Keeping up with the news in English

If you want to keep up with the news, these may be useful sources of information:

To see the front pages of newspapers every day, you can visit these links:

• https://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages (USA)
• https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs/the_papers (UK)
• https://news.sky.com/topic/newspapers-5993 (UK)
• https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50972097 (Scotland)
• https://www.broadsheet.ie/ (Ireland)
• https://www.thepaperboy.com/home.cfm (international)

You can also watch these news channels: 

• CNN 10 (10-minute news stories, subtitled): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTOoRgpHTjAQPk6Ak70u-pA/videos (USA)
• BBC one-minute world news: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/10462520/one-minute-world-news [headlines] (UK, world news)
• BBC Newsround: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround [the news for children/young teenagers] (UK)
• Euronews: https://www.youtube.com/user/Euronews (Europe)
• ITV News: https://www.youtube.com/user/ITVNews/videos (UK)
• Sky News: https://www.youtube.com/user/skynews/videos (UK)
• ABC News: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCNews/videos (USA)
• Fox news channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/FoxNewsChannel/videos (USA)

Radio:

• BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds
• RTE radio (Ireland): https://www.rte.ie/radio/  
• NPR (USA)- https://www.npr.org/
• ABC radio  (Australia)- https://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia/

Further ideas: https://natalialzam.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/la-radio-como-recurso-en-el-aula-idiomas/

Source: https://www.gettyimages.com

Black Friday and consumerism- resources

You can find below a collection of resources which can be used when dealing with Black Friday and consumerism:

• Black Friday-US commercial:

• Black Friday (BBC news):

Binge shopping:

How to differentiate deals from duds on Black Friday (B2):

Black Friday- consumer expert:

Black Friday online shopping and fraud: https://natalialzam.wordpress.com/2017/11/25/black-friday-online-shopping-and-fraud/

Money- resources

You can find below a series of resources which can be used if you need to deal with the topic of money and finances:

Debit card ad:

Money and consumerism- Spotify playlist

Word cloud with idioms from songs:

• Listening comprehension exercise (C1)- contenders for the new 50 GBP note
• Listening comprehension exercise (C1)- Alan Turing to feature on the new 50 GBP note
• Listening comprehension exercise (C1)- Charged for paying cash

• • • • • Self-grading Google form
        • transcript
• Bank of Mum and Dad (BBC2):

Edpuzzle quiz– clip captioned in English, questions and comments aimed at working on the vocabulary of money. (C1)

Winning the lottery:

Transcript 

• Cashless societies:

• Pensioners splashing out vs cash-strapped millennials:

transcript

• Reading (B2)- My year of no spending
• Buy now-pay later deals:

• • • Facebook cryptocurrency launched:

• • • Have you/Would you invest in bitcoins? Why? -Watch these clips from The Big Bang Theory (The Bitcoin Entanglement)

Finances:

Model declared bankrupt:

Transcript

Sex and the City- Ring a Ding Ding (the protagonist finds herself broke after years of splashing out on, among other luxuries, shoes)

Crime and money:

• Cybercrime and fraud:

• Measures to prevent fraud:

• Using a dead woman’s card (B2):

TV shows and films about politics and the monarchy

The following TV shows and films deal with aspects of British and American politics, as well as general views on political systems. They can help you gain insight into the history and traditions of those countries, as well as increase your vocabulary on the subject.

UK politics: 

Yes, Minister (1980-1984)/Yes, Prime Minister (1986-1988)- (C2)

The Thick of It (2005-2012) [includes lots of profanity and swearwords]

Love Actually (2003)

One of the many subplots the film deals with involves the British Prime Minister:

The Iron Lady (2011):

Would you like to watch the sessions of the British Parliament live? Click here for BBC Parliament.

British Monarchy: 

The Queen (2006) [B2 and upwards, fairly clear British accents]

The King’s Speech (2010) [B2 and upwards, fairly clear British accents]

The Crown (2016-) [B2 and upwards, fairly clear British accents]

A Very English Scandal (2018) [B2 and upwards, fairly clear British accents]

Years and Years (2019) [show set in Manchester, some Northern accents are noticeable]

US politics: 

All the President’s Men (1976)

The West Wing (1999-2006)

(from 1’30”)

House of Cards (2013-2018)

Veep (2012-2019)

General views on politics: 

The Great Dictator (1940):

V for Vendetta (2005) [B2 and upwards- international cast, but most of them use British English RP pronunciations, regardless of their original accents]

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-)

One Vision /ˈvɪʒ(ə)n/ by Queen and Love Profusion /prəˈfjuːʒ(ə)n/ by Madonna to practise /ʒ/, /ʃ/, and /dʒ/

The phonemes /ʒ/, /ʃ/ and /dʒ/ can be tricky to identify and sometimes produce in certain contexts for Spanish speakers of English. The song One Vision by Queen can help students get acquainted with the differences in sounds.

One Vision (Queen) -You can do this interactive exercise: click here or on the screenshot below:

Alternatively, you can download the worksheet below. Start watching the video from 1’15”:

• One Vision– exercise
• One Vision– key to answers

Love Profusion by Madonna also contains plenty of words featuring those sounds (profusion, destruction, illusions…). It also contains examples of yod coalescence (I’ve got you –/ɡɒt juː/ becomes /ɡɒtʃuː/). 

Love Profusion lyrics

New Year’s Eve & Auld Lang Syne

Do you know “Auld Lang Syne”? It’s a Scottish folk song, which is traditionally sung in English-speaking countries at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, to welcome the New Year. It features in such classical films as It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) and When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner 1989), among others:

Despite its popularity, however, apparently only 3% of British people actually know the full lyrics to it, according to a recent survey. You can read more about this here, or listen to the news report below:

You can listen to a rendition of the song by Rod Stewart and other stars like Kylie Minogue (with lyrics) below:

Happy New Year 2018 to everyone! 

literary classics year 1: step 2- infographics about books

The next step in our project is to get to know the basic elements of the book in hand (genre, themes, plot summary, characters), and to be able to summarise them in an infographic. These are two of the examples made by students (click on the picture for full size):