Know yourself to improve yourself. (Auguste Comte)

Topic 1: Knowing me knowing you

Reading	Know yourself quiz
Grammar	Potpourri
Vocabulary	Word formation
Speaking	Character & personality

The more we elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate. (J.B. Priestley)

Topic 1: Language & communication

Reading	Type of student quiz
Listening	Kind of student
Grammar	Verb patterns
Speaking	Foreign language learning

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. (George Bernard Shaw)

Topic 1: Language & communication

Reading	Learning a language
Listening	Meeting up
Grammar	Verb patterns
Speaking	Language & communication

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. (Anthony J. D'Angelo)

Topic 1:  Back to routine

Reading	My daily routine
Listening	Travel & holidays
Vocabulary	Travel & holidays
Grammar	Questions

There is nothing permanent except change. (Heraclitus)

I propose Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr Spencer Johnson for our fifth book.

A summary.

Another summary.

The movie.

I believe in routine. (Tom Herman)

Reading: Benefits.
Listening: How to improve.
Writing: How to improve.
Speaking: Simple secrets.

The innocence of childhood is like the innocence of a lot of animals. (Clint Eastwood)

Worksheet 1 for the first half of Luke and Jon. 
Worksheet 2 for the second half of Luke and Jon.

To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity. We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up. (Ralph Bunche)

Reading: Exam examples.
Listening: Exam practice.
Writing: 3 tasks.
Speaking: Exam examples.

A warm, dead-to-rights understanding of the human heart, expressed in prose as clear as a glass of water. (Francis Spufford)

I propose Luke and Jon by Robert Williams for our fourth book. When Luke's mother dies unexpectedly in a car accident, he also loses his father who is trying to drown his sorrows in a bottle. They move to a remote town and an even more remote house where they meet Jon, whose own mother died when he was six.

The secret of success is constancy to purpose. (Benjamin Disraeli)

Reading: More texts and tasks.
Listening: Practice.
Writing: Practice.
Speaking: Tips and tasks.

The secret of success is constancy to purpose. (Benjamin Disraeli)

Reading: Sample texts and tasks.
Listening: Tests.
Writing: Practice.
Speaking: Discussion topics.

The best way out is always through. (Robert Frost)

Reading: Phone chat.
Listening: Lessons in British Justice.
Writing: For and against essay.
Speaking: The oral exam.

Do what we can, summer will have its flies. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Reading: Holidays.
Listening: Holidays.
Writing: My last holiday.
Speaking: Holidays.

Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented. (Gilbert K. Chesterton)

Reading: Summer camps.
Listening: Summer activity course.
Writing: Holiday plans.
Speaking: Dialogue (Planning a trip).

You just need to start. Do it today. (Debora Robertson)

Here are some questions for you.
Worksheets for Chapter 1 & Chapter 2.
Worksheets for Chapter 3 & Chapter 4.
Worksheets for Chapter 5 & Chapter 6.
Worksheets for Chapter 7 & Chapter 8.

The fashion industry has done itself in by neglecting the 60- to 80-year-old market. They have the time and the economic resources. They want to go shopping. (Iris Apfel)

Reading: Shopping.
Listening: Shopping online.
Writing: Birthday money: e-mail.
Speaking: Consumerism.

Truth and news are not the same thing. (Katherine Graham)

Reading: Fake news.
Listening: The environment.
Writing: News report.
Speaking: The news.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. (Joseph P. Kennedy)

Reading: Norovirus.
Listening: Coronavirus.
Writing: Vocabulary related to Coronavirus. 
Speaking: Quarantine.

Easter has been cancelled - they found the body. (Jim Butcher)

Reading: Easter. 
Listening: The history of Easter.
Writing: Easter post.
Speaking: Easter. 

It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile, and one nut to scatter it all over the road. (Source unknown)

Reading: Driving. 
Listening: Driving.
Writing: Road trip.
Speaking: Dialogue (At the garage).

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. (Mother Theresa)

Reading: International Women's Day.
Listening: A Tale of Two Brains.
Writing: Equality at Work.
Speaking: Gender equality.

The ebb and flow of daily life can lead to wonderful highs, crushing lows and everything in between. (Julie Foudy)

Reading: Tattoos.
Listening: Big city, small world.
Writing: Daily routine.
Speaking: Dialogue: Family matters.

There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families. (Margaret Thatcher)

Reading: A traditional wedding.
Listening: Describing people. 
Writing: A short story.
Speaking: Appearance.

Self-reflection is the first step to decluttering because it's not about the stuff. (Unknown)

The third book we will discuss is this one which is beautifully written. The content is inspiring, and the style immaculate. It's not just what she says, but how she says it. The author infuses her advice with humour and just enough down-to-earth reality to keep you hooked. This book will change your life!     

A house is made of bricks and beams. A home is made of hopes and dreams. (Unknown)

Reading: Home of the future. 
Listening: Homes of the future.
Writing: Informal email.
Speaking: Your dream house.

Miss a meal if you have to, but don't miss a book. (Jim Rohn)

Here is the book so you can do the exercises and activities at the back. Check out the answers here. You will be asked to summarise the stories in your own words so have a look at this and learn how. You have two weeks. Start practising! 

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. (Ann Landers)

Reading: Free time.
Listening: Chatting about a series.
Writing: Reality TV shows.
Speaking: Television.

