Jim's self-study blog

Season's greetings!

2011-12-16T01:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas!

Hope you have a good break and come back refreshed in the New Year!

Don't forget your holiday homework :-(

1. CD-Rom in the back of your book. Work through Unit 1 revision exercises and do the Practice Test (i-test). Please send me the 2 pieces of writing you do for the practice test as Word docs.

2. Try to keep building up your vocabulary during the break - there was a Word Formation handout and you should have a vocabulary notebook to work on...

See you in January!

CAE homework 8 - 12 -11

2011-12-08T02:42:00.000-08:00

As I said in the first class, the study you do outside class is very important if you really want to make progress with your English.

This week I'm setting you TWO main tasks. One focuses on grammar (verb tenses) and the other is your first attempt at a Writing Task 1. The details are below:

1. Verb tenses

The Perfect aspect. What is the Perfect aspect? Please look at the information on Page 13 and 14 [Grammar 2: verb tenses] Work through exercises 1 - 3.
Simple vs Continuous p.14 - Work through exercises 1 - 5.

I will sometimes set you grammar work to do in your own time. A lot of you have good basic knowledge of grammar already, so I don't want to spend too much class time on grammar exercises. I'd prefer to use our class time to try to clear up any problems that you found when doing the exercises yourself.

2. Writing

A first look at Writing Task 1 - in this case you need to write a formal complaint letter. Read through the information on p15 (Ex.3) and 16 (Exs.4,5,6,7)about writing task 1 and look at the example on p191.
I will give you a writing task 1 in class. Read what you have to do and write your reply. Send your letter in Microsoft Word format to me by Monday evening at the latest!

REMEMBER! It's essential to keep an organised vocabulary notebook to record collocations and new vocabulary. Also, don't forget that you need to build up your awareness of your own typical writing mistakes.

Some CAE sites

2011-12-01T01:10:00.000-08:00

There aren't all that many good sites related to the CAE exam, but here are a few. Doing well at CAE depends on a good knowledge of collocation, vocabulary, grammar structure and so on. Reading regularly in English, listening to the radio, watching TV - all these will help you become more familiar with structure and patterns in the language.

Try to keep a separate space for new vocabulary and collocations - this could be a notebook, or an online space. Remember that you need to actively build your vocabulary in order to be able to use new words and expressions that you come across.

Cambridge.org

Flo-joe

Exam English

Splendid Speaking

And for anybody who struggles with punctuation (full stop, comma, semi-colon etc.) there's a nice guide from the University of Sussex here:

Guide to Punctuation

And there's an exercise on using commas you can try here

Materials to help you improve your English

2011-11-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I'll keep these pages updated with links and places to find practice activities and resources for the various skills in English, and for grammar and vocabulary practice.
Have a look at the 'pages' for more information on each. There are also links to some useful Pronunciation sites.
Please let me know if you find any really useful sites and I'll include them here.
Cheers!

Listening practice

2011-10-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the Academic Listening we did today. There are 11 other programmes which you can listen to, also with transcripts. You might find them useful if you listen carefully...

BBC Learning English - Academic Listening

EAP 1

2011-10-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to your course!

This is my 'blog' - it's not really a blog because I don't post very much, but I use it to provide you with what I hope are useful links, advice, activities and so on, to help you improve your English and adapt to UK Academic culture.

For your homework, check the Module descriptions (Londonmet home page, Postgraduate (or undergraduate) A - Z, choose your course, click on 'Contents' tab then 'Read More about Modules') for your course and try to select some of the key vocabulary. Write a list of between 10 - 20 key words, with definitions, and bring it to class on Thursday. It's also a good idea to practise the pronunciation. An online dictionary like Cambridge will help you to do this.

Good to meet you all today! See you Thursday...

IELTS - 'Culture'

2011-05-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a series of short podcasts about Culture from the BBC. (Good listening practice!)

BBC - Who on Earth are we?

Before next Monday's class, I'd like you to try writing 250 words about the question below. It will help me to get an idea of your writing abilities as soon as possible....)
Spend 40 minutes (no more). Don't worry if you don't manage to write 250 words in this time - it's best not to spend longer on it so you can get used to how much time you will actually have in the exam. You can either hand it in on paper to your teacher on Monday, or send it to me as an attachment to the email address I gave you in class. Enjoy!!

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
'Modern technology is creating a single world culture.'
Give reasons for your answer and use examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Academic & English support

2011-02-08T05:34:00.000-08:00

For more advice and practice on verb tenses, click on the 'Grammar' link in the menu on the right of this page.

Verb tenses in academic writing are often simpler than you think. By far the most common verb tenses in academic writing are:

Present - Present Simple, Present continuous, Present Perfect
Past - Past Simple, Past continuous

Think about the kind of writing you might have to do for your course - essays, reports, literature reviews. Try to find some examples and read them - wht are the most common tenses? Can you work out why these tenses are being used?

The other feature of language that appears frequently in academic writing is the Passive.

Globalisation research...

2011-01-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

In class today we watched the beginning of a couple of videos about globalisation:
Here they are:

Globalisation is good

The New Rulers of the World

To get you started on your research, here are a few websites which you might find useful:

Yale Global Online - take a look at some of the essays, video and so on. Very useful. Also has some good links to other online resources

Global Transformations - some useful information here, linked to a series of books (quite political this one...)

Guardian Special Report - for newspaper related to global issues

BBC Globalisation - A look at some of the multinationals involved

ESRC - the Economic and Social Research Council can be a good place to look for research

Warwick University - Warwick has a Centre for globalisation research (look at the 'Working Papers series)

The Globalization Website - quite a good introduction to the subject

Globalization101 - another good introduction to some of the concepts

A quick search for globali*ation in the LondonMet library catalogue gave me 1503 results. These can be narrowed down to online resources, journals, books etc.

