Celebrations and Demonstrations

For Thomas...
There aren't any (books) left.
There isn't one left.
X-There aren't any one left.


Here are some of the things on the board today.  There MAY BE a quiz tomorrow...



Vocabulary
Ice Rink
Audience (which is) clapping
Tom Cruise signing an autograph
spectators cheering
a parade
a protest march
chanting
banners
demonstration (like our neighbours at #OccupyDameStreet)

Set Phrases
"I prefer ---ing."
"and the crowd goes wild!"
"cheers" = "thanks"
"three cheers for Alex… Hip HIP: HOORAY"


Remember:
The goal is to extend the conversation and help the other person understand your answer.  Finishing first is not the goal.

Pronunciation stuff:
Two sounds that should be different for you are the æ sound in laugh (yes that's the American version which is also used in Ireland.  The other is the schwa sound the ə sound, that's the sound we really hear in one and love.  Here's a protest song to prove it. Listen to the ə in ONE and LOVE.

Water Week: Thursday

http://www.scss.tcd.ie/~whipplej/ces/UpperIntRecordings/

This is where you will find your recordings.  Use your notes sheet to find the thing I noticed.  See what you can notice.

Water Week: Tuesday

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H₂O. A water molecule contains oneoxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by

This kind of definition is what we call OVER-EXPLICIT.  This means it gives us too much information about something.

The opposite for example "Water is going to be more important in the future" leaves me feeling like I missed the conversation.

Today we are going to see the Surface Tension Exhibition at the Science Gallery at the far side of Trinity College, Dublin.  Dublin is uniquely the only city in Europe not to have water charges on domestic use.  Some people say that we need to do what everyone else in Europe does.  Some people say we have more rain than anywhere else in Europe- so why should we pay?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland

Wikipedia's article was written over the last 10 years and as an occasional contributor, I understand how the editing process works.  It is a fairly accurate account of what is happening.

I have some questions for you to answer by using Ctrl + F or just scanning:

1. Are there water charges in Dublin?
2. Were there water charges in Dublin?
3. According to this article does Ireland have the lowest rate of tax in Europe?
4. What percent of water is used by agriculture and industry together in Ireland?
5. Tell me two things about John Gormley.

Today the Irish National Budget is being announced to the people.  You will see it in the Evening Herald (€1.20) Many people believe that soon a water charge will apply to every household. Maybe this is what the new household charge will pay for.  My brother in law works for a water company in the United States.  That company didn't exist before cities started privatizing water.

Everyone needs water.  No one can choose not use it.  Pay for it or fight for it.

------

Questions to answer at the Science Gallery about your exhibit:

• What is it?
• How big is it?
• What  is it designed to help you consider?
• What did you think about when you were there?
• Take a picture of it.
• What do you think other people were thinking when they saw it?
• -Did they "get" it the same way you did?

Tell us about 1 or 2 or 3 of these tomorrow in class.  Talk to us for about 2 minutes.  Good luck 

• See if you can learn more about your exhibit on it on this page http://www.sciencegallery.com/surfacetension/exhibits

This is just for fun.  I hope you enjoy it.

Water Week: Monday

Okay guys, here's the plan.

Monday: pages 64-65- How to "Using Imperatives as Advice"
Tuesday: Visit Trinity's Science Gallery
Wednesday: Individual Presentations on one of the Science Gallery installations
Thursday: Paired production on Water
Friday: Student's Choice

Can you do these things from the lesson today:

• Use a gerund for a subject
• Use the infinitive (even BE) as an imperative

...Oh this is easier.

Homework:

Give me a set of advice of how to improve your pronunciation.  3 do's & 3 don't's

Learner Journals ...2.

Your Journal

Your Journal is a distillation of all the new things you learn each day.  You list a maximum of three things.  Each one needs an example of how you learned to use it.  These need to be personal examples which are true from your life.  You can note grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary.  Every few days hand it in to me for review.  I will read through it and clearly point out any mistakes or errors.

How to start--

Put your name on the front and the level and room.

Use the inside cover as a record of any words which are difficult to spell.

Date, Time, Day and Teacher for each lesson's page.

