Have you ever taken part in an English role-play? If your answer is yes, I’m sure you will agree with me that acting is an art. I mean it’s not easy to act naturally, to speak fluently, and to use nonverbal cues reasonably. Yesterday we took the mid-term speaking exam. Each group made a role-play using the functions we had learnt. Our group’s performance was about the conversation among 5 family members to reach the final decision where to go for a vacation.
Therefore, we used some expressions such as:
* Giving an opinion:
- We think Paris is better.
- According to this article, there’s a strong chance that the weather in Paris will be nice.
- In my opinion, Japan is suitable for all of us.
- I’d say that Japan is our final destination.
* Asking for an opinion:
- Paris is so beautiful, isn’t it?
- How do you feel about it?
- What do you think, Honey?
* Expressing agreement:
- I always agree with you.
- That’s exactly what I think.
- That’s for sure.
- I agree with our children.
- I couldn’t agree with them more.
* Expressing disagreement:
- I’m afraid we can’t.
- I don’t think it’s a good idea.
- No way.
* Talking about past events:
It takes me back the happy time when your father and I climbed Phanxipang Mountain together…
* Talking about plans and schedules:
- We’re going to have a week off in May.
- Your parents are planning to have a vacation and I’d like to go with them.
- We are planning to visit Paris.
* Talking about what might happen:
- We will surely have a romantic honeymoon.
- …, there’s a strong chance that the weather in Paris will be nice.
- I’m sure we will have a great time together.
* Making invitations:
- Why don’t we go there?
* Giving compliments:
- An, you’re so cute, kind and generous.
Because we were the first group to perform, I felt a little nervous. As a result, when I was acting, sometimes the words seemed to fly away and it took me some pauses to make up another ones. That’s one of my problems. The lack of confidence can also lead to low voice and unnatural actions so it’s important that I try harder to be more confident. Although during the performance our group members made some mistakes of pronunciation, grammar…, I satisfied with our work because I knew that everyone had put much effort into it. This was also an opportunity to learn from other groups.
1/ Flying Kites: They really impressed me by creative situation and funny actions. To me, all was great, except a few trivial mistakes like “í lộn” or “one roses” (but they self corrected)…
2/ Happy family: Their role-play gave the debate on pollution. Many functions were used and everyone’s pronunciation was good. I just wondered why Ms. Huyền sometimes looked at the ceiling while talking with her friends.
3/ Viva VN: What a pity that I couldn’t concentrate on their performance because I agreed to record video for Mr. Như Anh’s group. Though I didn’t understand the whole story, I could say that almost all of them had good pronunciation.
4/ 3 snakes and 1 cat: I was surprised by the story ending. It’s so coincidental. It was such an interesting story; however, sometimes low voice made it hard to follow the storyline.
5/ All for one: Their story was at the height when the robbery happened. We just couldn’t stand laughing. Nevertheless, I think that the narration in the beginning was not really necessary and when telling the story, Mr. Vinh kept staring at the floor.
6/ Born to shine with “Rumor” gave us a funny and meaningful story. Again, the low voice made it difficult to understand the story completely.
Those are my own opinions. In addition, according to Mr. Bình, here are some mistakes we made:
* Use of functions: Some groups used many functions, but some didn’t. There were some cases where we used wrong functions.
* Pronunciation: TERRIBLE. Some students lacked the final sounds and made spelling mistakes.
* Grammatical mistakes: For example: Let I tell you.
* Other mistakes: Low voice and problems with eye contact.
As far as I’m concerned, every group had its own strong and weak points but the most important thing is that everyone tried his/ her best.
:::Yến Như:::
[edited by Thuy Vy]
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
F5's Presentation
After our presentation, F5 discussed, found out and learnt from some experience. Today, I will show you our good points as well as bad points which F5 found out. I also hope that the other groups will give your comments about our PPT file and our presentation.
If you need to see our PPT file again to have exact remarks, you can download it via:
F5's PPT fileGood points | Bad points | |
PPT file | Simple, short, easy to memorize the functions Follow the rules of standard PPT file Simple templates didn’t distract audience, easy to read | Quite monotonous because of having no pictures to illustrate
Simple templates easily made viewers feel bored |
Presentation | Not depend on slide too much. Kept eye contact well Chose a good position to deliver A lively role-play at the end of presentation helped people to revise the functions. | Made mistakes on pronunciation. Still nervous |
Besides, you can see the source of the templates and the pictures representing each of us on the bottom left of templates.
