Listen to Vanessa Williams

Read about her.

What do you think? Do you like her voice?

Learning English through songs

Today we have listened to Leona Lewis' Better in Time. Leona was winner of the third series of the British television series The X Factor. Her career was catapulted by this contest as her record Spirit sold million of copies the moment it was released.

The class activity had been prepared by a Pale student last year. You listen to Leona's song and then fill in the gaps. Click here for the handouts. That's what we did on today.

Then we had a class discussion in groups about the theme, the feelings expressed, the language used and her wonderful voice. One of the issues raised was whether programmes such as The X Factor help young people or, on the contrary, send wrong messages about effortless success.

1. Are these kind of programmes a good idea?
2. Do you know of any singers who have become famous thanks to one of these programmes?
3. What is the price they have to pay? Are they free to sing and compose what they feel or are they ready made products?

Questions for discussion

1.) Do you think Christmas is a religious family holiday or business?
2.) Has fast food increased children's obesity or, have video games led to sedentary lifestyles? Tell us what you think about this issue. Should parents take more control of their children's diet?
3.) Have you ever downloaded music illigally? Do you agree with paying music taxes each time you download?
4.) Are you for or against religious symbols at schools? Did you go to a school which had religious symbols? How did you feel about this?

Give us your opinion about one of these topics.

Nivel Avanzado 1 EOI Valencia

If you joined the group late, this power point will show you the B2 objectives and content of the course, methodology, evaluation and materials. Besides, there are some slides with activities which are useful at the beginning of the course; awareness questions about listening and language learning which promote learner autonomy. There are also some ideas for a learner's diary, which point in the same direction of making learning more effective. Finally,you can also find som e tips about writing a presentation.

A1 2009

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Speaking English, yes, but what about your voice?

In this power point you can learn about how to make the best of your voice when speaking to a group of people. I hope it will be useful not only in the classroom and exams but also in life outside the EOI.

Your Voice In Action

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Grammar: The noun phrase

Througout my career as a teacher I have not found activities or information in the classbooks about the noun phrase. I strongly believe that noun phrases play a key role in the way proficient speakers use the English language. Students often tend to use very simple noun phrases. This power point is intended to make you aware of this aspect of the English language system in order to empower you to use language in a more precise and professional way.

The noun phrase

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Storytelling

Watch this video about the art of storytelling and see if it can help you tell a fable, a folktale, a talltale, a ghost story or a family anecdote.

More on how to use the advantages of e-learning!

1) Read the article "Third Time lucky!" onn this link, and write a good comment on it. A good comment means two or three paragraphs in accurate English with logical reasoning and clear ideas. Be brave! Make a copy of your comment and send it to my address as well, just in case!

2) Go to Cristina's blog at this link. Look for Advanced level writing, "Do you need to look for a job?" Have a look to this link and follow its recommendations. Then write a comment to this blog and tell us what you think of the web pages you have visited. Your comments will be read by other people so make sure your language is accurate!

Multimedia Room

Hello everybody!

Today we shall go to Multimedia Room. The main objective is to find out about resources to learn English and do some more specific work.

1. Dialang Test: Have you ever taken this test? If you haven't, this is an opportunity to find out how it works and test your listening comprehension, reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary and writing. This is a quality test based on the CEFR of the Council of Europe. It does not give you a certificate but allows you to self assess your habilities and competences. As it is a free application you can download it from the WEB.

2. Edgar Allan Poe: as you know this year we celebrate the bicentenary of Poe's birth, so you can go to the BBC page and listen to a text, read it, and learn some new expressions. The University is organizing an International Conference on this amazing writer. Look at the Conference Page to find out more.

3. Jobs. A lot of students are unemployed or looking for a better job. In the web you can find ways in which you can do better at job interviews. Find out and tell the class what you have found.

4. Pocasts. A lot of students often complain that they do not perform well at listening tests. Look at the podcast list in e-vent and the class blog to find out which podcasts suit your interests best.

Welcome to the new academic year 2009-2010 at Valencia EOI

Hello everybody!

A new course has just started and we are all getting ready for the new challenges ahead.

We have already been together for a week, that is two periods of 140 minutes. We have already started to get to know each other by means of a series of activities and a questionnaire. You can visit this link to follow what we have done in case you have joined the group later than the rest.
You can also download the questionnaire at this linkand hand it in when you join the group.

Remember, this year we have a new challenge ahead of us: use English in a series of oral and written genres. That is to say we shall organise learning around discourse genres: self presentation, presentation of a topic of general interest, presentation of a topic of professional interest, stories, anecdotes, debates,reports, interviews, etc.

Hope we all enjoy the course and motivate each other. We learn by doing. Doing means using language for different purposes and in different communicative situations.

This year we already know the final exam date: May 13th, at 11.30 h. Those who will have demonstrated their proficiency througout the course will be exempted from the final test, so work hard and work every week to keep up.