Do's and Don't's

• Don't use this as a notebook.
• Don't write lists of new words. Remember only three things per lesson.  It is not supposed to be everything.  Everything goes in your notebook.  This is three favorites.  
• Do write good examples of new words in use.
• Do note things which were not the main point of the day.
• Do write about new things only.  
• Don't note things you learned in other lessons.  Focus on what you got out of that experience.
• Do be specific.
• Do give real life examples.
• Don't write: "will and going to for future" because you already knew that.
• Don't write: "going to is for future plans" because it's not specific
• Do write: "'(be) going to go to' is used interchangeably with '(be) going to'" 
• Don't write: "We are going to go to the park." as an example.
• Do write: For example "We are going to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend." =   "We are going to go to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend."  

This shows your understanding and is specific enough for me to understand that this is an example from your real life.  It is most important to be able to talk about things you know you.  They are what you will talk about most often.  Write about what you know, what you are learning and what you do.

Use one page for me and one page for Bayveen.  These journals cost about 22 cents each.  Use them up and buy yourself a present when you get to the end of each one.  A coffee costs about the same as ten of them.  So go nuts.

If you can't find three new things from your notes, the pages or the homework, it's good feedback for me.  If you aren't getting anything new out of the lessons, this is how I will find out. 

The last pages of the notebook can be used as writing space for homework and classroom assignments. 

Good luck.  (And when you get back to your home country you can look over this journal and sell it to a local publisher.  Send us a Christmas card when you are rich and famous.)

A weak week.

This is pretty lame.  I am letting the blog slip as I start catching up on my dissertation.  It is rather important.

The least I could have done was post the whiteboard shots.  So here you are.

Wednesday, Wednesday

There will always be accuracy problems if you are communicating fast but I want you to reduce them as much as possible.  Verb tense errors are errors which seem easy to fix but early elementary mistakes can carry on until Upper-Intermediate.  How did we fix these errors and what did you learn.?

I go one minute to the toilet

Where have you been?

                                            I have a headache.

What I think it will happen didn't happen.

ACCURACY IS STILL IMPORTANT... if you want to be more than a worker.  If you want to be a leader you have to do more than survive in English.  You have to try to be excellent.

-We learned about future tenses.

-We tried reducing the words in the phrase "I'm going to make a pizza"

-We explored using noun phases with question words at their heads like the "what you want" the classic Rolling Stones song "You can't always get what you want."
 

You also did your writing project on the books which you need to finish for Friday. Good luck.

Monday, Monday

As usual we had new people in class today.  With Massi, Khalid and Michelle gone it was like an entire new group.

So today we started with "Graded Readers" (aka books) and Learner Journals (see photo below).

In the Learner Journals, everyone will be writing down what they got from today's lesson.  I admit today was a mess.  It was a mess because although there was a plan, it was NOT carried out because of all the new people who hadn't been studying with us over the last week.

But I think we can learn a lot from messes.  What did we learn about today?

• The difference between "Have you heard of_________?" and "Do you know_______?" for people, food and places.
• How and when to ask "For how long?" and "Since when?"
• We learned that "since" can be followed by a subject + verb in the past simple
• We learned about ENGVID.COM and how that is the place for general questions

And there was more but for now I'll wait to see the learner journals for more detail.  Let's hope there's lots there.  What did you learn in class today?

Spending time on Dmitry's homework and a little work from the book.

About six of the extra large class we had yesterday returned with completed homework from yesterday.  

One of them- our favourite Russian- had written his homework into his notebook.  So I had to check his work in class and we found an interesting sentence with three little issues.  His actual sentence had just one problem, but all of the learners worked together in little groups on a sentence I can't quite recall now.  It was something like this:

My mother [ need not worry ] about [ time ] I [ spend play ] computer games

If you can remember the sentence as it should have been please put it in the comments below.

-----

We also did review of didn't need to worry and needn't have worried.   I told you my story about sending Kim Jong-Il on Jeju Island a postcard:  e.g. I needn't have sent the postcard.  We used the homework page based on Oxford Practice Grammar.

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As an aside, and I DO love a good aside, we talked a bit about Learner Autonomy.

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And finally - yes, finally- we did it: we managed to use the book.  (page 136 New Cutting Edge Upper-Intermediate).

It was just the speaking section on using set structures for talking about future plans, but it was a good review and there's still a bit to learn. So- well done...

Most of you didn't get the opportunity to present your conversations but a certain A. and M. did their homework and sent me a copy.  Their work is next to the photo of the whiteboard below.  I hope they don't mind. Thanks for tolerating any perceived craziness this week.  

