Practice
JUNE
Madrid
Practice 1 Task 4
 Question 4: Provide examples of activity types that can easily
be set using digital media (Internet-based, computer
programmes and applications…) with the aim of practising
or consolidating vocabulary acquisition and semantic
relations.
 False friends: Students choose the most suitable answer
from a series of distractors.
 Inferring meanings: Students infer the meaning of words
or expressions through the context.
 Definitions: The computer gives definitions of words and
students must decide which words these refer to.
 Antonyms and synonyms: They can be presented within
a context and students have to match them. There are also
dictionaries that present synonyms when students feel that
they have over used certain words. The system used in this
type of software is usually a tree diagram.
 Word association: These are matching activities where
students try to find the link among series of words.
 Classifications: Students classify words under certain
headings.
 Odd one out: Students decide which words are not related
to the others.
 Cloze activities: The computer provides a text and the
students themselves can decide the intervals at which they
cut out words from the text. The responses are usually the
one programmed in the original text. These activities can also
be used to practice grammar constructions.
https://www.vocabtest.com/vocabulary_word_test.php?book=vocabulary_workshop_level_a&unit=1
Madrid
Practice 1 Task 5
 Question 5: What kind of support would you provide to help
those students who have not reached the established
objectives and contents?
 In the light of the expected variability and of learner
characteristics in the foreign language classroom, any
foreign language class is a mixed ability class.
 A mixed ability class can be defined in three different ways. It
can be a class where:
 a) learners do not share similar social and cognitive perspectives
due to age differences;
 b) learners have different levels of proficiency in the second
language;
 c) learners have developed different cognitive styles and
learning strategies even if they are the same age group.
 Foreign language teachers, therefore, must be flexible
enough and sensitive enough to respond well to the
individual learning preferences, interest and needs of their
learners in terms of materials, techniques, classroom methodology
and teacher talk.
 They must also motivate students because motivation is
one of the most important factors which influences language
learning.
 Some motivating agents are the following:
 a) The connection between the English class and the interests
and lifestyle of the students.
 b) The grading of task difficulty.
 c) The adequacy of teaching/learning activities to each
individual student’s real capabilities.
 d) The degree of activity and participation in the class.
 e) The use of praise and positive reinforcement rather than
blame or censure, satisfactory marks rather than “failures.”
 f) The clarification of the aims proposed and encouraging of
self-evaluation in the tasks proposed.
 Bearing in mind that teaching strategies must be especially
motivating —but also effective and didactic— for those
students who did not reach the established objectives and
contents, students can be grouped to do cooperative
work according to a wide range of techniques and settings.
 These techniques will complement the usual teacher-class
interaction in which teachers tend to present the material
and get a response from the students.
 i.Team or group-work:
 We must favour students’ interaction, respecting the different
learning paces and levels, achieving goals and contents by means
of group tasks and appreciating the contributions of each of the
members of the group and not only the results.
 We must also promote relationships among peers, and
overcome any sort of discrimination.
 Team-work can provide opportunities for cooperative learning,
for the students to learn with their peers and from them,
developing cooperation strategies collaboratively.
 ii. Pair-work:
 Students usually find pair-work motivating and relaxing. After
the presentation to the whole class, it is useful to carry out
practice in pairs, since in this way the students will work at
their own speed and will not suffer from the tension or anxiety
which might be produced if the individual student is
immediately asked to respond in front of the whole class.
 Pair-work is a resourceful and useful type of grouping because it
increases the opportunities of communication in the foreign
language, it helps participation, and it encourages studentstudent interaction.
 iii. Individual work:
 A certain amount of individual work is also necessary in the
learning process, so that students can work at their own pace,
using their own cognitive style and making full use of their own
interests and needs.
 In every class there is a wide range of different kinds of
students, each with their own abilities, degree of maturity,
learning styles, etc., and the learning processes are
essentially personal and individual.
 Teachers should, therefore, plan the activities to take into
account these individual differences. In any case, we
should strengthen the students’ self-esteem and their affective
and personal balance.
