Thursday, 22 December 2011

We started off this tenth and last session before the break by talking about A Christmas Carol of which you can find the third stave at the bottom of this blog entry. Can you read the text? Do you understand what the story is about? Are there any words you do not understand? The story has 5 chapters or, as Dickens called them, 'staves'. A 'stave' is a song stanza, so the 'carol' or song has 5 stanzas. I will send the Word document of the book, that will also be published here, by e-mail so that you can print out the text. We then finished unit 2 of Let's Talk 3 and we had a look at page 96 of the self-study section. please finish page 97 before our next session on January 12, 2012!

Thursday, 15 December 2011

Again we started the session with asking each other questions using do/does/did + infinitive. We had a talk about what is important in learning English and what are the goals for our conversation group.
We then started unit 2A, activity 1. Activity 2A and 2B are to be prepared at home for next week.
We then talked about A Christmas Carol of which you will find the second installment below. Since most of you have said they prefer reading a printed version, I will convert the text into a printable Word version. In the coming weeks, during our Christmas break, I will publish the rest of the online installments at this blog.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

We began with asking questions and making negative sentences. In most cases you have to use two verbs to do so. For questions use do/does/did + infinitive and for negations use don't/doesn't/didn't + infinitive. For example: Do you celebrate Sinterklaas? No, we don't exchange presents on December 5. Did you see Nova Zembla? No, we didn't know it's in the cinema.
We then finished unit 2A and we had a look at The cat that walked by himself and its exercises.

To get into the Christmas spirit we are going to read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I will publish a retold, simplified version in five 'staves' or installments. Although simplified, it is not a simple text but try to get the gist of the story. There are many films made about Scrooge so you will most probably have heard about it. Click on the window below to expand the text. Scroll down to read.

As a bonus, here's Scrooge from the film The Muppet Christmas Carol. Click on 'show more' to read along with the lyrics of the song.

Thursday, 1 December 2011

After a short discussion of our past week, we continued with let's Talk 3, unit 2A. The last bit of this unit will be dealt with next week. make sure that you are prepared. I then handed out Rudyard kipling's poem poem The cat that walked by himself and we briefly read it. At home you can listen to it here Click on the 'play' button. Practice the pronunciation of the words and lines by listening to them and then repeating them. You can also do the exercises online but we will certainly discuss them in our next session.

Thursday, 24 November 2011

We started off again by sharing what happened last week or what plans you might have for the near future. Any parties, holidays, events, appointments? How did or will these make you feel? Happy, sad, worried, stressed, excited, upset, peaceful?
After this little warming up exercise we continued our book with unit 2A How do you feel? and by having a look at the homework in the self-study section.
We ended the evening by completing silly jokes on a hand out. For more silly jokes, look here.

Thursday, 17 November 2011

We asked our group member who was absent last week, how his week was. We then had a look at the assignments with the video of November 3, Getting Acquainted (see below) and we finished unit 1 by finally having a look at the self-study section. Next week we will start the new module. We also took up doing word search puzzles again.
We ended the session with telling somewhat 'blue' jokes but unfortunately they were not exchanged in English. :)

Thursday, 10 November 2011

The first proper Autumn week although it's still quite warm outside. As usual we started of our session with some talk about last week by asking each other questions. We spent quite some time on this.
I then handed out the vocabulary lists to Let's Talk 3, unit 1, Getting Acquainted. It can also be found here. You can import this list, and the other Let's Talk vocabulary lists I created before, to your own account at wrts. Once imported you can add your own words and use the 'extra' option to listen to the correct pronunciation. How to import lists to your own account can be seen here.
Next week we will finish unit 1 by looking at the last activities we prepared at home and by working at the self-study section with unit 1.

Thursday, 3 November 2011

We started of the session with talking briefly about our past week by asking and answering questions. After that we finished unit 1A and we started unit 1B with a few hiccups such as riddles that proved to be too difficult to solve, a missing book and no CDs to do the listening exercises. In a communal effort we managed to have a full lesson nevertheless.
Next week we will again talk about the past and we will practice asking more questions


For next week have a look at this video and I will hand out a work sheet in next week's session. To view captions (subtitles) for this video, click on the 'CC' button on the player control panel to turn captions on.

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Today I handed out the group's phone circle for 2011-2012. In case of an unforeseen cancellation of one of our sessions, I will use this phone list, I will send out an email to all participants and I will leave a message on this blog.
I also handed out the new books, Let's Talk 3, after which we had a brief look at the book's scope and sequence (pages iv and v) and revised useful classroom phrases on pages vi and vii. We then started unit 1 'Getting acquainted' and managed to nearly finish unit 1A on Successful conversations.
For next week revise unit 1a and write down 9 questions for activity 3B

Thursday, 13 October 2011

First session of the new season and we were able to welcome back two familiar faces to our group. We are now with six women and three men.
We talked about our summer holidays with the help of a handout 'Your Last Vacation'. We practised using the past tense in pairs and with the entire group. We also refreshed asking questions in English.
We then finished Let's Talk 2 with having a look at the self-study section for unit 16. That has allowed us a fresh start with book 3 in two weeks, on October 27.

