1.en.4 Urban Orchards

Emili has just posted an interesting article about urban orchards in Spain. Last year we talked about our city, Palma. This year we’ll continue to explore cities, from different perspectives. One of the key concepts  will be  SUSTAINABILITY. 

Here follow two videos and a link to a web page. They will help you understand what sustainaibility is. Both of them were filmed in London. Whatch them and answer the questions. Can you see any relation between El País article Emili uploaded and these videos?

HOMEWORK: Monday 25th September

Listen to the videos a couple of times. Before listening look at the questions and at the phonemic transcription of the words in bold. it will help you recognize them when you hear them. Post the answers to the blog. Remember, once a classmate finds the correct answer, there is no need to repeat it. Everyone must copy the answers in their notebook.

PHONETICS

Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following words, you know the sounds, we learnt them last year.

orchard /’ɔ:rtʃərd /                 /tʃ/

Ark /ɑ:rk /                         /k /

arch /ɑ:rtʃ /                   /tʃ/

shed /ʃed/                    /ʃ/

pear /peəʳ/                      /eə/

Now let’s see if you can answer the following questions.There are III sets of questions: I, in green about Union Street Project. II, in blue about Union Street Project web page. III, in purple about The London orchard Project. 

I

1) How long had the urban orchard been going on when the video was filmed,?

2) When will it close?

3) Did you see any fish in the pond? what colour?

4)What kind of fruits were there in the growing wall?

5) where do tomatoes grow, inside a shed or outside?

6) what are seed bombs?

7) How many types of apples can you find in the orchard? 4? 14? 40?

8) How many types of pears?

9) tick the fruits that can be found in the orchard

lemons, cherries, quinces, plums, bananas, peaches, kiwis

10) When will  the apples be ready for picking?

II

This is a link to the web page that was created for this Project. Visit the page and find out more about it. 

1. Where is Union Street?
2. Who was involved in the project?
3. Are there any partner projects publicized in the page?
4. Look at the photo galery and choose a pic you like. Describe it in a couple of sentences. 
5. What is the idea behind the arch?

In the pic you can see a…./ there is a …../

Finally, Here is another you tube video about “the London Orchard Project”. Watch it and find out what more.

III

1. What is the big wheel that can be seen in the background at the beginning?
2. Which school do they visit?
3. What does the teacher think about the project?
4. Did you have an orchard in your primary school?
5. Do you think it is a good idea? Why?
6. Would you like to visit an urban orchard here in Palma?

1.en.34 Phonetics: the English phonetic alphabet with sound

All of you should know a tongue twister by heart and next week we’ll record you, so you better get some practice. By now you should know that phonetics is very important in English because pronunciation and spelling are tricky. Some sounds are a bit difficult too. In this video you can listen to the English sounds and see how they are represented. You are already familiar with some of them. Next step will be to concentrate on vowel sounds, including long ones. It is a bit long, but it will give you a chance to practice as many times as you need.

1. How are long vowels represented?
2. How many vowel sounds are there in English?
3. What is the most common sound in English?
4. How many diphthongs are there in English?
5. Can  the schwa sound appear in  stressed syllables?
6. How many sounds have we learnt so far?

Homework: Thursday 2nd December. Copy the answers in your notebook and post them to the blog.

1.en.28 Phonetics and tongue twisters

Some people are worried about the phonetics in the exam, there is no reason for that. You just have to do some revision of a few posts, including question number 1 of our first exam on line.

1.en.12 First English Exam on the blog

1.en.10 Phonetics: Dictionary work and IPA

1.en.24 stress and spelling make a difference!

If you have any doubts on how to pronounce a word check a monolingual online dictionary, as the one I showed you in class.

I did it for you so you can see how to pronounce tongue and see the IPA transcription.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tongue

Anyway, here follows some more practice for next week. The last day you asked me what mother tongue was. Now that you know that we are going to try some tongue twisters, it is excellent pronunciation paractice ane it can be fun too.

I have included some tongue twisters in your mother tongue, Catalan or Spanish.

Tongue twisters are a word or sequence of words difficult to pronounce, especially rapidly, because of alliteration or a slight variation of consonant sounds. “She sells seashells by the seashore”

There are tongue twisters in every language

• She sells sea shells by the seashore.

• La pícara pájara pica la típica jícara; a la típica jícara, pica la pícara pájara.

• Vaig al bosc i busco vesc i visc del vesc que busco al bosc.

Look for 3 more examples of tongue twisters in these web pages:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8136/tonguetwisters.html

http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/index.htm

Homework: Thursday 18th

Write them in your notebook and learn them by heart. Look for some images to illustrate them.You can also make drawings yourself. We’ll publish the nicest ones.

Phonetics and pronunciation practice

We are learning to pronounce English sounds that are a bit difficult for us. Tongue twisters are a fun way to learn!

Try the following tongue twister where you will find sounds we practised during English lessons:

/ ʌ / / æ /     /ɛə/

A big black bug bit a big black bear and made the big

black bear bleed blood

black bug /blæk b ʌ g/

blood: /blʌd/

black bear

/b læk bɛər/