Fond of Words

The other day I was very privileged to assist to the presentation of an extraordinary and extremely useful new webpage called fondofwords.com. This page has been created by a sixth form student, Ivo Sequeros, as a research work and it must be said that it is an admirable project.

This webpage has been designed to help students of English with their learning. The aim is to replace the long lists of words that are often written on pieces of paper and that often get lost and therefore prove useless in time. Fondofwords.com allows you to create at your own pace your own personal dictionary. It will help you finding that word you want to add, give you a definition, synonyms, related terms and much more information.

Fondofwords.com is not only useful for students though. It is also a brilliant tool for teachers who can make vocabulary lists and share them with their students in order to ensure that they all have the needed information for an exam. When it comes to learning the vocabulary, the webpage will print the words as a list or even as flashcards. 

I would recommend this webpage to anyone learning English, formally or not, as it would help to improve your vocabulary and probably keep it alive. Hopefully it will be soon used not only by students, but by many learners of English. Signing up is fast and free, so why not give it a try?

A White Weekend 

The weather is one of those topics we often resort to when we find ourselves face to face in a lift with somebody we don't kno too well. "It's been cold recently, don't you think?" Well, it's February, what do you expect? And we never seem to be happy with it. It's always eiter too cold, too hot, too windy, too rainy, too not-the-weather-I-wanted. However, this weekend was different.

The weather man had forecast a drastic change in the weather caused by two different fronts, one bringing rain and the other artic temperatures. The clash would result in snow in many places in Catalonia. That night I went to bed thinking that the weather forecast would likely be wrong, as it often is.

 The next morning I was in utter shock when I went to look outside the window. Everything was covered in a thick layer of snow. I could not help myself and I had to wake everybody up. It was simply beautiful despite the cloudy sky. My three-year-old was astonished by the sudden change in the landscape. He immediately remarked how "frosty" it was.

 Suddenly I had an strange urge to go out. I got dresssed and went out with the pretext of going to the shop for some bread. There was hardly anyone and the feeling of being one of the first to walk on the snow was very satisfying. That was only the begining of an extraordinary day. We walked in the snow, had snowball fights and admired the wintery sights. But the highlight of the day was our snowman, which we built in the garden. We even used a carrot for the nose.

 Only now, five days later, is the snow almost all gone. Nevertheless the memory of the snow will remain in our thoughts for some time and we will long for another snowy day next year.

Need to practice???

These are some pages where you can practice the grammar and some of the vocabulary done so far:


http://www.montsemorales.com/spotlight1.htm

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/recursos_informaticos/concurso2005/17/index.html

Have fun!!

How language learning might help you live longer!

Read this very interesting article on the benefits of bilinguism and language learning.



Parents who use different languages with their children might give them better cognitive powers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11534481

Scuba Diving

Watch the video and label the basic equipment for a scuba diver

Now watch this new video about sea life in the tropical reef. Which animals do you recognize?

Compare some of the animals you have seen.

Comparatives: Compare the videos

Write sentences comparing the videos of Cheryl Cole and Rufus Hound. Use the following adjectives and adverbs:

good at dancing, good at singing, thin, fat, hairy, long hair, good looking, ugly, funny, serious, know the song well, sexy, clothes fit well.

Podcasts in English

Try this page, wonderful to get used to listening in English.

http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml

Can you make your own podcast?