It is My NEW Post, please don't read it!!

My post at this time, ofcorse has no meaning, I am almost sure that no one will view it, even no one will feel its presence.
Well, I have no problem to put that post even it has no meaning ( ofcorse it has a meaning to me).

I am feeling very tired , of being away from home, I feel that am wasting my time away from my family, I miss the target of my presence here.

I don't have any target of writing that post, except I feel that I am fully charged with various feelings& all of that feeling are from the type which disturbs any normal person.

Some times I am feeling lost, am in a place which no one is knowing exactly who I am, I don't have any memories with the places & persons around me, every face I meet is totally new to me, in the beginning it was amazing, but now came to be very boring.

After all of the new people I met & staring in each face to try to relate it to one of my memories, I found that I am almost going to forget my self, my person& personality, I feel no presence for me even, same as you are watching a very exciting movie, you live with the events& scenes, but you never be one of the movie characters.
Actually I was trying to convince my self, that I can make my own memories, friends, society, but seems that I failed& all the relationships came to be a big fake, why it came like that ?? what is the problem I had ??

The problem that all the faces UI met were not real, all the people out of their home are wearing false musk, I was wondering I feel I am different, unique some times& I discovered that I am the only one who is walking in the streets with his real face, no musk.

Masks that I met were two types; a mask which is a copy of the real face & the other one was a musk with various shapes different from the true face.

let's blog

Dear friends,

How are you? I am not sure whether anybody is still reading the blog.

Anyway, I've decided to share a few thoughts with you. I've printed the whole blog out, it's more than 100 pages (can you believe it) and have been reading and re-reading our posts and comments.

I can't explain how many memories and smiles they brought back to me. I really hope that we will return to this space again.

Perhaps we can discuss some guidelines on how to manage the space better, some basic rules, all the rest is open to a dialogue and negotiation.

So, what are you doing?

Warm regards,
ralitza

to free pharaoh

Hi Ashraf,

Sadly, I realised today that you have deleted all your posts. Why did you do that? I really don't inderstand?

Your posts made our blog different. Please,can't you resend them, or are they forever lost?

You know I am writing my dissertation, which is based on my experience of the class blog. Do you mind if I interview you or I can post the questions on the blog for you to answer them?

I can't make sense why so many emotional decisions were taken regarding the blog.

Can I ask the students who are still reading the blog to write and tell me how they feel about the blog now, a month after the end of the course.

Warm regards,
ralitza

something left from the week

Hi,

These are some of the questions we asked on Wednesday. Can I ask the students who haven't posted their answers to do so? It will help me plan my next blog with students better.

In the meantine, we'll keep this blog as long as we want to keep it and find it useful. We might have to agree, though, on how to go about it in the future. By answering those questions, I hope we'll be able to evaluate the experience and decide on the way ahead.

Evaluation of the experience

1. How would you describe your first blogging experience now after 8 weeks of blogging?

2. Did you find it useful? Why/Why not?

3. List some of the benefits of blogging for you.

4. What might be a reason for the lack of participation on the part of some students?

5. Did the blog manage to address your specific student`s needs?

6. Do you think blogging should be intergrated in the language classroom? Why/Why not?

7. How do you see the role of the blogging teacher. How can she/he encourage students to write?

8. What suggestions for the future use of students' blogs would you like to make?

Regards,
ralitza

a message on the BC intranet

Hi everyone,

Thank you for going along with me and showing involvement and commitment to our blog.

It was an extremely enriching experience for me as well. I hope it has showed us the way ahead.

And ....

This is a message that I just read encouraging teachers at the British Council to invite students to check out the podcasts on the British council website.

The message reads:

Are your students having a break from English classes this summer? Suggest that they practise their English in a fun way with LearnEnglish Podcasts - they can listen on their computer, or download them to their mp3 players. They're free, and there's something for everyone - from kids to adults and from elementary to advanced level learners. New materials will be published each week.

You and your learners can find LearnEnglish podcasts at:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts.htm

The following podcasts are available:

LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts are magazine-style programmes for learners at Elementary level. Each programme has got many activities that your learners can do on their computer while they listen, or print out and do when they want. Each programme is accompanied by many hours of support materials that can be printed off or done online.

LearnEnglish Stories and Poems Podcasts are for learners at Intermediate to Advanced level and contain stories by our resident writer, Chris Rose. All stories are accompanied by support materials that can be printed off or done online.

LearnEnglish Themes Podcasts are for learners at Intermediate to Advanced level. There is a recorded article which is accompanied by support materials that can be printed off or done online. There are also links to many other activities on the same theme.

LearnEnglish Professionals Podcasts are for learners at Intermediate to Advanced level and cover a wide range of topics of interest to the business person or professional. Our weekly podcasts are accompanied by an audioscript which includes a comprehension activity and often tie in with the magazine articles on our site.

Enjoy the podcasts and enjoy your summer!

Warm regards,

Ralitza

evaluation

Hi everyone,

This is our final week. I’d like to invite you to reflect on the whole experience of blogging and decide on whether you'd like to continue with the blog or not. There are three tasks for you to do this lesson:

1. Do the surveys. The questions are: Do you want to continue with the blog? Do you want us to open the blog to a wider audience?

2. Do the evaluation questionnaire.

3. Read how the other students have answered the same questions and comment on their answers.

Here is the EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE.

A) Reflection on your posts and participation on the blog.

Look back at your posts and write a short paragraph evaluating the quality and regularity of your writing. Consider the following ideas:

original idea (no copy paste from internet resources)
target reader (how easy to read and of interest your post might be for your reader)
organisation and paragraphs
range of vocabulary and grammar
spelling, puntuation
use of enhancement: pictures, videos
regular posts of average length

What do you need to work more on?

