Saturday, March 31, 2012

Recording students describing photos

Hello again! Sorry I've been 'missing' for a few days but life has been even more hectic than usual this week! And it hasn't been for a lack of ideas to share with you on this blog, believe me! I have a file full of materials and lots of links saved in my 'For later' file on my computer.

So, let's make a start on one of them!

As I told you recently, I gave a talk at the TESOL Spain 2012 Convention.

As well as giving my talk, I was able to attend a few sessions. The first one I went to a Keynote presentation given by Russell Stannard. Here he is in action:

(Thanks Donna Koniholm for the great photos you took at the Convention!)

I've been reading articles and tips from Russell Stannard for a long long time. Quite deservedly, his website http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ has won lots of awards.

For a quick (3 minute) presentation of the site by Russell himself, I recommend watching this video.

During Russell's TESOL presentation, the tool that really caught my eye was MailVU: http://mailvu.com/.

This allows you to record video clips on a computer using the microphone and webcam and then send them to an email contact.

Here is Russell's description of the potential use of this site for language teachers:

… you can get the students to do recordings of themselves speaking in English at home … and then sending those recordings to you, you can then listen to them and obviously give them some feedback on their oral performance…

Watch Russell explaining this site here.

So, of course, me being a Cambridge ESOL teacher and teacher trainer, I thought: What a fantastic tool to practise the 1 minute talking about photos tasks in the Cambridge English: Preliminary, First, Advanced and Proficiency Speaking Tests!!!

Let's consider how you could go about this:
For homework, tell students which photo(s) you want them to talk about and the question you want them to answer in relation to the photo(s)

For example,

Here are your photographs. They show people spending their free time in different ways. I'd like you to compare the photographs and say what are the advantages and disadvantages for the people of spending their free time in these different ways.

Source: First for Schools Handbook

You send students a link to MailVU by email. They open the link, record themselves doing the task, and send you the clip by email. You watch it and can give them feedback (by return of email/record a video of yourself talking about their performance/discuss the clip with them in class (maybe while you both watch the video).

I believe it has fantastic potential for working on this part of the Cambridge ESOL speaking tests!

If you try it out, please let us know about it!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Blog for students and teachers

Today I thought I'd write about another blog that I'm involved in.

Nuestro blog

Self-Access materials for ESL teachers and students

For the past 4 years, I, along with a group of local teachers, have been preparing materials for teachers and instituto students. We meet once a fortnight and develop materials to upload to the blog. This year, we have been trying to expand the range of materials available on the blog and have prepared several videos for use in class.

As you can see, the biggest section focuses on PAU texts. (This is the exam that Spanish students have to take on various subjects in order to get into university).

The ones on our blog are specifically written taking the format of the PAU exam here in Cantabria (where I live) into account. We have been delighted with the number of visits from both teachers and students to this and other sections.

Recently, we have been updating the links we have on the blog. Currently, we have 19 different categories of links. I've rediscovered old gems and also some new sites worth sharing - future posts will cover some of these.

I hope you will visit the blog and that you appreciate the hard work behind it. Please feel free to use the material and send us your comments and suggestions!

And if you write or know of any blogs you think should be recommended on the Teaching Together Blog, please send me the details!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

New Writing and Speaking Assessment Scales and Handbooks

I'd been waiting for the new Handbooks for the Cambridge ESOL exams to appear on the website. I'd heard they were coming out.

So when I received my ezine from Teacher Support yesterday with the links to the handbooks, I thought I'd write about them on this blog.

Handbooks for TeachersThis month we have published the new Handbooks for Teachers. These handbooks contain an overview of the exam and its place within Cambridge ESOL. This is followed by a focus on each paper and includes: content, advice on preparation, example papers and speaking and writing assessment scales where appropriate.

Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) Handbook

Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) Handbook

Cambridge English: First (FCE) Handbook

Cambridge English: Preliminary (PET) Handbook

Cambridge English: Key (KET) Handbook

Cambridge English: Business Certificates (BEC) Handbook

Cambridge English: Young Learners (YLE) Handbook

The sample materials for the different papers in each exam is the same.

So, what's different about the new handbooks?

The new Speaking and Writing Scales!

Here is some information on the new Writing Scales, taken from the Preliminary Handbook:

Assessment scales

Examiners mark tasks using assessment scales that were developed with explicit reference to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The scales, which are used across the spectrum of Cambridge ESOL’s General and Business English Writing tests, consist of four subscales: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation, and Language:

• Content focuses on how well the candidate has fulfilled the task, in other words if they have done what they were asked to do.

• Communicative Achievement focuses on how appropriate the writing is for the task and whether the candidate has used the appropriate register.

• Organisation focuses on the way the candidate puts together the piece of writing, in other words if it is logical and ordered.

