FILMONTV: Great website to watch TV LIVE for FREE

FILMONTV( to give some extra practice to your English)

5C: A couple of video clips on BIASED MEDIA.

Video clip on examples of major biases on MEDIA in USA( very interesting)

  Do you have any idea how biased U.S. MEDIA is? Well,  do watch it and find out for yourself

5C: MASS MEDIA: Some extra vocabulary and activities

Add caption

 Three- page hand-out on MEDIA vocabulary

 Activities to get extra practice:
Mass media activity
Mass media activity( gap-fill exercise)

Stand -up comedy sketches about SLEEP!!

Hey  there!

Some stuff to have a big laugh at!!

Have fun!

 

 

Have you ever heard of NARCOLEPSY? See and find out what it is like.

 I'm sure you've heard of Narcolepsy, a not very common sleep disorder. However, the people who suffer from it can't lead a normal life. Watch the video about  an Englishman suffering from it.

Sleep disorder

MORE SLEEP-RELATED IDIOMS

Sleep idioms 1
Sleep Idioms 2
Activities:
test your idioms 1
Sleep & dream -related idioms2

MORE MUSIC IDIOMS to learn !!

 

Here's a link to a more detailed explanation with examples.

 MUSIC IDIOMS

Just a quiz as an extra practice:

Quiz on music idioms 

Crossword on music idioms 

USED TO? Not this one.. ..maybe GET USED TO? Definitely not. It's BE USED TO

Hey once again!

  I was thinking that it would be a good idea to give you some extra practice on this grammar item. Here you have an online exercise for you to get a little  bit of extra practice on the use of these frequently confusing grammar  items. Click on
The Grammar Aquarium  and  do it.

Main difference between "WOULD/ USED TO" as a habit in the past.

In relation to  the grammar item dealt with in class last week, let me give you a much clearer explanation  of the real differences between 'would' and 'used to'   and some  extra practice on them.

 
We only use 'would' to describe actions or situations that were repeated again and again and again...
But we use 'used to' for any extended action or situation in the past.

'Would' is only good for actions or situations that were repeated many times;
'Used to ' is good for any action or situation that continued for a period of time in the past,including repeated actions or situations.

To make this clearer, let's look at the three examples of 'used to' sentences, and see if we can change them into 'would' sentences.


Here's the first example again:
"I used to live in Manchester, but I moved to London last year."

Can we use 'would' instead of 'used to' here? 
No, we can't, because 'living in Manchester' wasn't repeated again and again and again. It's simply a situation in the past. Therefore, only 'used to' is good in this sentence.

The second example again:
" When he was at school, he used to play football every Saturday."

Here, we're talking about 'playing football every Saturday'. This is an action that was repeated many times, so we can also say: 
"When he was at school, he would play football every Saturday".
'Used to' and 'would' are both good here, and the meaning is the same.

Finally, the third example again:
"She used to hate her job until she got a promotion."

Did she 'hate her job' many times? 
No, this isn't a repeated action, so in this example 'would' isn't possible. We have to use 'used to'. 

Here you have a  couple of  links where to  get a bit of extra practice on "used to" or " would".

 http://www.inglesmundial.com/A2/grammar.htm

http://englishdailyworkout.blogspot.com/2011/04/used-to-and-would-exercise-past-habits.html

Hope everything is  a lot clearer  after all this!

Stative or Dynamic Verbs?

A list with the main STATIVE VERBS!

  As I mentioned the other day in class, here  I have made a list with verbs that  might well fall under the category of "STATIVE" as they do represent a "state" so that you can decide on the right verb when dealing with USED TO or WOULD sentences for habits in the past.

STATIVE VERBS  fall into four groups:
Verbs Showing Thought or Opinions
know
believe
understand
recognize
Verbs Showing Possession 
have
own
belong
possess
Verbs Showing Senses
hear
smell
see
feel
Verbs Showing Emotion
love
hate
want
need


If you are unsure of whether a verb is an action verb or a stative verb ask yourself the following question:
Does this verb relate some sort of process or a state? If it relates a process, then the verb is an action verb. If it relates a state, the verb is a stative verb.