Tuesday Recap

Guest post by our classmate Marina Barbosa - Thanks Marina - Liam.

Hello Guys!

Today we started the class practicing some listening and spelling skills. Liam dictated some words and asked us to put them in the right column with the correct spelling. For me it wasn't easy… some words I didn't know the meaning of, and others I didn't know how to spell, but it was a good exercise to realise that we have to pay attention to the places around us and think if we know the names of all of them.

Here's the picture of the board:

A good way to practice is paying attention to the places while you walk down the street and thinking if you know what the places are called. If you don't have any idea, take a picture and show it to Liam, he said he will be pleased to help us! hehehe 

The next subject was Word Formation. 

Word Formation is the creation of a new word based in another word.

So our first example was how we can transform a verb into a noun. In this situation the words will normally end up with ment, tion or ation. We can also transform an adjective into a noun. In this case the words will normally end up with ity, ness or ence.

Unfortunately this is not a general rule, so we have to pay attention to the different ways that we can make these words.

This picture of the board shows the examples that Liam gave us:

Page 89 of the book has some exercises, but maybe it's not enough, so I found this website, which is not the greatest, but you can do some exercises to practice: http://www.autoenglish.org/FCEUse/FCEUsePart3.htm

And the last topic was about countable and uncountable nouns.

We can find the explanation on page 142 of the book, but as Liam said, sometimes we just have to accept that this is the way to do it, because eventually we're not going to see some logic in this subject.

Anyway, to help us a bit I found this website that gives some tips for knowing (or at least giving us an idea) if the noun is uncountable: http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/countable-uncountable-nouns.htm

That's all folks :p

Webquest Wednesday - Part 2

Last week we researched what we thought useful information would be and we enjoyed presentations from different groups on what we thought were the most important aspects of life here in Dublin. Now we're going to take those priorities and build them into an article that we can include in our student guide. Follow the instructions below and shout if you need some help. You'll need to do a lot of research before you start writing your article. 

First choose a topic and tell me what it is. We want every group to research a different one. If you choose fast you'll probably get your first choice - if you're slow you could end up doing a difficult one.. (:

1. Researching for the guide

Working in pairs choose one of the following areas to investigate for the guidebook:

a) Information about tourist sights in Dublin (from survey):

Find out more information about the top ten tourist attractions in Dublin. With your partner make 7 questions you want to find answers for so that you can add extra information to the survey and help future students.

Use these links to help you: 

http://www.timeout.com/dublin/

http://www.visitdublin.com/

b) History of Ireland / Dublin

What do you know already? What do you think you know, but need to check? What would you like to know? Make 7 questions you want to find the answers for.(Here are some ideas: St. Patrick, Daniel O’Connell, The Easter Rising, The Great Famine, Vikings)

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

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/daniel.htm

http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/04/22/the-easter-rising-%E2%80%93-a-brief-overview/#.UwN3H_l_uSo

http://irishpotatofamine.net/

http://www.dublinheritage.ie/historic_collections/viking.html

c) Trips you can do from Dublin

With your partner decide what kind of trips would you or other students like to go on? Ask other students for ideas. Find at least 7 ideas. Decide what things you need to find out about each trip.

http://www.thebackpacker.net/tours/ireland/dublin/dublin/

http://excursions.lastminute.ie/en/6816/Dublin/d503-ttd

http://www.paddywagontours.com/

d) Information about pubs / clubs / shops / restaurants to add to the class survey.

With your partner decide what information would be useful for new students. Pick the top 7 attractions in different categories. Decide what information you should include. Do you need to visit these places to find out if they are good? 

http://www.timeout.com/dublin/

www.dublinks.com/dublin-pubs-bars

e) Irish English

What Irish words do you know? Find 7 good examples - show how to use them with examples and give explanations of what they mean. Find out any Irish words that other classmates already know. Does anyone know these words in Irish English? cupboard, naughty, mouth, police, sly person, reprimand, fun, thing, idiot, person from Dublin, person from the countryside.

2. Sharing our research

Meet students from the other groups and tell them, briefly, what you're going to write about. See if they have some suggestions for you. Go back to your partner and compare the suggestions. Are there other things you need to find out? 

