New Teaching/Learning Project!

Next Oct 2022 I’ll be starting a new adventure! Giving workshops for Advanced in Fuengirola/Las Lagunas, once a week, a two-hour session, and then guidelines for some audio and language work with original materials, so you can come to the workshop to share the fruits of your joyful labor!

On this website you’ll find all the information, in downloadable docs and video format too.

Old students can form a special group with 12 members and get a the special price of 53 euros a month (four workshops). Regular workshops will be with up to 8 students for 80 euros a month.

Join us, and have fun while learning, using your English and developing your amazing human intelligence! Pre-registration from April to June (send an email on Sign up) Go to talkingpeople.es

Celebrando un curso 2016-17 excepcional

Michelle (Micaela) Ford

Hoy después de curro y médicos he bajado a nadar al mar, fresco y no frío, toda la playa vacía de turistas, el mar como una balsa, con ondas. Cuando estaba panza arriba flotando a la deriva, pensando en cómo la gente tiene como adicción a generar tensiones sin que gane nada o haya necesidad, de pronto CAÍ EN QUE ¡ESTE AÑO FUE EXCEPCIONAL profesionalmente para mí!

*C1 Resource Pack y la tercera generación del grupo de C1 en mi Escuela: publiqué mis apuntes de 30 años de enseñanza comunicativa, transformativa, cooperativa, independiente, aplicados al nivel avanzado de Inglés. En las estadísticas de mi C1 creí que repetirían 4 personas, lo que ya sería unos resultados muy muy buenos (porque en EOI hay mucho absentismo). Pero ocurrió un sueño realmente: por primera vez en mi carrera en la pública de un grupo de 25, sólo una persona no siguió…

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100% OF PEOPLE TAKING THE EXAM PASSED!

Dear all,

Class of 2017 will be remembered for a smashing result at Certificate Exams. In the C1 half, there were 15 students registered, and 14 followed the course and took the exam, and passed in June or in the September resit! The one who failed never came to class or took the exams. In the C1 CAL half, the 10 students in our list followed the course and also took the exams and passed. I wanted to congratulate you all and celebrate it here! Thanks so much for your work. Hopefully, the people who just reached the level this year (considering an advanced level requires two years of hard and joyful work, mostly developing the habit of using English in different ways, with original materials) should try to keep up their good work now, as resourceful and independent lifelong learners of English! ❤

You’re welcome to use all of our materials and volunteer OPs in class or contributions for talkingpeople.net!

Remember to re-read the C1 Resource Pack, for you may find it even more useful now! 🙂

Have a lovely bilingual life! ❤

2017-18 course blog: https://c1coursebymf2017.wordpress.com/

http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/ra/c1/eval/statistics.htm

 

 

PUC C1 Monday Sept 4 at 9.00am

This is just a reminder for people needing to resit part of their June PUC.

The exam will be in class (Room 1). It starts at 9.00 am and will last till 14.30.

Bring your ID, water, tissues, and some energetic drink or food! No mobiles or the like. Bring a wrist watch.

You just need to come to the part you flunked. Times for that:

I hope you feel curious about taking the test, and happy to do so. Try not to suffer. If you flunked, we could work together again next year! ❤ Here is the new blog for next year: https://c1coursebymf2017.wordpress.com/ I have been working hard on trying to improve how to manage things while protecting people’s freedom to choose! 😀

Big hug! See you around! ❤

2017. MF’s YouTube Channel

Michelle (Micaela) Ford

For videos I create for classroom use or as support outside the classroom. I’m staring with videos I created around Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (dystopia).
MF’s YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv-hLAVmGoPIYqrEXIc1IpQ/featured

Remember I’ve got another video channel on vimeo: EOI Teacher Sharing C1 Work – with my videos on How-to’s and Sts’ exam training orals, and that I created a video channel on youtube for our School, called EFL Learners Speaking English, with playlists for the different levels. Up to course 2016-17, all the videos in the Básico 1, Avanzado 2 and C1 playlists are by my students.

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Feminist Fairy Tales for a Better World, by Romina

Better late than never! I hope you can all watch this OP by Romina, so insightful and resourceful in terms of using English to communicate ideas. It’s got various resource cards and written notes, too. I hope the DIF Working Group manages to pull together a Storytelling Group that can do and share some research on the questions Romina brings up!

If you can’t watch the video just now that’s because it’s still uploading. It’ll be ready today, anyway!

Some interesting insight on love

I’m really critical of what patriachal cultures have done to love. And in some ways, this thinker is exploring in a similar sense.

Some of the most important things in life are complicated in fact, but that’s because we don’t learn to deal with the complex. Complex doesn’t necessarily mean complicated, really. And love, well, that can be an amazing beautifully complex experience far from war, torture, suffering… Perhaps learning to love is one of the most important things we can learn in life! 🙂 ❤

More Listening work: About the book she mentions on metaphors (Metaphors We Live By), there’s a very interesting episode on the Talking People Podcast, around the patriarchal metaphor that equals discussing things to war.

And some reading: here’s an interesting article on constructive things that can be done To Stay in Love

Last, reading and listening: To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This!

Septiembre

Recordatorio: ver las fechas de septiembre y horas, que estarán publicadas en julio en el Tablón de Inglés del centro.

El Escrito ya lo sacó la Junta cuando salieron las fechas de junio y os copié aquí también, o sea, creo que ya lo sabéis. For the flies, os lo comento es que es un lunes por la mañana a las 9.00 (pero comprobadlo si eso).

