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Ya está disponible la nueva edición de Inglés Volumen Práctico. Esencial en la preparación del examen práctico en las oposiciones a profesores de inglés de secundaria y de escuelas de idiomas, en todas las Comunidades Autónomas.

Los textos son, esencialmene, los mismos que en ediciones anteriores aunque en menor número.

Con la mayoría de los ejercicios de lengua para el práctico que había en las anteriores ediciones.

Incorporando nuevos ejercicios e integrándolos totalmente con los textos para analizar y para traducir.

Creemos que es una edición bastante mejorada para ayudaros mejor a preparar el práctico.

Os contamos, en inglés, los cambios que hemos hecho.

Inglés Volumen práctico now consists of 3 main parts

Part 1: Preliminaries. The contents of the “práctico” in the different Autonomous Regions

The first part aims at describing the types of questions and activities which have come out in the various Autonomous Regions. It provides some tips and/or theoretical aspects related to them. Since we are targeting all the regions, not all the elements will be relevant for the Autonomous Region of all candidates. Moreover, we welcome suggestions regarding aspects not incorporated here.

This section will be particularly useful as a reference for conceptual aspects such as phonetics and phonemic transcription; various types of text analysis including literary, lexical and cohesive devices; communicative functions; essay and summary writing; or some ideas for class use. For this last aspect, we recommend our book on Programación Didáctica for Secondary School teachers

And for those candidates who have translations, this first part provides some tips and techniques to bear in mind when approaching translations, so that they sound as natural and idiomatic as possible.

Part 2: Language practice, text analysis, summaries & class use

The second part of this Volumen Práctico focuses on various types of text analysis and, particularly, those not covered in our Análisis de Textos. Preguntas, textos y soluciones

It also includes a variety of language exercises, which in previous editions were separated from the text analysis. We have incorporated them into the text analysis because sometimes they are closely related to the text. Also, because in some Autonomous Regions there is a text for analysis or with questions on it, but also some other language exercises. These include:

• cognates,
• homonyms (both homographs and homophones),
• multiword verbs (aka phrasal verbs or verbal idioms)
• idiomatic expressions,
• synonyms, antonyms, classification into hypernyms,
• definition of words or expressions
• some paraphrases.

The type of text analysis varies to reflect texts which have appeared in the different Autonomous Regions, including proposals for class use and it consists of 26 texts in total. The last one came out in Valencia in 2004. This is a good example of how comprehensive the exam may be. Indeed, you should always bear in mind that just because the exam was of a specific kind one year does not necessarily mean that it will be the same the following year. You need, therefore, not to be too focused on just one type and we suggest you consider all the possible questions covered here rather than restrict yourself to just one. Besides, if there is something you feel we have not included, let the publishers or ourselves know and we’ll do our best to cover it in new editions or as a supplement.

Part 3: Translation Practice

The third part is for those −mostly Language School teachers, but also some Secondary school teachers in regions like Madrid− who have translations in their Language Exam.

This part came with the text analysis in previous editions. We have decided to separate it because, since not all the Autonomous Regions have translations, not all the candidates need to do this part. Besides, we have arranged it in such a way that, if you do the text analysis first and then, after a few days or even a week you do the translation practice, you’ll see how much more your vocabulary expands.

• There are 12 texts in English and 12 in Spanish (24 in total).
• Each text includes a warm-up activity.
• + 2 full mock exams, i.e. two texts in each. Three of the texts came out in Madrid at different times.

The  “warm-up” exercises in each text have been designed to revise or make you reflect on some of the vocabulary, idiomatic expressions or even whole sentences covered in the text analysis or in the translation text.

Then, you will find the text to translate. The section on translation in the first part of this Volumen Práctico suggests how to approach translation problems.

With an answer key and suggested versions

The last part is the suggested answer key. It has been divided into two sections:

• one for the text analysis and language exercises,
• the other for the translations.

When the question in the text analysis was a proposal for possible uses of the text in class, we have related it to our proposal for Syllabus Design for 1st CSE (see Inglés Programación Didáctica

We have taken into account the actual questions which have appeared in the language exam for Secondary Schools in Regions such as:

• Andalucía,
• Canary Islands
• Galicia
• Madrid

Official Schools of Languages tend to have language-related questions and translations in this part. Nevertheless, we feel that with the elements we have included in Part I of this Volumen Práctico you can get ideas on how to use a text in class for Official Schools too.

 Former students’ feedback

To design the questions, we have taken into account the feedback on exams and samples given to us by former students. Many of them hold posts as permanent teachers in the State Education System -both Secondary and Escuelas. From here, our acknowledgement and appreciation to them. Four of the texts included actually came out in different calls.

Likewise, we would like to thank Daniel W. de Iongh for his suggestions and contributions on verbal idioms. Also for editing this new version of the book.