Interviewer (I): Good Morning!
Today I'm going to interview a young traveller.

Tell us something about youRSELF.

Traveller (T):I'm Mayu from Japan and i'm 21 years old.
I: So Mayu, what are your travell plans?
T: My friends are coming over from Japan and we'll be going to visit Edinburg.
I:When will you have finished your holiday?

T: I'll be back in ireland on THE 26th of October 2011.

I: So waht are you going to see?
T: I'll see a Castle and a few other sights.
I: I wish you and your friends a good time and thanks for the interview Mayu.
T: Thanks.

The information is not just in the books.

Today we took a look at the resources we can use for our pronunciation.  Most of them were links from the last two blog entries.

Additionally we looked at how to differentiate between words like light and lied, neat and need, cap and cab.

We also looked at the phrase needn't have.

I gave a bit of homework from the Oxford Practice Grammar.  It regards that grammar point.  I also more importantly gave you a little writing work: a reflection on our day.

In two paragraphs please reflect on how resources have changed for learners of foreign languages over the last 15 years.
Use the following phrases:

• We needed to...
• We didn't need to...
• We need to...
• We don't need to... 

Extra points if you use "We needn't have..."

Here's a good video for all you teachers and learners to help you think about what's happening.

New Sounds Day

So there it is.  Thanks for believing in the powers of pronunciation for the day.

You can use another accent in your language- so try using it in English.  It works.

Things that I want to help you learn how to do: 

• move your /g/ back further in your mouth; 
• understand why lip rounding is important; 
• understand why an /l/ made on your lip is an easy way to make your /l/ and /r/ different; 
• understand why varieties of sounds or allophones are so important (it fixes l, r, p, b, s, sh, a in black,  3:; 
• explain final /r/; figure out how the yet and jet are totally differently pronounced.

And for Tamao we need to figure out the /f/. Click on the link here or below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/con_voiceless_5.shtml 

Most importantly you need to know how your mouth works.  This website helps you think about it.  It's the one I used in class.  

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

A really nice resource to have as you are thinking about the question of the day... 

What sound is difficult for you?

... listen through the minimum sounds for that crazy Hugh Grant accent.

10 points for if you can tell me what he's thinking.

17/10/11 Monday class notes

So today there were a load of new people and we all had a look at what we should be doing with our time here.

As this is a short term study break for most of us- and for some of us it's the last week-, I really want to make sure that you use every opportunity to study LIVE in English here.

So I suggested going getting out and meeting people but how?  Try meeting people who are interested in learning about the same things as you.  Do you like movies? Help make one.  Do you listen to a lot of music? Get together and record a song.  Do you want to make the world a better place? Meet some people who want to do the same thing.

----------------------------------------------------------
THE PRIORITIES

In class we will work on what you want to work on. When I asked you to write up a list in class you said the following:








SPEAKING/Pronunciation

• We want to speak more fluently with correct grammar. (x3)
• We'd like to be more sure about our speaking skills, in particular our pronunciation so that we can be more fluent.(x2) Also we feel a little insecure about our pronunciation.

LISTENING

• We want to improve our listening.

WRITING

• We want to improve our writing (x2) and our spelling.

VOCABULARY

• We want a more flexible vocabulary.
• We want to know more phrasal verbs and be able to use them.
• We want to use prepositions more easily. We want to learn frequently used set phrases like IS SUPPOSED TO
• We also want to know how and when to use connectors like Although.

GRAMMAR

• We'd like to finish studying the 12 verb tenses.
• We want to know how and when to use the passive.

Here's a link to the Checklist from the Swiss.  

http://www.coe.int/t/DG4/Portfolio/documents/appendix2.pdf

**I'd like to look at this on Wednesday night please.  If you have done it already let me see it as soon as you like.

: )

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE LEARNING

The new stuff today was the old stuff from Friday.
We learned about follow up and its 4 uses.
We learned about the gerund and its 3 uses.

We also did a bit of an experiment in learning with the questions below:
Can you understand…?
And
Can you use… to talk about you/ your life / something real?

We looked at a list of words from the book which John had put on the whiteboard and tried USING THEM TO TALK ABOUT OUR LIVES.  Some examples were "I'm considering moving to New York for work next year" and "I can't stand watching TV."

