Author: Ana Granado

ANSWER KEYS FOR Student’s Book page 54, Exercise 1 (a-f): VOCABULARY & PRONUNCIATION – music, words from other languages.

Before working on this week’s topic in depth, let’s start doing some vocabulary related to it. We will study ‘loanwords’. Do you know what a ‘loanword’ is? Have a look at this definition.

Find here some examples of loanwords in English from different languages: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-words-from-other-languages/. From Spanish, English has borrowed words like guerrilla, macho, patio, plaza, piñata, siesta…

Now, it’s time for you to do some practice. Go to your Student’s Book on page 54 and do Exercise 1 (a-f): VOCABULARY & PRONUNCIATION – music, words from other languages. The keys will be uploaded on the blog for you to check them.

HOW DOES MUSIC AFFECT YOUR EMOTIONS?

MUSIC is a common phenomenon that crosses all borders of nationality, race, and culture. A tool for arousing emotions and feelings, music is far more powerful than language.  We could say that it is described as a “language of emotion” across cultures.

Let’s try now this WORLD MUSIC QUIZ: https://www.themusiclab.org/quizzes/fc.

This is an experiment conducted by researchers at Harvard University to study how the mind works. They are investigating how people make sense of music they hear. They will play you some sounds and then, they will ask you questions about what you hear. The experiment takes less than 10 minutes. IT’S WORTH IT!!

Music has the ability to evoke powerful emotional responses such as chills and thrills in listeners.

Listening to music is an easy way to alter mood or relieve stress. People use music in their everyday lives to regulate, enhance, and diminish undesirable emotional states (e.g., stress, fatigue).

Time now to listen to a TED TALK called ‘Music and emotion through time’ by Michael Tilson Thomas, an all-around music educator — connecting with global audiences, young musicians and concertgoers in San Francisco and London.

After watching the video, you will have to do a SUMMARY of his talk (this week’s task – LISTENING & MEDIATION).

The deadline is the 12th of May!!

Before doing your summary, look carefully at the following tips:

WHAT IS A SUMMARY?

In the next video you will find some key points about how to write effective summaries:

Once you have done your summary and before send it to me, ask yourself these questions:

Steps to make sure your summary is good:

• Is the summary economical and precise?
• Is the summary neutral in its representation of the original author’s ideas, omitting the writer’s own opinions?
• Does the summary reflect the proportionate coverage given various points in the original text?
• Are the original author’s ideas expressed in the summary writer’s own words?
• Does the summary use attributive tags (such as ‘Michael argues’) to remind readers whose ideas are being presented?
• Does the summary quote sparingly (usually only key ideas or phrases that cannot be said precisely except in the original author’s own words)?
• Will the summary stand alone as a unified and coherent piece of writing?
• Is the original source cited so that readers can locate it?” – John C. Bean.

AND REMEMBER…

ANSWER KEYS FOR Student’s Book, Grammar Bank 5B – page 141.

ANSWER KEYS FOR Student’s Book, Reading – page 50.

WHAT DOES REGRET MEANS?

Regret means: to feel bad, sad, or sorry about your behavior or actions in the past.

We can feel regret about things we did and things we did not do.

• I regret going to the party. It was not fun.
• I regret not going to the party. I heard it was fun.

Everybody experiences regret. Some of us feel regret on a regular basis, so it is important to know how to express regret in English.

Before we learn how to express regret, remember that we can have big regrets and small regrets. We use these sentences for major things as well as trivial things.

Some examples of major regrets could be:

• I regret not marrying her.
• I should have quit smoking a long time ago.

Some trivial regrets could be things like:

• I should have ordered a hamburger like you. This salad is not delicious.
• I regret eating that cookie. I’m going to gain weight.

Now, let’s see some different ways that we can use to express regret. All of these are very common in spoken and written English.

1. I should have + past participle / I shouldn’t have + past participle

• I should have called you. I am sorry.
• I should have gone to bed earlier last night. I am so tired today.
• We shouldn’t have bought this house. It is too big for us.
• I shouldn’t have said that. I am sorry.

Note:This only expresses regret when used with the subjects “I” or “We”. With other subjects, this sentence pattern shows that the speaker thinks the other person made a mistake. For example, “He shouldn’t have quit his job. Why did he do that?”.

2. I wish (that) I had + past participle / I wish (that) I hadn’t + past participle

• I wish I had studied English harder when I was young.
• He wishes I had married her.
• I wish that I hadn’t bought this stock.
• We wish that we hadn’t moved to Los Angeles. We miss New York.

3. I regret + gerund / I regret not + gerund

• I regret ordering this.
• She regrets opening a coffee shop.
• They regret not practicing hard.
• We regret not telling you the truth.

If a person no longer feels regret, then we could use “regret” in the past tense.

• She regretted buying the shirt, but now she likes it.
• At first, we regretted moving to Los Angeles, but it is growing on me.

4. If only I had + past participle / If only I hadn’t + past participle

• If only I had listened to my mother’s advice.
• If only we hadn’t invited him, the party would have been perfect.

Note:This only expresses regret when used with the subjects “I” or “We”. With other subjects, this sentence pattern shows that the speaker thinks the other person made a mistake. For example, “If only he had married her, his life would be so much better.”

Watch this video about ‘Expressing regret in English’ which is very clear and illustrative as well as entertaining and funny.

Now that you know different ways to express regret in English, go to your Student’s Book on page 141, Grammar Bank 5B ‘Structures after wish‘ to learn more about wish + would, and practise it doing the exercises there.

After that, practise your reading skill and go to your Student’s Book on page 50, read the text ‘REGRETS, WE’VE HAD A FEW (OUR LOVE LIVES, HEALTH, CHILDHOODS…) and do its corresponding activities.

The keys for both tasks will be uploaded on the blog for you for self-correcting.

Your turn!

Once you have done that, we are going to talk about regrets. You are going to record a video (max. 3 minutes) talking about things you regret having or not having done in the past.

To do so, you will need your mobile phone or a computer with a webcam.

1) Think about what you are going to say ( I recommend making an outline first!)

2) If you are going to use your computer, go to https://info.flipgrid.com/. If you are going to use your phone, dowload the App Flipgrid.

3) Go to the box that says “Enter a flipgrid code” and introduce the code I sent you by email, then click on the arrow.

4) Read the instructions and the tip and then click on “Record a response” or on the round green icon with a white cross.

5) It will ask for a gmail or Microsoft email address (hotmail and msn emails are valid). Introduce an email address and you can record your video.

6) You can also watch your classmates’ videos and reply if you want!

You have until the 5th of May to do this!

Finally, enjoy the song ‘My way’ by Frank Sinatra with https://es.lyricstraining.com/:

Regrets, I’ve had a few
but then again, too few to mention.

…

And more, much, much more
I did it, I did it my way.

MY WAY (AUDIO): https://es.lyricstraining.com/play/frank-sinatra/my-way-audio/HMdGuRF1qM

MY WAY (LIVE): https://es.lyricstraining.com/play/frank-sinatra/my-way-live/H6w0ZDL7c6

Practise your English, sing, enjoy and have fun!