Permanent Learner

Literaturas em Língua Inglesa

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:44:00 +0000

Módulo de fechamento do curso, nos leva por diversos países de língua inglesa através dos contos relacionados abaixo:

21/01
“The half brothers” by Elizabeth Gaskell;
“The minister’s black veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
O conto é muito explorado em vídeo, com projetos de todos os tipos feitos por alunos de Língua Inglesa. Este foi produzido por EnglishGuyInTexas, como parte do curso de literatura americana:

É possível também conferir a leitura do conto em três partes: 1 / 2 / 3.

28/01
“The Christening” by DH Lawrence;
Este conto pode ser encontrado no projeto LibriVox, lido por Cathy Barratt.
“Eveline” by James Joyce;
Este conto pode ser encontrado no projeto LibriVox, lido por William Coon.
“My Oedipus Complex” by Frank O’Connor.
Sem dúvida, o meu favorito até agora! Confira a versão lida e comentada por Helen Dunmore para Guardian Books.

04/02
“Loot”, by Nadine Gordimer;
Todos podem ter o privilégio de ouvir a própria escritora sul-africana, Prêmio Nobel de Literatura, lendo o conto na universidade de Harvard em April de 2005.

Um comentário interessante sobre o conto pode ser lido aqui, escrito pelo professor e escritor Matthew Cheney.
“Happy August the tenth” by Tennessee Williams;
“Rope” by Anne Porter.
Post interessante, "A Great American Short Story", escrito por Andy Mayo.

11/02
“A street car named desire” by Tennessee Williams;
É sempre interessante dar uma lida nas SparkNotes e CliffNotes.
“The mosquito” by DH Lawrence;
Escute Anticonsensus lendo este poema no seu canal do Youtube (aproveite e escute também The Tyger by William Blake).
“The bed book” by Sylvia Plath.
Indico um vídeo fofo em que a pequena Jasper Milstein recita o poema:

From The Bed Book

by Sylvia Plath (PARCIAL)

(...)

Most beds are beds
For sleeping or resting,
But the best beds are much
More interesting!

Not just a white little
Tucked-in-tight little
Nighty-night little
Turn-out-the-light little
Bed -

Instead
A Bed for fishing
A bed for cats
A bed for a troupe of
acrobats.

The right sort of bed
(If you see what I mean)
Is a bed that might
Be a submarine
Nosing through water
Clear and green,
Silver and glittery
As a sardine
Or a jet-propelled bed
For visiting Mars
With mosquito nets
For the shooting stars
(…)

Para o WebQuest: "First Confession", by Frank O'Connor.

Estilística - arte de alinhar palavras e mundo

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:07:00 +0000

O módulo Estilística em Língua Inglesa nos levou por caminhos tão diversos quanto figuras de linguagem, ritmo, repetições e até um anúncio de cemitério!

A minha escolha para o WebQuest final foi a análise estilística de poesia. Os textos escolhidos: Willow Poem, de William Carlos Williams e The Road Not Taken, de Robert Frost.

CALL for Virtual Learning Environments

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:23:00 +0000

Computer Assisted Language Learning, nice to meet you. Yes, we became CALL boys and girls this month, at the Use of New Technologies Applied to Teaching English Language module, thanks to Prof. Ms. Ana Julia Perrotti-Garcia.

Here is the result of our work these past 30 days.

Virtual Learning Environments

View more presentations from Paula Carnasciali

For a complete article, check "Computer Assisted Language Learning:
Virtual Learning Environments"

Advanced Grammar to the nth degree

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:04:00 +0000

The time we were waiting for finally came: time to dive into grammar structures and syntactic analysis. In this last module we were introduced to our newest friends: Professor Laura Fortes and The Grammar Book. We may have got more than we bargained for.

The Grammar Book - An ESL/EFL Teacher's CourseAuthors: Marianne Celce-Murcia, Diane Larsen-Freeman2nd Edition © 1999 • 854 pages 10 1/4 x 7 1/4
Level: Focus on Specific Areas
ISBN-10: 0-8384-4725-2 | ISBN-13: 978-0-8384-4725-3
Buscapé results | DISAL | SBS

Let me explain. Our WebQuest this month was presenting a grammar topic from The Grammar Book and we got chapters 34 and 35, on Comparatives, Equatives and Superlatives. I knew I had a lot to learn about the topic, but going through all those details and information and also doing all the extra reading for the discussions in class with professor Fortes was tough. We managed somehow and here is the report on the work Maira and I did to create our presentation. Enjoy!

