Preparing the EOI B1 and B2 exam with Marek Connel

Marek Connell is an English teacher with a YouTube channel who regularly posts videos on aspects of oral English for intermediate-to-advanced learners.

He has put together a collection of videos to help Spanish students of English prepare for the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas speaking exam at intermediate (B1) and upper-intermediate (B2) level by giving them examples of what a native speaker would/could say in the oral paper.

Each video deals with a different topic and in them Marek provides strategies and vocabulary which prove really helpful for students to resort to.

I have compiled a list of all the exam-related videos Marek has made. The B1/B2 tag is Marek's and it is very likely that it doesn't coincide with the level the topic is assigned to in the students' region.

Healthy eating
Motivation
Leisure time
Living in a city or the country
Illegal downloading
Work conditions

Stress (B1)
Parental Relationships (B1)
Sports (B1)
Animals and pets (B1)
Education (B1)
Stereotypes (B1)

Travelling (B2)
Mad about shopping (B2)
Science and technology (B2)
Breaking the law (B2)
Relationships (B2)
The world of work (B2)
Environment and climate change (B2)

Madrid Teacher: Neighbours from Hell

In this week's Madrid Teacher lesson, Sophia, Vicky, Thomas and Joyce discuss their experience with neighbours. As usual, the video gives us the opportunity to see some native speakers of English in action and the chance to put our listening skills to the test. But more importantly, the clip gives us the chance of focusing on specific aspects of spoken English and the communicative strategies natives speakers use to get their messages across more efficiently.

Just watch the three-minute video and enjoy the conversation of these four teachers.

Watch the video again and try to identify the following aspects of spoken English:

- Fillers: Sometimes words don't come easily and we need them not to stop the flow of our speech: erm, er, you know.
- Repetition of words: At times, we repeat words because we are unsure of what to say next: I, I...
- Showing interest in what the other person is saying by making a comment or letting out an exclamation: wow, oh my God!, that's awful!, oh, no!, oh dear!, At least it’s not Celine Dion., At least the song is good,
Yes, yes. Yeah your story beats mine.
- Involve other people in the conversation: What about you guys, You don't have your story...?
- Vague language: 'like really loud', 'like would wake up', 'he kind of weirded us', 'nurses and that', 'scumbugs or something', 'and all these things'.
- Showing agreement: Yeah.
- Use of so as a connector.
- Use of I mean  to explain what you have just said.
- Use of actually to introduce a bit of surprising information or to correct a fact.



Now it's over to you. What's your experience of neighbours? Do you have any stories about neighbours from hell? Try to get together with a friend and hold a conversation about this topic using some of the features of spoken English which have come up on this video.

Sophia: I think I have the worst neighbour in the world. I live in, erm , a split-level masonette, so I’ve got, erm, a house just above, above mine. And my, my neighbour insists on playing ‘I will survive’ on repeat…
Thomas: Oh my God.
Sophia: …at full blast in the middle of the night. I, I take it she’s going through some relationship problems. But it’s really annoying, it’s been going on for a week and… it’s driving me crazy.
Joyce: At least the song is good.
Vicky: At least it’s not Celine Dion.
Sophia: I guess so, but maybe she’ll change it, and it will be Celine Dion next week.
Joyce: Oh, we used to have a neighbour but it was much worse, and I didn’t even know what was, he was playing. We used to have this neighbour that lived downstairs from us, this German guy. This German guy, very suspicious, this German guy who couldn’t go back to Germany, this old guy. Anyways he used to put on Sunday mornings, this song, like, really loud, and it would wake us up. And it was Cara del Sol, which is like, you know, Franco’s Nazi song, like, you know very fascist, very… And I didn’t even know what, and I remember that, you know, my ex-husband, like, would wake up and go,  “Oh my God!” Like, and it would bring back these memories of the, you know, dictatorship and all these things, so that was really bad. That’s worse than Greg Ainer!
Thomas: Oh wow! Wow!
Vicky: Oh my God! That’s awful!
Sophia: Yes, yes. Yeah your story beats mine. What about you guys, you have any, do you have awful neighbours?
Thomas: That reminds me actually, erm, I might have been the neighbour from hell because… my first flat actually, er, my next door neighbour tried to welcome me and invited my flatmates and myself over for pancakes. But he kind of weirded us out so we said, “thanks”, and just happened to never be around on Sunday mornings when he made them. And then whenever I would play loud music in the evenings with my friends, before going out, he would come banging on the door in his underwear or something and say, “turn it down!” And I was like,  “alright, well now you’re the neighbour from Hell, buddy.”
Sophia: How much, how late were you playing this music?
Thomas: Oh, I don’t know, you know…ten, eleven…
Sophia: Twelve, one.
Vicky: That’s not that late. Ten, eleven’s not that late.
Sophia: That’s not that bad. Yeah.
Joyce: You don’t have your story Sarah, about neighbours from Hell?
Vicky: Er, I think like, er, Thomas, I may have been one of the neighbours from hell. A bit of a… a bit of a mix there. When… In London, I stayed in a flat with a lot of antipodeans. And we were one of those typical households where three people were on the lease but actually, nine of us lived there. It was a really nice house, you know? We had an upstairs/downstairs house [and] the upstairs people… were nice enough at the beginning, but then they just hated the fact that so many people lived there. And although everyone was actually very respectable, nurses and that, they thought we were all… I don’t know what they thought we were doing, scumbags or something. So they used to come complain all the time, especially on a Sunday, for people using the bathroom.
Thomas: Oh, no!
Vicky: So they’d be like, “ we hear the door slam fifteen times in an hour!” And we were sitting there thinking, “the bathroom door never slams.”
Sophia: About the bathroom door though, I mean, if it was taking away your water or something…
Thomas: Yeah.
Vicky: So then they turned off our gas. And then we had the pipe explode.
Thomas: Oh my God!
Sophia: Wow!
Joyce: Oh dear…Well they were the neighbours from hell, I think.
Sophia: …the neighbours, yes!

