Friday, 20 June 2014

POST 7: A CAREER RELATED WEBSITE OR AN EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD

Since in order to write today’s post you can choose ONE out of two options, I have written two sample posts to guide your writing (See below).

Post 1 (Instructions).
Write about a career-related website that you enjoy visiting.

You should:
- provide a link
- describe the website (sections, features,etc)
- say how often you visit the site
- explain why you like the site.

Make sure you add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ posts.
-Word Count: 190
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Post 2 (Instructions)
Who is a person/expert on your field that you admire?

Say:
-Who she/he is.(short biography)
-What she/he has done. (examples of their work)
-Why you like her/him.
-Include his/her image

> About 190 words
Remember to add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ posts
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The BBC English learning website.
Whether you’re a student or a teacher, you should visit BBC Learning English. To me,  it’s one of the best sites to look for different kinds of information related to teaching and learning English as a second language.
But it’s not only about learning, it also has lots of articles related to culture. It’s a great site where students can do exercises, read pieces of current news, practice their listening skills, improve their pronunciation, and even have fun playing games, watching videos  or chatting with people from all over the world.
If you are a teacher, you also have lots of options, for example you can download up to date material for your classes, that you can adopt or adapt,  get new ideas to improve your lessons or exchange information with other teachers.
Some of its regular features that Ilike include, among others,: “Words in the News”, which contains written and video stories; “Express English”, in which people are asked about their opinions on different things -Each week there’s a new topic and the interesting thing is that you can also join the conversation; “Quiznet”, which gives you the chance to increase your vocabulary on different topics; and I also like “6 Minute English”, a short radio programme that helps you improve both your listening comprehension skills and your vocabulary while you learn about an interesting issue.
I like this site because everything in it has been carefully done by very professional people, it’s very user-friendly, so you can find things easily, and everything is interesting and down-to-earth, I mean , it is related to real life.  For all these reasons I visit this site on a regular basis and I strongly reccomend it to you. The address to this website is:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

An expert that I admire
“What a great activity! It’s interesting and fun to do”. This is what I usually say when I see English text books that have been written by Penny Ur.  But Penny is more than an experienced  text book writer, she´s a remarkable English Language Teaching author who has helped teachers develop their teaching skills, that is to say, she teaches teachers to teach.
 I don’t know much about her personal life, all I know is that she is Israeli or American and that she studied at Oxford and Cambridge  Universities.  I also know that she has travelled extensively giving conferences worldwide and has written lots of papers, which are very teacher-friendly, I mean, it’s very easy to understand what she is trying to communicate and her tips are really helpful.
Some of her most prominent books, among others,  are: Five Minute Activities, A Course in Language Teaching , and  Grammar Practice Activities. When I was studying in London I used one of her books, which was called Proficiency in English, if I remember well.
Although her books are more concerned with the teaching of grammar than on improving your communicative  skills, I like her because she is able to teach structures in an interesting and meaningful fashion, which is something that not many writers are able to do. Finally, there are writers concerned with Teaching English as a Foreign Language who have written long, boring and hard to understand papers. Instead, she has written short and clear documents that say more than a million pages.

Friday, 13 June 2014

POST 6: WORLD WAR TWO

Hi everybody,
For today's post you have chosen to write about a very interesting and fascinating topic about which hundreds and books have been written and lots of films have been made: World War Two.
Here you have some questions to help you write your post.

-Have you seen a movie or read a book about this war?
-What is the most shocking aspect of this war to you?
-What lesson have you learnt from this war?
-Do you think wars are necessary or can be justified?
-Would you be willing to go to war? If yes, what for?
-Do you think World War 3 will ever take place? Why?/Why not?

Remember the wordcount is 200.
Make comments on 3 of your classmates' posts.

Monday, 2 June 2014

GIVING A PRESENTATION

Please find below the list of expressons for giving a presentation. Remember you are not going to include the expressions in the box this time.

GIVING A PRESENTATION

Starting the presentation    • Good morning/good afternoon ladies and gentlemen / teacher and classmates

Introducing yourself •My name’s/ I’m ... I´m studying ... at the University of ...

Stating the topic of your presentation
   •
The topic of my presentation today is ...
   • What I'm going to talk about today is ...
   •Today I’m going to talk about ...
   •I’d like to talk about ...
   My presentation is about ...
   • My presentation today deals with…

 Explaining why this topic interests you   •I’m interested in this topic because...    This topic interests me because...   • I like this topic because...     • The reason I love this topic is that...
    
  Explaining the importance/relevance of this topic in your field
• This is important because ... • This (topic) is relevant because ... • We should know about this topic because ... 
Stating the main points    The main points I will be talking about are: / The
    main points of my presentation are:  first(ly) ...  ,     secondly/next,...,      finally... we're going to look at ... 
 
Introducing the first point     Let's start/begin with ...  
Showing graphics, transparencies, slides etc.    • I'd like to illustrate this by showing you...  • Please, have a look at this slide that shows... • This slide shows…
Moving on to the next point    • Now let's move on to  ...   Let´s continue          with... • My next point is...  •  Let's look now at...     •   Let me turn now to...
Giving more details    • I'd like to expand on this aspect/problem/point
   • Let me elaborate on that
   • Would you like me to expand on/elaborate on that?  
Changing to a different topic    • I'd like to turn to something completely different
Referring back to an earlier point    • Let me go back to what I said earlier about ...
Summarizing or repeating the main points    • I'd like to recap the main points of my presentation
     - First I covered
     - Then we talked about
     - Finally we looked at
   • I'd  now like to sum up the main points which were:
Conclusion    • I'm going to conclude by... saying that/inviting you to/ quoting ...
   • In conclusion, let me... leave you with this thought/invite you to  
Questions     Finally, I'll be happy to answer your questions.   
   • Now I'd like to invite any questions you may have.
   
• Do you have any questions?


Ending the presentation • That brings me to the end of my presentation.• OK, that ends my talk. Thank you for your attention  • That covers all I wanted to say today. Thank you all for being such an attentive audience.

• So, that's all I have to say. Thank you everybody. • Well, I have told you all about…      • That’s all I have to say about … Many thanks for your attention.