Thursday, 23 February 2012

We started off with telling stories with the cartoons on pages 76 and 85 of our book. We then finished unit 4B and started the accompanying self/study section by making sentences with 'seem', 'look like' and 'look as if'. Next week I will hand out the vocabulary list for unit 4 and we will correct the rest of the self-study section. 
We then answered your own comprehension questions with stave 5 of A Christmas Carol and we finished reading The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by taking turns reading out loud. try to make your own vocabulary list with this story and then listen to the video below: 
National Geographic on Sleepy Hollow:  
Try to recognise as many words as possible while watching this short video. You will already know most of what is told.

Thursday, 16 February 2012

This week there were only six of us due to illness. We talked about the past week. We finished unit 4A and moved on to unit 4B (page 16). We then collected the questions we drew up for stave 5 of A Christmas Carol. We will answer them collectively next week. We finished our session by reading a version of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, which can be listened to here This famous American legend fits perfectly into our Surprises and superstitions theme. Next week we will finish unit 4 and the Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

Thursday, 26 January 2012

What happened last week. Did anything exciting or special happen to you? We talked about the four films that are mentioned at the beginning of unit 3B Crime stories. You prepared for this at home by googling for information on these movies. I have added the story lines for each of them here. They are all from IMBb or the Internet Movie Database, an excellent site to find information about most films ever made: 
Plot summary Witness
Plot summary for Catch Me If You Can
Plot summary for Ocean's Eleven
Plot summary for Fargo
I also handed out short summaries of these four films. For next week prepare activity 2C. Choose at least one assignment to which you answer the questions. 
We finished by answering the comprehension questions with stave 2 of A Christmas Carol. Please read stave 3 for next week and again answer the questions that go with it.

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, 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, 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, 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, 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 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 February 25 , 2010

We started off by reading a text on electronic gadgets. Six people talk about their favourite gadgets. You can listen to the text here. If you are having problems listening to it via the link, go to this webpage and get it straight from the source. You can also do the basic quiz online there. Read the instructions and it will all work out well.
We then proceeded by asking each other questions. Remember to use two verbs in most cases to ask a question in English. Do you understand what I am talking about?
We continued with unit 10 on page 45. Next week I will hand out a vocabulary list for unit 10. Remember to work on your own word web or vocab list too!

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 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/

Thursday October 29, 2009

The first meeting of 2009-2010. We started Unit 7 from Let's Talk 2 which is about sports and games. I handed out a text titled 'Wimbledon 2009 gets underway' from the BBC's Learning English site. If you want to practice some more or listen to the text, here's a link to the webpage with the article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2009/06/090624_witn_wimbledon.shtml