Class
Revision of language for graphs, charts and statistics
Adapted from New HeadwayAcademic Skills level 3 Vocabulary Cinema Repertory cinema/revival house Art house cinema (this is probably the closest translation of cinema d'essai) Independent cinema Cinema club Describing Trends sharp increase/decrease soar plummet plunge Homework
Look at the tables at the end of the handout. What would be the best type of graph to represent this data? How would you summarise the data represented?
Writing Skills Report - Model Answer
Compare the report you wrote for homework last week with the model answer below.
Once again there is a wide choice of films to see in original language in Rome this weekend. with the Oscars on Sunday night, why not catch up with nominated films such as Jackie and Fences in the way they were intended to be seen?
Jackie screening at the Fiamma Multiplex
When you have seen Natalie Portman's performance in Jackie, listen to the real Jackie Kennedy the video below. How well do you think Portman imitated the first lady's particular accent?
This is a false friend, use in my view/in my opinion instead.
Homework
During your personal reading and listening in English this week, pay particular attention to comparative and superlative forms and how they are modified.
TFR = severance pay, deferred salary, golden handshake Corrections He works like a photographer (He isn't really a photographer, but his job is similar to a photographer) He works as a photographer (He is a photographer, that's his job) He is a professionistprofessional I have a second work job.
Homework
Read through the audio-script to today's listening, highlighting where the answers to the question are and noting which multiple choice options are "distractors".
Use the notes you made today to write an essay summarising and evaluating the key points presented in the two podcasts. Your answer should be between 240 and 280 words and you should spend no longer than 45 minutes on the task. Feel free to listen to the podcasts again should you need to check or add to your notes.
It is normally used with a time expression beginning with: by, by then, by that time, by December etc.
By the end of next month he will have been here for ten years.
It is used for an action which at a given future time will be in the past, or will just have finished. Imagine that it is 3 December and David is very worried about an exam that he is taking on 13 December.
Someone planning a party might say:
We'd better wait fill 14 December. David will have had his exam by then, so he'll be able to
enjoy himself.
Future continuous
The future continuous can be used as an ordinary continuous tense
This time tomorrow they
will be sitting in the cinema. They will be watching a film. On Saturday there is no class. So on
Saturday they will not be sitting in the classroom. They will be doing other things. The future continuous can be used to express future without intention
e.g. I will work here! (intention), I will be working here next year (statement)
The future continuous also expresses an action that will happen not deliberately but in due course. To understand this compare the present continuous and the future continuous:
I am seeing Tom tomorrow.
I'll be seeing Tom tomorrow.
The first implies that Tom or the speaker has deliberately arranged the meeting, but the second implies that Tom and the speaker will meet in the ordinary course of events (perhaps they work together).
Questions with the future continuous are more tentative and therefore polite:
Will you be playing golf this weekend?
Perfect infinitive
The perfect infinitive refers to a time before that of the preceding verb: I'm glad to have studied at that school. They must have forgotten about the deadline. By next week, they'll have finished painting the rooms.
Lucy was assumed to have left the day before.
The future in the past
from English Grammar Today
When we talk about the past, we sometimes want to refer to something which was in the future at the time we were speaking. We use past verb forms to do this: The last time I met her, she was leaving for a new job in Italy the following day. (past form of She is leaving) They rang to say they would be with us by ten o’clock but then their flight was cancelled. (past form of They will be with us)
This week offers a valuable opportunity to see a number of films in original language at cinemas in Rome. The 4 front runners for this year's best film Oscar - La La Land, Moonlight, Manchester by The Sea and Arrival - are all currently screening in the way their respective directors intended at Nuovo Olimpia and Fiamma cinemas in the centre. For screening times go to:
Fiamma http://www.mymovies.it/cinema/roma/5251/
Nuovo Olimpia http://www.mymovies.it/cinema/roma/4910/
I can thoroughly recommend all four films but if you don't believe me check out the trailers and reviews below.
