21 October 2011 / by Radmila Gurkova

Friday Meeting 21/10/2011

This weeks meeting focus is on telephone classes, the S1 beginners’ course, Legal (Law course) and P4 structure material. Although we’ve had positive feedback on most issues covered in the meeting, we still need to improve in some areas.

This year we began teaching low-level (P2) telephone classes and although at the beginning it was a bit tough because most of the time was spent on explaining each activity done, now the teachers have created new activities which make it more teacher friendly to teach over the phone. However, there is still big room for improvement and we want to know how we can teach an effective 30 minute class.

We’ve just opened up a new Legal course and wanted some feedback on how to begin the course. Where do we start? How can we incorporate our method to this course? Next week we will cover this topic more in-depth.

 

The S1 beginners’ course is still underway and so far we have reached the half way mark, and as the weeks go by the S1 course is modified and changed slightly with all the feedback that teachers give in these meeting. More flashcards are being added to aid the student to fluency at this level

The P4 structure material this week has been a bit repetitive. We’ve had the similar structure activities focusing on reported speech. On the one hand, this is a great way to practice a structure in different ways in class (if it is a low-level P3) however, for a P4 or P5 (high and advanced levels) we need to think of different structure material that we could use in class as repetition leads to boredom in class and this is what we want to avoid.

16

December 2011
I HAVE a quick tip...
by Radmila Gurkova
Verb to have  (P4) We normally use HAVE as a main verb with an object to talk about common actions. -    ...

16

December 2011
Transcript: Learning Languages with CAPTCHAs
by Radmila Gurkova
"How many of you had to fill out some sort of web formwhere you've been asked to read a distorted sequence of characters like this? How many of you found it really, really annoying? Okay, outstanding. So I invented that. (Laughter) Or I was one of the people who did it. That thing is called a CAPTCHA. And the reason it is there is to make su...

16

December 2011
Learning Languages with CAPTCHAs
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQl6jUjFjp4 The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. Luis - the man who brought you the word CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, now unveils his newest a...

11

December 2011
S1 Question/Answer Guide
by Radmila Gurkova
This is a handy guide for S1 students to understand the structures of Questions and Answers using auxiliaries and interrogative pronouns....

09

December 2011
Experience the magic of the Polar Express
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://youtu.be/UGejMmr5G6c The Polar Express comes to life when the train DEPARTS for a JOURNEY through the dark and quiet WILDERNESS for a special visit to the "North Pole." This is the story of a young hero boy on Christmas Eve who boards on a powerful magical train that's headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus's home. Wha...

09

December 2011
Psychiatrists, Psychiatry, Psychotic...
by Radmila Gurkova
Can you think of any other words beginning with psych... and their definition?...

09

December 2011
Norway Massacre: Breivik Declared Insane
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=734J821on0M&feature=related Psychiatrists assessing self-confessed Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik have concluded that he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. They believe he was in a state both during and after the twin attacks on 22 July that led to the deaths of 77 people and injured ...

09

December 2011
Miniature Wonderland
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s&feature=share After watching this video, Germany will become the next tourist destination you would love to visit! Amazing attractions and a bunch of fantastic vocabulary for town facilities, means of transport and travelling. These fantastic scenes depict fantasy and reality, summ...

30

November 2011
EU and US Summit. Listen to our leaders speak english...
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We-eNqzmtEw "Talks of a joint working group to explore how to enhance “untapped potential” of a ‘Transatlantic economic co-operation’ were high on the agenda this week as both US and EU leader’s held a bi-lateral trade talk at the White House with Presiden...

30

November 2011
English tips #16 Compliment and Complement
by Radmila Gurkova
COMPLIMENT - a remark expressing praise and admiration (To say something nice). COMPLEMENT - Use complement when you are r...