 Finally, regarding the members of the school staff who
should take part in this situation, it must be clearly
stated that when teaching students who did not reach the
objectives for his cycle, a teacher must not be left
alone.
 It will be necessary to adopt organisational measures
such as teachers’ cooperation, constitution of area and teaching
teams, selection of team coordinators, etc.
 As far as the integration of children with special
educational needs is concerned, these students will
demand more help and a kind of assistance which will be,
comprehensibly, different from the one provided for their
classmates, so as to achieve the same educational goals and
objectives.
 To determine the most suitable mode for students’ needs,
cross-curricular teams will perform a detailed
psycho-pedagogic evaluation and, thus, these students
will be sent to a mainstream school or to a special one,
according to what is established in the law.
 To conclude, as it was stated earlier, motivation plays an
important role in teaching. In order to motivate students,
instructors must take into account factors like students’
preferences and interests, and put into practice all kinds of
devices to promote integration and cooperation with the rest
of the students.
 Moreover, teachers should aim at making learners develop a
positive attitude towards the foreign language, and at creating
a positive atmosphere in the classroom so that every child
would feel important and comfortable when carrying out
communicative tasks in English.
Madrid
Practice 1 Task 6
 Question 6: LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS
Madrid
Practice 3 Task 4
 Question 4: Cross-curricular values and environmental
education: which procedures and attitudes would you use to
work on the topic “animals in danger” with a group of
students in the 5th grade of primary education?
 LOMCE 8/2013 establishes the necessity to integrate
curricular areas.
 In this light, such an approach follows the idea of integral
and global learning process which characterises Primary
Education and uses not only previous knowledge of the same
curricular area – intercurricular, but it also enlarges its range
to other curricular areas; thus, getting impregnated of
the spirit introduced by cross-curricular topics, whose aim is
the full training of the student.
 Following these principles, we want our students to fully
develop themselves as citizens who are aware of both their
rights and duties within a democratic society.
 When introducing activities on Environmental education, a
careful planning of the strategies must be carried out
in order to facilitate the students’ acquisition of contents –
in a conceptual sense, but also social and moral values.
 The ethical relevance of this topic is clear: most of the
problems of today’s society, on the one hand, are linked to
the uncontrolled application of certain technologies and the
respect, on the other, for the environment depends on the
adoption of a new ethical attitude.
 Procedures and attitudes are, then, part of the contents we
will work on with our students, as a means of reaching the
objectives we set for the didactic units. Procedures are included in
the 4 blocks of the curriculum, which deal with the four
language skills.
 The topic selected, “animals in danger”, lends itself to deal
with
 contents related to the area “knowledge of the environment,”
 the cross-curricular topic “environmental education,” and
 the
key competence “Mathematical competence and
competence in science and technology”.
 With a group of students in the 5th grade, we could work
through the following procedures:
 Research: our students can start develop procedures such as
collecting information about a topic.
 Making hypotheses: they can analyse a problem and present
hypotheses.
 Presenting solutions to the problem: once the students
have enough information, we can ask them to present solutions
 Assuming that the basic vocabulary is known to the students,
to work on these aspects we could encourage them to carry
out a project in groups.
 The students have to gather information about the situation
of animal species which are in danger. In order to do so, they
will have to use different sources: library, newspapers, TV,
websites…
 With the previous information they will have to make a
poster presenting the species and giving one solution to
help improve the situation. Structures such as We should(n’t)
are suitable at this level.
 At the same time as we are working on concepts (reinforcing
vocabulary and structures), and procedures, we will also
develop attitudes in our pupils.
 With this topic, we can promote the following
attitudes:
 Develop an attitude of respect towards the environment.
 Develop our students’ awareness of the dangers of current
attitudes towards the environment.
 Make them aware of the attitudes of other societies towards the
issue, relating the topic with the sociocultural aspects related to
English speaking countries.
 Develop a positive attitude towards creating their own materials
in English and towards working in groups in a co-operative way
 In conclusion, environmental problems, local and national
or worldwide, constitute one of the most characteristic
worries nowadays.
