Summer. For c1.1s & c1.2s

1. For all…

Reading Club, with books, poems, stories, essays I suggest for our work. Rememer to 1. sign up and 2. subscribe to the R.Club!!! (the online course).

We will also include TV Series and movie senes for Dramatized Readings & performances.

talkingpeople.net/ecampus

2.

Grammar in context extra support for people making under-the-level grammar mistakes and for new students joining the c1.1 course next September.

+ for people who I recommemded to take the c1.1 course again, and use their summer work to consolidate the B2+ level in grammar and types of written texts…

About learning about textual structure I recommend my notes on Writing, on Talking People, and reading students work published on Your Stuff. I’ll be adding some c1 writing texts I have.

This self-study exercise book is also good for people who will start a c1.2 year in September but whose grammar needs urgent improvements and consolidation. It will help you understand which are mistakes you should work on avoiding by connecting this training to the input you get from reading and listening in your everyday bilingual life!!

3.

For people who wish to advance work they could be doing at home during the c1.2 2019-20 year…

Remember my courses are about projects and workshops with original materials, SO read the C1 RESOURCE PACK, downloadable for free on talkingpeople.net – enter – in class – c1

Ideas for your Summer Learning Plan

To use the materials we used this year, particularly if you didn’t finish them or exploit them properly for learning purposes. Here is my brainstorming on this:

• Listen to Pamela Lyndon Travers’s novella (Mary Poppins), practicing retelling of fav scenes, and/or L&R of my list of UL.
• Read or re-read or finish reading Wangari Maathai’s autobiography (Unbowed). This is important for everybody, really, because of the UL you can gather to speak and write about a great deal of issues relevant for C1 learners: democracy, corruption, human rights, repression, social movements, environmental issues, nature, cultures in Kenya, consequences of colonization in Kenya, urbanization, religion…
• If you have her documentary, Taking Root, it’ll be amazing support, and you’ll become familiar with Kenyan accents
• Watch Annie Leonard’s documentary (Story of Stuff) and practice retelling, and/or gather UL. This is also great for everybody’s English. The range of topics is great, too: consumerism, economy, environmental issues, human rights issues, labor/labour rights, democracy, sustainability, capitalism, resources in our planet…
• Listen to the Human Right Declaration, or read it again, to consolidate learning about formal administrative/legal language.
• Watch a few episodes of Friends, learning your fav lines, and/or practicing retelling the episode.
• Listen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talks, to get used to non-British / non-US American accents.
• Listen to poems on the Talking People Podcast, and learn one by ear by heart!
• Listen to stories on the Talking People Podcast, particularly, again, to Coyote Killed a Giant, and practice retelling or L&R.
• Watch the videos posted this year on this blog, or look for your own, to expand your lists of UL in connection to your LoM, too — something you can or should do with whichever material you use, really!
• Have a look at my notes here on your Writing File, to check what you did, and what remains to be done.
• Read the C1 Resource Pack and connect it to your learning habits and routines or be aware of how you have done so.
• Practice telling your own actual or fictional stories, or write them down and read them aloud.
• If you have grammar trouble, get for instance the macmillan English Grammar in Context with key and a CD Rom for Intermediate students (if you get the Advanced guide and you haven’t consolidated your B2+ level it won’t be a good idea.)
  http://www.macmillanenglish.com/courses/macmillan-english-grammar-in-context/

News on Updates

I updated our headquarters at Talking People, the C1 webpage on TP, OK?, in case you want to have a look. It’s not much: I included a foreword in the Syllabus, which is pending update (next year) and the Evaluation Tables and the example of a grammar LoM because some people told me it helped them a lot. Also, a note on next year’s eCampus.

If you have any requests, or ideas, about info on this TP page, feel free to let me know! Thanks!

UL from novels: Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet 1

• Edited in August 2019: UL_WritingWkshp_Carrington_HearingTrumpet

Publishing the Spring Test – Edited to add more!

Tuesday April 23

• • 2019SpringReadingtest
  • 2019SpringListeningtest (I can’t upload the audios for copyright reasons, but you can find the textbooks. They’re credited)

2019SpringSpeakingtest – title of the March retelling of one of my suggested stories

Thursday April 25

• 2019SpringLanguageAwarenessTest
• 2019SpringWritingtest
• 2019SpringSocioculturalTest_01

I have spares in class in paper, except for the Sociocultural Test, but I do have 30 copies of my first version of the Sociocultural Test, which included 4 more women! So you are welcome to take one next day! ❤

I designed the Sociocultural Test to test how much you learned about the women whose work or achievement we used as course materials, but also to show people who complain about we always doing feminism or things about women that WOMEN ARE PEOPLE, and therefore, do all kinds of things, as this Quiz shows. We’ve read and listened to women, a bit at least because it’s a universe, in fiction: poetry, novel, short story/talks, and non-fiction: essay/talks, social and natural sciences (philosophy, neuroscience), social movements (feminism, human rights, the environmental movement, fighting dictatorships…), and more to come. We could actually just use materials with the work and achievement of women (which we don’t do, we’re just INCLUDING WOMEN FOR A CHANGE) and still we would be able to talk about and learn about ALL KINDS of subjects.