El Oral creo recordar que lo pusimos en el Departamento para dos días después con convocatoria única a las 16.00, pero igual, miradlo en el Tablón del centro porque Jefatura de Estudios repasa lo que entregamos y puede hacer ajustes y en principio saca la versión suya para que pueda consultarse en julio. Puede que avisen por la web, pero de esto no estoy segura.

“I make grammar mistakes when I speak English…”

In this video, you’ll discover the three simple steps to learning English grammar so you use it correctly and automatically, and become a confident English speaker faster. 🙂https://youtu.be/uzYxx3ibwlU

I recommend you to subscribe to his channel on youtube!! Have a wonderful summer holidays! 🙂

Two pending things

One is for Cristina R, and it seems other people might be interested. I bought the Bedtime stories here. It’s got a 50% discount now. With shipping it’d be about 15 euros, without it’s 9 pounds, about 10 euros.

This one is for Romina and Desi, but you might be interested. It’s a poem I wrote when the heirs of June Jordan’s told me I could not share my translation of one of her poems and articles on mujerpalabra.net unless I paid them some money. I had written to them to offer them what I thought was a present, because the author is amazing and she’s not been translated into Spanish. When I explained why I thought they should not do that, they told me I was barking up the wrong tree, so I wrote this:

Mr Wrong Tree (copyright repression)

ARTISTS: PROTECT YOUR WORK FROM HEIRS

Mr Wrong Tree,

I’m not barking
I’m communicating
It’s called ‘dialog’
It comes from caring
It’s wholly human
Sorry it’s so disturbing

Human, not like the money
you’re asking for: Ugly,
for all the rights it kills
for all the love it denies
for all the crimes it makes up

Hope you earn a living using her words
Your rights more vital than her work
for humanity — after all, you’re still alive

Still, we’ll mourn the silence you impose
and cry against it — and hope she survives
your suffocating love and protection
Your murderous enforcement of law & order, Mr Wrong

Outing to celebrate your achievement & Recalling Generation 1 & 2

Today quite a few people dropped by to say hello or have a look at their exam, and then we went out for dinner together. We missed the people who did not make it to this outing, so let me send them a big hug from us all. We hope you have a wonderful bilingual summer! 😀 ❤ It’s been a pleasure to meet you all, and have the chance to work with you. This third generation has had amazing results, really. So thanks for that! It will also be inspiring for newcomers!

I’d like to dedicate this post to you three generations of C1’s here because each and every year has been intense and fruitful in many ways.

The First Generation, where less people followed the course, was full of people who loved learning English with freedom, so perhaps that explains why they felt at ease with the methodology and made the most of it. I’d like to share here the videos I was allowed to shoot:

The first C1 video was by Rocío, a journalist, and she gave us this precious present:

Paco’s was the second video-donor! 😀 His English was amazing anyway, and he loved music and is a talented DJ. In case it helps other people, he failed the listening test in June but of course passed it in September. Here, he’s reading his favorite chapter of the Alexie Diary… because I asked people to read this book and share their highlights.

This year, small groups worked on an OP based on work listening to the news, for December. We have the video recording of an OP on Science, and I’m sure you will be surprised, interested and enjoy it a lot!

Miguel, a most passionate learner, allowed us to publish two of his amazing OPs:

Paqui, who loves books, prepared this power point presentation she used in class to celebrate World Book Day.

Paqui, Noelia, Marisol and María del Mar learned a poem for one of our assignments.

The Second Generation had a majority who had a lot of pressure to get their certificate for work reasons or because it was their second year taking the course, and this put a lot of pressure in replicating the methodology of Exam Culture. But we all worked really hard and people contributed amazing work. Here are the OPs we recorded.

Poetry: Silvia read a powerful poem by Ghada Al Atrash, “Imagine”, which I also posted on our blog English Women Writers…

And Natalia, also a music teacher in secondary, learned a complex poem, putting together this amazing OP: The Owl and the Pussy-cat.

Andrés, another secondary teacher, helped us conmemorate November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women.

Yolanda H, whose English was really good already, and in spite of that kept following the course, shared with us one of the assignments I suggested based on listening work on the news:

And here is an unprecendente project: the second generation of C1’s worked on Herstory and Feminist Analysis. Their research and analysis was impressive, I did suffer lots editing their video work for zillions of hours, to try and help many of them with fossilized mistakes and grammar mistakes. In any case, they all got their certificates except one who unfortunately decided not to take the September writing test, and that was mostly for their very hard work that year.

The other two feminist intelligence OPs were very interesting, too. I’m sure you will enjoy them:

They contributed more work: audios and writings you’ll find on Talking People.

What about yours? I need to finish some pending videos. And then I’ll post about you all! 🙂

So if you hear people say public language education is no good, remember these people and your own experience. The fact is language learning never ends, and that’s why this course makes the point of helping people broaden their resourcefulness on how to learn, how to use your English in various ways with all kinds of materials! Language learning depends an 80% on the learner. No teacher or course can teach, really. Language is very complex. But teachers and courses can offer some precious support, provided the person does love using the language and learning of course!

Hope you enjoy your summer! ❤

 

Exam Results

Well, tomorrow your results will be published. I already told you what I thought about your levels, and you must surely have a feel of what your level is, considering my opinion and your own and what you know about our work together and how people speak English.