Madrid Teacher: Gossiping about the rich and famous

In our Madrid Teacher series it's gossiping time today. A group of Madrid teachers discuss Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and how difficult it is for the rich and famous to keep a private life.

As usual, their conversation is the perfect opportunity for us to pay attention to some of the features of spoken English and some of the strategies native speakers of English use in conversation.

• Use of you know and well to gain thinking time.
• Involving others in the conversation: Does anybody care?
• Reacting to information we've just heard: Oh, really?; Oh.
• Using vague language: Or something like that; kind of; like
• Expressing agreement: Yeah; That's right.
• Use of like as a linking word to introduce our ideas: Like, I think they also allow it 
• Use of so as a linking word to introduce our ideas: so, secret romantic dinners...

Watch the video through and try to spot the above-mentioned features of spoken English.



Now it's over to you. What's the latest gossip about the celebs that you've heard about? How do you feel about the gutter press and gossip magazines informing about all these affairs? How would you stop it if you were famous? Try and use some of the features of spoken English when you answer the questions.

There’s a lot of fuss about Jennifer Aniston, no? The fact that she’s still single and she’s already 40, she hasn’t got any children, she’s, you know, Brad and her broke up and she’s not had a good relationship since. Does anybody care?
Not much to tell you the truth. Yeah, it’s just, well, well that’s true, that supposedly she broke up with Brad because she didn’t want kids and she wanted to get further in her career…
Oh, really?
And so, oh you didn’t know that one?
That’s the rumour.
No, I thought it was the other way around. I thought she wanted children and he didn’t. Strangely, he has now 7 and she doesn’t have any.
No, I think it was that way but, but she strongly denied that since I think.
Oh?
And now she’d love a baby more than anything but, poor woman, she seems to find the worst men so…
Who was she going out with before? She was with Vincent Vaughan? Or something like that.
Yeah, yeah and then she was with that that John Myer.
Who is that, John Myer?
He’s a singer… and he’s, he’s well…
What type of music does he sing?
Oh, he’s been in the charts, he’s, he’s like a singer/song writer with a guitar…
Oh.
Kind of soppy…
Erm, folky.
Folky, soppy kind of music but he’s, he’s not, not too nice, I don’t think.
Is he good looking?
Yeah, he’s…
Ha, ha, ha.
He’s, he’s kind of hot.
Ha, ha, ha. We are talking show business, you know, ha, ha, ha.
Well, it didn’t last very long I guess.
No, I think it was a bit, a bit of a tumultuous relationship. But it’s so unfair the way all of their dirty laundry is aired…
God.
…in all the magazines.
It’s incredible.
I would hate to be famous really for the same reasons, you know.
But look, there are some famous people you don’t hear anything about them. Like, I think they also allow it, like, I don’t know, like, if they didn’t want to be in the magazines…
Do you think so?
Well, I think they’d be able to sue the magazine or something and say I don’t wanna, you know… I don’t want this information to be in the magazine.
Yeah, which they do sometimes sue for incorrect information published.
Like apparently Brad and Angelina are suing a British tabloid called The News of the World, well. Not really one of the best, don’t know if you know of it, erm, for reporting that they were about to divorce, that they were splitting up.
And supposedly it’s a rumour…
So they say. I don’t know, it’s really difficult, like they say at home if it’s in The Sun it must be true and the same applies to The News of the World.
I think it’s true. I heard, erm, that Brad and Jennifer are having secret rendezvous so, secret romantic dinners so, you never know.
Like then other people say they’re just friends, you know, they’re just good friends like, like many exes who become friends afterwards.
I guess we’ll never really learn the truth.
No.
Unless they get back together again and remarry in Hollywood and splash it all over OK again.
Yeah…
That’s right.
So…

Madrid Teacher series: How annoying are mobile phones?

