Welcome (back)!!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year and are back feeling refreshed and 'full of beans'.... or, if you're a new student, welcome to my blog. This is where I'll post ideas and advice, good websites and suggested self-study. If you do not have a blog already, please try to set one up - it's really easy and, if you use it well, can be extremely useful. If you already have a blog - get posting!
This month I'm going to set 2 specific self-study tasks each week and I expect to see evidence that you have done these tasks, along with other self-study activities which reflect your specific needs/relate to your subject etc. Many of you did really excellent blogs last month - let's see if you can keep up the good work, or improve on what you did last time.
This month you will go through the process of writing an academic essay, from start to finish. We will look at correct ways to reference, how to avoid plagiarism, internet research strategies and essay structure, as well as academic language to help you improve your writing.
On the speaking side, there will be a lecture followed by a seminar - hopefully building on what you learnt from doing seminars last month - and, in the final week, you will give an individual presentation on the subject of your essay. Yes.. we're all going to be busy this month!

Blogging

Dear all,
Good to see lots of you starting to use your blogs. Please do me a favour - turn off the automatic word-verification tool as it makes it easier for me, and other students, to leave comments. When you sign in to your blog, go to the Settings tab in the Dashboard. Then choose comments and select 'No' under Word Verification. Thanks, if you have any problems with this ask me tomorrow.
Today we looked at a fairly simple, but effective, note-taking strategy. You'll have a chance to practice this tomorrow when we watch another mini-lecture. You should start to think about doing some research and gathering information for the seminar on Monday. Remember to take notes on what you read and think about your own opinions on the subject. Finally, don't forget to look for an online lecture to listen to as part of your self-study.. the link is at the top of this page.
Cheers!

Ruby

It was good to meet you all this morning! Please try to set up a blog by going to the blogger website - it's really simple. Also, look in your course booklet and think about the kind of tasks you want to do for self-study - what are your weaknesses? What do you need to practise most? When you have decided, post your ideas on your blog, for example:

I find it difficult to follow ideas when I listen to native speakers because they speak so fast so I'm going to listen to some lectures, take some notes then look at the transcripts to see if my notes were accurate. (look at the link above for lecture sites)
OR
I need speaking practice so I'm going to attend the Conversation Club every week and write down my thoughts about what we talked about on my blog...

Tomorrow we'll start looking at the difference between seminars and lectures and think about some useful language to use in discussions.

Welcome to my blog!!

Hi!
Blogging is a great way to help you with your self-study...and a great way for me to post information, ideas, advice and useful websites for you all to see. In previous classes, students have found writing their own blog really helps to organise their studies, and also to share their ideas with other students in the class. Hopefully, after the class you will understand what they are about and want to set up your own. Here are a blogs from past and current students to give you an idea:
http://guarspk.blogspot.com/

http://canceriens.blogspot.com/

http://elaineiselaine.blogspot.com/