Bye Andrea

This is good...

More students leaving :(

Madiya's last day :(

Thanks to Ali for the photos!

Used to - grammar practice

Pre Intermediate level - New English File course book, File 7 

https://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/preint/?cc=global&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

Photos

Elementary A, November 2014 

:)

FREE online ACADEMIC ENGLISH course, starting 19th January, 2015

A Beginner's Guide to Writing in English for University Study

Learn how to use English for study at university or college and develop your writing skills, vocabulary and grammar.

You need IELTS 4.5 or above.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/english-for-study

Goodbye pic

MOSI PIC

Library, 21 August

Tasks today:

(1) Writing

(a) Do the writing task we have prepared today, from the book.

then

(b) Write a short blog post (on the class blog) about the museum visit or REPLY to a blog post written by another student. Discuss what you saw, what you liked, which exhibits were explained well, what you learnt, what you didn't like, etc.

(2) Do your corrections of previous written work, with your partner.


Leaving ceremony: 5.45 p.m.

EXTRA TASKS

(3) Look at the new Cambridge web site to see what it offers you that is useful:
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=teaching+support+update+33&utm_content=teaching+support+update+33+version+b+cid_bb9c14c8027fe185179f55a44547c56a&utm_source=campaign%20monitor%20stakeholders%20relations&utm_term=take%20a%20look

(4) Think of something that you need to improve - e.g. the present perfect? articles and quantifiers? gerunds? - and find some online tasks or games to practise it.

NEW NCM PHOTOS added to the photos page

Hi students,

Don't forget to look at the photos page :)

FREE online course - British Culture

from the British Council....

Exploring English: Language and Culture

This course for learners of English looks at British culture and examines English in use to help you improve your language skills.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/explore-english-language-culture

Reading and Writing task

Task 1

Do you need to write essays in English?

How do you organise an essay?

What makes an essay better?

Task 2 - Writefix.com

1.     How many basic sections should an essay have?

2.     Find the ‘5 steps’ for writing a good essay. Do you agree?

3.     What is a thesis sentence, and where do you write it?

4.     Find some ideas about organising the body of the essay: how many sentences in each paragraph?

5.     Tell your group some useful things you discovered.

Homework

6.     Look at some example introductions.

7.     Write an introduction for this essay: ‘Theme parks are the most popular destination for family days out’.

Writing: a professional style guide from 'The Economist'

Hi

This is my newest discovery: a how-to-write-well guide from the excellent magazine, The Economist, for professional writers.

http://www.economist.com/styleguide/introduction

It's organised alphabetically, so just search through it for what you want.

It contains gems of information such as:

'Long paragraphs, like long sentences, can confuse the reader. “The paragraph”, according to Fowler, “is essentially a unit of thought, not of length; it must be homogeneous in subject matter and sequential in treatment.” One-sentence paragraphs should be used only occasionally.'

Remember that these are rules for CLEAR WRITING, not for writing IELTS ESSAYS,which are somewhat different (though not very different - clarity is still key!)





Link on Writing Page

New link added to the WRITING page

Manchester University's guides to writing CVs and covering letters, etc. - longer documents, to download - lots of detail plus examples.

http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/services/downloads/startingpointseriesofhandouts/

Thanks to Rocio for these!

Library tasks - 16 July 2014

Hi Students,

Your tasks for this lesson:

1. Please create a Gmail/Google login if you don't have one.

2. Write a job application letter (minimum 20 minutes - on your own.)

3. Review future tenses, using the documents for practice (paper tasks) or links on my blog - with a partner, if you like.

4. If you're confident with future tenses, do some self-study: choose a topic with a partner, and look at web links on this blog to help you . Make notes about what you find out. You will report back to the class afterwards.

5. Tutorials: I will do tutorials with 2 or 3 students (Majed, Jiny, and Jun).

Thanks,
Jane

A History of the world in 100 objects - listening, writing and speaking

With your partners, look at the web site of the British Museum and/or the BBC about A History of the world in 100 objects.

Choose at least one object and listen to the talk. 
Discuss what you heard with your partner - why was the object significant enough to be included in this list?

Listen again. Write a short summary of the object:

• what it is
• when and where it's from
• why it is in the list
• what you think about it
• etc.

(If you finish early, choose another object.)

Work on this until 4pm, when we will share our writing with the other groups and discuss what we listened to.

Tutorials:

2.55 Jiny

3.10 Majed

3.25 Sayer

3.40 Rasheed

(Next week - Jun.)

After break - room 3.1

Wednesday 2nd July

Hi!

Today's tasks:

(1) In pairs of one 'old' student and one 'new' student please do your corrections from previous writing tasks: COPY the whole text, paste it underneath my comments, and remove as many mistakes as you can. Talk about it together. Ask me if you're not sure.

(2) We're going to have a blog discussion today, using the class blog. The first pair of students to finish writing will write a blog post on a topic somehow connected to 'The Economy'. 

(i) Other students will respond by creating new posts replying to the first student. (Please don't use the comments boxes, as it would get even more confusing!)


(ii) In your post, make it clear WHO you are replying to.

(iii) Remember the conversation will flow upwards: the newest posts will be at the top. Try to comment on everything that people say which is controversial or interesting.

Photo!

I've been forgettinfg to post photos here recently.

This one's from Maitham.

Wednesday - library

1. Writing task - page 137.


2. Please look at your corrections from last week, in pairs. (COPY your writing and PASTE it below the original text. Using this COPIED TEXT, correct your mistakes with your partner's help.)


3. After that, if you have time left:

(a) Look at other links on this blog to help with your weakest skills. 

(b) Read this amazing story of endurance:
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/12-marathons-214-mountains-and-four-everests-in-under-a-week


(c) Look at the Student Zone on the National Geographic site:
http://www.ngllife.com/
See what you can find that will be useful in your studies.


Tutorials this week:
Vicente
Fah
Ozlem
Aziz