Wednesday, January 29th, 2014

 Good afternoon LINC 7,

Today we are going to do some more on-line listening using TED Talks.  I would like you to follow the link below to the talk entitled, "Bryan Stevenson: We Need to Talk about an Injustice." This talk is 23:41, so it will be possible to listen to it twice if necessary.  *DO NOT enable the subtitles in your language.

http://www.ted.com/playlists/15/the_pursuit_of_justice.html

Here are some vocabulary words that will hear in the talk:

matriarch, enslaved, y'all, hung up on, probation, parole, distort, culpability, disenfranchised, litigation, lynched, unconscionable, degraded, marginalization, conviction

• After you have listened, please research these people who were mentioned in the talk: Vaclav Havel, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King.  
• What is the connection between these three people and concepts of 'identity' and 'injustice'? 
• Please write about the connection between these three and identity and injustice.  Which one do you identify with the most? Why?

This weekend, there are two special things happening.  Friday marks the beginning of the lunar new year, also known as the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival).  

         恭禧發財

Here's some interesting information about the festival:

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/535951/20140126/chinese-new-year-2014-wooden-horse-facts.htm

This year is the year of the horse. 

Sunday is Groundhog Day.  Don't forget to check the news and see whether Wiarton Willie sees his shadow or not. 

Enjoy,
Kim

Paraphrasing

Remember when you are paraphrasing someone else's words and ideas, change the words but not the ideas.  Here's a picture to help you remember. :)








Page 135, Task 7, Practising Paraphrasing


Here are some example paraphrases created by previous LINC 7 students:

1.  Vaccines are safe for almost everyone although very rarely there are people who experience adverse reactions. (original)

• Immunizations are considered safe for every single person even though they have negative effects for some.
• Not very often, people have a negative reaction to vaccines.
• Vaccines can cause severe reactions to a minority of people in rare cases.
• Some people have bad reactions to vaccines. However, vaccines are okay for most people.
• Vaccines are good for people, but some have a negative reaction to them.

2. Some mild side effects are experienced by most people after they are immunized. (original)

• After immunization, most people usually have mild side effects from vaccines.
• Most people  have mild side effects when they are vaccinated.
• Mild side effects occur for some people after vaccination.
• Even though there are people who have negative reactions to immunizations, they are still good for the majority.

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

Good afternoon LINC 7,

This afternoon, I'm going to give you some time to practice working on paraphrasing and modal verbs.

You can continue to work on the handout that I gave you in class. Here's a website that you may find helpful with your paraphrases:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/


When you're finished, you can work on those pesky modal verbs:

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalintro.html


Finally, here's a chart with the meanings of modal verbs and examples.

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

Good afternoon LINC 7,

This afternoon, I'm going to give the chance to practice the vocabulary used to describe graphs and charts. Please begin by reading the example paragraph from the text about the graph we looked at yesterday.

The graph shows the number of telephones owned per thousand of the population in different countries over a five-year period.  Overall, the phone owners per thousand of the population varied considerably.  However, numbers tended to fall in countries with the highest level of phone ownership whereas numbers generally rose in countries which had fewer phone owners in 2000.  By far, the highest level of phone ownership was in Singapore where just under 430 people per thousand were owners in 2004.  This figure is slightly lower than the 2000 figure of around 460 per thousand.  In Brunei Darussalam, the second highest levels of phone ownership were recorded, and the numbers fluctuated around 250 per thousand level across the five years.  Countries like Cambodia and Vietnam has much lower levels of phone ownership, and these increased up to 2004 rather than decreasing.  In the remaining countries, the number of landline phone owners remained below the 100 per thousand level between 2000 and 2004.

What do you think about this example?
  







More Vocabulary for describing graphs/charts:

http://www.dcielts.com/task-1-2/trend-vocabulary-ielts/

Please read through this page before trying the exercises in the 'Test Yourself First' section.

Next, you will be doing some listening practice from the Longman TOEFL cds. On the Main Menu, click on Skills, then Listening, and finally Pragmatic Understanding.  Please complete as many as you can from Passages 1, 2, and 3. 


Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 18th, 2013

Hooray for the holidays!

This afternoon, I'm going to give you the chance once again to choose what you'd like to work on. Here are some more of my favourite websites for practicing English.                                                                                                                       

Grammar:

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html (Verb Tense Review)

http://www.grammarbank.com/verb-tenses-practice.html (Verb Tense Review)

http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/writing/handouts/Verb%20Tenses.pdf (Verb Tenses)

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/askaboutenglish/

Listening:

http://www.englishpage.com/listening/

Pronunciation:

http://www.evaeaston.com/

IELTS Preparation:

http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/free-practice-tests

For those of you celebrating Christmas, a very Merry Christmas to you and your family! Happy New Year and a Prosperous 2014 for all of you! 

Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

Good afternoon LINC 7,

Today, I'm going to let you choose what you would like to do.  I have posted a number of links for a variety of different skills.  Please choose the ones you would like to practice. 

Canadian Heritage Minutes:
http://www.gotaminute.ca/

101 Things Canadians Should Know About Canada:
http://www.101things.ca/

Grammar:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/grammar_challenge/  (Various grammar topics)

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/quick-grammar (Various grammar topics)

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/grammar.htm (Various grammar topics)

http://www.grammar-monster.com/ (Various grammar topics)


Pronunciation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/phonemic-chart

http://esol.britishcouncil.org/pronunciation/identify-stressed-syllables (Syllable Stress)

http://colorvowelchart.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=
article&id=47&Itemid=56  (Colour-coded vowels)

Listening:

http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/esl/lessons.html  (Canadian context listening)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/  (6 Minute podcasts)


IELTS Practice:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/about-the-exam/ (General information and practice questions)

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

Good afternoon LINC 7,

This afternoon, you're going to continue practicing with pronouns.  First, you'll view the PPT slides and then practice the interactive exercises.  I will give you a copy of the handout to go with interactive exercises, so you can keep track of your answers and check them.

http://www.chompchomp.com/presentations.htm

Start with:

1. Pronoun Case- 4.7

2. Pronoun Agreement- 4.4 

Once you've finished with the pronouns, you're going to move on to speaking exercises.  This website gives you examples of the three parts of the IELTS speaking exam, as well as sample answers for your to listen to.

http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-your-test/free-practice-tests/speaking-practice-test-1/speaking-part-1

Enjoy!