Conversation B1 and B2: For Wednesday -Thursday

Taking advantage of Halloween, we discuss the readings (each student is responsible for only 1 reading as assigned in class)
CLICK HERE


and a wonderful movie scene:

Click here

Conversation B2 : Song by Pete Seeger and Childhood Stories

1. We will do the song by Pete Seeger we didn't have time to do (Raul, I think you promised to make me a DVD copy)

2. We will continue with a related topic of childhood stories:

Vocabulary: CLICK HERE

and picture that goes with the listening:

Conversation C1: For Monday/ Steve Jobs

We will talk about the song we didn't have time to talk about (on the post on education material 21/10 and then we will see and talk about this speech by Steve Jobs.  Please see once at home and print the material if possible.     CLICK HERE

Conversation B1: Material pending for Monday

We will do the song "What did you learn in School?"  post with date of 21/10 and continue with the Physical and Personality descriptions of a few posts back (B1 13/10)

For Wednesday: exercise about Halloween:  each student is reponsible for only 1 letter:


CLICK HERE

Grammar Quiz for Advanced Students/ are you a "grammar master?"

Not too diffiicult, I think

Click here

Another scientific video clip: at least 1

This is about compact fusion and the experiments that Lockheed Martin, a company normally considered  part of the "military- industrial complex", is making with compact fusion, a technique for producing clean energy.Click here 

Topic: Education Material for all 3 levels

Hi classes 

Some of this material can be done with all 3 Conversation levels, others are more for B2 or C1

For all levels : Personal questions about your education.

Click here


2. Great song by Pete Seeger, one of the first critical US folk singers and mentor of Bob Dylan

called "What did you learn in school today"? To watch and listen CLICK HERE


There are subtitles in Spanish. But CLICK HERE  for words in English with a few missing. These are typical lies American students learned in school in the 1960's and maybe still do. But eery country teaches its "lies" or official history and values. Think and talk about any lies YOU may have learned in school!

3. This is a link to a scene about a very unusual teacher. It has subtitles in English. What do you think of his class?

We probably won't have time to discuss this before Wednesday.
CLICK HERE FOR YOUTUBE LINK

CLICK HERE FOR QUESTIONS

This will be difficult for Conversation B2 so we will talk about it in a more general way.
In the higher levels we will do a listening that's related thematically.

Conversation B2 Astrology doc and link to whole interview

Hi Class . I'm sorry so many were absent on Thursday, but I think the 11 present enjoyed the class.

1. Please remember to complete your questionnaire asap.

2. This the direct link to see the rest of the Malala interview ( without subtitles.)

Click here

Sorry it didn't work. It is very valuable to see at least the first 6 and and half minutes with subtitles though and have the copies of the questions. So start the above at 6.15 and see the beginning with subtitles!
That's on the previous post for B2.2.

3. For those who weren't in class ( I gave out copies) the document for the listening we are going to do is: Click here    It's about astrology.

See you on Tuesday.

Another interesting optonal science listening for B2 and C1 ( for doctors and researchers

An interesting video about the aging of the world's population. Some may find it depressing, but it affects health care, how countries spend their budgets, how mch money countries will need in the future, etc.

In general the captions are okay but some are terrible : Raha for "rare" or "ass" for ask. So use your judgement!

CLICK HERE

Conv. C1

Hope you're having a nice weekend.

We will finally do The Great Pretender ( see last psot for this class)

We will also do a Listening on a related topic and use another song with excellent lyrics for listening and conversation value.

CLICK HERE


Have changed so anyone can share. Sorry and thanks. Elena! :)

See you on Monday evening.

Conversation B1

Hi Conversation B1 group. Hope you are having a good weekend.

We will begin with the exercise on Astrology as a way of introducing words to describe personality traits.

CLICK HERE

Now please go back to the post for last Wednesday ( 4 posts back) for material on physical descriptions and more vocabulary for personality descriptions. :)

Conversation B2 and C1: Optional extras listenings

A good video about graphene for scientists and engineers. Captions have some problems but are still correct 80% of the time.

CLICK HERE

Conversation B2

Hello Class. 

I want to remind you of the 2 assignments: 

1. telling a story or anecdote about an unlucky experience, an encounter with the police or involving an animal, like the one we listened to. To help tell it with different past tenses and to learn the typical expressions for reacting to your partner's anecdote:

 CLICK HERE                        PLEASE PRINT IT IF POSSIBLE.

2. Please watch - several times if you can - the interview with Malala and answer the questions. I have found a version with 

subtitles in English but only for the 1st 6 and a half minutes.
CLICK HERE.  There's a short advertisement before it begins. 

To see the questions and the rest of the interview if you want,
CLICK HERE

Conv. C1 : 2nd day

Hi class, First, my apologies for the mess up with the Malala video interview. I am looking at it now on my DVD with no problem, so I think it was the DVD projector I used in the class, which had a faulty connection. :(

Please watch it for Wednesday and be prepared to discuss and anwer questions. Probably if you watch it directly through YouTube, you can see subtitles in English.

We can also use this video to talk about Islam - a very current polemic topic.

But if that doesn't take off, I thought we could talk about parts of our personality that perhaps people don't see when they first meet us.

This beautiful poem by the American poetess Maya Angelou, which deals with African Americans, another group that has suffered prejudice.

CLICK HERE

Finally, if time, a wonderful song that is related in topic with a fill-in listening exercise.

CLICK HERE FOR CLASSIC VIDEO CLIP!

Click here for lyrics (please print)

ENJOY!!

Con B1: 2nd day Wednesday

Hi Class,

I hope you enjoyed the first class. We are going to continue with an speaking and listening exercise we didn't have time to do, and then we are going to continue with describing people phsically and their personalities.

Conv. B 1

Physical Descriptions

Click here

Describing Someone's Personality

Click here

Conversation C1 1st Day: Interview with Malala Yousafzai

Conversation C1 : Interview with Malala Yousafzai


This interview took place last year with John Stewart, a comedian and political satirist- whose respect for Malala overshadows his humor! Her very deseved winning of the Nobel Peace Prize has put her back in the news and made this interview very timely, so I thought we ould do it the first day, while the topic is still fresh! It's perhaps the ONLY good news we've seen of late!

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERVIEW and related doc.

Some 1st day Material : All classes

This material is for all the Conversation classes because it forms the basis for organizing vocabulary and grammar points we learned and can be adapted to all levels.

Please print as soon as you can!!

Word Web:        Click here

Error Analysis and False Friends:  CLICK HERE

Expressions and Idioms  CLICK HERE


Learning Questionnaire Conversation B1

CLICK HERE

Learning Questionnaire for Conversation C1 and 
Conversation B2    CLICK HERE

Short and interesting video clip for advanced students ( about the food scandal in the US)

This clip is probably more for advanced students because it has no subtitles but they speak slowly and clearly and it's under 2 and a half minutes. It's a trailer for a documentary about how the food industry puts "hidden" addictive sugars into processed food, which is making everyone fatter. I think it's happening here too!  Very good for class discussion.

CLICK HERE

Insurgent's first day on the job

This video starts out seeming like one thing and ends up being something very different and fun.  I think many of us who never quite reach being perfectly bilingual without an accent but don't like people to point it out can actually identify with the terrorist. It sort of reduces terrorists' rage to anger over "linguistic imperialism... but that might be a (small) part of the picture!


CLICK HERE