Why did I write globali*ation? Because I wanted to look for the same word spelt with either 's' (British spelling) or 'z' (US spelling).

When searching Google or Google Scholar, you can do the same by adding ~. Try searching for ~globalisation in Google - it should return results with -s or -z. It will give you about 24 million results!!

This week we'll have a look at how to narrow down your search...

EAP 1 Weblearn

2010-11-22T00:48:00.000-08:00

You can access the Weblearn module from any computer (at Uni or at home) by going to www.londonmet.ac.uk/weblearn

Click on 'Login to Weblearn' then on 'London Metropolitan University' and you should be on this page. (it's a good idea to save this page as a Bookmark so you don't have to do all these stages every time you use Weblearn) You can then log in using your LondonMet Username and Password (the same you use for logging in to university computers)

Our module is called WBLT Development Module 60 - you should be able to see this module when you have logged in. (if you can't, please email me on my gmail address)

One very quick task for you to do when you've logged in....

Click on WBLT Development Module 60, go to 'Discussions' which you can find in the menu on the left. You should be able to find a message to your group. Click on your group (Group 1, 2, 3 or 4) then 'Create a message' and write me a short message to show me that you have been able to log on successfully.

Cheeers! Good luck.

Designing questionnaires

2010-11-19T03:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to some materials produced by LondonMet (us!) to help you with the process of questionnaire design:

Epacks - surveys and questionnaires

Remember - you will be 'trialling' your questionnaires in class on Monday. You need to think about how to collect the data, and also to print out enough copies so everybody in your group has a copy.

Group work videos

2010-11-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

Have a look at these videos to help you understand what is involved in effective (and not so effective) group work:

Learn Higher - Group Work

The Office for National Statistics website which I showed you in class yesterday can be found in the Research section. If your group are struggling for ideas, have a look at some of the surveys and studies on the site.

Improve your research skills (EAP 1 and EAP 2)

2010-11-16T04:06:00.001-08:00

A really useful source of information about research skills can be found on the INTUTE website.
I'd like you to work through the tutorial for your subject (or the closest subject you can find). I've put some general questions below which I would like you to think about as you work through the tutorial.

INTUTE - Virtual training suite

1. Why do you need to be careful when using the Internet for research?

2. What does 'peer review' mean?

3. What is the 'links basket'?

4. How can you access subscription journals?

5. What is a key to successful internet research?

6. What is 'social bookmarking'?

7. What does 'a search strategy' mean?

8. When judging a website, what is the 'WWW technique?

9. What does URL mean? What can the URL tell us?

Privacy - seminar preparation

2010-11-08T07:40:00.001-08:00

As promised, here are some links to get you thinking about the issues which you're going to talk about on Thursday in your seminar. There are some complex ideas involved, so you will need to do quite a lot of preparation if you are going to express your ideas clearly.

Open Learn - Privacy (this is a great resource - click on 'Privacy rights and the law' to access it.

Battle of Ideas

Privacy is dead?

(EAP 2) Don't forget to listen to the recording of your previous seminar. Think about how YOU could improve your performance, express yourself better. Choose 3 things you said, and think of a better way to say your idea and write this down as part of your self-study.

Self-study for this weekend (EAP 2)

2010-10-29T04:18:00.000-07:00

Self-study Friday

Lecture and seminar preparation:

1. Look for the following words/terms and find a definition. One way to do this is to type, for example, biometrics definition into Google and this will give you the meaning and links to relevant sites.

surveillance
footprints
fingerprints
biometrics
facial recognition
DNA profiling
CCTV
number plate recognition
electronic tagging
police database

SELF-STUDY TASK

Start your research for the seminar on Wednesday by visiting websites and taking notes on what you find. I want to hear YOUR OWN IDEAS AND ANALYSIS of what you have found out. Try to THINK CRITICALLY about what you read and relate it to the topics.

The following websites may be useful:

Cybercrime

Electronic tagging

Police National DNA database

CCTV

DNA Databases

Privacy International

Biometrics

Privacy lecture

Online Surveillance

Good luck and have a great weekend!

Outlines!

2010-10-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

EAP 2 - remember, I need to see your outlines today! Thanks to everyone who has already sent their outline. I'll give you some feedback in class.

You can find the essay that we looked at in class today here. There are some really useful exercises on building paragraphs and identifying topic sentences on the menu on the left. Try to look at some of the exercises before you start writing your paragraph.

EAP 1 - Vocabulary test tomorrow!! - Academic Word List Sublist One . Make sure you do some of those exercises which I set as homework last Thursday.

Seminar on Monday

2010-10-22T23:56:00.001-07:00

For your seminar on Monday, remember to do some research (look in the Research Topics & Links to help you get started) We'll be listening for opinions and evidence that you have THOUGHT about the topic and have some IDEAS.

Watch some of the short video clips from LEAP (Warwick university) to remind you about what is important in seminars.

Your homework (a gentle reminder..)

2010-10-21T04:16:00.001-07:00

Dear EAP 1
For homework, I've set you some exercises to try to encourage you to start taking responsibility for expanding your range of vocabulary.

First of all, you need to look for example sentences containing some of the adjectives from exercise D on page 19 of your course book. I asked you to choose 10 words (try looking for some which you are less familiar with).

The second task was to start studying Sublist One of the Academic Word List. If you click on the 'Vital Vocabulary' link on the right of this page, then select the second link 'Academic Vocabulary Exercises', and choose 'Sublist 1'. I'd like you to do at least ONE exercise (a, b or c) from each group (there are 6 groups). If you don't do very well you can choose to do another....