You can use the scale from 1 to 10 ( 1- very poor, 10- excellent)


B) Evaluation of the experience

1. How would you describe your first blogging experience now after 8 weeks of blogging?

2. Did you find it useful? Why/Why not?

3. List some of the benefits of blogging for you.

4. What might be a reason for the lack of participation on the part of some students?

5. Did the blog manage to address your specific student`s needs?

6. Do you think blogging should be intergrated in the language classroom? Why/Why not?

7. How do you see the role of the blogging teacher. How can she/he encourage students to write?

8. What suggestions for the future use of students' blogs would you like to make?

Thank you.

Regards,
ralitza

oO Japanese Culture Oo

Each country has diffrent culture and taditinion from one to a nother, so because I like Japanese language I would like to Know more and more a bout "Japan"..

JAPANESE LANGUAGE…

Japanese Language: Japanese (nihongo) is spoken in Japan, and essentially nowhere else. The Japanese language is distinct from Chinese and Korean, although the written form uses Chinese (kanji) characters, and is not known to be related to any other language.


JAPANESE FASHION…

The modern and traditional styles of Japanese fashion including Japanese street fashion, (Tokyo), Kogal and traditional Japanese fashion (kimono).


Japanese Food…

The Japanese cuisine offers a great variety of dishes and regional specialties. Some of the most popular Japanese and Japanized dishes are :
•Rice Dishes
•Seafood Dishes
•Noodle Dishes
•Soya Bean Dishes
•Nabe Dishes
•Yoshoku Dishes

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Fruits and flowers... Waterfalls... Gardens hanging from the palace terraces... Exotic animals... This is the picture of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in most people's minds. It may be surprising to know that they might have never existed except in Greek poets and historians imagination!

Location
On the east bank of the River Euphrates, about 50 km south of Baghdad, Iraq

History

The Babylonian kingdom flourished under the rule of the famous King, Hammurabi (1792-1750

BC). It was not until the reign of Naboplashar (625-605 BC) of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty that

the Mesopotamian civilization reached its ultimate glory. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562

BC) is credited for building the legendary Hanging Gardens. It is said that the Gardens were

built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife or concubine who had been "brought up in Media and
had a passion for mountain surroundings".

While the most descriptive accounts of the Gardens come from Greek historians such as

Berossus and Diodorus Siculus, Babylonian records stay silent on the matter. Tablets from the time of Nebuchadnezzar do not have a single reference to the Hanging Gardens, although

descriptions of his palace, the city of Babylon, and the walls are found. Even the historians who give detailed descriptions of the Hanging Gardens never saw them. Modern historians argue

that when Alexander's soldiers reached the fertile land of Mesopotamia and saw Babylon, they were impressed. When they later returned to their rugged homeland, they had stories to tell

about the amazing gardens and palm trees at Mesopotamia.. About the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.. About the Tower of Babel and the ziggurats. And it was the imagination of poets and ancient historians that blended all these elements together to produce one of the World Wonders.

It wasn't until the twentieth century that some of the mysteries surrounding the Hanging Gardens were revealed. Archaeologists are still struggling to gather enough evidence before reaching the final conclusions about the location of the Gardens, their irrigation system, and their true appearance.

Description

Detailed descriptions of the Gardens come from ancient Greek sources, including the writings of Strabo and Philo of Byzantium. Here are some excerpts from their accounts:

"The Garden is quadrangular, and each side is four plethra long. It consists of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations.. The ascent of the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway..."


"The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The whole mass is supported on stone columns... Streams of water emerging from elevated sources flow down sloping channels... These waters irrigate the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist. Hence the grass is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches... This is a work of art of royal luxury and its most striking feature is that the labor of cultivation is suspended above the heads of the spectators".


More recent archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq uncovered the foundation of the palace. Other findings include the Vaulted Building with thick walls and an irrigation well near the southern palace. A group of archaeologists surveyed the area of the southern palace and reconstructed the Vaulted Building as the Hanging Gardens. However, the Greek historian Strabo had stated that the gardens were situated by the River Euphrates. So others argue that the site is too far from the Euphrates to support the theory since the Vaulted Building is several hundreds of meters away. They reconstructed the site of the palace and located the Gardens in the area stretching from the River to the Palace. On the river banks, recently discovered massive walls 25 m thick may have been stepped to form terraces... the ones described in Greek references.

http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/GardenHistory.html

an interesting site

Hello,

There is an article in today's Gulf Times about the Arab influence in Spain. If you are interested in the topic that Ahmed started with his impressions and wonderful photographs from Al Hambra, you can check out The Islamic Culture Foundation (Fundación de Cultura Islámica, FUNCI) site on:

http://www.funci.org/en/

There are some interesting articles on The World of Science in Muslim Spain and Campaigning Against Forced Marriages.

Tell me what you think.

Regards,
ralitza

Mesopotamia

Thousands of years of History

Mesopotamia is apart of the holy land Tigris and the Euphrates rivers they join together in the shatt Al Arab near Kurna grows ancient tree called Adam and Eve's tree.

The earliest traces of human presence in Mesopotamia date from the old stone age (25,000-5000 BC) most preeious assets –Ideas, art technologies , writing and mathematics began finding their way from Mesopotamia to Europe and to the rest of the world.

Many great civilization have prospered and Ultimately turned to dust in Mesopotamia.