 The environmental perspective of education requires a
treatment that enables the student to understand the human
interaction with the environment in which they are
immersed and that they can learn to give a responsible,
mutually binding answer to the environmental dangers that
we suffer.
Madrid
Practice 3 Task 5
 Question 5 Topic-based teaching: argue some
reasons for using this approach
 Many coursebooks are based around topics and children
respond well to a topic-based approach rather than a
structural one.
 As long as motivating and interesting topics are chosen, these
form a perfect basis for teaching all the necessary aspects of
language. The topic forms the “thread” that connects
grammar, vocabulary and skills-based work and it is
easy for pupils to see the link.
 The syllabus is organised into didactic units of perhaps six or
seven lessons and each unit will be based on a different
topic — typical ones for primary level include “Animals”,
“The weather”, “Colours”, “Food”, “The family” or People
from other countries”.
 Apart from linking the different language contents to
be covered, topic-based teaching also lends itself to
establishing relations with other subjects, thus
emphasizing the global and interrelated nature of education.
 Moreover,
components of the common/crosscurricular contents can also be worked on by relating
them to the topic.
 For example a unit related to·”Health” (such as “The Body” or
“Food”) could naturally be exploited to promote the personal
values of self-esteem, dignity and responsibility towards one’s
own body.
 Finally,
the topic-based approach is obviously very
compatible with project-work and this is especially good
when catering for mixed ability in the classroom.
EXTRA PRACTIE
 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS
 Write one word only which can be used appropriately in all
three sentences.
 Although Melissa accepted the invitation, she failed to ____________
up on the evening of the party.
 After three hours of battling against the blizzard, the hikers decided to
____________ back and head for home.
 Whenever she needed help with her maths homework, Chloe would
____________ to her grandfather, who had taught the subject in his
youth.
 Shall I ____________ you another cup of tea?
 Just look at those black clouds—it’s going to ____________ very
soon.
 Molly was able to ____________ out all her troubles to her best
friend.
 Paul is always ____________ of money by the end of the month.
 The boss had to cut ____________ his holiday in order to sort
out the crisis in the factory.
 After one of the forwards was sent off, the team were one player
____________ for the rest of the match.
 When I call my sister in Australia the ____________ is so clear I
can hardly believe she’s on the other side of the world.
 Everyone joined in the first ____________ of the chorus of the
song but nobody knew how it went after that.
 Do you know what ____________ of business Charles is in?
 Eddie is hoping to get a part in the new ____________ of the musical
Cats.
 They are increasing the ____________ of ice cream because of greater
demand during the hot weather.
 Students should note that ____________ of a current student card
entitles them to a 10% discount.
 Despite the poor visibility, the pilot ____________ the plane safely
and didn’t have to divert to another airport.
 Celia’s daughter has ____________ herself a great job working on the
set of the latest James Bond movie.
 Carlos kicked the football so hard that it went over the hedge and
____________ in the neighbour’s garden.
 After a ____________ of bad luck, things began to change for the
company.
 Marta knew the training programme would be difficult but she decided
that it would be worth it in the long ____________.
 Stephen had been working in the office all day and decided that a
____________ in the fresh air would do him good.
 The official listened to the whole story, but it was difficult to tell
whether he believed it because his ____________ did not change at
all.
 ‘Yours faithfully’ is a polite ____________ which can be used to close
a formal letter.
 Her technique isn’t perfect but she puts great ____________ into her
piano playing.
 If your injury is very minor, it will be ____________ by a nurse rather
than by a doctor.
 This particular coat is made of a fabric which has been ____________
with a special substance to make it waterproof.
 He had a reputation for being a very demanding boss, but personally I
found he ____________ his staff fairly.
 There was a nasty ____________ on the table where the coffee cup
had been put down.
 When Agnes reached the halfway ____________ she felt unable to
continue the race.
 The children all stood up as a ____________ of respect when the head
teacher came into the room.