Apostrophes' dont matter! Or do they?

http://metro.co.uk/2009/01/29/birmingham-bans-apostrophes-from-road-signs-406036/

Can you see the very small difference between the two signs above?

The top sign has an apostrophe (')  between Paul and s.  The bottom sign doesn't have the apostrophe.

Changes like these to signs are being made in cities in the UK.  "Moving with the times" defenders would say.

"Dropping standards" and "dumbing down" the English language are claims being made by critics of the scheme.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/newsgraphics/2013/0808-tests/0808-tests.png

An expert from Cambridge English Language Assessment – provider of over 4 million English language exams each year around the world – comments:

“Dumbing down the standard of English is not the road we want to go down, but you have to put this decision into context,” says Roger Johnson, Acting Chief Executive of Cambridge English Language Assessment.

“Lots of people do struggle with using apostrophes, and it’s important that learners are taught how to use them correctly but removing apostrophes from street names in Cambridge is unlikely to have an effect on English learning standards worldwide. Interestingly, we tend to find that students learning English as a foreign language master the apostrophe remarkably well. This is also true of some other complicated grammar rules, which is really encouraging. I’d be much more concerned if there was a proposal to stop teaching grammar in classrooms around the world.”

The apostrophe is a powerful punctuation mark that can have a huge impact on the meaning of a sentence. It was first introduced into English from French in the 16^th Century and is used to indicate either possession or the omission of letters.

Where do we need apostrophes in this sentence?

Charlies dogs eating its bone because its very hungry and hasnt eaten anything today.

(The spellchecker as I'm writing this only picks up on two missing apostrophes - but there are 4 needed in their sentence!)

What do you think?  I wonder how many times we actually think about the fact that a person lies behind the name of the street?  I mean, if we see the signs below on a door, we know that Daniel, Nicholas and  Suzie sleep in the room behind this door and we would no doubt think we have an idea as to how old they are, things they (don't) like, etc.

http://www.etsy.com/market/super_hero_boys

http://decalpitstop.com/ca/daniel_room2.jpg

http://www.etsy.com/es/listing/107862295/dormitorio-puerta-signo-bebe-guarderia

But most of the time, if we see

or

http://vipticketsandcorporatehospitality.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lords.jpg

we do not think about the person (Thomas Lord) (or newspaper in the first case) behind the name.  

And I wonder what changes will appear if the guidelines on street signs are carried out to the end:

The naming policy also bans street names which would be "difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell"

Will this mean that Leicester Square, Marylebone Station, Greenwich Park and Tottenham Road will disappear????

Which language is Arsene speaking? What's he saying?

In my previous post, I sang the praises of Arsene Wenger, coach at Arsenal Football Club.

When I was searching for a photograph of Arsene Wenger, I came across lots of very expressive photos of him.

It occurred to me that they would make a fun classroom activity!

Start by asking students if they recognise the man in the photos.  Tell students about this man.  His achievements:


He was born in a village near Strasbourg, France.

He can speak 3 languages (English, French and German) fluently.  He can also speak Spanish and Italian and a bit of Japanese.

When he was 29 years old, he did a 3-week English course in Cambridge.

He works in London.

He is the manager of an important football team there.

He has been manager at that club since 1996.

• Honours: English Premier League: 2004, 2002, 1998; FA Cup: 2005, 2003, 2002, 1998; FA Community Shield: 2004, 2002, 1999, 1998; French Ligue 1: 1988; French Cup: 1991; Japanese Super Cup: 1996

The players at Arsenal now can speak 12 different languages.

Next, in pairs or small groups, students discuss what language they think Arsene Wenger is speaking or thinking in in each of the photos.  They imagine that there is a speech or thought bubble coming out of Wenger's mouth.  They draw a bubble for each picture and write what he is saying or thinking in each one.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQT2x6pu1PM18ifo_ZYUvRCu5cfBG5UiDs8l5AUz-VqcKz2i2xf

clipartsfree.net

2 pairs or groups join to work together.  They take it in turn to show their thought or speech bubbles to the other pair/group.  They try and match each bubble to the picture it was written for.

http://www.herald.co.zw/arsene-wenger-purring-2/

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00796/arsenewenger2708reu_796444c.jpg

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/jan/02/arsenal-arsene-wenger-transfer-window

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02104/th_2104704b.jpg

http://www.inthestands.co.uk/news/arsenal-and-arsene-wenger-are-doomed-warns-emmanuel-petit.html/attachment/wengercry_415

Inspiring examples

Sometimes, a person can inspire for so many reasons.


Who is this person?

He was born in a village near Strasbourg, France.

He can speak 3 languages (English, French and German) fluently.  He can also speak Spanish and Italian and a bit of Japanese.

When he was 29 years old, he did a 3-week English course in Cambridge.

He works in London.

He is the manager of an important football team there.

He has been manager at that club since 1996.

• Honours: English Premier League: 2004, 2002, 1998; FA Cup: 2005, 2003, 2002, 1998; FA Community Shield: 2004, 2002, 1999, 1998; French Ligue 1: 1988; French Cup: 1991; Japanese Super Cup: 1996

The players there now can speak 12 different languages.

He recently won a prize for promoting multilingualism.


His name is .......

Arsene Wenger

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/8/2/1249206350861/Arsene-Wenger-001.jpg

There is a great video of Arsene Wenger describing how he learnt languages, why languages are important for the players who come to play at Arsenal.

The anecdote about his experience on arriving in Japan to coach a team there is very amusing and the reasons he gives for why learning the language of a country is so important.
(And what he says about why Japanese people keep listening till the end of the sentence is fascinating! Maybe we should change the word order of English sentences and communication would get better!!!!)

Arsenal, along with other Football Clubs, have been participating in a scheme called 'Double Club Languages'.

Young people come to the Double Club to learn lots of subjects, including languages.

For more information, you can check out the link to the Scheme here:

http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/documents/aug_08/gun__1218634204_AW_2355_arsenal_edu_bro.pdf

People like Arsene Wenger are perfect examples for illustrating just how important languages can be in our lives.  He inspires his players not only to play football, but also to learn languages, to help young people in London to learn other languages and to see the importance of learning about other people and cultures.

Well done Arsene!  Well done Arsenal and the Double Club!

More useful resources from UsingEnglish.com

I'm back from holiday.  Had a great time in Madeira.  Great weather, food, experiences.  Loved the decorations in the streets and around the churches for August 15th.

I won't be working flat out yet, but I will try and write a couple of articles per week.

I've written before about Using English.com and the resources they have.  I have about 50 pdf documents that I've saved in a file on my computer.

Recently, I've had 2 emails telling me about articles with tips for approaching Parts 1 and 2 of the Cambridge English: First speaking test.  I especially liked the suggestions for useful language and approaches for Part 2.

Part 1
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/how-to-teach-cambridge-first-certificate-fce-speaking-part-one.html

Part 2
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/how-to-teach-cambridge-first-certificate-fce-speaking-part-two.html

With many students taking the Cambridge English: First exam earlier this year (I know lots of candidates for October 2013), no doubt many of you are already priming them for the different parts of the exam. The two articles on UsingEnglish.com will be very useful for focusing on the Speaking Test.

Great videos for use in class

I've mentioned the website ted.com in several of my previous posts.

Last night, I was catching up on a few emails with recommended links in them and ended up at a great site called learn.ist which itself has some great suggested sites in its article:

 Web 2.0 Tools For The Classroom.

I have bookmarked some of the recommended Tools to come back to later, but I wanted to mention one of them in this post.

I followed the link to TED-Ed.  I have just been watching a fascinating video about Why is there a 'b' in doubt?

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/beyond-the-shadow-of-a-doubt-gina-cooke

There are other potentially videos we could use in our classes on TED-Ed.  And the good thing is that they usually last around 3 minutes.  

And then, they have follow up activities.  Under 'THINK', for 'doubt', they have a mixture of multiple choice comprehension questions about the content of the video, plus some research for students to do - for example, to find other words with silent letters in them and find out about the history of them.

Next, they can click on 'DIG DEEPER' where they will find suggestions for more related activities and links to sites where they can find more information.

On the spelling theme, there is another video I'd recommend by the same educator - Gina Cooke - on 'Making sense of spelling'.   It would be useful for training students to remember words that contain similar spelling patterns - eg two and twice.

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/making-sense-of-spelling-gina-cooke

Have a great week.  I've got lots of different projects to balance right now - so there's no 'doubt' that I'll be busy and challenged this week!  Hope your week is busy, challenging and fun and inspiring too!

Tips for learning languages for visual learners

As I mentioned last Friday, I will be speaking at the IH World Young Learners Conference in Rome on March 1st.  My session is called 'What's in an image?'
(I guess you know by now that I like using pictures and photos in class!)

http://www.zazzle.com/planetmug/gifts?cg=196977425062661686

Another of my interests is Multiple Intelligences.  I'm always looking for ways to make things memorable for students and am aware that music stimulates people and helps many of them learn and remember things.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?

Others will associate particular items with situations or when they learnt it or where.

I myself am brilliant at faces, hopeless with names.  I can probably tell you where I know a person from, when we last met, but don't ask me to introduce you!!

So, I clicked on a link to a Youtube video about Visual/Spatial learners.

It's a short clip about tips for learning a language with people who learn better when they associate language with images.
It contains some good ideas for recording and remembering language.

And I liked the final sentence:
'Remember - no matter what you decide to do, learning a language should be fun!  So be creative and enjoy learning about a new language and a new culture!'
Great advice!

Cambridge monitor

Hello again from Alcalá de Henares!

(note: I'm not in the above photo because I'm taking the picture of our lunch table at the beautiful Parador!)

In one of our sessions today, the Cambridge Monitor was mentioned.

I received an email about the Cambridge Monitor just over a week ago.

What is the Cambridge monitor?

It's basically a survey of 1,700 Spanish speakers and their attitudes to English, their level of English and learning English.

There are 98 infographics, tagged with one of 19 labels (false friends, apps, errors, celebrities, etc.)

Here's one of the infographics you can find on the site:

It makes me think of some years back when I was in a village in Cantabria, listening to three 8 year old girls singing a Spice Girls song.  They had no idea what they were singing (I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want...) but were making a very good job of imitating the Spice Girls!!!

Check out the infographics on Cambridge Monitor - some interesting and amusing facts are reported!

pinterest - a great tool for classes!

Yesterday evening, I was teaching the vocabulary for containers and the things usually contained in each type.

It suddenly occurred to me that pinterest could be the perfect record (and teaching and revision) tool for vocabulary areas like this.

I have created a pinboard for this topic.  You can see it here:

http://pinterest.com/annerobspain/containers-lexis/

Maybe we could start boards for the different levels of the Cambridge exams, especially for the topic areas that appear on the Cambridge English: Young Learners English Tests and the Cambridge English: Key and Cambridge English: Preliminary Tests??

Back to basics grammar

http://www1.ccs.k12.in.us/teachers/esalona1/grammar

There has been a lot of talk in the news about the UK Government's proposal to test 11 year old's grasp of grammar, spelling and vocabulary.
You can read about this in this article in the Telegraph newspaper.

Over the years, I have spoken to many teachers about the fact that when we started teaching English, we knew very little about our own language.  What I knew about English, I had transferred from my learning of French and German.
Over the years, I gleaned many insights from coursebooks and often found myself telling Advanced and Proficiency students that I'd get back to them in the following class with an answer to an awkward grammar question.

http://library.nd.edu.au/home

So what would the test for 11 year olds ask?  The Telegraph gives these example questions (notice the mistake in question 3 of Level 3-5):

LEVEL 3-5

1 Circle all the adverbs in the sentence below:

Open the drawers carefully and quietly when using the filing cabinet. (1 mark)

2 Tick one word to complete the sentence below.

Michael and Kate read their books ______________ they ate their sandwiches.

 while

 which

 between

 during

(1 mark )

3 Draw lines to match each sentence with the most likely final punctuation.

Look out ?

How are you doing !

January is the first month of year .

(1 mark)

4 Circle the word that describes how William played on the field.

William played badly on the field.

(1 mark)

5 Look at this sentence

The shopping list said he should buy bread, butter, jam and tea.

a) What is the name of the punctuation mark that is used after the words ‘bread’ and ‘butter’?

________________________

b) Why is this punctuation mark needed in the sentence above? Tick one.

 to mark the start of a new clause

 to show that a word is missing

 to separate the items in a list

 to take the place of brackets

(1 mark )

6 The sentences below each have an error. The errors are underlined. Write the correction in the dotted space allocated, making sure the verb matches the tense. One has been done for you.

had

Yesterday, I have the chance to play for my local team.

......

Our local café makes great cakes. We like to sit and ate them on a Saturday.

..................

The children are going to a shopping centre tomorrow and they had bought some new toys.

.................

I am putting on my shoes and I will have been for a walk in the park right now!

(1 mark)

7 Write a short question beginning with the words below.

How many____________________________________

(1 mark)

8 Underline the subordinate clause in each of the following sentences. One has been done for you.

Although his Mum thought they were very smart, Peter disliked his new trousers.

Before he could go swimming, Ali packed his towel.

The twins asked Dad to turn up the heating as it was cold.

After drinking his water, Mark washed up his glass.

(2 marks)

9 Put the baker’s words into direct speech.

The baker said that he hoped to sell all of the loaves by lunchtime.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

(2 marks)

10 Complete the sentences below using either I or me.

____ pulled out the keys from my pocket.

She asked ____ to help her put up the pictures.

My team and ____ are playing next week.

Why isn’t anyone able to understand what ____ am trying to do?

