teacher than the one who helped the King of the UK with his speeches. Click here  to watch the trailer of "The King´s Speech" in original version with English subtitles. By the way, you can borrow the film from the school library...

A Piece of News

Here´s a reading comprehension exercise.


I am sure you have all heard about, read or seen on TV the piece of news about the king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and his hunting trip in Botswana. Well, here is the piece of news in English as it was published in the newspaper El País. In English. 


This is one of those articles you will understand quite well even though its vocabulary is quite literary: in this case, the information you have (in your mind) about the piece of news will help you understand it. 


There are a couple of strategies that can help you understand newspaper articles:

1.  use your knowledge (what you know about the subject) to make the most of any text.
2.  when you do not understand a word, try to find out its meaning through its Latin origin. English formal language is easier for Spaniards to understand than colloquial language because we can often deduce the meaning of words.

By the way,  when I heard that the king had gone to Africa to hunt elephants I was quite shocked, angry, embarrassed... what about you? 

A monarch’s mishap

It is time for the Royal Household to provide information on the king’s journeys abroad

15 ABR 2012 - 18:26 CET

The news concerning the accident that has befallen the king in Botswana has surprised the Spanish public. This is not only due to the nature of his injury, which will mean he is again kept out of action for a relatively long period of time, but also because of the persistent failure to officially communicate the head of state’s private journeys abroad to the government, parliament or the public at large. The king traveled to Botswana and returned for his operation in a private plane. Spain does not have an embassy in that African nation, meaning that his repatriation had to be organized by the ambassador to Namibia.

Clearly, even kings have private lives, and therefore have a right to the same legal protection of their privacy as any other citizen. But information should be given out on the journeys abroad made by Don Juan Carlos, as is the case in the majority of democratic countries, even though Spanish law has nothing to say on this matter. The critical opinion of the United Left federal coordinator with regard to the monarch’s trip to Africa may be shared or not, although the idea that the king does not have the right to a few days of rest and relaxation, however harsh the reality of Spain’s economic situation, does seem somewhat exotic.

Nevertheless, it is not the first time that the king has had an accident outside Spain while participating in a dangerous sport. And the fact that this incident should have taken place beyond Spanish frontiers without it being clear whether the country’s authorities had any prior knowledge of his travel plans is bad for both the prestige of the institution and for the normal functioning of the head of state’s professional activities.

It is therefore logical to expect that once the king has made a fast and full recovery, the policy of transparency initiated by the Royal Household with regard to its financial circumstances — in response to the Urdangarin corruption scandal — should be extended to this kind of activity, without the regrettable necessity of an accompanying medical report.

If you want to read the piece of news about the king´s apology , click here.