Friendship...................

Here is a video which I made it by myself explaining the beauty of friendship...I hope you will enjoy watching this video and can learn about the value of a friendship...^_^

It's all about rephrasing......

Sometimes we say things that other people don't understand, or we give the wrong impression.

This is an example conversation where one person says something that the other person thinks is strange...^_^



LUIZ: "English is a very easy language to learn."

IRENE: "What do you mean?"

LUIZ: "Well, what I meant to say was that it is easy if you practise every day."

IRENE: "Oh, right."


Rephrasing expressions

"What I meant to say was…"

"Let me rephrase that…"

"Let me put this another way…"

"Perhaps I'm not making myself clear…"


Back to the beginning

If you're explaining something, and you realise that the other person doesn't understand, you can use the following phrases:

"If we go back to the beginning…"

"The basic idea is…"

"One way of looking at it is…"

"Another way of looking at it is…"


If you forget the English word

If you forget the word you want to use, you can say:

"I can't find the word I'm looking for…"

"I'm not sure that this is the right word, but…"

"What I want to say is…"


Speaking Tip

Don't be afraid to repeat what you're saying, especially if you can do it in a slightly different way...=)

Let's Learn About Determiners...!!!!!

Function

Determiners are words placed in front of a noun to make it clear what the noun refers to.

The word 'people' by itself is a general reference to some group of human beings. If someone says 'these people', we know which group they are talking about, and if they say 'a lot of people' we know how big the group is.

'These' and 'a lot of' are determiners in these sentences.



Classes of Determiners

There are several classes of determiners:

Definite and Indefinite articles
the, a, an

Demonstratives
this, that, these, those

Possessives
my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Quantifiers
a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough, etc.

Numbers
one, ten, thirty, etc.

Distributives
all, both, half, either, neither, each, every

Difference words
other, another

Question words
Which, what, whose

Defining words
which, whose

*The following words are pre-determiners. They go before determiners, such as articles: such and what, half, rather, quite

Let's Learn How to Greet......!!!!

First impressions are important, so here's a guide to using the right expression.
Greetings.....^_^



Two friends meeting



Friends often say "Hi" to each other. Then they often ask a general question, such as "How are you?" or "How are things?" or "How's life?"

The reply to this question is normally positive.

"Fine thanks, and you?"

"Fine thanks, what about yourself?"

"Not bad." Or "Can't complain."


Greeting people you don't know



You can use "Hello" with people you don't know, but a more formal greeting is "Good morning / afternoon / evening."

The other person normally replies with the same greeting as you have used and then makes polite conversation, such as "How was your trip?" or "Did you find our office easily?"


Introducing yourself




At an informal party



"Hello, I'm Maria." Or "Hello, my name's Maria."


The reply could be:

"Hi, I'm Sarah." Or "Hello Maria, I'm Sarah." Or "Nice to meet you, I'm Sarah."


At work-related events



"I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Maria, from english@home."

Or, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Maria from english@home."

The reply could be:

"Nice to meet you. I'm Peter Mitchell, from Mitchell Creations."

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Peter Mitchell, from Mitchell Creations."

"How do you do? I'm Peter Mitchell from Mitchell Creations."
Introducing other people


Introducing a friend to a work colleague



"Sarah, have you met my colleague John?"

"Sarah, I'd like you to meet my colleague John."

Sarah says:

"Pleased to meet you, John." Or "Nice to meet you, John."

John could say:

"Nice to meet you too, Sarah." Or "Hello, Sarah."


Introducing clients



"Mr Mitchell, I'd like to introduce you to my manager, Henry Lewis."

Mr Mitchell could then say:

"How do you do?" and Henry Lewis also says "How do you do?"

Or Mr Mitchell could say:

"Pleased to meet you." Or "Good to meet you."
Speaking Tip

"How do you do?" is quite formal for British English speakers and the reply to this question is to repeat the phrase, "How do you do?" (as strange as that may sound!)

At a more informal party



When you introduce two of your friends to each other, you can simply say, "John, this is Sarah."
Cultural considerations

At work, one person may have higher status – your boss, or a client, for example. It's polite to address them as Mr / Ms until the situation becomes more informal.

If someone says, "Please call me (Henry)", you know you can use first names. If someone uses your first name, you can use their first name too.

People in European and English-speaking cultures often shake hands when they meet someone for the first time.

* Don't forget to smile! :-)

Lesson Plan(Primary school)

Here are the example of lesson plan for primary level which is for standard 4.The topic is on animals...I hope that this lesson plan can inspired teacher to do more exciting activites in the class...^_^


LESSON PLAN – PRIMARY LEVEL

Date : 15th April 2010
Time / Duration : 60 minutes
Class : Standard 4 Uranus
No. of Students : 35/35
Proficiency Level : Elementary
Theme : World of Knowledge
Topic : Animals
Learning Outcomes : By the end of the year students should be able to:
1.0 Listening
1.2 Listen to and repeat accurately the correct pronunciation of words and the correct intonation and word stress in phrases, expressions and sentences.
2.0 Speaking
2.5.1 Give details about the people and animals of a story heard or read.
3.0 Reading
3.4.2 Read aloud sentences in simple texts observing correct stress and intonation.
4.0 Writing
4.5 Construct simple and compound sentences with guidance and independently.

Learning Objective : By the end of the lesson students should be able to:
a) Read aloud words and phrases from the story “Patches the Persian Cat” pronouncing them correctly.
b) Answer at least 3 out of 5 questions correctly from handout 1.
c) Give simple characteristics of animals being acted out during the group activity.
d) Write simple sentences about animals by matching sentence parts.



Educational Emphasis : Thinking Skills and Multiple Intelligences.
Moral Values : Students are taught to be cooperative when working with friends and
learn to appreciate and take care of animals.

Background Knowledge : Students have already been exposed to different types of animals.

Resource Materials : Whiteboard, marker pen, handouts, flash cards, mahjong paper.

STAGE / DURATION	CONTENT / SKILLS	TEACHER’S / STUDENT’S ACTIVITIES	RATIONALE / AVA
Stage 1 Set Introduction (5 minutes)	Whole class Example: 1. Have you been to the Zoo? 2. What kind of animals did you see? 3. What are these animals? Expected Answers: 1. Yes/ no. 2. Zebra, giraffe, etc. 3. (Animals on the flashcards) Skills: Listening Speaking.	1. Teacher greets the students. Teacher asks them whether they have been to the Zoo. 3. Teacher asks students what they saw when they visited the Zoo. 4. Teacher also shows pictures of animal using flash cards one at a time, and asks questions. Students are asked to name other animal they know.	Rationale 1. To boost and create interest in the topic of the lesson by eliciting their feedback. 2. To boost students background knowledge about animals. AVA 1. Flash cards of animals. 2. Whiteboard. Refer to (Appendix 1)
Stage 2 Presentation (15 minutes)	Whole class Individual Vocabulary: -Persian -exotic Skills: -Listening - Speaking - Reading -Writing	1. Teacher reads a passage in front of the class with the correct pronunciation and intonation. 2. Teacher asks the whole class to read the passage together. 3. Teacher will explain unfamiliar vocabulary to students. 4. Student later are given Handout 1. 5. Students are asked to answer the questions carefully. 6. Teacher selects a few students to answer the questions. 7. Teacher and students will discuss the correct answers.	Rationale 1. To identify whether the students are able to understand the passage and extract the main ideas from the passage by answering the questions provided. AVA 1. Whiteboard 2. Mahjong paper 3. Handout 1 Refer to (Appendix 2) (Appendix 3)
Stage 3 Practise (20 minutes)	Group work Whole class Skills: -Listening -Speaking -Reading	1. Students are divided into two groups (Group A and Group B) by the teacher. 2. Teacher explains how the activity is carried out. 3. Teacher randomly calls a member from Group A and asks the student to choose a piece of paper from several in a box. 4. The student has to act out the animal written on the paper, while Group B has to guess the name of the animal. 5. Teacher repeats this activity with members of Group A and Group B taking turns to act and guess. 6. Every time an animal has been guessed, the teacher will discuss the characteristics of the animal with the class and write them down on the whiteboard.	Rationale 1. Student will learn the value of cooperating among group members and also able to share ideas. AVA 1. Whiteboard 2. Strips of paper with animal names Refer to (Appendix 4)
Stage 4 Production (15 minutes)	Individual Content: Zebra – black and white stripes, hairy tail, live in groups Tiger – fierce, black stripes, strong, sharp claws and teeth. Skills: -Listening -Speaking -Reading -Writing	1. Students are given Handout 2. 2. Teacher asks the students to look at the pictures carefully. 3. Students are asked to make simple sentences about the animals according to the pictures in Handout 2. 4. Students are given time to do the exercise. 5. After the time is up, students will be called randomly to read out the sentences that they have written. 6. Teacher will correct the errors in the sentences at the same time. 7. Teacher and students will discuss the answers.	Rationale 1. To identify whether the students are able to understand the pictures and construct simple sentences based on the pictures. AVA 1. Handout 2. Refer to (Appendix 5)
Stage 5 Closure (5 minutes)	Whole class Questions: 1. What are the animals that we have learnt today? 2. What other animals have we learned? Moral Values: · Taking care of animals · Love for our nature	1. Before teacher ends the lesson, teacher asks a few questions and selects a few students to answer verbally. 2. Teacher also tells the students about the importance of taking care of animals and encourages them to have pets as a fun past time.	Rationale 1. To get feedback from students immediately about the flow of the lesson for self-reflection.

.

Are you aware of your English usage? Let’s find out……

Words are too often misused, as shown below:

Verbal confusion

Wood you believe that I didn’t no
About homophones until too daze ago?
That day in hour class in groups of for,
We had to come up with won or more.

Mary new six; enough to pass,
But my ate homophones lead the class.
Then a thought ran threw my head,
“Urn a living from homophones,”it said.

I guess I just sat and staired into space.
My hole life seamed to fall into place.
Our school’s principle happened to come buy,
And asked about the look in my I.

“Sir,” said I as bowled as could bee,
“My future roll I clearly see.”
“Son,”said he, “move write ahead,
Set sail on your coarse, Don’t be mislead.”

I herd that gnus with grate delight.
I will study homophones both day and knight.
For weeks and months, through thick oar thin,
I’ll pursue my goal. Eye no aisle win.

¬-----George E.Coon
The Reading teacher, April, 1976

~can you find mistakes in this poem? this was some common mistakes that several people did and they not even realizing it.