The book we used today was Michael Swan's Practical English Usage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was it.  Spelling test tomorrow.
Some of the words on it will be speak, writing, grammar, studying pronunciation, phrasal and shebang.

Criticising Khalid

This is was a tough day for our Khalid.  He had written a piece about his decision to leave his host family's accommodation and we read it and found the errors and sent him corrections.

Here's his blog.  He may have corrected it by now.
http://ces-khalid.blogspot.com/2011/10/decision-decision.html

It's nice to have someone to correct your work.
...someone to travel with.
...someone to go out with.
...someone to counsel you.
...someone to invite you out.
...someone to manage your business.
...someone to watch over you.
and somebody to love.


Thanks Khalid.  A special goodbye to our Watwillers, Sven and Selina.  Enjoy the trip.

Count the Ls

Good work today to Mayu, Ms Oka and Mr Yun Su.

They all presented on will.

We started talking about the pronunciation of will and how it can be confused with other sounds.

We looked at how two different kinds of Ls are pronounced physically.  It's not that hard.  Touch your two big front teeth for the front L.  That L will work all the time for your L. 

BUT we native speakers sometimes have a different L: the DARK L.  You might hear it at the end of 'little'.  That is the L which is confusing for Koreans and Japanese speakers.

That's it.

Produce the front L but accept the back L (also known as the DARK L)

Homework:
Watch this video and count the Ls.
*Extra points does she favour the front L or back L?

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong.html

____________________________________________________________________

This video (below) is not your homework but it could be if you get bored with Kathryn Schulz

Twelve Verb Tenses

http://utminers.utep.edu/micontreras/12%20verb%20tenses.htm

That was where we started today.

1. You charted the 12 verb tenses (really there were 16 with the be going to___ futures) 
2. You conjugated them with a chosen example verb.
3. You focused on the Present Simple and Past Simple.
4. You found two specific reasons to use the Past Simple, using the internet, books etc.
5. You found FIVE specific reasons to use the Present Simple,using the internet, books etc.
6. You checked your list against another groups or maybe I checked them for you.  Maybe you just checked against a different resource (book, person or website).
7. Without a resource you created a suitable example to elaborate on and illustrate each item from your list.

Then you went solo . You left your partners and claimed a verb tense of your own.

Then you went to the resources to prepare a presentation on your own.

Massi presented some of the Present Perfect Continuous and Khalid did some more.

Massi noted that we use the Present Perfect Continuous with for and since. Khalid talked about the differences in their uses...

...So tomorrow it's your turn.

• Know your verb tense
• Know your reasons to use it
• Know some examples 
• Have some questions for the other learners
• Don't ask "Do you understand?"

*
Questions to investigate:
What's the difference between see and watch; see and look at; watch and look at?
How are see and notice related?
If you want to learn more about something are you feeling interesting or interested?
What kind of verbs are state verbs?

Phrasal Verbs

So we're going to try to learn about five things this week:

1. infinitives and gerunds
2. tenses
3. prepositions
4. phrasal verbs
5. idioms

We chose phrasal verbs for today.  What are they? 

Well really they are like any other verb which can change meanings.  We used the example of play.

Play guitar is different to play XBox, which is different to play dead, which is also different to play chess, different to play your brother... meaning to fool him.

Phrasal verbs actually make it easier to understand what the speaker means.  They provide more context.

We talked about a game playing out or a conflict playing out meaning a the game or conflict stopping because it had exhausted its own energy.

Out is often used for the end of something unreal or temporary or which is finishing, but not always.

We listened to this video to see if we could find some phrasal verbs.

On this video we heard some interesting things that might be classified as "phrasal verbs" or might not.

Which one is a phrasal verb from these which we heard?

I grew up with my grandparents.

I think you should check it out.

We wanted to save money on food.

My children are currently addicted to croissants.

Pronunciation:

We talked about "upspeak" noted the interesting thing that something that happens in a lot of English accents... the lack of final - t and - d sounds.  Remember how Khalid heard the first man say FOO- instead of FOOD.  That's very typical in and around New York City.  You might hear me do the same.  It's not that it's perfect, but if you can hear it- and accept it -you will be a better listener. 

That's what we did.

Homey- workey? Okey- dokey!

We did it! We used the book!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2575869/Cutting-Edge-upperintermediate-11

At the bottom of the screen there is a page finder.  Go to page 116.

