sábado, 26 de octubre de 2013

Class: 25th / 26th October

Unit 7: Health

Can-Do Objectives: Talk about health problems and treatments
                              
Pages: 68 - 69

Grammar:
Passives and participles;

Referencing and substitution
(THIS vs. THAT)

Vocabulary:  sick leave, maternity leave, compassionate leave, premature ejaculation/birth, miscarriage, comfort food, over-the-counter, drugstore, slipped disk, withdrawal, prescription, WHO, STD, GP, DNA, contraceptives, emaciated, psychiatrist, scientist, gifted, genetic predisposition, fabric, hay fever, stroke, painkiller, lozenges, stark

Homework: As many of you many still do not have the workbook that goes with the textbook, I will not assign any exercises there. BUT!!!! You do have homework. First of all, I would like for all of you to go to the link below and fill out the life expectancy questionnaire. Read each question and chose the option that best describes your situation. However, DO NOT REGISTER to obtain the result. They might even try to charge you money for the result. I will not assume any responsibility if you decide to go ahead and do it. As you do complete the questionnaire, ask yourself what questions you think are ‘useless’ and if there are any other questions you would add.

No! I’m not done! I also request that you watch the TED Talk below. You don’t have to be a scientist to follow it. I will ask specific questions about it during our next class.

Russell Foster: Why do we sleep?


lunes, 21 de octubre de 2013

Class: 18th/19th October

Dear All,

It was a real pleasure to meet you. I hope the feeling is mutual. Anyway, as soon as I get all of your e-mails, I will send you the calendar of our academic year. I urge you to miss as few classes as possible because missing one class means missing out on a whole lot of content. You will feel lost and it is the worst thing that can happen when trying to learn anything. (Hopefully, this blog will minimize this.)

As I explained in class, the marking criterion is as follows:
10% of your mark (grade, in American English) is participation;
30% corresponds to homework, blog, etc.;
10% the Oral Project; (I shall explain more about it further ahead in the course.)
10% the Mid-term Evaluation
40% the Final Exam

We will be producing 8 written pieces of work in an attempt to improve our writing skills. We’ll look at punctuation and organizing text content as well as fine tuning our understanding of tone and register.

I plan to work a bit on pronunciation for a couple of important reasons: 1) if you can’t pronounce properly, no one will understand all the wonderful and sophisticated words you are producing; and, 2) you’ll understand far more of what native speakers are saying because you have a better idea of what to expect.

One of your classmates suggested taking a look at the blog below. (Thank you, Carmina.) It might frighten you at first but it is very useful. We’ll take a look at it in class at some point during the course. http://allphonetics.blogspot.com.es/

In preparation for next class (25th/26th October), I would like for you to watch a TED talk by chef Jamie Oliver and find out who Dr. Ben Goldacres and what it is he has to say that is so interesting. (In other words, google him.)

Jamie Oliver: Teach every child about food


(Click on Show transcript at the bottom of the image window to see the talk written out.)

Finally, please don’t forget to bring any photocopies/hand-outs I give you to every class. We will often refer back to these.

If you have any questions about anything, you can contact me at auroracsim@gmail.com.