I think the results are good. You know I don’t believe in the exam system as a reliable source to learn about people’s achievement and abilities, but I’m OK with the results. I wish people published their statistics, so we could learn about results elsewhere, but I would say that we are above average. About half of the group has passed the tests on the four skills in June, and 6 people have to do a resit for one of the skills, which is actually good news, because it gives them the chance to grow stronger in that skill this summer. The other overall fail marks are very few people with just two skills to resit in September. So there’ll be more vacancies for more people to sign up for this course. There are 97 applications and we register up to 27 students each year, but well, my prediction was that half of the people could be taking this course again next year (yes, I was exaggerating, but I prefer to be cautious) and that won’t be the case. I think we might have a maximum of three + 1 absentist staying for the new course.

Well, I hope no one gets an unpleasant surprise!

See you in “Revisión” if you failed any of the parts and/or at the dinner you all organized. And/Or have a lovely summer! Don’t forget to keep you level up and also to keep learning!

http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/ra/c1/eval/statistics.htm

(edited) Speaking/Listening Practice

Some pronunciation/listening tips

Notice step 3. You can also do that for recapitulation, or when you have not interacted much because you cannot come up with comments or questions to what your classmate said.

Make sure you make questions, follow-up questions, or “need-more-info” questions. Show you care about what the person is saying, that you are following.

This one’s easy, but THINK as you listen.

Practice language you need for interactions. Remember you’ve also got my podcast (the Useful Language segment).

This one’s fun! But avoid “screwed” and “fucked” in exams, even if it’s an informal interaction. Well, it’s just an idea!

Notice transitions & signal words, how they organize their text, how they introduce questions to allow us to follow, not only the vocabulary on travel, I mean!

Openings, then beginning a point and ending it. Always clear: but you need to see the structure in your outline, of course, that’s what the outline is for. Extras: transitions for moving on: connecting previous to subsequent.

Enjoy your weekend, listening and repeating and imagining scenarios for interactions, and speaking about topics. Practice introducing topics/points “About my second point, …” (it’s like how we start paragraphs)

Why are you posting about the Higgs Boson?

Well, years ago, when the author was young and lost, she wrote this story, after learning about the Higgs Boson. She simply couldn’t believe it! There WAS an explanation, after all! 😀

The bad thing — the story’s in Spanish! So don’t feel obliged, I understand! ❤

Click to access lasaltadora16.pdf

Coeducación: Invitation to meet on June 29

Find the info in this post! ❤

Best of luck tomorrow! ❤ Today, the tests for Intermedio were so interesting and lovely! and people were generally really happy! And everything was so well organized! 🙂 I’ve tidied up class, too! 😀 ❤

En este post, toda la información!
https://coeducacioninteligenciafeminista.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/invitacion-a-reunirnos-para-vernos-y-hablar/

Reminder! Grupo de trabajo DIF!

The bound-to-be-formed DIF Working Group (Grupo de trabajo Desarrollando inteligencia feminista) is going to meet on June 29 or the 30th (Thurs. or Friday), in the afternoon or evening, depending on people’s preferences. Coming to this informal meeting doesn’t oblige you, so if you are curious or would like to join in, please, send an email to inteligenciafeminista AT gmail DOT com as soon as you can, so we can agree on a date and time! Thanks

Here’s the newly update Announcement Board, which you can actually read by clicking on the pic and using the magnifying glass! 😀

https://coeducacioninteligenciafeminista.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/tablon-de-coeducacion-junio-2017/

5 Phrasal verbs to impress your teachers

Very very useful to share 😊

About Words - Cambridge Dictionary blog

KUO CHUN HUNG/iStock/Getty KUO CHUN HUNG/iStock/Getty

Many of my students worry about phrasal verbs, and I have written several posts about them, including a basic introduction to the what they are and how they are used and a more recent post on phrasal verbs for everyday actions.

One of the most common complaints is that there are simply so many of them, and that they are difficult to remember, especially when the main verb is a very common one such as take or set. In this post, therefore, I have selected just 5 phrasal verbs. All of them are extremely common, and all of them can be used in a wide variety of contexts. If you learn just these 5, you will be able to use them in your writing and impress your teachers.

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Lo and Behold: Reveries of the connected world

Hi, everyone!! How is it going? I watched yesterday a really interesting documentary about internet, technology and its impact in our future as human beings. I couldn’t make it to find the hole one, so I’m posting the trailer.

It would be great if anyone could find the complete version and post it here, in the blog.

Hope you enjoy it and find it as interesting as I found it.

Best wishes!!!!

Assange Interview

Just finished. It was Assange in English, Gabilondo in Spanish, on TV, but here there’s simultaneous translation, so if you find it as in the original, please, post the link!

My notes on two ideas Assange mentions:

Assange, interviewed by Gabilondo

G: Fear of going to prison being accused of major crimes?

A: Perhaps at the beginning, but then he thinks and feels it would be exciting – a new world, lots to learn

His fear is that of not being engaged

Dystopias are more unlikely than utopías

Today and why I kept mixing up Luz’s name

Well, today was a very intense lesson. Fortunately, we had tons of work to do, to avoid getting sad about what will probably be a good-bye for most. ❤

We did not manage to read from the amazing book I brought, but we’re used to that by now, hahaha… tons of things to do every day, and doing what we can. That’s life — about doing what we can, with all our heart-mind!

Well, at the end of the lesson I understood Karen’s concern. I couldn’t at first, but there was a plan!!

So suddenly Ana appeared with bags and I was totally lost. I thought pops the people who behaved badly with me were trying to say they were sorry, in a weird and inappropiate way! 😀 But that was not the case, of course. It was you all, dear students! ❤ I try to discourage people from giving me presents, because I’m very shy for this kind of thing, but your love was so beautiful and strong. I do appreciate ❤

So I’d like to share with you my thoughts on why I kept mixing up Luz’s name with Lucía.

Sometimes the reason why we make mistakes is that we feel insecure. In my case here, I didn’t want to hurt Luz, because she said she hated being called a different name. So I was afraid of making the mistake. Very much afraid. And of course, when we fear, it’s more likely we don’t perform as well as when we don’t feel fear. So when we fear, we keep making the same mistake, and that leads to you making the mistake more often than not making, which means, consolidating the production of the mistake, which leads to fossilization. I have to say I fought fossilization at least, because I got it right quite a few times. I didn’t keep statistics, of course, but I’d say I said “Luz” more times than “Lucía”, but I did not manage not to make the mistake, like today (mentally very tired), because I feared so much making it. When I was not fearing, I got it right. That I know, I’ve observed it. Our self is a great source of information to learn about mental processes!

Fear, like guilt, are no good company. When we feel like that, decisions should be avoided. And then, it’s always good to fight patriarchal values, and find the true valuable things in life, our true interests in life, against all odds. Constructive thoughts, ideas, attitudes. Being constructive is a most revolutionary tool to change the world for the better.

Understanding mistakes is like a universe. Mistakes have their place, we need to learn from them, use them for positive things, and keep them in their place, a not-that-important place in terms of how much we allow them to make us suffer.

So well, as an expert in making mistakes, hahaha, I would like to encourage you to fight them constructively, and keep them in their pigeonhole. Not to let the fear of making mistakes spoil your ability to be curious about things, to experience and do things with confidence, joyfully! Life is short, we’re very lucky to lead the lives we lead, considering the world, and we have an ethical duty, I believe, to make the most of life, to reach for the moon from our small lives in this crazy violent human world.

Thanks so much for this year. Plus, it’s amazing 22 people are coming in June. I hope you enjoy the tests, and well, don’t worry about the results. It’s not the time to think about that. It’s the time to focus on the tasks!

Fuck exams! (Demented laughter!)

Comparing Novels and Movies

In about an hour, you’ll be able to watch this very useful video, with Desi’s performance, comparing Pay It Forward, the novel, to the movie version. I included five cards at the end with tips on how to do this kind of assignment, but the example you can learn most of is Desi’s work, really! Notice how well she uses relative clauses, to include background info on things she mentions. And the other points I comment. ❤

Levels

Look. The C2 is not, as you can see, about General English. The top level in General English is the C1, advanced. The C2 is for specialized courses, monográficos in Spanish. However, I’m fearing the authorities have in mind using the C2 level as if it were the C1.2, which would be a gross mistake.

The C1 should be two years, in General English, I mean. And then we could have amazing C2 courses on things like this:

  • Women Writers
  • Native American Literature
  • Herstory
  • Learning to Listen
  • Writing Workshop
  • Speaking in Public
  • Fundraising & Employment Workshop
  • Language Workshop
  • The Travel Workshop
  • Our World in English

Today!

Well, today we just had two people doing the Speaking Test Practice, Desi and Romina, and they did great, and Maria José kindly videoshot them, so now we have a video example of a real speaking test (in terms of format). Thanks!

We started the lesson with María José’s Listening activity on Who Owns our Data, which was a challenge, but people did quite well. It was interesting too, and we had some comments by students.

I read out the summonings to orals, and thought they had been published on the second floor but it turns out not yet! I suppose it’ll happen soon. I stuck my copy on the entrance door, inside, for your information, anyway.

At the beginning of the lesson we also talked a bit about wordformation in English, and Lucía showed us her work gathering examples of what she had read! If next day people fail to come to do their oral practice, we might scratch some time off for this!

Next day is our last lesson together. We’ll read stories if we manage it, and I’ll invite you to join me in an end-of-month informal meeting in June, to see if you would like to volunteer some time for Education to Equality! I’ll give everybody our Coeducación brochure, anyway. I’m also interested in your contributions to English projects, once you pass and leave!

Cheerio!

Nueva info publicada en webs

En la web de la EOI Fuengirola – Novedades (link debajo de foto de portada), toda la info de exámenes en junio.

http://eoifuengirola.es/

En la web de Coeducación, un cuestionario por si queréis rellenarlo y entregarlo en algún momento antes del fin del curso. Nos ayudaría mucho!

https://coeducacioninteligenciafeminista.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/cuestionario-coeducacion-donde-estamos/

About our last lesson together!

Just finished my plan. Have a look! My plan had been to devote the whole lesson to this, but then we had to move speaking performances to Wednesday, so you all will probably just get to read one of your stories, but it’s OK. Unless people booking for Wed. can come the previous Mon. and do it, so we get more time for this! ❤

c1_project_readingGNSFRG (1 Word page)

Talk on language

If you missed Eulàlia’s conference, now you can enjoy it! It will probably be a transformative inner experience. If you are lucky, something inside will click and your view on language will become wiser, this is, it will help you trash lots of common misconceptions and unconscious prejudice!

❤

https://coeducacioninteligenciafeminista.wordpress.com/nombrar-a-las-mujeres-por-que-el-lenguaje-importa-conferencia/

Today’s lesson & Plans for next week (the last!)

Today we had to rearrange plans, but we’re experts in that, so it was OK!

