30 December 2011 / by Radmila Gurkova

London 2012: Athlete turns to eBay in search of sponsor

An athlete from London is seeking a sponsorship deal for the 2012 Olympics on the auction site eBay...

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTCtDxsijdI

James Ellington, 26, is advertising on the site with a reserve of £30,000 (€35,000) from any sponsor willing to assist. He will wear a sponsor’s branded kit in full training to the run-up to the Olympics.


James is a sprinter. He was injured in 2010 and is preparing for the games but with no support.

He said “I now need a sponsor who can help me commit myself to getting into Team GB and win a medal for Great Britain at London 2012”.

James has run the fastest 200m by a British athlete this year - 20.52 seconds.

DEBATE



  • Do you know what eBay is?

  • What types games are played at the Olypmic Games?

  • What can you buy on eBay?

  • Name any websites that sell things? Types of Products -
    Clothes, Cars, Houses, Food..?


 VOCABULARY




































































Word
Definition Example Listen
Comit To entrust, especially for safekeeping Asked if he was a candidate, he refused to commit himself. Listen
Fastest Superlative of fast, faster than everyone else. Usain Bolt is the fastest  Listen
Identity The condition of being oneself or itself He doubted his own identity. Listen
Injured To be hurt after an accident. I got injured when I fell. Listen
Qualifies To provide with proper or necessary skills, knowledge, credentials To qualify oneself for a job.  Listen 
Sponsor To promise money to someone if they complete a challenge. I'll sponsor you €5  Listen 
Sponsorship Financial help for a project Messi has a sponsorship deal with Nike. Listen 
Successful To have reached a goal Our company is very successful. Listen  

GRAMMAR


To understand more about the use of "was/were" click here for the grammar structure post.

What about using 'much' and 'many'? Do you know when to properly use each word? Click here for a useful post.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE




 

15

July 2016
ESL Course Design for the 2016-2017 Academic Year
by Max Zaman
With another academic year coming to a close, the teachers of Oxbridge Barcelona began to reflect on the year behind them and plan the ESL courses for the 2016-2017 academic year. We began by brainstorming on the activities and teaching methods that were well received by the students, but more importantly, helped students advance their Englis...

11

July 2016
Grading activities. Creating unified criteria.
by Rob Wylie
In all of our classes we use activities which are written by us, the teachers, but how can we ensure that the activities work during a class? Here at Oxbridge we have adopted a five-star rating system for grading activities to ensure that we are able to evaluate all activities not onl...

07

July 2016
Can a non-native teach English? No way!
by Marjan Van Rij
“Where are you from?” is usually one of the first questions I get when I meet students for the first time. I am from the Netherlands (which isn't Holland by the way but that’s a different story). “But English is not the official language of the Netherlands, right?” Yes, that's right. Our official language ...

04

July 2016
English prepositions are easy with the in-on-at pyramid
by Marjan Van Rij
Are your students struggling to memorize the prepositions? Moreover isn’t it a bit confusing to explain all different examples? Why are my hands on the table, am I in the building and at the desk? Don’t worry. In, on and at is often confused among Spanish ESL students. Probably because these three prepositions can be translated to one Spanish...

01

July 2016
Are you capable of learning English?
by Marjan Van Rij
One of my students told me after his two-hour class by videoconference that he felt very comfortable because he was able to follow most of it. Still he didn’t feel comfortable enough to speak at any time. He is at a beginner’s level but far from a beginner. I am talking about a middle-aged man who has been studying English almost his entire l...

01

July 2016
Criteria for good activities
by Ana Garza
Here are some conclusions we, Madrid teachers, arrived to when discussing What do good activities include? These are internal working standards that we are now setting in order to unify criteria for what good activities should contain. Now we have more clues on what others mean...

29

June 2016
Why don’t we translate while we teach English?
by Marjan Van Rij
“... and all other things.” I saw the look in his eyes: panic. “Things? What is things?” Oops, I didn’t know this was a new word. Mentally slapping myself in the face for my own stupidity, I started explaining the word “thing”. I pointed at different objects in the room while using the word “thing” and referred to myself ...

03

June 2016
How to use cognates for beginners
by Max Zaman
When students make the decision to step into the classroom to learn English, they often nervous and feel intimidated. For them it is as if they are entering a new world where nothing looks familiar. Thus they can become withdrawn and shy. The situation can be difficult for the TEFL teacher as well as they struggle to connect with the students...

30

March 2016
The importance of teaching practice in TEFL training
by Rafael Olivares
Teaching English is a very complex process that involves knowledge about linguistics as well as about educational psychology. However, like everything else in life, there is the theory and then the reality. There is a Chinese proverb that says: I hear and I forget... I see and I remember... I do and I understand. This holds so very true...

02

March 2016
The power of dissatisfaction
by Ana Garza
Dissatisfaction tends to be associated with something negative, but it's actually quite powerful when one uses it wisely. One of the problems it brings is that its consequence tends to be criticising –and it ends up there. But the other day I read something that said that people who were satisfied with their ...