1 The Media

How can we use English to speak about the media? Reading and listening to the news is a great way to improve your English but there is more to media-related language. News allows you to better your listening skills, as well as to learn new vocabulary. We will watch a video, go through several exercises and read a BBC article before discussing the media in our conversation class.

2 Describing actions

We will use the cinema as an excuse to describe actions in past and compare different tenses.  There are several exercises, an activity on cinema scripts and an article from The Guardian that will be discussed during the face-to-face session.

3 Facts and figures

It is not easy to say numbers, prices and dates in English so we dedicate this lesson to them. We will also spend time on two confusing verbs: borrow and lend with special exercises that pinpiont their differences. The lesson is closed with a news report on Sony Ericsson.

4 Decisions

At the beginning of this lesson we will watch a politician speaking in public and follow on with activities related with choosing alternatives. We’ll read an article on Spain from TimesOnline and answer some questions.

5 Negotiation

We use conditionals to say what may happen. This unit will look at the auxiliaries may, might and could in real-life settings. During the face-to-face class we will talk about possibilities.

6 Online Retail

This unit deals with the language of retail and sales. We look at the effect of online shopping and learn related expressions. We shall then read an article from the Financial Times on Internet shopping and finish off with an activity related with the use of the simple past tense.

7 Resolutions

We will start by watching a typical British New Year celebration on the banks of the River Thames. Then we’ll listen to Professor Richard Wiseman speak about  how to achieve resolutions and go through some exercises on ways to express future actions.

8 Diet and health

It’s sometimes important to be able to speak about health and food. In this unit we spend time going over quantifiers and learning vocabulary related to food. We will also browse an article on government plans to tackle obesity and discuss health-related issues.

9 Work at home

We will now look at housework and discuss the use of gerunds and infinitives. After a few online exercises we’ll read an article from the BBC and prepare a conversation on the subject for our conversation lesson.

10 Government 

What do you know about the British Prime Minister?  In this session we will look at this prominent figure as well as review the present perfect tense. We’ll read an article on the Spanish monarchy and discuss whether kings and queens make sense nowadays.

11 Describing facts

When we are describing something, we may want to compare it to something similar in terms of degree of quality (for example: London is bigger than Manchester) or highlight some feature it has to a greater degree than anything it is being compared with (for example: London is the biggest city in England).  To do this we use comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.  We will read some grammar rules and then do some exercises.

12 Broadcasting

Television series allow you to practice listening to “real English” as it’s spoken on the street. This unit will also deal with expressions related to the media. We will go through some exercises to check your vocabulary and shall discuss several television shows. 

13 The Future 

What does it hold for our planet? Will global warming affect our daily lives? We will learn words needed to discuss this subject and the grammar concepts related to expressing future occurrences. We will talk about what comes next and will read an article about climate change in the Iberian peninsula.

14 Used to

We start by chatting about the past and dedicating some time to structures generated with used to. Then the lesson drifts to  exercises related to describing and finishes off with a BBC documentary on living in the 1900s.

15 The world of work 

In this unit you will be able to describe your company and your job both to colleagues and to clients. We will then move to an exercise where we use some of the expressions needed for the task above. The grammar focus will be on using the simple and progressive tenses in the right context.