Artículos escritos por profesores particulares de Inglés nativos

In this essay I am going to examine the teaching of hypothetical meaning to upper intermediate level learners. The main reason to look at language to express hypothetical meaning is that it is used in such a wide variety of situations and we imagine, hypothesize, and pretend with great frequency.  Understanding these meanings and being able to express them is useful for upper intermediate level learners and ultimately meets their needs. I h...

Teaching suggestions These activities can be used with any text from magazines, newspapers or short stories. The Art of Giving Aim:  Practice skimming for global understanding.  Practice scanning to find specific information.  Increase reading speed. Procedure:  Learners look at the title of the article and the photo.  They discuss the question in the subheading in relation to Catalonia.  Learners scan the text to...

How we reach detailed understanding: 5 ideas  Top-down processing When readers comprehend text using a top-down process they use their “previous knowledge and experience of the world” to understand what lies in the text.  That means that comprehension “resides in the reader.”  Top-down processing is about building meaning and the interaction between the reader and text.  Every individual word might not be understood or reco...

The other day, I was asking my online class what games they liked to play with their friends. This being a) the 21st century and b) during lockdown, the answers were centred less around sports and more among online games. I asked the kids to explain the games to me, and was amazed when an A2 level student told me that “you are on a spaceship, and you have to find the imposter”. To me, “imposter” seemed like a very advanced vocabulary word for a ...

Welcome to the travel of what it would be tomorrow´s education. The crew today is going to be an international student currently living in Canada. The weather conditions are… The time that it´ll take to get to our destination is… Every year, a lot of students study abroad hearing this sentences as they start their trip. They might be pushed by their parents or by their own desire. The experience is different for each one, but for all is being ou...

Adding Adjectives Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns. Adjectives set a mood and add interest to your writing. Below is a paragraph that needs your help. Write an adjective from the list into each blank. Pick adjectives that make sense and make the paragraph more interesting. Use each adjective only once in the paragraph.  The sheriff walked into the stable. He put the saddle on the horse. He would ride to the ranch in th...

Helping Upper intermediate level learners to read for detailed understanding Introduction Why reading? We live in a “print-dominated world” (Read 2007:48) where reading is a fundamental skill.  Reading deserves an important place in the EFL classroom because it meets learners’ communicative needs; to construct meaning and understand text. Text is often used by teachers as merely a vehicle for presenting grammar or exposing students to new v...

When it comes to IELTS one of the most scary sections is the writing, is the last section of the test, there is a huge challenge with the time, and the most important element, is that we never now what to say and whether this will be good enough or not!  here you will find some tips that i give my students and has helped them greatly: Improving the quality of your writing has to be the most important goal if you would like to achieve a bett...

Have you ever come across the English expression: “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”? It means that when we find ourselves in a bad situation, we must always try to make the best of it; instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we should see these situations as an opportunity to grow. Right now in the tourism sector, it feels as if life is throwing lemons at us from all angles. In Spain especially, we’re really missing our touri...

For the majority of Spaniards learning English has become their life goal. However, would you all agree with me if I said that this particular dream has a way of turning into a nightmare? I can hear you all saying 'Yes' right now. Let's face it, it's a pain in the neck. Inevitably, feelings of despair, frustration and guilt are coming over learners while learning a new language. And if we talk about adults it's even worse because it's definitely...

Hi there! I couldn't think of a better topic than London for my first post. Have you ever been to the capital of England? If not, you really should and I am going to give you 5 arguments to catch a plane and spend a few days (or more!) there. 1. Practice your English! London is indeed such a good city for improving your English skills although you will find many people from Spain or South America. However, if you come across with a local you wil...

Practicing listening skills is key to becoming fluent in any language, as it is required to understand the spoken language. Often students of English who are not surrounded by that language find it extremely difficult to understand spoken English, particularly when listening to a native speaker. To make matters worse, English is spoken in a wide variety of accents and dialects around the world ranging from Scottish to South African to Eastern Am...

As teachers, we encourage delving into all kinds of media for language learning, and with continuous advances in online technology this can be facilitated like never before. However, tread with caution! For both teacher and student, a song’s lyrics should be examined before deeming it a ‘viable source’ of learning. In this vein, I’d like to address the pros and cons of listening to music in English and learning phrases through repetition. &nbs...

Read Out Loud: Just reading isn’t enough. Read out loud. Your muscles need to get used to pronouncing English words; you need to feel the language in your mouth and hear yourself speaking in full, complex, and correct sentences (which could be quite inspirational)! Work on your intonation patterns, and always, always check the pronunciation of new, tongue-twisting words   Think in English: This could be a tough one, but there’r...