3. Writing an article for the guide

You must write an article on your topic for a student guide. The article should be written in an informal, friendly way. You should include the information in easy to understand pieces. You should find pictures to support your text. Think about the best way to present your ideas. Do your research and make a plan before you write anything. Show me the plan before you start. 

TIMETABLE:

9:15 - 9:55 - research (make a list of the information you need - 7 points - get searching!) 

10:00 - 10:30 - share with other groups (tell the others what you've discovered, see what suggestions they have, make suggestions for other groups)

10:30 - 10:40 compare suggestions - decide if more research needed (back with your original partner tell each other what the groups thought of your information)

10:40 - 11:00 extra research (fill in any gaps in your information that need filling)

11:15 - 11:35 plan article (make a plan, what are you going to write - how are you going to include it, what language do you need?)

11:35 - 12:00 write first draft (write the article so you can see what it looks like)

12:00 - 12:20 correct first draft (ask another group to help you correct it - still not sure, ask Liam, or Google, or go downstairs and annoy John)

12:20 - 12:30 write final draft (Correct those mistakes, add some polish, it's almost time to print)

12:30 - 13:00 read other groups' work (enjoy your colleagues' work, tell them how much you enjoyed their articles, enjoy the glory of your great achievement)

MONDAY, THE HAPPIEST WEEKDAY!

Guest post by our classmate Ana Caroline Sardinha - Thanks Ana - Liam.


Today was a good day!

We had a lot of stuff to do. We talked about articles (A, an, the) and word pairs.

Liam showed us simple ways to identify and use articles properly. Basically, we have to consider that:

1-    You use undefined articles (A or AN) before words you didn’t have mentioned before in a conversation or writing.

2-    If you already mentioned the word use defined article (the), because it’s about specific thing.

3-    You have to be sure that the other person knows about what you are speaking.

Ex:

How was your holiday?

- It was grand!

Where did you stay?

- In a hotel.

Was the hotel expensive?

- Yeah, 1000 euro a night.

DANGER:

If I talk about things in general I NEVER NEVER NEVER use THE before them.

Ex.:

People don’t like Mondays.

Men never cry.

Woman like flowers.

There are a lot of rules that we can check in the book (p.142).

And what about word pairs? What’s the rule?

Unfortunately, it’s what sounds better! There are hundreds of words pairs you have to use like you learn and you’ll never know why. (Today, I started to keep more attention at my host mother and I am already hearing the word pairs. It’s like magic.)

SOME WORD PAIRS…

Bread and butter

Knife and fork

Bed and breakfast

Sooner or later

Once or twice (I liked this! I put it in a sentence this afternoon)  

More or less (quantities)

STEPS TO IMPROVE:

Liam highlighted steps to improve our speaking and to fix the use of articles.

1^st- We need to notice the mistake (He informs us every day)

2^nd – We need to pay attention to our speech and identify the mistakes (this week focus on articles)

3^rd- Ok! After this, what should I do?

It depends:

In class- it’s the best place to practice and make new experiences. We must try! If I make a mistake and I identify it, I have to correct.

With friends- Yes, maybe you can go back and try again.

Real life- NEVER STOP TALKING. If we identify our mistake, we don’t have to stop. Try the next time not to do the same. Remember Liam wizard, the frustration in this case can be good for our progress…

That’s it! Thanks guys.

IN MY OPINION!

I’m impressed how easy things can be, it depends on the perspective you adopt.

I have been a little bit apprehensive about the end of my course, but after I moved to this class and Liam started to show ways to improve skills I’m feeling more confident to continue studying by myself. I know it will be hard, but if I have focus it can be great! I’m enjoying the class and it’s very positive this experiment. I am feeling part of a group and I’m learning so much.

Thursday Recap..

Well, there you have it, another week successfully navigated! What was your favourite part of this week? My favourite parts were all your wonderful presentations - I was very proud of you all. The saddest moment was when we said goodbye to Brito - it's always sad for me when people finish their courses, but we wish him the best of luck in the future, and I know there is no one I would rather have as the captain of my ship! Bon Voyage Brito! 

