http://www.bablingua.com/ en info@bablingua.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-04T21:50:17+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/smart_lesson_plans_use_technology_in_the_classroom_without_getting_a_headac/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/smart_lesson_plans_use_technology_in_the_classroom_without_getting_a_headac/#When:21:50:17Z We’re very glad to launch a new section in our website, the Smart Lesson Plans, a new step in our goal to provide additional teaching materials for the Spanish class. What’s exactly a Smart Lesson Plan? A Smart Lesson Plan is a complete unit that tries to take advantage of the new technology available in many classrooms, without driving the teacher crazy. All you need to use is a computer, loudspeakers and a projector or digital board. In our opinion, the use of this technology allows us to bring more variety into the classroom, and it therefore helps us reach students who have different learning styles. The main features of Smart Lesson Plans are: 1) They contain a .doc file (in English and Spanish) with all the information you need to use the different files of the package. The document starts with the level, objectives and time of the lesson, and then it describes in clear steps how to get the most of the different Power Point files, the video and the rest of the activities. Since it’s a .doc file, it’ll be easy for you to modify it if you’d like to add activities or to delete some. You can also change the order of the exercises, adapting them to the length of your classes. 2) Once you download the Lesson Plan, you’ll be ready to go. No installation is required, and because of the extensions of the files (.doc, .ppt,. mp4, .jpg), you’ll be able to open any of them with just a click. Even if your computer doesn’t have the basic and most common software, such as a media player or a document editor, there are free programs you can use to open all of our files (VLC for video and Open Office for presentations and documents). 3) The Smart lesson plan focuses on verbal communication, trying to improve the listening comprehension and the speaking skills of the students: Listening comprehension: it’s important to be familiar with the vocabulary to understand the video and audio files. We learn vocabulary through meaningful repetition, and the lesson plans include many activities that will help your students master the key vocabulary, using TPR, games and virtual vocabulary cards. We have also added a subtitled version of the video to the lesson plans: we believe that the combination of listening and reading is a great exercise to improve the listening comprehension. Speaking: the lesson plans include a lot of graphical support that will make speaking easier for your students, especially once they’re familiar with the vocabulary of the unit. 4) The lesson plan is very interactive: all the presentations try to encourage participation, in an effort to make the class more dynamic. The images displayed in the different presentation will contribute to a more extensive use of Spanish in the class. Students will be engaged in games, group activities and a constant interaction with the teacher. 5) As a result of the interaction, the teacher has continuous feedback from the learners. There is a permanent evaluation process, and the lesson plan includes additional files you can use whether you consider there are students who need extra practice. We have summarized these points in the following video, but please contact us if you’d like to have more information about the Smart Lesson Plans. 2010-03-04T21:50:17+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/hablan2_work_on_your_students_speaking_fluency_from_day_1/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/hablan2_work_on_your_students_speaking_fluency_from_day_1/#When:09:52:25Z Hablan2 is a photocopiable resource book that contains 23 activities to develop your beginner student’s speaking skills. It covers the main topics of the Spanish I/A1 curriculum: the alphabet, numbers, personal information (name, age, etc.), time, classroom objects, the verb “gustar”, family, weather, shopping, food, holidays, etc. These activities have been designed to be worked in pairs. They have two different parts: A and B, with the objective that each participant has information that the other does not have. The students will need to work together, using the target language, to achieve a common task. The activities are very varied: in some of them the students will need to identify pictures, and in others they will need to obtain information, play games or role-play following a model. Hablan2 is available from the Videos and More section of this site. Delivery charges only apply to orders below 80$, so take a look at our DVDs before making a decision.You can pre-view the first 8 activities of Hablan2 here:   If you’re interested in receiving a free .pdf sample of some of the activities included in Hablan2, please contact us through our contact form and we’ll be glad to send it to you. News 2010-02-20T09:52:25+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/el_dia_de_san_valentin/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/el_dia_de_san_valentin/#When:20:48:36Z Many people in Spain call it “El Día de El Corte Inglés”, because they think “el día de San Valentín” is just a commercial festivity (“El Corte Inglés” is the main Spanish department store). But there are also many people who consider it a special day, and