Away for the Summer

My Apologies... I have not been blogging of late as it's the summer. I am in the UK until September, firstly looking after Summer schools, and later teaching at a Uni. But I doubt that you've missed me... there are no exams at the moment after all.

Dave

The Times, it is a Changing...

It seems that the Economist magazine and now the (London) Times newspapers are charging for an increasing amount of online content. And fair enough too. It must cost a great deal to produce such publications. But I wonder at the business model. Far be it from me to question the mighty Rupert Murdoch, the man certainly knows business, but there are plenty of alternatives available online, most of which are free, gratis, for nothing and cost tipota (please excuse my attempt at Greek with the Roman alphabet Greek readers). Certainly he managed to turn a formerly free (by which I mean 'no fee') industry in to a fee paying one in Britain in the late 80s and early 90s with satellite television. He managed to do so by cornering the sports rights, most importantly the football of the Premiership, but the written word is a different media all together, a different 'ball game' as our American cousins might say.
The Economist has been free in its past and also pay to access, but its content is all together different. It's a weekly periodical, more highbrow, better written and serves a different purpose to the Times. And by changing back and forth between paid and free services I get the impression that they might have struggled with this model. Perhaps the traditional internet models of flash advertising are better. But the internet itself is such a game changer and no one can really tell. Who would have predicted Wikipedia ten years ago? Despite being biased occasionally, and less than authoritative in some area it remains a wonderful resource and a place I visit daily, just remembering the usual caveats that pertain to the internet as a whole. And look at those business that were slow to change their models. The producers of music and now films have had to take a long hard look at their industries, and the financing. It is not good enough in a digital age to enforce ancient business models rolling their product to different parts of the world at different times. Spotify, itunes and perhaps product placement will help them out.
I feel it's all going to be most interesting.
We can only watch an wait.

New Ken Robinson Talk

Ken Robinson has another Ted talk which I have just come across. These are excellent talks about education and creativity, and I heartily recommend them to anyone.
If you are, by the way, unaware of Ted talks they are updated regularly and are interesting and inspiring talks by leaders in their fields, usually in Technology, Education and Design (TED, get it?).
Enjoy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

By the way, they also make excellent Advanced and CPE listening practice and often have subtitles for concept checking. They can also be paused. Brilliant stuff!

Fingers Crossed

Back to talking about non-football related things now (and I'm not referring to the drubbing Australia handed England at rugby on Saturday morning). I was examining in a town near here on Sunday; The FCE Speaking. It was pretty well done and students were well prepared. Good. But there were some common traits that students should look out for.
1) It's 'depend on' (Not 'depend of'!!!) I heard this twenty times. Argh! It doesn-t effect your mark too badly at FCE, but getting dependent prepositions right is easy and will boost your Grammar and Vocab mark.

2) Part 2 was not as well done as it might have been. The two recurring errors were poor descriptive language and pointing with 'this' or 'that' picture. You are asked to compare the pictures (the script no longer asks you to contrast them, but you should anyway). Say what you see and showcase your vocabulary! It looks as if here they are...
Perhaps this is an image of a.... whereas here we can see....

3) The second questions of Parts 2 and 3 were often left unanswered. The question will be something like, 'Can you compare the 2 pictures and say which place you'd rather visit (and why if you have time.
Students would compare the pictures for a minute and that's it. Time up. Practice 40 seconds of comparison and then 20 on the question.
Part 3 was the same. The students neglected the second question. It will read something like, 'Discuss the advantages of the different activities on a summer camp and decide which two would be least suitable.' Everyone forgets the second part! Why? It is now printed clearly above the pictures!

Good luck to my CAE guys who have the exam on Wednesday. Fingers Crossed!

Ban the Vuvuzela

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100043517/world-cup-2010-ban-the-vuvuzela/

The drone of a billion bees is spoiling the World Cup? It may be the traditional African thing to do, I don't know. But the majority of fans are visitors, and it makes the games unbearable to watch on TV with the volume up.
Portugal play today. I live here, and I've drawn them in the sweepstake, yet still I am not bothered either way if they win or not. Why is this?

