Dialogue

Elisenda and Laia's dialogue:

L: Do you remember the day when we were to the beach last summer?
E: (surpirsed) would you say ont he firsts of summer?

L: No,no! at the end of August! that we met...

E: Ah YES! LOL! you are saying the day that we met those boys..are you?

L: Yeah! they've sent me a letter, and they are comming soon!

E: Really? And what have they said?

L: They are going to come in July and they invite us to be with them in their campiste.

E: it's fantastic! have they sent you a picture?

L: Yes...that one that we were toghter with those two pretty boys..

E: (with a lovely eyes) It was a great night but it was a shame that it was the last because they had to come back home =(...

L: So, will we accept the invitation?

E: Of course! Let's go to call them!

Video and text of the Oral P.

Elisenda and Laia's presentation:

Helpless dogs

We’re going to talk about abandoning pets because we believe it is a worrying problem of nowadays that nobody talks much about it.
Specifically, we’re going to talk about abandoned dogs as it is the most common, because is the most sold pet and also, it is the animal that more people have at home.

Each year it occurs nearly to 200,000 animals’ abandonment. The 47% of these abandons of pets are in summer.
They are workers that search these pets and they take and carry them to the special centres where maybe someone could buy or take one or if the pet are very ill they sacrifices the animal.

¿WHY?
Because it’s when the people go on holidays, go on a trip, and leave home and they have nobody to take care holidays, do trips, and go out of home ant they haven'of their pets and they leave it in the street, in a prayer or in a land. The other causes are that sometimes the animal is aggressive or with destructive behaviours, it has born a baby in the family and they are jealous or also if the animal is ill, people don’t go to the veterinary and they abandoned the pet.
Also because sometimes people want to buy a little baby of a dog and when it has grown they don’t want to continue feet and pay attention to it.

Possible solutions of nowadays?
There are associations to prevent this problem and to sensitize all people who have pets on their responsibility and avoid it during the summer months. Also, these associations have made centres: canine residencem of the animal because also iss, e people have at home, and you only have to pay a tan per cent and they take care of them. The other thing that helps to improve, it’s that there are some places or accommodations which permit to bring the pets there. These accommodations have a special zone for the animals because they could do their necessities without disturb people like some campsites, rural houses…

Despite the seriousness of this problem is trying to intervene through partnerships to reduce it, is still large number of dropouts per year. However, people are not aware that this act is punished by the law of Domestic Animal Protection, believes that abandoning or mistreating an animal is a "very serious infringement", which is punishable by fines of between 1,500 and 15,000 euros and which can lead to a ban on acquiring other animals within one to ten years.

Consequences:

The future of an abandoned dog or cat is sad, painful and uncertain, because apart from hunger, thirst, disease, exhaustion and a great physical and psychological deterioration, many are used in wild fights or just hit the road, which besides the suffering of the animal, can cause fatalities to occupants of the vehicle. But… not only is a problem of the animal because also population can be affected, either by traffic accidents or bacteria, germs and diseases that can carry these animals can infect persons.

Final evaluation

- Can you see an improvement on your level of English since September 2007?
Yes, I think that I’ve improved a little bit my English level, because at the time to write in the portfolio or in the blog, I’ve had to search new words and new expressions and also, the new vocabulary or grammar that I have learnt in class, I have applied them in my redactions.

- Which activities best shows your level of English?
I think that the redactions, exercises in class or for homework and the oral presentations are the activities which shows better our level of English.
The redactions can be the better activity to know what the pupil knows in English, because there he applies all his knowledge.
The oral presentation is the activity which shows the pupil’s pronunciation and the vocabulary and grammar that he knows.

- Which activities were really USEFULL for you to improve your English?
Watching and listening films or songs because you get used to the pronunciation and you can learn new words; doing exercises in class or at home to practice the things that the teacher is teaching in class; writing redactions about new things that you are learning in class; doing oral presentations because you learn new words and new expressions about the topic that you have to talk…

- Which activities did you not find useful to learn English?
I don’t find useful to put the podcasts, dialogue or oral presentations, in the portfolio because it takes up a lot of time. Apart, not everybody knows how it has to done (for example: me).
Another thing that takes up a lot of time is writing 10 posts in the blog… At the end I hadn’t got ideas to say there, so… some of them aren’t too much interesting.

- Which activities did you enjoy doing and would like to do again next year?
I enjoyed and would like to do again the following things:
- Reading a book, watching its film and then comparing both (the different things between the book and the film)
- All activities that we can do in Language room are OK.
- …

No more to say!! Bye*

Opinion of my 3rd Oral Presentation

In my opinion, my oral presentation with Elisenda was normal but I was very nervous, like the other presentations; the nerves are a little piece of me...
Apart of nervous, I’m a little shy and talking in front of people is one challenge that I have to overcome.

