Describing people

Do this quick test?

Look at the picture in the link below for two minutes. Then on a piece of paper write down a physical description of one (or more) of the characters that you have seen.


Picture

How did that go? Did you include a lot of detail? If you want to practice some more, here are some exercises from agendaweb.org. On this webpage you will find lots of different exercises to do. Below are exercises that ask you to practise describing a person's personality or physical characteristics.


A2 exercises


B1- B2 exercises

BBC one minute news summary - opportunity for intensive listening

This is a great opportunity for you to practise your intensive listening skills. The objective of intensive listening is to hear every word. If you want a challenge, try writing the transcript of this 1 minute news summary.

Of course...... you can listen to it as many times as you like. Get a pencil ( you write quicker in pencil!) and a piece of paper. Click on the link and off you go.

Link to the video

You can do this exercise as many times as you like because the news keeps changing!

European Day of Languages 26th September 2015

 2015  Words
Autumn Term has started and here we have the EDL day here again

This year we are looking at words. EDL 2015 activity


2014 Language quizzes for you to do

Do you know what the languages of Europe sound like? Click on the link below to find out.

LANGUAGES IN EUROPE

Here is a link to some interesting information and quizzes about languages

LANGUAGE FACTS AND FUN

Words don't come easy to me - activity

http://justenglish.me/2014/05/31/another-20-forgotten-words-that-should-be-brought-back/

Here is the video to a song.  Have you heard it before? It was popular when I was in high school. Listen to it and think about the lyrics. What does it say? Is it for a specific person?

Can you think what kind of person you imagine is signing the song? Which words do you think are appropriate and why:

outgoing, shy, dishonest

Can you think of any more?

What kind of words are we trying to find? Nouns , verbs, adjectives,

Think about the person in the song, how many more adjectives can you think of ?



The chorus to the songs repeats the following sentence:

" Words don't come easy to me?"

Do you agree or disagree?

Words equal vocabulary and they are the building blocks of our sentences. The way we use them is governed by grammar rules which cements them together.

So how can we get a nice tall strong wall (sentences /text) in  in good interesting English).

The post box was in the wall.

The  red post box was embeded into the stone wall.




Learning vocabulary is what we are talking about?  Click to go to next post.

Learning Vocabulary

The type of words you use show your level of English. Look at the sentence

Having a good day?  Yes thanks, I'm quite happy.

How many other words for happy are there? Click here and have a look


Finding new words

If you know the word in Catalan but need the English word the best solution is a bilingual dictionary. Here is one 




But do you find that you are using the same words over and over again ?   A thesaurus is a good tool in this case. Here is one




Remembering words you have seen before or should know

Since you started learning English you have been learning new words every year. How do you do it?  Which methods do you use and how much time do you spend doing it?

http://thelearningcoachonline.com/2013/04/how-to-learn-vocabulary-definintions/

The words you will remember are the ones which are important to you or the ones that you have had to use. One strategy for learning new words is to try and find an association with yourself and then it will become part of your personal experience.



If   you are learning character adjectives try to think of people that you know who are like the adjective and you will then feel an association with the word.  Think about why she or he is  like the adjective. The more effort you put into each word the more easily you will be able to remember it.