Our Madrid Teachers are talking today about mobile phones and manners. They use an anecdote about Hugh Jackman interrupting a play in New York because a mobile rang in the middle of the performance. The conversation gives us the opportunity to study some features of spoken English that might come in really handy when we're having a conversation. These are some of the features that come up in the video clip.

- Use of I mean to rephrase what you have just said.
- Use of like as a linking word to introduce your ideas.
- Use of like with the meaning of 'for example'.
- Showing interest in what the other person is saying: Yeah; Oh, very annoying.
- Use of you know and well to give yourself thinking time.
- Use of tag questions to check information: aren't they?

Watch the video and try to spot the above-mentioned features of spoken English.

Now it's over to you.
In your opinion, how annoying are mobile phones?
Give some examples of mobile phones interrupting something when they should be turned off.
What do you like about mobile phones?
What don't you like?
Can you imagine your life without a mobile phone now?
How addictive are they?
Would you rather have a mobile with a contract or with a top-up card?

Try and use some of the features of spoken English that came up in the video.

The other day Hugh Jackman was doing a play in New York, I think. And a phone went off during the play and he just stopped it, stopped what he was doing, and he just said,’Oh come on, just, just grab it. I’ll wait until you answer.’ And . . ., and, I mean, that’s not something that an actor does usually. Like, they would never stop a play for that, but I think it was very spontaneous, because it is a bit annoying if that happens.

Yeah.

If he’s right in the middle of his performance, and I think it was quite early on in the, in the, in the season for the play. He was probably quite nervous and it must be so distracting to have that happen.

Yeah.

I was at a play a few weeks ago here in Madrid and, and it happened. And it was, it was a one-man show, it was just one guy on the stage, you know, delivering this monologue, very dramatic. And this phone went off…

Oh! Very annoying.

…and, he just, he just, he stopped also, and he just stared at the guy until he hangs up the phone. Everyone was very uncomfortable. But the incredible thing was that it happened again ten minutes later. 

Oh, the same guy? The same person?

I think, it sounded, it was the same ringtone. People are so rude, it’s incredible. I mean if you, if you go and see something like that, you turn off the phone.

I had the same thing. I went to Circulo de Bellas Artes recently, and I think it was the opening night of a play, and it was the same. Like, lots of people arrived late…

Yeah.

…the phones went off about three or four times. People tried to turn them off quickly, obviously. But it’s just a total interruption. They didn’t stop or wait, they just continued with what they were doing because it seemed to be taken for granted.

These are bad situations but I don’t know, what do you think about phones? Like, do you, what do you like about them? Or what do you don’t like? I mean, because, obviously we hate that about it because it’s horrible when that happens, I mean no one likes it. But obviously they are good for some reasons, aren’t they?

They’re very convenient.

Yeah, yeah.

Very convenient.

It’s handy if you’re running late. You can let your friend know that you’re going to be ten extra minutes. That’s, that’s useful.

Or you meet somebody in a public place. That’s happened to me, like you know, I always think, ‘how did I ever live without my mobile phone all those years?’ You know...

Yes. 

...but you know the typical, you’re meeting somebody in like, La Puerta del Sol at Christmas, and it’s like, ‘I can’t see you! Where are you?’ You know? But like, you think, like that’s happened to me, you know, going to meet somebody and like, then you go home because you never saw them. You know if you, like pre-mobile phone era. And then you say, ‘but I was standing right there!’ But there were just so many people, you just didn’t see them, you know?

Yeah, it’s too busy.

I think they are addictive, aren’t they? Because, well, I got like, my phone got stolen like two weeks ago, and I thought I would never be able to live without it, and then I’ve been fine, like, for two weeks. And then, I had to buy a new phone and I was like, I’m not sure, I’m, I’m, I’m OK like this, but obviously you need it. If you, for work, for everything.

I’ve only just got a contract phone and, I realised before I really couldn’t make many phone calls or do anything with my mobile because every time I put on credit, I seemed to run out immediately, you know. So, I grew accustomed . . . Yeah, it’s definitely worth it. But, I grew accustomed to not, like, having

a phone but not really being able to use it. And I must admit I found it far more inconvenient because nowadays, you never seem to have a landline in your apartment. Yeah like, I’ve not, I’ve not been in a flat in the past, since arriving in Spain that’s actually had a landline.

