CAE link

I just found a link that looks pretty good on the Oxford website.
It is chalk full of exercises to try out.
Let me know what you think of it.

Holidays

As I write this, one of you will be on holiday already. This picture is dedicated to you :-)
Others will be going away soon to other places, while still others may be staying home, hoping to get lots of things done during the coming two weeks.

I've left ideas for all of you to do, whether you go away or stay here. Look at the different exams, try out links, or write us a postcard while enjoying life at the beach, etc.

The idea is that using your English is even more important than practicing it. Sharing with each other is more valuable than doing something that is only for the sake of the teacher. That's the way I see it anyway.

I'm hoping that by the next lesson there will be more here than my own posts. A post can lead to discussion, so for example, if you don't agree with my statement above, say so! Write a comment expressing your opinion or dedicate an entire post to it.

But most of all, enjoy the two weeks of freedom you have. Get a book and relax in the sun, or go to the movies and have a good time with friends.

I'll be glad to see you all again in mid-October!!!

comments or posts?

HI everyone
Even someone like me runs dry.
Do any of you want to add something here? A question, a story, an invitation, anything at all!

I'm learning about social networking, so have lots of ideas now to bother you with ;-)

See you next week!

The "Nature" of Words

In class we quickly looked at words and problems involved in choosing the write word form. One example I gave was 'nature'.

You can see how words are used, and especially what words often come before and after these words by using a concordancer. A concordancer is a tool that accesses a HUGE databank of language that has been collected from many sources. The word is found and you get a list of excerpts using this word.

I tried it with 'whereas' and these are the first 10:

001.NO. 1 NEWBURY PORT, MAY 30TH, 1791_"WHEREAS, a Bridge over Merrimack River, from
002. displeasure.You treat the matter lightly -- WHEREAS I myself was never more serious." "I t
003. escribed by Bonifacio and Lugiato {7}, WHEREAS the Ikeda degeneracy splits to yield puls
004. extraordinary effort to lift himself up by it", (23) WHEREAS Joe Gargery endures the shrewish onslaugh
005. rtrays the proximal radial epiphysis for boy 34,WHEREAS the same epiphysis for girl 2 is portrayed
006. military National Guard, they number only 4,400, WHEREAS the normal US garrison of about 10,000 me
007. tribes of south-west Siberia referred to above. WHEREAS in sparsely populated regions of the north
008. ice Frankfurter's famous doctrine of abstention.WHEREAS the earlier cases turned rather narrowly u
009. effectively got a dead short through an ammeterWHEREAS a a volt meter's got a a hun , a high er r
010. "ticks"' with eachtick equal to &formula;% and WHEREAS, prior to October 1986, a typical spread

I also found out that 'but' and 'that' are the most common words before 'whereas' and 'the' is the most common after the word. (stated at the bottom)
You can choose the corpus, which is the place the language is collected.

So play around with 'nature' and see what comes up. There is another concordancer in the list in the links. Maybe you can compare which you think is most useful. Should I put both in? Should I use only the link from here? Let me know.

Finally, in the links you have one that say 'synonyms and antonyms'. This is very useful for expanding your vocabulary. Have a look at it and the 3 possibilitites, namely to find words with similar meanings, to find words with opposite meanings, and to find definitions.

great blog!

Dear Illya

this blog is really great, thank you so much for doing it. I have looked up some of the useful sites and they are really helpful, thanks for this again. Days should have more then 24 hours, at least 2 or 3 hours extra for learning English... for the case, that you find a special site, witch helps install such an extra-time, please tell me :-)

so, I'll leave you now, have to do some homework....

Greets
Maria

Rorschach blot tests

Okay, here's another task for you.

What do you see? Leave a comment (or leave another blot to comment on :-) )
and then you can also 'analyse' the meanings behind what others see.

If you're up for a bit of fun, this could be quite amusing!
To see what it reall is, read here.

New links and other news

As you can see, I've added the newest homework to the side, and I wrote Oxford University Press to see what they have to say about the key to the Student's Book. Please have patience. I'll also get the answers to the grammar section to you soon.

I've added a couple of links to the side bar.

FAQs for your questions, and your answers or suggestions are equally welcome. They are first on the list at the wiki.

Then I've found an excellent blog called Daily English Activities. The activities are all online, giving you a lot more practice in listening and you get the visual effects as well.

Then there's the Vokker link Maria gave us (thanks, Maria!) to collect vocabulary.

Finally, how ever do you keep up with the newest additions? Do you have to keep going back to them again and again? Do you forget the links too?
There is something called RSS (really simple syndication) that lets you know when blogs, wikis or other websites have been updated. The easiest and most practical I've found is: http://feedblitz.com/
This sends you an e-mail to let you know that there is something new on the sites you are interested in. If you are more advanced, then the best one I know of is Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
but you have to open the program to see if there is anything new.

You'll find these all in the links - happy surfing :-)

letter from Marina

Dear Illya,

I'm so glad I can attend your class. And I really hope I will manage the exam at the end. I was impressed by seeing the real test we need to pass at the end of the year. So I know what I need to learn!!! I want to do more than I can. I couldn’t finish my homework yet but I hope to manage it till tomorrow!!! Because I really need to do it. I realize it will be heavy studying this year! But I'm still very motivated just because I really want to learn English. I like this language and the people who speak this language.

