Thursday, 12 January 2012

I handed out the vocabulary lists to Let's Talk 3, unit 2, Expressing yourself. Once again 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.
We finished unit 2 by having a look at page 97 and we started unit 3 on Crime and punishment. Unit 3A deals with crime and criminals. We talked about how we personally judge the severity of different crimes and we talked about suitable punishment. Activity 3A and 3B should be prepared at home for next session.
We ended by talking a bit more about A Christmas Carol. I handed out a list with comprehension questions with each stave of the book and we agreed to discuss staves 1 and 2 next week.

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, 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, 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.

Thursday, 16 december 2010

We started with having a look at the text, Rollover Accident, I handed out last week and we talked about past experiences in driving and traffic accidents. We continued talking in the past tense discussing things that happened to us in the past week or month.
We then returned to our book to work on talking about favourite pastimes and what you consider to be art.
I ended the session by handing out a text about a controversy concerning an art work. You can read and listen to the text and vocabulary here. With this article, Controversy over Czech EU art, came a homework excercise. Next week we'll discuss what you think is art and what is not.

Thursday, 9 December 2010

How was your week? Did Sinterklaas bring you presents? Any other news you would like to share?
We finished unit 13 by having a look at the self study section which you prepared at home. We could then start unit 14 about Entertainment and Art. What do you like doing in your spare time? What do you enjoy?
We ended our session with reading Who's to blame, a poem about the difficulties and inconsistencies of the English spelling. More of those can be found at the site of The English Spelling Society

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Snow in abundance on this second day of December. We talked about the weather and the problems it causes in everyday life. Does it affect you? Do you enjoy it? We also discussed Sinterklaas. Will you be celebrating it? If so, how do you celebrate?
I handed out the vocabulary lists to unit 13 City Life. It can also be found here. You can import this list, and the other Let's Talk vocabulary lists I created, 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 you own account can be seen here.
To end our session we discussed the two texts I handed out last week and we prepared our homework for next week.

Thursday, 25 November 2010

We started off with a short review of the week. We then continued with our book, unit 13. After we finished the unit, we worked on a handout about cars and transport to help compile a wordweb or theme list about transport.
Next week I'll have a vocabulary list for unit 13. We'll finish the exercises about Cars And Transport and have a look at the text I handed out called New York City Cab Driver.

Thursday, 18 November 2010

Last week we talked about visiting a doctor and the hospital. Make a wordweb to make talking about this easier. Here's a video to help you get started:



Today's session once again started off with talking in the past tense. What is good about living in a city? Why would you prefer living in a town? We also discussed two news articles from last week.
We then did the grammar game Up, Down, Left, Right which we did before with two members of the group. Can you listen and follow instructions? Can you draw?
We ended with working in our book, unit 13.

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Welcome back to everyone! What happened? What did you do? We exchanged news from the last two weeks.
Today is Remembrance Day in Britain. We read a text about war and remembrance and poppies. You can listen to that text here. If you have difficulties with the link, you can go to the site and listen to it there.
We then finally started unit 13 on City Life.

Thursday April 15, 2010

The last session of the series for this year. We started off by looking at This link which will get you to a site which has Dutch news in English. Today we read two of their articles. One on how the volcanic eruption on Iceland today has disrupted air travel in northern Europe and the other about the dune fire near Bergen aan Zee. Had you heard about these two items? What happened? What are your views?
The Dutch News site is a great way to read English to study the language instead of just catching up on the news. Just visit from time to time, read an article and, if you like, make a word web on the subject you have read about.
We finished unit 12 and and set a date to meet for a meal out together.
I posted the vocabulary of unit 12 here at wrts and will hand out a printed list as soon as possible.
Have a good summer!

Thursday April 1, 2010

How was you holiday? Have you experienced anything this week you would like to share with the others in our group? Who watched the video on 2 liter bottle recycling? If so, what was your favourite tip out of the eight mentioned?
After the usual introductory chat we read a text on how to reduce your global footprint in your own garden. This text, and other information on global warming and what you can do to help, can be found at this website by WWF. Again, have a look round by clicking on links. So what do you do to save the environment?
All this talk about the environment finished unit 11. We looked at the self study section on pp. 114-115. The vocabulary list for unit 11 can be found here. Download it to your own account at wrts, if necessary add to it and start practising!

Thursday March 25, 2010

Tell us something about the past week or the future. Once again we began our session by talking about ourselves. What did you do on the first day of spring? What will you be doing this weekend or your next hoilday?
After this we continued with our book Let's Talk 2, unit 11b called Protecting our environment.We also had a closer look at the text and vocabulary quiz on the subject I handed out last week. I then gave everyone a new text about recycling paper and glass. It is from this website on recycling by the Guides Network. Have a look round by clicking on links. The text of the handout I gave you can be found here by clicking on the speech balloons.
Next week I will have a vocabulary list for unit 11 but make sure you create and keep working on your own wordweb.
As an extra, here is a video with eight great ideas to recycle a 2 litre water bottle.

Thursday March 18, 2010

This week's session we continued practising using the future tense. What are you doing tomorrow, this weekend, next week, this summer?
We then returned to our book, unit 11a on animals. For fun, you can train your knowledge of animal vocabulary with this video on YouTube. Look, listen and repeat:



To introduce unit 11b on the environment I gave you a handout with useful words to talk about this subject. You can also find the vocabulary, the text and the quiz here

Thursday January 28, 2010

Like last week we started the session off with the question: "How was your week?". Several people told us about something that happened to them and they answered questions from the group. Next week it will be someone else's turn to talk about their week so be prepared!
Next we finished unit 9a by talking about your perfect vacation and I handed out a cartoon with hidden pictures on 'Connecting Flights'. Please complete for next week.
We then had a closer look at last week's (listening) text about Denise Lester who is holidaying in Marbella, Spain.

Finally I asked you to listen to, or read, tips on what to see when visiting New Zealand. You can listen here New Zealand tips but I also gave you the printed text with a little quiz. I would prefer it if you listened without reading along. Restart the audio clip as many times as you like. If you have not got the right audio player on your PC, go to this web page and get it straight from the source. Click on the little loudspeaker icon but, again, hide the text.

Thursday January 21, 2010

We had another look at the wordweb for 'transportation' by playing a few rounds of the Word Associations game. We then started unit 9a on holidays. We talked about and listened to people talking about holidays while we created a wordweb on the subject.

I handed out a text from the BBC's Learning English site about a lawyer from London at her favourite holiday spot in Marbella, Spain. The best way to work with this text is by listening to it here and do the accompanying excercises online too. If, for some reason, that proves to be impossible, you can just work through the handout with the printed text. We will look at it next week.

Thursday January 14, 2010

We finished unit 8b on transportation, including the grammar section. I handed out the vocabulary list for unit 8 which I also uploaded to wrts. You can access the lists I uploaded here (click on the blue, underlined link).
The wrts programme is not very complicated. You have to create an account by giving an email address and a password and after that it is more or less self-explanatory. How to work the programme is in any case explained in Dutch. Just give it a go and play around with it. You can not do anything wrong, really.

Thursday November 26, 2009

I updated and handed out our 'phone circle' so that, in case of an emergency or anything else unforeseen, we will be able to cancel a session on short notice. Please check your data on the list and let me know if there are any inaccuracies.
We started unit 8a on transportation. If you would like to practice some more with texts on transportation, follow this link to the great BBC Learning English website with a section on transport to and in London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/london/unit1/