Now, to our recap. On Thursday we looked at formal letters of complaint, and we noted how there isn't really a culture of letter-writing as a means of complaining where you guys are from, but how here it's actually one of the most powerful consumer weapons. I remember we found a hair in a packet of biscuits once when we were kids. My mam took a photo and wrote a letter to the company and they sent us about 6 months' supply of chocolate biscuits. It was a wonderful day, but it resulted in my current biscuit addiction, so it wasn't all good news! Anyway, our homework is to write a letter of complaint based on the worst service we have ever experienced. You can find some good tips on this site and this one too! Remember, you can bring the letter to class on Monday in a handwritten form or you can email it to me.

Finally, we reviewed all of our vocabulary from the past 2 weeks' lessons and then played a game of SuperStop, where we needed to combine adjectives with our nouns and adverbs with our verbs. The review portion is useful because it shows you just how quickly new vocabulary can disappear if you don't review it every so often. At least once a week you should sit down and have a look through your notes, checking that you still remember all the new words. You also need to make an effort to use those words in a conversation - force your friends to talk about newspapers or music or whatever the topic of that week happens to be - the hardest part of practising is creating the opportunity to use the new language! Be selfish - talk about the things you want to practise, don't wait for someone to walk up to you and ask, "Hey, do you know the word for a large group of people who sing together?" It's very unlikely that will happen.


The game of SuperStop is designed to make you use adjectives and adverbs in combinations with nouns/verbs. This is something you need to pay attention to when you are speaking. You can improve your vocabulary more if you use more words on a daily basis - using more adjectives and adverbs when you are speaking - listen to natives and how they express themselves - they normally use 2 and 3 adjectives in combination. Take this example:

Teacher: Hi, what did you have for breakfast?

Student: An apple. 

...Hmm, there's not a lot of practising happening there... 

Student: Hi, what did you have for breakfast?
Teacher: Oh, Just an apple, but it was absolutely delicious! So ripe and very juicy. I love apples like that! 

There are 3 adjectives in the teacher's response, and none in the student's. You may think it's strange to speak that way, but that's really how it works. We speak in chunks of information, always doubling and sometimes tripling our adjectives. Try to use more adjectives in your daily conversations, and more adverbs too! 

That's it! Have a great weekend! And don't forget the small matter of Ireland -v- England on Saturday evening - here's a little video to catch you up on the history of the match: 

Webquest Wednesday!

Where's my student guidebook?

Here we go! Today is our first class in the Lab and we're going to jump right in and get started! We're going on a Webquest. Read the instructions, ask any questions you have, and then let's get started!

Webquest

Make a guidebook for new students.

INTRODUCTION

What did you want or need to know when you first arrived in Dublin?

What do you wish you had known then, that you know now?
What should a new guide for English students arriving in Dublin contain?

You are the editors for a new guidebook for new English students arriving in Dublin and studying at ECM this Summer. As a team your job is to produce a new up-to-date guidebook including information on things to do, places to go, shopping, tourist sights, trips you can do from Dublin, transport, the festivals, history, local customs, Irish English and anything else you decide future students need to know.

You will need to:

1. Make a list of your top ten favourite things for places / sights / trips etc

2. Tell the rest of the class about the survey results.

3. Make a presentation to the class about what you discovered (they might find the information useful too!).

4. Write an article for the guide with your group including information from the Internet

5. Put together the finished guide including pictures.

New students will be able to use your guide to help them have a good time in Dublin!

Today we'll be doing steps 1-3. Next week we'll do step 4 (don't worry, I'll have more instructions for you for it). Finally, 2 weeks from now we'll put the guide together (that's step 5, in case you're keeping score). 

PROCESS

Class survey: information about Dublin

Work in groups. Choose one of the following things to make a class survey about: 

- Favourite places to go (bars, clubs, restaurants, coffee bars)
- Favourite shops (clothes, DVDs, CDs, food)
- Favourite tourist sights

- General tips for living in Dublin

In your groups prepare 4-6 questions. 

For example: a. What are your favourite clubs in Dublin? b. Why do you like them?

When you are ready form new groups with 3 or 4 of your classmates: ask your questions and make notes of their answers. Ask as many questions as you can to get more details. Note down important details (examples of cheap things you can get at a restaurant, reasons why a place to go is exciting etc).

Return to your original group and compare your results. With them make a list of the top ten favourites in each category, with reasons why each one is popular.