Then look for 5.


Choose one of the questions.

Write the answer on your blog.

Email me with the blog posting link.

So what do you think?  Can you do it?

*By the way remember the thing about clone and clon?  Look at this for more examples and an explanation:
http://www.say-it-in-english.com/MoreRules.html 

The Bloglist

*****************
Mario
http://mmeuti.blogspot.com/

Sue
http://sue-sue1.blogspot.com/

Michele
http://michellenotfromwattwil.blogspot.com/



*******************
BitNa
http://shineesm7853.blogspot.com/

Sven
http://sveniamin.blogspot.com

Regina
http://reginafmm.blogspot.com

Leticia
http://neverland-ireland.blogspot.com/



********************
Selina
http://dublinces.blogspot.com/

Khalid
http://ces-khalid.blogspot.com/

Mayu
http://ces-mayu.blogspot.com/

Luigi
http://vikingdeer.blogspot.com



********************
YunSu
http://yunsuahn.blogspot.com/

Massi
http://massielita11.blogspot.com


Alejandra

http://alejandra-spring.blogspot.com/

Maira
http://niponik.blogspot.com

Day TWO: Video

Today we are going to focus on our use gerunds and infinitives.

There are at least 6 rules which will help you always have a good idea about which one is right.

Some words can use either with no real difference.
 "Like" + {to -infinitive} OR  "Like" + {gerund} ~ Both are the same really in speech and writing.

Some verbs will naturally lead to another meaning.
I stopped (the action that I was doing) to check Facebook.
vs.
I stopped checking Facebook.  (I  switched to Twitter because I was sick of Mark Zuckerberg spying on me-or Google+).

http://mmeuti.blogspot.com/ (Mario) has a link to http://www.englishpage.com/gerunds/index.htm which is all about Gerunds and Infinitives.

Check out this video
http://www.englishcentral.com/video/11133/meetings-making-decisions

task
How many times are Gerund and Infinitive rules shown working in their English?
What are the reasons they use the Gerunds or Infinitives here?

actions

1. Write a list of the instances of Gerunds and Infinitives with your partners. 
2. Then each of you takes one instance at least and finds the reason the English use it there instead of the opposite.  
3. Write up the reasons and find a website to back up your reason or create your own explanation.
4. Find a video or song or text which illustrates this.
5. Post your the link to my video, your explanation and illustration to your blog. 
6. Email me the link to that blog entry.

Start.

So this is it: the big blog week.  We start blogging.  Blogging is just writing with besides me and Brendan.  

Any writing you do this week can go here.  

We'll open a new blog for each of you on Monday.  You will get two partners.  Your grades on the project will be based on the rubric above.

I really like rubrics.  Go to blogger.com to start.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Today we studied cleft sentences, word stress, intonation and how you can change your vocal settings.

What I like about this band is the fact that their drummer does the singing.

Another one is this classic. Watch the /l/ in "This is L.A." and then notice the cleft sentence in the chorus.
Finally we need to add that scene from Cool Hand Luke which I am quoting in the title.
We'll see you all next week. Except Francis. Bon voyage, sir.

Just a note.

So today we did diagramming.  Though most modern teachers hate this, I still find too many learners who don't recognise the essential importance of the subject-verb relationship or know what the object of a preposition is.  Because of this, they fail to use them leading to conversations with students which include gems like: "Is good go to pub!"  

We worked from the Learning Objects post.

We also reviewed the words you see below on the left-hand side of the board which are also in your homework.

Wow. Glare.

Inside out is all that's difficult to read.

We learned why "diagram" is "diagrammed" in the past.  And I have included this link to for you to work on your spelling of -ing and ed forms.  It's for native speakers so don't feel bad if you aren't perfect neither are we.

But we pretend.

New Vocabulary from the Wednesday Learner Lesson

We studied four mysteries today. Probably the biggest was "the mystery of learning": How do you learn alone?  What is the process of independent learning?  My theory is on the board and we saw how difficult it is to finish by hearing your stories about the "self-assigned" homework from last night.

Of the twelve people who chose to participate only 4 managed to learn something they can use today.

That's actually quite impressive.  Usually STUDENTS usually can't do the first three without help.

LEARNERS can.

That's what I want you to be able to do.  I want you to be able to read a text or hear a piece when you choose,  identify new stuff-whether Grammar, Pronunciation or Vocabulary- and then USE it.