Yeah, because people used to have landlines because then, you, you know, you’d have internet. But now, even with mobile phones, you can get modems and have internet so you don’t even need a fixed line, or a fixed phone line, or whatever it’s called anymore.

Madrid Teacher: Alice in Wonderland

Who wrote Alice in Wonderland?
When?
Have you read the story?
What is it about?
Have you seen any of the films made around the story?
Which version stands out in your mind?
Who were the actors?
Did you have a favourite character?
What different interpretations does the story have?

Four Madrid Teachers answer most of the questions above, so if you don't really have an answer for them, watching the video will be the perfect excuse to find out the information and develop your listening skills.

At the same time, it can help us to revise some features of spoken English, as usual:

Use of so as a linking word to start a conversation.
Reacting to what someone tells us: Really?, Ok!
Agreement: Yeah; Yeah, definitely; right; that's right
Emphasising adjectives with adverbs: absolutely amazing
Phrases to gain thinking time as we talk: you know; well
Hedging our opinions with introductory phrases: I think it's...
Apologising: Oh, sorry.
Use of like as a filler or linking word to introduce ideas.



So, who’s excited about the new Tim Burton rendition of Alice in Wonderland that’s coming out soon?
I am.
I am.
Really?
Yeah. I loved that Disney new version years ago, so it’d be nice to see his take on it.
Yeah, definitely. I saw a trailer for it when I went to see Avatar, and they’re actually doing it in 3D as well.
Oh, really?
Oh, I didn’t know that.
It’s gonna be awesome. Seriously.
It may…
It’s gonna be absolutely amazing.
It may and I would probably say that if I hadn’t seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was very excited for that film I, you know, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp make a great pair, but it was such a disappointment.
Yeah.
For me, at least, it didn’t live up to the original in any way.
No, the original was good. This one though, this Alice in Wonderland I think it’s, it’s an extension of the original story and the sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass it’s, it’s another, another part of the story. I think Alice is a little bit older, she’s about 19 and, er, there’s a new plot.
OK.
Same characters.
OK.
So who’s, who’s your favourite Alice in Wonderland character?
For me the Cheshire Cat.
Ha, ha, ha. Right. That was great.
For me the Cheshire Cat is very funny.
It’s great.
When I watched it, I was so young that I really just enjoyed the visuals of the cartoon and I really liked the little oysters or clams that were dancing on the beach right before the walrus ate them up.
Yeah.
It’s always made me sad.
Oh sorry. Do you think there’s a difference between how you see Alice in Wonderland now that you’re adults and how you saw it when you were kids?
I’m sure.
What sort of differences can you see?
Well, for me it was a very innocent story just about strange people and a girl chasing a rabbit and she becoming bigger and smaller but that was it, for me that was it. There, there’s nothing really more to it but there are some undertones.
What kind of undertones?
I think when they start, I think when they start eating mushrooms or…
LSD related
…and everything starts changing and the Cheshire Cat fades in and out it starts to get a little, hmm, implicative of drugs.
Oh, really? Of drugs?
Is it the caterpillar as well?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That’s right.
He’s got a hookah on it, he’s just chilling, having a great day.
He’s having a very good time and did you find it scary like when you watched it as children?
Yeah, I found it scary the part when the king and queen.
She’s so abrasive. She’s screaming the whole time, I’m like please stop yelling.
Yeah, you think Alice is going to die.
And no one seems trustworthy. That’s the thing. Even the Mad Hatter who apparently is supposed to be some kind of guide or something, no one seems like they’re willing to let you know what they’re really after.
Nothing is as it seems.
Underlines.

Madrid Teacher: Do Hollywood films need stars to be good?

In our Madrid Teacher series, four teachers discuss how important it is for Hollywood films to have big names in the cast to be successful.

The video gives us a good opportunity to see native speakers of English interacting and the different strategies they use to keep their conversation going. Here are some of them:

- The use of so as a linking word.
- Involving the other people in the conversation through questions: 'or what do you think?', 'don't you think?'
- Showing agreement: 'Yeah!' 'Yeah, definitely', 'definitely, yeah'.
- The use of question tags to check information: 'Wasn't it?', 'don't they?'
- Use of I mean to rephrase information we have just said.
- Use of you know to gain thinking time.
- Use of sort of to express ambiguity or vagueness.
- Use of like as a filler to introduce our ideas.

Watch the video and identify some of the above-mentioned features in the conversation.

Then answer the question for yourself, do Hollywood films need stars to be good?, and try to use some of those features of spoken English when you talk.