I know we tend to feel bad about change, but when change involves us becoming more human and humane, I think it’s well worth making the effort. We need to build a less violent and unfair world, and this requires acknowledging people as people, whether they are men or women, according to the patriarchal sex-gender system, or men, women or people in their own terms. Human identities are a universe of diversity.

Spring Test Week

Use &Omission of “the” (Key)

An example of a List of Mistakes (LoM)

I did this for Avanzado 2 students in Madrid (6th year of studies) to help them avoid under-the-level mistakes and other! I hope it helps! (I lost the word version, so that is why I can’t modify it any longer!)

• michellesLoM (5 pdf pages)

About the upcoming test (spring test) & more on Evaluation

So — after our hol we’ll have our 2 weekly lessons devoted to doing some exercises I call “the spring test“, which will allow students understand where they are in terms of level.

Although I already posted about it, here is the recap: we’ll have a wonderful sociocultural quiz, a spot the mistake exercise (language awareness), a listening and a reading comprehension exercise, and a writing exercise which will be about answering some selected questions to assess, apart from your ability to explain things in writing, if you have learned the kind of methodology this course requires, to help you all become independent and resourceful lifelong learners (see C1 Resource Pack). On Sunday I’ll decide how to group them. The speaking test corresponding to this spring test was a retelling based on one of the stories I offered students.

People who are not in Evaluación Continua, or who have a fail mark in Term 2 in one or several of the skills, and pass these exercises with a good mark (have a C1.1 or C1.2 level) will be able to be in Evaluación Continua and present a Celebration of Learning Project in May. However, if they don’t follow the course in Term 3 (and/or don’t present the Celebration of Learning Project) they will have to take the June/September tests. In the spring test, being below a C1.1 will mean going to the regular level test in June/September, too.

For people in Evaluación Continua (with the four skills passed) the spring test will be part of their Third Term work. If it turns out that any of these people do not have a C1.1 level we’ll have a counselling session in May to decided what is best for each of them.

After I check these exercises in the last week in April, I’ll present my thoughts on who needs to go to the June and September tests, and I’ll bring three important handouts:

1. The task description for the May Celebration of Learning Projects. (But I already explained a bit in class, so if you have started to plan what you wish to do, don’t fret, of course. I’m flexible as you know, and you actually know what I expect and how to improve and show your progress.)
2. The template to guide people whose English is not at the B2+ level, but who wish to pass to the C1.2 course. They will have a special Oral in June, called the E.C. Oral for C1.1’s, where they will present a credible Learning Plan for the Summer, based on this template or guideline. In September, after coming to their Oral resit, they would get their pass mark.

I hope you enjoy your everyday time using English! Big hug! ❤

Ana’s notes in the BH documentary

People, post your notes if you like. I ll be giving you feedback. 🍃👍🌱

Collecting your checked work

Dear students, please, remember to get your checked work from the tray in class. And of course, to work on your List of Mistakes, make clean final copies when needed, and share in class what you learned/learnt or I marked “In class”. Remember you can always read out your written work, because it helps us review language questions.

I’d like to ask people who worked on the time and tenses workshops, like Ana and María Isabel, to conduct a session on that. Also, María Isabel has done very good work on conditional sentences and I think we should be preparing an activity (any volunteers?) on Mixed Conditionals, after María Isabel presents her review of type 0 to 4 based on Useful Language from Parker’s story “A Telephone Call”.

See you soon!

Plans for this week

• Handing in your March learning diaries
• Last week for the pending March orals (retelling a story from the selection I gave)
• Reading out some minisagas or other written work
• Sharing your highlights in your Lists of Useful Language, particularly those lines where interesting language points come up!, where you have language questions or where you make mistakes!

What should we work on? We’ve got several interesting activities you have been working on at home:

• The Use & Omission of “the”
• The first workshop on Time and Tenses (is that finished?)
• The second workshop: read out the 2 pages with the theory and small groups work on the exercise while they practice communicating in English. Language questions for communication or on the exercise at Plenary.
• My notes on Indirect and Direct Speech. After reading them in class, in pairs you would have to practice listening to a classmate and then telling what he or she said in indirect speech. You can also practice indirect speech by reporting on what somebody said or wrote, for instance, you could report about what I say somewhere in the C1 Resource Pack! 😀

Any other?

Narrative Tenses 1. Some further practice!

Here is a wonderful episode you can listen to and work on, to improve your command over narrative tenses.

29. Mystery Story / Narrative Tenses in English

If you work on this, remember to let us know in class, or let me know in your learning diary. Ask any questions you may have in class, whenever.

Diary for Thursday March 14

See Lesson Plan below. But as there were questions and comments on the Spring Test, we talked for about an hour about that all! Well, because I explained different kinds of things, including a broader view of what “evaluation” is. And I also gave some tips on writing and your Writing File. And spoke about the power of communication, dialogue, to make us more aware of negative conditionings we can overcome, the difference between aggression or violence and critical thinking, and between reasoned opinions and biased opinions.

So the plan for Small Groups moves to next Tuesday! Bring a copy of the Template for reporting on your work in the small group and your Maathai bio. By the way, we need to watch parts of the documentary and give the copies to people interested. If you didn’t jot down your name on the list, ask me in class next day! Have a lovely bilingual week! ❤

About language questions, the question of intensifiers and mitigators came up again. Here is the example that triggered it: The font size in this book is FAR too small for me!

