Thursday recap

Guest post by our classmate Hyeyeon Kim - Thanks Hyeyeon - Liam.

The class last week was really fantastic!!!!!!!!!!

Most of the time, we studied personality words and we studied how to pronounce those words.
Actually I love learning how to pronounce and find where stress is rather than only learning grammar,so it was such an exciting class for me!!
We also guessed about our class mate's personality by drawing signatures!

And we studied Echo Question!
It is useful to express my interest! We also guessed our own partner's interest, hobby,or about them and made some questions! And use them!

Whenever we talked to each other,saying like "Isn't it?" ,"do you?" it was really funny sometimes!

Last week was great for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could learn like last week from now on as well!!!!

Recap Wednesday - AARRRGGGHHH!

No updates yet this week, but that's ok, we know you're worried about the big progression test this Thursday. Actually, we need to talk about recaps, so it works out well for us. I think we're all working too hard and trying to retell what happened in the class in general instead of thinking about how we felt in the class and how we thought about it or what we thought was useful. We're probably doing a lot of possibly not-so-valuable work to avoid doing some actually-could-be-quite-valuable work. So, for one night only, please find my recap of today's class as it was for me as a teacher - not a list what we did, but instead how I felt and thought about it. 

Today I was quite excited about the class because we were talking about 2 of my favourite subjects - stories and sci-fi! We started by finding out that nobody but me had ever heard of Ray Bradbury, which was surprising. I thought he might be better known than that, but I guess not. Anyway, I told you guys about him and set you off reading about The Illustrated Man. You seemed to enjoy it, which was good, but I was disappointed that I had the wrong audio on my PC and wasted a bit of time trying to find the right one. I don't think you noticed too much, but I wasn't happy with myself. 

Then I got you to do what's known in the business as a running dictation, where you were trying to recreate the story from the wall on the page. That was good from my point of view as everyone was involved and looked like they were having fun - and we also found out what pronunciation problems we might have (watch out for this weekend when I'll be putting up a post about how/where to practice this online). Then I went for a coffee, Americano, 4 sugars - yes, that's what's in the cup. The good news is that tomorrow's coffee is free, because I've saved up enough points. 

After the break we set you to creating your own stories based on the illustrated man's tattoos. I showed you a little trick about story structure and told you about Kurt Vonnegut, another of my favourite authors. The ideas you came up with for your stories would have made him proud and I'm very excited to see the finished products on Monday. I was really impressed with how well you planned out your work, and I think you'll notice a big difference in how easy it is to write in English once you have a good, solid plan. 

Anyway, tomorrow is your big test. We start at 9 sharp. Writing ends at 9:40 - perhaps it might be an idea to make a plan before you start answering the question. (:

Monday Recap

Guest post by our classmate Ilchmaa Erdene - Thanks Ilchmaa - Liam.

Hello guys,

This Monday, we started the class with 5 riddles on the board :

A place where young children go to school – (Kindergarten)

A person who cooks food professionally – (a chef)

A nap which people take during the day in hot countries - (siesta)

A food which is commonly eaten in Italy – (pasta)

A type of entertainment where people sing popular songs – (karaoke)

These sentences introduced today's lesson which talked about the relative pronouns,         ''who, whose, whom, which, what, that ''.

We also learned some foreign words used in the English language such as muesli (german) shampoo (hindi), igloo (inuit), algebra (arabic), robot (czech), macho (spanish), tycoon (japanese), graffiti (italian) and yogurt (turkish).

There are two ways to use relative pronouns : Non Defining Relative Clause (N.D.R.C) and Defining Relative Clause (D.R.C). You can find below a resume of relative clauses with some examples that we saw in class.

Non-Defining Relative Clause - N.D.R.C:

NDRC's give extra or non essential information. They use commas before and after. DON'T use ''that'' for NDRC.

E.g I had a cake for dessert, which was a great idea. In this case, ''which'' is used to give a comment or opinion on the previous phrase and not to define.