So, do you think a film needs good actors to be good, or what do you think?
Not necessarily. Movies can be good if the script is good and… I think in that case it’s actually the script and the books that were released beforehand that make the actors become so famous. As I said, beforehand nobody knew them.
It was a good story. . .
Yeah. . .
Wasn’t it?
Yeah. . .
Yeah, a very good story. Did you enjoy it?
Is this . . . I don’t, I don’t . . .  Is this the vampire series?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry. I’m not into vampires. Everybody’s reading up on all these vampires about this human . . . or she’s human and he’s a vampire or vice versa and . . .
That’s it.
I’m not a vampire fan, but it was a very good film.
Yeah, it was a good film but, I mean, usually good films have good stars, like very famous stars, don’t they? But then, what makes a film good if . . . if they are, these actors are not, are not known from before or . . .
Well I could think of lots of films that, that didn’t have a . . . for example Secrets and Lies was a really good film. It wasn’t a Hollywood blockbuster. It was one of Michael Lee’s, you know, he’s sort of an indie guy, and, I thought the film was great. Of course Brenda Blethyn I guess, or Blethyn? I don’t know how it’s pronounced in Britain.
I don’t.
Yeah, you see because this actress, like she’s more a stage actress, and she’s done a lot of TV things and she wasn’t so famous in movies. But what makes a, a, a good film, it’s not the actor it’s that it’s believable; that you believe that the person is upset, or you believe that the person is really in love, or whatever. Like for example, Brokeback Mountain. What I didn’t like about it, I mean, I’m not against homosexuals or anything, but I didn’t believe that the actors really loved each other. Like it didn’t seem credible to me. And that’s what I didn’t like about the movie. So I think what makes a movie credible is not such a great actor but, somebody who can do the part and believe in what they’re doing.
So there can be good films, but with actors that we have never seen, don’t you think?
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, I’d agree with that, definitely, yeah. I suppose you concentrate less on the actor or actress, if they’re not famous, and more on the story, and what they’re doing, and the special effects, and everything else that’s happening. Yeah.
So, do you think an actor, a good actor, can make a film be good? Maybe if the film, the script is not that good, but it’s a very well-known actor so maybe they think it’s going to be popular.
Perhaps they cannot make the film good, but they can make the directors and the producers money at the box office.

What do good candidates do in speaking tests?

In this video three examiners give their advice and tips for the oral paper of the Cambridge English exams. You'll find it useful, no matter which exam you intend to sit.



Read the tasks carefully, and listen to your partners.
React to what your partners are saying to keep the conversation going.
Interact with your partner and the examiner.
Move forward the conversation.
Use eye contact.
Use body language to encourage your partner.
Show that you are resourceful in your language (extend the conversation, don’t get stuck, paraphrase).
Balance fluency and accuracy.
Ask questions if you don’t understand.
Help your partner.
Prepare before the exam (the more prepared you are, the more relaxed you will be in the test).
Control your nerves.
Practise sufficiently beforehand to know how to be in control of time.
Maintain the flow of the conversation to know how long the answers should roughly be and do not stop too early.
Don’t be put off if the examiner interrupts you.
Preparation is key.

Volunteering at university

One of my favourite all-time sites for English learners is English for University, written by Patrick McMahon, a lecturer in the UK teaching on a variety of Academic English courses and teacher training courses at Plymouth University. English for University is meant for international students who want to improve their English while studying in the UK.

The site is packed with learning resources, although the bulkiest part of it is oriented towards the development of the writing skills.

It seems that a very common question students ask their teachers all over the world is "How can I improve my oral English?". In a great post in mid-September, Volunteering at University, Patrick dealt with this question. The video below is part of his post. Please drop by English for University and read Volunteering at University, it will only take you a few minutes.

If pressed for time, just watch this short video and answer the questions below about it. It is suitable for (strong) intermediate students.



1 What does Charlie study at Plymouth University?

2 What year is he in?
3 Charlie is in charge of logistics in the VIP Moor Trees project. What does he organise?
4 How many people are involved in his project?
5 What is Moor Trees dedicated to?
6 Why did Charlie first start in the project?
7 What sorts of students volunteer for the Moor Trees Project?
8 What benefits does volunteering bring to people?
9 Why is Charlie pleased that he came to Plymouth and he became a volunteer?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript here.

The BBC How to series: Oral strategies for communication

Holding a conversation in English is much more than putting words together and not making grammar mistakes: We have to act both as a speaker and a listener, we have to adapt our behaviour to the changes in the conversation, we have to respect turn-taking and be able to cooperate with our interlocutor to keep the conversation going, we have to respect specific social conventions, we have to use suitable structures for the context. Sounds daunting,doesn't it?