they celebrate it showing their love and friendship. Although it isn’t a very important day in our country, we wanted to do an icebreaker about this topic because it’s a great opportunity to learn or review vocabulary related to love and relationships, and also it’s easy to connect it to the present perfect tense. The result is “El día de San Valentín”, a 6-minute story about three friends and the importance that 14 February has in their lives. The activities that accompany the video also include an explanation of the Colombian “día del Amor y la Amistad”, a similar celebration that takes places every 18 September. We also have another video related to friendship: “Mi mejor amiga” that might be a better option for beginner levels (Spanish I / II), since the plot is easier and the grammar just focuses on the indirect object pronouns. You can purchase and preview these videos in low resolution in the icebreaker section of our website. Keep an eye on our forum for extra activities or more information about the ones included in the PDF booklet. Esperamos que tengan un buen día de San Valentín. 2010-02-04T20:48:36+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/feliz_ano_nuevo/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/feliz_ano_nuevo/#When:07:25:32Z Foreign language learners very often get stuck when trying to speak in the target language because they lack vocabulary. There are many strategies to solve that problem, such as using synonyms or asking someone to translate the word they’re trying to say (¿Cómo se dice “x” en español?). A very useful technique is to describe the object they have in mind, and our new ”¿Cómo es?” icebreaker covers all the basic expressions and vocabulary to do that: shapes, sizes, colors, expressions to describe its utility, adjectives such as ligero, pesado, blando, duro, etc. The video, which you can preview in low resolution in the icebreaker section, features eight students from Aluche (Madrid) describing several objects from their school. The activities that accompany the video will prepare your students to understand it, and they’ll have many opportunities to practice these new concepts. Those exercises include four listening activities and a guessing game to play with the whole class, as you can see in the sample below:   2010-01-02T07:25:32+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/two_short_videos_to_celebrate_christmas/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/two_short_videos_to_celebrate_christmas/#When:17:52:56Z We’d like to wish everybody a wonderful Christmas and good luck with the last classes of the year. We think Christmas is a great topic for the foreign language class, and that’s why we have added a new icebreaker about this holiday, following the success of last year’s ¡Feliz Navidad! Navidad y Deporte is a 9-minute video about Christmas day, and also about one of the most original events that happen in Spain on 25 December: “La Carrera del Pavo”. This race has been celebrated in the town of Segovia for more than 60 years, and it has become very famous in the whole country. The activities that accompany the video are divided in two parts: ¿Qué haces el día de Navidad? and La Carrera del Pavo. You can get a free sample of the exercises of the first part (including the audio files) by joining our mailing list. The video contains several interviews that might be difficult to understand for beginner and even intermediate students. For that reason, we have designed many activities where the key vocabulary is presented in context, so students are able to understand the video and get the most out of it. You can preview these exercises in the following document, which also contains the transcripts and answer key included in the Navidad and Deporte package:   Finally, we’d like to remind you that we have another icebreaker about Christmas: ¡Feliz Navidad! It covers many different topics, from the three wise men to Christmas food, El Día de los Inocentes and traditional songs. Please visit our icebreaker section to preview these videos in low resolution and to order them, . Once again. ¡Felices fiestas a todos! 2009-12-02T17:52:56+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/los_verbos_reflexivos/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/los_verbos_reflexivos/#When:09:27:03Z The idea of making a video about reflexive verbs has been with us since we started Bablingua. The only problem we had was how to match this topic with one of our main goals: filming outdoors as often as possible, so your students have the opportunity to see our cities, people and culture. However, most of the actions of the most common reflexive verbs –brushing one’s teeth, dressing up, taking a shower, etc- are usually done indoors. Los verbos reflexivos is the solution we came up with: Elena, a young Spanish girl, rushes through the streets of Madrid to arrive to work on time. While she hurries to avoid being late, she quickly stops to comb her hair, to put on her shoes and to wash her hands and face along the way. This short video includes many reflexive verbs (levantarse, ducharse, vestirse, atarse, abrocharse, lavarse, secarse, peinarse, ponerse, maquillarse, pintarse, darse cuenta, enfadarse, alegrarse, divertirse, quitarse, acostarse) and it also features some of Madrid’s main tourist attractions: El Palacio Real, el templo de Debod, el Teatro Real and El Paseo del Pintor Rosales. The icebreaker also includes a PDF file with activities to work on before, during