Hard courses BBC learning unit 12

Unit 12: English You Need

Exams, news, pronunciation, teachers' tips, learners' questions

1. Session 1 

This session disscuses about 6 tips for getting ready for exams

Here's a summary of our tips for getting ready for your exams:
 

1: Try out past exam papers

2: Get your timing right

3: Understand the instructions

4: Keep calm!

5: Get organised

6: Sleep well - arrive early

2. Session 2

The story

A study says moderate exercise several times a week is the best way for the over 50s to keep their brains in good working order. Australian researchers say combining aerobic activities, such as swimming, cycling or jogging, with muscle-strengthening exercises is most effective. They support the idea that taking up exercise at any age is worthwhile.

sharp

mentally quick and intelligent

keep (something) at bay

prevent (something) from happening

stints

limited periods of time spent doing an activity

3. Session 3

This session discusses about pronounciation in the news of military

There are four syllables: mi-li-ta-ry

The stress is on the first syllable: MI-li-ta-ry

In British English, the /ə/ sound in the final syllable is short

In phonemic script, the word is written like this: /ˈmɪlɪt(ə)ri/ 

 

4. Session 4

 This session disscuses about fun collocation activities 

Fun collocation activities

Collocations are commonly put together pairings of words. They can be weakly or strongly related. Learning them will greatly enhance your students' use of vocabulary and speaking skills. So here are a few fun and memorable activities you can use to practise them.

Collocation race

The easiest way to practise collocations is to have students sort them into columns on the board. Split the board into columns with half a collocation as a heading. Then call out, hand out or provide the other half and have students put them in the right columns. To make this competitive, create two teams and have a race. 

Collocation place

Divide your teaching space into several areas and assign one half of a collocation to each area. Then call out the other half. Students must move to the space which represents the matching collocation pair. Once they get there, have them make a sentence using the collocation.

Collocation aim

Great for young learners, or just doing something a bit different! Get the students to screw up paper into balls. Draw targets on the board and assign them a collocation half. Then call out the other half and have students throw their balls at the correct target. Or, if you have a class that gets on well, you can assign students as targets for a bit of fun.

Collocation mingle

Print collocations on cards – half of the pair on one card and the other half on another. Distribute these cards to students and have them mingle with each other to try and find their collocation partner. To make things a bit more challenging, use one or two collocations that could have more than one possible pairing.

Collocation gap fill

For higher level students, or those doing academic work. Take an authentic text, find relevant collocations and blank out one half of each collocation pair. Then give the students the text and ask them to work together to complete it using whatever word they think is correct.

 

5. Session 5

This session discusses about learners question How many times, How long and How often

How long?

How long is used to ask questions about amounts or periods of time.

How long have you been waiting?

How long was your stay in Malaysia?

How much longer can you stay? 

The answer often contains for or since in reply.

How long have you been here?  I’ve been here for about an hour.

How long can also be used to talk about the measured length of something.

How long is your charging cable? …about 1 metre.

How many times?

how many times is used to enquire about the specific number of occasions that something has happened.

How many times have you seen this film?

How many times did the phone ring this morning?

How often?

How often is more versatile and used more frequently than how many times. With how many times we often refer to something which occurred in the past, but how often can be past present or future.

How often do you work?

How often did you work?

How often will you work?