The How to... series on the Learning English section of the BBC site is a wonderful resource that can keep you busy for a lifetime and that will help you to learn how to proceed when you talk to people in English, either face to face or on the phone and which may be an invaluable tool to prepare the EOI oral exam, specially the second part, where you have to discuss a topic or a situation with another student.

In the How to... series you will find dozens of six-minute lessons that can show you the way native speakers interact with each other while holding a conversation. Each lesson consists of an audio clip that you can listen to or download, its accompanying transcript, a selection of key vocabulary and structures with examples for learners to study/revise at a glance and, sometimes, activities to consolidate everything that has been explained throughout the lesson.

The lessons are grouped under umbrella topics:

• How to hold a conversation
• How to discuss
• How to give instructions, explanations and advice
• How to make requests, offers and invitations
• How to give news
• How to make complaints, apologies and excuses
• How to say hello and good-bye

As I said before, a number of six-minute lessons unfolds under each topic, focusing on a specific language function that shows what native speakers do to express that function, and how we can do it. For example, under How to hold a conversation,  some of the lessons we can study are:

• extending a conversation
• closing topics
• expressing likes and dislikes
• responding to compliments
• talking about funny incidents
• getting back on a topic
• being sarcastic

I know it may not always be easy to find your way around the Learning English section of the BBC site. To get to the How to... series, once you reach the Learning English section, click on Grammar, vocabulary and pronuncation, and you'll find  the How to... series half way down the menu that unfolds.

Coffee cups to canvas

Coffee cups to canvas was one of the winning ads in the second season of TED ads.

Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and number the topics below in the order Sharpie mentions them:

Sharpie's plans for his break
Sharpie's friends dismissed his drawings
the process of drawing on a cup
when Sharpie first started to draw on canvas
taking a break
background and education

If you want to fully understand what Sharpie says you can read the transcript below. 

Communication strategy:
In the transcript I have highlighted the use Sharpie makes of some connectors to link his sentences. Sharpie keeps repeating phrases like you know, kind of, to put sentences together. These connecting phrases are really useful when we wish to connect our speech. 


Sometimes we run the risk of our English sounding broken and fragmented, with one sentence having nothing to do with the previous one. Phrases like you know, kind of, may help us to gain time to think and connect ideas.


Another post on the blog where these linking devices are touched on is The Two Ronnies -The Optician.

I grew up in Malaysia on a bird farm. I was just not even a good student, you know. I was terrible in math, I was terrible in English, I’m still terrible in English. If you are terrible in math in Malaysia you automatically go into art, you know. So that kind of worked out for me because that was what I had always wanted to do.

So I came to study animation in the States. I got lucky, I guess, and I landed my job at a game company. I was at a coffee shop and I needed something to write ideas down on. I didn’t have paper so the next best thing was a cup because, you know, it’s also white, so it’s kind of a canvas, so I wrote some ideas on it, I also drew some things on it on the side. I started drawing on a few cups later on.

When my friends saw the cups they asked me what I was going to do with it, and I said some of it were kind of nice, maybe I can sell it. One of them just said, ‘No one’s going to buy that crap’. I wanna just prove them wrong, you know, and I think I could have done just so by just selling the cup for like 20 cents. I’m sure someone will buy the cup for 20 cents, you know. But I don’t want to stop it there, I wanted to make it much bigger.

The process takes anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of months. I don’t sketch on the cups, you know, I would draw directly with a sharpie. I will look at the cup for a long time and I wonder if the stroke is going to make or break the cup, you know. There are times when I got up to ninety-five per cent, ninety-eight per cent done and I would draw something that would ruin the entire piece, you know. I think the challenge was addicting, and ever since I drew on the first cup that was all I wanted to draw on.

When I was a kid I read this book, it was Around the World of in 80 Days. It’s always fascinated me. I’ve worked as an animator for about twelve years now, and I have decided to take a break from it and see the world. People and stuff like that they always say they want to see the world one day but none of them really ever do it, and I decided if any times are good to do it, this is the right time.

I am going to take Route 66 to Chicago and then I don’t know where the hell I’m going after that. For the first time in my life I do not have a back-up plan. I don’t know what is in store, I don’t know… there’ll be nothing familiar to me except my cups and the car, just go along with whatever comes my way.

The difference between a dream and reality is doing it. So if you want to get something done, or if you have a dream, you know, don’t wait, just go for it.

My name’s is Boey. I’m an artist. Now what are you gonna start?