I had to help with the washing up before Dad would turn on the television for ____.

(1 mark)

11 Which sentence uses inverted commas correctly? Tick one.

 “Fortunately, Peter, you’re going after all, said Mrs. Smith.” It’s a good job, too!

 ”Fortunately, Peter, you’re going after all, “said Mrs Smith”. It’s a good job, too!

 “Fortunately, Peter, you’re going after all,” said Mrs Smith. It’s a good job, too!

 “Fortunately, Peter, you’re going after all,” said Mrs Smith. “It’s a good job, too!”

(1 mark)

12 Write whether each sentence is a statement, a command or a question.

Wait at the door.

________________________

What time are we going.

________________________

Think about it a bit more.

________________________

(1 mark)

13 Complete the sentence below with a contraction that makes sense.

If you give me the recipe _________ buy the ingredients on the way home.

(1 mark)

14 Add a suffix to this word to make an adjective. dread ____________

(1 mark)

LEVEL 6

1 Rewrite the sentences, changing them from the active to the passive voice. One has been done for you.

Active voice: Sam ate a biscuit.

Passive voice: A biscuit was eaten by Sam.

Active voice: Victoria drank her tea.

Passive voice ____________________________________________

Active voice: The team won the trophy.

Passive voice ____________________________________________

Active voice: Rishi poured the milk.

Passive voice ____________________________________________

(1 mark)

2 This sentence is made up of two clauses, a main clause (MC) and a subordinate clause (SC).

Paul’s Auntie May, who loves to bake cakes, always has flour in the cupboard.

Add a subordinate clause to the sentence below.

We walked, __________________________________________, to the local park.

(1 mark)

3 Rewrite the sentence below, changing it from a personal form to an impersonal form.

It takes me a lot of time to decide what shoes to wear.

_____________________________________________________________________________

(1 mark)

4 Insert a comma and a semi-colon in the sentence below to clarify the meaning of the sentence:

David eats cake whenever he has the chance I prefer apples oranges and bananas.

(2 marks)

5 Label each of the nouns below as either abstract AB, collective CL, common CM or proper PR noun.

Last Sunday, the team was filled with excitement that they might win the trophy!!

(1 mark)

You can see the answers here.

Am I making myself clear?

The other day, I came across a poster online and it got me thinking about several things.

http://www.facebook.com/HealingwithArt

From a teacher and linguist point of view, I started thinking about ambiguous sentences.

So I had a look around for sites with ambiguous sentences and came across several.

On the Fun with Words site, there is an amusing collection of ambiguous headlines, for example:

2 SISTERS REUNITED AFTER 18 YEARS AT CHECKOUT COUNTER

INCLUDE YOUR CHILDREN WHEN BAKING COOKIES

HOSPITALS ARE SUED BY 7 FOOT DOCTORS

RED TAPE HOLDS UP NEW BRIDGE

http://www.fun-with-words.com/ambiguities.html

And I came across this sentence on Paul Butler's blog:

The complex houses married and single students and their families.

Most learners of English might know the word 'complex' as an adjective, but not a noun.  This is what English Profile reports about this word:

complex

 /ˈkɒm.pleks/Outline view

Word family:

Nouns: complexity

Adjectives: complex

▶ ADJECTIVE

B2 involving a lot of different but connected parts in a way that is difficult to understand

Dictionary examples:

a complex network of roads

a complex procedure

The film's plot was so complex that I couldn't follow it.

 Learner example:

It took us two weeks to modify the results in a very complex operation.

First Certificate in English; B2; Spanish

▶ NOUN

BUILDINGS

C1 a group of buildings or rooms that are used for a particular purpose

Dictionary example:

a sports/housing complex

 Learner example:

A visit to any local shopping complex suggest[s] people between 14 to 35 years of age are the [most] frequent shoppers.

International English Language Testing System; C1; Malay

MENTAL

C2 a mental problem which makes someone anxious or frightened about something

Dictionary example:

an inferiority complex

 Learner example:

He began to feel like that character in "Psycho", afraid that the hotel manager would turn out to be some kind of maniac with an Oedipus complex.

Certificate of Proficiency in English; C2; Catalan

And of course, the word 'house' is known to learners very early on, whereas the verb 'house' meaning 'to give a person or an animal a place to live' is not reported as being used by students in the Cambridge ESOL exams till C2 level.

While looking around, I learnt that such ambiguous sentences are known as garden path sentences.  Didn't know that till now!

It's like those pictures you were shown at school and asked what you saw in them, like this one:

http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-lit/ambiguity.html

Well, I hope my post today was clear and unambiguous!!!!