I have a hard time with free time. (Shia Labeouf)

Reading: Short texts.
Listening: Shakespeare scene one. 
Writing: Informal letter. 
Speaking: The cinema.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. (B.F. Skinner)

Stranger than Fiction:Urban Myths (Penguin) 
Sunday 19th January
How to be an Alien (Penguin)
Sunday 16th February
Capital (Faber and Faber)
Sunday 15th March
Sunday 19th April
Sunday 24th May

The more colourful the food, the better. I try to add colour to my diet, which means vegetables and fruits. Misty May-Treanor)

Reading: Food and restaurants.
Listening: A new restaurant.
Writing: Diet and health.
Speaking: Food and eating habits. 

There's always someting to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. Even if it's just not being a turkey. (unknown)

Reading: Thanksgiving. 
Listening: The first Thanksgiving.
Writing: Describing a festival.
Speaking: Thanksgiving Webquest.

Time and health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted. (Denis Waitley)

Reading: Fitness pill.
Listening: Health.
Writing: An opinion.
Speaking: Health and physical care.

A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy. (Guy Fawkes)

Reading: Bonfire night.
Listening: Dictation.
Writing: A class forum.
Speaking: Webquest.

Fairness is not an attitude. It's a professional skill that must be developed and exercised. (Brit Hume)

Reading: Innovation in business.
Listening: Work-life balance.
Writing: A CV.
Speaking: Job skills.

A foreign language is like a frail, delicate muscle. If you do not use it, it weakens. (Jhumpa Lahiri)

Reading: Foreign exchange emails.
Listening: Good study habits.
Writing: Emails.
Speaking: Studying and learning.

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon. (E.M. Forster)

Reading: Robot teachers. 
Listening: Listening skills.
Writing: Tips and advice.
Speaking: Learning and training.

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use. (Wendell Johnson)

Reading: Graded readers.
Listening: Staying connected.
Writing: Checking out websites.
Speaking: Learning languages.

You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition. (James Agee)

Reading: Different seaside towns.
Listening: The Tower of London.
Writing: A home tradition.
Speaking: Test and assessment.

Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool. (John Mason Good)

Reading: Marathons.
Listening: The Canadian Rockies.
Writing: Describing a place.
Speaking: Holiday options.

My favourite place in the world to run is Stanley Park in Vancouver. One loop around there is perfect. (Mathew Morrison)

Emily Carr

Reading: Canada.
Listening: Vancouver attractions.
Writing: Giving holiday advice.
Speaking: Holidays.

If you're skinny and you can't play hockey in Canada, you aren't left with a lot of options. I was left with running. (Malcolm Gladwell)

Reading: Visiting Canada.
Listening: Canada.

Writing: Theme park trip.

Speaking: Different sports.

Retirement, a time to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, where you want to do it and how you want to do it. (Catherine Pulsifer)

Perseverance and perspective until victory. (Lincoln Diaz-Balart)

Here are the dates and times of the oral tests in September:  NB2 B and NI B1 B, C, D. Don't forget the written exam dates and timetable for NI B1; and NB 2 reading, listening and writing exams are on Monday 2nd starting at 9 o'clock. Details should appear on the school's webpage soon. Look at the feedback from the exams in June: NB 2 and NI B1; and check out this link, and this one. You should all continue to read, whether you have passed or not. Otherwise you will have forgotten everything by the beginning of next course. NI B1 students might find this interesting. 

Translating from one language to another is the most delicate of intellectual exercises; compared to translation, all other puzzles, from bridge to crosswords, seem trivial and vulgar. (Cyril Connolly)

Oops!

This year fewer people have translated out loud in class so only fifteen euros and twenty-four cents have been raised for the chocolate kitty. By the way, where would you write the euro sign with 15,24? And the pound sign with 15.24? Read this post on the good and the bad of literal translations which begins with a significant anecdote. 

Good luck is when opportunity meets preparation, while bad luck is when lack of preparation meets reality. (Eliyahu Goldratt)

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in day out. (Robert Collier)

You can practise your listening skills here and here. Then you can practise and improve your writing skills here, and your reading skills here. Make sure you know the past and past participle forms of regular and irregular verbs and how to pronounce them. Don't forget the combinations of verbs and prepositions like wait for, listen to, arrive at/in, etc. Continue to read, read, read and read. Good luck!

Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill. (Christopher Parker)

Practise and improve your reading skills with these texts and exercises. Then practise and improve your listening skills with these audios and exercises. Then practise and improve your writing skills with these texts and exercises.

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. (Alexander Graham Bell)

Here are the classroom notes and the presentation for Topic 12. Have a look at the video M recommends for subject/object questions. Listen again to audios 12.14.1 and 12.14.2, and read the audio scripts at the same time. Check out this list of irregular verbs with the pronunciation. Then read and revise, revise and read! 

I quit flying years ago. I don't want to die with tourists. (Billy Bob Thornton)

Here is the guía para el alumnado de idiomas (PTEC 2018-2019) and Y's summary of the writing tasks. Check out the answers to the last homework exercises. Here are the audios for slide 9, parts one and two, and the audio script. You can also listen to audio 12.10 again and read the audio script. Have a look at how to describe your travelling experience by flight and the classroom notes for Topic 12, groups B, C and D. Then read, read, and read some more!