Improve your listening skills

Hello dear students and teachers!

Students, are you ready for the first set of midterms? I hope the tips that we posted last week are useful, and make you have a good performance during the tests! However, remember that the secret of having good scores in exams does not only depend on being cool during the day of tests. Actually, you have to study and prepare yourself before you take them.

There are different skills that you must develop if you want to speak in English. These skills are speaking, reading, listening and writing, and they are all interconnected. So, it is a good idea to work on them, in and out of class, throughout the course.

According to both teachers and students, one of the most difficult skills to develop is listening. In fact, many learners feel that English speakers speak too fast, and as a consequence they do not feel very confident in this skill.

Today we want to offer you some links to websites in which you can practice listening. You only have to read and follow the instructions to do the exercises. By providing these links, we hope you can start becoming more self-motivated and autonomous students. We are sure that if you commit to study English, you will be successful.

REMINDERS:

If you want to have good listening comprehension, you must have good vocabulary.

Remember to review the vocabulary you study in you lessons.

Recall that knowing a word is NOT just knowing its translation. Knowing a word means knowing its meaning, pronunciation, and how to use it.

These are the links:

1. ESL Lab: It is easy to use and there are different levels. Go for the basic ones first!

http://www.esl-lab.com/

We suggest checking this link if you are a beginner:

http://www.esl-lab.com/short.htm


2. ELLO: You can download listening exercises in MP3, and the content id really cool! Check :

http://www.elllo.org/


3. Mansion ingles: I bet most of you know this website. The explanations are in Spanish, so you can easily follow the instructions. Check:

http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00.htm

We hope you find this inforamtion useful. Please let us know your impressions and experiences with these websites.

If you know more websites to practice listening, please let us know about them!

7 TIPS FOR TETST TAKING

Hello all,

Here you will find seven tips for test taking. I Hope they are useful!

1. Arrive early for tests:

Tests start on time, so avoid stress by arriving early.

2. Be comfortable but alert:

Choose a good spot in the room and make sure you have enough space to work, maintain comfortable posture in your seat.

3. Stay relaxed and confident:

Keep a good attitude. If you find yourself anxious, take several slow, deep breaths to relax.

Hey!!! something very important, don't talk about the test to other students just before entering the room: their anxiety can be contagious!!!!

4. Read the directions carefully:

This may be obvious, but it will help you avoid careless errors.

5. If there is time, quickly look through the test for an overview:

Note key terms, and doubll check those questions that were difficult to answers (an try to answer those questions you skipped).

6. Change answers to questions if you made a mistake, or misread the question:

If you find information elsewhere in the test that indicates that your first choice is incorrect, make the appropriate changes.

7. Ask the instructor for clarification if you don't understand what they are asking for on the test:

Be sure that you understand what to do.

REMINDER!

Dear all,

Rememeber that midterms
go from March 3 to March 6

Love is in the air!

9 COOL QUOTES ABOUT LOVE

1. "Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
Franklin P. Jones

2. "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
Robert Frost

3. "At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. "
Plato

4. "If you have it, you don't need to have anything else, and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter much what else you have."
Sir James M. Barrie

5. "Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."
Henry Louis Mencken

6. "Love is a friendship set to music."
E. Joseph Cossman

7. "Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."
Voltaire

8. "Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life."
Lord Byron

9. "To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with."
Mark Twain

Why Saint Valentine?

At around the year 260 A.D. Claudius the Cruel was the Emperor of Rome. Rome was going through many bloody campaigns and wars, and the number of soldiers was decreasing. Claudius needed soldiers, and he believed that men were not going to the army because they wanted to stay with their wives and children. So, he decided to cancel all marriages and engagements in Rome. Many people disagreed with this rule, and one of them was the good Saint Valentine.

He was a priest whom believed in love. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death and to have his head cut off.

He was in prison for a while. Many young people went to the jail to visit him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.
One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit him in the cell. She helped me to keep my spirits up. Also, she agreed that he had done the right thing by having ignored the Emperor’s orders.
On the day Valentine was to die, he left his friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed: "Love from your Valentine." It is believed that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship.

Saint Valentine's Day

Did you know that Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire?

In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. She was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.

On February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing.

On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.