You also did a 'Diagnostic Grammar test' from Advanced Grammar in Use (by M.Hewings, [Cambridge]). This book is available in the library so you can study the units which you didn't do so well on as part of your Self-study.

Self-study (you know it makes sense...)

2010-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

The otter second from the right loves reading..

Reading... Is the written word dying? Have people stopped reading books? Will the internet eventually replace the book, the magazine, the newspaper?
Probably not in the next one or two years so it's important for you to READ in English.
Of all the students I've taught, I've generally found that those who read a lot are the ones who have the greatest range of expression, who express themselves best in writing. Part of your self-study this week is to find something to read ( a book, a journal, a magazine, a serious newspaper [The Guardian, Independent,Times etc - these newspapers tend to have more in-depth analysis of issues, writers usually express themselves in a more formal style of English which is closer to the type of academic article you will need to read on your course] - The Metro, unfortunately for you, is not enough... you need to set your standards higher than that!) Find something related to your subject, or find something that you enjoy reading (if you enjoy reading about your subject, that's perfect.) I want to know the title, how much you read, what it was about and I'd like you to write brief notes or a summary of what you learnt through your reading.
(you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs...)

Finding out about your course...

2010-10-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

It's a very good idea to find out about your course as soon as you can - it always helps to be well prepared.

First, go to the London Met Home Page and click on 'Course Database', then select Postgraduate January 2011. Select your course from the list.

You can read the information about the course, then, if you can find it, click on 'Read more about modules'.

If you can't find anything which says 'Read more about modules', you will need to go to the 'Module Catalogue'. This can be accessed from the Metranet pages. On the bottom right of the page, you'll find a link which says 'Postgraduate Course information and timetables'. Click on it, then on 'Module Catalogue'. From the module catalogue, click on Control+F and type in a key word from your course ex. Law, events, accounting, and you should find your modules. Click on each one for a description.

Et voila!

How to increase your vocabulary

2010-10-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

There is a great blog written by Patrick McMahon called English for University. Here's some advice he gives about learning vocabulary:

Vocabulary is definitely key to improving your language skills. Despite knowing this, students are often disorganised about their vocabulary learning. If you are serious about expanding your vocabulary then you need to have a strategy about how you are going to do this. Unless you are very lucky, it won’t magically happen on its own. You will need to think about which words you are going to learn, how you will record them, and how you will remember them. Probably you are going to need a note-book which you can write words in and revise from. Here’s a very useful source indeed on vocabulary learning from University of Toronto, Scarborough.

The link he recommends is here

The Longman Vocabulary website

You'll find lots more links to vocabulary websites here

Prepositions ...

2010-09-29T04:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some reference sites and practice:

Grammar Quizzes

English Page

Free Prepositions exercises

Ask about English (BBC)

enjoy!

What are UK universities like?

2010-09-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

The University of Southampton (where I studied many years ago...) has an excellent resource called 'Prepare for Success'. It gives some really good advice and information about what to expect when you start your university life in the UK. Highly recommended!

Prepare for success

If you look on the right hand side of this page and scroll down, you'll find my 'Delicious' tags. These are bookmarks to some selected websites - click on 'Academic Writing' to find some links to sites containing writing advice and activities.

How to improve your listening...

2010-09-23T00:43:00.000-07:00

Of course, there is no easy solution which will make you suddenly able to understand everything you hear in English. The English language has a huge variety of accents, expressions and differences, and you will hear it in many different contexts, some familiar and some unfamiliar. All I can say is Practise, Practise, Practise!! Listen as much as you can - if you are at home, try listening to talk radio, instead of music for an hour a day. If you have a Smartphone (iphone, android, htc etc) use it smartly - there are 1000's of free podcasts you can download - find something that interests you and download a podcast.

Below are a few places you might like to look for listening materials:

Free podcasts from ITunes

BBC podcasts

Guardian podcasts

BBC Talk about English

If you have a smartphone (eg IPhone, Android) download an App called TuneIn - it gives you access to thousands of radio stations from around the world. Try some of the English language ones!

Welcome..

2010-09-21T05:01:00.000-07:00

......to your new class! Have a look at some of the vocabulary links on the vital vocabulary page. Remember, this month, you need to start thinking about how you record and learn new vocabulary.

Leeds Uni referencing tutorial

2010-08-25T04:48:00.000-07:00

Here's the tutorial I showed you in class today. If you want to understand how to reference, this is a good place to start:

Leeds Harvard referencing tutorial

Using the Internet for research

2010-08-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

Here's some more info about searching the internet effectively:

Intute Virtual training suites

Oxford Brookes

EAP 1

2010-08-20T01:14:00.001-07:00

Hi...
Don't forget that I'll be expecting you to do the Self-study tasks on page 6. I'll check what you've done next Friday, so make sure you do at least Tasks 1, 2 and 5 and can show me some 'evidence'!

If you want some ideas for listening lectures, look at the 'Lovely Listening' links page on the right.

Presentation skills...

2010-08-08T01:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some sights which might help when you're thinking about your presentation:

Uni of Leeds - Presentation skills

RMIT Study & Learning Centre

Presentation Planner

HK PolyU - Presentation examples

London Met epacks

2010-07-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the epacks units which I asked you to look at:

http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/epacks/

Click on 'EAP' in the bottom left and then add the username and password I gave you in class today.

Take a look at Unit 3 'Describing findings'.