Thursday, 24 March 2011

Our very last session of the year 2010-2011 already and it is very clear that Winter has ended too. The crocuses are everywhere and we had a first week in which we could actually go outside without a coat on.
As there were only four of us, Steven took over the session by giving an account of his 28-day trip to New Zealand last year, illustrated with a map of the country and a slide show of beautiful pictures. We will tie up the final strands of Let's Talk 2 at the beginning of next season.
I did hand out the vocabulary list with unit 16 which you can also find here. Import this list, and the other Let's talk vocabulary lists I created before, to your own account at wrts. How to create an account, import vocabulary lists and use the programme to practice and/or listen to the correct pronunciation of the words, can be found here.
Next week we will have our communal end of year dinner party at 7pm. I hope to see you all there and to see you all back alive healthy and happy in Autumn.

Thursday, 17 March 2011

We started off with discussing Paul McCartney's joke with the aid of a list of words that occur in his story. We then had some more jokes in English before we moved on to unit 16B. Next week we'll finish the unit, AND the book, by having a look at activity 2 and the self-study section on pp. 124-125.
Because the people who were not present last week were curious, we finished our session with another entertaining round of the question words game.

To finish this week's blog entry a riddle for you:

Make sure you get every single word right!

Read the following passage loudly to yourself and then scroll down to the comments for further instructions.

Now read:

This is this cat
This is is cat
This is how cat
This is to cat
This is keep cat
This is a cat
This is fool cat
This is busy cat
This is for cat
This is forty cat
This is seconds cat

Thursday, 10 March 2011

Because there were only three members of our group present, we switched round our program a bit. Whatever you had prepared for this week will be discussed next week. First we made a wordweb with 'W-questions' (what, why, where, when, who and... How). We listed a few example sentences with each question word. After that we played a Grammar Game with W-questions. I all turned out to be a surprisingly educational session. Next week we will resume our normal schedule.

Sir Paul McCartney tells a joke. Can you understand it?

Thursday, 3 March 2011

We again started the session off with the past tense but this time we focused on asking questions about the past. For some extra online exercise with that go here.
We told each other jokes in English and then continued with our books in unit 16A What's so funny?
We ended with the last installment of Cat In The Hat and read up on some facts and figures about Dr. Seuss, his books and their importance in getting children, and adults I suppose, to read.

Thursday, 24 February 2011

How was your week? How was your day? We talked about travelling by train in The Netherlands and we talked about the Christchurch earthquake. Click on the hyperlink to read about that natural disaster, to see some pictures and to watch some videos.
Today we started unit 16 on Comedy and humour with unit 16A called What's so funny? British comedian Catherine Tate explains why it is important to speak your languages:



Then we had one final presentation of a Dutch tourist site and we ended our session with the third installment of Cat In The Hat.

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Two more presentations about Dutch tourist sites to start us off. We then finished unit 15 with the self study section. I handed out the printed version of the vocabulary list to unit 15 which can also be found here. Import this list, and the other Let's talk vocabulary lists I created before, to your own account at wrts. How to create an account, import vocabulary lists and use the programme to practice and/or listen to the correct pronunciation of the words, can be found here. After a short look at the next unit on Comedy and humour, we ended our session with another installment of Cat In The Hat. For next week you can underline all the past tense verbs in the text so far.

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Today we continued identifying verbs in song lyrics with Don McLean's Vincent. We then had three short presentations about tourist sites in The Netherlands. Next week we will have three more. We finished the session with reading the first bit of Cat In The Hat.

Poor Dick and Sally. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do... until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost wrecking the place in the process! Written by Dr. Seuss in 1957 in response to the concern that "pallid primers [with] abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls' were leading to growing illiteracy among children, The Cat in the Hat changed the way our [American] children learn how to read.

For more information, games, history etcetera on Dr. Seuss and his books, have a look at this site Seussville.

Thursday, 3 february 2011

We looked at Yesterday and listed all the verbs in the lyrics with their infinitive and both past tenses. After that we did some listening exercises from unit 15B.
Next week each one of you is going to write up six questions and answers about a tourist site in The Netherlands. The song we will look at for past tense verbs is Vincent by Don McLean.

Thursday, 27 January 2011

We had a look at Norwegian Wood and listed all the verbs in the lyrics with their infinitive and both past tenses. We then continued with unit 15a to practice talking about the past with memories and comparing then and now.
Next week we will list all verbs of the appropriately named Yesterday.

Thursday, 20 January 2011

We ended up spending the entire session on our autobiographies which turned out to be very educational. We revised sentence order, how to say dates and, of course, the simple past tense of regular and irregular verbs. For next week, listen and read along to Norwegian Wood by The Beatles, write down all the past tense verbs you can find in the lyrics and then add the basic verb (the infinitive) and, if you feel like it, the present perfect.

For example: I once had a girl
have had had

Thursday, 13 January 2011

Once again we started our session, the first session of 2011, with updates about the group members. What did you do during the last three weeks? Did you do anything special for X-mas or for New Year's Eve? How did you celebrate? Did you go away during the holidays?
Do you have any New Year's Reolutions? Do you believe in New Year's Resolutions?
I handed out the vocabulary list for unit 14 you can also find here. You can find information on how to import this, and the other lists, to your own wrts account so you can practice your vocabulary with it in my blog entry of 2 December 2010. We finished the unit by having a look at the self-study section and we then moved on to the penultimate unit of our book, unit 15, which deals with The Past.