BEING A TEACHER....

BEING A TEACHER IS A DIFFICULT TASK NOWADAYS, SO I DECIDED TO FOLLOW THIS PIECE OF ADVICE BY BRUCE LEE:

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

by Bruce Lee

lunes, 16 de mayo de 2016

THE NEWS & REPORTED SPEECH



I often present you some news that appear on the press. Well, have a close look at them and you will discover what the REPORTED SPEECH and the DIRECT SPEECH is all about. However, as a starter I will give you some hints:

REPORTED SPEECH

When you are reporting someone's words you've got two ways to do it:
  • using the exact words used by the speaker  >>>    DIRECT SPEECH  (Example:  'I'm tired', he said)

  • reporting the speaker's words    >>>   REPORTED SPEECH or INDIRECT SPEECH (Example: He said he was tired)

However, before we begin explaining how it works, we must say that the reported speech we will be talking about is a very artificial one as we suppose the situation in which the words were said and the situation in which the words were reported are completely different, but this is not always true. Actually, they may be exactly the same, as in the following example:

- "I have brought you here these exercises" (SITUATION: the teacher is speaking and the students are listening)
- One students raises his hand and says: "Pardon. What did you say?"
- "I have just said that I have brought you here these exercises." (There are no changes at all because the situation is exactly the same: the teacher is speaking and the students are listening at the same time and in the same place.)
Apart from this, remember that there are indirect ways of speaking like in the following sentences:
- I don't know what time it is (instead of 'What time is it?')
- I wonder where I can buy some bread (instead of 'Where can I buy some bread?')
- I don't know if Dad is at home. (instead of 'Is Dad at home?')
- Tell me how fast you can run. (instead of 'How fast can you run?')

Anyway, we will make all the possible changes in our examples and all these transformations are what we call the BACKSHIFT, which is a change that we make backwards. This BACKSHIFT affects three main areas:


  1. TENSES.- The changes are similar to the ones made in our language and the try to express the time gap there is between the moment of speaking and the time when the words were reported. Just remember to keep the time gap. For example, the past simple can stay the same or change into the past perfect. (Jane: "I arrived at 7"  >>  She said that she arrived / had arrived at 7"), but in the following example it is better to have it in the past perfect to keep the mentioned time gap: 'This is the present my boyfriend gave me yesterday', said Jane  >>   Jane said that was the present her boyfriend had given her the day before.)
  2. PERSONS.- The speaker is represented by the first person and the listener by the second person, while there are no changes in the third person. So there may be changes in the personal pronouns, possessive adjectives and pronouns...
  3. OTHER WORDS CONNECTED WITH TIME AND PLACE, which have to be learned by heart, although most of them are similar to our language.
Let's begin with this third area:

DIRECT SPEECH
REPORTED SPEECH
DIRECT SPEECH
REPORTED SPEECH
Now
Then
Three days ago
Three days before
This
That
Next Friday
The next Friday
These
Those
Tonight
That night
Here
There
Last week
The previous week, the week before
Yesterday
The day before, the previous day
tomorrow
The next day, the day after
Today
That day








Reported statements

Peter: "Money is the only thing I live for."   >>>  Peter said money was the only thing he lived for.

Reported questions

We've got two types of questions: WH-questions and Yes/No questions. Remember to undo the inversion because the reported question is actually a statement.

Pam: "Do you like my dress?"    Jim: "Yes, I do"   >>>  Pam asked if/whether he liked her dress and he answered he did.
Albert: "When are you going to read this book?"    >>>    Albert asked the students when they were going to read that book.

Reported orders and requests

A TO-INFINITIVE structure is required.

Mother: "Would you buy some bread for dinner, please?"   >>>  My mother asked me to buy some bread for dinner.


Students: "Don't give us any homework for tomorrow.">They asked Albert not to give them any homework for the next day.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE REPORTED SPEECH YOU CAN HAVE A LOOK HERE!!!!



And here are some Words in the News (BBC Learning English):



1 comentario:

  1. The giraffe is the tallest mammal animal in the world, for its gigant neck and its long paws. Thank to its height catch up the leaves and fruits from the top of the trees, what they feed on. Its height also is a disadvantage to drink water, they have to go down their huge neck towards the water well or pond. fortunately they don,’t need to drink much water, because the water which they need is obtained from the leaves.

    The giraffes live exclusively in Africa and can live from 20 to 25 year. It’s quirky animal, they have some spots on their body and quirky horns on their heard.

    A curiosity of this animal is that it sleeps standing up for very few hour, 5 or 6 hours a day because it is always on alert because it is an animal that is highly persecuted by tigers, lions, crocodiles… to be eaten.
    The truth is that seeing such a quirky animal is a great attraction, but for me it is very difficult to achieve.

    Fancisco José Prados Espinosa 3ºA

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