Delitzsch course

[Daniel]

Hi Roberto,

Relying on your last report I had initially planned to review a couple of points that the class has already been introduced to. It turned out somewhat diffently.
In the morning I had them listen to an employment interviewthat they also read and acted out in a basic way after that.
It contained examples of almost all the grammar points you had covered so we started reviewing simple and progressive forms in the present, the past and the present perfect tenses. Since for many of them there were still many points unclear we spent most of the rest of the day elaborating a kind of chart that juxtaposes the different forms for the different tenses and sorts of sentences. As an example we formed sentences with the verb 'to travel' went through the various usages of the above mentioned tenses.
At last we also talked about a joke that featured some of the aspects covered.
I had a little argument with Eckhard because he was receiving a couple of phone calls during class again but we didn't really reach a result although (may be because) the rest of the class supported me.
In general it might be more useful to focus on a limited range of points to work through in one day so that students are less in danger of mixing things up.

Have a good week,
Daniel

[Roberto]

Hi, Daniel, D-class teachers,

November is coming to an end. On the last days we have reviewed a lot of all important grammar aspects, specially verbs and pronouns (indefinite e.g: some, any). Please review the present perfect simple vs. simple past tenses as well as their corresponding progressive forms. I will give you more details this evening. In addition, they should be familiar with a lot of telephone phrases and the telephone alphabet used in GB.

Regards,

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi, Daniel, Hi, D-teachers,

this week is coming to an end again. Here is a short report about the covered topics this week:
- business text: first impressions, your own business, enterprise, telephone phrases and more business vocab
- present perfect simple versus present perfect continuous.
- simple past versus past progressive
- use of any/some and other indefinite pronouns
- time expressions and some useful time prepositions: their use: at, on, by, until, till, for, since, throughout.
- much/many; some comparative forms/superlatives
- use of some collocations, verbs + noun: make/create an impression e.g. etc.
- review of basic vocab and other grammar structures (frequency adverbs, word order in a sentence, negative sentences, questions etc. )

You should continue practising the present perfect vs. past, both simple and progressive forms, perhaps some simple business letters.

Have a nice day tomorrow!
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[Daniel]

Hi, Roberto, Hi D-class teachers,

You've noticed, Roberto that I copied your address line. One reason is that I don't know what will be happening tomorrow. I was asked on Friday if I was coming.
We spent most of the morning reviewing simple and progressive forms of the past tense and the present perfect and their respective differences in use. We did this by way of jokes that groups of three or four studied, then somewhat acted out and presented to the class who in their groups had been workiing on different jokes.
Then we worked through a letter of acceptance sample from an employer that required them to fill in the correct prepositions most of which were part of time expressions.
In continuation of what we had done last week we added basics about the will- and going to-future tenses to the overview of verbal forms and roles in sentence structures.
At last we did a small exercise featuring some basics about the will-future and the composition of a short company memo.

Enjoy teaching them,
Daniel

[Scott Graham]

Hi Daniel, Roberto and D-Class Tutors,
It was nice to be back and see the progress of the ss, as the last time I was there, even though some of the ss are quite weak in speaking English, there was quite a lot of willingness to take part in the tasks.
I began with an exercise, How do you say it? Which is included:

-Speaking on the telephone.
-Asking someone to explain something.
-Asking for time off work.
-Apologising

I then went a bit more in depth with telephone conversation.
I explained how to deal with native speakers who may speak to fast on the phone and how to be sure you get all the information correctly.

With the aid of a worksheet I took them through taking messages, which included the ss working in pairs and writing their own dialogue of a telephone conversation in a workplace, they then acted this out for the other ss to take notes.
I got them to think about the important factors:

-Ask the caller to slow down, POLITELY!
-Asking the caller to repeat things.
-Repeating the important information back to the caller like the Name and Tel. #.

It was a good day and as I said with the majority of the ss participating freely.
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Roberto,
I left my large dictionary on the desk in the classroom there could you please put it in the desk I will get it next Friday when I return.Thanks
Scott
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[Roberto]

Hi, D-tutors, Hi, Scott, Hi, Daniel,

November is closing their doors and I hope that the last month of the year will start successfully for everyone, both students and tutors. Scott, please complete the register book for last Monday. Your dictionary should still be on the desk. I told some of the students to remind you of it.
A brief report of the last three days:
- Review, the usual brainstorming and mind-mapping exercises, memory training: family, weather, computer, office, cities and towns, colours
- use of "difficult" prepositions, easily confused (for, at, on etc. ); linking words often used in business correspondence: either...or, both.....and, however; further, according, while, whereas, therefore
- standard phrases in business letters, e-mails, faxes: I look forward to hearing from you soon; I am interested in (+ verb-ing); please let me know if; I am enclosing...etc.
- salutation versus complimentary end: Dear Sir and Madam etc; Yours sincerely, Yours faithfully.
- Formal language versus informal language: synonyms used in correspondence: reply, response : answer; request, query: question etc.
- writing enquiries, offers, orders.
- verbs: modal and auxiliary. Politeness with the help of certain modal verbs: can, could, may, will, would etc.
- politeness and political correctness: avoidance of sexistic or sarcastic language: using they instead of simply he or she. Using he/she.
- some common abbreviations: asap/ASAP, RSVP, e.g., i.e., etc.
- Dictation of a fax. To confirm a reservation etc.
- Review of usual telephone phrases.