Defining Relative Clause – D.R.C : 

D.R.C's give essential information about a subject.

• WHO is used to define a person.
  The woman who lives next door is a drug addict. We can use ''that'' instead of ''who'' and ''which''.
• WHOSE means 'of who' or 'of which'.
  There's my neighbour whose wife was arrested for shoplifting.
• WHOM is used after a preposition.
  That's the man to whom I was speaking earlier. We can also say 'That's the man who I was speaking to earlier'.
• WHAT is used to mean 'the thing' or 'things'
  What I like best about my teacher is his good looks, immense intelligence and astounding sense of humour.
  She told me what she had seen.

D.R.Cs can define the object. E.g. James is the man who I met at the party. When a D.R.C describes an object, we can remove the relative pronoun. E.g That's the shop (which) I told you about.

When do we use Where or Which ? 

There's a little difference between D.R.C where and which.

E.g There's the hotel where I stayed

There's the hotel which I stayed in

We DON'T SAY There's the hotel where I stayed in.

That's the building where I live

That's the building which I lived in

That's the building in which I lived (formal english)

So we have 3 possibilities to write the same sentences in different ways, more formal or less formal.

Another example with 'whom' and 3 ways to write the same sentence.

1. The police officer to whom I spoke was working on the reception desk

2. The police officer who I spoke to was working on the reception desk.
3. The police officer I spoke to was working on the reception desk

Phrase N°1 with ''to whom'' is formal English, you need to know how to use it if you want to take a Cambridge exam. The phrases N° 2 and 3 are informal and spoken English.

We learned that the Prime Minister in Ireland is called ''An Taoiseach' and that he says Ireland is the best country to do business in. But English teachers wish he would say Ireland is the best country in which to do business.

We also did many exercices to put it all in our mind. This is very important to know the relative pronouns because people use them very often and we should use them more often. For example, we should say 'The movie I saw yesterday was amazing' instead of 'I saw this movie, it was amazing'.

That's it, see you tomorrow.

Ilchmaa

Thursday recap

Guest post by our classmate Sendai Zea - Thanks Sendai - Liam.

Hello guys!

This Thursday we started the class talking about advertisements. It was a good opportunity to talk about fraudulent advertisements.

In addition, the grammatical skill that we improved was linkers to express “contrast” or “purpose”. They’re so useful for writing papers, expressing our own opinion and having a fluent conversation. Personally, I think that most of them are well-known, but frequently we don’t remember to use them in our day-to-day English. 

In fact, we revised the following:

TO EXPRESS CONTRAST:

According to the structure that they follow, we can divide in two groups:

Even though

Although             + Clause 1 (Subject + verb + object) + Clause 2 (Subj.+verb+ obj)

Though

Liam wrote for us a few examples:

Although I was feeling sick, I went to work.

I went to work although I was feeling sick.

I bought a ticket for the concert even though I didn’t have much money.

Linkers are useful though they’re difficult to use.

ATTENTION:  Though is commonly used for speaking and it is used in the middle of a sentence. On the other hand, even though is more formal and is used in writing.

In spite of            + noun + -ing form

Despite                + “the fact that” + clause

e.g. In spite of his hangover, he went to the supermarket.

Despite being hungover, he went to the supermarket.

In spite of the fact that he had a hangover, he went to the supermarket.

ATTENTION:  NEVER write or say “despite of”. It’s important to remember that the linker “despite” is itself a preposition.

TO EXPRESS PURPOSE:

According to the structure that they follow, we can divide in:

In order to             

So as to               + Infinitive form

To

e.g I went to the shop in order to / to / so as to / buy some food.

I took the bus in order not to / so as not to be late.

For       + a noun

e.g. Let’s go for a coffee.

I have to study for a test.

ATTENTION: Only use “For” + -ing verb to describe the specific purpose of something.

e.g The chair is for sitting on.

The oven is for cooking food.