People who spoke today were Lola (Coyote), María Luisa (March 8 at her primary school), Bea O. (on article on Ngozi Adichie). Next week all the rest! Go for it! ❤

Have a nice trip, Asun! ❤

Here is a picture of the I Feminist Cultural Week that I found today on Facebook! 😀 ❤

Una foto de nuestra Semana Cultural Feminista por Facebook

Writing File – Some tips & hopefully some questions for you to make

One of your assignments has made me think about something I should explain to help people prevent making mistakes that relate to something more complex and natural than having a perfect morphosyntax! 😀

When we sit to tackle an assignment we need to think of why we are going to communicate, who will read or listen to our words, what tone we choose (intention and way of conveying meaning), what register we need to use (formal, informal, semiformal, slangy!; how rich our language range is expected to be), what kind of text we need to use (not only if it’s oral or written, I mean, if it’s a letter of complaint, a shopping list, a story, a minisaga, a reasoned opinion, a description, a narrative, an explanation, instructions, recipes…), the format requirements for that kind of text… And if there is any requirement in the assignment, for instance, I ask everybody to write factual info like name and date and group on the top right corner and to include a Task Description before the actual piece, which includes the word limit (but I also ask you to include the actual word count, too). (Check out Writing File here, the video, in Course Info, or the C1 Resource Pack for more info, or ask in class.)

Ordinary citizens know a lot about texts and textual structure because it’s everywhere in our everyday life, but they don’t NOTICE (observe) it. And when they sit to write something for the teacher, they may make mistakes like this:

(Writing assignment description: write a reasoned opinion in 100-200 words)

I’m going to speak about Doping in Sports.

It is wrong, and I hate it because it harms everybody. …

Well, the first thing you need to write is some brainstorming on topics, or ideas to mention. Then you need to select and order those ideas. And when you start the piece, you need to understand its format and structure.

Doping in Sports – A Personal View

Dopping ….

First an opening sentence which introduces the topic, then you can start explaining what you think. You cannot start an opening line with a pronoun, just because you used the word in the title. You can repeat the word because we need the word identifying the topic in that paragraph and in that text. It’s an opening line, not only a topic sentence!

Well, you can ask in class. What I wanted to say, thinking of an exercise I checked, relates to our ideology or feelings when we decide to write about something close to our heart, or which makes us very angry. When the person feels this way, the text is usually faulty in terms of reaching the audience because it’s not well constructed. But there is more to this — we are probably expressing ourselves from a defensive position, which means we are putting the reader in the position of having ideas the reader might not have. It’s hard to explain! I’m just starting this thread so we remember we need to talk about this, about controversial topics in assignments and about respecting the kind of text, or the assignment requirements, OK?

 

What will the Spring Test be like?

• A listening exercise
• A reading exercise
• A writing exercise
• A sociocultural quiz
• A language awareness exercise

all of those based on what we have been working on during the course.

About the speaking exercise. For people in Evaluación Continua, it will include one of your March orals (a 3-4 minute monologue, not the ones that are about reading aloud, OK? because that doesn’t give info on how you communicate orally). [For people who are not in Evaluación Continua, or following this course in class, for obvious reasons they won’t be taking a speaking test, so that’ll be in June.]

[For people coming to the June exam, that one can’t include the sociocultural part because those people haven’t followed the course and probably would not pass a sociocultural test based on what our course includes, unfortunately. We still need a few more decades to be culturally aware of the things we have traditionally excluded from acknowledgement. But — I still have to make this decision — it might include a language awareness exercise]

Feb/March tasks: The Rebecca Solnit Pack

Feb tasks: Reading + LW in class + Discussing + Follow-up Listening/Writing/Oral Work

Based on excerpts from Rebecca Solnit’s “Men Explain Things to Me”, a key book to learn to explain communication problems considering the gender problem in patriarchal cultures. + Some cultural tips on Georgia O’Keefe
I’ll include a link here to the audio of the excerpt on the Talking People Podcast so you can practice reading before volunteering in class or for further fluency and accuracy!
Enjoy!

• Link to Podcast episode, so you can learn to pronounce the reading out of the excerpt… and where you can download the PACK with the tasks

Lesson Plans

Plans for next week are:

• YOU SPEAK TIME. One hour you talk (orals, questions, comments, discussions, practicing things you wish to share later on…) + reminding us of pending exercises, or solving them on the spot!
• One hour LISTENING TASK (2) for Term 2. We’ll listen to a radio interview and you’ll answer some questions. Then you will have to write a summary in 150-250 words based on what you understood or your thoughts after listening.
• Remember you need to hand in a copy of our Listening Task (1) on Helen Mirren!
• If time allows, I’ll end the lesson any of the days explaining why I became ill.

Upcoming Lesson Plans: 2 weeks

Your booked – and unbooked if time allows – orals any day are welcome.

SCF. Those of you who have work on this need to write your name down for sharing 3-4 min. talks on something that allows us to learn about women’s work & achievement, so we can overcome our profound ignorance on half of humanities’ minds. We can’t have more time because workshops will be full of students sharing. You can also present your highlights of our work on the human rights declaration: sharing an article, what you learned about the importance of language in our conceptual system, whatever. Posters, collage, anything you image, talk to me. Let me know, so I can organize the c1.1 participation.

