At A Finger Tip

Mar 20, 2012

Interview with Erika Osvath, Jennifer Verschoor and Bruno Andrade | Glasgow Online

Interview with Erika Osvath, Jennifer Verschoor and Bruno Andrade | Glasgow Online

It's really great to see a teacher from Buenos Aires at the Glasgow IATFL Conference 2012. Congrats Jennifer!!
I'm also a business English teacher and I couldn't agree more with Jennifer when she says that when technology is used to teach Business English, students do not only learn English but also become familiar with technological tools. Last year, I taught a couple of students from the IT area of a pharmaceutical company among other students from other areas, and I was really surprised to see that apart from teaching them English, I taught them how to use technology and 2.0 tools!! Funny, isn't it? I taught computing geniuses how to squeeze a computer with the aim of learning a language. They were very motivated and they found all the tools and material I presented them with very engaging.
As a teacher, I believe that technology always boosts adult learner's autonomy. Contrary to what we may believe, in my opinion, adults are more teacher dependent than children and teens. They have the prejudice that in order to learn, they just have to sit back and wait for the teacher to teach them. We all know this thought is wrong and that learning only takes place when the active role in on the learners´side.
How does technology help students be active participants in class? In the classroom, by using this tool to play, to create content, to listen to themselves, to go beyond the classroom´s walls. Why does it help my students to be autonomous learners outside the face to face lesson? Because most of the learning process takes place outside the classroom. and technology gives my students, their teacher's (me) remote support and company by posting videos, listenings an many other activities that are tailor-made and cater for my students' needs, which they consequently want to work on.

Jan 4, 2012

Welcome

This post is specially for beginners

Follow this link here

The Invention of Lying

Follow this link to do the activities

Dec 22, 2011

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

Watch and do the quizz

Love Actually » online testing software

Nov 25, 2011

Pre - Intermediate 1 Practice for the Exam

Studying for the exams? Click on the links below and get some extra practice

Simple Pas
Questions

Countable- Uncountable Nouns

Comparatives as....as

Unit 1 Vocabulary

Unit 1 Business Communication

Phone conversation

Practice File answer key (Respuestas de Practice File= ejercicios al final de Business Result)

Unit 2 Vocabulary

Unit 3 Vocabulary

Customer Service Vocabulary

Travel Vocabulary

Pre- intermediate 2 Exam practice

Hello!
Do you want to practise for the exam. Click on the links below and do the activities!

Simple Pas

Questions

Countable- Uncountable Nouns

Simple Past - Past Continuous

Simple Past - Past Continuous

Present Continuous for Future Plan

Going to vs. Present Continuous

Will Future for Predictions

Conditional Sentences

Comparatives as....as

More about reported Speech

Pronouns

In reported speech, you often have to change the pronoun depending on who says what.

Example: She says, “My mum doesn’t have time today.” – She says that her mum doesn’t have time today.

Tenses

No backshift

Do not change the tense if the introductory clause is in Simple Present (e. g. He says). Note, however, that you might have to change the form of the present tense verb (3rd person singular).

Example: He says, “I speak English.” – He says that he speaks English.

Backshift

You must change the tense if the introductory clause is in Simple Past (e. g. He said). This is called backshift.

Example: He said, “I am happy.” – He said that he was happy.

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
Simple Present	Simple Past
Present Progressive	Past Progressive
Simple Past	Past Perfect Simple
Present Perfect Simple
Past Perfect Simple
Past Progressive	Past Perfect Progressive
Present Perfect Progressive
Past Perfect Progressive
Future I (going to)	was / were going to
Future I (will)	Conditional I (would)
Conditional I (would)	Conditional I (would)

Tense back shift (=one step backwards) and examples

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present He said, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple past He said (that) he went* to school every day.*
simple past He said, “I went* to school every day.”*	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone* to school every day.*
present perfect He said, “I have gone* to school every day.”*	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone* to school every day.*
present progressive He said, “I am going* to school every day.”*	Þ	past progressive He said (that) he was going* to school every day.*
past progressive He said, “I was going* to school every day.”*	Þ	perfect progressive He said (that) he had been going* to school every day,*
future (will) He said, “I will go* to school every day.”*	Þ	would + verb name He said (that) he would go* to school every day.*
future (going to) He said, “I am going* to school every day.”*	Þ	present progressive He said (that) he is going* to school every day.*
		past progressive He said (that) he was going* to school every day*
Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
auxiliary + verb name He said, “Do you go to school every day?” He said, “Where do you go to school?”	Þ	simple past He asked me if I went to school every day.* He asked me where I went to school.
imperative He said, “Go to school every day.”	Þ	infinitive He asked them to go* to school every day.*

*Note than when a Yes/No question is being asked in direct speech, then a construction with if or whether is used. If a WH question is being asked, then use the WH to introduce the clause. Also note that with indirect speech, these are examples of embedded questions.

The situation changes if instead of the common said another part of the very to say is used. In that case the verb tenses usually remain the same. An example of this situation is given belo

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present + simple present He says, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple present + simple present He says* (that) he goes to school every day.*

Another situation is the one in which modal constructions are used. If the verb said is used, then the form of the modal, or another modal that has a past meaning is used.

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
can He said, “I can* go to school every day.”*	Þ	could He said (that) he could* go to school every day.*
may He said, “I may go* to school every day.”*	Þ	might He said (that) he might go* to school every day.*
might He said, “I might go* to school every day.”*
must He said, “I must go* to school every day.”*	Þ	had to He said (that) he had to go* to school every day.*
have to He said, “I have to go* to school every day.”*
should He said, “I should go* to school every day.”*	Þ	should He said (that) he should* go to school every day.*
ought to He said, “I ought to* go to school every day.”*	Þ	ought to He said (that) he ought to* go to school every day.*

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
today	that day
now	then
yesterday	the day before
… days ago	… days before
last week	the week before
next year	the following year
tomorrow	the next day / the following day
here	there
this	that
these	those

In case you still have doubts about how to report speech, here are some links to 3 grammar movies with examples and explanations which I consider to be very clear

Reported Statements

Reported Questions

Reporting Verbs