Sports vocabulary and listening tests: SS listen to people talking about sports they do.

Homework: think about a sporstperson who has retired. You’ll have to tell your mates about them.

Grammar revision: past forms exercise.

Speaking: Students interview each other about sport. Exercise 6, p. 10.

Reading: SS read and discuss about sporstpeople who have retired. Exercise 7 on p. 11.

Pronunciation: SS practise and contrast the long vowel sounds in sport and word. Exercise 5 , p. 10.

Vocabulary and speaking: SS revise and extend family vocabulary and discuss how the typical family is being redefined.

Grammar: the three most common future forms will be studied and contrasted. Exercise 2, p. 13.

Reading: SS read about two sisters and their relationship.Exercise 3 on p. 14.

Grammar: contrast between reflexives and each other.

Vocabulary and pronunciation: adjectives of personality, p. 15.

Listening and Speaking: about the influence your position in the family has on your personality. Complete the chart with the right adjectives

Reading: SS read about medical myths. Exercise 3 on p. 11 (WB)

Listening: SS listen to 3 people who gave or received first aid. Ex. on p. 12 (WB)

Grammar: SS revise and extend what they know about the present perfet simple and continuous. Ex. 5, on p. 14 (SB)

Reading and speaking: SS read about different kinds of stress, and discuss about activities that are bad for their health. Exercise 6 on p. 15.

Grammar: SS practise perfect and present verb forms in pairs. Exercise 5 d on p. 14 from two worksheets.

Reading: SS revise and extend personality vocabulary on p. 13 (WB)

Video activity: SS watch people talking about their star signs. p. 16 (SB)

Speaking and vocabulary: SS’ s knowledge of first aid is tested and discussed, ex. 1a and 1b on p. 12 (SB). Then they expand their vocabulary of medical words ex. 1c

Pronunciation: the focus is on consonant and vowel sounds, and how phonetics can help them to pronounce correctly, ex. 2 on p. 12.

Speaking: SS talk about their personal experience of an illness.

Reading and listening: Ss read about two first aid cases in pairs. They tell each other about their story and then discuss if the people giving help did the right thing. Finally they try to guess the end of the stories and check their guesses listening to what really happened.

Reading and speaking: SS do a quiz and discuss what to do in medical crises.

Homework: revision exercises on p. 18.

Vocabulary and speaking: check vocabulary worksheet exercises and interview each other about sport (ex. 70.5)

Grammar: SS revise past tenses on p. 8 and 9.

Listening: listen to J A Marín talking about the advantages and disadvantages of being a professional football referee.

Speaking: Who’s the best at cheating? SS tell anecdotes trying to cheat their partners. After listening to everybody’s anecdote, they choose the best cheat.

Homework: revision of sports vocabulary.

Yesterday a mate sent me a video which I had a good laugh watching. I thought it was really hilarious, so I told my eighteen-year-old son to see it. I was a bit puzzled by his reaction. I had assumed he would find it funny too. Obviously I was wrong: he couldn’t understand what made the audience laugh so heartily. I do not know whether our different point of view might be the consequence of the generation gap between us or just because the video is not really funny. What do you think?

By the way, I recommend you this link from a site on “How to do just about anything” If you feel you need to laugh yourself silly. You have some tips there to help you see the funny side of life.

Listening: activity to revise and test food vocabulary and use of present simple and present continuous. Tapescript on p. 122 (Student’s Book)

Grammar: exercise  2c on p. 5 (SB) and ex. 2 on p. 5 (Workbook)  to consolidate present simple and continuous and check difference between action and non-action verbs.

• additional exercises on these verbs forms: englishpage.com or there ELC Study Zone

Pronunciation: revision of vowel sounds in “bull” and “boot” and silent letters, ex. 4 on p. 6 (WB)

• additional video on silent letters.

Speaking: in groups of three, students give their opinion about various topics related to food; they use phrases for agreeing and disagreeing. (ex 6 on p. 7 SB)

Introduction of new topic: What’s your favourite sport? If you don’t have one, explain your reasons.

Homework: prepare vocabulary bank for sport (p. 145 SB)

Listening: What’s your favourite sport? from Elllo website.

Speaking: SS talk about their favourite sport.

Reading and speaking: Read the article about cheating on p. 8 (SB) in groups of three and tell your partners about it.

Homework: SS prepare a short description of a cheating moment in sport.

p. 145Vocabulary Bank revision:ex 4c on p. 10 (SB)

Speaking: SS talk about a cheating moment in sport.

Homework: send the teacher your written description of the cheating moment in sport you talked about. Prepare an anecdote on one of the topics of ex. 2 Speaking on p. 9 (SB)

Listening and reading: students listen to the song “You gotta be” and fill the gaps in the worksheet.

Pronunciation: revision of some single vowel sounds and diphthongs in the song.

Reading and Speaking: students comment on the song message.

Grammar: double comparatives and revision of some comparatives form rules.

• additional exercises: double comparatives

Introducing a new topic: Do you believe that some people can tell what the future holds for you? Students comments and experiences.

Listening part b) on p. 10 on the Student’s Book.

Homework: reading ex. c) on p. 10 SB and prepare to talk about an authentic or fictional anecdote with a psychic.

Listening: Jane’s experience at a psychic’s.

Reading: identifying some typical techniques used by psychics. Did Sally use any of them?

Speaking: talk about an authentic/fictional anecdote with a psychic.

Grammar: SS revise the use of auxiliary (and modal verbs) in short answers, question tags and So do I/Neither do I, and learn to use them for emphasis (I do like coffee!). Exercise 7 on p. 11

Pronunciation:  SS’s improve intonation and rhythmn when using auxiliaries. Exercise 8 on p. 11

Extra practice: SS work in pairs and try to make guesses about their partner. Communication activity You’re psychic, aren’t you? , ex. 8e, p. 11

All skills: communicative activity in pairs, A walk in the forest

Homework:  Vocabulary bank Illness and treatment on p. 147. SS prepare an oral description of a time when they suffered fron an illness, their symptons,  treatment and recovery process.

Are you ready for a new year/ a new course?

If this is your first year at The Official Language School, then you’re about to start a course in English that can take you 6 academic years to complete if you begin the 1st year of the lowest level, the basic. Spanish people often misuse the English word ‘course’ since our similar  word ‘curso’ is used in our language to refer either to a course or to an academic year. That said, no matter whether this is your first year or a new year at this language school, I hope you can get the most of it.

Anyway, I thought we could begin the new year with a bit of music. What about  Viva la Vida, by Coldplay? You’ve probably heard this song more than once before , but I can’t help feeling its title message is great: Long live Life.

I’ve been searching the Internet trying to find out about people’s suggestions on the meaning of the song. Should the Biblical references be understood in their literal sense and thus conclude that it talks about Christ, or should we interpret the whole lyrics refer to any leader that falls into disgrace after living dishonestly? Here there are some interesting views on the ideas the songs conveys.

This is Ayla’s suggestion: a wonderful choir for a great song.

These are the other comments on The Sugar Glider that you most liked reading. Thank you to all of you for collaborating, first by writing the comments and secondly by choosing the ones that most appealed to you.