Tues Jan 22

• Listening Comprehension. Part 2 for people who did part 1. Part 1 for people who missed it.
• Time & Tense workshop part 3. Practicing narratives in small groups.

Thurs Jan 24

• Second lesson for sharing your work on Wangari Maathai.
• Use & omission of “the” in small groups.
• Contingency plan for any day: second session for playing the “If this person were…” game. Catching UP: Time and Tense narratives we did not do on Jan 22
  

On the following week we’ll go through your checked work (LoM for oral & written work) to learn about how to improve what, in terms of textual structure, communicative purposes, functional grammar, methodology…

And we’ll start with documentaries: 1h watching, one hour sharing thoughts.

Diary for Jan 15 (Part 2)

Here is what I did not manage to include the other day.

Ana’s presentation, on Wangari Maathai’s autobio (p. 19). POLYGAMOUS FAMILIES & CHILDREN: Commentary to the quote “Polygamy worked well for children”

UL

• I found very surprising and somewhat (mitigator because what you are speaking about intented no harm) shocking. People, “shocking” is negative, do you know? Read the entry in the McMillan online dictionary
• family networks, where the child is at the center/centre of this polygamous structure
• I had never thought of it this way. (Polygamy as beneficial /benefishl/)
• the Western point of view
• I would like to comment a very interesting quote in the book — at least for me!

LoM

• Pronunciation. experiences /ikspíriensis/, psyches /sái-kis/, areas /é-rees/, sizes /sái-sis/
• Tenses: just once, not present (draw my attention) but past (drew my attention).
• Vocabulary: My question Ana is, Did you mean to say “draw sb’s attention” or “catch sb’s attention”? I’m just asking, I don’t remember. What’s the difference?
  • from the free dictionary: Alison was late, she crept into the conference room quietly, in an attempt to avoid drawing attention to herself.
  • from the online collins dictionary: to attract someone’s attention. or catch sb’s attention. phrase. If someone or something attracts your attention or catches your attention, you suddenly notice them. A faint aroma of coffee attracted his attention.

Juanfra’s contribution. ACTIVISM, POVERTY & THE DEBT. Juanfra wanted to relate something at the beginning to something at the end of the book, about poverty, actions and the debt. Chapter “Rise Up & Walk” (The biblical narrative of the raising of Lazarus is found in chapter 11 of the Gospel of John. Lazarus is introduced as a follower of Jesus, who lives in the town of Bethany near Jerusalem. He is identified as the brother of the sisters Mary and Martha). And he also wanted to relate this to religion but explained he had not had the time to prepare it.

LoM. Pronunciation: created /kriéi-tid/

UL

• to skip some chapters to get to the end
• to leap to the end of the book = this indicates a very long jump
• Lenders and borrowers
• Demos / Demonstrations, marches
• People were demanding the cancellation of the debt
• Even the clergy ended up in prison
• to accuse sb of sth
• landgrabbing

Laura’s. RESOURCES. Laura told students about my Wangari Resources (my language work) on our blog Language Learning from Reading. Link on the Wangari Maathai page here, undert Women.

Margarita and Antonio did not get the chance to speak because we ran out of time, so they’ll be starting our next lesson.

Diary for Jan 15 – The Wangari Maathai Sharing 1 Session (Part 1)

Intro. Lots of people came to class, which is great. It seems more people are understanding the point of our time together, and are starting to work or consolidating their work in the right direction. Actually, I requested María Luisa to share her evolution this year with you all next week. ML, remember to jot it down on the page for Booking Orals on the Announcement Board. Efrén went to the Málaga demo, so that’s why he did not join us, but he’ll be sending Bea S’s part of the video. Here is the link to the text, on the DIF Blog > SCF > Presentation (direct link: https://coeducacioninteligenciafeminista.wordpress.com/semana-cultural-feminista/). I recommend everybody follows the DIF blog this year, and checks out this page every now and then! We’ll be needing all the support we can gather after we share with you all the info we’re preparing these days. ❤

I presented the new Pages (Getting Organized, Term 2 E.C. and Language Awareness)and posts (feedback for LoMs) on this blog and explained the new approach to Evaluación continua, inviting people who are lost and unable to follow this blog to book a Counselling Session (Tutoría).

I can’t remember why the question of traumas in language learnig and nationalisms came up but I posed the big question of why in Spain we get so upset with Catalunya having its own status in football championships, as a nation, because it is one of the various nations in the greater nation of Spain, when we can see that Britain, a greater nation also consisting of other nations, has their own teams in football championships (not only Britain, but the smaller nations of Scotland or Wales are also represented, I think). I’m no expert, please, correct me if I’m wrong. I did mention my own opinion, which I related to my experience during the dictatorship in Spain and my knowledge as a language teacher and researcher on the language situation in Spain during the dictatorship, how we were not allowed to call “William Shakespeare” or “Charles Dickens” like that, and were forced to name them in Spanish: “Guillermo Sha-kes-pe-a-re” or “Carlos Dickens”, which was just consistent with the fact that people who spoke other languages in Spain were not allowed to speak them either. I think this very Dark Past in terms of denying diversity via enforcing severe punishment for Other Language Users has kind of traumatized Spanish people and that’s why they can spend 8 years learning English and panic when having to communicate in English, or simply use a broken kind of English, which does not show the level they would probably have if not traumatized.