The Oscars will be held on Sunday 26th February (early Monday 27th Italian time) for more information and a full list of all the nominees go to: http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2017
2. If I was driving into the city, I could give you a lift, but I am taking the train today.
In the first sentence the speaker can't drive (maybe because they don't have a car or a license) however, in the second the speaker usually drives but is not driving today. The use of the continuous shows that the action is not usual.
In both sentences the past tenses are use to show that we are talking about a hypothetical present. A hypothetical past would be expressed in the following way using the 3rd conditional:
If I had been driving into the city, I could have given you a lift but I took the train yesterday.
When deciding on what grammatical structure to use, think about the following:
The nature of the action or the event
The point of view of the speaker
The nature of the verb you are using
Reading Skills - Skimming and Scanning
Word Combinations
Comparisons
New English File pp. 50 - 51
Vocabulary The Watershed
countable noun
The watershed is a time before which television broadcasters have agreed not to show programmes unsuitable for children, for example programmes that contain scenes of sex or violence.
[British] Bad language before the watershed is widely resented.
Read the notes and do the exercises on comparison pp. 134 - 135 G2
While you are watching TV this week make a note the type of advertising you see. What time were you watching = was it before or after the watershed? What products were the commercials promoting? Were the adverts directed at adults or children? Were the adverts suitable for children? Why/Why not?
Going Further
Find examples of the 2nd conditional in the following song. How does its use contribute to the meaning of the song?
Class
Speaking
Presentation - personal anecdote - a health challenge
Discussion - pros and cons of internet businesses
- Business perspective
- Customer perspective
Vocabulary go bust/out of business/bankrupt purchase lightning hearing aid bone marrow
Corrections Ask to someone something He said me something to me Tell to me something
Suggestion: Revise verb patterns for common reporting verbs: say, tell, ask.
Language for describing pictures without pointing.
N.b. The difference between foreground and forefront when used as nouns. Foreground refers to the elements of an image which lie closest to the picture e.g. "In the foreground you can see 5 apprentices gathered around a workbench." Forefront, however, means the leading or influential position e.g. "He is at the forefront of his profession."
Phrases for introducing deductions and guesses (rather than just repeating maybe or I think) E.g. I get the impression that, I suspect, The way I see it
Correction
According to meis a false friend, use in my view/opinion instead.
Vocabulary query
Boilerplate
The term boilerplate, meaningphrases or units of text used repeatedly, as in correspondence produced by a word-processing system, probably originates from metaphorical usage. The term was used in the 1840s to describe metal rolled in large flat plates which was then used for making steam boilers. This idea of something sturdy and reusable probably led to its new meaning but there is also a literal meaning as from the 1890s to the 1950s publicity items were cast or stamped in metal ready for the printing press. I knew boilers were involved somewhere.
See also: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-boi1.htm
Going further
Invisible Ink
In my humble opinion, Aimee Mann is an exceptionally literate singer/songwriter whose lyrics reward close inspection. In this song, from her 2002 album Lost In Space, she uses several interesting metaphors to convey the frustration of not being able to communicate what you want to say.
Listen out for the collocations, idioms and fixed phrases she uses, for example:
This means that you are unable to the see the whole situation clearly because you are looking too closely at the details. It is also used to describe people who can not understand a situation because they are too involved in it.
I think that this is a good metaphor for the problems of reading in a foreign language. Sometimes we are so confused by words we don't know that we forget to look at the information that the structure of the text gives us to help us work out the meaning. Consider this when you are next reading in English.
Tough /tʌf/ Homework
Practice your listening strategies with a scene from a film you have already seen. See procedure below:
A Quick Exercise to Try at Home
Choose a film you know and have already seen. Choose a five minute scene which has some dialogue.
Watch it first without subtitles – what can you understand? Is there anything you don’t understand?
Watch it again with the subtitles. Was the problem due to vocabulary or fast connected speech? If you find a new word, look it up in your dictionary. If the problem was fast connected speech, listen to the phrase again and repeat it.
Now watch the scene again, this time without subtitles and see how much more you understand.
This exercise takes only 15 to 30 minutes and is a really useful way of developing your listening skills and improving your vocabulary.
If the film does not have subtitles available in English, you can always look at the script to check your understanding. You can find film scripts to most films on the following sites: The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) http://www.imsdb.com or Drew's Script-O-Rama http://www.script-o-rama.com
This verb can have several meanings depending on the collocation and context.
If you falsify a theory in a scientific context you disprove the theory, however if you falsify your tax return you are trying to deceive someone by providing false information.
News is uncountable so always takes a singular verb.
Fake news are is a real problem.
Homework
Reading
Click on the link below to access the L.A.Times article by Ann M. Simmons - How do you say 'lowlife' in another language? Trump's tweets lose much in translation
To be on the point of doing something To be about to do something
Expressions of certainty
To be sure to do something To be bound to do something
2. Vocabulary skills - wrong word exercise
Commonly confused words
(CAE Epert)
Pay particular attention to changes in word form (usually signalled by a change in spelling and or pronunciation) e.g. practise/practice, use /s/ and use /z/.
Also consider tranistive and intransitive forms: Rise/rose/risen versus raise/raised/raised Lie/lay/lain/lying versus lay/laid/laid/laying
Assume/presume
Both mean to take for granted but you assume without proof and presume based on reasonable grounds, probability or evidence. "To assume makes an ass of both you and me."
Chances/possibilities
There is some overlap in meaning here but be careful when you mean the likelihood of something happening (chances) or the potential for favourable results (possibilities).
Beside - preposition of place meaning next to Besides - adverb meaning in addition or furthermore
Pronunciation Conscientious /kɒnʃienʃəs/
Homework
Finish the remaining questions (17 -18)
When you have finished the whole exercise try to categorise the type of vocabulary mistakes that you had to correct e.g. False friends (check/control), transitive or intransitive verbs (rise/raise, lie/lay) or countable/uncountable nouns (work/job)
Draw a mind map or create a lexical set (e.g. A business in trouble: fail, collapse, go bust, go bankrupt, cut jobs, lay people off, make people redundant)
Note word forms e.g redundant (adjective), redundancy (noun)
Test yourself on the new vocabulary from today's lesson e.g. To make someone redundant, turnover, to launch. What words do they collocate with? What are their synonyms and antonyms? Can you write an example sentence or a definition in English?
Vocabulary
turnover - note the two meanings - turnover of a company versus turnover of people. soar rocket plunge plummet
Multi-word verbs - to lose out to (a competitor), to catch up with (a competitor)
Fixed Expressions - spoilt for choice (= to have a lot of things to choose from), too right (a typically Australasian expression to show strong agreement)
Grammar Notes - First & Second Conditionals
Homework
1) Reading and vocabulary p. 48.
2) Grammar practice p. 135, G1
3) Do some extra reading or listening, paying particular attention to when first and second conditionals are being used.
Have you ever seen a film that made you want to walk straight back in and watch it again? Vocabulary in with a shout to give a shout out to someone to give something/it all away an original take on something tuned into the same elements I don't want to go there to age out of a role to go back _ years with someone
Listening – Amy Adams Interview 11/11/2016 (interview starts at 43:45 on the podcast link below or use the Youtube video)
1) Follow up today's grammar exercise by looking up the above problem areas in your textbook. Read the notes and do the exercises but more importantly look out for these features in your general reading and listening.
2) Writing a proposal. Look at the notes, examples and model answers in your textbook. Also look at language for making suggestions and recommendations in preparation for next week's timed writing task.
I am a freelance teacher based at the British Council in Rome. This is a Blog for my students, not only to keep up with what we are doing in class but also to ask questions, share ideas and practise English.