I gave some feedback, based on writing I checked, on the differences between B2 and C1 sentence structure or wording, thanks to work by Encarni, Gema and Marina. I forgot to ask Luz to show you all her Writing File, which is great!

We just had one exam practice performance, by Marina and Sonia. I really congratulate Marina for the progress she’s made this year! You did good work with the task, and you did not make many mistakes. You need to be more confident, less hesistant, but that’ll come if you keep working, strengthening your connection to the language. Sonia also did great work with her assignment, and she would certainly pass a C1 test. Still, keep the good work up!

I gave Karen, Lucía and Sergio my pending feedback. But I can’t tell you about it now, because I’m so tired and I’ve got so much to do! Excuse me!

I addressed the questions Soluna posed, and we analyzed a bit what happened in Soluna & Lorena’s performance, and it felt weird because none of you, dear women, came to class today. So — we considered what we can do when our role is mostly ask and the other person’s role is mostly to explain. I wonder if any of you can post ideas we mentioned or that you have as comments to this post! We mentioned: recaps at the end to allow the person speaking less to balance the amount of language offered, expaning points in questions by making personal comments or telling anecdotes (travel agency: questions, long answers, final explanation by customer on how happy she is because she booked that package holiday, for she loves the country, she’s read so much about it and … and they were saving for this for years! and so on).

Ideas for scenarios you could encounter while taking a speaking test: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/skills/speaking/commstratsindex.html

Particularly the following pages:

bullet Check out Useful Language for Conversations/Interactions + Communicative Strategies with audios
bullet Developing Communicative Strategies for various scenarios: Questions to help you find scenarios to develop useful language to overcome problems while communicating.
bullet Communicative Strategies: What’s the word for…?
bullet Beginning Dialogues
bullet Oral Textual Awareness & Communicative Strategies + Tips for Speaking Tests (madrid)

Orals: Karen and Lucía explained why they were sad I was taking Sergio away, so I suggested Romina take her oral with Mario. This means Dessi and Isabel would be together without Romina. I really think they’ll enjoy it. But — next Monday I’ll confirm things.

I’d like to comment something I told Germán, because I’ve witnessed his progress since 2013-14, when we met in NI (Intermediate). His work in this course has been extraordinary and his progress since we met, too. Now I know better because when we met in 2013 as he was so silent but did exercises so well, including speaking, of course (we used a textbook), I thought perhaps he already had a good level. Now I think you’ve made the most of your time with us. You’ve always worked really hard at home. I’ve seen traces of what I teach in your work throughout this year. Once you get your certificate, I think you’ll be free to make a more intimate emotional connection and enjoy the language even more! Well, I could be wrong, perhaps you already have it! It’s just an impression.

Some homework:

Read my Lexical Creativity workshop so that we can create words next Monday! https://c1coursebymf.wordpress.com/creating-words/

Read Fundraising – Crowdfunding before Wednesday next week, please. It’s here: https://c1materials.wordpress.com/articles/

I mentioned I thought you underused my materials, too.

Plans for next week – updated!!

Monday

  • I’ll bring the summonings to orals that will be published on the Department’s Board and in class. That’ll be it!
  • We’ll do a listening activity Maria José designed.
  • We’ll have two oral exam practice performances: Cristina and Clara and Dessi and Romina.
  • We’ll make up words! So please, read my lexical creativy workshop, all of it. And then small groups in class will use the affixes worksheets to review morphology and make up words. You can also use other wordformation resources to create words. This is such a beautiful workshop! I hope you can read it and read the work students did some years ago. And of course, if we manage to devote some time to this, I’d like you all to post here the words you created. I’d copy them some day on talkingpeople.net.

Wednesday

  • We’ll have three speaking test practice performances: Dolores, Marta and Cristina R.; Isabel and Germán; Gema and Encarni.
  • And then… I’ll speak about this book and each person will read one of the one-page stories! Then I’ll give away 4 books. I’ll present the book and then you can write a name on a piece of paper so that person gets it! I’ll see who has more votes and then we’ll give it to him or her.

Image result for good night stories for rebel girls
Image result for good night stories for rebel girlsImage result for good night stories for rebel girls

I’d be grateful if some of you allowed me to videoshoot your reading aloud. If you encountered a word you did not know how to pronounce, it would be OK to ask and I’d say it and then you could simply read the sentence again with the word. I also think we should try to take photos next week for the photo collage for this banner. But perhaps you could do that later. Whatever! But remember to send me the pics!

This book costs 20 euros, and I’ll be buying it with next year’s budget for our school. I want to buy three copies in English and one in Spanish, the languages the book is in. I’m telling you this in case you wish to collect 1 euro from different people and buy one, which you could all sign for our Biblioteca Desarrollando Inteligencia Feminista! but please, don’t feel obliged! I’m just asking in case you want to do that! 😀

https://www.iberlibro.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22307994244&searchurl=kn%3DGood%2BNight%2BStories%2Bfor%2BRebel%2BGirls%26sortby%3D17

A Proposal

Perhaps next Monday we can play exams in this way:

to tackle the problem mentioned today by Soluna, about interactions being unbalancing, really, when one role is that of having to explain things and the other of making questions.

My idea is: why don’t some of you prepare a situation of that kind and on Monday you give me the role of the one that needs to ask, or answer, when the other needs to give explanations? I’d like to show you how we can try and balance the amount of language each can offer.

Perhaps Soluna could play today’s role and I could take Lorena’s, or any of you could make a different proposal. Whatever!

Some resources!