In my third oral presentation, I read a little bit because I took the paper and it is a temptation. But, if I take the paper with the dialogue of the oral presentation seems that it gives me more confidence at the time to talk.

Only in the first presentation I didn’t read because I hadn’t the paper with me and, in addition, I think that this oral presentation was better than the other two: I didn’t read, I remembered all the things that I had to say, maybe I used more connectors… but I talked slower because I had to think what I had to say... well, this is my opinion. However, the first and the second presentation (in this, I also read a little bit at the beginning, no more) I had the same mark less in third (a half point less).

Well, I will try to improve a little bit my pronunciation, use time expressions and more connectors.

2nd Opinion essay:

“Too much importance is given to taking exams at school”.

Do you agree?

I agree with this assertion because a lot of people think that doing the exams at school is the most important, and it is wrong.

I think doing the exams at school is very important because it allows knowing to the teacher what the pupil has understood. But, it isn’t the only important thing to do, it’s also important that the pupil does his homework, taking part in class and being responsible.

I believe that maybe, there are a lot of exams in each term and it is a problem for us, but we have to think that there are ten subjects, so the pupils have to have some notes from each subject to evaluate their level.

In conclusion, an exam can worry the pupil because it can be difficult and they can have bad mark (or the opposite), but it is a good way for the teachers to have information about pupil’s knowledge.
In short, if the pupil studies hard for the exams and he has done all his homework, he is going to have a good mark.

Kate & Leopold

Well, this term I haven’t watched any film in English class room because we haven’t got time, but I’ve summarised one film which I’ve watched three times and I would watch it again, because I like this film so much.
The fact happens in the 21st century in New York but it begins and it finishes in the 19th century with a pretty history of love.
Here you have the summary:

Kate & Leopold

Kate McKay and her brother Charlie live in the 21st century in New York.

Stuart, her ex-boyfriend lives above her apartment and he is interested in eighteen hundreds. Stuart goes to 19th century and takes pictures of Leopold, the man who invented the elevator and he was duke of Albany. Leopold sees him, and he wants to know who this man is, he decides to follow him and suddenly, they both ended in 21st century in New York.

At fisrt, Leopold is confused and thinking that he has been kidnapped; he immediately takes a strident and defensive stance against Stuart. Stuart explains him the situation that Leopold must stay inside the apartment until the portal opens again a week later to go back to 19th century.
Kate McKay, Stuart’s ex-girlfriend, comes to the apartment and she meets Leopold. She is surprised for Leopold’s dresses and she thinks that he can do a commercial for her job.
Later, he ruins her dinner date with her boss, J.J, and Kate to get angry with him. Leopold is sad because he fell in love to Kate and now she doesn't want to speak with him. Next day in the morning, he decides to invite her to a romantic dinner to apologize. She accepts and they fell in love in the middle of the night.
But now, the problem is that Leopold must go back to 19th century (the past) and they must split up.
Kate must choose between the current time and job or the 19th century with Leopold. Stuart and Charley convince her because she goes there and they can live together.

I've learnt these words:

- Kidnapped= segrestat

- Against= contra/en contra de

- Apologize= desculpar-se

Opinion essay

“We have almost learnt to respect our world. Do you agree?”

I don’t agree with this assertion entirely, because most people don’t respect the world; they aren’t interested in protecting the world and, in the future, to have a healthy and stable life. They aren’t conscious about what could happen.

Some people have tried to show us which things are important to prevent bad conditions and bad changes in our world and our life. These people have given us some advice like: not contaminate, don’t throw the rubbish on the floor above all, the inorganic wastes which pollute, throw the minimum toxic gases in the air from the industries, classify the rubbish in their corresponding skip… But many people are carrying out them. So, the pollution is every time worst and I think that, if we want to save the world, we should solve it before it will be too late.

Besides pollution, which is bad for our health and the environment, also it produces global warming: the climate has changed because it is warmer than some years ago, the glaciers are melting, and it doesn’t rain in a lot of areas in the world, so there isn’t enough water to live. One problem creates another and they aren’t finish.

In addition, I believe that the rich countries are the most problematic about the pollution and the other problems, because they are countries which contaminate more for their industries; because they use a lot of energy; and because they are the countries where their people consume more.

In conclusion, I think that our situation nowadays is not very well and we are responsible for it. Yes, humans are the problem because we aren’t conscious of our acts and we haven’t done anything to prevent the evil future that waits for us. So, everybody has to think about it and help to improve the world’s problems.

If each person tries help a little, we will achieve that we respect our planet.