Sentence structure

2010-07-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

If you have problems with how to structure a sentence - word form, word order etc. - try working through some of these links:

RMIT writing lab - have a look at the online tutorial and the PDFs

University of North Carolina Writing Centre - Sentence Patterns & Sentence fragments

Example background and aims

2010-07-27T04:23:00.001-07:00

Background

Over the last few years, there have been a lot of reports in the news about rising crime, particularly involving young people. Some high profile murders of students, particularly the killing of two French research studentsin 2009, and the increasing number of international students in higher education in the UK, have highlighted this issue more recently. Many students who come to the UK are living away from home for the first time, and as a result may be quite vulnerable when they find themselves in a strange city with no friends or family. It would be useful to find out to what extent students are aware of safety concerns when they come to London Metropolitan University, and to compare how safe they feel in London compared to in their own country.

Aims

The purpose of this report is to find out what London Metropolitan pre-sessional students think about the level of crime in London, whether they feel safe in the areas where they live, if they have been victims of crime here and how London compares to their own city or town in terms of safety.

London Met epacks

2010-07-23T01:40:00.000-07:00

These 'epacks' have been designed to give you self-study practice about research reports. Work through some of the units at your own pace - they should reinforce what we do in class.

Creating a Research space

Try to look at 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 this weekend.

If you want more help on designing questions, work through some of the following units:

Surveys and Questionnaires

Activity 3 is particularly useful to help you distinguish good and bad questions.

Questionnaire design

2010-07-22T04:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a fairly comprehensive description of the process of designing a questionnaire.

University of Leeds - Questionnaire design

It's time to wake up......

2010-07-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

....and smell the coffee..

It’s a good idea to make sure you know what your course involves.

How many ‘core modules’ are there?
What are the ‘elective/designate modules’ and which of them are you interested in?
What are the assessment tasks for each module?
What are some of the recommended books for the course?
Who is the Course Leader for my course?
What department does my course belong to?

From the LondonMet home page www.londonmet.ac.uk click on ‘Course Database’ then select ‘Postgraduate September 2010’ (or whichever level/entry is relevant for you)

Find your course on the list and click on it. What kind of information can you find? You should be able to answer some of the questions above. Underneath the list of Modules, it will often have a link entitled 'Read more about the modules'. This is where you'll find more detailed info about your modules. If you can't find this, try searching for your modules individually from the 'Post-Grad Line' page, or look at the 'Module Catalogue'.

Another very useful page for information about relevant resources and research for your course can be found on the Library Services pages. Click on 'Help for my subject' then select your subject and you will get a list of links to Databases, Journals, E-books, References & Statistics, Professional organisations etc. Very useful stuff...

Finally, if you're really having trouble, just send me the title of your assignments and I'll write them for you and submit them, do your presentations and take part in any seminars you need to do, completely free of charge.

(only joking......)

Academic Vocabulary & subject glossaries

2010-07-20T01:41:00.000-07:00

There's a very good introduction which talks about strategies for learning vocabulary here.

Look at the Vital Vocabulary page on this blog for links to Academic Word list exercises and Gapmaker.

I'm trying to build up a list of 'subject glossaries' - word lists related to specific subjects. So far, I've found a few. Please have a look for some 'glossaries' related to your subject and let me know the URL and I'll add them to the list...

Seminar preparation

2010-07-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

There is some very useful information about privacy from the Open University. You should try to look at some of this before the seminar tomorrow.

Privacy

Click on 'privacy rights and the law' to access the content

2010-07-13T00:01:00.001-07:00

Your test tomorrow will cover some of the language we've done this month:

Look back at your course book and notes. Also, these websites might help you:

Reference words and cohesion
(click on 'Paragraphs' on the left, then 'Cohesion')

Verb tenses

Linking words and expressions
and here

Gap fill

Monday's class

2010-07-11T00:25:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you're having a nice weekend..

On Monday I want to do some work on checking and proofreading your work to try to eliminate as many language mistakes as we can before you send me the final version on Tuesday. That doesn't mean that it has to be finished, but I would like you to bring at least a draft of your introduction and paragraph which we can work on a little in class.

As I said, the finished work needs to be submitted to me by email by 1.15 on Tuesday. If not, then you will lose marks!! Please make sure you include a cover sheet (there is an example on page 6 in your book).

Remember, you need to write:

An OUTLINE of the whole essay (Qu. A OR B on page 5)

A full INTRODUCTION

ONE full PARAGRAPH (this can be ANY main body paragraph from your outline)

Don't forget to include a WORD COUNT - the number of words should include the outline

For the introduction, try to use the Immigration introduction we did in class as a model. So it needs to include:

Some background/overview (why is the subject important
A commonly held belief about the subject (using language from page 64) + counter argument
A reference from another source to show that some research has been done
A THESIS statement
A description of HOW the essay will answer the question

Any questions, ask me tomorrow!

Friday self-study

2010-07-08T22:36:00.001-07:00

To help you improve your searching techniques, work through the Internet Detective tutorial which you find below:

http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/index.html

It is important to complete this tutorial as it will help you throughout your time at university.

When you start you're writing, there are some good grammar tips here.

How to write an introduction

2010-07-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

There's a very useful short guide to writing introductions from English for University dot com

What is a topic sentence?

2010-07-05T23:53:00.001-07:00

Some of you are still having trouble writing Topic Sentences. Here's some great advice on how to write an effective topic sentence.

English for University

Fighting crime with science..

2010-07-05T05:20:00.001-07:00

Here's the link to those lecture notes. I'll try to put a few more useful links here soon...

Intute (www.intute.ac.uk) is a great resource which can help you quickly locate some reliable and interesting sources of information. In the 'Search Web Resources' box, try searching for 'surveillance' 'privacy' or 'CCTV' and have a look at some of the sites it shows you.

Here's an article about privacy which might get you thinking.

Sentences & paragraphs

2010-06-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

Have a look at these online tutorials about Sentences and Paragraphs from RMIT.

Paragraphs

2010-06-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

It's important that you understand exactly what a paragraph is and how it is commonly structured. There are a lot of excellent resources out there to help you with this. For example:

University of New England

University of Victoria

UEFAP - paragraphs (then click on paragraphs in the menu on the left)

DISSC - Sentences and paragraphs

Remember, if you want extra grammar practice, visit the Great Grammar links from the menu on the right.

Self-study

2010-06-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

On Monday we looked briefly at 'Outlines'. For your homework, complete the outline of the essay about the Cook Islands (p31/2).

We also looked at how to analyse a question - can you remember the 4 stages involved? It is essential to make sure you understand an essay question fully before you start planning your answer.

Last Friday I asked you to choose which question you were going to answer for the first writing task (p5 - 1a OR 1b). As Steve mentioned, you should also start brainstorming ideas which are relevant to that question. Hopefully, today's seminar gave you some ideas to start with.

Try to look at your writing which I gave back - can you correct your mistakes? What kind of mistakes/errors do you frequently make?

Here are some websites which you might find useful:

University of Glasgow

Essay planning

The writing process

Welcome to your pre-sessional course!

2010-06-20T23:40:00.001-07:00

Welcome everyone! I'll use this blog to help you throughout your course - I'll put up links, advice, homework reminders and more, so make sure you check it regularly.

Here's a link to what we did in class today - there are 12 programmes in the series. As part of your self-study, download Part 2 and listen to it. What are the main ideas? One way to practise English is to download listenings like this to your mp3 player or phone - the more you listen to English, the quicker you'll improve...

Part 2 - Listening to lectures

Reading the news

2010-05-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some links to recent news stories for you to read:

A scientific breakthrough

London 2012 mascots

Abortion advert

For help with vocabulary, you might like to try this simple website: OnlineUtility.org

Copy and paste the article or part of it into the 'Learn English Text' or 'Vocabulary Builder' and it will help you with the difficult vocabulary.

Or, if you prefer, just use a dictionary like this (the idioms section of the Cambridge dictionary is good)

Another thing you can try to do is look in the texts for examples of the different grammar structures you've studied this month - can you find conjunctions, relative clauses, conditionals, phrasal verbs etc.

Or you could try to write a short summary of one or two of the texts.

Or find other articles in different newspapers related to the same topic. How do the writing styles differ? What about the opinions?

A good way to understand what a newspaper is like and the kind of people who read it is to look at the comments posted at the end of articles.

Or you could watch something from BBC IPlayer. For example,

'Outnumbered'
(Some of the library computers might need a Flash player upgrade for this - so you might need to watch it on your own computer if you're interested.)

Phrases for presentations

2010-05-16T01:47:00.001-07:00

Here's a useful list of presentation phrases from EnglishforUniversity

Presentationphrasebook

View more documents from jimson99.

Summary writing

2010-05-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

...it's a really tough skill to master. You need to be able to think critically, to recognise the important information, to 'read between the lines' and get to the heart of the message that the writer wants to communicate. Even if you understand all the individual words in a text, that doesn't mean you understand the text!

For a detailed (more academic) look at summary writing skills, have a look at some of these sources:

UEFAP

RMIT - Writing skills

In the meantime, if you've ever wondered why some people have a low opinion of politicians and journalists, have a look at this:

Adam Boulton vs Alistair Campbell

Presentation Skills

2010-05-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a very useful tutorial from Leeds University about Presentations. It will help you think about the most important aspects of giving a presentation and will also give you an idea of how ready YOU are to give your presentation. REMEMBER: Group presentations will be on Thursday May 20th and each group will need to present for 12-15 mins (about 4 mins each person)

Leeds Presentation Tutorial

London links

2010-05-03T13:11:00.001-07:00

Here are some links to websites about London which might give you some ideas if you're having trouble:

A quick quiz question... Who said "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life."?

Posted via email from jimselfstudy's posterous

This month's project

2010-04-29T01:07:00.001-07:00

Download now or preview on posterous

Skills project.doc (35 KB)

Here's a description of this month's project.

Posted via email from jimselfstudy's posterous

Welcome!

2010-04-28T08:53:00.001-07:00

Hello to all my Level 8 students!! We'll be using this blog and Our English Course Fan page on Facebook to keep in touch with each other this month. I'll try to post useful advice and links whenever and wherever I can.

In return, it would be great to see your comments and posts - the more you get involved the more useful these websites can be! I'm looking forward to seeing some great projects this month.

Cheers!

Posted via email from jimselfstudy's posterous

Common writing errors

2010-04-22T01:48:00.001-07:00

Have a look at the Writing Page for some links to writing tips and advice. I've put a few new ones on there which you might find useful.

Good luck!

2010-04-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

Good luck in your tests today! Hope you've done some revision......

Writing reminder

2010-04-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Don't forget, your writing needs to be handed in today (Tuesday).

Remember, it's an INDIVIDUAL piece of work, and I don't want to have to use Google to find out where your writing came from!

Please make sure you check your writing very carefully before you hand it in - what kind of mistakes do you usually make? Look back at any writing which I have marked and given back to you. Proofread (check and correct) your work to try to find and correct any 'silly mistakes' before you hand it in to me.

Giving an oral presentation

2010-04-15T04:43:00.001-07:00

Here's some useful information from RMIT university about giving presentations:

Oral Presentations

Level 7 writing

2010-04-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

Your writing should be around 250 words. You can describe one or more of the places you visited, or compare and contrast 2 different shops, or sights.

Yesterday in class we saw that good descriptive writing uses a lot of adjectives - see if you can include some of them in your written work.

Also, the writing you find in guide books and travel websites is often in the present tense, describing what the place IS like now. But if you are going to write about the history of a place, try to use past tenses.

Remember - it is an individual piece of work. I want to see YOUR writing, not something you cut and pasted from the internet!!

The following websites might be useful:

Museum of London (history)

Famous buildings

If you find some more useful or interesting websites, please add them to our Facebook page.

Have a great weekend!

2010-04-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some short videos which might give you a few ideas - perhaps you could make your own little videos and upload them?

Geobeats

As you decide where to go and what to include in your presentation, try to think of a few places that other students might not know... something different. Keep in mind that we all want to learn something from your presentation and research. If you can include something new and surprising, something original and different, it will make it more interesting....

The weather's gonna be nice this weekend - get yourselves out there and don't forget to 'keep me in the loop' by posting comments, pictures etc to our Facebook page.

Have a great weekend!

BBC IPlayer

2010-04-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

If you want to watch more of the programme we watched in class today, go to the following address and Search for 'Tropic of Cancer'.

BBC Iplayer

Our new project

2010-04-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the information about our skills project this month.

Skills Project

How to use my blog..

2010-03-31T23:30:00.001-07:00

If you are new to my blog, here's how it works. The basic idea is to give you extra links and information to help you with your English. If I find an interesting site, I post it here, or I might post a reminder about homework I have set, or recommend a good TV programme I've seen recently.

On the right, under My Pages, you'll find links to separate pages about grammar , pronunciation and other skills. If you scroll down you'll find links to some IELTS websites and Business English sites. The 'Delicious Tags' widget , at the bottom of the page, links you directly to my collection of weblinks on Del.icio.us. The labels section links you to previous posts on a variety of subjects (I've been writing this blog on and off for about 2 years)

You can also use the 'Search' function to search previous posts, and see what I have posted in the past by looking at 'Older posts'. If you are a Facebook user, you can click on and become a Fan of 'Our English Course'. Any new posts to my blog will display in your NewsFeed in Facebook.

Hope you like it, and any comments on how I can improve my blog are very welcome!

Jim

Prefixes & Suffixes

2010-03-30T01:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking for online materials about Prefixes & Suffixes, and a couple of the best I could find were actually for primary school kids....(!)

First School Years

BBC Skillswise

Cambridge exams website + linking words

2010-03-26T05:37:00.001-07:00

Below is a link to Flo-Joe, the FCE/CAE website and those linking words. Check out the Writing Makeover section as well...
If you're feeling advanced, look at the CAE materials...

Flo-Joe

Increase your vocabulary

2010-03-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

A really nice site which can help you expand your vocabulary - it gives you word families and connections between words in a nice visual format.

Listening practice websites

2010-03-25T00:33:00.001-07:00

Here's a list of useful websites to help with academic listening.

Websites to help you improve your English & lectures.doc

The new look blog!

2010-03-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

I've made some improvements to my blog. On the right you can find links to specific pages for the different skills in English. Underneath that there's a link to a Facebook page I've set up. Become a fan and you can start participating with me and other members of your class. The fan page is for you to write comments, upload pictures, start discussions - whatever you want really. It will automatically display the most recent posts from the blog so it will be easy to keep up with what we're doing in class and so on. Let me know what you think...

Literature (Level 7a)

2010-03-20T06:55:00.001-07:00

Read some excerpts from famous literature at this British Council site. Another site which is worth looking at is the British Library Turning the Pages - it showcases original works (needs Shockwave)
British Library

BBC Words in the news

2010-03-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

Nice short articles with new vocabulary and you can listen to them too.

Gradable & non-gradable adjectives

2010-03-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in class, these aren't easy, but 'practice makes perfect'. Here's a link to a nice web page with some exercises for you to try:

English Club

Writing resources

2010-02-16T01:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a great writing resource from the University of North Carolina - if you are serious about improving your writing skills in English, you'll find a lot of useful advice.

University of North Carolina Writing Center

For writing in an academic context, Manchester University Phrasebank is a useful resource:

Academic Phrasebank

For examples of more general writing tasks, there's a Cambridge exams site which is worth a look:

Flo-Joe

Hope these are of some use to you. Of course, the best way to improve your writing is to practise, practise and practise again....

Grammar practice (level 6)

2010-02-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a very useful website for practising verb patterns - Infinitive or Gerund

ego4u

There's a lot of good information about reported speech on the BBC Learning English site

BBC Learning English

What can I blog about?

2010-02-08T04:35:00.000-08:00

If you are setting up your own blog, you may be wondering what to write about. The answer is 'anything you like' - as long as it's in English. Writing down your thoughts and experiences is a good way to practise what you learn in class - if you learn new vocabulary, try to include it in your writing. You can write about what you do for self-study, post links to websites you have visited or are using, upload photos of somewhere interesting you've visited. It can help you to think more about what and how you study outside class - if only because you think 'What can I write on my blog today?'. You can have a look at some previous student blogs here:

one

two

Or have a look at a blog I did for the BBC last year. It's slightly different as it's a teacher's blog, but it might give you some ideas....

How can I set up a blog?

2010-02-04T03:42:00.000-08:00

Setting up a blog is as easy as pie. Here's an absurdly simple blogger tutorial vid:

Set up a blog

If you don't have a Gmail account it doesn't matter - you can use another email address to set up a Google account (Blogger is owned by Google)

How can I improve my pronunciation?

2010-02-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

...is a question many students ask. There is no simple answer. First of all, the most important thing is that others can understand you. You don't need to sound like a native speaker - in fact, many English speakers really like different accents. Variety is the spice of life, right? So, you don't need to sound like a native speaker, but if you find people making strange faces when you're talking or that they keep asking to repeat what you say, you might have a problem. What can you do?

Find a podcast online which has a transcript. Listen a couple of times then record yourself reading the same text. Listen to the two and compare the differences.

Learn (or revise) phonetic symbols - they are designed to help your pronunciation.

Look in the language section in the library for pronunciation books with CDs

To make sounds you need to move your lips, tongue, vocal chords etc. - a sound is difficult because you are not used to making that specific movement. It's the same as trying a new sport - your muscles ache because you're not used to that type of movement.

Some of the following websites might be useful:

Clear speech advice

Common mistakes by nationality

BBC Pronunciation tips

Set up your own blog...

2010-02-03T03:38:00.001-08:00

You can use my blog to find some useful links to websites which can help you with your language study. I'll also sometimes give you some ideas and suggestions about how to improve, what to do for self-study and maybe even reminders about your homework.
All this is good, but you all need to practise as much as possible. A great way to do this is to set up your own blog and write about your own learning. How are you trying to improve your English, what are you doing, where are you going, what are you studying, what do you find difficult, how are you feeling about the whole process? You can also easily upload photos to your blog - why not post a photo of somewhere you've visited? I'll post a couple of links to blogs that students have done in the past so you can get the idea.
Setting up your own blog takes 5 minutes. Go to www.blogger.com and follow the instructions.
Good luck! If you set up a blog, let me know and I can have a look....

Finally, here's a link to a useful page about phrasal verbs

Hello new classes!!

2010-02-02T03:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog...
This is basically just a "one-stop shop" for any references which I mention in class. I'll try to give you some useful suggestions for self study and to help you improve your English when you're not in class..

Websites to use in Friday's class

2009-06-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

I'd like you to do some research today. Many of you used references in your essays, but not all the websites were particularly good sources of information. How can you know which websites to use in your essays? How can you trust the information you find? How can you reference websites?
There is an excellent tutorial from Intute which will help you answer those questions. Try to answer the questions on the worksheet as you go through it.

The Internet Detective

For more information about referencing internet sites, visit the page below.

Internet referencing

Here are some useful websites highlighting common grammar problems in writing.

Warwick University
(see Common Grammar Problems)

Canberra

For any of you who have trouble with sentence structure, the following website is a good place to review what you know. It talks about simple, complex and compound sentences, linkers and relative clauses.

Writing skills - RMIT

If you don't know about the Academic Word list, now is the time to find out.

Nottingham Uni AWL

Try copying your essay into the AWL Highlighter. Are you using enough academic vocabulary??
How can you use the AWL?

BBC listening - Who on Earth are we?

2009-06-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the BBC website.

Green - More phrasal verbs practice..

2009-05-27T01:46:00.001-07:00

There are a few decent websites about phrasal verbs you might like to look at.
The British Council has a nice introduction here.
You'll find loads of quizzes on the Using English site here.
The BBC also has a nice section on phrasal verbs organised into topics here.
Enjoy!

Hello Orange & Green!

2009-05-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog.. nice to meet some of y0u today.
Here is the link for the BBC series on speaking. It's well worth listening to the other programmes in the series - there's some good advice in them.

Seminar skills

2009-05-14T02:53:00.001-07:00

The exercise we did in class today was taken from the UEFAP site. You need to click on 'Presentation' on the left, then go to the 'Language' section (button at the top of the page) then scroll down to the group discussions section to find the expressions we looked at.

The seminar will be partly based on the listening and reading you do from the BBC series 'Who on Earth are we?' which you can find here.

Expressions to use in discussions

2009-05-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some examples of expressions you can use in discussions..

Writing Assignment (BLUE)

2009-05-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

You're writing needs to be handed in to Ian on Monday 18th. A reminder of the questions:

Choose ONE of the following questions and write between 250-300 words.

1. The idea of going overseas for university study is an exciting prospect for many people. But while it may offer some advantages, it is probably better to study in your own country because of the difficulties a student inevitably encounters living and studying in a different culture. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

2. ‘It is only through experiencing other cultures that we can really understand our own’. To what extent do you agree with this opinion?

3. Compare and contrast two nationalities that you know well.

4. “The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture." To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Linking words to use in writing

2009-05-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

Linking words - easy to recognise, but hard to use correctly. Often, students find it difficult to link sentences together effectively. It's not that they don't know the words or expressions, it's usually that they are not used in a grammatically correct way. There are a couple of websites which can help you with this:

Flo-joe

Flo-joe (advanced)

Open University

Try doing a little research into how these words are used by using a 'concordancing programme' like this one.

Online listening activities

2009-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some free online lectures you can listen to (and read some).
Should give you an idea of what to expect on a university course.

There's another nice site here

Paragraphs

2009-05-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

Why do writers divide their writing into paragraphs?

To be successful, what TWO qualities should a paragraph have?

As a rough guide, how many sentences should a paragraph contain?

What are the two different methods of separating paragraphs?

Look at the examples of a well-built paragraph and a badly-built paragraph – what are the differences between them?

What is meant by a ‘topic and development’ paragraph? Can you find three different ways to develop a topic?

How can you make writing your introductory paragraph less scary?

University of Teeside

Visit the following website and work through the online tutorial on paragraphs. The focus is on topic sentences and building coherent paragraphs.

