Actually travelling

The 2nd Batxillerat group is travelling to London pretty soon, so I suggest this link to practise some of the most common travel English expressions and vocabulary in a series of intuitive multiple-choice self-correcting questionnaries on the most relevant situations.

London, here we come! Don't hesistate to take them several times.

The more the better. We call that "practising". 

Reinforcement - Dialogues 1 & 2

For reinforcement, here you have our initial dialogues:

DIALOGUE 1

A: Hola!

→ Hello!

B: Com estàs?

→ How are you?

A: Estic bé, i tú?

→ I'm OK, and you?

B: Estic bé. A on vas?

→ Fine. Where are you going?

A: Vaig al gimnàs. Vols venir?

→ To the gym. Do you want to come?

B: D'acord.

→ OK.

A: Som-hi!

→ Come on / Let's go.

____________________________________

DIALOGUE 2

A: Bon dia.

→ Good morning.

B: Bon dia. Qué vols?

→ Good morning. What do you want? / What would you like?

A: Vull una coca-cola i una pizza gran.

→ I want / I'd like a coke and a large pizza

B: Vols la pizza de carn o de formatge?

→ Do you want / Would you like your pizza with meat or with cheese.

A: La vull de formatge.

→ I want / I'd like it with cheese.

B: Vols alguna cosa per postres?

→ Do you want anything / Would you like something for dessert?

A: Sí. Què teniu?

→ Yes. What do you have?

B: Mira. Són a dins de la nevera.

→ Have a look. They are in the fridge.

A: Ah, d'acord. Vull un gelat de maduixa.

→ Ah, OK. I want / I'd like a strawberry ice-cream.

B: Aquí tens.

→ Here you are.

A: Gràcies.

→ Thank you.

B: De res.

→ You're welcome.

How to install and use Audacity

INSTALL

In order to install Audacity, you need to download the program and some extra files.

1. Go to Audacity's web page (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/) and click on the "Windows" link.

2. Click on "Descargar" (download).

3. Click on the "Instalador" file corresponding to your Operating System.

4. Select "Guardar archivo" (Save file).

5. When the download operation is complete, double-click the downloaded file (audacity-win-unicode-1.3.12.exe, remember the numbers may change if the file has a newer version) and follow the normal install steps.

6. Your Audacity is correctly installed. Now we need to add one little file that is really useful.

7 . Go back to the "Descarga" (Download) page on step 3 and click on "Codificador LAME MP3", and follow the instructions until you find this file: audacity-win-unicode-1.3.12.exe (remember the numbers may change if the file has a newer version). Download this file.

8. Double-click the file and install it.


USE

9. Now you have Audacity AND you can export Audacity files as MP3.

10. Start Audacity and record a sample of your voice. Click on the Record button and start your sound. When you finish, you can click on the Stop button.


















11. Now you have a sound track. You can listen to it by clicking Play. The other buttons (Pause, Home and End) allow you to "navigate" your recorded track.

12. To save a track, click Archivo (File) and Exportar (Export). Save your file with the MP3 type.

You can now record sound as many times as you want.

Enjoy!

Home recordings

We have been working with our voice in the English Classroom. We use the Audio CD that comes with our book. Like this:

1. We hear the audio version of our text, so we listen and read. We pay attention to difficult words.

• We use Windows Media Player (or other player you have)

2. We record our voice reading a small part of the text.

• We use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/).
  This is a freeware program for sound recording.

3. We play back our voice, so we listen and read. We verify the quality of our performance.

• Once again, we use Windows Media Player (or other player you have)

4. We repeat steps 1-3.

After several attempts, our reading performance improves and we can move on to a different section of the text.