Famous English Speakers!

Just got back home from presenting some Cambridge ESOL certificates at the school where my daughters studied from when they were 3 years old before moving on to do Bachillerato when they were 16.

What memories!

I love going back there, especially when it's for an  event like this - presenting certificates that show how well students have done.

Colegio Sagrada Familia students with their 2011 certificates    

Every year I prepare a short presentation to start the ceremony - it's important for both students and parents to know exactly what the results mean.  To pass the Cambridge English: Key or Cambridge English: Preliminary exams, for example, students have to obtain an average total mark of 70% or more.  This. can come as a surprise in a country like Spain, where the pass mark is 5 (or 50%).

This year, I decided to include some videos of famous people talking English.

First, I showed them a youtube video of some false takes of football players trying to say a couple of sentences in English for an advert.

I think you will agree that at the time the videos was made, the players needed to think seriously about raising their level of English!

Then, I showed them some information about two famous Spanish people and how they had learnt English:

In 1992 Antonio Banderas made his Hollywood debut with Los reyes del mambo tocan canciones de amor (1992). Because he did not speak English at that time, his dialogue for the film was taught to him phonetically.

IMDB.com

Fernando Torres also revealed the method used by his two teachers to improve his English when he first moved to Liverpool from Madrid:

''One of the biggest problems I faced when I first moved here was the language barrier,' writes Torres in his autobiography El Nino.

Two people were vital during my first few days in the city: Rob and Alan, the English teachers Liverpool laid on for me.

'One of the things they used to make me do was ring people in response to adverts in the paper. You'd get on  the phone and ask about a puppy for sale, or that kitten being advertised, or the price of a second-hand car."

That's the first time I've heard of such a way of learning and practising English!  

And to finish, I showed the students a short excerpt from Shakira's speech to the Oxford Union.  I was very impressed by both her performance and her English!

Anyway, once again, congratulations to all the students who took and passed their exams in June.  I have set you a challenge - reaching Proficiency by 2018!  I hope some of you rise to that challenge - you are certainly well on your way!!!