Delitzsch course

[Scott Graham]

It looks like the group have been making good progress, as I expected. I will be with them for next couple of weeks and am looking forward to it.

They are a very lucky group to be able to work with trainers from such a variety of countries and cultures.

Scott
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[Roberto]

Hi dear English teachers,

the weekend is opening its doors again, and I hope it will bring good luck, peace and lots of creative ideas for all of you! I'd like to give you a new report on the last two days I spent with the new group in Delitzsch. They are still motivated and want to learn, although they sometimes feel a bit overchallenged, specially the beginners in the class. As I tried to explain more business vocab to them, they said they would prefer to repeat more basic language aspects. That is why I reviewed the following grammar categories:
- auxiliaries: do/does/did and negative forms.
- modal verbs: can, must, may. Their replacements such as "be able, to have to, to be allowed". The negative form: mustn't = nicht dürfen.
- phrasal verbs: exercises with: turn/put/take/get verbs, among other things. > turn off/on/down/up; get on/off/into/up/down etc.
- the verb "to have" and "have got".
- the negation "no" and "not......any". The short form "n't".
- the word position in a sentence. I had every pupil translate some "simple" sentences into English and write them down on the whiteboard. Then we discussed the word position, the relevant grammar and lexical aspects (style, variants etc. ).
- irregular vs. regular verbs: simple past tenses. -ed/d. Exercises (bought, flew, threw, put, was/were etc. ).
- irregular plural forms: mice, men, countries...etc.
- topics covered (both basic and business vocab) in the class in the form of "cross word puzzles", brainstorm exercises and other activities: giving directions (right, left, straight ahead, please turn..., stop sign, petrol station, traffic lights, can/could you tell me...? etc. ), shops/stores, business, retailers and wholesalers, purchase and sale, agreement, deadline, etc.; CVs, employment, corporations/companies. IGOR founded a company he named "Potatoes Union International Incorporation" with subsidiaries in a lot of cities worldwide. We enhanced the vocab regarding a company structure (book Business Basics). 51/52
- the usage of some prepositions: by, with, at.
- the progressive form of the present tense vs. simple present. The ending -s and exceptions (modal verbs).
- pronunciation and spelling exercises. Some homophones: by, bye, buy: boy, buoy, air, heir and hare.
- signal words as a help to put in the correct tense (present and past, present perfect): always, seldom > yesterday, ago, last....> so far, ever, up to now....
- any and some.
- other activities: guessing cities from English-speaking countries. Question-and-answer-sessions. Learning or refreshing words through known songs: I gave a keyword and they had to find out a song containing this word: Love, door, children, money, girls, boy, woman etc. . I was surprised that they found it out rather quickly.

I wish a lot of fun with them to the trainer who will be teaching this class next week. I told them it might be Scott. Review some aspects again, they should gain more and more self-confidence with the English language both in the written and the spoken form.

Regards,

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi Torsten,

shall I teach in Delitzsch next week? You sent me invites for two different classes (Delitzsch and Eilenburg).
I have another question: do you know who could stand in for me on Wednesday 15th? I was asked if I can interpret for a company from Spain the whole day (German-Spanish).

I've tried to reach you by phone recently.

Regards,

Roberto
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Roberto, I'm in Eilenburg next week and your in Delitzsch for the week.
I will give you an update tomorrow, we were in the centre on Duebener str this week, we had no register or day book so could you please organise that next week as your in the normal leipziger str.
Regards
Scott
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Roberto,
It's no problem for next Wednesday, enjoy the last week with this group. Most of them have come along leaps and bounds.

Kind regards
Scott
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[Roberto]

Hi Scott,

thanks for your replies.

Regards

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi Scott,

you wrote in a previous mail that it is no problem as for Wednesday next week. Does it mean someone can stand in for me on that day?

Regards

Roberto
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Roberto,
Yes it's no problem, on Wednesday Bryan will be taking this group.
I will do the update for the last 2 weeks this evening.
Kind regards
Scott
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[Roberto]

Hi Scott,

thanks!!
Have a nice weekend! When are you flying to England again?