1)Sumer(4500BC-2340 BC)

This civilization began in the south of Mesopotamia under went enormous changes for example Agricultural Knowledge, irrigation and
Building techniques so they built dozen city state
(Eridu,Ur, Urak,Lagash,Larsa and others)

2)Akkad (2340BC about 2000 Bc)

Sargon I their powerful monarch built an empire that stretched from Taurus mountains from Anatolia in the north and the Mediterranean to the west.

3) The Babylonians (1760 BC – 1595BC)

Babylon became an important city under the rule of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC)
The capital became the economic and religious center of empire.He left behind a highly elaborate lode of laws

4) The Assyrians (1830BC then 827-612 BC)

for 3,000 year northern Iraq had been occupied by the Assyrian a Semitic people.
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria in the 612BC

5) The Neo Babylonian Empire (792-595 BC)

Nebuchadnezzar 11(605-562 BC) was able to create anew empire that restored the glory of ancient Babylon.

I hope you all liked my last topic in this course
For more information (Book)
Iraq an ILLSTRATED HISTORY and GUIDE
By Gilles Munter
Translated by David Stryker

The videos from you tube

Fatina

today's lesson

Hi everyone,

One of the topics that we are going to discuss in class today is money.

• What are good ways of earning, making, investing, saving it?
• Does a lot of money always bring unhappiness?
• Does money talk and if it did what do you think it would be saying?
• Are women notorious for wasting /spending money?
• And if you were a millionaire , how different would your life be?

It's high time we talked business. isn't it?

See you later,

ralitza

P.S. Don't forget to bring your credit cards with you.

Merkel : People are eating twice a day

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bad agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations are primarily to blame for rising food prices, not biofuel production as some critics claim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.


Environmentalists and humanitarian groups have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they divert production away from food and animal feed while contributing to sharp rises in the price of cereals and milk products.

But Merkel, whose country is Europe's largest biofuel producer, said the rise in food prices was not mainly due to biofuels but to "inadequate agricultural policies in developing countries" as well as "insufficient forecasts of changes in nutritional habits" in emerging markets.

"If you travel to India these days, then a main part of the debate is about the 'second meal'," Merkel said.
"People are eating twice a day, and if a third of one billion people in India do that, it adds up to 300 million people. That's a large part of the European Union," she said.
"And if they suddenly consume twice as much food as before and if 100 million Chinese start drinking milk too, then of course our milk quotas become skewed, and much else too," she said referring to EU limits on dairy production.

Biofuels, which are seen by supporters as a way to increase energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are made mainly from food crops such as grains, oilseeds and sugar.
Critics argue there are few, if any, environmental benefits for so-called first generation biofuels. They have also been blamed for increasing grain demand and pushing up prices at a time of growing threat of famine in some parts of the world.

The FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have said biofuels were "one of the main drivers" for forecasts of food price increases of 20 percent to 50 percent by 2016.
(Reporting by Gernot Heller, editing by Kerstin Gehmlich and Mary Gabriel)

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1721113520080417

-------------------

well .. hummm people shouldn't eat twic a day ? lol that's funny

Realistic

writing experiment

Hi,

Did you enjoy the task? Why/Why not? Reflect on the task.

There is one more week left together in class and perhaps on the blog. Next week we'll be reflecting on the work done, on the blogging experience, and think of the way ahead.

What would you like to do next week in class and any suggestions concerning the blog?

Have a nice weekend and enjoy the blog.

Warm regards,
ralitza

P.S. Thank you for staying behind and discussing the blog with me.

a writing experiment

Dear all,

Here are three topics for you to choose from. You have 20 min to write on the topic of your choice. Then comment on at least three other posts. Good luck!

The topics are:
1) Your thoughts and ideas after reading IF by Rudyard Kipling.
2) Your plans for the summer holiday.
3) How would your life be different if you were a millionaire? What would be the best and the worst things about it?

Warm regards,
ralitza

Alhambra

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs of Granada in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed), occupying a hilly terrace on the southeastern border of the city of Granada. Once the residence of the Muslim kings of Granada and their court, the Alhambra is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions exhibiting the country's most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th century and later interventions in buildings and gardens that marked its image as it can be seen today. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527.


last summer i went there and i took lots of pictures, i just wonna share it with you :)



a view of Alhambra from a near hill , as you can see there is no decorations at the outer walls because the decoration was made of holy scripts at the period, so they was using it only inside

one of my friends in front of the summer palace in Alhambra

Inside Alhambra

one of the Fountains

The court of the lions. ( the lions were under maintenance when i took this picture)

a picture of the court of the lions at 19th century

Realistic

Cochleography

The new Technology of printing pictures on chocolates

All of as like chocolates there are a lot of deferent kinds of chocolates all over the world with a lot of varieties ,I like you to come with me and visit this company who had mead this amazing printer who prints on chocolates.

Cochleography

is a newly patented technology that makes it possible to reproduce any picture, image, or message right on the surface of delicious chocolate.
Can be used for wedding gifts or, baby shower gifts, birth day party favors or unusual birthday gifts, or business promotions and much more.

Getting started is simple - just find the chocolate that is right for you, upload a photo or imageand text - and create a memorable personalized gift.There is deferent kinds of shapes

Deluxe Lollipops
Chocolate Picture Bars
Jumbo Lollipops.
Standard Lollipops
Greeting Cards
Heart Boxes
Portraits
Chocolate Cards
Deluxe Portraits with Truffles
Party Favors
Belgian Chocolate Truffles
Chocolate CDs
Chocolate CoinCookies

And much more in this collection, there is one shop in Qatar at AL Mall center that has this Cochleography , if any one likes to visit it .

I find it nice I hope you enjoyed my topic .