Some of them are getting more and more the feeling for the language and are interested in learning more after the course. They should keep on practising verbs in the most frequently used tenses, especially the most confusing for German speakers, such as perfect present vs. simple past: there are cases where the German speaker uses present and English present perfect. This matter is still confusing for quite a few. The same applies to prepositions such as on, at, for etc.

Enjoy the Friday with the D-group tomorrow. Next week we will be in the Dübenerstr. next to the petrol station.

Regards,

Roberto
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[Torsten]

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Hi everyone, let me know if you can hear this voice message. Thanks. Torsten
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[Daniel]

Hi Roberto, Hi Scott, hi D-class trainers, Hi Torsten,

First of all Icould not hear the voice message. apparently some plugin needs to be installed which I didn't do for I'm not sure how to handle it on my system.
As to class last Friday it was a good day again though a couple of the students were missing.
In the morning we focused on exercises on the past and present perfect in simple and progressive forms which to some extent was done by means of jokes.
This led over to a basic introduction of reported speech. Most students found some aspects of it quite dificult to cope with but got familiar with some general points.
We went on with a listening exercise on horoscopes involving future tenses as well as instructions, advice or recommendations given in indirect form. We had already been working on phrases and formation patterns related to these issues in the context of reported speech.
To close the day we taled about how students figure their future in different respects.
That was my last day there and all in all it was a great experience teaching these folks. I'd like to underline once more that they're the most committed group I've been with so far.

Regards,
Daniel

[Roberto]

[Torsten]

Hi Roberto,

That's because your browser doesn't have Java installed. Java is free so you might want to consider installing it. Have you read the information on the following page? How to record and listen to voice messages?

Regards,
Torsten
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten,
Yes I can hear the voice message fine.
Scott
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[Torsten]

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Invoice template.
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Roberto, Daniel all D-class tutors,
Today was quite a good day apart from all ss appeared to be very tired (maybe they all went to the same party)
But after a bit of motivation they started to participate more.

I started the morning with simple warm up Questions eg
-What did you do at the weekend?
-Where did you go on your last vacation?
-did you see your friends at the weekend? if so, where did you go?
-Whats your favourite Movie?
-What food do you like the most?

I explained the questions and gave examples by giving my answers. I then asked ss to work in pairs and ask each other the questions, then they gave the answers to the rest of the class. This was quite a good way to promote conversation.

I then gave them a wordsearch which contained 15 hidden profession's, then we went through each job individually making sure everyone understood what they were. As I expected the only one that gave them trouble was 'Chef' due to the false friend in german for 'Boss'. Once we had understanding the students in groups discussed the following:
-what is the role in this job?
-where does the person work?
-what equipment do they use?
-pros and cons of the job?
-would the ss like to do the job, why/why not?

We then discussed this all together and we looked at the differences between England and Germany in these jobs.

To finish the day I got the ss, to look at their dream job in the same way, and I gave them an example paragraph for them to explain this to me.

Only one thing it was useful to have the internet at times but sometimes I had to pull the plug as a few ss were doing other things rather than the task in hand!!

Regards scott
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[Roberto]

Hi, everyone,

in my opinion the D-class had a happy end. Everyone got an AFI-certificate for their language skills. I enjoyed having taught them for quite a couple of weeks. I wanted them to learn to think more in a foreign language, to acquire more language fluency. I hope they did and I can make sure that most of them were successful indeed. Eight hours per day, even nine hours is really hard, but it is not impossible. We got used to this new routine, doing different kind of exercises such as reading new passages, short interesting articles not only with regard to business life (the essential part of the course for beginners), writing short presentations, short useful texts and in the last week personal CVs, also going out for a while to walk a bit in the fresh air and communicate while going on foot to different parts near the school, such as the supermarket where we used the opportunity to practise the vocab regarding going shopping, e.g. The last week was focused more intensively on reading, understanding, writing business letters e.g. applying for a job, cover(ing) letters, CVs etc. The age difference was not an obstacle, on the contrary, I tried to make use of everyone's potential and talent, so that we could share everyone's experience in class. One of my main goals was to create a pleasant, friendly atmosphere and become aware of our own creative power when learning a language or generally anything. I am glad that the group showed a positive attitude and remained motivated till the end of the course. One of the participants said she would apply for a job in England next and would manage to get by well there.
I would also like to thank the other trainers, Scott and Daniel and hope we will keep in touch and continue working together successfully.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas 2008 and a Happy New Year 2009!
Cheers!

Regards,

Roberto
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