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EXCITING EXAM SKILLS PRACTICE 2:  Describing & Expressing Opinions

30/1/2017

17 Comments

 
Picture
Image Credit: Google Arts & Culture features content from over 1,000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.
Many exams involve describing, comparing and contrasting pictures as well as hypothesizing about them and giving opinions.
 
I love using artwork in my English lessons as it exposes people to lovely works while practising language skills.  Using the GOOGLE ART PROJECT a few years ago I expanded a painting to its maximum size to expose incredible details not normally visible to the eye, at the same time making the painting difficult to recognize.  This is excellent to hone describing skills as well as hypothesizing about its style and artist, hopefully leading to recognizing the painting.
 
I therefore CHALLENGE YOU to SPEAK ABOUT this SECOND IMAGE of the painting and SEE IF YOU CAN GUESS what PAINTING it is! 
More images of the same painting to come soon…
 
Write your answers in the comments below!
 
Some language to use:
In my opinion…
I think it’s…
The dog could be a …
Mongrel
Bulldog
Terrier
Poodle
Setter
 
I’m not sure…
could
may
might
It must be…
It can’t be…
I don’t think it’s…
Perhaps it’s…
Maybe it’s…
 
This activity can also be done in pairs so as prompt each other with questions such as:
“What do you think?”
“Do you agree?”
“Have I missed anything?”
I disagree.
 
I hope you find this useful. 

Please leave any comments below and if you like this blog, please subscribe for more updates.
​

Susan
17 Comments

EXCITING EXAM SKILLS PRACTICE 1:  Describing & Hypothesizing – MAY – MIGHT – COULD 

29/1/2017

0 Comments

 
PictureImage Credit: Google Arts & Culture features content from over 1,000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.
Many exams involve describing, comparing and contrasting pictures as well as hypothesizing about them and giving opinions.
 
I love using artwork in my English lessons as it exposes people to lovely works while practising language skills.  Using the GOOGLE ART PROJECT a few years ago I expanded a painting to its maximum size to expose incredible details not normally visible to the eye, at the same time making the painting difficult to recognize.  This is excellent to hone describing skills as well as hypothesizing about its style and artist, hopefully leading to recognizing the painting.
 
I therefore CHALLENGE YOU to SPEAK ABOUT this FIRST IMAGE of the painting and SEE IF YOU CAN GUESS what PAINTING it is! 
More images of the same painting to come soon…
 
Write your answers in the comments below!
 
Some language to use:
I’m not sure…
could
may
might
It must be…
It can’t be…
I don’t think it’s…
Perhaps it’s…
Maybe it’s…
 
This activity can also be done in pairs so as prompt each other with questions such as:
“What do you think?”
“Do you agree?”
“Have I missed anything?”
 
I hope you find this useful. 

Please leave any comments below and if you like this blog, please subscribe for more updates.
​

Susan

0 Comments
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    Author

    My name is Susan Brodar, born in London into a multilingual family and brought up bilingual English / Italian.

    I went to school in London until 15 when we moved to Germany where I finished my British education at Munich International School. I started teaching Italian at evening classes aged only 17 and studied Mass Communications and Journalism at Munich University.

    I continued teaching parallel to interpreting at trade fairs and business meetings as well doing translations. After working at the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade for a year I married my Italian globetrotting companion in 1983 and we set up our home near Venice, Italy where we continue to live with our two teenaged children.

    Having taken my British High School-leaving ‘A’ Level exams in English, Italian, French & German I am completely fluent in all four languages and am taking a DELE certification in Spanish to complement them.

    ENGLISH (native)
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  • HOME
    • Samples of FAST FLUENCY TRAINER
  • IMPROVE with SUSAN
    • ABOUT
    • TESTIMONIALS
    • How Being Bilingual Led Me To Teaching
    • PUBLICATIONS by Susan Brodar
  • English SPEAKING COURSES
  • BLOG
  • TRANSLATIONS & INTERPRETING
  • TRAVELLER's TALES
    • A WEARY TRAVELLER's TALES
    • TRAVELLING the world for sports: INLINE SPEED SKATING
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