So that          + subject + modal verb (can / could / would) 

It’s important to realize that we can use “so that” when we want to refer to two subjects in the clauses. 

e.g I came to class so that I could learn something

I made a note so that you wouldn’t forget.

To finish the class, Liam surprised us with an IETLS model example. It reviewed our oral comprehension. It was really tricky and had new and unusual vocabulary, but it was a good exercise to improve our English listening. 

Liam recommended us that we only take that test if we really need it for academic purposes. Moreover, he recommended that we look for podcasts on http://www.theguardian.com/uk and http://www.npr.org/.

Last but not least I leave you with this website: http://speakspeak.com/resources/english-grammar-rules/various-grammar-rules/although-even-though where you can check these issues. 

Bye. Have a nice weekend.

Tuesday recap

Guest post by our classmate Edir Barreto - Thanks Edir - Liam.


Hello guys!

This Tuesday in class we talked about things that DID/DIDN'T happen in the PAST that I REGRET.

Let's see some examples:

- I wish I hadn't ordered that tequila
- I wish I'd never been born

Here you have the formula:

wish + past perfect ----> I wish I'd done my homework
{had + past participle}

We can also replace "I WISH" for "IF ONLY" that way we've two alternatives to express regret.

- If only I hadn't ordered that tequila
- If only I'd done my homework

After the writing practice, we did a listening exercise to check if we were able to write some sentences properly through what we could hear.

- I wish I hadn't eaten all the chocolates
- I wish you wouldn't drive so fast
- I wish it wasn't my turn to cook tonight
- I wish it would stop raining
- I wish we didn't have to go the party
- I wish I'd bought that jacket I saw yesterday.

That's it partners! Now we have a new tool to express regret easily!

Monday Recap

Guest post by our classmate Bruna Barboza - Thanks Bruna - Liam.

Hello guys! 

We started class today talking about "our pet hates". 

In fact, there are several ways to express ourselves when we say that something bothers us. 

Look at some examples:

It drives me mad when...

I hate it when...

It really annoys me when...

It really gets on my nerves when...

It drives me up the wall when... 

It wrecks my head when... (this last one is used in Ireland)

After discussing each topic with our partner, Liam told us about the rules of wish + would and wish + past simple. Check out:

(1) Wish + would >> Use to express a desire for someone else to change their behaviour. 

e.g. I wish the bus would come.

(2) Wish + past simple >> To talk about situations in the present/future that I would like to be different.

e.g. I wish I were taller.

Attention: You can't use would for a wish about yourself, e.g. NOT I wish I would. 

Page 145 of our beloved book has some exercises. It is relatively simple...

The second topic was about the three different ways to talk about feelings (using a verb or by using the -ed –and ing adjective).

e.g.

It really annoys me. (verb)

That noise is really annoying. (-ing adjectives describe the thing or person that produces a feeling)

I'm really annoyed about last night. (-ed adjectives describe how a person feels)

Check out the exercises on page 101. 

Last but not least, Liam gave us a list of adjectives to describe people's behaviour. As advice he told us to think of several adjectives to say the same thing, something that native English speakers often do.

e.g.

Q: How was the movie?

A: Oh, it was awesome. Brilliant. I really enjoyed it. 

Notice that we use three different words to say the same thing. 

See the list of adjectives and their synonyms:

Careless / Forgetful

Clumsy / Graceless

Pessimistic / Negative

Outgoing / Sociable

Reserved / Introverted

Serious / Moody / Grumpy

Boring / Dull

Creative / Inventive / Artistic

Organized / Tidy / Neat / Methodical

Selfish / Uncaring

Unpunctual / Unreliable

Funny / Hilarious

Optimistic / Positive

Mean / Cruel

Modest / Humble

Easygoing / Friendly

Arrogant / Cocky / Big-headed

Stubborn / Obstinate

Tight-fisted / Mean

Emotional / Sentimental 

Well, that's all folks... See you later!