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Here are some of the new words and phrases from today and last night:

fell down
went down
fell off
a cover-up
a conspiracy
gets red or burns
gets brown or tans
pastor
ditch
absent-minded = forgetful
couch potato
(be) out to lunch
(be) a piece of cake
"Bottoms up!"
(have got) a sweet tooth
wrist
cash register
icing

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"Seek and ye shall find" = Now go use google.

Learning Objects

I believe you can learn a lot on your own.  The knowledge is not locked up in buildings with in books anymore.  It's out here on the Web.  Come and get it.

At TCD I'm building learning objects and learning about learning.  Here at CES I'm teaching.  This means I'm essentially guiding the learners I work with while they are here.  I look for the errors they don't perceive and show them what we do as native speakers and give them ways to understand why we do what we do.  I explain the values of our language, which are different to theirs.

We really value the subject-verb relationship in English.  Every sentence needs to have one.

So can you learn more about this online now by DOING something with the information.  Well yes.  Try this

http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=WCN8207 

This is a good one but there are loads of others.  I hope to put a list together but a complete list might put a lot of teachers out of business.

Try reading this aloud for contrastive stress:
"Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer, should."

Teachers and students should have a much more complex relationship than just "information provider" - "information receiver".  What do you think?

We used this video today to talk about syllables and intonation. And Jeju Island.

Pronunciations of R

My project

http://www.scss.tcd.ie/~whipplej/meta/artefact.swf


A phonetic chart of English Sounds with SOUND!


http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/pronunciation/phonemic-chart-and-app/interactive-phonemic-chart/

How Come and Why: What's the difference?

http://www.lingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7561&sid=96af57bf99ae3a6f475a0d643976b6ec

For Yan.

Thanks for the fun guys. See you soon. Enjoy the week.

Ken Robinson Videos

Here's your homework.  Watch these and maybe read about Maria Montessori tonight.

You put in some very good work today.



The video below is the one with the INTERACTIVE TRANSCRIPT. Use it.

Resources for when you have to go back home

Today we discussed learning without teachers.  How can you do it?  Actually it's easier now with your computer than ever before.  "The information is not in the books," a famous teacher once said.  Well neither are your practice opportunities.

Here are some conversation suggestions:
Get an English speaking boyfriend/girlfriend
Try to run into (meet by chance) native speakers
Organize a reading circle
Make foreign friends
Chat or IMwith old friends on Skype

Here are some things for your pronunciation:
Record your voice
Sing with YouTube
Learn about pronunciation as a subject on davidbrett.uniss.it

Here are some sites for your grammar:
BBC's English Language Learning Site
engvid.com
china232.com
Mr Duncan

To practise your reading and find new vocabulary or practise your grammar through reading:
Use the English menu in restaurants; use the English floorplans and guides in museums etc
Read English language newspapers
Use English websites like the BBC.co.uk

To practise your listening and find new vocabulary or practise your grammar through listening:
ted.com (find the ones with interactive transcripts when you use it online or download them to your media player.)
Search YouTube for popular English language songs with the word "lyrics"
Try LyricsTraining.com
Listen to archived radio programmes in the mp3 format

Probably the best suggestion of the day was to try to learn about new things THROUGH English.
wikipedia.org

So homework:
Try one of these and write a report on it. Then email me the report.  Include at least these four things:
What did you manage to learn
Where did you find it?  What site?
What is a personal example of what you have learned?
How long did it take you to learn it?

Good luck.

The consonants

http://www.cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/

This is a link to a set of games to help you practice associating the sounds of English and the writing patterns of English with the set of symbols used in English phonology.

This is for the app that I have and Khalid downloaded last night.  It rocks and sounds a little ...suggestive. (Thanks Kutlu)

http://www.soundspronapp.com/download/

Quiz tomorrow!

I say 5.  You write five.  The end.

Learner Journal

Your Journal

Your Journal is a distillation of all the new things you learn each day.  You list a maximum of three things.  Each one needs an example of how you learned to use it.  These need to be personal examples which are true from your life.  You can note grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary.  Every few days hand it in to me for review.  I will read through it and clearly point out any mistakes or errors.

How to start--

Put your name on the front and the level and room.

Use the inside cover as a record of any words which are difficult to spell.