Prepare to present your results to the class.

Here are some useful expressions you could use:

• 7 out of 10 people in the class think _______ is the best / second best / third best / cheapest / most interesting / coolest... 
• Almost everyone /nobody thinks... 
• Many people think / said that ... 
• No-one likes ... 
• The majority of students have tried / like / dislike... 
• Roughly a quarter / half / two thirds of the class / think.. 
• A lot of students think...
  
• Listen to other groups' presentations. What was the most useful/interesting thing you heard in each? Did you hear any language mistakes? 

That's it!

Divide up the topics among the groups and get making questions for your surveys. We start the group discussion at 9:40. We'll start preparing the presentations at 10:15 and the first group to go will present at 12:00. You can use slides, videos, whiteboards, flipcharts, songs, dances or anything at all in your presentation, as long as no animals are harmed. 

Tuesday's News

This just in.. Today's class was based on vocabulary for the media. HERE's a little quiz to help you revise. 

We talked a lot today about how to study and what to put in our notebooks. The whiteboard I've put up today shows you an example of noting common mistakes with a word, making verb-noun combinations, drawing pictures to help you remember differences, and of course, making your own, personal examples. Remember, my examples are good for me, they help me remember, they might not help you. You should make your own examples and try to make them personal so that you have a better chance of remembering them.


After the break we had a discussion on your media consumption habits and then we read some articles about the lives of a theatre critic and a sports journalist and listened to stories of the lives of a restaurant critic and a war reporter. 

Finally, we saw some uses of 'as' in English, a preposition that causes its fair share of problems. Remember that 'as' can mean many things and you should make examples for yourself showing each meaning clearly - if the examples apply to what you say on a day-to-day basis even better! If you want to practise try THIS EXERCISE!

That's what I remember from today, how about you? What was your big take-home point today? What do you really want to learn from all today's information? What was your favourite word or phrase? Let us know in the comments! 

Monday - I recommend reading it all!

Today we talked about reported speech and reporting verbs. Be careful about the difference between the two. 

Reported speech uses verbs 'say' 'tell' and 'ask' and has all kinds of rules attached to it. If you're not sure of the rules you can try this exercise to practise. 

Reporting verbs are those we put on the board - you don't need to shift your verbs in time or drop auxiliaries or change word order or anything like that with them, you just need to follow the pattern. 

We also talked about how we could practise this (pause your favourite TV show and report what the character just said) and we asked for examples for homework of suggestions, offers, invitations etc. so we can practise this tomorrow morning. 

Finally, we asked you all to get involved with this blog and talked about how we can use computers/technology to be prepared for class. We'll see how that goes, but remember, the better prepared you are for class, the greater the value our practise will have and the more time we can spend on the things that are problems for us, rather than spending massive amounts of time on things that we could do by ourselves at home. 

So that's what I remember about today, how about you? What do you remember? What did you learn? How did you learn it? Let me know in the comments! 

Our Lovely Course Book - New English File

New English File is a pretty cool book for General English, but any course book is only as good as the work you put into using it. The book is a guide, just like me, I'm a guide too. Both the book and I show you things that you can learn, we try to help you understand them, but then it's up to you to take the material and apply it in your daily life. 

Probably the best thing about this book, in my opinion, is that the topics are divided up into nice manageable chunks, so you get a good mix of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation in each of your lessons from Monday to Thursday. Of course, this book could be used as a self-study course, and your class could be used to troubleshoot any doubts you have about the things you learn at home and do lots of other activities and projects to help you develop your skills, but that would mean you would need to do a lot more work outside the class... We'll let you decide on that one.

Anyway, for those of you looking to do some work outside the class, you can find LOTS OF RESOURCES simply by clicking on those big words back there. You can also find a copy of the book online HERE. 

What do you think of our book? Have you used it before? Do you know of a better book? Let me know in the comments and we can talk about it IRL in our next class. 

Welcome!

Hi Guys, 

Welcome to our great digital adventure. The Internet is a wonderful tool and resource for you to use as you learn and practise your English, so it makes sense that we should have a place to gather all our favourite resources, and keep track of all the things we see in our classes. 

Let me know about any cool sites you find in the comments or in class and we'll make sure to post them up here. 

Happy learning!