03 March 2012 / by Radmila Gurkova

The rain 'NOT' in Spain

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmU3iANbgk

''The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain''

Have you heard this expression before?
It is from My Fair Lady, a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.
It is very common for practicing pronunciation, especially of -ei-

 

However did you know that there has now ben no rain in Spain for three months?
This will be the direst period during the winter months since the 1940'sThe Spanish State Meteorological Agency - AEMET said that February would end without more rainfall and they now can confirm it is a drought. This is an 'EXTRAORDINARY DRY CHARACTER'.

In only three months Spain has seen 58 litres of rain per square metre.
It's not rained in Leon for 26 days and Barcelona for 44 days - This must be a record?
Is it a global PHENOMENON or just the usual deforestation?
In the coming months agricultural businesses will suffer putting more strain on economic and financial situation causing more disruption.

... now everyone sing along to the video!

DEBATE



  • What will happen if it doesn't rain in Spain all year long?

  • Is weather always the topic for SMALL TALK?

  • What are the other main points of discussion in Spain?


KEYWORDS




































































Word Image Definition Example Listen
Driest Superlative of dry. A dry climate; the driest season Listen
Drought Severe lack of water, no moisture Very hot countries have DROUGHTS Listen
Phenomenon A fact, circumstance, event Ipads are a relatively new phenomenon. Listen
Deforestation   To cut down the trees in a forest. Deforestation of the Amazon is shortening the life of the planet. Listen
Drink To ingest a liquid I drink coffee in the morning. Listen
Rain When water falls from the sky It was raining all day Listen
Weather   What the temperature and climate is like. The weather was beautiful Listen
Longest Superlative of long Ana's hair is the longest in the class. Listen

 GRAMMAR STRUCTURES 

Click here to learn more about homophones

Click here to find out the difference between plain and plane

10

April 2015
Be brainy: Multiple intelligences theory
by Vincent Chieppa
...

07

April 2015
It's never too late to learn how to teach
by Elena Riches
As we grow older it’s all very easy to sit and wonder why we didn't do certain things before it became ‘too late’.  And whenever I hear people say, ‘I wish I’d done this’ my response is always, “What’s stopping you from doing it now?”, a question that usually stops a person in their tracks and makes them think. ...

03

April 2015
How to... set up audio-visual discussion topics
by Vincent Chieppa
...

30

March 2015
What is intonation and why teach it?
by Elena Riches
What is intonation? The term 'intonation' refers to the linguistic use of pitch to convey meaning of a sentence and/or word and during your life as a TEFL teacher you will come across students who will have difficulty using intonation and stress in the correct manner - this means they may not...

27

March 2015
Task-based language teaching: 6 tools for task force teachers
by Vincent Chieppa
...

24

March 2015
'Schwa' - unstressed syllables
by Elena Riches
Before I was taught how to teach English, by Oxbridge TEFL, I had no idea that the word "schwa" existed. Today, I'm writing about the 'schwa', which isn't (incidentally) about the pronunciation of words such as 'Schwartz' and 'Schwarzkopf'...it's about ...

20

March 2015
New teaching techniques: Sparking inspiration
by Vincent Chieppa
The era of “chalk and talk” is over.  We as teachers know that we need to incorporate new teaching techniques seeing that nowadays simply presenting information to our students is just not enough.  Students have to engross themselves in what they are being taught, they need to discover the worth of what we teach them and it is our job to igni...

17

March 2015
ESL - Common Mistakes Students Make
by Elena Riches
In my last blog post I listed a few 'false friends' - English words that students confuse with words from their own language - in this one, I'm going to talk about common mistakes. Every single day, at least one student ...

12

March 2015
Games people play: No-prep ESL games for all ages
by Vincent Chieppa
...

10

March 2015
False Friend
by Elena Riches
For anyone who's never taught English or taken an advanced English course, you could be forgiven for assuming that a 'false friend' is someone who pretends to like you when they don't. However, a false friend is in fact a word or phrase in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look...