viernes, 25 de marzo de 2022

Final -s pronunciation

Third Person in simple present: Final -s pronunciation

The conjugation of the verbs for he-she-it has a lot of extra requirements, right?! If you noticed, one particularity is that, in present simple, there are different posibilities when verbs are conjugated with those subjects (third person singular) and acquire an extra -s, -es or -ies at the end. 

                             Spelling rulesExercise

When pronuncing the final -s sound in the previous cases, we have three options. Here we have general rules for this topic.
  Start at 1:01

After those general principles, you may want to know what are the specific sounds with vibration that make the final -s sound like a Z; the sounds without vibration that make the final -s sound like a S; as well as the repeated sounds that make the final -s sound like a IZ. 






Lets practice. Here you have some games to check if you got these pronunciation rules.    


Practice. Part 1. Choose one of these comics. Describe the actions of the story in simple present tense and with he, she or it. Send a recording to the group of you reading the comic.
For example: Jimmy always forgets (/s) his lunch. He remembers (/z/) at the bus stop.

Part 2. Choose one of these videos and watch it. Describe what happens in the story by using he-she-it in simple present tense. Send a recording of you reading your summary/sentences.

 

 



martes, 15 de marzo de 2022

Skimming & Scanning

Reading Comprehension Strategies: Skimming & Scanning

How do we extract key information from a text? When we have a reading or a video, we may need to obtain specific information in a simple, quick manner. Sometimes we need to analyze a long portion of a text or its entirety. Howeverver, let's start by the beginning: the cases when we need specific information contained in the text. Two of the most popular techniques are skimming & scanning, and they are also highly effective in standarized English-language testing.
Firstly, why is it important to have a comprehensive reading?

In brief, people can learn from texts if they know how to analyze. At the same time, they need to organize in their heads the abstract information contained in the explicit and implicit text.
Moreover, there are general tips we can apply to start. After we become experienced, we can decide which one works best for each comprehension task.
   

After we digest a little of these principles, we can dive into the techniques we have for today.
  

 

These simple tips apply to a lot of situations so keep them in mind.

Let's practice 1. Play these games to test if you got the general concepts.

 

Let's practice 2. Here you have some texts and questions to answer. In a lot of cases, the text and questions include synonyms or some different word order. That is a way to increase a little the difficulty of the exercise, so take into account that you don't always have to look for an exact word or phrase from the question.

  



Additional resources
12 Infographics that will help improve your reading skills https://ebookfriendly.com/improve-reading-skills-infographics/
Reading Comprehension Skills and Learn 4 Key Strategies https://youtu.be/NqpbTN3diUc
Professional uses http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/readingstrategies/skimming_scanning.html