Students also shared some language questions. One was about capitalizing, which was good because I keep explaining — which means some people are still unaware.

Another question was about the use and omission of “the”. We analyzed these examples, reflecting upon their differences in meaning or approach. These examples are a particular case of the use and omission of “the” in English, a case which depends on the meaning of the whole sentence (your approach, where’s your point of view?), not only on what language item needs or doesn’t need “the”. Compare when we say “Plurals in general do not take the definite article in English”, e.g. Cars are vehicles, Women can wear pants/trousers or also chose their sexual partners today and not be called bitches.

• In English, you capitalize all the words in a title except (the) prepositions
• (The) People in this class are really nice

Next day, as we have a language lesson (where 2 people who did not have time yesterday to share on Maathai’s book will do so), I’ll bring a workshop I have for improving your use and omission of “the” at the advanced level.

Please, post a comment here with whatever I miss, if you like, or you could also start simply posting comments like some of your classmates have been doing all this time together! 🙂

Next, we had the following people sharing their work and insight on a particular passage or quote from the book. Please, if I misunderstood, post your corrections!

• Elena (pages 10 & 11). Culture and Colonization. Elena spoke about her shock when learning about the negative impact of colonization in African societies and cultures.
  This is one of the key topics you can learn about from this very valuable source of information which is an African person’s viewpoint.
  Language note: depending on approach, we have two words, “colonization” or “invasion”, e.g. “the colonization of America” versus “the Norman invasion in Britain”. For American Indians, they were not colonized but invaded and massacred.)
  UL: How can I explain? What shocked me was SOMETHING (cleft sentence), les dieron = they were given (passive), geographical names were “enthusiastically replaced”,
  LoM. “THE”: the colonialism is… Much more reasonS > Many more reasons. Pronunciation: at school their culture was discouraged and demonized /dis-keregt/ /dímonaist/ converts /kÓnverts/

  Elena shared with us her advice so we can learn to respect diversity, and I hope she can send us her extended version for publication on Talking People. ❤

Benefits from Learning about Other Cultures
* It helps build acceptance of human diversity
* It creates curiosity and we learn about other points of view
* It makes us open-minded

• María Luisa (ch. 1, p. 6, last para.). Language & Pronunciation of foreign words. ML also shared some passages so as to comment on language questions, particularly the question of renaming mountains and the like by colonizers in Kenya, this is, changing the names of things that have a name in their own country, and the question of why we misprounce certain borrowings. UL: Peoples (= pueblos) subject to this abuse need to be “wrestling with the realities of this dual world”, its impact on their culture, how it BELITTLES their culture (approach, values, traditions).
  LoM. Pronunciation. /intradÁkshn/ (introduction), Europeans /iu-re-píens/, regions /rí-llns/. ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS. She speaks English really good (adj.) well (adv. = speak –a verb– well –an adverb) cf. I’m making good (adj) progress (good –an adjective– progress –a noun, not a verb). LISTEN TO SB/ HEAR: listen a Spanish people > When you HEAR a Spanish PERSON saying… LISTEN TO me! (not: Listen me!). THE: The people look at you strange > People look at you strangely (adverb modifying verb not adjective modifying noun, but it’s true natives use the adjective here all the time when speaking informally). SEE/HEAR/LISTEN/WATCH: people, please, pay attention to the use of these verbs and jot down examples: “When you hear someone saying/say…” (not “When you listen someone” eek!!!!!! the “to” after “listen” is also missing, on top of everything!), “When you see something happening…” (not “When you watch something happening”)
  UL. “In this passage/excerpt…”, “translating names and renaming, too”, “About what you (just) said…”, “Why are you saying that?” “What are you saying?” – please, jot this one down for discussion in the Time & Tenses Workshop, because many of you say “What do you say?” which is TOTALLY WRONG when the sentence refers to NOW.
• Marina (ch. 7, p. 139) MASCULINITY & RELATIONSHIPS. Marina read out an excerpt to bring up the issue of how the construction of masculinity in patriarchal cultures harms personal relationships, how society can exert pressure that pushes people who love each other to break up.
  LoM. Pronunciation. mutual /miúchuel/, venture /Vén-chuer/, a man /mAEn/, (some)  men /mEn/, I looked it up /ai lúk ti tap/, I need to look it up /ai níd te lúkitap/, occurred /okÉrd/ It occurred to me … Se me ocurrió
  UL: (for a couple) this is particularly so = this is the case
  Boys are expected to be greater achievers
  Society expected a lot from us
  Society’s perception of … (personification)
  Women understand they need to fake failure because society and men feel threatened/belittled by their success
  Teacher’s note: this happens even if men love them for the reasons Marina pointed out: the pressure men get for being the best in the pair; or just because the values in patriarchal culture establish Man is the measure of all things human and women are in a subordinate position (and not trusted intellectually speaking).
  Society’s perception of masculinity may wreak havoc in a relationship.  People, find more sentences where this phrase is used and share in class.
• Almudena 2 (pp. 16-18, some quotes or passages). CULTURE & FAMILY. Almudena reflected upon what she learned/learnt about families, about a different approach to what a family is.
  Teacher’s contribution: The pair here for discussion is “nuclear families” and “extended families”. I recommended students to listen to materials on that and then practice their language for making (constructive) comparisons around this topic, like saying what one feels is positive about each kind of structure.
  I’m asking students to listen to this poem, The Housing Poem, by an American Indian who teachers at a US American university and see if you can relate it to what Maathai says about family and to Roma people’s culture (la cultura del pueblo gitano). Note on unconscious prejudices we have: when we speak of a different culture’s Culture or Traditions we freeze them in time, without understanding that every single human culture evolves — which means that I can come from a culture where family still operates and is an extended family but a culture which has abandoned certain traditions, those which hurt and harm people.
  LoM: Pronunciation. courtyard /koort-iárd/ constructed /kans-tráctid/. Grammar: they had another other children (“children” is a plural, “another” is a singular) + Saying “have” instead of “had” (for everybody’s LoM: mixing up the present and the past of “have”) in a sentence like “When they had to…”
  UL: Our society is far too dependant on money / on the value of money — when it comes to developing relationships?, like when we buy a kid a machine instead of increasing the amount of time we spend playing with her (or him)?
  According to what you (just) said…