The word docs will not open here. check your downloads!

bullet Verbs for Essays 01 Text doc (1 page)
bullet Verbs for Essays 02 Text doc (1 page)

bullet Inversions after negative adverbials Text doc (1 page)

Here are some of the verbs we talked about today:
bullet Infinitive or Gerund? 4 Text doc (1 page)

Subjunctive: Suggest (1)

Subjunctive (1): suggest

Suggest (the subjunctive)

PS about “suggest” and language change

Suggest, advice and recommend:

Recommend, suggest and advise

About today

Today we reviewed some language points, and I said I’d post examples on “suggest” and check “recommend”, “advice”… I will. Soon-ish!

We had to rearrange plans, as Dolores told us her classmates were not coming. So we moved that performance for our last lesson together, when after listening to them, and giving them feedback, we’ll celebrate the end of the course read each of us a story from an amazing book I just bought online. I’ll also give you a brochure of our courageous proyect Desarrollando inteligencia feminista.

So today we listened to Lucía, Karen & Sergio, who did really well! ❤ And there were very funny parts too! Next day I’ll comment mistakes so you all see what we notice most. They would probably pass, the three of them, but Lucía and Karen made some mistakes I think they could avoid next time!

Then we listened to Soluna and Lorena, who made interesting mistakes now they will probably avoid when taking the exam, which is good news! ❤ Soluna would probably pass, but she needs to be more aware of balance in the amount of language each of them offers, and Lorena could pass but she needs to speak more, finish her sentences, and avoid mistakes.

Avoiding mistakes takes lots of monitoring one’s production, so I recommend you practice listening to yourselves, and use my edited videos, because they will help you develop this skill. As you watch the videos and read my notes on mistakes, jot down whatever is useful for your own monitoring.

Speaking Exam Summonings: I reviewed my draft document, trying to find a solution to the situation of us having more people come in June to the oral. Just now, I’ve written to Lourdes, to see if she’s coming. And I’ll send an email to Mario, too. But the idea is to have Sergio and Mario together. The thing is I can’t put them together because Mario has not registered for the oral and I need to see if he comes in “Convocatoria única” to assign him a time and a partner.

Last, we did not manage to read the intro to the lexical creativity workshop, so please, read it, print it all and have a look. If we don’t manage to read it in class, anyway, I’d like you all to create words in English next Monday. So work on this this week. It’ll help you with wordformation, which is interesting for whenever we don’t understand a word, for instance.

I gave some writings back, and there are more to go. You can’t hand in writings next week, so keep this in mind! If I don’t manage to finish (today I need to write out my defence for the sanctions for going on a strike last March 8 because tomorrow is my deadline! And I have so much work to do I’m not sure I’ll manage it all for Wed), you’ll all get your work back next Monday for sure.

Please, read the C1 Resource Pack on Speaking, to consolidate things we’re considering these days: not speaking Spanish or explaining what it means, balanced turn-taking, balanced production (as balanced as possible), having an intro and an ending, asking, making comments, follow-up language…

A beautiful game you can play with people you love!

As Lucía enjoyed it, I’m reblogging it!

Michelle Ford's Blog for Básico, EOI Fuengirola

Listen to this story at the TP Podcast

When I was a teenager, at high school, I was very lucky, because I discovered a game I love, “Si fuera…”. In those days, Franco had just died and high schools were wonderful places, at least my high school was, a public school where teachers were putting into practice what they couldn’t do during the dictatorship. High schools were better places than today because they were not prisons for teachers and students. During the break we could simply walk out of the school to go to a nearby bakery to buy our morning snack, “una palmera, un cuerno de chocolate”. When a teacher was ill, he or she had the right to stay home and get his or her salary anyway (not like today), and we, the students, had the chance to have a free hour! We learned/learnt to be free in…

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Functional Translation Exercise

Post your questions or comments!

14. Look what bag I made. I made it myself. I’m really/very proud of myself.

15. Look what bag I made (for) myself.

Note: by myself, on my own, alone = physicall alone

16. How do you do that? (thinking in terms of a general truth)  or How can you do that? (thinking in terms of ability)

Note: You = impersonal; How is that made? = only if it’s not an action, but something you create, so to speak.

17. One never knows. (You never know)

18. He was arrested

Note: when “they” is uninteresting, obvious (boring, like here), unknown, in English the passive is a most likely option.

19. We were told you were away

20. We’re not on speaking terms / We don’t talk to each other / We don’t talk to one another any more

21. There used to be a cinema / movie theater over here

22. It’s close / It’s nearby / It’s near here

23. Probably, she won’t agree / She’ll probably disagree / She’s likely not to agree / It’s likely that she won’t agree

24. Instead (of that), hand me the stapler, please / Instead, pass me the stapler, please

25 Let’s hail/stop/get a taxi. Otherwise, we’ll never get there

Note: call a taxi (phone, or in/on the street)

 

Diary for May 15, International CO Day! (nothing to do, though!)

Today it felt really good to have some time to get a feel of your psychological emotional state in the face of the end of course and exam month. Thanks! I’m so happy the Lorena-alarm was not our Lorena! ❤ Phew! My mind was blown to pieces! I couldn’t understand a thing! This comes from students not informing of their level or group! So now I’ll try to solve the other crisis! My adorable other Lorena must be wondering who Soluna is! 😀

We reviewed what June 8 will be like, and I could see the group is offering mutual support, so I hope everybody can feel confident on what is to come and on our performance! I reminded students of some key things they should bear in mind while doing the Reading, Listening and Writing test. We can talk some about this as you find your questions and also your suggestions.

