Proficiency: How I got my song by Leonard Cohen

A couple of weeks ago we were talking about this speech in our Friday evening Proficiency class. Sorry it took me so long to post it. I hope you enjoy it.

For those of you who love listening to stories about music, I also recommend this podcast episode http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/07-hallelujah . It talks about the creative process, and also about Cohen.

Have a good weekend!

All levels: How to add a word to your Vocabulary Notebook

Your vocabulary notebook will be you own personal dictionary, you need a binder (cuaderno de anillas) with separators just like the one below. You will also need to spend some time on it every week.

How to add a word to my vocabulary notebook

When you learn a new word you need at least 5 things

1) new word (+ collocations) 

When you learn a new word you need to know what words collocate with it (e.g you play football) and what prepositions to use with the word (e.g. you go to work on foot)

2) Part of speech-

Is the new word a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, an expression, or an idiom?

3) Phonetics

How to pronounce the new word.

4) Definition (or Translation)

5) An example that is true for you.

So now we know all we need to add when we find a new word, lets have a look at a very simple example: look forward to

1) New word + collocations: 

     -to look forward to (something/ doing something)

2) Part of speech: This word is a phrasal verb.

3) Phonetics: (Don't worry about this to much for the moment, we will be learning the different sounds in class)

      -/tuː lʊk ˈfɔːwəd tuː/

4) Definition: to be thinking with pleasure about something that is going to happen because you expect to enjoy it.

    Translation: tener muchas ganas de (algo/ de hacer algo)

5) An example that is true for you:

     I look forward to learning some new words in my English class.

So the entry in your book should be something like this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-to look forward to (something/ doing something) (phV):tener muchas ganas de (algo/ de hacer algo)
/tuː lʊk ˈfɔːwəd tuː/
e.g. I look forward to learning some new words in my English class.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a look at Leticia's notebook, she kindly let me post the first page of her notebook. Isn't it amazing?

That's enough for today, I'll be showing you how to organise your notebook another day.

But don't be lazy and start your notebook straight away!

Exercises:

1) Add the phrasal verb "bump into" You might need to look up the word in a dictionary. You can try this one, it's online and free.

2) Try adding some of the words you learnt in your last class.

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All levels:-ize or ise?

Many students ask me about the spelling of verbs ending in -ise or -ize, such as realise and organise and whether they should be spelt with  s or z. So I've been doing some research into the subject.

At first I thought that the -ize ending was American and the -ise ending was British, but it turns out that both are accepted in British English just as long as you are consistent within a piece of writing. Nevertheless, I would advise you to use the -ise ending and here is why:

While all verbs can be spelt with s, not all can be spelt with z. Some verbs such as advertise, advise, devise, are never spelt with z, not even in American English. You can check a list of these verbs here.

What Personality Type Are You?

We were talking about personality tests and Carl Jung in class

Here´s the test for you to try.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Once you get your type you can press on you type description and possible careers. Take note of the characteristics mentioned that feel right for you and those that don't. Bring it in to class tomorrow to discuss.

CAE: Kitchen Vocabulary

Yesterday we ran out of time before we could do this exercise. Name all the objects and household appliances in this kitchen e.g. a kettle

Proficiency and CAE: At Long Last, Danny's Reading List

I finally got around to posting my reading list! Sorry for the delay, but it's finally here, and I hope you'll find some good reads on it.

Your homework for this week is to check it out and I'd also like you to do the following:

1) Read the reviews to at least three of the books/comics listed below, if you click on the title it'll send you straight to their goodreads page. At the bottom of each of these pages you'll find the reader's reviews. (Be careful with SPOILERS!) You can also find more customer reviews on Amazon.

2) Once you have chosen a book, print the review that helped you decide (if you don't have a printer just bring it on your mobile phone) You'll have to tell the class why you chose that particular book and not the other two. 

3) Underline or highlight some vocabulary in the reviews that would be useful for your writing task

DANNY'S READING LIST

One Day
(David Nicholls)

Starter for Ten 
(David Nicholls)

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
(Douglas Adams)

The Prestige
(Christopher Priest)

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes novel
(Anthony Horowitz)

Neverwhere
(Neil Gaiman)

High Fidelity
(Nick Hornby)

The House of Sleep
(Jonathan Coe)

The Rotter's Club
(Jonathan Coe)

V for Vendetta
(Alan Moore, David lloyd)

Bridget Jones's Diary
(Helen Fielding)

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

(Dava Sobel)

Angela's Ashes
(Frank McCourt)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Mark Haddon

The Commitments
Roddy Doyle

Rivers of London (The Midnight Riots)
Ben Aaronovitch

SET TEXTS
The set text question is in part 2 of the Writing paper for these exams and is one of five questions you can choose from during this part. Candidates should not attempt the optional set text question in part 2 unless they have the necessary vocabulary and understanding of the text to answer the task set.

Howards End

(E.F. Forster)

An Education
(Nick Hornby)

Proficiency: Christmas Homework

For this Christmas holiday homework I'll be asking for a review of a book and an exposition of some interesting vocabulary. You can choose any book you want just as long as it is in English but I have posted here a list of books by modern British authors which I think contain a lot of interesting language and idiomatic expressions.

Part1: Review

For instructions on how to write your review visit the writing section at the end of your student's book. You have some more interesting resources here. I also highly recommend visiting some online magazines to read some professional reviews and extract some language from them.

Part 2: Vocabulary exposition

Read the book and write down any words or short phrases that are new or difficult to understand, or that are important in the story.

Choose two words, two idioms and two collocations. You´ll explain the meaning of these words, idioms and collocations to the class providing the context (please careful with SPOILERS) and some examples of it's use. (You need to search the internet for common uses of these expressions)


e.g. From Us by David Nicholls

Collocation: to run its course

Context: The main character of the book is woken up by his wife in the middle of the night. He thinks at first that she's scared of burglars and tries to reassure her but it turns out that it is something else that worries her. She says:

"I didn't say anything about burglars. I think our marriage has run its course. Douglas I think I want to leave you."

Meaning: The expression means that something continues until it has finished. In the previous sentence it means that it has continued for a while but now it has reached its natural ending.

Other examples:

The doctor insisted I rested for a few days until the disease had run its course

This new anti-drugs strategy is needed now because the existing EU strategy will have run its course by the end of this year. 

A merry christmas and a happy new year to all of you.