WEEK 30: Game over

The term is over and final exams are coming. This year has been better for me, since my English has got better more. But, to be honest, I need to improve a bit if I want to get a high level in this language. I think the idea of writng posts in a blog has been interesting, but I believe it is not enough to help us to practice. Since the first time I coursed English III and IV, I thought that classes were not good enough to make students pass final exams. I know we must study at home, but classes and practices are very important too. These two subjects have been a very hard fight for me because I have always thought that you will only pass the exam If you start the course with the level which is required at the end. In fact, our final exams are very similar to Cambridge ones and we do not practice that kind of exercises. So, if I could give my opinion about the methology of these subjects, it would be to change how classes are teached.

WEEK 28: Connecting words

I have found a link where there are texts where academic words are used.
Document

• Indeed
• Straightfoward
• Incorporated
• Infer

A useful page where you can investigate what kind of words you should use to write an academic writing:

http://www.uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm

Here, you can observe that the words are in cronological order and also, you can see the meaning of each word if you do not understand them.

Today, I have been talking to a friend from South Africa by phone. It is a great experience because you practice your listening and speaking and besides, I learn a different culture.

WEEK 27: Complaining

In English language, phrasal verbs are a very important part. There are a lot of them, even impossible to know how many exactly.

I have found a sample of a text where there is a complaint: Uk.sample.letter
The expressions and vocabulary used in this text to complain are:

• Get fix
• Fill out
• Look forward to

I have watched a new film on Netflix in original version to practice my listening skill.

WEEK 26: Essay writing

Searching on the Internet about how to write an essay I have found this page where you can learn and investigate a bit about how to do one. http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/

To do an essay is not an easy task, since you must use the correct words to explain everything correctly. Besides, when you write an essay you show what level in vocabulary you have. So, it is very important to have a wide knowledge to be able to speak about any topic and to know that there are a lot of different kinds of essays. That's the part most hard for me.

This week I have been practising my speaking with a friend of mine who has a very high level in the language.

WEEK 25: Under the weather with the weather

I have found these two news about weather:

We can highlight different words such as: "off-scale" rain, waves of thunderstorms, tornadoes, searing heat, thunder-floods, forecast...

These two charts don't have nothing to do with the other two pictures. We can see that in each day, it is mentioned fahrenheit, two briefly words to know if the day is cloudy, sunny or rainy and a little image with the sun and clouds.

What I did this week to improve my English has been to practice my speaking and my writing with a friend of mine from South Africa.

Week 24: NATURAL WONDERS

"Himalayas, Nepali Himalaya, great mountain system of Asia forming a barrier between the Plateau of Tibet to the north and the alluvial plains of the Indian subcontinent to the south. The Himalayas incluse the highest mountains in the world, with more than 110 peaks rising to elevations of 24,000 feet (7,300 metres) or more above sea level. One of those peaks os Mount Everst, the world's highest, with an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres; see Researcher's Note: Height of Mount Everest. The mountains' high peaks rise into the zone of perpetual snow."

I have found this text about the decription of Himalayas and we can see that the author uses words such as: great, highest, rising, feet... etc. Everything related to this theme.

I must read more than I read to improve my English.

Week 23: PERSUASION

There are a lot of expression who people use to persuade others. We can mention some expressions like:

• Are you sure you ought to make that complain?
• You really should invite your boss, you know.
• That's quite a good idea, you know.
• He's an excellent teacher, actually

This kind of sentences make you to think that the other person probably is right and you should follow their suggestions.

To improve my English, I try to watch every day a film in original version to train my listening, since it is the skill I have to get better the most.