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.