The Grass is Singing

The Grass is Singing tells the unhappy story of Mary, whose marriage is a failure. Her story runs parallel to that of Rhodesia, where the understanding between white and black people was very difficult in the 1940s.

The books has a perfect structure. It begins with the news of Mary's murder and ends with the murder itself. The 267 pages needed by DL to tell her story are startling, because we can see how feelings and emotions are developed toward true tragedy as the protagonist is led to her own destruction as she neglects her responsibility towards herself to others: her husband, Tony Marston, the young British worker, or Moses, the back servant.

Both the characters and the events are true to life. The back servants are strong but lazy, the whites are organized in two groups: the successful Slatter and the losers: the Turner. On the other hand, Tony Marston represents the newly arrived intellectual, unable to apply his ideas to solve everyday problems.

The style is absorving, as the reader gets inside a tiresome atmosphere where the psychological landscape of the main character echoes in the veld. On the other hand the deafening cicadas with their cries seem to boost the neurastenic state in which all the action of the novel is held.

The Turners and specially Mary are affected by an illness which counfounds the soul. This sadness impregnates the events and lifes of the farmers and natives.

All the narrative is a fashback. The first page tells us the end. The rest of the book is about what happeded before and the way everything led to this unhappy and strage end.

Mary's story is a contemporary tragedy as it defines a woman's destiny. DL looks at married life face to face and says things for the first time that nobody wants to hear. The author shows how men and women's psychology differ up to a point in which communication between them is impossible. Mary becomes ill in her mind because she cannot adjust herself to the social preassures.

A compelling narrative which lets us uneasy about the roles of men and women in society. A landmark of twentieth-century narrative. A masterpiece of realism, full of Africa's mystery and beauty

Book Club

Hi everybody! I am sure you have had time to rest and study hard, even if you have a family to look after or a demanding job.

For the next days we are going to focus on a great writer: Doris Lessing. Her novel The Golden Notebook caused a great impression in my generation. This novel, which I strongly recommend, is also about societal and mental breakdown. I didn't choose it for the course because it is too long,but if you enjoyed The Grass is Singing, you will enjoy it as well.

Remember, successful reading results from the understanding you bring to a text, which is often based on previous knowledge. So try to read in order to understand the overall meaning of the text.

The process is double: bottom up and top down: Constructing meaning is not just understanding words and sentences in a text. It involves a connection between those words and sentences and the meanings which arise from your expectations and the knowledge you have about content and structure. So the best thing is to combine top down and bottom up processes and strategies. Discussing the topic, relating what happens in the book to what you know, to your own experiences and situations will help you to benefit from the reading.

Activities:
1. Provide a title for wach chapter
2. Summarize each chapter in three sentences.
3. Write a composition about what will happen next.
4. Write a composition about a different ending to the story.
5. Discuss what punishment to give to the criminal.
6. Discuss what advice would you have given Mary if you had had the opportunity.
7. Discuss each of the characters in the story.
8. Discuss significant bits of the story.
9. Discuss possible reasons for D.L. to write this book.
10. Give a reasoned opinion to another student who might read this book next year.
11. Write a book review.
12. Make a note of interesting expressions to learn and their meaning in English (quote page and paragraph). For example: Perhaps he had got cold feet and run away. (p. 14, par.3)

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Now playing: http://www.sabanciuniv.edu/do/eng/PodCast/files/podcast69.mp3
via FoxyTunes

PALE

Pale 2008 by Inma Garín

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PALE Course Assessment

A. Context:

1. Is the PALE programme appropriate?
2. Are the premises and timetable suitable?
3. Was the length of each lesson adequate?
   

B. Objectives:

1. Did the course meet the objectives?
2. Were the objectives suitable?
3. Why?
   

C. Content and Processes:

1. Was there enough content?
2. Was the content appropriate?
   
3. Did you find the materials and the teacher's approach interesting?

D. Outcomes:

1. Did you learn what you expected to learn?
   
2. Why?
3. Did you find the course suitable to your needs?
4. Will the course change your teaching practice?
   

E. Evaluation

1. Did you enjoy the course?
2. Why?
3. Did the teacher manage the group in a suitable way?
4. Was the teacher able to communicate with the students and create a suitable atmosphere?
5. Were activities balanced? (speaking-writing-listening)
6. Was the teacher able to stimulate your interest for the L3?
   

F. Future Directions:

1. What suggestions for improvement can you make?(any changes?)
   
2. What advise can you give to a future PALE student?
3. Would you like the course to stay as it is or be integrated in the current schedule at the EOI? Why?

Easter Homework

Three weeks and a half and the course will be over when we come back after the Easter Holidays, so there's lots to do to boost your English competences.

First, on the 22 and 27th of April we'll have the Book Club about The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. In order to prepare for the Club, write a few interesting ideas or questions related to the characters and events in the book.
More about Doris Lessing at: Science Stage

As far as Face 2Face is concerned, we shall continue with lesson 11B, C and D, so study the vocabulary and the grammar. You can also do the reading exercises on page 90.