Wow. It’s been 2 hours now and I need to stop working now because classes start at 16.00! Sorry, Ana, Juanfra and Laura. I’ll be back soon!

January 15 Feedback for your LoMs

LoM. Methodology

• Complying with the task: if the task is to inform about future work plans, there is a mistake if you inform about present or past work. One of the reasons why people fail exams is because they do not read the instructions properly. If your English is wonderful but you fail to comply with the task, in exams you fail. So my advice is that if you can’t walk in the teacher’s shoes when she asks students to give her some info she needs, you use our tasks to train for exams! See how many of the things we do in class are exam training anyway? 😀

LoM. Under the level mistakes:

• Confusing the present and the past or these with the future is an under-the-level mistake.
• SPEAK, TALK, TELL & SAY: You cannot say “I told about” but “I spoke about” (you speak to the group) or “We talked about” (conversation).
  You can say “I told people about my trip to the USA”, “I was told you couldn’t make it to class”, “She told me…” “I said I was busy”
  TELL + Indirect Object (the person) = Tell me where I can find an ATM, please.
  SAY + Direct Object (what is said) = I said (that) I was busy.
  Tell about, tell us about = Offer a narrative
  Expressions (collocations): Don’t tell me lies. Please, tell the truth.
  Other meanings and uses: I really can’t tell (= I don’t know, I can’t work it out)

  Incidentally, here is an episode I recorded for Elementary students on some tricky verbs like tell/say/speak/talk: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tppodcast/2018/02/17/useful-language-tricky-verbs-for-ementary-see-look-watch-hear-listen/ Find more on-the-level videos and post them on our page above for your lists of mistakes.

Useful Language. Please practice repeating these sentences at home.

• I’ll share/contribute some useful language I selected / highlighted / wrote down on my list. (We use “will” for predictions and for announcements, so if what you wish to communicate is not a prediction or an announcement, but a plan or a true intention, you would be saying: I’m going to share some useful language.
• UL for Register:
  Let me know is informal.
  But it can’t be used when you REQUEST INFORMATION in a formal letter, because you need to use, apart from formal language, language for REQUESTS:
  Could I possibly receive some follow-up information on the case?
  People, can you gather UL on how to make requests (also at the advanced level)? Imagine different kinds of written and oral texts. Share in class if you do, please!
  Let me introduce myself is informal and OK.
  Allow me to introduce myself is formal and/or POLITE.
  Let me give you a hand – informal.
  Allow me to give you a hand – polite, and also formal, depending on context.

Textual structure. The world of texts and communication

• When we communicate caringly we go from the general to the specific. If we don’t introduce the specific the reader or listener will be totally lost, and the text will be faulty. Example of my re-wording of some notes I read:
  I’ll address / tackle some language questions (general topic).I would like to share some of the vocabulary and expressions I found harder / more difficult / more interesting (more specific info).
  Remember life is about repetition, and the kind like onion layers is common in well-preapred oral and written texts! 😀

Content in formal letters requesting respect for HR

• You cannot tell the authorities that you are INFORMING THEM about the situation in their country because they know, their problem is not that they don’t have the necessary information. Putting pressure means you need to EXPRESS YOUR CONCERN politely. You can be more assertive if you think that’s convenient, but you need to be the least emotional you can about it, sharing insight and information that describes facts, and shared values.

Reporting about your work in class: Template

Here is a template to make your life easier and help you make sure you share the information you need to share with your teacher.

You’ll fill it in tomorrow, once you share whatever it is you wish to share at Plenary, regarding the Maathai project. I’ll print copies for whoever needs one at the beginning of the lesson and leave some spares on the chair for late-comers. Late-comers, please, get your copy before sitting down.

Obviously, this activity requires sharing an oral in class, so only people doing so can fill it out/in (US/UK). If you miss tomorrow’s lesson, you can always share another day provided you book a date or inform me so I can rearrange lesson plans.

• c1templatereporting (1 word page)

Requests for class & communication

Dear students,

I’d like to share with you some information and requests! Take them positively because they are. They’ll help you be better learners! 🙂 ❤

When you communicate with me or respond to a request of mine, it’s an excuse to practice and improve your English, so please, pay attention to your English.