Key:

1 background and education

2 when Sharpie first started to draw on canvass

3 Sharpie's friends dismissed his drawings

4 the process of drawing on a cup

5 taking a break

6 Sharpie's plans for his break

The two Ronnies: The Optician's

The Two Ronnies was a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the comedy duo of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.

The Opticians is probably their most famous and hilarious sketch.

Self-study activity:
The best thing anybody can do with The Opticians is simply put their feet up and enjoy it.

Apart from that, there are a number of linguistic aspects we can draw our attention to after a closer viewing of the sketch.

Vocabulary to do with not seeing well
optician’s
the (sense of) sight
spectacles
frames
test frames
eye charts
test your eyes
lens
prescription

The frequent use of “you know” and “you see” by the speaker to signal some kind of explanation and give himself time to think.

The use of shall we? in question tags after “Let’s”.

The use of would/could to make polite requests.

The use of What about...? to make suggestions.


You can read the transcript here.

Find an English-speaking friend

I know it's an overgeneralization, but I can't be far wrong in saying that speaking is the ultimate goal for most language learners.

One of the most common problems students have is that they have nobody to speak to outside the class, as we all live in Spain. That is why it should be a priority for students to find a speaking partner and get together on a regular basis to speak in English. This is even more important for distance students, who only have an hour's tuition a week.

In addition to developing our oral skill, an English-speaking partner may help us with queries, with our written work and in some of the listening activities on this blog.

But what about if our availability to get together with a classmate is limited? Can a student develop the oral skill on their own?

Dominic Cole suggests a very interesting technique in this respect. He lists some advantages: it helps build your confidence and you learn to think in English. He also gives some suggestions on how you should implement the technique: talk about personal things and things that interests you. That way, he points out, you will also improve your vocabulary, a key element for fluency.

He puts forward two activities:

• Time yourself when speaking.
• Record yourself.

Visit Dominic Cole's webpage and find out a few more details about this technique. Dominic's webpage is one of the most interesting sites for intermediate English learners.

Strategies for developing your oral skills

Students' first priority when learning another language is usually the oral skill. They want to speak the language as fast as possible so that they can communicate through it effectively. That's fair enough.

On occasion, they tackle the teacher and ask him/her, 'yes, I have to find as many opportunities to talk as possible but are there any techniques that might help me develop my oral skill faster?'.

Dominic Cole has addressed this issue on one of his blogposts in his extraordinary IELTS Blog. He suggests the 10 techniques below for the students who are preparing the IELTS exam. As Dominic has in mind students who are preparing for an exam, I think that his advice comes in handy for EOI students preparing for the Nivel Básico or Nivel Intermedio exam, although the format of the exams may be slightly different.

Click on this link to find out the way these techniques should be implemented, and a big thank-you to Dominic.

1. Record yourself and then write down your answer
2. Do it first in your own language
3. Don’t practise the whole part, do it bit by bit
4. Practise by describing photographs
5. Read then speak
6. Improve your memory – write your life history
7. Practise saying “I don’t know”
8. Talk to a mirror
9. Write your own questions
10. Improve your coherence and fluency – easy as 1-2-3 or 3-2-1

English speaking

English speaking is a blog we should turn our attention to on a regular basis, as it provides us with lots of invaluable information about how to develop communication strategies. For this reason, English speaking is extremely useful for English students, especially at Elementary and Intermediate levels.

The layout of English speaking is pretty straightforward, as most of the information revolves around  functions of the language such as how to keep the conversation going, making requests, softening, showing your attitude, giving orders, talking about plans, ordering food, and so on.

On top of that, the input is fairly limited, with what we never have information overload.

There's a short introduction to each of the entries before the 'language chunks' are presented. These language chunks are also shown in a linguistic context.

I am pasting here the entry about showing interest in what another person says:

To show interest in what the other person is saying, you don’t have to say much. You can use the words like ‘Really?’ (with a rising intonation), ‘Sure’ and ‘Right’ to show that you are really listening.

‘Did you know? Jake is going out with a French girl.’ ‘Really?’
‘I don’t think reality television shows are worth watching.’ ‘Right.’

Thank you, Laura Schwartz for providing us with this extraordinary tool.

Victoria Beckham, proud to be British

I think this video clip featuring Victoria Beckham in the 2010 British Fashion Awards is really interesting for language learners.

She gives us a great demonstration of a typical feature of spoken English language learners find it difficult to grasp: conversation fillers, that is, short phrases and expressions like um, uh, I mean, you know, well, that speakers use to give themselves thinking time when they are talking, especially if ideas don't come to mind.

Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and count how many conversation fillers Victoria Beckham uses.



You can check your answers with the script here.

Good oral practice for the monologue

It is quite hard to come across interesting material which fits the needs of EOI or That's English! students. Sometimes, however, we strike lucky and find a gold mine.