Initially, we scanned chapters 34 and 35 of The Grammar Book to find out what its basic structure was. We could easily pinpoint the three main aspects presented by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman: the form, meaning and use of comparatives, equatives and superlatives.

Our first impression was that the structures presented were much more complex than we imagined. Besides, we both teach at language schools, use didactic material produced by the franchise, and follow a more or less strict method, so we found interesting that the authors propose a different order of presenting the structures to students as well as more detailed definitions.

As our next step, we decided to choose how we would prepare our slideshow presentation: What is going to be our focus? What can be interesting for our classmates to reflect about? We first selected the authors' suggestions for ESL/EFL teachers, because those seemed logical choices. We also highlighted structures that seemed interesting to us as students, teachers and simply as curious non-native speakers of the language. The challenge, however, was to summarize a complex and rich grammar resource like this one in a few slides to be discussed under 15 minutes.

Slideshow Presentation: degrees

View more presentations from Paula Carnasciali

The presentation itself was supposed to be clear and appealing. Our experience in the classroom was an advantage since we enjoy standing in front of the class, sharing information and bringing up topics for discussion. Personally, we would like some more time to hear our classmate's opinions.

In conclusion, we could realize that most of the doubts concerning exceptions are common for both teachers and learners and it is our job to provide reasonable answers to these apparent unsolved problems of form, meaning and use.

Goodbyes! :(

I want to take this moment to say goodbye to our dearest friends Mariana Malaquias and Sandra Costa. They are going to take a break from the course and I just want to thank them for all the great moments and for all the help. I hope you keep in touch (say hello through the comments in the blog, at least, OK?). See you guys soon!

Class 4 - Didactic Material Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:05:00 +0000

In our September 3 meeting we examined one of CNA’s (Cultural Norte Americano, Brazilian language school franchise) student’s books, used for teaching the pre-advanced level students. This examination was made with the help of a list of questions used by MEC (Ministry of Education - Portuguese: Ministério da Educação - MEC, is a Brazilian government ministry) with this same objective. These questions were divided in three groups: 1) oral and written texts, 2) written comprehension and 3) linguistic-discursive knowledge: grammar and vocabulary. What we are going to present next is a summary of the results.

As for the topic of oral and written texts, we can say that the material brings texts which are representative of different spheres of social activity. It also presents texts of different genres and types, which represent the formal and informal registers. However, the texts do not present a diversity of original supports and do not indicate their source, which were apparently adapted.

As for the written comprehension, we can say that the reading activities present pre-reading and post-reading activities, promoting the development of strategies like information location, production of inference, and general and detailed understanding of the text. Moreover, the activities count on a plurality of interpretations, explore intertextuality and encourage the search of texts and information outside of the book. On the other hand, we could not detect the polyphonic nature of the texts.

Finally, from the linguistic-discursive point of view, we concluded that besides offering opportunities for the learner to use the language structures with appropriateness and correction, the material is grammatically correct and adequate to its thematic content. The linguistic input is contextualized and it is embedded in varied and authentic discursive practices. The vocabulary activities stimulate the understanding and use of expressions and idioms in the student, helping them develop organization and expansion strategies of their lexical knowledge.

Class 3 - Pro Dia Nascer Feliz

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:58:00 +0000

On our third class on 27th August, we saw the first part of the documentary “Pro dia nascer feliz”, which showed the lack of infrastructure of the most schools in the countryside. Starting from the transport, which is done by very old buses carrying more students than they should, the total lack of basic facilities like water, toilets and illumination and many other essential things vital to give the students a proper place to study, the education on these areas seems to be left behind by the Educational System. Besides that many students are not really interested in their education, because they do not see a purpose for that. On the other hand, most teachers are demotivated as they have no hopes about their or their student’s future.
On the second part, we watched the educational reality at Colégio Santa Cruz, in São Paulo, where most students were born rich, with all kinds of facilities available and with motivated teachers. It was shown that these students just have a slight idea of what the world outside their school’s gates is, but they also feel uneasy as they seem incapable of thinking of a solution, because they are just teenagers.