RMIT

Now go to this page and do some of the exercises. Try to do at least 1,2,3 and 4.

University of Hertfordshire

Finally, I would like you to write one paragraph to summarise the main ideas from the listening on culture. Try to write a topic sentence and some example sentences by looking at your notes.

CLASSES AS NORMAL on Thursday 7th May

2009-05-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

To all my students in BLUE class (morning) and Business 5.2 (afternoon) - the classes will go ahead as normal tomorrow. Please come to the usual place at the usual time.
Some staff at the University are holding a strike and there may be a gathering of people outside the various buildings. This will not affect you, or your class, so please come in as normal. Cheers!
See you tomorrow...

Academic Vocabulary

2009-05-02T00:08:00.000-07:00

If you are going to study at university in the UK, you need to start learning and using 'academic vocabulary'. Of course, the words you need depend on WHAT SUBJECT you're going to study, however there are many words which are widely used in academic writing in all subjects, and the following websites will help you to learn these:

Try some 'cloze exercises' first or here

Nottingham University AWL

For pronunciation practice, it's a good idea to think about your own particular difficulties. Look here and see if your language is listed. Can you identify what you find difficult about English pronunciation? Look in the library to find the recommended books to help you with your problems. Another good place to learn about pronunciation is on the BBC. Watch some of the videos for help with individual sounds.

Have a great long weekend!

White self-study Friday

2009-05-01T03:10:00.001-07:00

Narrative tenses can be difficult to use. I'd like you to write an end to the story about Ralph and the guitar case - this time, make sure you include examples of all the narrative tenses. Try to write about 100 words then send it to me.
Some of you have problems with punctuation and spelling. Here's a good link to give you some help.
It's also a good idea to look at the links I put in my last post (Tuesday 28th April). Scroll down the page to find links for more practice of narrative tenses.
When you've finished your writing and sent it to me you can start your homework!

Blue!

2009-04-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

We'll be working on analysing essay questions. This is ESSENTIAL if you are going to study in the UK. Try to get into good habits early....
Have a look at a couple of websites for more information:

Question words

Understanding the question

Narrative Tenses

2009-04-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

These sites will help you learn more about narrative tenses and they also contain some exercises and games.

British Council
Ego4U
University of Victoria
Grammar Movies
Edufind

Welcome BLUE & WHITE!

2009-04-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

Nice to meet all of you, I hope you find time to look around my blog and find something useful for your English study.
Do any of you have a blog? It's a great way to practise your English and is definitely worth a try.
It's really easy to do - I'll show you how in class.
I've put some of my favourite links on the right - maybe you know them, if not check them out.

Business class on Wednesday 1st April

2009-03-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

Our class on Wednesday (April 1st) WILL BE in the same room as usual - LC1-50b at the same time 2-5.
Some good news for your business reports - you have until FRIDAY to hand them in. Some not so good news, please make sure you follow these guidelines (from the module booklet) for submitting your coursework.

'Two copies of the final version are to be handed in with one standard University coursework cover sheet by 4 p.m. Friday of Teaching Week 9 to Academic Registry. Do not hand to your teacher. Late work will receive a Grade of 0.'

Tomorrow I will be setting a task for some of the second half of the class, during which time I will be able to answer any individual questions about reports.

See you tomorrow!

Business 5.2

2009-03-12T02:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the advice on writing business reports from Bournemouth University. The University of Western Australia also has some very good advice on report writing which you can find here.

What are two frequent problems students have when writing reports?

What is the main purpose of a business report?

When you identify your readers, what are three things you need to find out?

What advice would you give on collecting information?

What should you assume about the reader?

What is the purpose of appendices?

Why do some people choose to write their conclusion first?

What is your overall aim in writing a report?

Goodbye BSA students...

2009-03-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

Well, that's it. End of the course! I hope you've enjoyed it and got something out of it - it's been a real pleasure teaching all of you. Good luck!
I want to leave you with a small selection of websites to help you continue with your English when you get back home. I really hope you use them and find them useful..

BBC Learning English - A great site, full of useful and fun activities to practise all the skills.

English verb tenses - A site which uses cartoons to demonstrate English grammar points

English Grammar online - A comprehensive online grammar reference

The British Council - Lots of good activities and topics on this site

More Grammar exercises - Grammar exercises uber alles

have fun!

Business Negotiations

2009-03-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

In today's class we looked at PPPs (can you remember what they are??) and some language for negotiations.
There's a clear explanation of the background to PPP and Private Finance Initiatives on the BBC website here. And a brief article on some of the problems these schemes are now experiencing.

Have a look at the websites below for some good exercises on Negotiation:
BBC Talk about English
Scroll down to find the negotiations exercises.
English Club - Negotiations
Some very good material, including vocabulary and a case study.

For some resources to get you thinking about the business report I would like you to write, have a look at the following links:

Cultural differences

Business etiquette & training courses

Research and intercultural awareness courses

Culture Wise

Itim Culture & Management Consultancy

In the next couple of classes, we'll be looking more closely at the format of business reports and what a good one should include.

Business English 5.2

2009-03-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

A business report

You work for a company which is expanding its international operations.
There is a lot of talk in business now about intercultural awareness and communication and your manager has asked you to write a report about the feasibility of arranging Intercultural awareness training for some of the staff.

Computers (paragraph writing exercise)

2009-03-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

Computers, which are useful and very popular, are nearly ubiquitous in fooices and in the home and are effective time-saving devices. However, they are only a tool and are therefore only as effective as the people who use them. It must be remembered that they must be used for the purposes for which they are designed, but they can be misused and this can cause them to be more of a hindrance than a help.