I'm interested to get to know all of you better. So I'll just let you know something about me:

(according to the homework on the page 13 J)

Hi, my name is Marina. I was born in Kleinwangen. It is a farmer village near Hochdorf. After my obligatory school time I spent one year in the Welsh part of Switzerland. I did the teacher training school and afterwards I taught third grade for two years in Schüpfheim . After two years I had enough and I had the possibility to teach in the jungle of Peru, which I finally did for the two following years. Afterwards I was in different countries to help in different projects. I enjoyed it very much. I have enough of travelling. And I'm happy to settle down in Switzerland. I never thought I'd be living so near my home once again. But I do now. I'm living in Hochdorf. I'm very happy for my job in Rothenburg, my own flat and my first car. For me there is so much luxury in our country I really enjoy being here… and learning the language properly as I desire!

Actually there is a lot more to tell but for sure there will be another chance!

So I wish you all a good Monday evening! Till tomorrow!

Your new classmate J Marina

Hi everybody

It was really a great start. I'm looking forward to next Tuesday.
I couldn't put all the adjectives to the names or the faces but I'll try again next time.

See you all tomorrow

Dear Illya

Thanks a lot for your simpatico nature, you have made my day and the start of this adventure called CAE-cours as well.
I really enjoyed the first lessons, and I agree with you, it was a positive vibe. It's quite late now and that's a good excuse to not have to write as much as you did. Ok, the excuse won't hold the water (nice expression found by leo.org), and holding water would be useful now, when I look out of the window and hear the raindrops' sound on the leaves of the beech.

I guess the your-CAE-blog will be helpful, especially to look up the homework, but the links as well. I'll have a look soon again. Perhaps to write something or to read the others statements, I'm curious. And I hope there aren't to many mistakes now in my text. But as I mentioned above, It's quite late!

See you all

Great start!

I felt last night was a great start and hope you all felt the same way. A friendly atmosphere is condusive to learning and I've learned that generally the better a group gets on, the better the test results are.

Just to help you out with the names, here are the adjectives that were use. Can you put them to the names, or even better to the faces?

lovely, serious, yodeling, motivated, inquisitive, lovable, joyful, kind, sadistic? (no, social) sometimes nice, musical, yellow, allergic, lovely, midnight-learning, motivated (again), and one person still needs an adjective.

As you can see, I've added the homework to the sidebar, but beware! I change this every week.

I've also added a section with links to the tests so that you can find out about them and try them out.

Now I'm looking forward to reading your reviews and hearing(reading) more from and about you!

Preview for next week: we'll be working with dictionaries, so if you have an English-English dictionary, please bring it in, and if you don't, this coming lesson will help you choose one.

Now I'd like to end with a question. In the homework I mentioned a place to troubleshoot (in different words). Have a look at the link on the right that says 'CAE wiki'. Could you imagine using that for problems, questions and to help each other out? I'd be there as well, of course.

Well, that's all for now.

See you next week.

Something about me

One of my favorite places is Sardinia (hence the picture of Sardines!)
I love this island and one of the reasons why is that it is an island. The inhabitants are much more within their own culture. Sure they're Italian, but they are different and much less willing to make compromises then they would probably have to be on the mainland.

One of the funniest books I've ever read is 'The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs' By Alexander McCall Smith. I don't think I've ever made such a fool of myself in the bus than when trying to hold in a laugh while reading. It's about oneupmanship and is simply hilarious. A German professor, Dr Moritz-Maria von Iglefeld, accepts the chance to give a talk in the United States, but has unfortunately been confused with the late professor Dr. Iglefold. This starts off a series of events that make his life difficult. It is a simple book to read, but thuroughly enjoyable.

I'm sure you'll find out more about me during the course, and of course I'd also love to find out more about you. So leave a comment and tell us about yourself :-)

Looking forward to the first lesson

Welcome!

I'd like to welcome a new class to this blog.
As you can see, it's been used by another class, and I'm hoping they will drop in every now and then and say hi.

Why do I have this blog? Well, I'd like you to have a place to communicate with each other and go beyond the artificial use of language in the classroom.

This is a place for you to be creative, to communicate and share with the others in the class, or to get ideas and links to help your individual learning process.

If you are acquianted with blogs already, then I'll gladly invite you to contribute right away - just leave a short comment. If you already have a blog, then I'll gladly add it to the blogroll on the side.

If this is a new area for you, then look forward to learning about something new. In my opinion it has the power of taking 'learning' to new levels, of going beyond 'learning' and into 'using'.

So, what can you expect here? I'll be leaving the homework on the side, but this is only a very small part of what it is about. Every week I'll encourage you to leave a comment or a post about a topic, although you can choose to write about whatever you want. It won't be corrected here as I'd like to stimulate true interaction. However, you can always send me your texts to be corrected if you prefer. Or you can open your own blog and write there, and I'll link it here.

