Rules of the Elisabethan theatre and the Globe

Here you have a documentary about the Globe, the theatre where Shakespeare used to perform nearly all the plays he wrote. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgnInT4x8kA&list=LPLYoczV9uibo&index=1&feature=plcp And here you have a video taken from the film "Shakespeare in love" refering to the topic we talked about in class, namely the prohibition of women acting.

Homework

Remember that for next day you should do exercises 1 to 5 from page 8. We will also finish correcting the exercises that we could not correct last day. I will remind you also of how to make questions and negative sentences again. Have a nice weekend.

Starter unit: Relationships

Ok! We have started our journey into our class book. This unit deals with issues related to real life situations. This unit also paves the way towards some other matters, like love. This universal feeling has been dealt with by both writers and thinkers alike. As I told you, Shakespeare is perhaps the most well-known poet to deal with this feeling. Nevertheless, there are other poets that have dealt with it or with similar ones, like the Lebanese writer Gibran Khalil Gibran. Others, like the great thinker Avraham Noam Chomsky have also reflected on it.

Homework!

Remember that for next day you are required to do exercises 1-3 from page 6 and 1-3 from page 6. Think about the topic we are dealing with in the book, because I will ask you some questions.

Colonization and the 15th century

Ok, I hope that by this time you have done a bit of research and answered the questions that I asked you to under ti title "A bit of British history". Therefore, you are supposed to have looked into the figure of Walter Raleigh. Now, what I don´t know is whether you are familiar with all the things that where happening at that time in terms of religion, science, and literature. The period under which the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh followed other explorers of the new world is called Renaissance. In terms of religion, Martin Luther (a german scholar) challenged the principles of the catholic church creating a new version of Christianity called Protestantism. Do you know why? Do you know how that affected Spain? In terms of science, Galileo challenged the principles of the catholic church by stating that it was the earth that turned around the sun, not the other way around. And in terms of literature, as far as English literature is concerned we have the writings of perhaps the most famous English poet in British history: William Shakespeare. Shakespeare will be the link that will take us to the beginning of our book, for the opening lesson has to do with relationships and love. Do you know any of his poems? Here you have one:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Selectividad requirements

Here you have a link where you can find all the information related to the test that you are to do in some eight months´time. Read them carefully and get familiar with the sort of questions that you´ll be asked. Having a look at them will enable you to have a better idea of what you are required to do in the test. Should you have any questions just let me know. As you will see, there is a mock exam that you can do at home.



http://distritounicoandaluz.cice.junta-andalucia.es/paginas/distrito/examenes_sel_m25/criterios_selectividad/directrices_y_orientaciones_lengua_extranjera_(ingles)_2012_2013.pdf

Initial tests

Remember that we will be doing the initial tests at the beginning of the week! After you do them, we will continue with our classes.

Cockney accent

In the previous class, when we were speaking about accents, I mentioned that there is a very special way of pronuncing in some parts of London, the so-called "cockney accent". This accent or this way of speaking consists mainly of two things: rhymes and pronunciation. Have a look at the next videos and let me know your thoughts about it in class! The first video is about a well-known British film in which a teacher "tries" to teach a student how to speak correctly.
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You can also have a look at Wikipaedia to get more information about it!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney

A bit of British History

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In the previous post I asked you to research into the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh. I hope that by this time you have done a bit of research already. Now, would you be able to explain what the relationship between Christopher Columbus and Raleigh is? What kind of upheavals were coming about (heppening, occuring)in England at that time? How did those turmoils affect the configuration of the US taking into consideration what you already know of history? I will try to address these questions in class next week!

Immigration: The Irish Potato Famine

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Here you can see a video related to the Selectividad text that we saw in class today. Have a look at it and try to answer the next questions. Use the internet to help you if you want. Research questions: Where did the potato come from and how did it get to Ireland? What does the potato famine have to do with immigration? Where did many Irish emmigrate to? Who was Sir Walter Raleigh?

British and American accents

We have seen in class that there are some differences between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). Eventhough both English and U.S. speakers understand eachother, there are differences not just in the vocabulary/lexicon they use, but also as far as accent is concerned. What conclusions can you draw from these two videos? British speaker imitating U.S. accent
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LpJ3yzUPbL0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
U.S. speaker imitating the British accent
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And here you can see a very funny video from a classic British soap opera! I hope you enjoy it!

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Learning a second language

Getting down to the basics, you should bear in mind that learning a second language (not a first language) is something very difficult, so don´t be frustrated if you don´t speak like a native speaker at the end of the year!!! Learning a language is not like learning how to fly a helicopter in Matrix!

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It takes time and effort, but some people seem to have an innate capacity (seem to be endowed) for learning more than one language, like this person here!

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The Role of the Teacher

Since I am going to be your English teacher, I would like you to take into consideration the importance of the teaching process and teachers proper in our society nowadays and of free education!

Welcome to your blog!

I have devised this blog to help my students of different courses with some of the material that I deal with in the lessons. I hope it is useful!