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:

A man walked into a bar in Texas didn't he...

We looked at the difference between these QUESTIONS (to get some information) and INVITATION TAGS (to initiate conversation) before trying to finish a long list of statements with appropriate tags:

- Is it cold today?
- Ooh it’s cold today isn’t it.

- Are these chips delicious?
- These chips are delicious aren’t they.

- It’s typical isn’t it. The trains are always late when you’re in a hurry.
- Is it typical that the trains are always late when you’re in a hurry?

- The reading test was difficult wasn’t it.
- Was the reading test difficult?

- Is Bandar lovely?
- Bandar’s lovely isn’t he.

- Is Ran strange?
- Ran’s a bit strange isn’t she.

· You can swim
· You didn’t go to Colchester last Thursday night
· You’re not a dog
· You ate breakfast this morning
· You mustn’t complain
· You’re not afraid of spiders
· You should get more sleep
· You need money
· She looks great
· You’ve been to London before
· Let’s go shopping
· He’s so fat
· Sit down
· You love me
· You will call me when you get home
· You won’t forget me
· You mustn’t smoke
· Let’s have a party
· Open the window
· It’s not your birthday today
· They shouldn’t have gone to Germany
· England are going to win the next World Cup
· You can’t speak French
· It might rain today
· You can’t drive
· You’re bored of this exercise

If you're interested in trying some more lateral thinking puzzles, there's a website full of them if you follow this link. Hopefully the results won't tell you that you're some kind of murderer.

Modal verbs and the past

These are the sentences we created in class. Why did we spend so long talking about why Majed didn't kiss Ran?

1. If you weren’t able to see the board, you should have tried borrowing Mohammed’s glasses. (ABILITY)

2. Eman can’t have been 30 years old when that picture was taken! She looks so young! (LIKELIHOOD)

3. I was allowed to borrow Nada’s money because she didn’t need it. (PERMISSION)

4. – Who was that outside the room yesterday?
- It won’t have been Chris or Liz. They were both on holiday. (LIKELIHOOD)

5. Hani asked Bandar if he would help him because he couldn’t lift the table by himself. (VOLITION and ABILITY)

6. Su was so shy that she simply wouldn’t sing in class. (VOLITION)

7. – What was that strange noise last night?
- Don’t worry. It will have been Ahmed snoring. (LIKELIHOOD)

8. I think that Mark would have been 24 last year. (LIKELIHOOD)

9. Majed wasn’t allowed to kiss Ran = permission.

Majed couldn’t have kissed Ran because she was having dinner with Su last night. = likelihood
Majed wasn’t able to kiss Ran last night because he has just had lip surgery. = ability
Majed shouldn’t have kissed Ran because she’s got swine flu. = obligation
Majed wouldn’t kiss Ran yesterday because he wasn’t in the mood. = volition
Majed refused to kiss Ran yesterday because he wasn’t in the mood. = volition

10. Majed thought that West Brom might have won the FA Cup last year. (LIKELIHOOD)

11. Azhar might have given you money if you had smiled and asked nicely. (LIKELIHOOD)

12. You shouldn’t have spoken to Abdullah yesterday. He’s a bad influence.
(OBLIGATION)

13. Ahmed and Majed were both so stylish and handsome when they were younger. They must have had lots of girlfriends. (LIKELIHOOD)

14. Eman should have driven more slowly last night. She’s a very dangerous driver. (OBLIGATION)

15. English grammar could be difficult when I was at high school. / English grammar sometimes used to be difficult… (LIKELIHOOD)

16. The class should have had no trouble getting all these questions right. (LIKELIHOOD)

Project Class : Language Issues

Some documents and links for you from today's class. First we looked at linkers, and the document we created together - including those oh-so-cute examples - is available to dowload here. Answers to the question "Is it an English sentence?" can be found on this worksheet, also completed in class, and finally you can read all about the very cute Socks here on the BBC website, or through this exercise on the passive. Finally, you can, if you wish, follow this link to the Collins Concordancer Sampler...which most students don't actually tend to like. Never mind...

GVD Class : Error Correction and Modal Verbs of Likelihood

The word file we edited in class to correct mistakes from your written work is now available to download here not that my server is working again. You can also access the powerpoint presentation on SPORKS here.

Reported Questions

The powerpoint presentation from today's class are now available to download here. There's more on pages 171 and 172 of your textbook if you want more practice.

Reported Speech and Reporting Verbs

The first handout we looked at on reported statements is available to download here while the more difficult stuff on verbs of reference is available as a handout or powerpoint presentation. For more practice you can also look at pages 156 and 157 of your textbook and talk to me about any problems you encounter in working through the exercises.

Complexity

Because I'd hate to disappoint Ahmed, the Word file we produced together in class is available to download here. If you want to learn more about China's green ambitions and our friend John / Zhang, you can read the Guardian article in full here.

GVD Self-Study Worksheet

Those of you who have already given me completed worksheets on an article you read have picked up on some interesting vocabulary and grammar points, and I think it would be useful to do this kind of activity again and again. I've therefore uploaded the worksheet as a Word document and as a pdf for you to download, print, and use in your own time.