C'mon England!

The World Cup has started. These means I'll have even less of my students' attention than usual. I drew Portugal in the works sweepstake, but really my heart lies in one place...

C'mon England!

Good Luck!

Sorry for the few posts recently. The exams loom and my weekends are filling up with examining and invigilation. Right now it's getting too close to worry too much about your English and worry more about exam technique. Do some timed practice writings, look over your phrasal verbs and make sure, on the day, you have eaten well, have drunk enough water and that you get up in good time and are not rushed or flustered.

Good luck!

Russell Stannard

http://teachertrainingvideos.com/

This one is mainly for teachers. Check out this site. It'll give you great walk-throughs for lesson ideas and to truly use this wonderful thing we call the internet for classes.

CO2 the cause?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOLkze-9GcI

This link is for Luis (CAE)- see what you think Luis.

Dave

Sites and Dates

The exams are coming closer. The FCE is on the weekend of the 12th and 13th and the CAE the Wednesday after. Get studying...
An interesting aside. I recently tested two similarly levelled classes, one well schooled in the Cambridge exam and one not? The difference between the two classes? 25%! The students who were used to the exam were 25% better. That's huge!
Keep practising!


By the way, here's a new site that is as good as the great flo-joe.co.uk for exam prac.
http://www.examenglish.com/

It has excellent Use of English CAE Part 4 (of which I have very few examples)

Sunday Thoughts

I've just been examining this afternoon, the CAE exam. A few thoughts that may be handy. The listening part of the Cambridge had a few dodgy accents in it. Get some practice in with Australian and US accents, as well as UK regional and Irish. They vary a lot and it can be disconcerting to hear them for the first time in the exam itself.
The speaking: the less successful students were those with no ambition. FCE spoken English is not enough and will at best get you a C. Use the vocab and complex linking devices.
Good luck in June!

Old and New

I gave my Advanced class an old paper with the old format to see if they thought it harder/easier/just the same as regards level. My hunch was that it would be harder but it turned out to be fairly similar in terms of its level. The layout though was shocking and the retrospection gave me a chance to see how much better the exams are having been streamlined and standardised in terms of format and tied into the European framework (where they occupy the C1 position for English).

On another topic completely am bemused by the new UK coalition government. I hope it works - it seems to represent the wishes of the electorate - and perhaps that's what UK politics needs. It certainly needs to get away from the yah-boo politics of old, though PR (Proportional Representation) is a bridge too far for me.

The Old Tricks are the Best

My rotten CAE class pulled a classic trick on their teacher tonight. I take my watch off when I teach and the little dears advanced it by 15 minutes so they could get away... but I'll have the last laugh... an extra 5 mins to the classes until the end of the year... that'll teach 'em.
The UK election tonight... I'm up all night to watch it. Political theatre at its best.

Focus!

I've been going through my assessments as we have mid-term reports to write and go out for next week and looking at them globally allows me to see things in a slightly different light. The writing assessments have been poor, spelling and poor hand writing letting my guys down especially. I am thinking of my FCE guys, though my CAE guys are almost equally culpable. By now, my students at FCE level should not be spelling 'writting' instead of writing, or 'oppening', oh you get the idea. None of these errors are because of lack of knowledge but are for lack of attention. You know how to do this stuff. Just focus, get it right and you'll be fine. Remember, the writing is one fifth, that's 20%, of the exam grade.

Ambition will be rewarded

I was at a training session yesterday discussing the Cambridge exams and some interesting points came up. The emphasis of the meeting was the speaking exam and we had a look at some of Cambridge's most recent releases to try and judge the 'correct' score given. After some reflection I feel that I personally haven't been paying enough attention to cohesive markers and perhaps been playing it a little too safe with my KISS strategy (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). Sure, by keeping things simple and answering the question and having a few fixed phrases at the ready you can pass the speaking exam (attain a level 3 or so), but if you are (or have a student) expecting an 'A' grade then you're going to need to do more. At FCE we need to hear linking devices, such as 'Firstly', 'on the other hand', oh, you get the idea.
Also, we are going to need to hear more advanced grammar to get that 'A' grade. Let's have some decent conditional sentences, they are not so hard really, and so interesting adjectives (good, bad and nice are just not enough!).
So, get the basics right, then reach for the stars and have a bit of ambition.
Exams in May and June for my guys.... get studying.

