on South Africa
Click here for a podcast on travel options in South Africa.
Learning with the BBC
Go here for BBC podcasts providing tips on how to speak better English.
Listening Practice
Click here for listening exercises on a variety of issues for higher level students.
Giving instructions
This site offers stuff on giving instructions. And if you take a look around these bbc sites you will find they have a wealth of resources that the English learner can use "to their heart's content".
Help with writing
You might like to have a look a this website...
Gapped text
Try your hand with this cloze online: the level might be a little too high, so don't be discouraged. Practice is what matters.
Off the Beaten Track
Check out these sites for ideas on off-the-beaten-track stories and tips:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f35e/22643/
http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-294870-1-1-Travel-0-0-Egypt-discussion.html
and even about Madrid
These are just some off-the-cuff examples, but you are always reminded to use your imagination and google expressions such as "off the beaten track", "unknown to regular tourists", or even "tourists tend to ignore", to name but a few.
Restaurant Reviews
Go here for some input on vocabulary and structures you might want to use if asked to write a restaurant review.
Theatre in Madrid
Go here for info about plays scheduled in Madrid for all of you theatre-lovers. In the next few days, The Madrid Players company will be doing plays by Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest).
copy-pasted from the web
I am pasting a contribution to the New Scientist Magazine on English pronunciation. Hope you find it interesting.
Erard lists a number of reasons why non-native speakers (NNSs) ofEnglish may be more at ease conversing with other NNSs than with nativespeakers (NSs). To these, he should add the simple fact that when NSstalk together, especially in informal settings, they talk fast.
Andin order to do so a number of predictable things happen. For example,sounds may disappear - "las(t) night" and "ban(d) stand". Or they maychange - "10 boys and 10 girls" becomes "tem boys and teng girls". Orthey may merge - consider "did you" and "would you", and so on.
Mostbafflingly to the ears of NNSs, a consonant may leap from the end ofone word to attach itself to the vowel at the start of the followingstressed word, so that there may be no difference between "a name" and"an aim". This also happens the other way round, which explains why the/n/ sound in German "Natter" and French "naperon" became attached to the indefinite article in English: "an adder" and "an apron").
Evenwe NSs can become confused about what happens at word boundaries - JimiHendrix's "Excuse me, while I kiss the sky" famously misheard as"...while I kiss this guy". So, if we don't want to frighten off thevast majority of speakers of English in the world, the lesson is totake it slow and easy.
Butlers Cross, Buckinghamshire, UK
Western New England College
For NA2 Students
That is the title of this site which features some worthy human beings enlightening us all with some of their wisdom. Enjoy watching the excerpts, but do it mindfully, that is to say,
- being aware of what you are hearing
- playing bits repeatedly in order to understand and be able to reproduce them:
- mouth the words (move your lips) as you listen.
- say some parts aloud, trying to imitate and mimic the speakers
For NB2 Students
Check out this sitefor practice on phrasal verbs. Remember to click on NEXT after each answer. Youcan also visit this one. It's too much information, but don't panic.Just do the exercises and I hope you'll remember some of the meanings and uses.
For Fifth Year Students
For further information and practice on ways to convey emphasis, you might want to go to these pages:esl.about and englishonline
For NB2 Students
Use GOOGLE to find fun ways to complete the following phrase and practise the INFINITIVE OF PURPOSE. So type "Life is too short to" into the search window. Make sure you type it between inverted commas. There are thousands of ways to end this phrase. Choose the one you like most, and post it as a comment here. My favourite is "Life's too short to fold your underwear". 
For Fifth Year Students
Go to this page to practise your listening skills through reading and listening to current news.
For Fifth Year and NB2 Students
Go to this website, select a song, and you'll be able to listen to it while its lyrics appear on the screen.
For NB2 Students
Practise your conditionals here and verbs followed by to-infinitive or gerund here.This is a bit difficult, but I hope you'll learn some new vocabulary.
For NB2 Students
To read a modern summary of the tale you heard on Friday, click here
For NB2 Students
Click here for an interesting set of reading comprehension exercises.
For Fifth Year Students
Try this page for info and practice on gerund and infinitive phrases.
For Fifth Year Students
Here you'll find some listening practice on a variety of topics.
For NB2 Students
Do this online exercise to revise too, too much, too many and enough.
Check out this exercise online to test your comparatives and superlatives.
Having trouble with there, they're and their? Try this test.
Hi there
Dear EOI students,
Here I'll be posting learning tips, comments, links, and so on, which I hope you'll find helpful and interesting. The blog is aimed at all the students at the EOI of Alcalá de Henares, and Martin Riesco's students in my NB2 and Fifth Year classes in particular.
