Academic Listening Resources

There are lots of free listening resources online. iTunes is an indespensible route into the world of podcasts. From the iTunes podcast directory, follow links for education podcasts, or just type the word "lecture", and you will have a wide-ranging audio library to choose from. For business students, the Harvard Business Ideacast provides free short broadcasts of around ten minutes each. The University of Bath produces a podcast of a variety of lectures which you can subscribe to via iTunes, but recordings are also available on their website here.

You can read a previous post on free listening resources here.

EAP Tutorial Notes

At least one of you asked me to e-mail the notes that made on the laptop during this morning's tutorials. Instead of e-mailing each of you a small document, I thought I'd put everything together in one blog post so you can read some of the things that came up in other students' tutorials. Let me know if you have questions about anything you find below:



WORD FORM : NOUNS vs ADJECTIVES
I live in the centre of Beijing. (centre = noun)
I live in central Beijing. (central = adjective)
North, East, South, West (nouns) – Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western (adjectives)
The UK, the USA, the People’s Republic of China (nouns)
UK education, US dollars, Chinese people (like Chinese, the words UK and US can be used as adjectives, when they don't require THE)

WORD FORM : NOUNS vs VERBS
- Where is Gisela?
- She is swimming. (verb)

Erin was swimming when a shark attacked her. (verb)
I don’t like swimming. (noun)
Swimming is my least favourite form of exercise. (noun)

PARTICIPLE CLAUSES
Comparing Erin and Mark, Mark is more beautiful.

NEW VOCABULARY
Hanging out (informal) = socializing (Vb. Socialize)
My studies
As a new arrival in the UK
As a newcomer to the UK

BECAUSE
The hotpot was good because Mason didn’t cook it.
Because Mason didn’t cook it, the hotpot was good
The hotpot was good. This is because Mason didn’t cook it.

WHILE, AND, BY
They help me and make me feel warm.
They make me feel comfortable by helping me.
Gisela stays in the office while Mark and Fiona teach.

EAP 6 & 7

Here are the cause and effect sentences you created at the end of today's class. The English is OK but I'm not quite sure about the science behind them:

1. Reviewing your notes is a key factor in doing well at university.

2. Rainbows are caused by the sunshine and rain.

3. Economic development has led to movement of people from rural to urban areas.

4. Poverty has contributed to crime in China.

5. Light from the sun reflecting dust in the air means that the sky is blue.

6. A factor contributing to happiness is smiling all the time.

Class materials now available online are powerpoint presentations from Yesterday and Today (EAP 6.1, EAP 6.2, and EAP 7) and the feedback key that we looked at in this morning's class.

M&S Management and other issues

There are sound files from Monday's English for Business Studies lesson available (parts one, two, and three) but they contain less nudity than this video clip:

Project Class 3 : Notes and Summaries

The powerpoint presentation from Monday's class is available to download here.

Tutorial Feedback

Just a few links for you that came out of this afternoon's tutorials. One completely unacademic link is to the 3 website, where you can get a mobile phone which allows you to make free Skype-to-Skype calls. On a more English-language-related theme, you can follow this link to a previous blog posting about resources for exploring collocations. While you make notes on your report, you might find this online version of the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary useful. Also useful, but perhaps not particularly legal is this site featuring entries from the Oxford Collocations Dictionary.

Finally, I just thought I'd say that it's good to see you all working hard and thinking intelligently about your projects. I hope it continues...

EAP Class 4

Today's Powerpoint Presentation should be available here. I think I've fixed the problem with downloading previous class files....it was something to do with my version of MS Office.

EAP Class 3

Some of you may need more practice playing noughts and crosses, so I recommend this website. When you're ready for more studying, you can download the Powerpoint Presentation from today's class, including my ugly scribbles, and the handout on symbols and abbreviations, just in case you lose it.

Projects

You can download Powerpoint Presentations from session one and two here and here respectively. Meanwhile, here are the twelve-word summaries you wrote in today's class:

SOUTHEND

Southend is a lovely extremely small village for having a retired life.

Southend is located at the East of the UK near the sea.

They have beautiful seagulls and many shops in the Southend.

TITANIC

Rose keeps an expensive jewel as her memory when she met Jack.

Jack said “Oh no! You jump, I jump”.

Titanic is a film which describes a love story in a cruise.

Titanic is a story of a couple. Jack dies and doesn’t “come back”.

Jack and Rose fall in love aboard Titanic which sank in the ocean.

Jack and Rose fall in love in Titanic.

A STRANGE BUT ALLURING RUSSIAN RESTAURANT

“Handsome and pretty” dancers perform in a Russian restaurant which supplies delicious meat via special methods.

EAP Classes : The First Two Days

The Powerpoint presentation from our first day's class is available to download here. You can also access the Word document which we edited in today's class here. E-mail if you have any questions or requestions, or just speak to me in class.

English for Business Studies : Syllabus Planning

Here is the Powerpoint presentation we used in class with your choice of topics that we'll study in this course.

Moodle

Today we'll be looking at moodle, which you can access here. You'll need to visit my flickr site to find the photo that was taken of you yesterday. Don't worry - if you don't like this picture, you can always replace it with a photo of your own at a later date. If you get lost or confused or want to revise how moodle works in your own time, you can do an online course within moodle itself, or just watch the following instructional videos from Youtube: