Listening practice - all groups. Podcasts!

As we have discussed many times in class this term, frequent listening practice will really help all aspects of your learning from vocabulary acquisition to speaking fluency as well as listening comprehension. Podcasts are a great source of listening practice as you can download them, pause them, replay them and listen to them when and wherever you want. If you are stuck on which podcast to listen to, have a look at the article in the link below from today's Guardian. There are 50 podcasts listed (with links to their respective sites) so you are sure to find something that takes your fancy.


http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/14/fifty-best-podcasts-bob-mortimer-john-oliver-jemaine-clement-serial

ANIA C2 Lesson 16

Class

Music

Listening - Desert Island Discs - Tom Hanks (BBC Radio 4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079m78n

Discussion - Classic albums, pop music and protest

"In the 60's you could write songs that were like calls to arms and it would work. Well, Kind ....ish. It's much harder to do that now." Thom Yorke (Interview with George Monbiot, Télérama, 2015)

Reading - album reviews

Beyoncé http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/27/beyonce-lemonade-ew-review

Anohni http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/anohni-hopelessness-review-antony-and-johnsons

Radiohead http://www.nme.com/reviews/radiohead/16467

Vocabulary

Woke (adjective - slang) socially aware.

To take someone to task = to call into account/blame/censure

Run of the mill = ordinary

To put out an album/disc = release music

Hopping mad = very angry

Fellow traveller = someone who sympathises with your (political) beliefs

(Opening) gambit = a risky, strategic move

To let (something) rip = lose control/proceed without restraint

Foxy = clever/sly

To come/arrive thick and fast = a large number of something occurring rapidly

To grab you by the throat = to get your complete attention

(To wear your) heart on your sleeve = to make your feelings obvious.

To pooh-pooh something (especially an idea/argument) = to say something is not very good.

Motorik = 4/4 beat used in Kraut rock for example on records by Can, Neu! or Kraftwerk. 

Homework

Listen to the rest of the Desert Island Discs podcast and/or songs from the albums discussed today and share your reactions with the group in the comments section below.

1. Formation Beyoncé
https://youtu.be/LrCHz1gwzTo?list=PL-E79MQ72MqVQWkmv0BEYOwXMc-hCTqHg

2. Drone Bomb Me Anohni

3. Burn the Witch Radiohead

Going further

Reading

Was 1966 pop music's greatest year? http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/31/three-albums-1966-beatles-revolver-bob-dylan-blonde-on-blonde-beach-boys-pet-sounds

Forget 1966, because 1981 was pop's year of revolution http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/dec/17/1981-pop-year-of-revolution

Thom Yorke & George Monbiot interview http://www.telerama.fr/monde/thom-yorke-and-george-monbiot-we-have-to-prepare-for-the-inevitable-failure-of-cop21,134497.php

D'Amico Shipping B1 Lesson 22

Class

Stop to do versus stop doing

You stop doing something in order to do something else

Present perfect simple versus present perfect continuous.

New Language Leader p. 30 question 7, p. 131 G2

Notes:

Present Perfect to talk about...

• Something that starts in the past and continues to now
• Something that happened in the past but is still important/relevant/has an effect now
• A time period that hasn't finished yet e.g. This month, this week, this year etc
• Recent events/experience when the time is not important

+ Simple for 

• State and sense verbs
• Permanent situations
• To emphasise the amount or number of things you have completed
• Finished actions

+ Continuous for 

• Verbs like wait and rain that imply duration
• Unfinished actions
• To emphasise that the action lasted a long time
• Temporary situations or repeated actions

When choosing the best tense, think about:

1) the nature of the action or the event (i.e. the context)

2) the point of view of the speaker

3) the verb you are using e.g. learn versus study, see versus watch.

Vocabulary

On board delivery

take over (from me) = to assume control/responsibility/management of something

Homework

Find a text (written or oral e.g. an article, or short interview or podcast) and notice all the uses of the present perfect simple and peesent perfect continuous. Why has the speaker/writer used these tenses?

Find a good monolingual dictionary to download as an app or to use in desk top form on your computer (e.g. Collins). Set it to the "learner" version. This will be a great source of words and how to use them.  http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-cobuild-learners

ANIA B2.3 Lesson 16

Class

Workplace Communication error correction - extra word exercise

Speaking skills - team building discussion - functional language

Corrections

Areas to work on:

Zero article when speaking generally.

Suffixes: noun, adjective, adverb

Participles as cohesive devices e.g. starting a sentence with an -ing form.

Play (verb) Play a game.

Play (noun) See a play at the theatre.

Many people has familes X

Many people have families

Improve the communicate X

Improve communication

Pronunciation

Suggestion

Complicated

Relaxed

Vocabulary

So as = with the result/purpose

D'Amico Shipping B2 Lesson 22

Class

International Business Unit 9 pp. 70 - 71

Homework

Reading pp. 72 - 73

Vocabulary

Sales outlet (compare with outlet store or factory outlet)

Sales subsidiary

Distributor

To sell direct

To work out/negotiate a deal or agreement

To move into/enter a new market

To establish/set up a subsidiary

To acquire/buy up a company

To seek/look for a new market

To accelerate/speed up entry

Corrections

Spelling - commonly confused words
addition versus addiction

For all those students revising for exams

For all those students currently studying for exams (language/school/university or otherwise) the article on the link below is essential reading. It's not about how many hours you put in - it's about what you do. It's not about recognising, but recalling. Test yourself, practice the tasks that you will have to do in the exam and put your time and effort into learning what you don't know or can't remember.
The way you're revising may let you down in exams – and here's why by Tom Stafford
Tom Stafford is a lecturer in psychology and cognitive science at the University of Sheffield
Saturday 7 May 2016 09.00 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/may/07/the-way-youre-revising-may-let-you-down-in-exams-and-heres-why

Post CPE Lesson 23

Class

• Listening skills - the language of negotiations - discourse markers and functional language.
• Speaking skills - negotiation - contract formation. 
• -tion and -sion nouns
• Phrasal verbs

Vocabulary
Phrasal verbs:  find out, give up, turn down, fit in (with), set up, bring up, come back, give yourself away, watch out, point something out, go on, shut up, stand up.

non-competition clause
arbitration clause
franchise, franchisee, franchisor
Merger clause
A merger clause (a.k.a. integration clause) prevents a party from claiming the contract does not reflect the complete understanding of the parties after the contract was formed. Parties often attempt to do this by relying on pre-contract negotiations or oral agreements after the contract is formed. The merger clause ensures that the written contract is the complete agreement between the parties. A typical merger clause will say, "This agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties." - See more at: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/merger-clause-lawyers.html#sthash.u7D5Ieok.dpuf

Going Further

• Phrasal verbs - transitive and intransitive phrasal verbs http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/mechanics/phrasal-verb-and-idioms/5/intransitive-phrasal-verbs/  separable and inseparable phrasal verbs http://esl.about.com/od/businessenglishvocabulary/a/Separable-Inseparable-Phrasal-Verbs.htm
• Negotiation - functional language and role-play. http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/37881077/Negotiations
• Negotiations - advanced features http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/41183559/Negotiations%20-%20Advanced%20Features

Homework
Prepare for negotiation role-play.