List of subjects to study… 04/02/2010
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: learning plans, Work
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At the start of the year we asked what would we like to study… the learners identified the following subjects to study this term. We will try to cover as much as we can:
- conversation
- grammar – phrasal verbs, tenses etc
- looking for a job – interviews, applications
- hospital/medical/having a baby vocabulary
- popular culture – jokes, tv, music, humour
- work/business english
- pronunciation
Thursday 4th February 2010 – Class Review 04/02/2010
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: airports, journeys, phrasal verbs
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Tonight we looked at a few subjects. The first section saw us look at some more medical vocabulary – medicines, dentistry, the hospital etc.
Then we heard from one student about a terrible journey – their show and tell was an airline ticket from a journey they made just before Christmas back to their home town. 11 hours in the airport!! A terrible story but excellently told…
Finally, we looked at some phrasal verbs – bring up a child, grow up, stand up for yourself, get on with etc. Tonight was childhood phrasal verbs – more in the future…
Thursday 28th January 2010 – Class Review 28/01/2010
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: babies, floor sanding, party-pooper
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Tonight we covered a few subjects. We continued talking about some idiomatic phrases we can use to describe people… eg: he is my rock, she is such a goody two-shoes, don’t be a party-pooper!
We then listen to this week’s show and tell – a learner told us all about his job as a floor sander, and we talked about all the issues involved – new technology, carpets vs wooden floors, costs, varnishes etc. it was all very interesting.
Finally, as one student will shortly be having a baby, we looked at some vocabulary to do with babies. So many things to think about!!
Thursday 21st January 2010 – Class Review 21/01/2010
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Cadburys, numpty, show and tell
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After welcoming our new volunteer to the class we began with our first “Show and Tell” – we will be doing this for future classes to practice our speaking, listening and cultural exchange.
I started off this week by talking about a bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk – because of the news of the sale of the company, and also because I used to live in Bournville in Birmingham, next to the Cadbury Factory, which was a very interesting place to live, especially as it was a village built by the company itself. There is an interesting article on the BBC news website for reading homework.
After this we looked at the popular Scottish word “numpty”. We discussed a few situations where we have made mistakes or been clumsy. Then we listened to someone discussing the word.
Finally, we looked at a list of words for stupid people. What’s your favourite or do you know any other (not too offensive) examples? We learnt that ‘numpty’ was voted the favourite word in Scotland!!
- airhead
- ass
- bimbo
- bozo
- dim
- dimwit
- ditzy
- dolt
- doofus
- dope
- dumb ass
- fool
- git
- himbo
- idiot
- jerk
- moron
- numb-nut
- numpty
- silly sausage
- stupid
- wazzock
Thursday 14th January 2010 – Class Review 14/01/2010
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: comparative, fast food
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Back to class for a new year and a new term.
After catching up with everyone’s Christmas and New Year holidays we got to work on an article about the movie “SuperSize Me”. This involved some interested work with figures and making comparative sentences.
Homework was reading some articles about the subject of fast food.
Here’s the trailer from the movie if you haven’t seen it…
New Term Starts Tomorrow! 13/01/2010
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: New Term
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Just a quick note to say the new term starts on Thursday 14th Jan at 6:00 pm.
If you would like to join a free ESOL class in Edinburgh please look at the details here: http://thursdaynightesol.wordpress.com/join/
Happy New Year!
Thursday 17th December 2009 – Class Review 18/12/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Christmas, end-of-term
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As it was the last class of the year we decided to go out to a local bar for an end-of-term Christmas get-together.
Happy Christmas to everyone in the class and see you all next year. Classes start again on Thursday 14th January 2010. Enjoy your holidays!!!
Thursday 10th December 2009 – Class Review 14/12/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: animals, collective names, speaking
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It is nearly the end of term and Christmas is coming! It’s also very cold.
Tonight we reviewed the speaking from the recent SQA assessments and worked on correcting common mistakes.
We also looked at some animal vocabulary and animal group vocabulary… for example a murder of crows, an unkindness of ravens and a shrewdness of apes! English language at its strangest!!! In fact here is what wikipedia says about it:
“It is thought that many of the bizarre words used for collective groupings of animals were first published in 1486 in the Book of St. Albans, in an essay on hunting attributed to a Dame Juliana Barnes. Many of the words are thought to be chosen simply for the humorous or poetic images they conjured up in her lively imagination.”
You can read more about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names
Thursday 3rd December 2009 – Class Review 03/12/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Monaco, Poland, Russia, Spain, Statistics
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Tonight we completed the SQA assesments for the whole class… well done everyone! Good work!
We then did an exercise dealing with numbers/figures – concentrating on how we said certain things like: 7.59 secs, -12.2 C, 225,000 sq m and so on. We compared some statistics between Monaco and Russia – quite different countries! Homework was to look at some similar statistics and information from Spain and Poland.
Thursday 26th November 2009 – Class Review 26/11/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Assessments
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Tonight we worked recording the speaking assesments for the SQA…
After the break we also completed the reading part of the assessment.
Good work everybody! More studies next week…
