Monday, 26 June 2017

D'Amico Shipping B2 Lesson 27

Class
Presentation - Valerio
Peer feedback - Stefano
Tutorial - Stefano
Reading Skills
Finding the right people pp. 56 - 57
Gapped text & sentences

Going further: Why the modern world is bad for your brain. 
Following on from Valerio's thought provoking presentation about the pros and cons of digital technology you might be interested in this article from The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/18/modern-world-bad-for-brain-daniel-j-levitin-organized-mind-information-overload
The article is quite long, so you could break it up into sections. Also, there is a lot of difficult vocabulary so you might want to do the vocabulary exercises below (using a monolingual dictionary e.g. Collins online) before you read.

VOCABULARY SKILLS
PHRASAL VERBS
To keep up, catch up on
WORD COMPLEMENTATION
To stay on task
COLLOCATION
Match an item from A with an item from B to make a collocation:
A: Answer, Send,Twitter, Check, Look up something, Facebook
B: Feed, update, the phone, an sms, your email, on the internet
FIXED PHRASES:
Stay in touch, take a break, some sort of
IDIOMS
Scramble your brain, take its toll, wreck havoc
LEXICAL PRECISION
dollop, glob, bit, mass, piece, portion.

How are each of these different?

Thursday, 22 June 2017

D'Amico Shipping B1 Lesson 27

Class
Presentation - Martina

1. Learner Skills - Reflection - What we have learned from our colleagues' presentations
2. Vocabulary Skills - confused words 
The difference between fun and funny

  • fun (adjective) If you describe something as a fun thing, you mean that you think it is enjoyable. If you describe someone as a fun person, you mean that you enjoy being with them.[informal] It was a fun evening. What a fun person he is!
  • funny (adjective) 1. Someone or something that is funny is amusing and likely to make you smile or laugh. 2. If you describe something as funny, you think it is strange, surprising, or puzzling.
The difference between so many (a lot) and too many (more than can be dealt with)

3. Language Skills - talking about present and past habits
Language skills: expressing habit in the present and past:

Present Habits:

  • Present tense + always/usually
  • You can also use will for typical behaviour and the present continuous for habits that annoy the speaker
  • To be used to doing for something that was strange but is now familiar
  • To get used to doing for something that is still strange but becoming easier

Past Habits:

  • Would + bare infinitive (action verbs only) to convey a sense of nostalgia
  • Used to infinitive (action and state verbs)

Vocabulary 
Whistle (noun and verb)
Fireworks
Security checks/searches e.g. (full) body search, bag search
Lower/drop (ticket) prices
To bet on a game/match
To cause problems (note the collocation)

Going further
Listen to this podcast about Totti's retirement from Inside Europe.
The Final Whistle for Francesco Totti
http://www.dw.com/en/inside-europe-the-final-whistle-for-francesco-totti/av-39080790

Monday, 19 June 2017

D'Amico Shipping B2 Lesson 26

Class
Presentaion - Marta
Peer Feedback - Loredana
Tutorial - Valerio

Recruitment and Training Unit 7, pp. 54 - 55
Vocabulary skills - word forms.

Vocabulary
Graduate - note the difference in pronunciation between verb and noun forms.
The noun is pronounced /grædʒuət/. The verb is pronounced /grædʒueɪt/.
Candidate - note the difference between U.S. and U.K. pronunciation or when candidate is unstressed in fast connected speech /ˈkændɪˌdeɪt/ /ˈkændɪdɪt/
Recruit n.b pronunciation of the vowels ui /u:/ not a dipthong as suggested by the spelling.

Homework
Revise your tenses with 6 Minute Grammar
Download or listen online here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0553j0v
Take notes and then do the quiz. 


Thursday, 15 June 2017

ANIA B2 Group 8 Lesson 18

Class
Past and present habits - recap
Vocabulary skills - personality adjectives, false friends.
(Source: New Headway Upper Intermediate pp. 79 - 80)

Vocabulary
Easy-going
Mean (2 meanings: (1) unkind/bad tempered/cruel (2) unwilling to spend money/tight/stingy)
Absent-minded

False Friends



D'Amico Shipping B1 Lesson 26

Class
Presentation - Antonio
Tutorial - Martina

Speaking skills - group discussion - smoking and e-cigarettes

Language skills - verb structure
Stop to do
Stop doing
What's the difference between these two sentences?
I stopped smoking because it was bad for my health.
I worked all morning only stopping to smoke a cigarette around 10:30.
Which action is being stopped? The smoking or something else?

Other verbs which can be followed by an infinitive or a gerund but with a change in meaning:
Remember to do
Remember doing
Which verb happens first? The remembering or the doing?
Like to do
Like doing
Which structure describes something you enjoy? Which structure describes something you think is a good idea?

Vocabulary:


Wednesday, 14 June 2017

ANIA C2 Group 6 Lesson 19

Class

  1. Exam Skills - Listening Part 4
  2. Reading & Use of English Part 2
Vocabulary
to set an example
to keep something under control 
it's beyond me = I can't understand it 

Homework
Do the Part 3 task and exercises included in the handout - if you need answers, send me a message in the comments section below. 


ANIA C1 Group 5 Lesson 19

Class

  • Discussion - Architecture - Skyscrapers - the pros and cons of modern developments in run down areas.
  • Exam preparation strategies
  • Reading - Paper 1, Part 6. 
Vocabulary
run-down
to sit up and take notice
it will take some beating = it will be difficult to find something better
blend in
spring up
a stroke of genius

Homework
There is lots of exam practice material free on line. Try the following:

For the reading tasks why not try the procedure we talked about today. Read the text and then devise your own questions to the text. Then compare your questions with the questions in the exam. 


Going Further
Today's reading exercise, "The Pinnacle"was most probably based on The Shard in London. Read the article below - what similarities can you find?


The Shard London – Tallest Tower of London
http://londonbeep.com/the-shard-london-tallest-tower-of-london

See also https://www.the-shard.com/shard/a-vertical-city/