Watch out your vowels!

I'm sure you sometimes think I'm making a fuss about nothing whenever I insist on you paying attention to the way you pronounce long and short vowels but, take my word for it, it may cause you real trouble to pronounce a short vowel instead of a long one, as you can see in the funny video below.
Click here to see some useful videos that'll help you learn the difference between /ɪ/ and /iː/, /ɒ/ and /ɔː/, or /ʊ/ and /uː/.

Somebody that I used to know

Here we are, one more year, and I think it's about time to start working, isn't it? I'm glad to share the news with you all : I was lucky and got a part-time post in EOI Villaverde, a new school with new workmates among whom I've felt really welcome as they've been really nice to me.
To open this school year I've chosen a song I love and that I hope you'll enjoy too. Through it, we'll practise two English vowel sounds, /æ/ and /ʌ/, that Spanish students sometimes find difficult to recognize and produce.

• To pronounce /æ/ make a Spanish /a/ and in the middle change it to /e/ while keeping the front part of your tongue in the lower part of your mouth.Click the arrow in the audio reproducer to listen to this sound and some words containing it.

        

• To pronounce /ʌ/ make a short Spanish /a/ with the middle part of your tongue in the centre part of your mouth. Click the arrow in the audio reproducer to listen to this sound and some words containing it.

    

• You can click here to see a short video that'll help you pronounce /æ/ correctly and then here for the sound /ʌ/.
• Now, paying attention to these sounds, listen to the song  "Somebody that I used to know" by the Belgian singer Gotye. Then, listen again and do the gap-fill activity.

Stronger!

Feeling stressed and a little bit down has become commonplace for many of us in these times. 
We can't avoid worrying about the world around us which seems to be falling apart and we experience a feeling of defeat; but do we realize what are the things that really matter in life? I guess we need to be reminded of. 

When I saw this video filmed at Seattle Children's Hospital, I felt so moved and touched! They are the true heroes, the ones who struggle no matter what life brings them! So this is a tribute to all those who keep putting up a fight with a smile on their faces and teach us a lesson of hope and courage.

"Stronger",by Kelly Clarkson, is not only a heartening song but also a perfect way to practise the weak vowel sound schwa /ə/ that we find in unstressed words (auxiliary verbs, prepositions and articles) and unstressed syllables.
Here are some examples:
He was feeling down                 /wəz/  
I can do much better                /kən/      /ˈbetə/ 
You have to put up a fight       /həv/    /tə/   /əp/     /ə/

Listen to the song and do the gap-fill activity. Click the key to get all the answers. 

If I were a boy...

Have you ever wondered how different your life would be if you were a boy and not a girl or the other way round?

Beyoncé has in this song which I'm going to use to make you think of the variety of sounds that can correspond with the letter 'o' in English. Do you pronounce the 'o' in  'broke' and 'shot' in the same way? If you want to know, see this short presentation before doing the listening task below.

You can check your answers with the key.