Get ready for the FIRST Cambridge exam

As I did for the PET Level Cambridge exam, I also collected questions, and answers, together with some resources, during a course to prepare the FIRST Level Cambridge exam.
(See my list of resources for PET exam)

In this paper you will find:

• Dictionaries
• Sample paper exams
• Sample online exam
• Listenig, reading, grammar....exercises

Donwnload PDF

Get ready for the PET Cambridge exam

When teaching I usually encourage students to ask questions and ask for more information than the one given in the book, I trully belive that students learn what they really need to learn. Besides, it's a good way to keep them engaged and create a good class atmosphere.

During a course to prepare the PET Level Cambridge exam, I collected all those questions, and answers, together with some resources.
(See my list of resources for FIRST exam)

In this paper you will find:

• Dictionaries
• Sample paper exams
• Sample online exam
• Listenig, reading, grammar....exercises

Hope it helps.

Download PDF

English podcasts for listening activities

Using real English in class not only benefits listening and speaking skills, it can also be very engaging for students.

We can find lots of websites on the net with really good podcasts to take to the classroom.

Ivoox (also known as Audiokiosko) is one of those websites which, besides, has an App, so you or your students, can listen to real English audios anywhere, anytime.

What you can find in Ivoox

• On demand podcasts

• Audiobooks

• Conferences

• Documentaries

• ....

• On line radio

• Talk radios

• Music radios

My selection of channels for the English class

• Luke's ENGLISH Podcast

• Aprende ingles con La Mansión del Inglés

• Audio en inglés podcasts por Inglés.fm

• All Ears English Podcast

App to download

• Google Paly

• App Store

• W. Phone

Have a look at Ivoox, it’s free, and start improving your English.

Practise your listening skill

Revising the resources I found in the past, I have rediscovered AgendaWeb. What a great site!

In this site you will find a wide range of exercises to improve your English: Vocabulary, Grammar, Reading, songs.......and listening.

Today, I want to stop at this skill; listening. There are a lot, and I really mean a lot, of resources to practise your listening.

These resources are organised at a first stage in: 

• Comprehension Exercises 
• Dialogues-Podcasts 
• Audio Books 

Once you enter each section, you find, now organised according to level, a huge variety of exercises.

To have a clear overview of the kind of exercises you can find, I've made the scheme you can see below.

You'll get the links to all the exercises in AgendaWeb-Listening

(Click on the image to make it bigger)

Listening Activities

Some of my youngest students are asking me for Listening activities to impreove this skill.
Well, I've found this very interesting and complete site, full of Listening activities.

Click on the image to visit the web

Here you can find a lot of Listening Quizzes very well organised into different levels and topics.

Randall provides you not only with Listening Quizzes, but also Grammar explanations and exercises, Vocabulary, Pre-listening activities, Post-listening activities and even Online investigation exercises to go on practising.

I really recomend this site, either to use it online in the classroom or to encourage your students to practise listening on their own.

When your enter the site, you can see a huge list of Listening Quizzes. The only thing you have to do, not easy one, is to choose one of them. Just click on the title and you´ll see this scheme:

As I said before, there are lots of things to do.

Thanks to Randall practising listening is now easier and funnier.

The Tower of London - Listening

Here you have a video with some images and information about the Tower of London. It is one of the most famous places in London.
This time I present you an activity to practise your listening.
To do the activity follow these steps:

1. Watch the video and listen to it.
2. Aswer the questions that you will see below the video.
3. When you finish, mark "See how you did". (You will see your score)
4. When you see your score, and the correct answers, complete "Send results to my teacher"

• "My name": write your name
• "Teacher code": write "valconchel"
• (This way we will have a competition among all students in the school.)

You can start now. Enjoy the video.

YouTube and Reading

Here you have a video about The Tower of London, one of the most famous places to visit.

Watch the video and  read the subtitles.

Then answer the questions below (use "comments" to send me the information).

1º) Name two famous people that were executed in the Tower.

2º) Who takes care of the ravens

3º) What does a legend says about the ravens and the Kingdom