• Language focuses on vocabulary and grammar. This includes the range of language as well as how accurate it is.

Responses are marked on each subscale from 0 to 5.

And the great news is that the same areas are assessed from Cambridge English: Key up to Cambridge English: Proficiency. A 5 at Key would be awarded a 3 at Preliminary and a 1 at First.

Check out the remarked sample writing scripts in the handbooks. The examples really make the different areas of assessment clear I feel.

The same thing happens with the Speaking Scales.

I for one approve!

Friday, March 16, 2012

#CambExpBcn Rosie Burke: Songs and Games in the YL classroom

And today, I am delighted to have the chance to chat to Rosie Burke, another member of the Cambridge ESOL Presenters Team, who will be delivering the talk Songs and Games in the YL classroom – Spicing up your classes - without losing control! at The Cambridge Experience Barcelona , on Saturday 17th March at CasaConvalescència UAB Campus.

Hello Rosie, why did you decide to go into English language Teaching?

I went into English Language teaching just after training to be a secondary school teacher in 1977.

I worked on an international summer camp near London and met a lot of students from all over Europe. Some of the teachers I worked with there were moving to Spain and I came with them, thinking that a year abroad would do me good. And here I am, 35 years later. I started EFL with reel to reel tapes and a banda machine. I used to end every day with broken tapes and hands covered with ink.J I have seen many changes over the years but I still love my job!!

Now I get the opportunity to travel and compare EFL in different countries and have recently visited Jordan and Brazil for work – methods can be very different but children are children wherever I go.

What is your talk about?

Using games and songs in the young learner classroom and integrating them into every class as part of skills work while at the same time preparing the children to take a formal exam with ease.

Why do you think teachers should see your talk?

Teachers who come to this talk should go away with the idea that routines are important for primary school children – but there should still be a fun element in the class. It is important that children use their target language in all aspects of the classroom as well as when they are on task. We will be looking at ideas to promote this among teachers as well as young learners.

What's your all-time top tip for English language teachers?

Use lots of humour and positive motivation at all levels! Smile! :-) and keep up the enthusiasm.

Thanks Rosie! A pleasure... as usual!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Steve Hasler at #CambExpBcn - Cambridge English First for Schools: Speaking

Today I have the pleasure (and the time!) to chat with my colleague Steve Hasler, member of the Cambridge ESOL Presenters Team, who will be delivering the talk Cambridge First for Schools: Speaking at the The Cambridge Experience Barcelona , next Saturday 17th of March at CasaConvalescència UAB Campus.

Steve Hasler at the Cambridge Experience Madrid 2011

* Steve, why did you decide to go into English language Teaching?

No Damascus road experience and not even any real idea that I would make a career out of it. Back in the 1970s and early 80s Spain was a different place entirely. English Language Teaching chose you if you were “un nativo” and here for any length of time. Then came realization of how little I and almost everyone else at the time knew about the profession, so there was scope aplenty.

Finally, a love of languages in general that ELT would let me pursue while I earned what was a surprisingly respectable salary for the time - all of 200 euro a month!

* What is your talk about?

Cambridge First for Schools: Speaking and how to use the examination to encourage students to talk independently and to get more involved in their own learning process.

* Why do you think teachers will find your talk interesting/useful?

I hope they’ll find it sets off a few ideas that are probably already waiting to be triggered. They should go away with a more positive idea of the examination and be more willing to embrace it not only as an assessment but also a teaching tool.

* What's your all-time top tip for English language teachers?

The more you learn about your students’ mother tongue and culture, they more they will want to learn about yours.

Thanks Steve! As usual, it has been great talking with you!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Camera Obscura Drop Locations and great photos of London

My previous post talked about the Camera Obscura Project.

10 cameras were left at various locations last Saturday.

You can see where they were left here.

What a great set of photos for using in class!
Precisely because some of the photos (3, 4, 6 and 10 especially) are not so easy to identify because they do not show famous monuments.

So, for example, at Preliminary level (PET) we can practise language of speculation:
(For picture 10)

The camera looks as if it's on top of a bin or something you find in the street.
It could be outside a park or garden, because I can see a fence in the background. The camera is easy to see but it might fall off and break.

One of the photos showing where the cameras were left looks very like this one:

You can see St Paul's Cathedral on the other side of the river and the Millennium Bridge which crosses the River Thames between the Tate Museum and St Paul's.

You can read the story of this bridge here:
http://www.urban75.org/london/millennium.html

And for some really great photos of London (as well as other parts of the world), visit Shew, the photographer's photoblog.

One of her photos reminded me of my last trip to London. We saw squirrels everywhere in Hyde Park.

And Shew also has some amazing photos on Flickr.

Hope you find them useful!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Take a disposable camera and......

I am always on the lookout for photos to use in class.