Ignoring the teacher, scribbling something without paying attention to accuracy. The other day, some people did not write down what I insisted I wanted to see. When this happens, I understand people have no time for their English and all of the things we teachers are generally told, but here is an example of why we often suspect we’re listening to excuses at times. There was no reason that justified that you did not jot down a little sentence I was begging you to write down. People should learn to take good care of teachers, too, particularly when the effort is like in this case, not much.

Other people wrote down a line in the infinitive (?), I mean, ignoring tenses. Using the “present” instead of the past is a mistake I am critical of in the B2.1 stage of learning. So please, pay attention to this question when you write and speak.

You should not waste the chance to communicate with me in English. That also applies to your classmates, of course, but if you are willing to talk to natives, teachers are also there, why waste that chance.

Please, when you send written work for feedback, remember I can’t check work if it’s a pdf file or a photo. Use Word or program(me)s like that, OK?

For people who are late, seldom come, or lost, please, book for a Tutoría session asap. Time flies and we really need to get some minimum work done. English this year should be one of your joys and priorities if you wish to become an advanced user of the language, and some people’s English — the English of those people who can’t use the present simple and continuous, and the past simple and continuous correctly — is not now at the B2.2 level and that should be addressed. Working hard on your English before exams, as most of us know, may help passing exams, but not sustaining the level. A certain level is reached and consolidated with everyday use.

Last, thank you for sending in all that catch up work and for taking into account my corrections in your LoMs, orals and re-writes. It’ll take me some time to respond with feedback so bear with me. ❤

For your LoMs

Spelling: iMmigration, iMmediately

Dashes: uses a dash when you wish to expand an idea. Example: However, Switzer’s boyfriend a US American football player who was also running the race, knowcked him into the air — a momento caught in pothographs that went around the world.

Capitalization of titles. Pay attention to that, please! 🙂 We Should All Be Feminist, How to Allocate the House Chores, …

Numbers: in figures, please, unless they have just one figure (1-9), and don’t say “millions”. No S. 264 million children, 75 million.

Parallel structures: pay attention to this, where’s the mistake?: Women were finally allowed to enter the race in 1972 and joining the Olympics in 1984. YES! the parallel structure: allowed to ENTER … AND … JOIN … Parallel structures happen with AND and OR, when we don’t want to repeat the verb both other verbs depend on.

Textual Matters. Cohesion and Coherence: How can you improve the making sense of this sentence?: I am sure that you share my concern about these refugees’ suffering and they will end up living in Australia or a safe third country.

Paragraphing and Topic sentences. Reasoned Opinions.

• To be good at paragrahping you need to have an outline!! A clear sequencing of key ideas for each paragraph. That’s why we think before writing.
• Each paragraph develops a point, roughly speaking.
• The topic sentence, the opening line in the paragraph, states the topic (subject) of the paragraph.
• It needs to be RELEVANT for the paragraph, not an example, for instance (unless the paragraph is about that example).
• Don’t overuse pronouns. It’s OK to repeat the noun phrase, even if you mentioned it in previous paragraphs.
• Visually speaking, paragraphs should be clear. Please, don’t include a sentence here, a paragraph there, with no sense. Consider grouping loose sentences. But yes, it’s possible to have a single sentence as a paragraph. Not usual, but possible. Example:

In my view, this is a significan social problem.

Babies spend too much time watching videos. Why? Because in this way they are calm and their parents can rela for a while. But what are the consequences ofr their children? The answer is clear.

Research has shown that children who often use screens when they are babies have more illnesses — hyperactivity, obesity or even depression! We should not forget that we are speaking about children.

REWRITE TO IMPROVE PARAGRAPHING:

In my view, this is a significan social problem. Babies spend too much time watching videos. Why is that? Because in this way they are calm and their parents can rela for a while.

 

But what are the consequences ofr their children? The answer is clear. Research has shown that children who often use screens when they are babies have more illnesses — hyperactivity, obesity or even depression! We should not forget that we are speaking about children. …

Second version:

In my view, this is a significan social problem. Babies spend too much time watching videos. Why is that? Because in this way they are calm and their parents can rela for a while. (Transition to next paragraph: ) But what are the consequences of their children? The answer is clear.

Research has shown that children who often use screens when they are babies have more illnesses — hyperactivity, obesity or even depression! We should not forget that we are speaking about children. …

Linking Devices. In case: in case he speaks out about his experiences (not “in case of he speaks out”)

LoM. Methodology. You need to include a Task Description on the very top of the page, along with your name.

Useful Language: Supposedly due to her female nature / Supposedly because she is a woman

USING TENSES AND MODALS

From my point of view, a family should function as a team — all of its members SHOULD (language function: strong advice; not present simple) work for the same purpose. … In this way, the woman WOULD (language function: hypothetical situation; not present simple) feel listened to and respected.

Diary for Jan 8 – Welcome back!

Here’s the pic of the lesson plan.

ATTENDANCE. Today 20 people came to class — we welcomed 2 more people (now the total is 29 + 9 but there are people who never come), 2 others had missed Term 1 (Evaluación continua) but will be catching up and taking the spring practice test.

FEEDBACK. I’ll be checking the emails I got with catch up work this week, I hope!

READING AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. I gave out the Wangari Maathai handout, which people will read for next day, when each will comment if they read /red/ the book these past weeks, and which their fav passages or chapters are.

