Archive for July, 2009

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The summer transfer window is now in full swing with Real Madrid and Manchester City having spent most of the cash so far. Here is an additional list of phrases and terms connected with transfers to go along with our earlier post on the topic.

VOCABULARY

To be unveiled: When a new transfer has gone through; to be revealed
Example: Kolo Toure was revealed as a Manchetser City player this week. continue

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The new season has nearly started and languagecaster.com has asked some fans what they think about their teams chances in the next year of football. We kick off this series of posts with Dave, a Manchester City supporter reflecting on the new money at his club and the possibility of breaking into the top four in the Premier League.

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Listening Practice

Click here to try our online listening quiz.

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Transcript

Damon: Hello Dave.

Dave: How you doing?

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languagecaster’s produces one podcast every week during the European football season. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here. In this post we focus on how students of English can improve their English listening skills from with these podcast.

Main Elements of the Podcast

• First – a review (Listen to the podcast and read in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly posts)
• Second – a main piece of about 5 minutes (You need to download the worksheet with answers and transcript so you can practice while you listen. languagecaster.com has over 100 worksheets to go with the audio from the podcasts)
• Third – English for football – phrases to help you talk about football (The audio and transcript can be found here)
• Fourth – Predictions (We talk about future games and guess the scores – languagecaster looks at several interesting games each week. You can see the predictions if you check out the D & D’s Predictions posts)

Here is an image to show what is on the podcast.

Download the pdf of the picture with active links

For teachers there is more information and ideas here.

Steven Gerrard walks free, David Beckham may walk but John Terry won’t. The three England players dominated the football news this week with Gerrard being found not guilty of affray, David Beckham rumoured to be on his way out of LA and rumours of John Terrry’s transfer to Manchester City still not going away. Come along to the site to read about these and other stories from the football world this week.

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FEATURED POSTS

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

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PREDICTION

It seems that America is fallng out of love with David Beckham. Read the article on the former England captain’s current troubles at his club LA Galaxy. Vocabulary in bold is explained at the end of the post to help you with comprehension.

David Beckham’s return to LA after his Italian break has not proved to be as welcoming as he might have expected. First on the attack was newly-restored Galaxy captain Landon Donovan who questioned Beckham’s commitment to the team after the former England captain extended his stay at Serie A side AC Milan at the end of last season. Next up were the New York fans who made Beckham’s first MLS appearance for nearly six months an uncomfortable one in Galaxy’s 3-1 victory last week. continue

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Teaching Ideas

Though it’s hard to believe not everyone is a fan of football. In the first of our series of interviews with people who just don’t like the game, Alan from Scotland tells us why a 5-4 ‘thriller’ left him completely bored. Listen here to the interview. To help you understand there are some comprehension questions, as well as a vocabulary list containing the words in bold at the foot of this post.

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Vélez Sarsfield pipped Huracán to the Clausura championship in Argentina, Benzama and Ronaldo are officially unveiled at Real Madrid, Kashima, despite drawing with Kawasaki in Japan’s J-League, have opened up a healthy gap at the top of the league. But perhaps the biggest news was the shock signing of former Liverpool star, Michael Owen, for Manchester United. Meanwhile, there is also the small matter of the Copa Libertadores – going into the second leg in Brazil, Cruzeiro and Estudiantes are drawing 0-0.

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Check out this week’s featured post - Teaching Ideas: (Listening) Being a Fan – Arsenal

And listen to something from our back catalogue – The Premier league’s ‘Big Four’

Automatically receive the podcast each week by clicking on the icon

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PREDICTION

Last week’s finale in Argentina between Huracán and Vélez Sarsfield ended with a 1-0 victory to Vélez. And that means no points for either Damon or Damian, who both thought Huracán would win the championship.

The result – Velez Sarsfield 1 – 0 Huracan – (Damon 2 – 0 – Damian)

This week, we turn our eyes to the Copa Libertadores.  The first leg was a tight 0-0 draw, So, who will win the biggest club competition in South America, Brazilian Cruzeiro or Argentinian Estudiantes?

Damon: Cruzeiro 1-0 Estudiantes - Cruzeiro, doing badly in the league, will win the cup

Damian: Cruzeiro 1-1 Estudiantes - A draw and Estudiantes to win.

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FOOTBALL LANGUAGE

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This week’s QUIZ QUESTION:

Michael Owen is a world famous striker. His father was also a footballer and also a striker. For which team did his father, Terence Owen, score 41 goals in the 1970s?

a) Everton

b) Chester City

c) Tranmere Rovers

d) Crewe Alexandria

Answer next week.

The answer to last week’s question, ‘How many titles has Huracan won’ was a) 1

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This week’s POLL

This week’s poll asks which team do you think will win the 2009 / 10 Premier League? Go to the site, click on your choice in the side bar and leave a comment.

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Write to us at admin@languagecaster.com if you want to have your say on our weekly podcast.

You can also follow us at Twitter

Come along to our online shop and browse books and DVDs related to football and English language teaching and learning.

For all students of the beautiful game

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In this teaching ideas post we listen to Manchester City fan Dave explain why he supports the Blues and not the Reds from his hometown of Manchester. Vocabulary in bold is explained at the end of the post

• Download the worksheet here
• Listen to the interview here

Why Manchester City? That’s a very good question. I know that in Japan and in many other countries most people know or have heard about Manchester United of course – a very famous team. However, you may be interested to know that there is another team in Manchester and the team is called Manchester City. continue