Free Courses from the British Council!

Ideas for a Better World starts this week! - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ideas-better-world  

English for the Workplace starts 1 June - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/workplace-english  

Understanding IELTS: Speaking starts 1 June - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/understanding-ielts-speaking  

Understanding IELTS: Reading starts 1 June - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/understanding-ielts-reading  

Becoming a Better Teacher starts 8 June  - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/becoming-a-better-teacher  

Teaching for Success: Learning and Learners starts 15 June - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/english-language-teaching-learning  

English in Early Childhood starts 22 June - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/english-in-early-childhood  

 Courses are between 3 to 6 weeks long, require about 3 hours of study per week, include optional online live events and are based on social learning. Courses are free and most offer an optional paid upgrade which includes a certificate and unlimited access to content. Click on the links above to register or to find out more.

myClass X Prof - Tuesday 14 January 2020

The two books we mentioned at the end of the class were these:
 
Proficiency Testbuilder. Student's Book with 2 Audio-CDs and Key
https://www.amazon.es/Proficiency-Testbuilder-Students-Book-Audio-CDs/dp/3191925953/
 
English Vocabulary in Use: Advanced Book with Answers
https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Vocabulary-Use-Advanced-Reference/dp/1316631176/

When looking at an exam practice book, be sure to check that it's for the current exam format, with 4 papers: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/proficiency/exam-format/

For vocabulary books, it is not so critical. There are several editions of English Vocabulary in Use - any one is good.  

myClass Proficiency Exam-Class Saturday 7 December

Here are some useful links from today's class: 

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/grammar-and-vocabulary-exams/does-it-have-prefix-or-suffix

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/comparative-and-superlative-adjectives

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/beginner-grammar/present-continuous

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/spelling

British Council and FutureLearn Free Online IELTS MOOCs

The British Council and FutureLearn's new IELTS skills courses have just started! The courses are both 3 weeks long, require about 3 hours of study a week and are moderated. They’re free with an optional paid upgrade if you want lifetime access and a certificate of achievement. Click on the links to find out more! 

Understanding IELTS: Speaking 

Understanding IELTS: Reading 

 

myClass Saturday 9 November - INSPIRATION

Here are the links to the inspirational talks which we watched extracts of in the class: 

Sean Stephenson - https://youtu.be/VaRO5-V1uK0 
If you have time, I thoroughly recommend listening to this longer talk which he gave just over a year ago. If you can't listen to it all, at least listen to the first 7 minutes.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7yXZfxHBxbm2jnYANKfWxD
Also here (though I think the quality isn't so good): https://podcast.mindvalley.com/sean-stephenson-create-powerful-connections/

Matthieu Ricard - https://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness
His website is here: https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/

Staceyann Chin (*Note - strong language warning) - https://youtu.be/7CKO_OETlMY 
This is by no means the strongest language Staceyann Chin uses in her poetry. Explore further at your own discretion. You can find her IG here - her daughter is amazing. https://www.instagram.com/staceyannchin/

Kodo Nishimura - https://youtu.be/qHmzAI0vjlo 
His website is here: https://www.kodonishimura.com/
IG here: https://www.instagram.com/kodomakeup/ 

If you have an inspirational talk you'd like to share, email it to me and I'll add it to this post. :) 

 

myClass Advanced 21 September 2019

Podcast recommendation: 
All in the Mind - ABC RN - https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/

Book recommendation: 
A Cruel Madness by Colin Thubron. 

Wingsuit base jumping video - https://youtu.be/MZchINzk43E 

The story of the mountain climbers is called 'Touching the Void'. There's a book, a film, articles - it's an amazing story. There's even a very good talk about it by a Buddhist monk called Jnanavaca. He's a very eloquent speaker - you can find the talk here: https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=OM697 

Here is the link to the lesson notes!

myClass Advanced Saturday 14 September 2019

Note - This post got corrupted and was so small it was impossible to read. I edited the HTML manually - some of the text got lost but all of the links are here.

First, mainly for our legal team but for anyone interested in true crime, here are two podcasts that I thoroughly recommend. You really need to listen to this series first - this is a 'true crime' investigation on American Public Radio: 

https://serialpodcast.org/season-one 

Once you've listened to that and know the story, you can progress to this podcast series, which is a group of lawyers looking at the legal ins and outs of the story. It starts off a little unsteadily, as none of them had done podcasts before, but they improve after two or three episodes, and they make the legal side absolutely fascinating. 

https://undisclosed-podcast.com/episodes/season-1/ 

https://fraze.it/

 

https://youglish.com/

 
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/video-zone/how-general-election-works

 

https://youtu.be/qOP2V_np2c0 

Finally, do check out our free online courses, which are produced by the British Council and FutureLearn. 

https://www.futurelearn.com/partners/british-council

  

For anyone interested in taking IELTS, the 'Understanding IELTS' MOOC is very good, and a useful compliment to our in-house course.