If it hadn’t been for 1Cers’ help & support, F5 couldn’t have done our presentation well. Thank and love all 1Cers very much.
Don’t hesitate if you intent to give us your comments or advice. We always appreciate them.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN ENGLISH SUCCESSFULLY !
You meet an English person in the street and he needs your help to find the way to somewhere. How can you direct him?
You join an English club and have a friend-making party. What do you say to build a good relationship with everyone?
You apply for the job in a foreign company. What will you say to have a successful interview?
Remember that knowing English is quite different... from being able to speak it fluently, smoothly, continuously.
In my opinion, two keys making your communication skills better are:
- How to speak English fluently.
- How to make others understand you perfectly?
* Firstly, you must know the way to master English fluency:
If you want to have a good command of speaking English, it’s not enough that you just pick up a lot of knowledge of English. You'll have to master fluency techniques — the techniques that help you maintain fluency while you are speaking English. It is discovered that the secret of fluency is not classroom speech practice, but mastery of fluency techniques — in real-life situations.
+ An important thing is that you must have enough vocabulary. It is too difficult for you to speak with your lack of words.
+ Don't be shy, stay calm and speak whatever you like, think about. Remember this: Mistakes of grammar, usage, vocabulary... are all ‘externally noticeable mistakes’ — mistakes that a teacher can notice and correct. But you know, ‘externally noticeable mistakes’ like these are not the real reasons that make your speaking difficult. The real reasons are internal mistakes, difficulties and problems that can occur when your mind tries to compose speech before it is delivered.
+ If you are still embarrassed, you can imagine a case and play role in front of a mirror. Have you ever tried those actions?
+ Try to think in English, put your mind in English
+ Reading newspapers and watching movies in English can help you create a habit to communicate in English. You can imitate their tones of voice as well as the way they pronounce to improve yourself.
+ Speak louder, don't worry about your speaking speed at first, make sure that you pronounce exactly. When you are better, begin to speak with high speed step by step.
+ Joining clubs and working in group are good ways to improve your speaking. There are many discussions, debates that encourage you to speak. The members in club will help you do better.
+ Talk as much as possible to foreigners whenever you get a chance.
* The second thing is the ability you make everyone understand what you say. I think some following information will help you much:
+ Speak clearly and pronounce your words correctly. Exaggerated pronunciations will not help your listener and may cause confusion.
+ Do not use informal talk or incorrect English. This does not make you easier to understand. It will confuse your listener and may give the wrong impression about your own level of competence.
+ Avoid running words together ( Do-ya wanna eat-a-pizza?). One of the biggest challenges for listeners is knowing where one word ends and the next one begins. Give them a small pause between words if they seem to be struggling.
+ As possible, opt for simple words instead of ones those are complex. The more basic a word is, the more easily we can understand it, for example instead of saying " play a trick on s.o", you can say simply " cheat s.o". When there are words that sound the same but are spelled differently, write the word down to avoid confusion: 'bear' and 'bare', for instance. If those two words are pronounced slightly differently in your accent, mention this.
+ If asked to repeat something, first repeat it as you said it the first time. Then say it again. It could be that they simply didn't hear you. If your listener still doesn't understand, however, change a few key words in the sentence by using their synonyms. Also repeat the whole sentence and not just the last couple of words. It's time consuming, but it helps prevent confusion. Afterthat if they still don't understand, you can draw or write what you say on paper. Of course, it is the last way. Remember to keep a good attitude and be friendly. Impatience will inhibit your ability to communicate and can alienate your listener. The more relaxed you are, the more you are in control of your communication.
+ Make more gestures than normal when speaking, especially your body language.Often it's possible to understand just by catching a couple of words and seeing the gestures. such as you can say " really? uh huh, yeah, I see, " or nob your head, smile....so on.
I hope those will help you partly. I am very happy if you can share your ideas about that topic with all of people.
