YLE Teaching Tips

I've mentioned before that I am subscribed to the Cambridge English South East Europe Blog.

This week, I've had three emails about posts describing activities submitted to a global competition run by Cambridge English Language Assessment UK and Bell which invited  teachers of English from all over the world to submit written practical teaching ideas for preparing their candidates for a range of Cambridge English examinations.

All three posts talked about suggestions for fun activities to prepare for the Cambridge English: Young Learners English Tests.

In Post 1, Natalia Cheskidova, from Russia describes an activity involving describing and drawing a picture.  Her suggested activity is recommended for YLE, Preliminary and First. 

In the second post, Julieta Caffarel, from Uruguay again uses a picture and drawing and colouring activity to practise for all 3 of the Cambridge English: YLE tests papers.

And in her post, Daniela Mirza,  from Romania, suggests recording an interview and then creating a comprehension activity.

It was great to be able to see both Natalia and Julieta 'in person' on Cambridge TV!

I leave for Rome in under 4 hours' time.  Hope to inspire and be inspired!!!!!

Online First & Advanced Use of English practice

I am just gearing up for another trip to San Sebastian.  Hopefully, the weather will be just as good as last Friday when I was there too.

This time, we'll be looking at Cambridge English First: Teaching Tips and also Advanced Speaking.

I was looking through the links I have bookmarked for First preparation and revisited a site I discovered back in November.

I thought it was well worth a mention on this blog.

English Revealed has interactive exercises for the Cambridge First and Advanced Use of English papers.  Most of the material on the site is free (you can sign up for 5.99 Euros to get more over the course of 6 months).

I'll be passing on the address to the people who come along on Friday (and am doing the same with you now!)

Useful preparation resources for Advanced Speaking

A few years ago, I subscribed to a site called Splendid Speaking.

Every week,  I received an email with a link to some resources for working on areas to develop Advanced students' speaking skills.

On the site, you can find 26 Get Speaking Task Sheets, working on different topic and functional areas. (You only get access to the Task Sheet being emailed that particular week).  You can see some of the areas covered below:

I have saved all the task sheets on my computer.
In Task 5, as well as talking about role models, the task sheet suggests a range of expressions to agree and disagree.
In Task 6, expressions for thinking out loud are considered and provided.

So, when I received an email from Splendid Speaking on Saturday telling me about a new website  for IELTS Speaking, I clicked on the link and discovered some great stuff.

In the free Weekly Vocabulary Practice, holidays and relationships have been covered so far.

And the resource that I really liked and found quite novel is the Five Minute Functions.
To date, there are two videos - Using fillers and Expressing likes and dislikes.   You can watch them on the IELTS Speaking website or on Youtube.

I would say that it's definitely a site to bookmark and revisit.

Tips for learning languages for visual learners

As I mentioned last Friday, I will be speaking at the IH World Young Learners Conference in Rome on March 1st.  My session is called 'What's in an image?'
(I guess you know by now that I like using pictures and photos in class!)

http://www.zazzle.com/planetmug/gifts?cg=196977425062661686

Another of my interests is Multiple Intelligences.  I'm always looking for ways to make things memorable for students and am aware that music stimulates people and helps many of them learn and remember things.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?

Others will associate particular items with situations or when they learnt it or where.

I myself am brilliant at faces, hopeless with names.  I can probably tell you where I know a person from, when we last met, but don't ask me to introduce you!!

So, I clicked on a link to a Youtube video about Visual/Spatial learners.

It's a short clip about tips for learning a language with people who learn better when they associate language with images.
It contains some good ideas for recording and remembering language.

And I liked the final sentence:
'Remember - no matter what you decide to do, learning a language should be fun!  So be creative and enjoy learning about a new language and a new culture!'
Great advice!

Webinars this week

I have signed up for two webinars this week.

The first, today, Monday.  I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Language Assessment's site to attend the Webinar below:

The webinar will also take place on Wednesday morning.

From seminars, I know that correcting writing is a subject that raises a lot of discussion and interest, so I'm sure that a lot of people will be online like me.

If you can't make either of these dates or times, there is always the chance to watch a recording of the webinar and to download the slides too.

On Thursday, I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Teacher website and the webinar by Johanna Stirling on Joined-up Listening.

See you online!  (Or in person in San Sebastian on Friday!)

Avoiding Making Mistakes in Cambridge English: First Paper 2 Writing

Myself and the rest of the Presenter Team are busy busy right now.  For the next two Fridays, I'll be going to San Sebastian to give seminars, then I'll be popping across to Rome to talk at the International House Young Learners Conference at the beginning of March as well as giving a seminar here in Santander and in Miranda del Ebro and at Deusto University.  Phew!!!

Find out where we'll be by clicking here.

As always, when I'm preparing for these sessions, I come across some great material and ideas on the web.  I saved one of them and made a note to myself to share it with you here!

It's a pdf document from one of my favourite sites for materials to prepare students for First, Advanced and Proficiency:  flo-joe.

It's not new (dated 2005), but it contains some very useful advice for students when taking Paper 2 (Writing).

Get your students to read it (and read it through the day before the exam to remind themselves) and work on suggestions like planning and paraphrasing in class.  

Right, back to seminar preparation now .......   

Is this your (cup of) coffee?

A while back, I came across a quote about photography.  Having some aspiring photographers in the family, I shared it with them and also saved it on my computer.

This morning, I came across the image and thought again and googled for "Life is like ..."

I found a few interesting analogies on Quotelicious, such as:

Life is like pictures in a photo album. You can look back on the moments, but you can never recapture them.

Life is like walking through snow. Every step shows.

Deep thoughts for a Monday morning!!!???

What about this one (being a teacher of course, it appealed and I had to save and share!)

Life is like a multiple choice question, sometimes the choices confuse you, not the question itself.

And then, I ended up at a new site - Flickspire.

If I were to offer you a coffee, which cup would you choose to have your coffee in?  Why?

Click to watch a short 'flick' called 'Life is like coffee.'

The clip made me think about my coffee drinking habits - I usually choose a particular cup or mug to drink it from.  It tastes different I think, or I enjoy it more depending on the cup.  I also drink different quantity depending on the time of the day.  And I find it hard to live without my mid-morning coffee!!!

Anyway, I think I'll be using the clip in class and maybe get my students to come up with their own comparisons to complete the sentence:

Life is like .....