Thursday, 4 February 2010

Thursday February 4, 2010

"How was your week?" Again we began the session with talking about last week using the past tenses. After that we discussed when to use the 'gerund' and when to use the full verb in sentences. If you want to read more about this subject ask and I will give you a handout from this site.
We had a look at the 'Connecting Flights' cartoon and used it to add to our wordwebs on holidays. Keep working on your themed wordwebs! Remember that wordwebs are always personal. We cannot create a group web.
Next we continued with unit 9b and talked some more about holidays and travel.

Thursday, 28 January 2010

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, 21 January 2010

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, 14 January 2010

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, 7 January 2010

Thursday January 7, 2010

Only our sixth meeting due to (mostly) unforeseen circumstances. First of all a Happy and Blessed New Year to you and your loved ones! I hope 2010 and the new decade will bring you love, health and happiness.

Last session had to be cancelled because of the wintery weather and we have had snow and ice for a few weeks now. Today we talked about this and other traffic and transportation problems after reading the text 'Cabinet finalises kilometer tax plan' I handed out on December 3rd.
  • What are your views on kilometer charge?
  • What problems does it intend to solve?
  • Can you think of any other solutions for those problems?

Then we started unit 8b.
The self-study section with unit 8 on pp. 108-109 is the homework for next session on 14
january 2010.


Thursday, 17 December 2009

Thursday December 17, 2009

Heavy snowfall on this day which caused traffic jams all over the country. At 6.15pm over half of our conversation group had called to let me know they were not going to come due to the bad weather conditions. Sadly, I had to start up our phone circle to cancel the session. Our next meeting is planned for January 7, 2010.

Happy Holidays!

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Thursday December 3, 2009

We continued with unit 8a from Let's Talk 2. We revised comparatives and superlatives with the text 'Comparing Transport' I handed out last week. We also had a look at a wordweb on transport by playing the Word Associations game.
A fun way to learn new vocabulary is by using wrts
Subscribe by giving an email address and a password and the program will explain how to use it in Dutch. You can import the vocabulary list I gave you for unit 7 from this page. Use it to play with the wrts program. You can also add to this list and/or create your own lists. Enjoy!