You can get more information with those books:
B1: Idea units & Fluency
B2: Speech Generation & Flow Production
B3: Teaching your Tongue & Speech Rhythm
B4: Key Speech-initiators & Speech-unit Patterns
S1: Fluency in Functional English (Vol.1)
S2: Fluency in Functional English (Vol.2)
S3: Fluency in Telephone English and Sectoral English
B5: How to Deal with Hesitation
B6: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.1)
B7: Packing of Information in Speech
B8: Impromptu Speech-flow Techniques
S4: Fluency Building and Mouth Gymnastics
S5: Fluency in speaking about people
B9: Fluency in Asking Questions
B10: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.2)
B11: Fluency & Moment-to-Moment Speech-production
B12: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.3)
S6: Fluency in Topicwise English (Vol.1)
S7: Fluency & Pronunciation
S8: Fluency in Topicwise English (Vol.2)
(writer: ho ut- thu quynh, using some information from www.wikihow.com/communicate-with-a-non-native-english-speaker)
You join an English club and have a friend-making party. What do you say to build a good relationship with everyone?
You apply for the job in a foreign company. What will you say to have a successful interview?
Remember that knowing English is quite different... from being able to speak it fluently, smoothly, continuously.
In my opinion, two keys making your communication skills better are:
- How to speak English fluently.
- How to make others understand you perfectly?
* Firstly, you must know the way to master English fluency:
If you want to have a good command of speaking English, it’s not enough that you just pick up a lot of knowledge of English. You'll have to master fluency techniques — the techniques that help you maintain fluency while you are speaking English. It is discovered that the secret of fluency is not classroom speech practice, but mastery of fluency techniques — in real-life situations.
+ An important thing is that you must have enough vocabulary. It is too difficult for you to speak with your lack of words.
+ Don't be shy, stay calm and speak whatever you like, think about. Remember this: Mistakes of grammar, usage, vocabulary... are all ‘externally noticeable mistakes’ — mistakes that a teacher can notice and correct. But you know, ‘externally noticeable mistakes’ like these are not the real reasons that make your speaking difficult. The real reasons are internal mistakes, difficulties and problems that can occur when your mind tries to compose speech before it is delivered.
+ If you are still embarrassed, you can imagine a case and play role in front of a mirror. Have you ever tried those actions?
+ Try to think in English, put your mind in English
+ Reading newspapers and watching movies in English can help you create a habit to communicate in English. You can imitate their tones of voice as well as the way they pronounce to improve yourself.
+ Speak louder, don't worry about your speaking speed at first, make sure that you pronounce exactly. When you are better, begin to speak with high speed step by step.
+ Joining clubs and working in group are good ways to improve your speaking. There are many discussions, debates that encourage you to speak. The members in club will help you do better.
+ Talk as much as possible to foreigners whenever you get a chance.
* The second thing is the ability you make everyone understand what you say. I think some following information will help you much:
+ Speak clearly and pronounce your words correctly. Exaggerated pronunciations will not help your listener and may cause confusion.
+ Do not use informal talk or incorrect English. This does not make you easier to understand. It will confuse your listener and may give the wrong impression about your own level of competence.
+ Avoid running words together ( Do-ya wanna eat-a-pizza?). One of the biggest challenges for listeners is knowing where one word ends and the next one begins. Give them a small pause between words if they seem to be struggling.
+ As possible, opt for simple words instead of ones those are complex. The more basic a word is, the more easily we can understand it, for example instead of saying " play a trick on s.o", you can say simply " cheat s.o". When there are words that sound the same but are spelled differently, write the word down to avoid confusion: 'bear' and 'bare', for instance. If those two words are pronounced slightly differently in your accent, mention this.
+ If asked to repeat something, first repeat it as you said it the first time. Then say it again. It could be that they simply didn't hear you. If your listener still doesn't understand, however, change a few key words in the sentence by using their synonyms. Also repeat the whole sentence and not just the last couple of words. It's time consuming, but it helps prevent confusion. Afterthat if they still don't understand, you can draw or write what you say on paper. Of course, it is the last way. Remember to keep a good attitude and be friendly. Impatience will inhibit your ability to communicate and can alienate your listener. The more relaxed you are, the more you are in control of your communication.
+ Make more gestures than normal when speaking, especially your body language.Often it's possible to understand just by catching a couple of words and seeing the gestures. such as you can say " really? uh huh, yeah, I see, " or nob your head, smile....so on.
I hope those will help you partly. I am very happy if you can share your ideas about that topic with all of people.
You can get more information with those books:
B1: Idea units & Fluency
B2: Speech Generation & Flow Production
B3: Teaching your Tongue & Speech Rhythm
B4: Key Speech-initiators & Speech-unit Patterns
S1: Fluency in Functional English (Vol.1)
S2: Fluency in Functional English (Vol.2)
S3: Fluency in Telephone English and Sectoral English
B5: How to Deal with Hesitation
B6: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.1)
B7: Packing of Information in Speech
B8: Impromptu Speech-flow Techniques
S4: Fluency Building and Mouth Gymnastics
S5: Fluency in speaking about people
B9: Fluency in Asking Questions
B10: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.2)
B11: Fluency & Moment-to-Moment Speech-production
B12: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.3)
S6: Fluency in Topicwise English (Vol.1)
S7: Fluency & Pronunciation
S8: Fluency in Topicwise English (Vol.2)
(writer: ho ut- thu quynh, using some information from www.wikihow.com/communicate-with-a-non-native-english-speaker)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Crossword Puzzles
I think that crossword puzzles are not only educational and fun but also addictive. You can use them for relaxing or breaking the ice in your classes. Now, why don't we try some questions? You have 20 minutes to think creatively and finish them. Let's start!
1. Fannee doolee likes boots, but hates galoshes. She likes glasses, but not reflectors. She likes sheets, but just doesn't like blankets. She also likes sunny days, too, but not weather. The question is: Does she like coffee or tea better?
2. I'm in food, not in drink
I'm in you, not in me
I'm in scooter, not bike
I'm in dog, not cat
I'm in envelop, not letters
What am I?
3. What does this say?
D
N
A
T
S
4. What word is always spelled correctly?
5. there are four letters in the word FIVE. Take two away to make four . Now take one more letter to make FIVE again .
It's overtime. Let's check your answers!
1. Fannee likes cofee better because all the things she likes have double letters in their spelling.
2. It's the letter "O" . It's easy, isn't it?
3. This says "stand up" . Because you say this word from the bottom.
4. It's neither "an" , or "one". Noword spells correctly except the word "correctly".
5. You have to delete two letter "F" and "E". The rest is IV (it's number four in Roman characters). Then, you delete "I", so we have V(five).
Wish you have fun with those puzzles!
Monday, March 24, 2008
GRAMMAR HOURS !
What is your feeling when you attend Grammar class?
In my opinion, this's great. We are allowed to study in the lab which have many computers.Our lecturer presents his lesson plans by motion picture projector. With this method, we save a lot of time. After that, Mr Vu teaches us how to use some softwares in order to help our studies effectively and how to search useful, suitable information for my lessons exactly and quickly.
For example:
If you want to find the definition of a word such as phrasal verbs , you can open Google page and type phrasal verbs def:
Or to find good webs saying about that, you may type phrasal verbs filetype:pdf.
With the information you get from the internet by using these small techniques, you can write the essays or do the projects easily and better.
Besides, Mr Vu also instructs us the way to do and post our webs. We have learned ED -Quiz, Hot Potatoes, Quiz Builder,and Teaching Template. Those provides us with equipments to do a good web.
At the end of grammar class, we spend about 30 minutes practising what we have been taught.
And after each terms, we hand in our projects to him. Certainly, we must choose one grammar topic and display it by all skills we learned . That web requests a good content, precision, logic, attractive display and being easy to use.
These are reasons why I like grammar hours. What about your opinions?
( Thu Quynh - Ho Ut)
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Let us introduce !
Our group has FIVE members. Especially, all of us are active girls. Actually, we are a family - an unusual family. I am sure that you must be surprised when I tell you about that. hihi... 
One in five members is our husband, called " hus" (husband). Other people are her wives. Sometimes we call her funnily " con chong". because she is both a girl and our husband. What a strange family!Her full name is LE THI YEN NHU. she lives in THU DUC.
One in five members is our husband, called " hus" (husband). Other people are her wives. Sometimes we call her funnily " con chong". because she is both a girl and our husband. What a strange family!Her full name is LE THI YEN NHU. she lives in THU DUC.
The first wife is " ba ca" - VO NGUYEN THUY VY, coming from VUNG TAU. She looks very lovely with a projecting tooth.
The other wife is LE THI TRUONG AN, nickname " ba hai" . That means she is the second person that our husband got married ( oh, my god). with a round face, she always makes a deep impression with everybody when smiling.
In general, both " hus" and two first " ho"(honey) are pretty short. but I - the last wife and the third wife is MISS TU ( 'ho ut' and "ho ba", both come from VUNG TAU) are very tall. We are very proud of that. ( That is a secret, please can tell anyone except for my husband and two first "ho". Otherwise, I will be divorced. huhu).
We are happy when work together. Although we are not beautiful, all of us are very lovely, funny, frank. So, we are confident when saying that we are five fairies, five flowers .
( Writer: Ho Ut : LE THI THU QUYNH)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Teaching Skills ^^
On Wednesday, Miss Van Anh, who teaches us Reading, started the lesson with the small game called "Vocab. Quiz". Two students solved one quiz together. I did it with my 1st Hơ (Honey) ^ ^. The rule of this quiz was that you found the missing words through the cues given; then you combined the first letters of those words to have the group word. For instance:
a/ Language and music are the two things that make humans different from animals.
b/ "Big Yellow Taxi" is a song originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell but covered by many other artists.
c/ Elvis Presley was the first real rock 'n' roll star.
d/ Music is an integral part of our life.
e/ Music is a powerful means of communication.
f/ Almost all of us like classical music.
g/ Every night, the mother sings a lullaby to lull her child to sleep.
The group word: lyrical (romantic)
I was very interested when solving this quiz because it was not only quite new to me, but it also made my brain work. In addition, we could enrich our vocabulary and practice team work skills.
I am a tutor. I'm teaching English for a boy who is at grade 5. I usually test his old lessons by giving him the words in Vietnamese and asking him to write down the equivalent English ones. Today, I wanted to do something different. I made another "Vocab. Quiz" based on that of Miss Van Anh:
1. Hens lay eggs.
2. Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
3. After rain, we can sometimes see rainbow, which has 7 colors.
The group word: ear (a part of body, used to hear)
We solved the quiz together and had a lot of fun. He seemed very eager. This made the study time active and relaxing. I think it's time I changed my teaching method.
:::Yen Nhu:::
a/ Language and music are the two things that make humans different from animals.
b/ "Big Yellow Taxi" is a song originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell but covered by many other artists.
c/ Elvis Presley was the first real rock 'n' roll star.
d/ Music is an integral part of our life.
e/ Music is a powerful means of communication.
f/ Almost all of us like classical music.
g/ Every night, the mother sings a lullaby to lull her child to sleep.
The group word: lyrical (romantic)
I was very interested when solving this quiz because it was not only quite new to me, but it also made my brain work. In addition, we could enrich our vocabulary and practice team work skills.
I am a tutor. I'm teaching English for a boy who is at grade 5. I usually test his old lessons by giving him the words in Vietnamese and asking him to write down the equivalent English ones. Today, I wanted to do something different. I made another "Vocab. Quiz" based on that of Miss Van Anh:
1. Hens lay eggs.
2. Spring, summer, autumn, winter.
3. After rain, we can sometimes see rainbow, which has 7 colors.
The group word: ear (a part of body, used to hear)
We solved the quiz together and had a lot of fun. He seemed very eager. This made the study time active and relaxing. I think it's time I changed my teaching method.
:::Yen Nhu:::
Saturday, February 23, 2008
LOVE AND TIME
Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink., so all constructed boats and left. except for Love.
Love was the only one who stayed. love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by love in a grand boat. Love said: "Richness, can you take me with you?"
Richness answered, "No, I can't. there is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place for you."
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel." Vanity, please help me!"
" I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered
Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you"." Oh...Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!" Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come, Love, I will take you." It was an elder.
So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were goin. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went his own way. Realising how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knoledge, another elder, " who helped me?" "It was Time," Knowledge answered
" Time?' asked Love. " but why did Time help me?". Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, " Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is".
(sunflower, january,2008)
Love was the only one who stayed. love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by love in a grand boat. Love said: "Richness, can you take me with you?"
Richness answered, "No, I can't. there is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place for you."
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel." Vanity, please help me!"
" I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered
Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you"." Oh...Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!" Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come, Love, I will take you." It was an elder.
So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were goin. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went his own way. Realising how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knoledge, another elder, " who helped me?" "It was Time," Knowledge answered
" Time?' asked Love. " but why did Time help me?". Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, " Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is".
(sunflower, january,2008)
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