Diego's Quintos

ON SPEAKING When it comes to dealing with  speaking , independently of approaches, and even methods, I have observed that we must always bear in mind not only the principle that the student should be led from the easiest to the most difficult aspects of the language ( Situational  and  notional-functional  don’t, for instance) but also that of taking him from the most controlled to the least controlled or freest speaking activities. Evidently, methods based on a behaviourist approach will favour the former, whereas those that follow cognitivism will prefer the latter. Thus, to be effective, a syllabus should go through different phases: controlled, semi-controlled and free speaking activities, but also making sure that they do co-exist at the same level, although control may be reduced (oral drills) as the learner goes up the scale and eventually reaches, let me call it “the debate stage”. Considering this coexistence, I have got to the conclusion that even at high levels,

USEFUL LINKS   Remember to click on link and then on the light blue field that says "Go to link...." PUC Past Papers Edited by Junta de Andalucía, Educación Permanente de Adultos Here you can have a look at C1 past exams. At the moment of writing this, they have uploaded only September 2014. http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/webportal/web/educacion-permanente/idiomas   Good Dictionaries Merriam-Webster Monolingual: Good definitions, good examples; very clear. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suggest Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary Very good examples. http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/suggest Merriam-Webster visual Dictionary Excellent, especially for those things whose names you do not know in Spanish. http://www.visualdictionaryonline.com/ A Bilingual Online: VOX Very clear; it even has “rape” (one of the two names it has in English). You have a limited number of uses, 10 I think), but