Boy - Tales of Childhood - by Roald Dahl

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Travelling by plane

Let's revise  some vocabulary related to air travel. To do so, try this crossword. The definitions come from the Macmillan online dictionary. Have fun!


What was your score?  I'm sure you did very well. Now you'll be ready for the following challenge to improve your listening skill. Let's listen to a young man from Canada describing his flight to Brussels.

• The first time you should relax, enjoy de video, try to recognise words and get a general idea of the story.
• The second time complete the sentences below. Choose the right option. 
• If you like the song in the video you can  listen to it and see the lyrics by clicking  here.

RECIPES

As you know, we are having a Christmas party this coming Thursday and one of the highlights will be the cooking contest. You can take part with a local speciality or  with a typical dish from any country where English is spoken.  There are photocopies in the libray and in class, but why don't we share videos (or just the recipe) of  typical dishes from the English-speaking countries?

Here's one for Brownies, the list with the ingredients and written recipe is here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-brownies/detail.aspx

You can leave the URL for your recipe as a comment.

Wish Taylor Swift a Happy Birthday

The well-known radio programme del 40 al 1, which is presented by Tony Aguilar,  is running a raffle (sorteo). You can win an electric guitar signed by Taylor Swift and a merchandising kit. Check out the details on the programme blog.

Pascal Le Segretain, Getty Images

All you have to do to take part in the prize draw is to write an email wishing Taylor Swift a happy birthday, but you have to be quick because her birthday is tomorrow, Thursday the 13th.

Write your email and send it to del40al1@los40.com . It'll be a good chance to practise your English and you can win a prize. 

Good luck!

The Spanish Crisis from a Different Point of View

We recently talked about big isssues in class. Things such as poverty, domestic violence, debt, unemployment, pollution, divorce rates, obesity, etc. No wonder  we  also tackled the topic of the current economic crisis, as this is probably our main concern nowadays.  Prospects are rather pessimistic but Carlos found this video which focuses on the positive features of Spain and brings a gentle  breeze of optimism.

So, what do you think about this video?  Which new vocabulary did you  learn thanks to this video?
What do you know about the companies mentioned in the video?

Post your comment. 

My favourite photo

Here's a short video about my favourite photo. I made it with a programme called Movie Maker  which you'll probably have on your computer.
You can watch it and see how much you understand - check the  transcript by clicking here - or watch  it on youtube to activate subtitles.

Here are 2 tasks for you:
1) Write a comment talking about your favourite photo briefly.
2) Make your own video (1 minute 30 seconds maximum) (We will upload it during the next lesson)

Introduction

Welcome to Out & About!

I teach English in Utebo (Spain). This blog has been created to give my students the chance to practise their English outside the classroom but learners from other backgrounds will also be welcome.

There are two things I usually explain to my students when we start lessons:

One is a good language learner spends little time in class as compared with the time he or she spends  learning on his/her own.  The blue slice of this chart represents the time devoted to lessons and the orange one the time you should spend using your English outside the classroom. The second one is that companions can help us learn as much as the textbook and the teacher.
These are the reasons to be part of this blog: let's help each other to learn and let's start living our own learning experience.

I would like to share any kind of material that may help us all to learn  and use English, so this is going to be the right place to watch videos, listen to music, read texts, learn about English speaking countries,  etc, but also the place where you can write about topics of interest, even share your class compositions with other learners, where you can show your videos and photos, or simply recommend a film or a book you read. Any more ideas? Just use the comments to contribute, send an email with the material you want to publish or tell me about your project when we meet in class. I will suggest different ways to take part regularly. I'm sure  I can count on you.