Regards

Roberto
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[Scott Graham]

Roberto,
To be honest I'm not sure when I will go to England again, but maybe at the end of August.

You have a great weekend too, lets hope this rain passes and allows us to get some rays!

Regards

Scott
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Roberto and all English Team Trainers,

Roberto as I mentioned we were in the computer room in the other AFI centre last week, so we had no register or day book so please could you update this. For the register the group have there absence slips and will inform you of any days out they had.

Monday 29th June
English – German crossword.
Handout (vocab. and phrases) ‘At the beach’.
Book pg. 54 – 57, looking at present cont. Vs present simp.
Company activities

Tuesday 30th
Hangman
Reviewed: Pronouns
To be and To have
Classroom phrases
Reading exercise ‘The breakfast that never ends,
Book pg. 58 – 61, Describing trends, presentations using visual aids and word stress

Wednesday 1st July
Vocab. building, I asked the group to compile a list of 5 useful everyday words and report to the group giving translation where needed.
We looked at a Jamie Oliver recipe which we translated. Then each person wrote a recipe in the past tense.
Contractions
Professions- we compiled a list of professions and discussed each one, looking at factors such as equipment, location, pro’s and con’s and whether we would/wouldn’t like to do these jobs.

Thursday 2nd July
More group vocab. building.
We reported what we did last week, then I explained the future using will/going to, and we then reported on plans in the future.
I prepared a dialogue of an interview which we used for role-play then we discussed more expressions and useful language used in an English interview.
Book pg. 62 – 65, Descriptive adjectives, exchanging personal news and talking about a trip.

Friday 3rd July
Group vocab. building
Reviewed ‘this week so far’
I also explained some common slang used in England.
Adjectives and their opposites.
Using What is/was it like, to ask for a general description.
Today a very old and important steam train (The Saxonia) was passing by the centre so we went outside to see it during our lunch break. When we returned I asked the group 2 questions:
1.What was the Saxonia like?
2 What was it like for you to see the Saxonia?

We moved on Monday 6th to computer room.
To start the week we had a session of 20 questions, I gave each member of the group a person, place or thing. The rest would have 20 questions to try and work out what they were thinking of. This is a great warm up and really promotes interaction and conversation as well as reviewing those all important question words and phrases.
For the rest of the day I gave them a project to work on in pairs ‘Planning a business trip to London’.
I told them I’m their CEO and need to travel to London for a conference; I gave them the dates, the location of the conference, some free-time plans and more importantly a budget. They then in pairs had to organise the entire trip from transport(no taxi’s permitted) to accommodation and buying theatre tickets. It included using the web and making phone calls. This was a great exercise in a practical situation.

Tuesday 7th July
20 questions.
I got the group to register with English test, and we looked at and completed some of the tests as well looked around the forum.
I also showed the group ‘Leo’ and ‘Dict’ which are very useful online English-German dictionarys.
We then returned to the book pd. 66-69, Making arrangements, using present cont. For future, dates, ordinal numbers.
I then explained the structure and use of past continuous.

Wednesday 8th
Today had the theme of ‘Getting a job’.
We talked about different mediums we can use for finding a job.
We then looked at www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk and each person searched for a job (relevant to their experience. We they reported about to the group giving such information as, job title, location, wage, work pattern as well as a description of job and requirements.
We then spoke about personal quality words.
Next we looked at writing a letter in English, including format, salutations, friendly closes and other useful language.
For the rest of the day they started to prepare a letter of application for the jobs they found on web.

Thursday 9th
To begin with the group finished their letters which I helped perfect. They all expressed the usefulness of having something like this as a template for the future.
We looked at writing a C.V. in English.
Book pg. 70- 73 ‘Getting connected’, using the telephone, useful and polite expressions and idioms.

Friday 10th
By request we had our last session of 20 questions.
‘Buying something’, we looked at language used when we want to buy something.
I then gave the group a website to find a 2nd hand car within a certain budget and in a specific location. Once they found the car they worked in pairs to create a telephone dialogue, asking for information about the car.
We finished the day by reviewing all thing s we have looked at.