Thursday Recap

Guest post by our classmate Omar Lamuño - Thanks Omar, Good Luck in whatever you do next, we'll miss you in the class - Liam.

Hello guys 

Last Thursday was an important day for me because it was my last English class in ECM College. I started my English course with Liam in pre-intermediate and I finished with him in upper intermediate. The time fly!  Another cycle is about to begin. It was a great English trip. So for me it's a pleasure to write this review.

We talked about “services” and what kind of verbs we can use according to this places list:

• Bank: You can say, “PUT money IN or TAKE money OUT” Also you can use: Deposit/ Lodge or withdraw.
• Shopping Centre: GO shopping 
• Supermarket: DO the shopping “I need to DO the shopping”
• Restaurant: EAT and DRINK
• Hairdresser´s: HAVE / GET your hair CUT / DONE.

The objective of making this list was to understand and identify WHEN we should use HAVE SOMETHING DONE.  

We use have something done to mean another person does a SERVICE for us. 

Take a look at these two sentences. What is the DIFFERENCE in meaning between them?

“I cut my hair”

“I had my hair cut”

“I cut my hair” means that I do it myself. This expression is a common mistake when you really want to say, “I had my hair cut” this means: someone cuts my hair for me (in this case it´s probably a hairdresser) 

The grammar for this is pretty simple:

HAVE or GET + OBJECT+ PAST PARTICIPLE 

Now, we know the grammar structure, It's time to practice. The teacher gave us the next list:

• Dentist
• Garage
• Tailor
• Dry cleaner
• Barber
• Printer´s 
• Hospital
• Photographer 

We asked our partner if we needed to use one of these services and then implement "Something HAVE DONE" formulated questions and answers. In my case next week, "I'm going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned"

In the second part of the class we had a lesson about QUANTIFIERS (all, very, most) It is very common to have problems with the use of quantifiers. Thus, by way of example, I mention here some cases. The examples below were conducted in class.

Use ALL (general) or ALL (of) The  (specific)+ a plural or uncountable nouns 

• All dogs go to the heaven.
• All fruit contains sugar.
• All smog is dangerous 
• All (of) the students are beautiful 
• All (of) the sand is white in the Bahamas 

 ALL can be used before most verbs, but after “be”

• The audience WERE ALL disappointed with the film.

Here's a common mistake 

1. What music do you like?
2. ALL (wrong) 

ALL kinds of music (right)

Use MOST to say the majority. MOST  (general) MOST OF (specific)

• Most people like electronic music  (general) 
• Most of the rhythms in tropical music are good for dancing. (Specific)

 Attention:  It is a common mistake to add (THE) at the beginning of the sentence.

ALL of / MOST of + object pronoun

• ALL of US are happy to be here.
• MOST of THEM were difficult.

We also talked about the correct use for NO, NONE, ANY

1.Use NO + a noun 

E.g. I have NO idea.

2. Use NONE in short answer for zero quantity.

E.g. How much tea do you want?  NONE. I don´t like it

3. NONE + of (noun object pronoun)

E.g. NONE of my friends are going to the party

4. Use ANY (and anything, anyone, etc.) and + Verb to mean it doesn´t matter when, who, etc.

E.g. what time is good today? ANY time (all times - It doesn´t matter what time)

And at the end of the class we checked some expressions with BOTH / NEITHER / EITHER

BOTH = Two positive ideas

E.g. Both John and Jim love chicken / John and Jim both like chocolate 

EITHER (options)

EITHER Sonia or Maria can go to the supermarket.

EITHER Japanese or Indian are ok for me.

EITHER black or white will be fine for me.

BOTH / NEITHER + of (object pronoun)

E.g. BOTH of US are very happy

E.g. NEITHER of THEM go to the party 

I hope this information has been useful. Once again thank you Liam for your classes, your advice and the funny English examples.

See you guys, 

Omar.

   

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

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: 

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!