Fatina

A Trip to Turkey (Istanbul )

t

(The Palace Of Dolman Bahce)

The smear holidays are coming and every one of as is planning where to go for vacation some of as will take a trip around the world and the others will go back home to their counties to vista there family's and there friends.
I choused for you one of the most nicer counties in the world its Turkey at 2006 I had a nice smear trip for 2 weeks to this Gorges county Turkey that has the civilization of the east and the west countries together , it was my first time I went to this country .I will tell you in this topic about one of the Palaces in Istanbul it’s the" Dolma Bohcha Palace "

The most impressive historic place is the dolma bahcha palace its a reminder of the sultan's who governed the ottoman Empire ,it is a sea side palace with a cresting work of art , the elegant gate of the palace looks like crochet Lace , entering through main gate you pass green lawns with roses, bushes and ancient trees then you come to large fountain.

The interior decoration was concerned particular attention was given to the ceilings, on the walls there are a land space pictures and figures painted on stretched linen.

The floor are all example of artistic workmanship , all the furniture dates from the 17th and 18th centuries , there are about 75.000 objects and jewels.

The most important object is the heavy chandelier in the throne room which is a gift from Queen Victoria also the carpets make a special impression on the visitors .

The other section of the huge palace it is the(Harem) or women's section it is also an eye catching section.
I hope one day any one of you visit this beautiful palace .

I like to recommend some please if any one likes to visit Istanbul you can see(the princes island , the blue mosque ,bursa city (go up to the mountains and have barbeque) the local shops , to the leather factory and to the sweet factory(Lokoum) there more places that you can visit in all the city s of turkey .

Fatina

ididnt use any web pages in this Topic only the videos i took them from (You Tube) only

the Pictures i took in my trip.

a weekend task

Hello,

I'd like to ask the students who were present on Wednesday to write a summary of what we did in class for those who didn't attend. Can you consider the following questions:

• What did we discuss in class? What ideas did we agree on? Did we have a difference of opinion on any of the items we discussed?
• What are the homework tasks?
• Summarise the projects that students are advised to take part.
• Describe how you felt during the lesson. What did you find useful/not so useful?
• Any other comments you'd like to make.

Thank you!

And have a nice weekend!

KEEP BLOGGING!

ralitza

How to be English

Hi there everyone,

Here is an interesting video, if you want to be 'english' and take part in our favourite national pass-time of making and drinking tea!

If you want to upload a video from youtube, you just need to copy the HTML under the word 'embed' - written in grey, to the right of the video and under the name of the person. When you compose your blog message, click on Edit Html (next to compose) and paste.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any problems. I look forward to seeing some of your favourite videos uploaded soon!

Jemma

possible writing topics

Hi again,

What topics would you like us to discuss here? Here are some suggestions:

• Language topics/skills/tips
• Hobbies, interests
• Cultural Issue (i.e. What doesn't the West know about the Arabs?, What does it mean to be an Arab?)
• Things we like, Personal topics (the list is vast here)
• Abstract ideas (i.e. What is happiness for you? What are the lessons of life one should learn?( is this abstract, by the way?))
• Poems ( a favourite poem, why?)
• Talking points (issues from the news)

Add your suggestions and let's blog!

Warm regards,
ralitza

podcasts

Hi everyone,

I continue with the discussion of online resources that are available for language learners. I'd like to remind you of the listening project I posted last week and ask you to revisit the elllo site and post a comment on how useful you think it is for you.

Something else that you can do to improve your listening skills is to listen to podcasts.

Podcasts are audio (usually mp3 files) or video files published via the internet and designed to be listened or watched on a portable mp3 player of any type or a personal computer.

This is a tutorial on how to use iTunes to get podcast. It is done by Russell Stannard, who is a principal lecturer in Multimedia/ICT at the University of Westminster.

Listen to the tutorial. What do you think of the idea? Post your comment.

Regards,
ralitza

Defibrillator

(Automatic Defibillatoes)pic

Before few days I took one course of First Aid I find this course interesting that it had a lot of things one of these things was the Defibrillator .
Dose any one know what it is?
I think all of you know it, u have seen it may be in TV or some may seen it in the Hospitals.
This is my topic the Defibrillator Machine, the machine that saves people life
Let me first tell you about how the heat is working:-

The heart's electrical system causes the heart to beat, controls the heart rate (the number of beats per minute) and has special pathways (conduction pathways)
That carry the lower heart chambers (ventricles) for each heartbeat.
When heart cells in the upper heart chambers (atria) receive an electrical signal
They con-tract (pump) and then relax.
The blood from the atria is pumped into the relaxed lower heart chambers (ventricles)
And then passes down to the ventricles , causing them to contract and pump blood to
the body.

Types of Defibrillators

1) Automatic Defibrillators ( AED) are lightweight defibrillators units that are powered by micropro- cessors.
A computerized voice instructs the opera-tor to place two electrodes/pads on the
Patient's chest .
The device analyzes the heart rhythm and decides if a shook is necessary
The micrporoces- sor will not permit the device to deliver a shock un-less it detects the presence of the heart rhythm that requires defibrillation .Emergency medical personnel and lay personnel traditionally use these

2) Manual Defibrillators
Are defibrillators monitors that provide therapeutic and diagnostic functions
They are traditionally used by emergency trained medical personnel in Critical Care Units, intensive Care Units and Operating Rooms as well as EMT-Paramedics in the pre- hospital setting .
The defibrillators unit may be used as a ECG bedside monitor . it can document date /time , heart rate, instrument status and critical shook parameters as well as offer preset patient alarms and measure SpO2 as part of patient monitoring.

