Grammar: The Present Perfect

Sometimes we want to talk about things that happened in the past:

I was born in Lancaster. When I was eighteen, I went to university in Manchester. 

but sometimes we want to talk about things that started in the past and connect to the present:

I live in Manchester. I have lived in Manchester since I started university five years ago.

We use have/has + past participle to make the present perfect tense.

To talk about the length of time, we can use for or since. We use for to talk about the period of time, and since to talk about the start time.

Remember for= how long      since= start

I have lived in Manchester for five years, since I started university.
I have been in Manchester for forty days. It's really good!
I have studied in Manchester since September. It's great!

Let's try and put this into a song!

Vocabulary Game

Here is a nice little vocabulary game from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flash/wordmaster/

Choose your level: start with Easy. You need to complete ten sentences. Type a letter. If it is correct, it will appear in the word. When you complete the word, you can read the definition and listen to the sentence.

Some common mistakes

We all make mistakes. Even I make mistakes from time to time.

Here are ten sentences. There is one mistake in each sentence. What is the mistake?

1. Are you speak English?
2. What means "knitting"?
3. I have made many friends from other country.
4. How often do you go to shopping?
5. The weather in Manchester, it is very wet.
6. Manchester people is very friendly.
7. British food very greasy.
8. I came to Manchester before two months.
9. There are lots of differents restaurants in Manchester.
10. I have visited Rusholme last night.

Click to find out the answers:

Song: We Are The Champions

This week, we have looked at sports. Here is a famous song about champions on LyricsTraining.

Click on the link to listen to the song and practise your listening skills: http://www.lyricstraining.com/play/3624/queen/we_are_the_champions

Song: Father and Son

Here is a song about a father giving advice to his son. The writer is Cat Stevens

Click on the link to go to the Lyrics Training website. There you can select Beginner. Listen to the song and complete the gaps while you are listening. It's quite slow and clear so, hopefully, it isn't too difficult.

http://www.lyricstraining.com/play/257/cat_stevens/father_and_son

Study skills: Reading Practice

We read every day. The material we read is always different. What material can you think of?

Here is some common reading material we read:
a bus timetable       the menu in Costa         the school timetable      the teacher's writing on the board
your coursebook    the Kaplan website        this blog            a text message    a Whatsapp message      a Facebook post          an email        a free newspaper         an article on the internet     a study book

Why do you read? Do you read for pleasure and enjoyment? Do you read to find out facts and information?

When we read, we use different skills. These skills are:

skimming What is the article about? We skim a text for a general understanding. For gist.
scanning  We scan a text for specific information. For example, what time does the film start? When does the bus leave?
reading for detail We want to know more information and detail. For example, what colour was the man's jacket? How did James Bond feel?

Look at the reading material above. Which would you skim, which would you scan, and which would you read for detail?

Listening: Entertainment

This week, we spoke a lot about different types of film and TV show. What is your favourite genre of film? Why do you like these kinds of films?

There are lots of articles and interviews you can listen to which discuss entertainment. Here is a 6 minute interview with Rowan Atkinson about Mr Bean : http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/163_entertainment_ex/page8.shtml which also contains some useful vocabulary. You can listen to the interview online, or download and save it, and you can follow the conversation using the audio script.

For a full list of similar listenings, click on this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/archive_ent.shtml You don't have to listen to them all! Find something that interests you. It may be useful to listen to a couple of film reviews.

Here is a short lesson about films: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/london/unit3/index.shtml
There are a couple of short conversations that you need to listen to. Practise the conversations with a partner.
Then there is a film review to read and some questions. Finally, you can listen to some common phrases used to describe films and practise your pronunciation.

Try the exercises and let me know what you think. Use the new vocabulary by writing a film review. Leave a comment below.

Study skills: Typing

A lot of students find typing very difficult. The keyboard is strange and the letters are different . Typeracer is a website that can help you.

Click on this link: http://play.typeracer.com/ and then click on the word practice. Type the words into the box. Can you beat the clock? The word you need to type will appear in green.

Speaking practice

How can you improve your speaking?

Most of you spend all your time in the same classes with the same people. You often have lunch with friends who speak the same language so you have few opportunities to speak to different people and practise your speaking skills.

Here are some ways you can work on your speaking skills: