Singing in the rain...

I know it is reeeally hot, at least here in Spain, but as I now have much more free time, I came across this old video which is very well subtittled and is one of my favourite pieces of a musical. It is also very optimistic and talks about partying at that time.
I hope you enjoy it!

How to improve listening comprehension

Oxford's Owl

These days, finishing the second term, we have been talking in class about how to improve the listening and reading comprehension skills. In order to improve listening, we have said that we could try to listen to songs in English, and, if possible, try to look for videos in the Internet (You Tube, Vimeo...) which have the subtitles of the song in English, so that we can sing at the same time that we read them. Another good way to improve both listening and reading comprehension is to read audio books in English, above you have a link to an ebook library which has free audio ebooks for native speakers of English starting with 3 or 4 years up to 9 to 11 years old. You will have a permanent link to this library at the bottom of the blog, as you can see in the picture.

Summing up:

• Listen to songs in English.
• Watch for English karaoke version videos.
• Read audiobooks while listening to them.

 Have you tried any of these? 

What would happen if bees disappeared?

Bees have lived for 80 millions of years and their population is decreasing alarmingly even up to 50% of the  bees are disappearing. I have heard lately that Einstein said something like: "Should bees disappear, the human race wouldn't outlive them more than four years". There would be no pollination, some vegetal species would not survive, therefore, some animal species would vanish as well and all our food chain would be altered.
 We have been working on conditionals and this post is written in the second conditional because it is an unreal or improbable situation. Let's see a quick review:

Types:	Form:	Use:	Example:
Zero type	If present simple, present simple.	Habitual results.	If you heat water up to 100º, it boils.
Type I	If present tense, will+infinitive.	Probable results.	If it's sunny, we'll go to the beach.
Type II	If past tense, would+infinitive.	Improbable, unreal situations. Also advice.	If I won the lottery, I would travel around the world.
Type III	If past perfect, would have+ past participle.	Impossible situations because they refer to the past.	If I had listened to my mother, I wouldn't have been so miserable all my life.

 You can practice a little bit at English Grammar 4U online or at Perfect English Grammar.

What do you think? What would you do if bees disappeared?
Leave your comments and tell us!!!Use the second conditional type!!
Just in case you get too negative, you can listen to this song by Beyoncé which is one of my favourite songs, especially because of the lyrics. (it is written using the second conditional because she talks about how she would behave if she were a boy)

Beyoncé's  If I were  boy:

You can learn more about conditionals in this other post of the blog.

End of term

James Blunt

In these days in which students are preparing their final exams, but also, what to do during the holidays; teachers are correcting exams full time and preparing the evaluation; in addition to parents, who are expectantly waiting their children's marks, I wanted to post a song which always cheers me up.

This song is by the British singer and songwriter James Blunt who has got a very special voice, especially live.
For those of my students who want to practise their listening, I recommend you hear it once or twice and try to write down 5 to 10 words, then have a look at the lyrics and listen to it at the same time.

Sorry for the adverts!!!