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| THE FCE BLOG by Claudia Ceraso Updated : Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:28:15 +0000 Punctuation Punctuation matters. Period. Is that all? Well, you may say: Don't stop. Or Don't, stop. There's a difference, right? When I read, I don't like wondering what you meant. I want you to spell it out to me. Writing is about making it easy and enjoyable for the reader. I usually tell my students that when they plan a paragraph, they are signalling a road for the reader to have a pleasant journey. Extending this journey metaphor... "Think of punctuation and mechanics in terms of driving your car. Punctuation and mechanics provide direction and signal the information to which you need to pay attention. Without punctuation and mechanics, phrases and sentences would run into each other and would be unclear, and your writing would go virtually nowhere. The purpose of punctuation and mechanics is to make your meaning clear by telling the reader when to pause, when to stop, when to take notice, etc" (I found it here.) The power of punctuation is better explained by examples. Then you need some general rules. Above all, you need exercises! The Purdue University website has a good menu to cover the punctuation you need to know. If you find that too much, you may wish to do a quick quiz instead. In the middle of your writing, you may need to consult a guide about specific punctuation marks. This one is quite comprehensive. This one is faster and has exercises. A quick cheat-sheet to have near you while you write could be this Oxford site. Last, but not least... Beware the use of apostrophes and unnecessary quotation marks! Too much? OK. Period. Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Fri, 01 Jul 2011 02:38:00 +0000 The FCE Blog: A Tutor Blog What is this blog anyway? Am I teaching here? Is this a teachers' blog? I am certainly not giving any homework. That is for sure. If you ask me, I would just say this is a blog for students -which teachers may like of course. Some of them have commented they have found inspiration here. I believe blogs are meant to foster reflection and create conversations; therefore, it is the target reader that defines them. Yet, the best teachers are lifelong learners who can always remain learners. So, to be more precise, this blog is from a learner to learners. Wherever you are. Newsletter We are pleased to announce to our readers that The FCE Blog has been included as the Tutor blog example in the book How to Teach English with Technology. The book is part of the 'How to...' series directed by Jeremy Harmer and was published by Longman Pearson on 30 April 2007. Teachers who read the book will probably need concrete examples of what blogs can do in ELT. You will read there about Carla and Dennis with their fantastic International Exchange blog. This is how we are introduced: 'A blog set up and maintained by a teacher is known as a tutor blog. The teacher may decide to allow their learners to write comments in the blog. The one on page 89 (top) is an example of a tutor blog set up by a teacher in Argentina for her Cambridge First Certificate Examination preparation class. In the blog she provides study tips, reviews class work and provides extra links on specific topics such as pronunciation.' A Reflection I started this blog on my own in March 2006. I gradually got to know I am part of a lively and ever growing community of ELT bloggers. Here are some of my teachers. The FCE Blog...A tutor blog... Hmmm. What do you learners think? ........................................ I would like to thank the Authors Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly for their positive revision of our work. A special thanks to Katy Wright, Pearson Publisher, for her kindness in our email exchanges. Longman Pearson has offered to make a donation to a charity of my choice in acknowledgment of the permission to reproduce a screenshot of the fceblog. The money donated will benefit the intensive care unit at Hospital de Rehabilitación Respiratoria 'María Ferrer' in Buenos Aires. For all they have done for Daniel -to whom this blog is dedicated. . Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Tue, 15 May 2007 01:44:00 +0000 Vocabulary Feeds Your Thoughts are Hungry for Words Vocabulary is food for thought. If your mind is well fed, then you will be able to frame your ideas in speaking and writing better. There is probably nothing as frustrating as to have a gap in your vocabulary. Those moments when you want to explain something in a foreign language and the words simply do not come. To enjoy becoming a speaker of a second language, we need to eat words well. It is important to vary the ways in which you try to incorporate new words. There is no best method to learn. Yet, if learning can be action, the practice becomes more effective and meaningful. Learning words is not about memorising. Not even remembering. Do you remember how you learnt every word you know? When you learn, you simply transform yourself. Learning is a cycle. Learning vocabulary will require consulting dictionaries, exploring new contexts for a word in your readings on the Internet and finding examples. A bit of decontextualised -some mechanical or repetitive- practice may also help. One day you may surprise yourself using richer words in your writing. That's when a learning cycle ends giving way for another one to begin. Did you know your learning can also transform others? Learn Free vocabulary & Give Free Rice Learning is a powerful thing. The people involved in this initiative launched on the 7th October 2007 understand it well. Their mission is to help provide food for people in need while you learn. "For each word you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger." http://www.freerice.com Click there and you will find an ongoing multiple choice test. It is challenging for both: advanced students and native speakers. What is so interesting about this site is that it shows an example of learning both ways. You learn by choosing and the machine learns with your clicks too: FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place. Click here for details on how playing the vocabulary game helps you and others. So let's play and feed ourselves! Attribution Thanks to Lisa Parisi for the link. Image: DSC_5596 - Vocabulary by theglauber http://www.flickr.com/photos/theglauber/416091822/ Copyright notice Unless otherwise marked, the posts at The FCE Blog are copyright protected. You may not reproduce entire posts without written permission from the author. As the United Nations WFP is asking to spread the word, this post is copyright free. So if you do not have time to blog, with this footnote I am allowing you to cut & paste portions as needed. Please attribute: via The FCE Blog. Reproduced with permission. If you use the hyperlink of this post (http://fceblog..blogspot.com/2007/10/vocabulary-feeds.html), your blog spreading the word will be listed here so that we can read you and comment! View blog reactions Thank you! Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:53:00 +0000 Thank You 2007 Students End of 2007 Academic Year Dear Students, In an hour we'll meet again one last time. I wanted to write this post to thank you for sharing this learning experience with me. I also remember the people who had to drop the course. You certainly have taught me much more than you are aware of. I would love to share some good news. Our last post on del.icio.us got a Our open classroom spirit is felt by teachers also. I want to thank Carla Arena and Alison for their collaboration spirit and ideas. I think you'll see our Collaborative Projects section of the wiki grow in 2008. What will happen to our wiki? I hope it grows and grows.Our wiki is a heritage project. By which I mean, that future students will a) Benefit from your extensive production (so far over 160 pages). Your samples will be their study material. As such, they are as valid as the coursebooks you have used. b) Edit your work. Our Collaborative Edition section is a work in progress that future students can improve, mix, remix, add... However, this is not just for the benefit of others. Although your portfolio samples will be protected from further edit, discussion forums remain open. Forever. By subscribing to your own pages, you will learn what students-to-come think of your work. You might as well learn over their shoulders by reading the conversations your work inspires. You see, same time and same place are no longer requirements to learn together. When we are online, we are in a third place. I am happy you now know how to tag, RSS and open wikis. I hope you continue playing with Netbives and Flickr. Remember to think before you post. I know, I know. This is the time for another kind of advise. For the killer exam tips and nervousness management! I hope that by now, you feel that, although a challenge, this exam is doable and you are well equipped to succeed. Now we know that what we need is not a collection of tricks, but some knowledge, a set of tools and sensible use of them. I hope that more expert voices, such as my last year students, drop their comments here and we all learn from them as well. Oops! Time is up and I must cease. Much love and success to all my students -past and present. Claudia Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:08:00 +0000 End of Another FCE Year 2010 While my FCE students were speaking in class today, I couldn't help noticing how much they've grown. Do they realise? They sound much more confident with the language in spite of the inevitable errors here and there. They look calm and yet excited about the challenge ahead. I think that if they could access to a film about the exam date details, they'd ask to watch it! Only to perpetuate insecurity and exam nerves. But that is far from what I want them to focus on. I needed them to stop thinking about exam dates, rooms and strict regulations. So I asked them if they would like to be part of my next year class. I said that with a years' experience of sweating towards improving their foreign language skills, I consider them experts who can provide valuable advice to my next year students. So, why not Skype them in sometime? Most of them said yes immediately. Others were pondering whatever that Skype call could look like. I expanded. As my new courses will share the inherited writing Corpus wiki, future students may like the way they write and wonder how well they did at the exam, what kind of tips they would be able to give, etc. In short, they could be either interviewed or consulted as mentors. The look on their faces when they heard the idea is still on my mind. Hey teachers who also read this blog, Have you ever asked your students to teach with you next year? Do. It's worth it. I must say is I'm glad this course started with success and ends with a seed of a project. I want to give a special thank you to all of my 2010 FCE and BEC Vantage students for their enthusiasm, patience and commitment to carry on. You've certainly been a pleasure to work with. Remember the door of the blog is open for you to carry on learning at your pace. If you feel so inclined, leave us a comment. For some, I can add that I'll catch up with you all on Twitter or the Facebook page. Related Post Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:29:00 +0000 The CORPUS Wiki The Students' English Corpus The FCE Blog expands into a wikispace to enable new learning experiences. In previous posts we have featured some of my student's best sample answers to illustrate parts of the exam. I thought it would be a good idea to provide a collection of sample answers by sharing everything my students are doing in class. Our learning formula derives from Einstein's E = mc² English is energy which requires a mass of practice at the speed of creativity. What is this wiki about? In a nutshell, lots of practice! For a more detailed intro, find the section of your interest (whether you are a student or a teacher) directly from our wiki: About this Project. Why would you be interested in reading it? Because we will be building a guide, a corpus, of authentic Sample Answers. Mind you, not just examples of finished letters and compositions. Oh no! We believe writing is a process. We want to share the process of writing, our debates and the learning we have been gaining all along. Wikis are learning gardens A wiki is a kind of web page that allows for multiple users to upload and edit pages. Although it is similar to a blog, there are some differences. Every wiki page has a Discussion tab and a History tab. That is precisely where the learning process is registered. Huh? I do not get it... Let me explain with an example. Here is a sample letter of application written by Lucas.
