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