Activity 1
Personal information - A biography
En esta actividad los alumnos/as tiene que cambiar el texto y convertirlo
en uan descripción de ellos mismos/as.
A
biography
My
full name’s Paul Thomas Hullock. I am 40 years old and I was born in
Northern Ireland, but brought up mostly in England. I have two
sisters who are both older than me. One is a lawyer and the other a
gardener. My father spent most of his working life as a fireman and
my mother is a retired civil servant. Unfortunately, my father died
a few a years ago. Both my parents originally came from the North
East of England.
I
live in Norwich with my darling wife, my beautiful daughter Katie, who
will be four in April, and a rather fat seventeen year old cat called
Lucy. I’m a teacher and have been working here at the Bell School for
about eleven years now. Before that I worked for a school in London and
before that I worked in Greece. The most unusual job I have ever had was
a summer job when I was a student. I was a rat catcher!
In
my free time I like to swim whenever I can and in the summer I love
playing cricket. I also like to watch films and read. At the moment I’m
reading a lot of American crime fiction, having been converted to it by a
friend.
Activity 2
A
Running Dictation
Esto es una "running
dictation": Los laumnos/as trabajan en equipos y el profesor pega en la
pared frases sueltas de un texto (o textos). Un alumno de cada grupo
(pueden ir turnándose en el grupo) va ha´cia la pared e intenta memorizar
una frase en el menor tiempo; vuelve a su grupo y le dicta al "escritor"
la frase. Sse repite hasta el final del texto. El grupo que aaba antes el
dictador es el ganador. La longitud o dificultad del texto depende
del nivel o del origen del texto.
The dictation - Chocomania
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The
dictation –
(solución)
1.
If you did a random check among your friends you might discover an amazing
thing.
2.
The addiction that affects most people is neither alcohol nor nicotine.
3.
It’s chocolate.
4.
Most people can’t resist soft, sweet, fresh chocolate and they eat it
quite regularly.
5.
Apart from the effect on your pocket and your waistline, the habit is
neither harmful nor illegal and most chocolate addicts get away happily
with at least one ‘fix’ a day.
Activity 3
One
story from
many
- A journey
En esta actividad los laumnos/as tienen
que combinar elementos como frases y palabras de diferente párrafos para
fromar un texto coherente y lógico. Los párrafos se les dan a los alumnos
a través de archivos en el PC o por escrito en papel. Esta actividad
también facilita el uso oral de la lengua.
this activity students are requires to combine elements such as
sentences or individual words from
different
separate paragraphs in order to
form a single, logical and coherent text. The separate paragraphs should
be given to the students either on their PCs or as a handout. The activity
is co-operative and requires the learners to share their information
orally and appoint a secretary to type the correct version.
Activity 4
Una
historia aburrida
En esta actividad los alumnos/as leen
el siguiente texto y se les pide que lo "adornen" con adjetivos o más
palabras para que resulte un texto más interesante.
Once
upon a time there was a boy who lived in a house in a town . He wasn’t
very . he felt rather and so he decided to go for a walk in the forest
. Soon the weather became and he felt quite . He was very when he
suddenly heard a noise and he turned round to see a girl from his school
. she was very and had eyes and hair.
Activity 5
The beginning of a story
En
esta actividad los alumnos/as tiene que continuar la historia. Despues de
unos minutos el profesor/a les pide que se cambien al ordenador de al lado
(de detrás o delante) y que continuenla historia de esa otra pareja. Esto
se repite tantas veces como sea necesario hasta que los alumnos vuelvan a
su lugar original.
It
was a cold dark night. Tom and Mary had been driving to the castle for
about five hours. The wind was howling and in the distance they could
hear the cry of wolves in the forest. Suddenly the car came to a stop.
The engine had cut out .
Activity 6
Puntuación y spelling
En esta actividad los alumnos/as tiene
que corregir los errores de puntuación del texto.
dear
mr brown im writing to you to let you know that ill be away from school
until next Monday im sorry I couldnt let you know in person but your
secretary told me you were busy and I didnt want to disturb you the reason
for my absence is that my uncle from the united states is paying us an
unexpected visit and as am the only one in the family who speaks english
im going to look after him if I had known sooner I would have told you but
as I said the visit is unexpected yours sincerely peter magnusson
Activity 7
Ordenado
párrafos y trabajando con conectores
Study this report.
It
contains:
a) One main title
b) Four sub-titles / main sections
c) The section entitled: ‘Results and Analysis’ is divided into
three paragraphs.
Below you can read the report but none of the sections have been divided
up. Read the report and decide where the titles, sections and paragraphs
are. Use the mouse to divide the text up.
A
Survey into the culinary tastes of the people of Norwich. Introduction.
Having now been in the UK for nearly two months, our group was curious to
find out more about British attitudes to food and so we decided to ask
members of public in Norwich some questions relating to this topic. This
report is divided into a number of sections and each section relates to
each question asked. Before analysing the questions, we will firstly give
a brief overview of our survey. Description of the Investigation. For
this survey we created a questionnaire and went into the streets of
Norwich to interview eight respondents. The questionnaire comprised
eight questions and a copy of the full questionnaire is attached in
Appendix One. Results and Analysis. Firstly, we questioned people
about what they kind of food they liked and also their reasons. We gave
the interviewees a list of different foods and asked them to say which
they preferred. Nearly all of the people surveyed, approximately
75%, said that they did not like fish’n’chips, saying that it was
rather unhealthy. On the contrary, three out of every four people
interviewed said they liked salad with tomatoes and olive oil.
This, we found, rather surprising as we had been led to believe the
fish’n’chips was one of the Britain’s traditionally foods. The response
may be due to the fact that British people, like people all over the
world, are becoming more health conscious. On the other hand,
another reason may be that European tastes are influencing the British
diet and so fish’n’chips is becoming less popular. There was one small
group, those over sixty years old, who said that they liked fish’n’chips.
This is probably because they were brought up during a time when such
food was very popular. It is rather difficult for the habits of older
people to change. Our second question related to the times of day
when people eat. As far as breakfast is concerned, most eat between
seven and eight in the morning. This is similar to breakfast time in our
own countries. It probably reflects the fact that we follow similar
patterns in our working days. Conclusion. In conclusion there seems
to be a trend towards British eating habits becoming more multi-national.
People eat out more and enjoy different kinds of food from all over the
world. In addition they are becoming more aware of their own diets.
This is probably mirrored in most populations the developed world.
Now
look at the words from the text above. Decide into which of the following
section they should go. Type them in / copy and paste them in.
Now
look at the groups of words and expression below. Drag them into the
correct box above:
On
the other hand,...
However, ...
...whereas ...
...compared with X who thought that ...
We
firstly ...
Firstly we
Our
second question related to ...
The
third question was concerned with ...
As
far as breakfast is concerned ...
approximately sixty per cent
about two thirds
two
out of every three people interviewed
The
majority
Most
about ...
We
felt this was rather ...
In
our opinion, we thought that this was ...
moreover
furthermore
To
sum up
To
summarise
One
reason for this may be
This
may be due to the fact that
Another reason may be ...
This
is probably because ...
It
probably reflects the fact that ...
...
there seems to be a trend ...
there appears to be a tendency
Activity 8
Changing the protagonist in a story
En esta
actividad los alumnos tiene que cambiar el personaje de la historia por un
hoimbre y hacer los cambios necesarios a continuación para adaptar el
texto.
Instructions:
Change the beginning of this story to, ‘All day long, John had been
looking forward to his date ....’ and make other changes you think
necessary. Then finish the story.
JANE’S HOT DATE
All
day long, Jane had been looking forward to her date with James. She had
met him for the first time only a couple of weeks ago but already she was
sure he was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. He was
tall and dark, with wide shoulders and a lock of hair that flopped over
one eye, and his voice was deep and sexy. He seemed really interested in
everything she had to say. She could already imagine walking down the
aisle with him as the organ played, ‘Here comes the bride ...’
At
lunchtime she left the office and dashed out to the shops where she bought
a new blouse, a black dress and a pair of shoes. She left the office at
five and waited impatiently for the bus to take her home. There she had a
long, luxurious bath and then carefully put on her makeup and new clothes.
She felt really satisfied with the way she looked.
James had arranged to meet her in a West End pub, where they would have a
drink before going on to a restaurant. Jane walked into the pub and could
feel every man’s eyes on her. Every man except James. She must be early.
Or maybe he’d been delayed. She ordered an orange juice and sat in a
corner near the door. Time passed and her heart sank. She went to find a
phone and dialled his number but only got a message, ‘The number you have
dialled has not been recognised ...’
‘Swine’ she muttered and ....
Activity 9
The Parisian – Repetition and text development
Otro
texto que pide al alumno/a que haga cambios en el texto para evitar
repeticiones (por ejemplo usando frases de relativo)
Below is an outline of a story. Can you remove the repetition and make it
easier to read?
A
Parisian walked into a house at the village in 1964. Inside the house the
Parisian began to feel unhappy and so the Parisian went to find a local
bar to get a glass of wine. The Parisian bought a glass of wine. The wine
tasted sweet. At the local bar the Parisian found a very nice local woman.
The local woman was also drinking a glass of wine. The Parisian thought: “
I would like to talk to that local woman”, so the Parisian talked to the
local woman. After a while the Parisian began to talk to the local woman,
the Parisian started to feel happy. The Parisian decided to ask the local
woman on a date. The local woman turned down the Parisian. The Parisian
went back to the house in the village. The Parisian felt unhappy.
Activity 10:
Drag and drop following sentences into the correct order to make a
unified
text:
a) Inside its round fruits, called bolls, are masses of white fibres.
b) But, in the cotton fields, the bolls are picked before this can
happen.
c) Cotton grows best in warm, wet lands, including Asia, the southern
United States, India, China, Egypt and Brazil.
d) Cotton is a very useful plant.
e) When the fruits ripen, they split and the fibres are blown away.
Activity 10
Story expansion – Percy’s
Cat
A
creative writing activity where students develop a story from given
sentences and prompts.
Instructions:
Complete this story by following the instructions.
Percy’s cat
Once
upon a time there was a man called Percy who had a pet cat.
(Describe the cat)
For
a long time, the cat had been his best friend
(Why
did he like the cat so much? What sort of things did they do together?)
But
then one day all this changed.
(Why
did he begin to hate his cat?)
So
Percy decided to kill his cat.
(How
did he do it?)
Then
he got rid of the body
(How?)
But
the following night ....
(Finish the story)
