Category Archives: MISCELLANEOUS / SELF-STUDY

Tips and techniques about your learning abilities in general

The Official School of Languages, Spain. La Escuela Oficial de Idiomas

Some more info by clicking here  and here  (two previous posts about the topic)

Democratic Education

Summerhill

About N. Summerhill: Wikipedia

Video in Youtube: William Tyler Smith’s (Kiss Me Again, The Third Mind)documentary tells the story of A. S. Neill’s Summerhill School and their fight for survival against Tony Blair’s Labour government. A must see for anybody interested in education, progressive, alternative, and humanist ideas.

Another interesting video ‘Here and Now’

The Summerhilll School is still open. Take a look

About Learning a Language

Dear learners,

I’d like to share with you my view, understanding and approach to language learning and teaching. This presentation (click the link below) will probably help you understand the mechanism behind the effort and energy you’re investing in learning English, which will  -hopefully- have a possitive impact in your progress.

About learning a language

All the best,

Sonia

English-Spanish language exchange in Madrid

Dear learners,

Check this out for fun learning:

Give it a try and let us know how it went by leaving a comment below.  Plus, let us know any other meeting points you might have tried.

Cheers,

Sonia

Por el reconocimiento de los títulos de las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas de España en la Unión Europea

Las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, centros públicos e independientes ofrecen la posibilidad de un aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras de calidad y al alcance y servicio de todos nosotros, y no sólo de los que pueden permitirse desembolsar grandes cantidades de dinero en centros privados. ¿Por qué no reconocen en Europa nuestros certificados y sí los de organizaciones privadas como el British Council? Grrrr….

FIRMA Y COMPARTE ESTA PETICIÓN:

https://www.change.org/p/ministerio-de-educaci%C3%B3n-por-el-reconocimiento-de-los-t%C3%ADtulos-de-las-escuelas-oficiales-de-idiomas-de-espa%C3%B1a-en-la-uni%C3%B3n-europea

 

The Official School of Languages is a public funded school specialised in teaching of modern foreign languages, Spain´s co-official languages and Spanish for Foreigners. The Official Schools of Languages network, which has almost 100 years history and approximately 250 centers and 400.000 students nowadays, is part of the Spanish system of non-obligatory special education.

 It is the aim of this organisation to provide the students with the appropriate tools to communicate in the foreign language they may choose (Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Euskera, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish for Foreigners and Swedish). Some schools also offer a variety of courses for specific purposes: Medical English, Legal French / English, Business English, Translation, Culture and Literature Courses, etc. There is also a variety of courses designed to tackle specific skills: written expression, reading, speaking and writing.  

A detailed insight into this system here

Certification in our schools takes into consideration CEFR principles (Common European Framework of Reference for Language Teaching and Learning) although it has not been given real international recognition yet.

 

 

Any English-fun-learning plans for Easter?

Why not using this space to recommend interesting plans for Easter?

Walk Charles Dickens’ London

Cool learning games

Wheel of Fortune                                      Grammar Ninja

Bankers’ Deal                                              Scrabble

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?            Spin and Spell

Family Feud                                               Wordconnect

There’ll be more comming soon!!!

What’s your level of English?


  • DIALANG is a major EC-funded project on online diagnostic language testing which offers separate tests for reading, writing, listening, grammatical structures and vocabulary. These tests enable the users to become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. The system can be downloaded from its website free of charge. Go to the Dialang website , which will redirect you to a temporary site at Lancaster University, and follow the instructions.


Are you starting a new course?

Dear learnes,

Some of you may be starting a new course these days. You know I always remind you of the importance of being strategic. Learning implies making a big effort and we don’t want to lose time or energy.

I recommend that you do the following questionnaire which will make you think about yourself as a learner and about what you can do to make the most of your course.

I hope to get feedback from you; let me know what you think about the questionnaire and if I should include something you believe important.

Cheers,

Sonia

Gallery

Don de lenguas. Gifted for languages

Worth watching :  This is a great video – in Spanish –  about language learning in Spain and the importance of the Official School of Languages (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas) – the oldest and most important institution in Spain (government funded!) devoted … Continue reading