Emma Watson to quit Harry Potter?

Watch this short clip about the problems the actress Emma Watson is having to continue acting in the Harry Potter films.

Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and say whether the statements below are true or false.



1 Warner Brothers didn�t want to renew Emma Watson�s contract.
2 Emma Watson didn�t love her character enough.
3 Emma finally decided not to do her university exams.
4 Warner Brothers are now looking for another actress.

Note: If you get the 411 on something, you get all the information about it.

You can check the answers by reading the transcript here.

Phonemic chart

This is the new phonemic chart of the British Council site. You can listen to the pronunciation of all the sounds and some example words.

Present finder

Do you find it difficult to choose the right present for your family and friends? Are you fed up with always giving the same presents? Have you been critisised for giving money as a present? Now that Christmas is round the corner lots of questions like those above will keep nagging you.

Put at an end to the excruciating task of present-choosing with The Present Finder, which will provide you with lots of original ideas for gifts for everybody.



Self-study activity:
Get together with some English speaking friend or relative and decide on a present for someone you both know, or for different members of your family, explaining the reasons for your choice.

A chat with Mark Zuckerberg

Time Managing Director Rick Stengel interviews Time's Person of the Year: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.



Many thanks to Jeffrey Hill, from The English Blog, for bringing my attention to this video.

Teach Parents Tech

Google has launched a new site today, TeachParentsTech.org, with the aim to help those members of the family who find it harder to understand the new technology come to terms with it.

The site lets you send a sarcastic email to the person in your family you think needs extra help with basic tech tasks, along with a link to watch the video you have chosen.




For English students the site offers 50+ one-minute videos in English that is within the grasp of B�sico 2 students. To top it all, all the videos are subtitled.

Self-study activity:
Choose one video of your liking and watch it without subtitles. Watch it for a second time with the subtitles on to check your comprehension and deal with any difficulties.

As an example, here it is how to set up an email auto-responder.

Just so Stories

Just so Stories by Rudyard Kipling is accessible and downloadable to everybody. How the Whale got his Throat and eleven more stories can be read online or downloaded on our computer.

To make things even better, I have come across The Cat that Walked by himself on You Tube, so we can also listen to the narration of this story.

Language lessons

Some authentic material is well within the reach of lower level students, as the following clip from Fawlty Towers, the world-famous British series, shows.

This clip presents the misunderstandings between Basil Fawlty, the hotel owner, and Manuel, the Spanish waiter, who finds it difficult to understand and make himself understood in English.

Just enjoy the video, and see what happens when there are communication problems.