It might sound complex at first, but believe me working in a wiki is easy and fast. This Corpus wiki is a garden full of flowers. I think it will be difficult for us to pick out the nominees for the Awards! Sample Answers Awards The best samples produced will be published in The FCE Blog either as featured examples or as part of the Sample Answers Awards. Winners will be chosen by the whole FCE class, who will scrutinize their own work under Cambridge assessment rubrics. Tough job. Can I take part in this? Yes, you can. Your sample composition could be published in the wiki or the fceblog. Email me to ask for the participation rules. fceblog (AT) gmail.com The Corpus Wiki Editors The edition of the wiki pages is only for wiki members -namely, my students. Of course you can always leave us a comment at the fceblog and let us know what you think. Hope you enjoy digging into our learning ground. Claudia Ceraso Blog Editor Wiki Gardener Image source http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php via Desde Murcia Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sat, 26 May 2007 08:42:00 +0000 Pre-writing Last week I asked my students this: If you were writers, what would you write about? I got some puzzled faces for an answer. At least, I got them to wonder. Perhaps the word writer has an aura of profession that a few gifted people can pursue. This post aims at demystifying writing and -perhaps- bring it to your door. Today 20th October is the 1st edition of the National Day on Writing. Clicking around their tips for writers, I came across this guideline called Determining What to Write About (pdf). The guide is short and worth reading through. Here are three samples. 1) I find this advice very useful for writing stories for the exam. Some students focus a lot on big events worth telling, which only lead them to writer's block or the impossibility of doing so in roughly 140 words. "Think about 'small moments' of life to expand and explore rather than creating large, involved stories" 2) The other complaint I hear from students and teachers who correct compositions is the predictability of the ending. When the story is too fantastic, we know the cliché closing line: abrupt waking up from a nightmare. You needn't try to be that original anyway. "[...] Most of the time authors decide what to write about from examining their personal lives and interests or by examining the work of other authors and making parts of existing material into something new and different." Notice that it must be new and different. That is what leaves plagiarism out. 3) The number one obstacle when learning to write for an exam is probably losing the pleasure of writing. You have to find a way to get into your writing. It's a personal road. My favourite quote from the guide is definitely this one: "Choosing topics or experiences that you care about will develop a sense of 'you' which only you can create." So before I end this post, let me share new options for reframing my original question... I should think of asking you: What reading topics are so interesting that they make you lose track of time? What are you keen on? What would you like to know more about? What is your passion? If you could share a bit of the learning you've made reading something you love, what would that be? For more inspiration on pre-writing: Developing Ideas for Writing from the State University of New York. Study Guides and Strategies for more than just a pre-writing stage. The guide at Purdue University for writing at advanced levels. New questions for you (because I am curious): Writing on paper or at the keyboard? Do you know that there are electronic versions of the exam? OK. That's for another post. Do you identify with the opinion of the blog picture author? "Call it brainstorming, prewriting, or jotting, this is what I usually do before I start writing. I think a lot better and faster with a pencil and a notebook than I do at the keyboard. Sometimes it's specific thoughts, other times it's free ideas. A lot of times I take a conversational tone with myself while taking notes." Image credit Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:25:00 +0000 Exam Day: The CIS I've noticed that Cambridge past papers books bring sample answer sheets at the end. However, there is no sample copy of the CIS, which every candidate must complete before the start of most Cambridge Suite exams. What is the CIS? CIS stands for Candidate Information Sheet. Is that a part of the exam? No, it isn't. Actually, it is a survey about the exam candidates. Your answers in the CIS will not affect your marks. What kind of questions does it include? You'll be asked about the following:
Turning over the page, there are two more questions: -What's your country of origin? -What is your mother tongue? Do I have to write a lot? You'll be given multiple choice options, so there is nothing you have to write. You simply choose as appropriate. I do not have any copy of the CIS with me. This is all I remember after invigilating today. Have you taken the FCE recently? Help me complete this post with your comments. Thanks! Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:47:00 +0000 Word Count Analising your text- Word Count In your FCE exam, all written answers must be between 120 and 180 words. When writing under exam pressure, it is important to count words and not to lose time. How do you count words? Here's the trick: train your eye. On paper By the time you sit for an exam you should know how many words in your handwriting fit a line. If you must count, do not count word by word. Select two or three lines of your text; count the words on those lines. Obtain the average and then multiply by the total number of lines. Much faster. On the computer When you practise for the class, you may use your word processor to do the word count. (Tools>Count Words). There is also a toolbar in some versions of Word that will update the count when you make alterations. Online! My students are writing on a wiki which does not include a word counter. It is quite uncomfortable to open Word just to cut and paste your sample and check on the total number. Here are a couple of websites with word counting tools http://www.wordcounttool.com/ http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/countwords.shtml How many words is too much? Let's say that 10% more than the total mentioned in the exam rubrics is as far as you can go. If you have written a remarkable piece, a few extra words will not affect your mark. Let's count! Related Link Time Yourself! Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:38:00 +0000 Spelling (Yeah, it's important) Students are sometimes surprised to learn spelling mistakes count when you are an advanced student of English. They prefer to focus on more difficult structures as if they were the only important things. Spelling is a detail, right? Well, this is what studying for standard exams can do to your priorities. Remember it's not the exam, but your English what counts! Let me put it this way: If you write with fairly good structures and vocabulary, what does bad spelling say about you in that context? Probably carelessness. There are so many tools that will help you identify poor spelling with a red line underneath that not doing anything about it is plain lazy. Now watch this (you may have received the sample text via email), So, why does spelling matter? Becuz badd spilleng is hrd two undstnd wen u reed it. Because when you write, you do so not just for yourself but for a reader. Good communication is not an intention, it is the real effect we make on another person. Little time to write or our haste to pass a message quickly are just excuses unless you are texting from a busy street. Bad spelling is communication noise. OK. Let's get down to learning. Google can be the first place you go to check if a word exists. We are assuming you already suspect you are mispelling it. Most of the times, we may be unaware of our mistakes, so you probably need a tool to help you with two things: -identify the mistake -suggestions for correcting it You can try cutting and pasting your text here or here to get a report with suggestions. That's easy. However, spell checking tools are not enough. Homophones -words with the same pronunciation, but different spelling and meaning- escape the scrutininzing eyes of the tools. There are a lot! Check them out. Mastering spelling takes time and patience. Somehow, you need to keep track of your frequently misspelled words. Boring, I know. Maybe it can be fun, too. I really like the way the people at SpellingCity.com help you to learn. You can create your own tests based on the words you have problems with. There's plenty to do in that site. Do you make any of these frequent spelling mistakes (Hush, but native speakers also do!)? Last, but not least. There are differences in spelling depending which side of the Atlantic Ocean you are at. With so many sources to read English, you are probably mixing British and American styles. Are you? Happy spelling! Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:48:00 +0000 Our Two Facebook Spots To: All fcebloggers, my dear students, teachers and people who generally love learning. From: Claudia- (also known as fceblog) Subject: It's official. We have two Facebook spots! This is not strictly new. In April 2009 I decided to open a couple of places in Facebook to keep in touch with FCE students. It surprises me to see people finding it on their own. I thought it was about time to announce it here as well. The FCE Blog is extending its online presence. Welcome everyone to the group! This is a new online adventure. It's about leaving digital footprints. It all started in March 2006 with this blog, then a Corpus wiki, now Facebook... We'll see how this develops. I thought it would be a good idea to start by joining some of my former students, now FB friends, who have always been a source of inspiration. Thank you all for joining. For the new FCE generations, I guess it is better to have a meeting point which does not oblige us to befriend each other to have a conversation. -Why Facebook? you ask. -Why not? OK. Several reasons. 1- Although Facebook was not created to support learning, I know there are many lurkers who like this blog, but do not actively choose to participate of a blogosphere. There is no need for them to do so. They are spending time connecting and networking on Facebook. Learning is a conversation, I would like to extend this conversation of autonomous learning to where you are already. 2. Privacy Why befriend the teacher? Why befriend all of my new classmates when I hardly know them? Facebook groups allow us to stay connected, yet not sharing all of our online space visibility. 3. This is about you This blog has been my own printing press. The wiki, my own class Facebook group is all about you. 4. International voices and collaboration So I look forward to seeing your interests, hearing your voices. If we find a resonance, we'll stick together. Hope it becomes the spot where an international project springs (with a little help of a teacher somewhere...). I have always been pleasantly surprised by people wanting to connect in order to learn. I'm ready for more. What do you say? All best, Claudia Twitter: fceblog Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:42:00 +0000 FCE Listening Practice through Dictation The word dictation probably brings to mind images of old, dull teaching practices. However, dictation has long been proven a learning device for foreign language students. To mention but a few benefits, dictation can: -help you obtain a list of words you usually misspell -give you practice in note taking (FCE Listening Paper, part 2) -foster thinking in the new language. Every learner's dream, isn't it? Now, none of these benefits will happen unless you are motivated to practice dictation. If you choose how to practice it and try to vary the exercises, you'll focus more on its benefits rather than getting bored in a few minutes. Here