So when I read the other day about 'Camara Obscura', it caught my eye.

If you are in London on Saturday, 10th March (I won't - I'll be in the Universidad de Deusto giving a seminar at the TESOL Spain National Convention. Hope some of you might come along to it!!!

Well, as I was saying, if you are in London on Saturday, 10th March, you might get the chance to take part in Camara Obscura 2012. The organisers will be leaving 10 cameras around London, then they will give hints via Twitter regarding the location of each camera.

If you have Twitter, you can follow this event here: Twitter: _camobscura

What will happen next? Probably something similar to what happened in 2010:

On August 18th 2010 a disposable camera was left in the middle of Covent Garden. Labeled with instructions to take a photo, relocate and leave behind for the next person, Camera Obscura began its journey around the UK.

43 days later it returned.

From Covent Garden the camera soon found its way across London towards Chipping Sodbury in South-West England then, nearing the end of its journey, it was taken on a boat tour of Beachy Head in Eastbourne.

http://www.cameraobscuraproject.co.uk/

And this is where I think the project and its outcomes could be useful for us teachers.

The 2010 photos have been posted on flickr here.

There are 24 photos.

Here is photo number 1:

Ways that you could use the photos from 2010 in class, maybe:

1 Give out all/ a selection of the photos. Without showing them to each other, each student describes their photo. They have to decide if any of the photos are of the same people/were taken in the same place, etc.
2 Divide students into groups of 4 or 5. Give them one photo each. They have to find similarities and differences between their photos.
3 Show students photos 18 - 24 (but without the numbers). They have to decide on an order for the photos and say or write the story of their day (they are one of the people on the boat) and where they found the camera and what they did with the camera afterwards.

There have been similar projects in different parts of the world. Here are two of them:

http://theplug.net/28/strangerphotos.htm (Camera tied to a park bench in Georgia, Atlanta, USA)

http://theplug.net/38/strangerphotos.htm /In Tokyo)

Would YOU volunteer to be on a photo like these?

Thursday, March 8, 2012

"Distraction in Listening" - Anne's talk at #TESOL2012

Hello Anne!

Forgive us (your colleagues from Cambridge ESOL) for "hacking" your blog! :-)

We have discovered that you are going to deliver a talk at TESOL 2012, which will take place in Deusto from 9th-11th of March, and we would like to know a little bit more about it.

Why did you decide to go into English language Teaching?

I'd spent a year in France at a Primary school as a language assistant. Loved it, so when I finished my degree, I came across to Spain for a year before going into international banking or marketing. Never became a banker or a marketer!!!

What is your talk about?

My talk is about listening and distraction! (The title says it all!)

Why do you think teachers should see your talk?

Why do you think teachers will find your talk interesting/useful? What do you think teachers will get out of attending your session/talk?

We will consider things that distract us when we are listening, how we can help our students overcome distractions when listening, recognise things in listening texts that can help steer them through a listening text, and last but not least, consider how distraction is used as a testing tool to check whether students can understand the listening texts used in the Cambridge ESOL exams.

I hope that the teachers who come to the talk will think about how they approach listening with their students and that they will find the tips and suggestions interesting, relevant and immediately usable!

What's your all-time top tip for English language teachers?

Inspire as much as you can while you teach! That inspiration can continue even after your students have left the classroom.

Thanks Anne! Looking forward to see your talk!

Anne's talk "Distraction in listening" will take place on Saturday 10th of March, 17.00 - Room 210

The provisional programme can be downloaded, here.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Swotting up on phrasal verbs

As promised, today's post will look at some resources for working on the area of phrasal verbs.

On Caroline Brown's site, students first read definitions and example sentences containing different verbs.

After this, they are given three tasks to do - to join together the first and second halves of sentences, then, they have to complete these same sentences and finally, choose the correct particle to complete different sentences with the verbs.

to ask
to back
to be
to blow
to break 1
to come
to cut
to do
to fall 1
to fall 2
to get 1
to get 2
to give
to go 1
to go 2
to go 3
to hold
to keep
to let
to look 1

to look 2
to make
to pull 1
to pull 2
to push
to put 1
to put 2
to put 3
to put 4
to run 1
to run 2
to send
to set 1
to set 2

to sit
to stand 1
to stand 2
to stay
to stick
to stop

to take
to take 2

to take 3

to take 4

to talk
to think
to throw

to turn 1
to turn 2
to turn 3
to walk
to work
to write

http://www.carolinebrownenglishlessons.com/

The exercises are bit mechancial, maybe, but I think it would be good as a suggestion for students to work on at home, precisely because it does always follow the same format.

You can also find interactive exercises on phrasal verbs on the English Club website.

Without a doubt, the webpage that stands out from the rest is the Phrasal Verb Demon.