I find this devices interesting thing to talk to you about because it saved and still saving allot of people life till this day I like to tell you one story that happened in one of the cities in the USA

One day one lady was driving in her car like every day and at the same time there was one person who was deriving at the same rood as this lady but this person was on his way to work he was doing a Promotion for this Device , this lady stopped her car she was having a heart Attack this man Stopped to help her , he used this Device the Defibrillators and it really helped this lady then the unbalance arrived and the lady was rescued because of the help of this man and this device.

Another story says , one retired complex that people in the USA live after they retire , the people where dieing before the Unbalance arrives so they donate some money to make I device that can help them so they invented for them this Automatic Defibrillators its easy to use at emergency time.

I hope you all liked my topic and find it interesting and you can find the Defibrillators in the mall and the airports in USA, I hope all of you can take this interesting course you can learn in it a lot of useful thing that can help you and you can help the other pepole when they need your help you will know what to do.

ididnt use any web pages in this topic .

I Used one Book ;First (fundamentals of lmmediate Response Support Training)Hamad Medical Cororation (Hamad International Training Center) only to get from them how the heart is working and the types of the Defibrillator

Fatina

listening project

Hi again,

Further to today's lesson, here is an outline of the listening project. Visit the English Language Listening Lab Online site:

http://www.elllo.org/

Here is a short description (you can find it on the elllo site in the ABOUT tab)

ELLLO stands for English Language Listening Lab Online. It is a collection of over 1,000 listening activites that students can view free via the internet. Most listening activites come with a downloadable MP3 audio file, transcipt and interactive quiz. ELLLO offers a variety of listening activities that each target a specific listening skill, need or interest. See below:


Weekly Updates
Weekly Updates occur each Monday. On average there are at least five new listening activities each week. Activities are numbered for easy reference. Currently, the listening activities include interviews, newscasts, surveys (Mixer), songs, presentations (Talking Points), and listening games. Read below for details about each one:

Interviews
Interviews are natural conversations with various speakers of English that offer multiple listening options. Students can listen to a variety of English that is harder to find in more traditionally scripted textbooks. Also, unlike podcasts and other listening sites, ELLLO interviews contains rich images that help listeners follow the topic of the converation.

Listening Game
Listening Games can help students listen for gist. Students can listen to audio about a topic and choose the picture that matches the audio. There is very little reading. The listening games are designed for beginning students and for students who want to listen for fun and enjoyment. The object of the games it to reach the end of the listening activity.

Mixer
Mixer is a survey that features six different speakers answering the same question. Students can easily follow the topic and compare the various responses. Each speaker's segment comes with two questions that appear at the end of the audio segment to develop test taking skills.

News Center
News Center is an animated newscast. Each Newscast has six stories. For each story, students can try to answer questions about each news story. Newscenter can help students learn academic English and develop test taking skills for standardized listening tests such as TOEFL®, TOEIC® and IELTS®.

Songs
Songs are a great way to learn English. ELLLO contains some great songs by independent artists. As the students listen, the words are displayed on the screen so students can catch the lyrics (words to the song). Listening and reading the lyrics is a great way to improve grammar, pronunciation, reading speed, reading by chunks and common slang and idioms.


Task A) Check out what is available on the site and post your thoughts on how useful you think it is for you. Give details of which recordings you've listened to, what new vocabulary you've learnt, what is your reaction to the variety of accents and opinions presented.

After you have tried out the different options (Interviews, Mixer, News Centre, Songs) check out the LINKS and choose one more listening site.

Task B) Write a short report of what activities the other students can find on that site (provide link and short description) and give your personal recommendation.

It's keep listening now!

Warm regards,
ralitza

mid-course evaluation

Dear Student,

We are half way through the course and it seems the right time to take stock of the things we've done for the first four weeks.

Could you post a short self-evaluation of your commitment and work? You can consider the following questions:

• Have you been attending lessons regularly?
• Have you been participating in class actively?
• Have you been reading and contributing to the blog?
• Have you started your individual thread?
• Do you regularly comment on other students' posts?
• Do you use the New Cutting Edge CD-Rom as a self-study tool?
• How much do you self-study outside the classroom?
• How much extra work do you do to improve your English?

Use the scale from 1-10 (1 -for very poor, 10- for excellent) to evaluate your:

Attendance
Participation
Homework and extra work
Motivation
Blogging

Use the same scale to evaluate your:

Grammar
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking

What skill/skills do you need to work more on? What are you planning to do to improve it/them?

Regards,
ralitza

Arabic aphorism

Hi teacher and friends

I would like to participate together about Arabic aphorism and compare it with foreign aphorism, and as you know in Arabic culture we have many of aphorism that it is famous and all Arab country use it, and there are local Arabic aphorism depends to the culture of people who live in same area.
Here are some example and if you know more please add in comment

*- Birds of a feather flock together.

*- A friend in need is friend indeed.

*- After a test men are honoured or disgraced.

*- A scabby sheep infects a whole flock.

*- A drowing man will catch at astraw.

*- A disease known is half cured.

*- Man propose and god disposes.