LANGUAGE AWARENESS WORKSHOPS. We started reading Time and Tense (people, remember to jot down in our paper diary the work you share in class, for E.C.) You need to print it because it’s 6 pages. You will be using it in the non-Maathai lessons to work in small groups telling stories like the little ones I use in these notes to help you understand and encourage you to practice.

WRITING TASK 3. We agreed on deadlines: next Tuesday is the very last day to hand in Writing Task 3, the Human Rights formal letter. Asun volunteered to scan the notes I gave out in December and post it on your whatsapp group. I’ll be publishing that on the page above.

VIDEO PROJECTS. About your bits for the two community videos, I’d appreciate it if you sent it this week, but next week would also be OK. Later than that would be problematic, so if you think you can’t do your part, please, offer it to a classmate!

We reviewed some key questions: the Writing File (how to hand in your work, how to work on your assignments), the Speaking File (recording final versions of audios/audiovisuals you worked on), the LoM (with my feedback and other), the world of oral and written Texts, language questions we’ll be tackling this month, and I presented the idea of alternating lessons on Language and the Maathai projects… (But we’ll be doing more than that.) We also spoke about Wangari Maathai’s book, the donation we’re getting of the documentary, and about Education for Equality and our courageous project of the I Feminist Cultural Week in public / state-run education.

About next Tuesday 15: As you will see in the Maathai handout, I scheduled it for a session on the book, but we could also do a bit of the Time and Tense handout. There’s something else: there will be demonstrations in support of the struggle against sexism in all of Andalucía starting at 19.00. If few people come to class and they’re all into attending, we could be doing that (just mentioning it for late-comers). Some teachers are suggesting  the whole school could join the protest, but I’m reluctant to leaving class at lesson time, as you know, so it’ll be up to the people coming to class, on my part.

Getting Organized. I also requested people to please FOLLOW THIS BLOG, particularly if not coming to class or being late. And to please consider organizational matters, such as picking copies from the chair if you are late so that I don’t get distracted so often with that (I’m growing old and have a lot on my mind these days!) (There’s an old post on this somewhere…)

NAVBAR. These days I’ll be updating the navbar above, so you can find links to posts on those topics.

The Maathai Projects

After your fast reading of Unbowed, here is the working plan for the next months.

For Evaluación Continua the February Maathai OP + the March Writing Assignment will be minimums to comply with.

• 2019_projectsaroundunbowed+fcw (2 Word pages) We will read them and agree on things to get organized for making the most of this great chance to learn about the world while including women’s analyses, experiences and achievements. ❤

UL for Talking about Politics (Unbowed, by Wangari Maathai)

Here is an example of how I work on my language notes and LoM (list of mistakes) after have read and ear-dogged or highlighted certain passages in the book.

• Wangari_UL_Politics_ch12 1 hour 30′ with oral drilling and practice, so I can improve my wording when dealing with politics

More work I did can be found on my blog Language Learning from Reading, on the Wangari Maathai post.

Reviews of ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Writing Workshop (for 2019) – Warm-up for follow-up pending work (reviews of talks and books we read)

Reviews are descriptive texts because they describe an object, say a talk or a book, or a restaurant, or some amazing spot on the beach. But people writing reviews academically also try to hide their Self when they present facts building their opinion, and in their final recommendation, which is always included so the reader knows if that work is for her or him.

We learn to improve our writing skill when we read and learn to notice things. Textual structure, how things are connected, how language items are used…

A truly interesting exercise if you wish to improve your ability to do oral or written reviews is to read these examples, notice structure and compare that to the theory of writing academic reviews linked above, and then try doing your own, orally at least. Remember to re-use UL and ideas from the reading you do!

This video: just the first two minutes, really, or more, if you skip the examples where she connects the ideas in the essay or talk to recent events in the world.

About the accent: yes, it’s got an accent, Italian, with some influence from US American English. It’s perfectly OK. Her English is great, at the advanced level, so you can use it to learn too. (LoM That it was told us > That we were told)

https://feministlibrary.co.uk/we-should-all-be-feminists-review/

http://www.blog.makeeverywomancount.org/why-we-should-all-be-feminists-a-book-review-of-we-should-all-be-feminists-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/28/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-feminism-racism-sexism-gender-metoo

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/12/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-wins-pen-pinter-prize

View at Medium.com

 

UL + FT

USEFUL LANGUAGE + FUNCTIONAL TRANSLATION

Lost in Space (1960s)

It won’t take long – No (nos) llevará mucho (tiempo), no tardaremos mucho
We better camp here – Será mejor que acampemos aquí
In other words, I should mind my own business? That’s right – O sea, que mejor que no me meta? Eso, sí.
Seat belts on! – Poneos los cinturones (de seguridad)
You don’t suppose there’s somebody still living here… – No puede imaginarse que alguien siga viviendo aquí…
We’re trapped! – Estamos atrapadas!
I don’t know for sure yet. We might be (somewhere) – No lo sé seguro todavía/aún. Quizá estemos en…
You can’t risk it! – No puedes arriesgarte!
(Won’t you risk it ((for a biscuit))? – Anímate, arriésgate / No te vas a arriesgar? Anda, arriésgate!)
We’ve lost control! – Hemos perdido el control!
Our great adventure is now happily behind – Ya hemos dejado atrás nuestra gran aventura.