To begin with, I'd like to invite you to leave a message by using the 'comments' button.
You can tell us something about yourself, about your expectations, what you are most looking forward to, what you worry about most, or anything else you like.

And to set a good example, I'll start.

I am looking forward to learning from you! In all my courses I find that, though I may be the expert in English, everyone has some new knowledge to offer to the whole class. It is this sharing and learning from you that makes the course so interesting for me.

Truly over, but not forgotten

Now that this class is really finished, I'd like to extend an invitation to you all to keep in touch. I'm considering using this blog for the next class if it's okay with you.

If I do, it would be a great possibility for you to continue using it to help the others in the new class and to keep up practice yourselves.

I also want to thank you all for being so patient with me and helping me in my learning process as well. I too learned a lot, which wouldn't have been possible had you not been willing to join me in this online-learning adventure.

So this is not good-bye but simply "Auf Wiedersehen".

The best to you all
Illya

A quiet Tuesday evening

Oh dear, whatever should I do with my time this evening? How strange to have a free Tuesday evening after so many weeks of class.

So I am writing to you all to tell you once again that you are a wondeful group. I still have my roses on the table :-) Thank you again.

I also want you all to know that you have made so much progress that those of you going for the exam will surely do a good job.

Remember on Saturday to listen to English radio, an audio book or anything else in English to get you into the language. Meet well ahead of the exam, get together and talk to each other. Have a laugh and relax.

Then enter the exam feeling confident - yes! you can do it!!!. Speak loud and clearly.
If you don't know what to say then say so, but make sure they know you've understood the task.

Good phrases are:
Oh, that's tough one. Hmm. Let me think. So I'm supposed to.. I really don't know what to say about that.

Generally, you'll think of something to say after you've said you don't know what to say :-)

and remember, I'm here for you all the way up to the exam.

Wishing you all the best!!!!!

THANK YOU

Dear Illya

tomorrow will be our last evening in your class, incredibly! I know, it was not always easy! Nevertheless, you've prepared very interesting and varied lessons to keep up our motivation. By the way, I learnt not only more in English! As soon as I have more time I will update my blogs! And by all the work we had to do, there was always time for fun and laughter.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Next class dates

Okay everyone, just to make things ABSOLUTELY clear, here are the last few dates for the course:
6th May! (changed!!!)
13th May
20th May (last course date)

And then you have the speaking exam.
If you want to get some practice in on the 27th, that can be arranged. I'll be at home and we could get together on Skype. Think about it and let me know.
It's very simple to download if you do want to practice. The more the merrier!

Is anybody there? (missing homework)

Has anyone noticed that I completely forgot to write the homework for week 26?
Did anyone besides me read Norberta's latest contribution?
Is there anyone out there?

I hope you're not all tiring now that the weather is finally turning a bit (expression chosen carefully!) friendlier.

So, here are a few things you can do:

Go to the wiki and find the letter of complaint.
There you can improve on it or simply leave a comment about what changes that would need to be made and why. On second thought, this is a rather good idea! You get to be the experts. What all is wrong with it?

In the WB at the back there are several pages on word transformation.
Find negative words beginning with dis- and im-.
How many are there? Which ones didn't you know before?

Work on unit 12, including the writing task.

Finally, does anyone have any advice to give to the others? (it doesn't necessarily have to be related to the exam) Any wishes? Any bets on who our dear Norberta wanted to be Mr. Switzerland???

the opposite of a dull saturday evening

It has really been a long time now since I have written something on our blog. So I do not want to withhold you from this special evening spent in Sedrun.

As always when I am at my parents home, we like to spoil each other by cooking special meals and drinking a good bottle of wine. It happened therefore, that I was lying lazyly streched out on a warm stove after a delicious meal my head feeling dizzy. Against our plan to go to the village having another cup of wine with friends, my sister and I decided to spend the Saturday evening at home.

When we had a look at the TV program, we noticed that there was nothing else than the Mr. Switzerland event life on our screen!

Except the show beeing boring and the presenter making jokes no one laughed about, it was quite funny. We enjoyed looking at these self-confident young men. It was great fun to watch them posing self-convinced in front of all the spectators. And we had a good laugh seeing them walk and dance robotically for whole Switzerland.

We started to guess which of the candidates would arrive up to the final. How relieved we were about some beeing send home. And how sad I was, when the jury decided to end my favourite's carreer as a Mr. Switzerland...

http://www.misterschweiz.ch/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=234

But I won't reveal my secret...

Have fun guessing and looking forward to seeing you tomorrow evening!

Norberta

Happy Easter fun!!!!

Happy Easter everyone!!!!
It may be the bunny that brings the eggs, but the chicken has to lay them first. Therefore, I'm putting a game here dedicated to the chicken this Easter.

Go to the link below or the picture above and see what you can get the chicken to do.

What can the chicken do? Leave the commands that worked as a comment and we can then count how many different commands we came up with.

http://subservientchicken.com/

Sorry for not getting your podcasts to you on time. I just need an our or two more in the day, but will get to it straight away when I'm back from having some holiday relaxation.