Have a great week with them Roberto, there is still plenty of grammar they need to look at such as conditionals, passive/active and of course tenses which most things we have briefly spoke about when they have come up but obviously we have quite a short time with this group. To be honest I have tried to concentrate on simple communication and conversation in useful situations.
Scott
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[Roberto]

Hi Scott,

thanks for your updates. I'll review some of the aspects you covered in the last two weeks and certainly introduce new ones. I've prepared 13 vocabulary exercises (tests) + 13 grammar/expression tests related to the contents of the book Business Basics.

Enjoy your weekend, although it is not sunny.

Regards

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi, Bryan,

I would like to update you on the last two days in Delitzsch in der Leipzigerstr. (AFI).
You should perhaps review with them the following grammatical aspects:

- passive and active forms both in present and past tenses
- comparative forms with and use of the words than / as in this context
- the conditional form with "would".

I reviewed the most important issues covered in the book "Business Basics" in the form of tests. So we spent both Monday and Tuesday mornings (until about 12 o'clock) doing grammar, vocabulary and expression exercises and translating such texts.
On Tuesday in the afternoon we played hangman and read and translated a text on "how to operate a suction pump" on request of one of the participants.

On Monday, we discussed aditionally a text provided by the Britisch Embassy in Berlin about "Important Facts about Great Britain" The difference between GB and UK.

Have a nice day with them tomorrow!

Regards,

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi Torsten,

how are you? I hope you are well. According to the English-test-net Google-calendar, I don't have any appointments next week. It is o.k so, because I have to translate more than 50 full pages from English/German into Spanish. Other short texts shall be translated into Italian/French/English.
I'll post more details on the forum about the final two teaching days during the intensive six-week English course in Delitzsch as soon as possible.

Best regards and have a nice weekend!

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi dear English trainers,

I'd like to summarize the main points covered in Delitzsch on the last two days (the six-week intensive course).

Apart from a review of the main aspects of the book Business Basics we made an overview of the basic grammar aspects:

- the complete pronominal system in the English language: personal pronouns (I, you, he etc.), object vs subject pronouns (me, you, him, her vs. I, you, he, she etc...), demonstrative pronouns (that, this, these, those), possessive pronouns (my, your, her, his, our, their...), indefinite pronouns (some, any), relative pronouns (that, which). Practical exercises (mostly oral exercises)
- an overview of the English verb system: present tenses, past tenses, future tenses and the would- conditional tenses.
- review of the 100 most important words used in the English language, i.e., some important pronouns (see above), verbs (say, be, can, must, take, go etc.), prepositions (in, at, on, with, to, also as an infinitive marker etc.), conjunctions (or, and, but etc. ), adverbs (frequency adverbs: often, usually etc. ). and important nouns and adjectives. We used at this point the opportunity to construct sensible sentences in English according to the English syntax rules (e.g. position of some adverbs, modal verbs + infinitive)
- the comparative forms: -er....than; more......than; as/so......as
- important nouns according to different semantic fields: clothes, means of transportation, animals, correspondence, towns and cities, fruits and vegetables, routine, traffic etc.
- games in the class: hangman, crosswords

We spent the Friday morning doing some general language tests: listening comprehension: true/false answers, completing the blanks, "odd one out"-exercises, crosswords, multiple choice questions etc.. Spelling and pronunciation; differences between American and British English. One hour before the end of this six-week intensive course we watched a video about Ireland. The participants obtained their AFI-certificates (English for Beginners + Introduction into Business English).

Most of the participants were not satisfied with the choice of the book. They had not expected to learn Business English, they said to me. That is why that they felt overchallenged at some points. In the run of this last week, I stressed, however, the significance of dealing with Business English, especially, writing application letters/CVs/résumés, giving a presentation or talking about one's company. In addition, I reviewed the most important aspects of the "Beginners' English skills", regarding both grammatical and lexical aspects. We read of course also texts about the geography, history and civilisation of the UK, GB, Ireland, USA.

Regards and have a nice weekend!

Roberto
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