Dominic Coles IETLS Blog is, as we can work out from its name, a blog that aims at preparing students for the IELTS exam, which is beyond our scope, but which has lots of resources that we can use to our advantage.

By clicking on the image below you will be directed to an entry in Dominic's blog which can come in very handy to prepare the monologue part of the oral exam from Básico 2 up to Intermediate 2 students. As well as very useful advice and a standard oral exam topic ("Talking about a childhood friend") we can hear a student perform the task.

But there is much more to it. On this link you will find a list of topics with further practise.

What's important in life

From David Deubel comes this lesson that can help us revise some structures to express our preferences.

Self-study activity:
Get together with an English-speaking friend and discuss this question.

What's the key to a great life? Look at the picture and express your ideas. Give reasons for your choice.

In my opinion, the most important thing for me is XXXX because XXXX
In my view ...
Personally speaking ...

To express your preferences you can use these structures.

I prefer having good health to having money because ...
I would prefer to have a confident personality best of all because ...
I'd (I would) rather have a good job than (have) good looks because ...

Listen to Dr. Frankl speak about what is most important to him. Do you agree?  What is your purpose in life? Can you imagine it?

Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Expressing opinions

Whenever we wish to express our opinion in English, most of the times we use the phrase I think... to introduce our ideas.

Nothing wrong with it. The only problem is that we tend to abuse this expression and, consequently, we sometimes hear people using I think... six, eight, ten times in a very short period of time like the oral exam.

One of the factors that influences the final marks in the oral exam is the variety of structures and richness of vocabulary students use. So why don't you try and learn these other phrases to introduce your opinions?

In my opinion ...
In my view ...
Personally, I think ...
Personally speaking ...
It seems to me that ...
I get the impression that ...

The structure we must avoid is From my point of view. We use From somebody's point of view to express someone's ideas from their position in life (as a student, as a housewife, as a doctor, as a Catholic). But personal opinions are not introduced by this structure. Compare:

In my opinion, war is always wrong.
He wrote about the war from the point of view of an ordinary soldier.
In my view, it's a very good school.
You have to judge a school from the child's point of view.

Self-study activity:
Get together with an English-speaking friend and express your opinions about the billboards that you can see after clicking on the picture below. Do you like the billboards? What products are being advertised? Is the design effective?

Moving the conversation

When we are having a conversation, there are times when we wish to show our interlocutors that we would like the conversation to progress in a certain way.

There are some phrases we can use to start the conversation, to clarify points, to manage the conversation or to bring the conversation to an end. Learning a few of these phrases can help us feel more confident with our English.

In fact, many students mishandle the interaction part of the oral exam at EOI from the very beginning because they do not know how to go about these conversation markers. Phrases like Start?, I start?, which are obviously wrong, are frequently said by students in exams and in class.

Here are some phrases that may come in handy for you:

Beginning a discussion
Shall I start? or Shall we start?
Let's start by talking about ...
OK, let's begin.

Clarifying points
I didn't quite catch that.
I don't quite follow you.
I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean.

Managing the discussion
Let's move on to another point.
Moving on to the next topic...

Closing the discussion
Is there anything else to cover?
Shall we stop now?
Is that it?

Self-study activity:
Get together with an English-speaking friend and discuss the topic below. Do not forget to use some of the above-mentioned phrases to signal the different stages of your talk.
Parents, not teachers, are primarily responsible for their child's education.

Negotiations

Whenever we take part in a conversation in which we need to reach an agreement with our interlocutors, a negotiation is taking place.

This way, the term negotiation is not just restricted to the business world, but it can be applied to many aspects of our everyday life -deciding which present to buy for a friend or deciding which film to see at the weekend are examples of this wider sense of a negotiation.

In our academic life, the second part of the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas oral exam, the interaction, is in fact a negotiation.

Whenever we take part in a negotiation, we must consider our friends' or classmates' perspectives on a given topic as much as our own. To do so, some expressions can help us to give a framework to both our ideas and those expressed by the people we are talking to.

There are some expressions we can use to fully agree with someone:
I completely agree with you.
You are absolutely right.
Yes, you have a point there.

There are some expressions we can use to fully disagree with someone:
I'm afraid that's not how I see it.
I'm not sure I agree.
I'm sorry but I don't agree.
I can see what you mean but ...

There are some expressions we can use to show partial agreement.
I agree with you to some extent.
I agree with you up to a point.

Self-study activity: Get together with an English-speaking friend a discuss this topic:
The only reason to learn a language is if the language will help you gain a good job.
Don't forget to use the above-mentioned expressions to agree and disagree with your friend.