As a next step of the class, we divided ourselves in groups and used the jigsaw reading technique to analyze some relevant articles. Our group, in particular, discussed the text ‘Multiliteracies and Language - Orders of Discourse and Intertextuality’ by Norman Fairclough. In the text, the author presents the ‘designs of meaning’: the creative application of the language according to the needs of communication. He also mentions the marketization of the language, which is the language of some areas being influenced by the language of the market in order to achieve people in a more profitable way. According to the author, globalization is an economical, social, political and cultural process which leads to a global use of languages, changing the relationship between them in their cultural and linguistic aspect.

References
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman. Multiliteracies and language. Orders of discourse and intertextuality. In: COPE, B. e KALAZANTZIS, M. (Eds.) Multiliteracies. Literacy learning and the design of social futures. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Pro Dia Nascer Feliz - Parte 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jokEl7RQ4
Pro Dia Nascer Feliz - Parte 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqPVcpnN8cU&feature=related
Pro Dia Nascer Feliz - parte 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4t3ROgtrCQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Museu da Pessoa - Valéria Fagundes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ4tmPU23_M

Valéria Fagundes, 16 anos – Escola Estadual Antônio Guilherme Dias Lima, Inajá, PE
http://www.cecac.org.br/MATERIAS/pro-dia-nascer-feliz_e_os-problemas-das-escolas-brasileiras-25.6.2011-.htm

DIAS MAIS FELIZES EM MANARI
http://www.museudapessoa.net/historias/historias_ontemehoje_07_07_08.shtml

Class 2 - “New people in New Worlds”

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:45:00 +0000

On our second meeting, we read and thought about the text “New people in New Worlds” (Gee, 1999) which described two different kinds of students: one born and raised in a wealthy family and another one, in a poorer family. Reading this, we could realize that the social context plays an important role when learning is concerned. So we teachers need to recognize our students social life before we start our practice, but the most important thing is that we have to contextualize language for the students that live in this new globalized world, so they can learn how to speak English effectively.

To exemplify that, we studied examples from another text: “Situated and Explicit Pedagogy” (Mills, 2010) from the book “The Multiliteracies Classroom”, which shows a teacher with a class of students from all over the world trying to make her practice meaningful. For that, she decided to show the students a claymation movie and, after that, she asked them to make a movie themselves. In an exercise like that, the collaboration between students is essential, and that’s why she had good and bad results. She focused her practice in the world of the technology, so the students had to use digital cameras to prepare the movement of the characters in the movie. The instructions had to be very clear, and the concept of scaffolding had to happen for the work to be done.

The learners had problems, but at the end the goal was accomplished, she taught the students how to interact using technology; she could teach other subjects besides English and the results were fairly good.

The poster below is our attempt to represent this experience and the author’s ideas by using pictures and the main words related to it.

References
Gee, J.P. New people in new worlds: Networks, the new capitalism and schools. In COPE, Bill; KALANTZIS, Mary (Ed.). Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. London: Routledge, 1999.
MILLS, Kathy A. Situated and Explicit Pedagogy”. In: ________. The Multiliteracies Classroom. Salisbury, Uk: Multilingual Matters, 2010.

ELT Approaches and Didactic Material Preparation - Class 1

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:09:00 +0000

At the beginning of the Module “Abordagens no Ensino de Línguas e Preparo de Material Didático” we started thinking about what underlays our teaching practice. To know how to answer to this question, for four weeks we have discussed about approaches, methods, The Post Method Era, multiliteracies, knowledge, techniques, how to deal and interact with students, the role of the teacher, and how to choose a didactic book.