Complete Guide to Phrasal Verbs

Focusing entirely on phrasal verbs, it has various sections.

Listening | Dictionary | Corpus | Particles | Quizzes | Games | Top 100 | Grammar | Verb List | Teachers

I particularly like the Corpus section. Here, you can type in a phrasal verb and it will tell you which topics it is used with and which words it collocates it with.

With the Listening section, you can choose an audio clip and listen to it. While you listen, you can either read the transcript or hide it. The phrasal verbs are highlighted in the transcript and below it you can read a definition and another example sentence containing each of the featured verbs as well as the meaning contained in the particle of the verb.

Apart from the Phrasal Verb Demon website, I was surprised that although I found sites and blogs which look at phrasal verbs based around maybe two or three topics, I did not manage to find a site which examined and practised a range of subject categories for phrasal verbs.

I'll post links to a couple of the sites where some topics (but not many) are dealt with:

http://www.ihbristol.com/learn-online/exercise-general/advanced/vocabulary

Activities for ESL students

However, this really is an area that needs some attention.

If I'm wrong, and there is a site that deals with phrasal verbs on a wider range of topics, please let us know!

For some great suggestions on how to teach phrasal verbs, check out the articles by Lindsay Clandfield on Onestopenglish.

On Youtube, lots of teachers have tried to tackle the area of phrasal verbs. Some of them more successfully than others!
I thought that these might be worth a mention:
Phrasal verbs (introduction)

Englishwithjo (on the themes of family, speaking, pets and animals, hobbies, food and eating, movies
I would suggest that we could do with a few more of these videos, illustrating the meaning of phrasal verbs:
Parasaber.com youtube video

And last, but not least, check out the great resources and suggestions by Janet Bianchini here:
http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/04/04/my-favourite-sites-for-teaching-phrasal-verbs-by-janet-bianchini/

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Phrasal verbs and the Cambridge: Advanced Use of English Paper

In my previous post, I discussed the presence of phrasal verbs in the wordlists at the different levels of the Common European Framework as defined in the English Vocabulary Profile.

I had said that I would share some useful links with you for working on the area of phrasal verbs in my next (i.e. this) post, but on reflection, I thought I'd go into WHERE phrasal verbs are tested on the Cambridge English: Advanced Use of English Paper.

Let's look at the December 2009 CAE Use of English Paper:

Phrasal verbs are tested twice in Part 1 of this CAE paper - within the context of a text about the Toronto Shoe Museum.

In question 3 of this part, candidates had to choose from phrasal verbs containing the verb 'look' in the following sentence:

The more I (3) .................... the subject, says Sonja, the more I find that footwear (4) ...... (reveals) more about the world of the wearer than any other item of clothing.

For question 3, candidates were given these four phrasal verbs:

look through, look into, look up, look over

Later on in this same text, candidates had to choose between:

pick up, take on, get over, make out

In this case, it was the precise meaning of different phrasal verbs connected with the idea of understanding or perceiving that was being tested.

I just couldn't .......... (11) why it was like that.

In Part 2 of the same CAE Use of English Paper, in an article about the Census of Marine Life,

the phrasal verb 'cut off' is tested. Here, candidates have to supply the particle in the gap fill text:

(The project) is expected to discover thousands of new species of marine animals, many of .......... (which) have been completely cut ........ (off) from the rest of the world for thousands of years.

In Parts 3 and 4 (Worldbuilding and Gapped Sentences), no phrasal verbs are tested. With the wordbuilding task, this is to be expected, but with Part 4, phrasal verbs ARE tested on some versions of this exam.

For example:

At the start of his career, James was ..... between taking a job in television and becoming an accountant.

The main suspect in the case told the police that his jacket had been ........ when he fell off his bicycle.

In some urban areas, tower blocks are being ......... down to be replaced by rows of houses.

CAE Handbook

(In all three sentences, the missing word is 'torn' and in the last sentence, it is part of a phrasal verb - tear down)

Finally, in this paper, phrasal verbs may also be tested in Part 5 - the Key Word Transformations.

In December 2009, candidates had to transform the first sentence:

They told Nick not to go to the city centre on New Year's Eve.

using the key word 'warned'

to complete this second sentence:

Nick .................................. from the city centre on New Year's Eve.

Here, two phrasal verbs could form part of the answer: to stay away or to keep away.

Nick was/has been warned to stay/keep away from the city centre on New Year's Eve.

As you can see, knowledge of phrasal verbs is tested considerably in the CAE Use of English Paper (and at other levels of the Cambridge ESOL exams too)

So, in my next post, I will share some great resources with you for working on phrasal verbs.

So, I'll sign (1) ......... now but will be. back with you again soon!

1 a) up b) off c) in d) on

Teaching Together - Cambridge English

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