Exams Loom

Travel Chaos reigns across Europe, but as it's no one's fault really, no one complains too much. My Dad was due to come and visit next week, but we'll see. My cousin was on his honeymoon in Rome and was complaining that he was stuck there and couldn't get back to work. My heart bleeds!
My exam guys are due to have solid exam prep until the exams in June, and because of the Portuguese national exams some of them are unlucky enough to have to do a May exam! It's late in the day to worry too much, but top of my list of things you should revise are phrasal verbs. Set/Take/Get/Make for the moment (you'll see these pop up in class in the next two weeks or so) but keep an eye on these.
I am also concerned STILL about silly spelling mistakes. Is it just my students who hate writting (sic) practise.

Easter Break

Sorry I haven't been posting recently. We've been away on our holidays for the Easter break. But now we face the summer term, the time when most of my guys will take their exams. So, all that homework that you have been putting off, all that grammar you neglected to learn... the clock is ticking (an idiom meaning that time is running out) and my classes are going to find themselves doing almost continuous solid exam prep. There's no avoiding it. I am particularly concerned about the timings of exam answers (either my guys rush through them with a million and one spelling and grammar errors or they dawdle and don't finish the paper) and also concerned about writing paper length. In your practice papers count the words of your answers so you get to know what looks like the right length. Trust me, after three or four tries you can guestimate the number of words in your own writing to within ten or so words. It's a handy skill to have. Soon then it's nose to the grindstone (another idiom meaning just hard work).

Simple Stuff

A busy day examining yesterday - FCE and CAE students in a city near here. The students were good, and well prepared. But there were some simple errors which I really should not be hearing at this level. One girl, perhaps over-reacting to the Portuguese tendency to overuse articles, used none! Another student decided that there were only two prepositions in English (for and in)although might have been saved a fail by excellent vocabulary (which we suspected had been learned from computer games). The thought for today therefore is: cut out the simple mistakes. Much easier to say than do, but by focusing on the simple tasks, and with good exam technique, a really low level student can pass these exams.

Vroooooooom!

Totally unrelated to the exams.... but sick to the back teeth of my underpowered Orion I've splashed out on a 2.5 v6. It's in the UK so I don't get to play with the new car until then but.......vrooooooooom!

Think... and Blink

My Guys,

You've got until 20th March to sign up. I was looking at the list yesterday and many of you haven't. If you don't sign up now you'll have to wait until December. I'll warn you again in class this week.... it's your call.

On a similar subject...

I was working Saturday, invigilating the FCE exams and also being an Oral examiner. Some more points:
The Writing paper is to be written in pen. Not pencil. It says so on the front of the paper and I told the students but somehow the message did not get through. I can't see Cambridge docking marks because of this but it hardly shows you in a good light if you get simple instructions wrong. And again.... HANDWRITING! None of my guys took it yesterday. Which is good for me seeing such dreadfully formed letters dancing across the page.
The Listening Paper. You need to write your name on the question sheet as well as the answer sheet. I haven't mentioned this to you before (as I didn't know). I imagine it's so that if you appeal your mark it can be moderated.
The Use of English Paper. Some guys left this exam very early. Check, check and check again, but only change an answer if you are sure. Often your first answer is the best (read BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell. It tells us that we know stuff when we have a hunch... we just don't know why we know stuff, and often we don't trust the stuff we know because we don't know the why... if you catch my drift).
The Reading Paper. I know the notes say 'please don't write on the exam paper'. But as there's no name on the question paper (unlike the Listening) I suggest you make notes, draw diagrams, use high-lighter pens. Anything that will help you get the answer right.
The Speaking. Fossilised errors really hurt marks. Nice vocab and good, appropriate fixed phrases saved a couple of students from lower marks. Exam technique and good preparation for the interview part of this exam will get weaker students through...
Good luck in May and June... and

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP!