Wednesday 12 March 2008

English Over Easter

Try and do something in English over the 2 week break. It's holiday time so do something which is pleasurable: try and watch 1 film in English (maybe with subtitles?) and read a short book.

For those in Martin's class, here a wordsearch containing 30 words from the vocab bag. Click here and then print it off.

Also, if you haven't looked already. Go to the previous post on Pronunciation and try out some of the activities. In the Tuesday / Thursday 15:55 class, we're going to do a lot more on pronunciation in term 3 so any work you can do familiarizing yourselves with the symbols would be apprecicated

Happy holidays!

Tuesday 11 March 2008

CALL room lesson / 1-to1 counselling

Part of today's lesson will be in the CALL room - this is to give me a chance to talk to you individually about your progress. So, here are some computer-based activities to work on - some are based on software found on the computer, others are internet-based:
Do the activities in whatever order you fancy. Also, work with another student where possible. So:

1. Network English (advanced) grammar connectors
2. Network English (advanced) grammar conditionals (3rd and mixed)
3. Network English (advanced) words law and order
4. Pronunication Suite (stress and rhythm) moving stress
5. Pronunciation on the web (look at the posting below on Pronunciation, follow the links and try out some of the activities)

When you finish, write some comments about which activities you enjoyed. Were they too easy, too difficult or just too boring?

Sunday 2 March 2008

Pronunciation on the web

There are some great sites on the Internet for practising pronunciation. Here are just a few:

1. Elementary Pronunciation If you have never studied pronunciation before, this is a good place to start. Simple diagrams with recordings of the sounds + practice activities to help you sensitise to them.
2. Ship or Sheep Say 'ship' and 'sheep' out loud. Is there a difference? Many students have trouble distinguishing between 'minimal pairs' like 'ship' and 'sheep'.
3. Iowa University Phonetics If you have trouble making certain English sounds, then this may be the site for you. Although it's American English, this site uses diagrams of the mouth to show you exactly how to make the sounds.
4. Stress Monsters This a game and it's good fun as well as being useful. Here the focus it on word stress. I recommend you skip the elementary level game and go straight to intermediate.

Let us know which of these sites you found the most useful. And if you know any others, please share them with all of us.