and after the video. These activities will prepare your students to understand the video, presenting the vocabulary and explaining additional reflexive verbs, such as afeitarse or despertarse. They also will help your students to practice how reflexive verbs work in Spanish, and how to use them with other constructions they already know (ir a, tener que, etc.) Finally, we had a lot of fun filming “Los verbos reflexivos”. We have decided to post in this blog a short video with some of the bloopers from this icebreaker, which will give you an idea about how difficult to film in the streets of Madrid is. We hope you enjoy it. Please visit the Icebreaker section of this site to preview our Los verbos reflexivos icebreaker. News 2009-11-05T09:27:03+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/play_bingo_with_your_students/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/play_bingo_with_your_students/#When:15:57:43Z Our first Bingo game is available in the Games section of our page. It is a great way to review 75 words belonging to the housing vocabulary. After purchasing this game, you’ll be able to download a .zip file that contains the game executable file and a PDF document with the instructions and the 30 different bingo cards. Since the game randomly draws the words, you’ll be able to play as many different games as you wish. There are also a large numbers of ways to play it: individually or in groups, with just one card per person/group or more… Bingo is one of the most famous and useful games for foreign language teachers. We hope you enjoy our version, which combines technology, sound and the traditional cards with colorful pictures that will surely help your students to learn or review these words. Resources 2009-06-01T15:57:43+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/Students_books_for_next_school_year/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/Students_books_for_next_school_year/#When:09:40:57Z The 2008/09 school year is about to end, and it’s time to start planning for the new academic year. We’d like to offer you a free student book of our “De Compras en el Rastro” package for every two copies that you purchase. This is a great opportunity to take your students to “El Rastro”, Madrid’s famous flea market. We chose Madrid’s “El Rastro” as the scenario for our first long video because of everything that it has to offer to foreign language students. It’s always crowded, full of curious things, and it’s a place where people do the kind of things that are usually the topics of our lesson plans: shopping, traveling, eating… The “De Compras en el Rastro” DVD is divided in two parts: A 5 minute documentary which provides the basic information about this street market. A 17 minute story, in which your students will go to “El Rastro” with Alberto, Lucía, Raquel and Elena, the four main characters of the story. The DVD covers different topics, including the time, meeting people, relationships, transportation, buying a ticket, describing people, shopping, and birthday parties. The “De Compras en el Rastro” package includes a 28-page book full of activities, the answer key and the scripts of the DVD. You can order “De Compras en el Rastro” and the student’s books in the video section of this page. Please notice that the $15.00 transport fee only applies to orders below $80.00. When ordering student’s books, introduce the number of copies you’d like to pay for, and we’ll add a free book for every two purchases. News 2009-05-18T09:40:57+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/video_and_activities_to_teach_or_review_the_verb_gustar/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/video_and_activities_to_teach_or_review_the_verb_gustar/#When:22:45:34Z Many students struggle with this verb, and are not sure about where to place “no” or “mucho”, the difference between “gusta” and “gustan” or the use of the pronouns “me”, “te”, “le”, “nos” and “les”. We have added a new video to our icebreaker section about this topic. The activities that come with this video will help your students to solve those problems, while learning what Spaniards do in their free time. This icebreaker includes a 4-minute video filmed in Madrid, Barcelona, and Granada; an audio activity with native speakers talking about things they like; and a 7-pake PDF booklet with writing and grammar practice activities, the answer keys and the transcripts of the video and audio file. News 2009-04-17T22:45:34+00:00 http://www.bablingua.com/site/vamos_de_compras_come_with_your_students_to_la_calle_preciados_the_main_sho/ http://www.bablingua.com/site/vamos_de_compras_come_with_your_students_to_la_calle_preciados_the_main_sho/#When:11:08:56Z “Vamos de compras” contains a video and activities for Pre-intermediate students (A2, Spanish II) that are familiar with the basic shopping vocabulary, and who are ready to learn the “pretérito” of the regular verbs. This icebreaker contains: A 12-page PDF document with activities to get your students ready to understand the video. These activities are about the “pretérito”, shopping vocabulary, shopping conversations and vocabulary about fashion businesses. 6 audio activities and their transcripts and answer keys. A high resolution video that you can preview in our Icebreaker section. This is a great resource to explain the “pretérito” and to extend your student’s shopping vocabulary, while they enjoy a visit to one of Madrid’s more crowded and exciting streets. News 2009-04-01T11:08:56+00:00