So we couldn’t do Functional Translation and unfortunately Soluna left and I hadn’t realized, so we had to move her and Lorena’s performance to some other day.

I was very happy to learn that you had all considered coming to our dinner party. Now I can tell teachers C1’s did consider, but decided not to join us because it was a bit too dear! See? I suppose it was a coincidence but my Básicos are not coming either so it’s like I had not told my groups or something! 😀 Not that anything would happen to me, really. My colleagues are adorable! But because I’m so anti-socializing people could consider I had a role there! 😀 AnywayS!

We had a speaking test practice session with Luz and Germán and it was really good. I gave them a souvenir too.

I recommended EM-PHANATICALLY (lexical creativity) total exposure to the language from now on, diversifying the kinds of oral texts, and also some time every day to listen to my Useful Language episodes at the Talking People Podcast (another path is to go to TP – enter – Useful Language, where the transcripts are), so you can improve your fluency and accuracy, particularly for conversations!

I asked people to consider allowing me to videoshoot their performance, particularly the conversations, because we have no sample of that and it would be helpful for other students.

People booked for their performances, and also registered for the June oral. Unregistered people can also do this next Wednesday. Then, I hope I can give the Head of Studies the summonings on Friday, instead of waiting till next day.

I suspect the HoS will be publishing dates tomorrow. In any case, if your Written part is on Juen 8 (right?), the oral would be on the following Monday, but she needs to confirm this first, so this info is not official yet.

Plans for next day are: first oral practice (we have some people there) and then Functional Translation, but I’d also like to read the intro to the lexical creativity workshop so that the following week you can start creating words (Monday) in small groups. I’d also like to do Maria José’s listening activity, but I suppose that needs to move to next week now. I’m sorry! ❤

Finally, please, keep in touch with worries and joys, because I need that kind of communication to avoid worrying when I get panicky emails, OK?

We also talked about going out for a drink, Publicación de Notas y Revisión, and about next Friday, the climax of our celebrations around our 25th anniversary. I hope you can join us before the dinner party, at our School. There’ll be so many things going on! You can take part in any of them.

And help me with the lesson plans, because this month your needs are a priority.

Romina, here is the link to some examples of how I learn vocabulary when I read (the C1 Resource Pack has examples too).

From this page: https://c1coursebymf.wordpress.com/read-n-watch-prisons/This doc: Chapter 1 (Resource): How to work on the vocabulary of the first three chapters: OITNB_chapter 01 (4 pdf pages)

When I find some time, I’ll include that on this blog I created precisely for that kind of work: learning language from reading: https://languagelearningfromreading.wordpress.com/

I welcome contributions, for once you’re in outspace without a teacher! 😀

Last, some LANGUAGE IN THE NEWS, in case you are listening to the news, but don’t forget to listen to panels, interviews, on the radio:

https://c1coursebymf.wordpress.com/language-in-the-news-writing-essays/

Celebración 25 años de la EOI Fuengirola: 19 mayo

Aquí está el tercer tramo de la celebración, tras las conferencias feministas que tuvimos la suerte de poder ofreceros. Fiesta el 19, con talleres en todas las aulas y entrada libre, claro, y cena final (pero había que apuntarse, preguntad hoy si se os pasó). Se presenta además la revista en la que hemos estado trabajando todo el año, que es multimedia y accesible online. Esperamos que lo disfrutéis.

Más info sobre la Exposición Biblioteca Feminista aquí: https://coeducacioninteligenciafeminista.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/19-mayo-taller-biblioteca-feminista-para-celebrar-el-25-aniversario/

Sobre las PUCs

A ver si podéis postear el link a este post en vuestro grupo whatsapp porque hay gente muy perdida, y a ver si podéis preguntar en clase o en este blog y no individualmente,  porque la info exámenes la doy a todo el mundo por igual.

Primero: tenemos una página aquí con info de fechas de escrito y link a Guía, ademas del diario de toda la práctica que hemos hecho para examen. Está arriba en EXAM TRAINING.

  • CERTIFICAR EN JUNIO. El C1 tiene una prueba terminal de certificación (PUC) en junio, con la posibilidad de recuperar destrezas sueltas que se pudieran haber suspendido en junio en septiembre, tras los meses de verano.
  • El C1 además ofrece la posibilidad de repetir curso una vez.
  • OTRAS POSIBILIDADES DE CERTIFICAR. Y suponiendo que no se quiera o pueda, el certificado de C1 se puede conseguir en la enseñanza privada que celebra exámenes trimestrales de nivel para certificar.

PUCS NO ES EVALUACIÓN EN CURSO C1. Las autoridades publican una Guía para las pruebas, que quien pudo leyó en marzo aunque era la Guía del curso anterior, porque en marzo iniciamos nuestro mes de EXAM TRAINING, que no fue poneros yo exámenes (“evaluación” no significa sólo poner exámenes trimestrales; siempre os he dicho que las notas que me decíais eran sólo para saber, no servían para promocionar o certificar; está en nuestra programación, lo he explicado en clase, y está en la web donde os podíais descargar el C1 Pack y la programación: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/ra/c1/eval.htm), porque las notas trimestrales que metemos en Séneca (2ªeval está aún en la pared al fondo de la clase) no son notas que sirvan para nada porque en los cursos de certificación la única NOTA es el Apto o No Apto de las pruebas de junio y septiembre y porque para saber si vais bien, tenéis mis correcciones y comentarios en el día a día, es decir, la Evaluación Continua que yo practico en este curso es a lo largo de todo el curso en función del trabajo que compartís o entregáis y no os sirve para certificar, y no influye: el Tribunal evalúa el ejercicio que hagáis ese día, como es lógico en este sistema.

