Post CPE Lesson 22

Lesson 22
Video Lesson - Dance With A Stranger (1985)
http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/91790277/Dance%20With%20A%20Stranger

Language Notes: 

wishful thinking
boarding school
school uniform
sloshed = drunk

to knick/pinch
active = to steal, passive = to be arrested
He pinched a car
He was/got pinched for stealing a car
half inched = pinched = stolen (Cockney rhyming slang)

Money related: to cost a fortune, to be strapped for cash, to cough up, stingy

to chuck something in = to give it up
to get sacked/get the sack = lose your job
to treat someone like dirt
to beat the living daylights out of someone
"I shan't have any peace until we're married."
n.b. the use of shan't (shall not) instead of will not.

British Council at ANIA Lesson 4

Lesson 4

12:30 Group 5 C2
Class

• Introduction to phonemic chart http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart
• Overview of tenses http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/11442655/The%20English%20Tense%20System

Homework

Analyse a pièce of written or spoken text. What are the tenses used? Why has the speaker/writer chosen these tenses? Could he/she have made other choices? 

Going Further

Reading - English grammar and thinking in English

2:00 Group 7 C1

Class

Introduction to phonemic chart http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart

Listening Strategies http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/37875566/Listening%20Skills

Pronunciation & Grammar http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/11442648/Pronunciation

Homework

Analyse a spoken text - which tenses or verb structures can you identify? How are the auxiliary verbs pronounced? 

Both Groups - download the Sounds Right App or similar pronunciation app with audio. Make sure the chart is organised in the same order as the phonemic chart in the link above. 

Sounds Right iPad app
If you have an iPad, you can download and install a free copy of the British Council phonemic chart on it. Find out more on LearnEnglish.

Post CPE Lesson 21

Lesson 21

• Recycling media vocabulary - crossword task
• Dance With A Stranger - introduction, discussion, reading 

Going Further:

Ruth Ellis

For more on Ruth Ellis see: 

(1) http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/ruth.html

(2) SOLD: The Hampstead pub where Ruth Ellis shot her lover

(3) The Magdala and 9 other London pubs with a history: http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2012/10/28/10-london-pubs-with-a-story-to-tell/

Pauline Kael

"In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."- Pauline Kael 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pauline_kael.html#Wcwe4YSMQmqPirMd.99

For more on Pauline Kael and her film reviews see: 

(1) Five Classic Reviews: http://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/five-classic-pauline-kael-reviews

(2) Biography http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0434461/bio

Foxcatcher

Currently screening in English at the Nuovo Olimpia is another film based on a real life crime and that rare thing - an American film about class. 

D'Amico Shipping B2 Lesson 30

Lesson 30

• Feedback on emails
• Jigsaw letter exercise - noticing features of formal, semi-formal and informal letters.
• Individual counselling and tutorials

Thank you for all your feedback and for the lovely lunch today - stay in touch!

British Council at ANIA - Lesson 3

Lesson 3 
Tuesday 17th March 
This week we looked at the link between pronunciation, listening and grammar. A copy of the lesson can be found here: http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/32174148/Conditionals%20and%20Pronunciation

Try working grammar through listening - e.g. with songs and videos.

Textbooks
Potential Books for Group 5 (C2,12:30pm)
Check out the links below and tell me what you think of these textbooks.
Objective CPE
Innovations Advanced

Group 7 (C1, 2pm)
Your copies of Language Leader Advanced should be available soon.

Post CPE Lesson 20

Lesson 20

Units 8.2 and 8.3 Language Leader Advanced

• Listening - Noticing Verb Structure
• New Media - Reading, Idioms With Keep, Prepositional Verbs   

Feedback On Covering Letters:

• Competence/competency
• Present perfect tenses for experience
• Conciseness and simplicity - don't overwrite

Vocabulary
naff
hokey/corny
flavour of the month

Going Further
(1) Think hydro ceramics engineer is bad? Check out these ridiculous job titles: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2489831/What-load-jobbledygook-The-ridiculous-job-titles-dreamed-recruitment-consultants-make-vacancies-sound-enticing.html
(2) Here's some more annoying corporate jargon: http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2012/01/26/the-most-annoying-pretentious-and-useless-business-jargon/
(3) "The Digested Read" by John Crace: http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/digestedread
Inferno by Dan Brown
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

D'Amico Shipping B2 Lesson 29

Class
Writing Assessment
Part 2 - BEC Vantage
Peer Editing

For More information of BEC Vantage (B2) and BEC Higher (C1) click on the links below:
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/business-certificates/business-vantage/
http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/business-certificates/business-higher/

Pronunciation - All Groups

There has been a lot of discussion on the internet concerning the accent of Kathy Bates' character in American Horror Story: Freak Show, currently screening on Tuesday nights on Sky. On the link below you will find an interview with linguist, Kara Becker, who identifies the accent as from Baltimore, Maryland. Becker notes though that Bates is putting on the accent and is not a native speaker as she is exaggerating some features. One of those features is fronting back vowels - i.e. pronouncing vowel sounds like /ʊː/ /ɔː/ and /ɒ/ further forward in the mouth (if you are unsure of which are the front, middle and back vowels have a look at the chart here). Becker also talks about regional changes in accent,  the influence of social class and how accents change over time and will often differ between generations from the same place.

What different accents can you differentiate?
How are the vowel sounds different? Where are they being made?
Which actors do you think are good at accents? (e.g. can you think of any non-Neapolitan actors who can convincingly speak with an accent from Naples?)

To read the article and listen to examples click here: http://www.vox.com/2014/10/22/7031005/kathy-bates-american-horror-story-accent-baltimore

It just goes to show, you can learn a lot by watching TV.

British Council Courses at ANIA

ANIA - Tuesday 10th March  - All Groups

Vocabulary Skills: http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/41184334/Vocabulary

Vocabulary Exercise using the article “Life insurance: Consumer groups push for scrapping of commission payments” retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-10/push-to-ditch-commission-payments-from-life-insurance-industry/6084096


Phrasal Verbs
to push for - advocate, lobby
to call on - ask, request
to come up with - invent, think of
to hand down (a report) - issue/send out/publish

Word complementation
fail to comply (with the law)(Collocation)
encourage (someone) to do something
to have been around for ages/decades/years
to be expected to do

Collocations
commission payments/commission based pay/up-front commissions
appropriate models
life insurance industry
draft response
financial incentive
industry working group

Idioms
to scrap, to ditch
bottom line
to push a product
to be well versed

Fixed Phrases
serve the needs of (clients)
to fail to see (why)
fee-for-service arrangements

Lexical Precision
sell, push, hawk, peddle, trade, offer
bottom line, profit, net, gain, earnings, return.

Post CPE lesson 19

Lesson 19
Today's lesson was taken from Unit 8 of Language Leader Advanced published by Longman

Journaism & Media Vocabulary
Defamation, Libel (written) Spoken (Slander)
breaking news, to break a story
broadcast media - producer, anchor,
print media - editor, publisher, columnist, tabloid (red tops), broadsheet, to file copy, to put the issue to bed
reporter, correspondent (both print and broadcast media)
to be axed = to be fired
to quit = to resign 
spin (noun), spin doctor, to put a spin on something

Headlines to full sentences – an exercise for grammar words and tenses.

MAN PROPOSES ON PLANE WOMAN ACCEPTS ON GROUND

A MAN PROPOSED TO A WOMAN ON A PLANE AND LATER SHE ACCEPTED HIS OFFER OF MARRIAGE ON THE GROUND

Answers to exercise 10, p. 81

• There has been an increase in the number of fatalities caused by the floods.
• The Minister accused of covering up the truth has resigned.
• Two TV personalities have separated from their respective partners so that they can marry each other.
• Plans have been introduced to limit the sale of unhealthy food.
• The speed limits on national roads are going to/are about to change.
• The Prime Minister promises to cut taxes. 
• A cat saved the life of its owner from a fire in their house.
• The director of the Olympic Committee has been accused of manipulating the outcome of a vote.
• The police investigating a murder are questioning a model.
• A football club manager has been sacked/fired.
• The United Nations has been put under pressure to take action after new fighting broke out/following renewed fighting.   

Here are some hilarious examples of when headline writers get it wrong: http://www.danoah.com/39-hilarious-newspaper-headlines

Corrections

director editor

a news, the news are is, those that information (countable and uncountable)

extramarriage extramarital

too much vulgar
think to about

Homework

Read the article by Simon Jenkins on p. 82 of the handout. Look at questions 2a, 2b and 3 on page 82 which focus on comprehension and content and questions 4 & 5 on page 83 which focus on vocabulary.
See also 
inculcate
redoubt

Going Further

Films about Media & Journalism

Absence of Malice (1981)

All The President's Men (1976)

Network (1976)

Broadcast News (1987)

The Fifth Estate (2013)

The Paper (1994)

D'Amico Shipping B2 Lesson 28

Lesson 28
Class
Writing: Formal & informal emails at work (p. 116 -117).
Short confirmation email to manager.

Homework
Stage 3  p.117 Write an email to the client as instructed by your manager

Corrections
Common uncountable nouns: advice, news, information, proof*, evidence, research, weather, money, work*
See also: https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/nouns-uncountable-list.htm
* can be countable or uncountable with a change in meaning.

Don't worry versus don't care
I'm not bothered = I don't care
Even stronger: I couldn't care less

"Lauren"The Catherine Tate Show BBC 2009

Pronunciation - All Groups

Last month Andrea Passadori blogged about the 10 English words that give Italian speakers the most trouble. Do you agree? There is, however, a little bit of confusion in the article as the phonemic transcription for the words given are in Standard British English (or R.P.) while the audio files feature American (New York) pronunciation. Can you hear the difference?


http://www.huffingtonpost.it/andrea-passadori/10-parole-inglesi-forse-non-sai-pronunciare_b_6734058.html