Barcelona - An Introduction

Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain, is a modern and cosmopolitan place located on the north-east coast of Spain. Today almost 4.5 million people live in the Barcelona metropolitan area.

The city is 160 kilometres south of the Pyrenees mountain range, and lies at an altitude of 4 metres above sea level. The area around Barcelona has a wealth of attractions including the laid-back resort towns on the Costa Brava, north of the city towards the French border.

Barcelona is a typical Mediterranean city, not only due to its geographical location, but also because of its history and cultural influences. There are two official languages spoken in Barcelona: Catalan, generally spoken in all of Catalonia, and Castilian Spanish.

Get spectacular views over the city and the coast line from the hills of Tibidabo and Montjuich. Wander the old streets for plenty of examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Modernist architecture. Discover more about one of Spain's most famous architects: Antoni Gaudf.

Barcelona also has a lot of interesting museums, art galleries (with significant collections by Picasso and Miro), theatres and restaurants where you can tuck into typical Catalan and Spanish dishes. At night, enjoy some of the trendiest nightclubs and discos in Europe.

There are six beaches in Barcelona, totalling 4.2 kilometres of golden sands. They have all the facilities and services necessary for people to enjoy a pleasant and safe day at the beach.

Now answer the questions: NAME:

1) Where in Spain is Barcelona?

□ in the south-west □ in the north-east □ in the south-east

2) How many people live in the city? choose one ...

3) Which mountain range is nearest to Barcelona? choose one ...

4) What are the two most common languages spoken in Barcelona? choose one ...

5) Name a famous Barcelona architect:

6) How many beaches are there in Barcelona?

□ three □ four □ five D six

7) How long are the beaches, in total?
choose one ...

Now print this out and give it to your teacher, or send it by email.

Using TrackChanges

Word comes with certain 'document tracking' or 'versioning' tools built in. These tools allow documents to be shared among a group of users, with each user's changes and edits highlighted in a different colour and identified by their initials (or by the user name used to install the word processor originally). When a document has been edited using these tools, any changes made by the second writer (format changes, word order, deletions, inserted comments, and so on) will be highlighted for the original author to see. The original author can then choose to accept or reject each suggested change. Teachers can use TrackChanges to provide feedback on a learner's written work. The learner's text can be corrected by the teacher using TrackChanges, or comments added suggesting how the learner might improve their own work. TrackChanges also offers possibilities in terms of peer review and correction of written work. A basic use of TrackChanges in Word might look like this:

• Learner A finishes her document and sends it to Learner B.

• Learner B turns on TrackChanges, edits the document and returns it.

• Learner A edits the document, accepting or rejecting Learner B's suggestions.

• Learner A sends the document to her teacher.

• The teacher turns on TrackChanges, edits the document and sends it back.

• Learner A examines her teacher's suggestions and makes a final edit.

Using Markin

This is another Windows program that aids the correction of word processed work from learners. It comes with a series of tools for marking up grammar mistakes, spelling errors, word order and other common errors, using a series of abbreviations which will be familiar to most teachers ('sp' for spelling, for example) and different colours for different types of errors. Once the teacher has finished correcting a text, it can be returned as a word processed document, or uploaded to a web server as a webpage. It can even be mailed from within the program itself.

In many ways, then, Markin can replace the TrackChanges tool we looked at above. Experimentation with both options will help you to decide which is best for you. It's worth bearing in mind that Markin was developed by teachers, and is therefore both more teacher-friendly, and more suitable for teaching purposes, than TrackChanges, which is an all-purpose tool. The advantage of TrackChanges is obviously that it is built in, and does not cost anything. Markin costs Ј20 at the time of writing (http://www.cict.co.uk/software/ markin/index.htm).

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1598