El link a la Guía PUC está en la página que hemos ido haciendo de arriba llamada EXAM TRAINING, como la lista de todo lo que hemos hecho para entrenar en formato exámenes de avanzado.

Respecto a ORALES de ahora, los que estáis preparando por parejas no son examen, como expliqué en todos los espacios, físico y online. Son excusas para aprender más, ampliar vocabulario, reforzar estructuras, y demás. Son una práctica en tiempo real con compañía como la que tendréis en el oral.

A los ORALES PUC DE EXAMEN EN JUNIO se convoca en una fecha a todo el mundo (“convocatoria única”) y se forman las parejas en situ, se asigna hora y se hacen los orales. Sin embargo, como he explicado, el Departamento de Inglés de este centro ha determinado organizar los orales de presencial de una forma que ayude a que no se produzcan largas esperas en los pasillos, con el consecuente daño a quien espera y a la gente que está trabajando (tomando o dando exámenes) pues todo el mundo se ponía a hablar en los pasillos impidiendo la buena audición en las aulas.

Y por eso EN MAYO hacemos una lista con la gente que se va a presentar, puesta en parejas o tríos, y con una hora fija asignada, y luego a quienes no están listadas o listados, se les convoca en “convocatoria única” antes de estos orales, para ubicarlas en los espacios que haya, y si no hay espacio de tiempo, sumarlos a algunas parejas con hora ya. Por tanto, REGISTRO A ORAL de JUNIO es algo que haremos esta semana y hasta el lunes de la siguiente (EN TRES CLASES) (y no tiene nada que ver con las prácticas de ejercicio oral en formato examen que estáis haciendo), y es sólo que quien vaya a hacer el oral en junio me lo dice, y apunto a la persona para formar yo las parejas y asignarles hora, información que se publicará 15 días antes del oral, como establece la ley. Que consideremos vuestras preferencias de pareja o a veces de hora, no es una obligación, y sí es un apoyo para tranquilizaros. Cualquiera que se haya mirado la tabla de fechas de exámenes (escritos) que pegué además en nuestra página de arriba en MARZO (porque tanto la web del centro como yo hemos ido informando en blogs/webs también de toda la info según salía publicada) y se haya leído el asterisco, sabrá que los orales se pueden convocar antes o después del escrito pero que esa información la publica el centro, jefatura de estudios, en los tiempos que marca la ley.

Si tenéis preguntas o dudas, por favor, formuladmelas a mí, NO INDIVIDUALMENTE SINO EN CLASE O EN ESTE BLOG, por favor, y preferiblemente sin meter comentarios o juicios de valor autodestructivos (practicando el apoyo mutuo y autorespeto).

La irracionalidad agobia, ciertamente, porque estamos educadas y educados a ser autodestructivas por los valores imperantes en la sociedad. Así que os animo a conversar y racionalizar las cosas desde la empatía y el respeto a una misma/o y el resto. En realidad, esta PUC no tendría por qué agobiar porque son opciones que tenemos la suerte de tener, y que enriquecen nuestras vidas, y no condenas u obligaciones de la esclavitud, y nuestra sociedad nos ofrece vías múltiples además para perseguir ese interés como he mencionado arriba. Los nervios hasta cierto punto son normales. De lo que soy crítica es de que en lugar de controlarlos y apoyarse, dejéis que os y nos arrastren a la irracionalidad.

Repito lo de que las fechas de orales se sabrán cuando las publique en Tablón (y aviso en web) Jefatura de Estudios. Y obviamente, nos enteraremos todo el mundo y yo las postearé aquí también. Así pues, seguimos ayudándonos con información útil y relevante. Podéis confiar en que el profesorado del centro y su directiva tiene el proceso muy bien organizado y medido.

La fecha del escrito lleva publicada desde que salieron publicadas hace tiempo ya, y la tenéis arriba aquí, además, en foto del BOJAN y todo. Y la guía describe todo lo que necesitáis saber del examen (para el caso de que no vengáis a clase, o vuestra profe no explique bien las cosas), porque hay gente que se presenta por libre también, y en la pública se respeta que todo el mundo tiene derecho a información, la gente de presencial no tiene más derechos en este sentido, es sólo que recibe un curso que no realizan las personas que se presentan por libre. Por eso las autoridades publican ejemplos de exámenes pasados, también.

Espero que este post sirva para ayudar a que planteéis preguntas con libertad y para que podáis controlar el miedo irracional destructivo! 😀

Opinion/Informative Article on Learning to Learn

C1 Course Materials - EFL Advanced by MF (2015-on), EOI Fuengirola (public language education)

I’m so happy about having found this article! It tells you so many things I’ve discovered in life and tried to facilitate learning in class! Please, read. It will help you see what I mean when I urge you to destroy Exam Culture by developing curiosity, improving your self-assessment, and developing a more positive approach to learning, more connected to learning about yourselves and others, through language, developing habits that will bring enjoyment and lifelong learning. This is why our C1 course (state-run education for adults in Spain) is all about transformative, collaborative & meaningful learning on top of being communicative learning of course. (Did you read our Programación? It’s on talkingpeople.net – Enter – In Class – C1)

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