Finally, check the Progress Portfolio of the previous lessons to see what needs revising. Then get the workbook to revise those areas which need more work.

For those students who need more grammar work I recommend Grammar for First Certificate: Lesson 15 Passive Voice; Lesson 16 Reported Speech; Lesson 18 Phrasal Verbs; Verb complementation Lesson 17 and Linking words lessons 24 and 25.

For those who need more vocabulary work, please organize well all the vocabulary you have learned in an organised notebook, so as to revise it every week.

For those who need to practise listening, go to Event Blog (Language Learning). On the right-hand side you have all sorts of podcasts to listen to. Take notes on what you hear. Then open Audacity and record an audio file rephrasing what you have just heard. Try to recycle the language you have learned. Good luck!

Fallas Homework

As we apporach Fallas, some of us get ready for a trip; others have to stay. Some of you will participate in the events such as mascletàs, desperàs, processions, fireworks displays, etc. Everybody will be busy these days. Anyway, exams are so close that I thought I will give you something to do while you are at home or at the countryside, as we have only 11 lessons left before the final exams.

Classbook: p. 82 Reading and Vocabulary; ex. 3 a) & b) Grammar; ex. 1-2-3-4-5 p. 85; ex. 1 p. 86; ex. 1-2- p. 90.

Weak students are advised to work hard with Workbook, Grammar and Vocabulary Book.

Those who want to improve writing skills can write an argumentative compostion "for" or "against" Fallas. Use the handouts I gave you. (About 200 words).

Remember the Book Club for Doris Lessing's "The Grass is Singing" will be April 22 & 27th.

Classes finish May 13th. (last class)

April 1st no class as I am going to a Conference.

Have a good time!

How to write better: explaining and presenting information

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Telling stories

Telling stories is an art. In the following weeks we are going to learn how to tell a story. What are the characteristics of a good story?

Here are some ideas than can help you with your story:
• Intriguing opening paragraph
• Interesting characters
• Evocative description or setting
• Humour
• A strong plot
• An unexpected ending
• Original use of language
• Effective use of dialogue
• Love interest
• An imaginatice stuation
• Tension
• Message about... the human condition

What are the stages in a story?
• Initial situation
• Conflict
• Development of action
• Outcome
• Final situation

Well, now you can try and start getting ideas for a cool story.

If yopu need inspiration, you can read Patricia Highsmith (1921 - 1995), a great Amercian writer of thrillers, whose short stories Little Tales of Misogyny (1974)you are sure to enjoy.

Interviews

Have you ever read an interview?
I am sure you have.
What are the elements of a good interview?
It has to be intersting.
Well. This is your opportunity. Become a journalist for one day.
Think about somebody you like. It has to be somebody famous or well known in some circles.
Find a partner. Distribute roles.
A: journalist from... (People Magazine, The Guardian Newspaper, etc.)
B: somebody you know who can be of interest to other people in the group.

Plan your interview. You'll need an introduction to establish a context for the interview, such as the personality's house (give a description of the place). Give a quick impression of the character. Start the interview.

Key words.
Language you need: wh questions such as when, where, what, how, why; Questions with auxiliaries such as are, have, did, do; Statements of past facts about the character's biography that you want to focus on for him to comment (about three sentences long); Doublle questions; question tags, combination of statement and question that follows it.
End your interview.



Check with a teacher or another student for content and form.

Rehearse.

Be brave!

New Year's Resolutions

It's time to look forward to the coming year and reflect on the changes we want to make and resolve to follow through.

Some popular resolutions are:
1.Do regular exercise to keep feet and be more healthy.
2.Lose weight to have more energy. Set reasonable goals and stay focused. Stick to a weight loss programme.
3. Quit smoking even if it is not the first time you try. It gets an average of four times eyou quit for good. Give yourself another opportunity.Try nocotine replacement therapy. Think about the advantages it has: save money, get your taste back, breath better, have more energy, etc.
4. Enjoy life more. Bring balance to your body, mind and soul. Try a different lifestyle. Do things more slowly and try to do less, even if that means putting a limit to your family demands on you. Take up a new hobby!
5. Get out of debt. Handle your own finances. Be more realistic to make ends meet. Don't use a credit card, taht may be the first step. Don't buy a house, that is one of the sources of unhappiness, even if some people say the opposite.
6. Learn how to use a computer or an i-pod to develop your language skills. Devote more time to enjoy yourself while learning English.
7. Help others.Volunteerism can take many forms, you don't have to go to Africa to do it. Help the lady next door with her shopping or babysit for your monoparental neighbour. Get involved in a project that suits your timetable.
8. Get organized. If you can'y manage, get help from a professional organizer. It saves time, energy and avoids stress.

Now, you can reorganize these resolutions according to your needs, or add a few more to this list to inspire others.