Sunday 21 march 2010
7
21
/03
/Mar
/2010
14:53
General tip : This inside link wil help you to improve your vocabulary.
Check you know how to
pronounce the following words before you read this week's reading comprehension:
Malta
Cyprus
Italy
Greece
Brussels
an environmentalist
defy
bluefin tuna
a fortnight
to trade
trade
fishing
a fishing ban
to outlaw
to gang up against
endangered (adj)
an endangered species
a catch
poor (adj)
Now read about bluefin tuna on guardian.co.uk.
Prepare a summary and comment on the situation.
Now listen to the text and
practise reading parts of it.
Read the suggested answer here.
By claire griffin
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Posted in: CRPE
0
Sunday 14 march 2010
7
14
/03
/Mar
/2010
13:14
Starter
Take a look at the following cartoons by Kipper Williams and comment.
Cartoon 1
Cartoon 2
Cartoon 3
Look at these keywords and then listen to the soundfile:
recession
competition
a gap year
to take a gap year
a graduate
a degree
gloom
to be worthwhile to do
be at a premium
a surge (of interest)
a Briton
Britons
a school leaver
to take a career break
to travel abroad
graduate jobs
to be made redundant
a working holiday
by the time ...
Read the exam subject here.
Provide definitions for the following:
1. To head abroad means to .......
2. A slump is when....
3. A graduate recruiter ....
4. If you make do with something, in this case a kind of job, you....
5. A Sainsbury's type of job is ...
Now explain what some students are doing.
Identify the cause.
Analyze the advantages of doing this.
Look at the following sentence from the article:
If the only jobs out there are the Sainsbury's type, you might as well use it to save a bit of
money to go travelling, rather than thinking you might end up doing it forever".
Have your say:
What did you do after you finished university? Did you take a gap year? Would you take one now? Discuss this dilemma with one or two colleagues.
Now here's the suggested answer.
By claire griffin
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Posted in: CRPE
0
Tuesday 9 february 2010
2
09
/02
/Feb
/2010
15:52
Examples of strategies used in different textbooks for older secondary school students
Projects 2nde (Didier)
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Understanding long sentences - reduce longer sentences in order to grasp the main idea(s). (see p.31) Practise
reducing sentences.
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Before reading → judge from the title, list the information you expect to read.
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While reading → list your questions.
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Read again → check to see if you can answer your own questions (see p.41).
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Look for key words: find out what pronouns and determiners refer to (example, p.42).
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Making a timeline of events : (see language skills activity "Chronology", p.57 (focus on markers: tenses, dates,
adverbs...in order to make a timeline).
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Read to gather information: What kind of document is it? Who published it? What was it published for? When? (see for
example, p.100-101).
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Identifying the nature of questions: rhetorical or real? (p.107).
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Sorting key information from secondary information / examples (p.107).
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Use what you know about genre to make hypotheses (The second bedroom, p.128-129): put the pieces of the puzzle
together.
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Reading aloud: identifying strong syllables in verse (p.142).
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Reading a longer text: look at the book cover; read the introduction and imagine...; read the first and last lines
and guess; read the whole text; identify the narrator, the characters, the events, feelings; learn how to retell, summarise a story (The Joy Luck Club, p.150-151).
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Bridges T L, ES, S (Nathan)
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Les mots inconnus (nature, transparence, formation, contexte) p.50-51.
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Fiction et presse: identification des éléments périphériques, compréhension globale, organisation du texte, repérage,
mots de liaison et marqueurs de temps (p.68-69).
The Open University on thinking, reading and taking notes.
Essential links by Didier Madelaine.
reader text locus character narrator time paragraph punctuation key words link
words markers
inference context standpoint
interior monologue
dialogue flashback
stream of consciousness irony
allusion intertextuality
By claire griffin
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Posted in: FSTG
0
Sunday 7 february 2010
7
07
/02
/Feb
/2010
17:56
Listen to the article about educating migrant children here.
Key words - listen and
practise here.
a migrant
huddled (adj.)
fare (v.)
pedagogy
pupils
factors / backgrounds / abilities
a think-tank
PISA
OECD
sort data (v.)
Turkey
China
Soviet Union
ex-Yugoslavia
Hong Kong
schooling
fare worse / fare better
track pupils (v.)
Cultural reference in the title
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Do you know who wrote
the poem these lines come from? Where can you read it in the USA?
Check your answers here.
Read more about international migration here.
Read suggested answer for the CRPE here.
By claire griffin
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Posted in: CRPE
0
Sunday 31 january 2010
7
31
/01
/Jan
/2010
20:45
Check that you know how to
pronounce these key words:
overweight
obese
blood pressure
life span
health care
health officials
doctors
patients
hospitals
tumors
complex organ
the U.S. health-care system
illness
preventive care
vaccinations
cancer screenings
blood-pressure checks
cardiac health
chest pains
disease
Listen to the article here.
Now work at detailed comprehension:
1. How many Americans don't have high blood pressure? §1
2. What should most Americans eat more of? §1
3. What proportion of Americans get exercise? §1
4. Explain to your neighbour what is likely to happen to this generation of young Americans.
5. Do you remember when Barack Obama was elected? How long is a president's term of office?
6. Explain why American doctors, patients and officials are hopeful about the future. §2
7. Look at the implicit meaning of "The improvements can't come too soon" in §2. Can you find another way of saying the same thing?
8. "Gleaming hospitals" §2 means shiny hospitals / brand new hospitals /old, shabby hospitals.
9. "Cutting-edge technology" in §2 means recent technology / out of date technology / the very latest technology.
10. What findings are mentioned in §3? What are the consequences?
11. Find out about the latest developments in this field by going to npr.org or any national newspaper online.
12. Going further:
- read about obesity on the BBC website in a question and answer format.
- read about Sicko and the US healthcare system on the Independent's website.
Read the suggested answer here.
Download audio file here.
By claire griffin
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Posted in: CRPE
0