Our hopes for this module were the discussion and clarification of the influence of different approaches on the teaching material that we use. In that respect, the first question posed for our consideration - Which principles underlay your teaching? - was a great start. We quickly defined what a good teacher should be: someone who encourages others to pursue knowledge, but also pursues knowledge themselves; someone who has passion for its teaching practice and value interaction; a true educator who builds bridges between the learners and the world around them, creating the perfect environment to help them leave their comfort zone. Eventually, we realized that techniques alone were not the base for this educator’s practice; they were like branches and leaves of a tree that were subject to the change of the seasons. Following this metaphor, we could visualize this image:

EFL teaching tree

After that, we started talking about the differences between 'Method' and 'Approach'. Method is something that guides the teacher, it is the technique teachers use for teaching; Approaches are the principles that underlay the teachers’ practice.

Let’s see some Methods and Approaches discussed during the module:

METHODS AND APPROACHES	BRIEF EXPLANATION
Grammar Translation Method	- Beginning of the eighteenth century; - Students have to translate literature texts and analyze grammar in order to understand the structure of the language; - Interaction: Teacher → Students
Direct Method	- Classes taught in English; - Grammar is inferred by the student; - Interaction: Teacher ↔ Student
Audio-Lingual Method	- Used during the War Period ( 1940-1960) - Focused on Speaking; - Students had to memorize vocabulary and long phrases; role-plays; drills; pair work - Interaction: Teacher centered
Suggestopedia	- Teachers had to set the scene (adapted classrooms); - Use of posters and imaginary scenes; -Change of moods while reading; - Students can act the role of a different character; -Songs help set the plot; - Students are asked to give a class feedback
Community Learning	- Based on cooperation, not competition; - Students oral production were taped; - Interaction: Teacher ↔ Student ↔ Student. The teacher sits at the same level as the students.
Total Physical Response	- Focused on listening and comprehension, - Learner responds to language input with body motions; - Low anxiety learning; - Interaction: Teacher ↔ Student ↔ Student.
Silent Way	- Teacher makes students think, encouraging them to solve their own problems; - use of colored rods to figure out the patterns of language based on a few examples given by the teacher - Interaction: Student ↔ Student
Communicative Approach	- Students have to learn how to interact in English; - Focus on meaningful communication not structure; - Functional syllabus instead of structural syllabus; - Authentic and meaningful language input is more important; - Interaction: Student centered

After analysing all this methodologies and approaches, we have thought about how we teach, and what is the method we have been using in our practice; then we realized that we mix lots of methods to reach the communicative approach, and that is why we can say that we have a Post Method Pedagogy: we worry about teaching the student how to interact and, in order to do it, we merge different kinds of approaches.

How about you: Have you ever thought about which principles underlay your practice? As a language student, do you ask yourself which techniques your teacher is using and how well it fits your style of learning?

Leaving our comfort zone

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:08:00 +0000

This Saturday it was time to analyse what the previous module meant for us. Studying "Abordagens no Ensino de Línguas e Preparo de Material Didático" in just 40 hours seemed quite an impossible challenge. In one of our next posts we are going to take you on a guided tour of our thoughts on these last few weeks. One thing I can tell you in advance is that we all left our comfort zones at one point or another.
With this in mind, here is a nice excerpt of a post from Jeremy Harmer's blog, an author that was mentioned today in class.

Of fingernails, gliders, guitars and glue – a new ZPD?
by Jeremy Harmer

"In a sense all teachers leave the comfort zone every time they meet a new class or teach a brand new lesson, but deciding to do those shows in South America (I hope you are following!) seemed a little more than that. A real risk. An exciting and terrifying risk."

(click to read the complete post)

Jeremy Harmer is a teacher, teacher trainer and author of more than 20 books HeJeremy also loves music and, more recently, he's become a fan of the sites Twitter and Second Life.

Generations Chart

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:59:00 +0000

If you have been teaching for some time, you have probably crossed paths with one of the generations below. It is important to know their characteristics, strong suits and preferences to design a better class plan. Do you agree with the information below? [click on the image to read]

About me

noreply@blogger.com (Mariana L. Malaquias) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:45:00 +0000

Hi, everybody!

Well my name is Mariana Malaquias, I'm 28 years old, I was born in São Paulo and I have one younger brother. I've been married for almost 6 years and now I'm living in Cotia and pregnant of my first baby boy Davi.

I studied at the same private school since I was a baby until the first year of high school and there I used to spend all day long most of the days because my parents worked a lot from 8 to 8 and sometimes more than this. There were some days that the school had already closed and they couldn't arrive before because of work, so the school's secretary (that was a really sweet woman) used to take me and my brother to her house that was near school until my parents arrive. When I was in the first year of high school I had to move to a public school because my parents were having financial problems. I've never felt sad about those situations because my parents were and are wonderful, role models I always wanted to follow and were always present in my school life. Most of what I am nowadays I owe them.

Well, since I was a child I have shown my passion to English and I always inteded to work with it and I used to learn the language faster than the others in my class.

I've given classes at Yazigi Morumbi for 2 years, a really nice school with an awesome environment, where I do my best and work with pleasure. Before Yazigi I worked at Skill for 6 months.

In my opinion giving classes is a gift that should be more valued by the people in general. There is nothing more rewarding than to know that you can change the life of bunches of people with your knowledge and to hear a "Thank you teacher" in the end of the semester. It's the world's nicest thing to know that my knowledge can improve people's lives, that's why I don't intend to stop so soon. I love my work.

noreply@blogger.com (Sandra Costa) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:31:00 +0000

I am Sandra Costa and I was born in São Paulo in 1957. Although graduated as German Translator and Interpreter at Unibero in 1983, I have been an English private teacher for 21 years now.

My parents met very young at the age of 7 at their primary school, got married at 21 and I was born when they were 22. I had a sister, who died in 1981 and I have a little brother five years younger than me. My parents came from very poor families and had to leave school earlier in order to work to improve their income. So, I was born in a very simple place and did my primary school at SESI, located inside a factory near our house.

I have learnt to work hard since the beginning. I helped them at their pub and restaurant, which was opened 364 days a year. My father has always been an entrepreneur and when I was ten our financial situation was much better. No sooner had we moved to Santo André in 1967, I started studying at a Catholic school - Instituto Coração de Jesus, which made me really interested in English. As soon as I finished High School, I was sent to Saint Clare's Hall in Oxford then later I studied at Trinity Language School in London.

Back to Brazil I started working as a secretary in an import and export company. Later I worked at my father's factory. In 1980 I got a job in an international airline company - Cruzeiro do Sul, where I met my husband, who worked for Varig. I left the airline company in 1988, when Iwas invited to work as the General Consul's secretary at the General Consulate of Mexico in São Paulo. Two years later, we moved to Granja Vianna, where we still live. I have been a private teacher since then.

Now that my both children are married, I have decided to go back to university and started an Advanced English Sutdies further degree course at Unibero - Anhanguera Educacional, which has been an incredibly suprising experience, not only for the quality of its professors, but also for the possibility to interact with other youger professionals so enthusiastic and dedicated in their careers.

Being an English Teacher

noreply@blogger.com (Mariana Chiarion) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:49:00 +0000

Hello, guys! I'm Mariana Chiarion and I'm going to tell you a little about myself. I was born in Bragança Paulista, S.P., first of two children. Since I was nine, I've been interested in English language.
Being an English teacher has happened in my life, actually, it was not my first option. As I was saying, since I was nine, I've studied English and I've loved it!
When I graduated from high school, I satrted my undergration course in languages and translation at Centro Universitário Ibero-Americano. In 2005, as soon as I'd finished my undergratuation course I went to England and I spent seven months there.
When I came back to Brazil, I started to look for a job as a bilingual secretary in São Paulo. I couldn't find anything. So, I went back to Bragança and found a job as an English teacher. I really fell in love with teaching! In this first job I met my husband, who is also a teacher. I can say that I've always been surrounded by teachrs: mother, aunts, husband, sister-in-law, friends.
It's very important to realize that being an English teacher requires lots of studies, daily studies, we, teachers, must be updated, we can't stop studying. That´s why I've decided to take a graduation course at Anhanguera.
I'm currently teaching English for the employess from Unique Garden Hotel & Spa, and I also teach in an English Language Center in Bragança.

I'm very happy for sharing information with you!
Thanks for reading us!

First introductions

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:55:00 +0000

It's now time to present ourselves to you. In the next few posts we are going to say who we are, what our academic, professional and personal interests are and why we chose this specialization course.

I'm Paula Carnasciali, born and raised in Osasco, SP, and first of five children. Things around the house often were a controlled mess, but my siblings and I were always surrounded by educators: my mom, aunts and older cousins, all public school teachers, helped us with Math assignments, Portuguese compositions and, most especially, instilled in us the love for books.

Becoming a teacher, though, was not so natural a process for me, and I just got my degree in 2008, at the age of 31, thanks to a full scholarship offered by Anhanguera Educacional Osasco, then called Faculdade Integração Zona Oeste.

The learning process at FIZO was increadibly improved by fantastic educators, who were focused on interdisciplinarity, and who helped us interlace theory and practice in a seemingly effortless way. Besides that, I had the opportunity to meet great people there - true poets, really - who made the experience extra special, and later became my great friends.

As a final college challenge, some of us had our ENADE evaluation (national performance exam conducted by MEC), and I obtained first place in the 2008 edition, as a undergraduate student of Letras. I was rewarded with this graduate specialization at Centro Universitário Anhanguera de São Paulo – Unidade Brigadeiro, and I hope to use our discussions here to write an article that will be of great value to my teaching praxis.

I am currently an English teacher at CNA Osasco Centro, working with learners with ages ranging from 10 to 50, of all levels. It has been a great joy being around them; if there is one thing I wish for everyone is finding a job that makes you excited and proud (and pays the bills, of course). As part of the MTV generation and daughter and sister of IT professionals, I am also interested in technolgy, Internet, gadgets, music and comics. As my Twitter profile says, I am a nerd and artist wannabe. I have made some playful attempts in writing (my numerous personal journals can attest to that), painting (our house is filled with family 'art') and even singing (OK, dreadful attempt). My next one will probably be dancing, so watch out!

Abordagens no Ensino de Línguas

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:19:00 +0000

That is the topic of this module, guided by professor Fabrício Ono. Once again we discussed the kind of learner we are dealing with: the Millennials: We All Want to Be Young (leg) - Geração Y, Millennials (video)

Last Saturday, we had an overview of language teaching methodologies. If you want to read more, here is one by Englishraven.com
http://www.englishraven.com/method_overview.html

And last but not least, we discussed this module's WebQuest. It will be divided in two parts: the creation of a blog and the creation of a collaborative text on Google Docs. Are you familiar with these tools?

More information about blogs on Blogger
http://www.youtube.com/user/BloggerHelp

Google Docs Tour
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

How to Use Google Documents: Video Series | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_114_use-google-documents.html

How to Use Google Documents: Overview of User Interface (video)
http://youtu.be/t6AzljgxNi4

From Poe to Machado - The revenge of the bourgeoisie

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:56:00 +0000

On July 6, we read and analyzed Machado de Assis' "A Causa Secreta" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado".

For great info on both stories, visit the sites below:

MSLEV's Cask of Amontillado page on Glogster
http://mslev.edu.glogster.com/false/

Catia Pietro da Silva's “Teoria do Benefício” e “A Causa Secreta”: poder, favor e exploração
http://www.usp.br/anagrama/Pietro_beneficio.pdf

The Art of Writing & Speaking the English Language

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:38:00 +0000

This month, Professor Glaser takes us through the exciting woods of writing. Do you remember your figures of speech? Are you familiar with coherence & cohesion? In one of our encounters, we discussed how to create an effective essay. Would you like some extra tips? Well, check the video below for a humorous lesson.

How to Write an Effective Essay: The Introduction
De: JamesESL | 11/07/2011 | http://www.engvid.com
Learn the method for writing the perfect essay introduction. A good introduction makes writing an essay easy and reading it fun.

Another great writing resource is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

One of my favorite sections is Punctuation. You can even download Conquering the Comma Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt archive). Fantastic!

Phrasal Verb Cootie Catcher

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Mon, 30 May 2011 02:38:00 +0000

Maira, Mariana and I tried to find fun ways of presenting phrasal verbs with 'on' to our students. Here is the result of our work: a slideshow with comic strips and a cootie catcher (do you remember your school years?). Enjoy!

Phrasal verbs with on

View more presentations from Paula Carnasciali.

USP Aluno Especial

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:42:00 +0000

Dear colleagues,

As discussed in our previous encounter, here are some interesting links for your information:

Aluno Especial - Programa de Pós-Graduação da USP
http://pos.fflch.usp.br/node/148

Calendário USP JupiterWeb
https://sistemas.usp.br/jupiterweb/jupCalendario.jsp

The Academic Phrasebank
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/index.htm
The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource which aims to provide academic writers with examples of some of the phraseological "nuts and bolts" of writing. It is maintained by john.morley@manchester.ac.uk

Idioms and colloquial language

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:28:00 +0000

This week we started a new discussion: Why languages have collocations? How do phrasal verbs work? To illustrate the topic, here is a sample video of the "Quite literally" series from PearsonLongmanELT channel on Youtube.

He didn't cut the mustard!

We also had some fun watching the story of John Brown, a man who finds himself at the Pearly Gates explaining the story of his life to a bewildered Saint Peter and Noah Webster using contemporary slang.

1951 Tex Avery's Symphony in Slang

This is the transcript of TEX AVERY – SYMPHONY IN SLANG (1951). It may help if you want to crack some of the idioms and slangs. I don't think all of them are still used nowadays though.

Saint Peter:
You may enter. Next Please.

John Brown:
Howdy, Dan. What's new? How's tricks? What's cookin'?

Saint Peter:
What's cooking? How's tricks? Hmm. What a strange language you bring from the earth. I don't seem to follow you. I shall refer you to the master of the dictionary, Noah Webster. Perhaps he can understand you.

Mr. Webster, this newcomer's vocabulary is so unusual that I am unable to record his life on earth. Would you mind seeing if you can comprehend his odd manner of speech?

Now, young man, go ahead with the story of your life.

John Brown:
Sure thing, Dad!

Well, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth...

Noah Webster:
Silver spoon in your mouth ?

John Brown:
Yes, silver spoon in my mouth.

Then I seemed to grow up overnight. One day at the crack of dawn, I got up with the chickens to hunt a job and got a job slinging hash because the proprietor was shorthanded. But I couldn't cut the mustard, so the guy gave me the gate.

So I went back to my little hole in the wall. I was beside myself with anger. Then I decided to get a train ticket to Texas and there made some dough punching cattle. From there I flew to Chicago. There a beautiful girl stepped into the picture.

Our eyes met. My breath came in short pants, and I got goose pimples. I was all thumbs. Mary's clothes fit her like a glove. She looked mighty pretty with her hair done up in a bun. She had good-looking pins, too. Finally, she gives me a date. I put on my white tie and tails, and, brother, did she put on the dog!

We went around together for some time... painting the town red, going to the Stork Club... and a box at the opera. After the opera, I had a cocktail, and Mary had a Moscow Mule. At dinner, Mary let her hair down and ate like a horse. By then, my money was running out on me, so I write a check. It bounced. Brother, I was really in a pickle. The proprietor drew a gun on me, but I gave him the slip and hid in the foothills. In no time, the law was on my heels.

On the witness stand, the judge tried to pump me, but it seemed that every time I opened my mouth, I put my foot in it. So he sent me up the river to do a stretch in the jug. I was up against it and felt myself going to pot. But I raised a big stink, and they finally let me talk to an undercover man. After going through a lot of red tape, he sprung me. It sure felt good to stretch my legs again, and I went straight to the bus station and caught a Greyhound for New York.

On arriving, I dropped in on Mary and threw myself at her feet. I asked her to marry me, but she turned her back on me and got on her high horse. I couldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole. She wouldn't say a word. Guess the cat had her tongue. So I walked out on her.

After that I went to pieces. Feeling lonely, I went down to Joe's Malt Shop where a bunch of the boys were hanging around. Ah, the music was nice. The guy at the piano played by ear. I felt a tug at my elbow. It was the soda clerk. We sat down and chewed the rag a while.

I heard from the grapevine that Mary was going around with an old flame. That burned me up because I knew he was just feeding her a line. But the guy really spent his money like water. I think he was connected with the railroad. As they danced, I tried to chisel in, but the guy got in my hair, so I left.

Outside it was raining cats and dogs. I was feeling mighty blue, and everything looked black. But I carried on. I went to the Thousand Islands. There I became a beachcomber. But I still thought of Mary, and a tear ran down my cheek.

So I send her a cable. Next day, she sends me back a wire. I rushed back to the US on a cattle boat and hotfooted it over to Mary's apartment. But when I opened the door, I noticed quite a few changes.

Why, Mary, Mary had a bunch of little ones. The groom had his hands full, too. So, all this struck me so funny that I died laughing. And here I am.

Well, what do you think? Did you follow me?

Noah Webster:
Well, I ... uh...

John Brown:
What's the matter? Can't you talk? Has the cat got your tongue?

Source: http://learnenglishonline.yuku.com/topic/9187/t/Symphony-in-slang.html

Phonemic Chart Animated (Complete)

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sun, 15 May 2011 00:38:00 +0000

Practise your pronunciation of the sounds of English with our animated phonemic chart. For more pronunciation resources visit: www.cambridgeenglishonline.com

Video published by CambridgeEnglish on Youtube | 03/06/2010

AzarGrammar.com - Teacher Talk Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sun, 15 May 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Dear colleagues,

Fatima Abbate has sent us a great reading suggestion. A blog on oral production, teaching and assessment: TEACHER TALK BLOG (click here)

Our Mission and Vision

This website’s mission is to support teachers who incorporate a grammar component in their ESL/EFL teaching. Our vision is a global community of ESL/EFL teachers who share resources, learn from one another, and support one another in their work.

Website Goals

Provide teaching support to all ESL/EFL teachers who include a grammar component in their teaching, by offering ideas, information, and materials to help them succeed
Provide textbook support to Azar users
Facilitate community, sharing, dialogue, and mutual support among ESL/EFL teachers
Promote partnership between authors and teachers
Define a grammar-based approach and the pedagogical assumptions underlying the teaching of grammar and the Azar texts

http://azargrammar.com/aboutUs.html

Online resources on pronunciation

noreply@blogger.com (Paula Carnasciali) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 03:17:00 +0000

Permanent Learner - Content words

View more presentations from Paula Carnasciali.

Dear classmates,

Here are some really interesting online resources on pronunciation for the non-native-speaking teachers of English. Please, feel free to add your own at the end!

http://www.howjsay.com/
A free online Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation - Copyright © Tim Bowyer 2006-11

http://www.dictationsonline.com/
A graded collection of free online dictations. - Copyright © Tim Bowyer 2005-9

http://www.fonetiks.org/
Online pronunciation guides to 9 varieties of the English language and 9 other languages · Instant sound · Pronunciation samples by over 40 native speakers - Copyright © Tim Bowyer 2000-09

http://www.shiporsheep.com/
English language pronunciation practice with minimal pairs - Copyright © Tim Bowyer 2000-09

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/
English pronunciation resources and lessons for ESL learners. Clicking on a symbol will take you to another page where you can watch a video about that particular sound.

http://www.manythings.org/pp/
American English Pronunciation Practice (For ESL/EFL) - Copyright © 2001-2011 by Charles Kelly

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/
The Phonetics Flash Animation Project site contains animated libraries of the phonetic sounds of English – articulatory diagram, a step-by-step description, and a video-audio of the sound spoken in context. - Copyright © The University of Iowa 2001-2005.

http://www.cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/#
Cambridge offers educational resources to help improve pronunciation and knowledge of phonetics. - Copyright © Cambridge English Online Ltd. 2003-2011.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
Free online dictionary with American and British pronunciations - Copyright © 2011 Farlex, Inc.

http://www.real-english.com/
Free site with original videos recorded on the streets of cities like New York and with interactive lessons - Copyright © 2011 The Marzio School

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/pronex/pronex.htm
Perfect Pronunciation - Copyright © 2011 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

http://www.lyricstraining.com/
Lyrics Training is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages skills like English, through the music videos and typing the lyrics of the songs. - Copyright © 2011 LyricsTraining.com

Phonetics and Phonology presentation - April, 2011
Professor Fabricio Ono
Maira Stella, Mariana Malaquias and Paula Carnasciali