Date, Time, Day and Teacher for each lesson's page.

Do's and Don't's

• Don't use this as a notebook.
• Don't write lists of new words. Remember only three things per lesson.  It is not supposed to be everything.  Everything goes in your notebook.  This is three favorites.  
• Do write good examples of new words in use.
• Do note things which were not the main point of the day.
• Do write about new things only.  
• Don't note things you learned in other lessons.  Focus on what you got out of that experience.
• Do be specific.
• Do give real life examples.
• Don't write: "will and going to for future" because you already knew that.
• Don't write: "going to is for future plans" because it's not specific
• Do write: "'(be) going to go to' is used interchangeably with '(be) going to'" 
• Don't write: "We are going to go to the park." as an example.
• Do write: For example "We are going to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend." =   "We are going to go to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend."  

This shows your understanding and is specific enough for me to understand that this is an example from your real life.  It is most important to be able to talk about things you know you.  They are what you will talk about most often.  Write about what you know, what you are learning and what you do.

Use one page for me and one page for Jennifer.  These journals cost about 22 cents each.  Use them up and buy yourself a present when you get to the end of each one.  A coffee costs about the same as ten of them.  So go nuts.

If you can't find three new things from your notes, the pages or the homework, it's good feedback for me.  If you aren't getting anything new out of the lessons, this is how I will find out.

The last pages of the notebook can be used as writing space for homework and classroom assignments.

Good luck.  (And when you get back to your home country you can look over this journal and sell it to a local publisher.  Send us a Christmas card when you are rich and famous.)

Learner Journal

Your Journal

Your Journal is a distillation of all the new things you learn each day.  You list a maximum of three things.  Each one needs an example of how you learned to use it.  These need to be personal examples which are true from your life.  You can note grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary.  Every few days hand it in to me for review.  I will read through it and clearly point out any mistakes or errors.

How to start--

Put your name on the front and the level and room.

Use the inside cover as a record of any words which are difficult to spell.

Date, Time, Day and Teacher for each lesson's page.

Do's and Don't's

• Don't use this as a notebook.
• Don't write lists of new words. Remember only three things per lesson.  It is not supposed to be everything.  Everything goes in your notebook.  This is three favorites.  
• Do write good examples of new words in use.
• Do note things which were not the main point of the day.
• Do write about new things only.  
• Don't note things you already understood.
• Do be specific.
• Do give real life examples.
• Don't write: "will and going to for future" because you already knew that.
• Don't write: "going to is for future plans" because it's not specific
• Do write: "'(be) going to go to' is used interchangeably with '(be) going to'" 
• Don't write: "We are going to go to the park." as an example.
• Do write: For example "We are going to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend." =   "We are going to go to Phoenix Park with Ciara and Oisin, the CES staff, this weekend."  

This shows your understanding and is specific enough for me to understand that this is an example from your real life.  It is most important to be able to talk about things you know you.  They are what you will talk about most often.  Write about what you know, what you are learning and what you do.

Use one page for me and one page for Jennifer.  These journals cost about 22 cents each.  Use them up and buy yourself a present when you get to the end of each one.  A coffee costs about the same as ten of them.  So go nuts.

If you can't find three new things from your notes, the pages or the homework, it's good feedback for me.  If you aren't getting anything new out of the lessons, this is how I will find out.

The last pages of the notebook can be used as writing space for homework and classroom assignments.

Good luck.  (And when you get back to your home country you can look over this journal and sell it to a local publisher.  Send us a Christmas card when you are rich and famous.)

Kill your TV? Why?

Today we discussed "telly" and giving it up.  Why would anyone do it? You proposed these hypotheses:

• To read more
• They think that TV is a boring way to spend their time
• They have physical problems with their eyes

Your Homework:

QUESTION #1 : What was the purple man's reason?  (answer in the comments section below.)

QUESTION #2 : What would you have to do if you had a "no media day"?  (one conditional sentence in the comments section below, please.)

*Don't forget to email me your "for/against" essay.*
*Don't forget to answer the questions in Exercise 4 p.130 New Cutting Edge Up. Int.*




The Purple Man found himself less and less devoted to television, but still can't stop watching it completely.

I don't know if the Purple Man is real but the University of Maryland is real.   They tried the experiment with 200 students.  What happened?

Read the blog about the University of Maryland's A Day Without Media here.