PODCASTING

Here's an extract of THE RAVEN, by Edgar Allan Poe. The music in the background belongs to the album Tales of Mystery and Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project, and the second track is precisely "The Raven". Enjoy the eerie atmosphere and I hope it makes you want to read and listen to more...

TREASURE HUNT

Welcome to ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD

This is an activity for you to realise the importance of English as an international language. You will see the varieties of English all over the world as well as the many places where you can speak it in order to make yourself understood. I'm sure you'll be amazed to learn how useful it can be whenever you decide to travel anywhere... Just have a look at the map and then have a guess at how many people can be speaking English right now!

==== countries where English is the first and often the only language of most people

==== countries where besides English as a native language there is at least one other significant native tongue

==== countries where English is not native, only official



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First of all, search the Internet for the answers to the following questions:

1- In which European countries is English an official language?

2- What is a "lingua franca"?

3- How many types or varieties of English can you find all over the world? Name them. (For example, British English)

4- Look at the following vocabulary. Can you find the corresponding American English words for them?
biscuits trousers underground torch lift football rubbish pavement

5- What is "Spanglish"? Can you give an example?

6- Find the approximate number of people who can speak or understand English in the world.

THE BIG QUESTION!!!!

And now imagine you are going to travel around the world, but only stopping in countries where English is spoken.

-Can you think of an itinerary starting from London?

-You can travel by car, plane or boat and there must be 6 countries at least.

-Give the following information about each country:

a) official language(s)

b) currency

c) population

d) capital city

e) typical food

-Which variety of English is spoken in each?

-What interesting places can we visit there? Do you know them?

-Name a famous person (an actor, a singer, a politician, a sportsperson...) who was born in the country and write a short biography of them.

This is it, now GO FOR IT!

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Here's a list of links you can use for your search:

http://lazarus.elte.hu/~guszlev/gb/english.htm

http://the_english_dept.tripod.com/esc.html

video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tft5IluKca4

accents http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/Eng/Database/Phonetics/Englishes/Home/HomeMainFrameHolder.htm

http://hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.mansioningles.com/

http://www.britemb.cl/100qts/100qts_idioma_56.html

http://www.britannica.com/

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For the evaluation, you can do the activity either in writing or a Powerpoint presentation. The following points will be taken into account:

- accuracy (20%)

- use of good English (grammar, vocabulary, connectors) (40%)

- clarity of ideas (10%)

- design of final work (10%)

- management of information (15%)

- originality (5%)

MY ALTER EGO

Have you ever wanted to fly? Have you ever wished you could stop trains and planes on the spot? Have you ever tried to catch bullets they´ve just shot at you? If the answer to all the questions is YES, then you want to be Superman. An amazing character, an alien who does not look like one if it weren't for his costume. He is the hero of heroes, someone who you can rely on in case of emergency since apparently he shows no weaknesses. Strong, tough, daring, nice, kind, always on your side ready to help you out. Could teachers emulate him? That would be great, students would be delighted. Superman, please, help me! I'm trying to teach and there's no tougher task than that, I promise!

ROLLER COASTER & ME

This roller coaster may well represent what I do when I teach: I go up and down and down and up again and again... Some slopes are hard to climb, some others are so slippery you can get off the track at any time. And the worst of it all is that when you reach the end, it just starts all over again!

Anyway, no matter how many ups and downs there are, I have to find the right way to go on and get my message through to my students in an exciting or different way. After all, a roller coaster is fun, isn't it?