*- A bird in the hand is betterthan ten on the tree

*- A bird is known by its note and a man by his talk.

warm regards

Walid

Tulips

Hi all, when I was watching TV I saw one program at the Europe channel and they where talking about the Tulips and I went to the net to find about this wonderful flower ,if u say tulips the first thing that will come to our min is Netherlands so lets all read the History of this flower and know from where did it come?

sometime in the year 1637, a Dutch farmer was in the market for a tulip. Upon finding a bloemist who carried the specific variety of flower that he desired, the farmer entered into negotiations with the flower-seller. When an agreement had been reached, the farmer acquired his flower-bulb. The purchase price that the farmer apparently deemed reasonable for a single tulip-bulb of the Viceroy variety included “two [loads] of wheat and four of rye, four fat oxen, eight pigs, a dozen sheep, two ox heads of wine, four tons of butter, a thousand pounds of cheese, a bed, some clothing and a silver beaker.”1 Such a high price, estimated at approximately 2,500 guilders, for a single tulip was not unusual. During the height of the Dutch ‘tulip mania’ in the seventeenth century, a Semper Augustus, considered to be even more precious than the Viceroy tulip, could bring in close to 6,000 guilders. In fact, tulip prices and the practice of tulip speculation became so excessive and frenzied that in 1637 the States of Holland passed a statute curbin g such extremes

Widely available at modest prices today, tulips are still closely associated with the Netherlands. However, the tulip is not a native Dutch flower. Like many other products in western Europe, such as the potato and tobacco, tulips came to the Netherlands from another part of the world. Not introduced to the Netherlands until 1593, the tulip was first seen by Europeans in Turkey. It was there in 1556 that Busbeq (A.G. Busbequius), the ambassador sent by the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, witnessed the flowers growing in the gardens of Adrianople and Constantinople. Scholars now believe that the Turks had been cultivating tulips as early as AD 1000. Most of these tulips probably originated in areas around the Black Sea, in the Crimea, and in the steppes to the north of the Caucasus.

Soon after Ambassador Busbeq noticed the flowers in the Ottoman Empire, tulips became one of the most sought after luxury items in Europe. At first, in the 1560s, trade and diplomatic interaction with the Ottoman Levant allowed for a small number of tulips to be imported into Hapsburg Europe. In this early stage, tulip ownership was primarily limited to wealthy nobles and scholars. Antwerp, Brussels, Augsburg, Paris, and Prague are among some of the cities where such tulips first began to circulate. A key figure in the history of European tulip interest is the famous botanist Carolus Clusius. Clusius, who had achieved great recognition for his work with medicinal herbs in Prague and Vienna, accepted a position as head botanist of the Dutch university in Lei den in the year 1593. Previously, he had met with former Ambassador Busbeq in Vienna and accepted several tulip bulbs and seeds.

At Leiden’s innovative hortus botanicus, or botanical garden, Clusius cultivated the bulbs and seeds and thus introduced the flower to Holland

Through botanical experimentation, Clusius and other horticulturists produced new color variations in tulips. This breeding of tulips with new color combinations had two important effects on the European — primarily Dutch — tulip market. The most elegantly and vividly colored of the new tulips, such as the Semper Augustus, which was white with red flames, became exorbitantly priced. Only the wealthiest aristocrats and merchants could afford these striped hybrid varieties. By the early 1630s, however, flower growers had begun to raise vast crops of more simply-colored tulips. These flowers, such as the Yellow Crown tulips, could be purchased cheaply by even the poorer segments of society. With an ever-growing number of varieties and an ever-widening price range, tulips became one of the few luxury goods that could be purchased by members of all classes

The popularity of the tulip in the Dutch Republic reached its pinnacle in the years 1636-37 during the craze known as ‘tulip mania.’ At this time, the practice of tulip speculation — only relevant to prized varieties of the flower — emerged. Because the flower-growers had to cultivate the bulbs and could not sell them until they were ready, these bloemisten began selling promissory notes guaranteeing the future delivery of the tulip bulb. The buyers of these pieces of paper resold the notes at marked-up prices. In this way, the promissory notes changed hands from buyer to buyer until the tulip became ready for delivery. The key was to be able to resell the note before the tulip could be delivered; the unlucky gambler was the person who could no longer resell the note because he now owned the actual tulip. This Dutch trade in the future promise of tulips became known as the tulpenwindhandel, literally ’tulip wind trade,’ because transactions involved nothing more than air. Many Dutch citizens, angry at such a corruption of the flower market, voiced their opinions on the matter in pamphlets.2 The Dutch government was also concerned and ended the tulpenwindhandel and the era of ‘tulip mania’ by enforcing economic controls in 1637.

Growing trade with non-European economies, the rise in new learning and scientific experimentation, and a boom in the market for luxury goods are all aspects of early modern Europe that are demonstrated in the history of the tulip. Thus, the tulip truly stands out as a cultural symbol of Europe during the time of the flower’s heyday

More web pages

http://www.webgardenguide.com/History_of_Tulips_3799_589_2.html

Video

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/69976_grow-tulips-history.htm?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=yssp&utm_campaign=yssp_mainvids

http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Journals/Journal/266807

so interesting history of this flower I hope all of you liked this topic.

Have A Nice Day

Fatina

A good listening web site

Hi my colleges, I would like to post a good web site for learning English that, I hope, increase our listing and speaking skills.

This web site provides a set of listening quizzes that we can listen based on the learner level (Easy, medium and Difficult levels).

The web site URL is http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm

Please let me know your comments about this web site.


Omar Mahmoud

individual threads

Hi again,

Here is the idea we discussed in class today. Thanks to Fatina who started the tedddy bear thread and in aswer to some suggestions from students, I invite students to start their own threads and initiate any topics they 'd like to discuss or which they consider of potential interest to the other students.

A student starting a new thread would be responsible for reading and responding to comments as well as to steer the discussion and keep the interest level high.

You can also consider the use of pictures or any other form of visual enhancement to attract the attention of your reader.

You should also provide the support and your comments to other students' threads.

This thread of yours could be part of the continuous assessment of your writing. What is your opinion on this? You can vote on the right.

And one more thing, could you label your thread (use the box in the bottom right hand corner).

