Language Issues and Self-Study Resorces

The Word document that we looked at and edited in class is available here, and you can follow the links below to use some of the online resources I showed you:

Cambridge Dictionaries Online

Collins Corpus Concordance and Collocations Sampler

Nottingham University's Academic Word List Tools

Two other books that I mentioned in class that you can look out for are Exploring Grammar in Context and the Oxford Collocations Dictionary.

Graduate Diploma Class Notes

Click here for a Word doccument containing the notes we made in today's class. I've also uploaded PPT files for today's session (GDRW7) and last Thursday's (GDRW6).

Graduate Diploma EAP Reading Project

If you're interested in reading some of the articles selected by your classmates, you can follow the links below:

- What do you look like on the web? - from the 360abc blog

- Making Its Bookmark from The Economist

- Himalayan sherpas bugged by the sight of house flies at 5,000m from The Guardian

- When Nina Went Awol and All That Jazz from The Guardian

If yours is not listed above, it's just because it's not available online. I will give you some comments on how you have completed the first self-study task, and from now on you can keep reading and using the worksheet to help you to practise writing and to record interesting vocabulary and grammar. If you would like to keep an online record of your reading, writing an English blog would be a good way to do so. It's easy to set up a blog with blogger (the website I use), and you can simply write summaries and comments on any text you choose to read. By adding links to your source texts, you'll be able to refer back to them with ease (and it will make life easier for me too).

Second Hand Books

This afternoon I was asked if there are any second-hand bookshops near here. I've never visited Greyfriars Books on East Hill, but I have walked past it several times and it's the only second-hand bookshop I'm aware of in the area. Click here for a map of how to find it. An alternative way to get second-hand books, apart from browsing the occasional stalls that pop up in Square 3, is to check departmental notice boards for student-posted adverts, or better still join the small ads mailing list. There are actually many mailing lists you can join at the university, so it's worth looking at the mailing list web page to see if there's anything that caters for your personal interests.

Needs Analysis and Reading

This website gives you assistance in establishing what your needs are in terms of knowledge and use of grammar. The list of exercises here will help you to understand what some of the terminology used refers to.

To find reading materials, I recommend The Guardian and Independent websites, as well as The Economist and Financial Times (for economics students in particular), and perhaps even the New Scientist.

Graduate Diploma Class Two

Here is the PPT file that we looked at in class after your timed reading. We will look at more resources for exploring these language areas over the next couple of weeks.

E-mail etiquette

For a more detailed exploration of e-mail etiquette, you can have a look at this powerpoint presentation on e-mail etiquette. You'll need to download and open it so let me know if you have any problems doing so.

After you've gone through the PPT, you can try the e-mail etiquette quiz online here. A page you should definitely read is the University's guidelines on e-mail use.

Graduate Diploma Reading and Writing Class 1

Hello and welcome to my Graduate Diploma students. It was good to meet you all properly in class today. I'm glad that almost everybody seems interested in food. Here are the answers to the questions you asked in class. Good luck with your homework:

1. BA in English Language and Literature. MA in English Studies (Literature, Culture, and Modernity). Trinity Certificate and Diploma in TESOL.
2. I’m not fussy, but I like nice hair and smiles.
3. One well and two quite badly (French and Italian).
4. West Bromwich Albion. It’s in my blood.
5. Enough to live on, but job satisfaction and quality of life are more important to me.
6. My official job title is "Lecturer in EAP".
7. Football is the only sport I care about.
8. I tried but failed. Now I can only remember seafood vocabulary like “ebi” and “hotate”.
9. I hope (I try not to expect) that you all become independent learners and end the course with the skills required to achieve your goals, academic or otherwise.
10. Just keep your eyes (and your mind) open.
11. Maybe Robert DeNiro or Pele.
12. First a girl and then a boy.
13. I love it.
14. World peace.

Leave a comment if you can't guess (or remember) what all the questions were...