Here we go!

GOOD LUCK!

questions to make us think about the blog

Hi everyone,

Thanks to the students who have already expressed their opinion about the blog. Could I ask the others to share their opinions as well?

If you prefer, you can consider some of the questions below. I hope this will help you to reflect on the experience and make us all better bloggers and language learners.


1. Is this your first blog?

2. What do you think of the blogging so far?

3. Do you find it useful? Why/ Why not?

4. Do you read the blog regularly? When do you usually do that?

5. How often do you post comments a week:
rarely
sometimes
twice a week
more than twice a week?

Why do you think is that?

6. Have you commented on other students’ posts? Which topics have you found the most interesting?

7. Which language skill do you think you can improve the most with the help of the blog?

8. Is there anything that you can achieve through blogging much easily than through classroom time?

9. Do you think you have improved as a language learner with the help of the blog? In what ways?

10. Do you have any suggestions for how we should go about the blog for the remaining time of the course?


11. Is there anything else you want to comment on?

Thanks and see you in a bit in class,
ralitza

under a scrutinising eye

Hi everyone,

Further to the posts about the writing criteria and error correction, I was wondering how you'll feel about the following suggestion.

Any student who would like to have all her/his posts under the scrutinising eyes of the other students, can express so in this thread. For example, a student considers that she/he wants to improve the quality of his writing and volunteers to have all her/his posts discussed by other students. That will mean that the students will read all posts made so far by the student in question and comment on the quality of her/his posts.

The students can then discuss the good points of the writing as well as provide suggestions if there are any shortcomings. This will give feedback on the quality of the writing and generate discussions in class.

In the meantime, can I encourage you to go back to the post about the writing criteria and continue with the discussion about what accounts for a good writing. This will give us clear guidelines for the assessment.

Keep writing!

Warm regards,
ralitza

Teddy Bear

How We Got the "Teddy Bear"

The teddy bear is a child's toy ,a nice soft stuffed animal suitable for cuddling.

It is,however,a toy with an interesting history behind it.

Theodore Roosevelt, or Teddy as he was commonly called , was preesident of theUnited States from 1901 to1909 .

He was an unusally active man with varied pastimes, oneof which was hunting.

One day the president was invited to take part in a bear hunt ; an inasmuch as Teddy was president , his host wanted to ensure that he caught a bear .

A bear was captured, clanked over the head to knock it out. and tied to a tree; however,Teddy, who really wanted to actually hunt, refused to shoot the bear and in fact demanded that the bear be extricated from the ropes; that is , he demanded that the bear set free.

The incident attracted a lot of attention among journalists .First a cartoon- drawn by

Clifford K.Berryman to make fun of this situation- appeard in the Washington Post , and the

cartoon was widely distributed and reprinted throughout the country.

Thentoy manufacturers began producing a toy bear wich they called a "TeddyBear"

The teddy became the most widely recognized symbol of Roosevelt's presidency.

I find it interesting thing to read about if u like to read more about Teddy Bear you can visit these wep pages

http://members.tripod.com/~bigbee/history

http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/archive/articles/history.html

blogging

Hi everyone,

and thank you Ashraf for sharing your opinion about the blog in class.

I thought it might be a good idea to provide this thread (a series of posts related to the same topic) and ask you to share your thoughts and perceptions of the process of blogging.

You can describe your experience so far and I would encourage you to return to this thread regularly (perhaps once a week) and add any new feelings, emotions, revelations*.

So, what are you initial thoughts and how would you describe your first blogging experience?

Regards,
ralitza

revelation - the process of letting people see or know something that was previously hidden, not known

writing criteria

Hi,

As I wrote in my comment on the post about error correction, tomorrow we'll be looking at the nature of most common errors and how serious we consider them for the quality of writing.

Could you comment on what criteria should be applied when assessing writing?

See you tomorrow,
ralitza

vocabulary work before today's lesson

Hi,

tough, overdone, delicious, burnt

boil, chop, roast, bake

prawn, lamb, pork, beef

Which is the word that does not belong in each group?

If you like this kind of exercise, have a look at ex. 2 on p. 51 in the workbook.

There are more activities on the vocabulary from module 7 in the workbook: p. 51/ex.1 & p. 55/ex. 10.

Do them and then report how difficult or easy you found them. What might be the reason for that? Do you need to consider again your revision techniques?

See you later,
ralitza

2 new tasks

Hi everyone,

How is the weekend? Did you find time for blogging?

Here are two more questions to ponder (to think carefully about something before reaching a decision).

The first one is about error correction. How do you feel about it? Do you view error correction on your posts as important?

What did you think of the lesson on Wednesday when we looked at a student's post and discussed ways of improving it in terms of more appropriate vocabulary and correcting some grammar and punctuation errors? Do you think this error feedback on accuracy done in class is a good idea? What other ways can you suggest of dealing with language errors?

And the second task will require to read the comments made by other students and comment on them. I'd like you to comment on the main idea, not necessarily to look for mistakes. We can refer to some often recurring mistakes in class when we do remedial work. How do you feel about this?

Eager to read your comments,
ralitza

vocabulary extension

Hi again,

Tomorrow we'll be discussing ways of extending vocabulary.

• How do you prefer to learn new words?
• How do you organise your vocabulary learning?
• How do you record and remember new words?
• Do you have any suggestions for your teacher how she could help you to remember vocabulary?

Post your comments.

Regards,
ralitza

writing /speaking in class

Hi,

Further to the topic of Monday, can you think of some good advice on social behaviour that you can give visitors to your country? You can consider the following:

• being late
• how you greet and address people
• smoking
• the way people dress
• what people do when they go out
• typical times for going out
• behaviour between men and women

Try to use some of these words: acceptable, perfectly normal, respectful, rude/polite, important, go out on a date, split the bill, pick sb up, invite to dinner, book in advance, smart casual, tend to, give offence, dress up

Regards,

ralitza

Birds

Hi,

Thanks for inviting me to contribute to this blog.

Ralitza mentioned that I was interested in birds and asked me to explain how I got interested in them and why I like them so much.

First of all, a Purple Gallinule is a water bird - you can see one in the photo in my profile. Nearly two years ago I started a blog of my own about life in Qatar (I'm afraid I lost interest in it and didn't continue it) and I wanted to choose a user name which would disguise my identity. I chose Purple Gallinule because I had recently been seeing these bird at a place in Qatar we call Prison Pools (it's an area of sewage water pools on the left-hand side of the Mesaieed road - unfortunately many of the best places for watching birds are smelly!) and a friend and I had just proved that they were breeding (raising young) there.

I first got interested in watching birds, although I've always loved wildlife, when my brother went on a school trip to a nature reserve and afterwards started dragging me around the countryside to look for birds. He later lost his interest but I've kept mine up. I like watching birds because I love their colours and the way they lead simple, unquestioning lives following their instinct, I envy their ability to fly and I also like the challenge of identifying a bird I see, which can sometimes be difficult or even impossible.

People think Qatar has no birds but in fact a large number of species migrate (pass) through the country on their way north or south in both spring and autumn and you'd be surprised what you can see even in the middle of the city. For example, the beauty above, a Bee-eater, is a common migrant (bird passing through) through Qatar, especially in spring.

I used to live in Kuwait and unfortunately some people there took advantage of this phenomenon to shoot birds for fun, often leaving them wounded or dying. I don't know how they can live with themselves...

Andrew

Some words:

contribute to: take part in, give something to

sewage: waste water

drag sb. around: make someone come with you, usually against their will (drag=pull)

keep up: continue

instinct: a natural feeling that tells us what to do

phenomenon: a natural event

wounded: hurt, injured

a thread for suggestions

Hi everyone,

I was happy to stay behind after the lesson and hear all your suggestions about the blog and our time in class. Shall we record our ideas so we can keep track of them and revisit them later if necessary?

Comment here for any suggestions you may have.

I am really looking forward to reading them!

Regards,
ralitza

Hi!

Hi everyone.
Thank you for letting me join your blog. I had a lot of fun with blogging with my students at the British council.
I hope you enjoyed learning about Thailand. My mum lives there, so I visit often.
I look forward to reading your posts and chatting with you all.
Happy Blogging!!
Jemma

new reading task

Hi,

Today's lesson is about social etiquette, proper behaviour in society. Of course, rules differ from a country to country. In order to communicate successfully with people from different countries, we need to be aware of these cultural differences.

This afternoon we'll be visiting Thailand. It might be a good idea if you find some interesting facts about Thailand to share with the class. If you want to know more about what Thai people eat or how they get around Bangkok, check out the bbc teachers' blog for this month and have a tour with Anne Bell.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/communicate/blog/teacher/index.shtml

And while you are in the Far East, why don't you visit Australia (the flight can't be very long)? You need to know about the social etiquette there? Then visit Jemma' s students' blog and read about what is considered polite behavour in Australia.
http://intermediategang.blogspot.com/

How different is it from your country? Feel free to comment.

See you this afternoon,
ralitza

3 new invitations

Dear Students,

How was the weekend? Did you do any reading in English?

I had a lovely weekend and did some reading online.

I also invited three teachers to join our blog:

Diane, a lecturer at Manchester University, who is interested in teaching and learning online and the impact of technology on local teaching contexts. She is also my tutor for my dissertation.

Jemma, a teacher at the British Council in Doha, who was the first to experiment with blogging with students at the British Council here. Their blog address is http://www.theintermediategang.blogspot.com/ (if you want to have a look at it).

And Andrew, a friend and teacher at the university in Dammam, who has a keen interest in birdwatching. Perhaps he can tell us more about the Purple Gallinule, how he became interested in birds and what makes birds so special for him.

Warm welcome to our blog!

Hugs,
ralitza

reading online

Hi,

How is your weekend? Do you feel you need to do a little bit of reading over the weekend? I have something interesting to suggest.

In the latest edition of elt gazette (an English language journal that discusses language related and teachers' matters)Issue NR 341, May 2008, p. 3, there is an article about Elton awards (google Elton awards to find out more about them).

It reports that the BBC's Learning English Blog was awarded the first ever Elton for blogosphere. It describes the blog as something that is 'designed to transform the concept of blogging from an individual pursuit into a collaborative learning process'.

Check it out and comment what you think of it or if you have any ideas about our blog. Also, look at what is a blog, how the blog works and the BBC' s guide to blogging.

And here is a link to the blog. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/communicate/blog/

Comment on what you've learnt?

Enjoy the reading!

Regards,

ralitza

welcoming message

Dear Students,

I am very glad that you responded so positively to the idea of blogging. I do really hope that you 'll find it useful and perhaps keep blogging even after the end of the course.

This blog is our space online where we can exchange ideas, discuss language issues and study tips, experiment with the language and explore new ways of studying.

The process of blogging, I hope, can make us better writers. We'll be posting to a real audience, who will comment, can agree or even disagree with what we've written.

In this search for knowledge, we'll become more aware of the process of language learning.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!

And shall we start with the first task?

Can you edit your profile and include information about yourself that you'd like to share with the other students? You can do that from EDIT MY PROFILE.

Good luck to our blog!

ralitza