is a choice of websites to browse. This site gives you three options of practice: jotting down the first letter of a word only, the whole word or a fill in the blanks with a bit of context to help you. http://www.listen-and-write.com/Here you will find dictations with real life English videos. British accent throughout. Perhaps you'd like to try dictations from texts first. Then, the graded dictations at http://www.fonetiks.org/dictations/ can be the place to start. For a quick practice at the word level only, try http://www.learnenglish.de/dictationpage.htm How can this practice help me develop listening skills? Many students complain that listening is one of the most difficult parts of the test. Indeed, English has an isochronous rhythm that languages like Spanish do not share. Dictation can help you at the level of the sentence, the words, the division of a chunk of speech into sensible units. For the FCE level, however, all of that is taken for granted. You will be asked to make assumptions, establish connections and not simply recognizing sounds and words. So, if listening is your stumbling block, why not get some dictation practice to help you break such a big task into manageable portions? Image source: Verifying Dictation by mpujals Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:54:00 +0000 Short Stories Reading Short Stories Where's the muse? The best way to get inspiration to write is to read stories. What kind of stories do you like? Children's, crime, fiction, horror, humour, non-fiction, romance, sci-fi? Here is a great site with all these genres -some of the stories are just two pages long! http://www.short-stories.co.uk What makes this site so interesting? -you ask. It can turn your reading into something social. Here you can recommend stories; you can also see if other readers have rated them or commented on. You can take part in the community of readers while you practise your English in a real context. The site is neatly organised. You can browse the library by category or search by title, author or keyword. Stories can be read online, printed or downloaded for reading offline or on handheld devices. You can also keep track of the stories you have read or mark them for later. Tip for FCE candidates who wonder...Is it possible to write a short story in 180 words? Click on Fiction, for example, and go to "list by lenght". You will find examples of one-page short stories! Short indeed. If you like an author, you can easily access more stories by them. Now what blows my mind away with excitement is that you may get in touch with some authors. Haven't you ever dreamt of talking with your favourite author? ................................ Important Note: Related Posts Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:24:00 +0000 Text X-ray Essay Reading and Writing Reading comprehension is quite a challenge for some students. First of all, it is hard to distance yourself from your own culture and the possible interpretations that can force into a foreign text. It can be learnt, though.That's something that takes a lot of reading in original texts or dialogues. Next, we need to recognize the anatomy of a text. You need to learn to develop an X-ray view of a it. That is to say, learn to see the logical nodes, the progression of ideas, the links. Forget about the details or the specific content. I'm talking about learning how it is that a text flows naturally while making sense. So the idea is to learn to identify this with the aim of improving our capacity to read and eventually write a sequence of organized paragraphs. This link from Victoria University of Wellington will help you to do just that. What you will learn: -Identifying topic sentences -Rearranging sentences to form a paragraph -Incorporating sources -Types of paragraphs: introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. This online 'course' might take about two hours of your time to complete. It's simple basic knowledge of how to go about an essay or any article paragraph. This is a recognition exercise before you try your hand at writing. At FCE and BEC Vantage level, I'd say this knowledge is sort of taken for granted. Make sure you get the basics! Improving reading and writing go hand in hand. Hat tip to Carl Dowse for sharing the Academic Writing link in his Business English wiki. Image source: Related post: Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sat, 16 Apr 2011 19:24:00 +0000 Formal and Informal Language Formal and Informal Language The point is this. You may write correctly and be out of place. We are not writing to pass a test (only). We write because we want to communicate; we want to get results or a reaction from the other person. At this level, you need to understand the difference between:
Sounds complex? For example, it is not the same to ask "where do you live?" at a job interview or at a bar when meeting friends. Watch this (just 25 seconds). See? It is very different. The style, the register, can vary in a not-always linear scale going from very formal to colloquial. What can be somewhat difficult is for a non-native speaker of a language to become sensitive to those differences in a variety of contexts. To get that 'feeling' of a language, some people say it is necessary to live in the country where English is spoken. I'd say, not necessarily. Here's why. To get that grasp on a language, you have to become perceptive to situational variables. It is not enough to say, "I've heard it. So it exists." It is vital to hear it in context. So how do we learn this?, you ask. Build context to what you hear. Learn "When to say it". OK. But how? Every time you see films, or travel, or read in English pay attention to the following:
You need to attach this information to the language you want to learn. It's crucial. Now, please do not expect a clear line to divide everything. A letter of application is formal by definition. However, if you want to get a job as a DJ, you would not be so formal as to get a scholarship from a university. There are degrees. Nothing is final in a language. But there are patterns you can -with time- distinguish. It is this attitude to listening for context that will teach you more than trips. And practice of course! So let's go... Some links: Here are a couple of downloadable pdf worksheets (with answers) from the BBC. These are a collection of handouts and exercises detailing characteristics of formal and informal writing. The Corpus Wiki has a page to enlarge on all this. Related post: English Grammar Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:59:00 +0000 End of School Year 2009 Dear Students, Yesterday was our last BEC Vantage class. Today is our last FCE class. I always have mixed feelings about ending a course. We've shared learning and laughter, for which you'll certainly be missed. On the other hand, I am glad for your achievement. As you know, language schools are not obligatory in Argentina, so it makes a difference to see people choosing to stay in class, motivated in spite of being tired of compulsory school exams for some as well as office work for others. I won't say something like: "Sadly the day has come for us to say goodbye..." because we are now connected in so many ways. I proposed a wiki and a blog, but some of you have surprised me with Facebook invites and even Twitter. You see, you've disrupted my online world this year. I welcome it. Last week we had a wiki recorded conversation about self-assessment. Your responses are material for my reflection. I want to do better next time. First thoughts on some things you taught me this year: -It is not easy at all to internalize the criteria for correction used by international exams. It is sometimes too abstract to picture in examples. -When you write outside the exam rubrics, with freedom of number of words or wider choice of topic, you show your real voices. You can even make grammar mistakes a teacher would have thought you wouldn't make at this learning stage. I think these cannot go unseen or unheard in a language class. -You like teacher's corrections. Even if there are many. Even if they make you tired of thinking. -You like reading what other students have done in the past. You look for real models. -You love investigating online. I've never seen so many hits to the online dictionary sites during class time. Now not all learning comes from the things I've heard or seen from you. There has been a silence this year about past papers. Anxiety levels to practice strictly in exam conditions went down.I've noticed you are all more interested in specific questions you have. You seem to follow your own learning paths. This is not the case with online followers of this blog, who tend to ask for links to past papers and listening practice. I wonder if that is a difference between studying with a teacher or studying on your own. It makes me re-think my teacher role. What is a teacher there for anyway? To end this letter/post... (snif, snif) Thank you for participating so much. I am grateful for every anecdote you shared. Thank you for being so curious, alert and fun. It has been my pleasure to be your teacher. Wishing you every success in exams and life, Claudia PS/ Do let me know how you did on your exams! I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. To the online readers of this blog, please share your exam experience in the comments. Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:13:00 +0000 Grammar Exercises Sometimes I wonder what visitors expect to find in this blog for First Certificate. I imagine them googling and landing here in search of learning, tips and practice. Just think. All of those students alone with a computer searching for exercises to improve their English. Just like you. Now, isn't it a pity we don't share our findings? This morning I woke up with world domination plans and thought it would be fantastic to pull the results of those searches and share them. Like it? OK. Let's take over the world! The action plan 1) Create a delicious account. See this post about online bookmarks with delicious. 2) Save all of the practice exercises you do online. We are also looking for songs to illustrate grammar points. 2) Share away. Be sure to use the tag tagtastic for all bookmarks to be included in this grammar exercises project. There we have it. A world-powered grammar notebook with exercises and songs. How Some help to get started Where shall I start looking for exercises? Here is a binder with some websites specialized in ESL or EFL exercises. How do I find songs to help me learn grammar? My students think of them all of the time in class. They make spontaneous associations while I teach grammar. If your memory is not so musical, you can try searching "example sentences" + lyrics + "your favourite band" in Google. Thoughts? Questions? All welcome. Related posts: Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:43:00 +0000 European Day of Languages (EDL) What Languages Mean to People This two-minute video was shot in the streets of London on the 26 of September 2006. It is a survey, but the street is rather noisy so I transcribe the questions on the video. Do you know today is the European Day of Languages? Do you think it is important to speak other languages? Is English the most important language to know? Would you like to speak other languages? What percentage of the population in the world speaks native English? What will you use English for? Hey! What would your answers be? On a side note- Sometimes, we dream the whole world could speak the same language. How simple things would be, right? OK. Suppose your wish is granted. But that unique universal language is neither English nor your mother tongue. Now tell me: How much do you think the world would lose for not understanding you? Now you know what you are missing. Related Post Check our previous post celebrating the EDL: 701 Reasons to Study a Foreign Language Linktribution My side note reflection is one I heard on a fantastic presentation called Cultures at the far edge of the world, by the explorer Wave Davis. I got there via an EFL teacher, David Deubelbeiss. Accessibility Find the interview video at YouTube. Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:15:00 +0000 Bookmarks are Tagtastic! How can our bookmarks bring us together? We all love surfing the net and discovering great sites. Then we bookmark in our browsers to find them again, we want to share with friends via e-mail (so last season!) and then... chaos. You like bookmarking so much the collection of links is unmanageable. Or worse, some computer crash makes you lose months of work at collecting! Ouch. Wouldn't it be great if we had access to the bookmarks of people round the world studying the same you are trying to learn? Wouldn't you like to contact people who have saved the same sites you did? Like-minded people around make a difference. Ok. Let's do it! The trick is this. Forget about the Internet as a source of information. The Internet is folks trying to learn just like you. When we decide to share, we can create a meeting, a folksonomy. We can find each other. Two key words here: a) Del.icio.us -the tool. You'll need an account. http://del.icio.us/ b) Tagging -the action. You'll associate key words to your favourite sites. What they are about and why they are important to you. Rule for good tagging: The more, the merrier! In this 3-minute video you will see where, why and how to tag. Video source Del.icio.us for us is I've always loved bookmarking. I think it was my first natural step towards online learning. Apart from my fceblog account to connect with teachers, I have created an account for my class. You can find it here: http://del.icio.us/tagtastic My students are creating their accounts and joining our network. If you are a student, save the FCE Blog in your bookmarks, write a message in the description box and we'll find you. Would you like to see what we are doing? Here is our wiki page on bookmarks. So let's tag away! Special thanks to ijohnpederson for helping me shape this idea. Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:07:00 +0000 Tandem Learning Finding your Learning Mates I often hear the question... Where can I practise my language skills with native speakers of English? I can almost see you nod. Using Skype, it is very easy to contact anyone to have a chat without being worried about your landphone bill. So first things first, get yourself a Skype account. Avoid fatal mistakes. Not everyone who speaks English likes being requested contact details in Skype just for the sake of practice. I'd say it is best to choose like-minded people first. People who are after the same objectives you have. Let's say, potential online friends. Guess what... People with like-minded ideas tend to get together somewhere in cyberspace. Key words to google here are Tandem Language Learning What is that? Simply put, I remember many years ago my then boss (and also my teacher of Greek) talking about something called tandem learning.The basic idea was that students learning each other's language could team up, taking turns to speak in their own language, then swop to the language they were learning. So, for example a Greek student would spend the first half of the lesson chatting or working with a German learning Greek and then in the second half of the lesson they would swop roles." From Teacher Dude's wiki. Now you wonder if you can learn like this. Well, it is important to give your expectations a reality check. It is not a formal class. So don't expect the other student to give you detailed grammar explanations of your mistakes. That's what teachers are for, right? Why is tandem learning valuable? Two things: 1)It is a unique chance to get first hand knowledge of the target culture. It is amazing to discover how different things can be in another country. It can help you see yourself for what you are: a global citizen. Collaboration and sharing. That what it is. Both partners should benefit equally from the exchange. You'll have to negotiate! 2)It is an autonomous learning experience. You decide when, how long, what about. You are responsible for your own learning, your goals, materials and methods. Some tips Here's a great site to help you plan your lessons. You get the same topics and questions in 10 different languages, so you can easily organise the bilingual halves of the lesson. It would be super if you decided to create a blog to record the experience. Take a look at this post from Carla Raguseo's and her Spanish and English Exchange. Nice, don't you think? OK. Now that you got it, let's find a learning mate! Sites to get started eTandem Language Learning in Tandem TandemCity Friends Abroad My Language Exchange Language Exchanges Polyglot Palabea Highly recommended Livemocha Kan Talk is a place to choose topics to talk about, then the people. Yet, tandem learning needn't be just a conversation project, it could also be about writing. Like this. One last thing.... Remember to protect your privacy. If you do not do this with your teacher helping you, do give those sites a good look first. Happy learning! Image credits Tandem by laRuth http://www.flickr.com/photos/laruth/458677778/ Two tandems by miichan http://www.flickr.com/photos/miichan/2360658674/ Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:43:00 +0000 FCE Oral Interview & ELT Pics For part 2 of the FCE oral interview, it is necessary to practise comparing and contrasting photographs. If you have taken a look at the past paper examination books, you have probably discovered that the photos chosen are not always that telling of exact details of place and what the people in them are up to. My own students usually complain they do not know what else to say about them. I usually point my students to Flickr for finding striking photos that will ignite their imaginations. I use some of my own photos in class too, but I try to encourage them to surf and find new images. What to bear in mind when choosing photos: -You aim at stretching yourselves to speak about a variety of topics. -You can follow tags to find similar images to pair. The idea is to get you to be fluent about any topic, not just your favourite ones. You should try to relate to the photos as well as guess and predict what's going on. This exam task is, in my opinion, a step before creating a story. Think of the story setting or conflict and you get the picture! The is a drawback. It is hard to find a pair of closely related photos to compare and contrast. Doing it on your own is time consuming. How to solve this? I've found this initiative that Sandy Millin explains in her blog. Several EFL teachers have been collecting photos for classroom use and organized them in sets according to topics. These are over 2,000 photos from all round the world and they cover the vocabulary range you need. Ceri Jones has an idea about annotating the photos on an interactive whiteboard to enlarge your vocabulary. That gets interesting. But why not do it in Flickr? Students could choose themselves whether to click on further vocabulary or ideas for their description on a need-to-know basis. See this example: If you go to the Flickr link of the image above and hover the mouse over the photo, you'll get surprised with Cogdog's suggestions. I think it's great that teachers can share these photo prompts online, but it would be wonderful to see students creating notes on them and sharing the learning! Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:53:00 +0000 Pronunciation - Vowel Sounds Pronunciation - Vowel Sounds To learn a sound, you have to make it yours -until it is not foreign anymore. How? Ah, that takes time. And work. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary! How about some quick revision of pronunciation? Here are a couple of short videos (about 2 minutes each) which focus on vowel sounds. The videos go a little fast at times. Have the mouse ready to pause and make a mental record of each sound. Long Vowel Sounds Short Vowel Sounds Note: Pronunciation of R. British English is R-less (so pretend the R is not there!). The voice on the video has an American accent. Consistency To sit for the FCE exam (and for lifelong learning as well), you need not use British English exclusively. Whichever accent you choose to speak, it is important to be consistent when you talk and write. Practice makes perfect! The idea is to hear the sounds in your mind before you attempt to imitate them. You need to have a memory of them to compare and contrast what you hear -to achieve recognition. That will be your database to start modelling your own sounds. Tip This video can be useful to spot which sounds you still need to practise. And if you need sound practice, you are reading the right blog. Related Posts Pronunciation Starter Pack For details on each sound of the system with contrastive pairs. Sounds and Spelling If you need more detailed explanation to produce a sound, a look at this post will take you to a site with tutorials on how to articulate. Thank you Steve Mac for sharing these videos! I wonder how you would describe your own accent. Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:46:00 +0000 Storytelling Did you know? Many of the students sitting for the FCE exam are afraid of writing stories. You know that in your part 2 of the Writing Paper you get a choice of rubrics to write about. Stories are, in my opinion, the freest and most creative opportunity the exam gives. We need to unlearn so much guided or repeated practice using typical starters and endings in letters. We need to go out of our comfort zone. To tell a story, we are always putting a lot of ourselves out there. And that's scary, yeah. How to start? I do not have enough imagination... Excuses. Think of this: "The scariest moment is always just before you start [writing]. After that, things can only get better." – Stephen King Inspiration 911 Here is the site where I found Stephen's quote. It's an emergency line for those in need of getting ahead in their writing, but suffering from writer's block. Do you need a setting for your story? A verb? Do you need to kill a character? http://www.webook.com/911writersblock Now, would you let yourself be inspired and write a story? Take a look at these beautiful photographs. She's Dominoe. My last year students did beautifully. Today we are writing again. You can read their versions in our class wiki. The wiki is not worldwide open, but you can post your version of the story in the comments here, if you like. Stories help us getting connected. Connected to ourselves, to othe reader and the author as well! Alan, the author and owner of the real Dominoe, read the class production and wrote this post in return. Here you can and hear Alan telling his original story. What I enjoy about re-writing Dominoe is how a dog can wake up our imagination, how we can all become a new owner that breathes another life to it. So here are our frisbees to Dominoe. Hope you enjoy them and join our storytelling. Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:24:00 +0000 FCE Set Texts 2011 The Cambridge set texts for the 2010 and 2011 FCE exam are: Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (Black Cat or any edition) Michael Chrichton: Jurassic Park (Macmillan or any edition) Both recommended texts are graded readers. You may read one or both. These books are not discussed in the oral exam at all. They are the basis to answer a choice of optional writing tasks in Part 2 of the Writing Paper. The Woman in White Fiona Joseph has a great ten-minute podcast to introduce you to the book The Woman in White. Her tips are spot on. You should be very well prepared to choose one of the set text writing options, which can be an essay, an article or a letter. Download the book. Or read it online. Jurassic Park This book is still copyrighted and unavailable online. You can find chapter summaries and notes here or here. The range of set books recommended by Cambridge for the FCE exam has been full of classic authors. Most of the books are read in their unabridged editon. If you are one of those students who loves reading and needs advice with titles to quench your reading thirst, here is a good reading list created by OM. They also provide free downloads with information about the authors as well as some of their most famous books. One final thought... Apart from the recommended abridged readers, I would advise you to include some original work in your personal reading list. But most importantly, choose books you like! If you find a novel or story never ending, perhaps it's time to go and discover other titles that confirm reading can be a great pleasure. Related posts Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Thu, 05 May 2011 17:42:00 +0000 Cambridge Results Online ... And then? So, how did it go? As from 1st February you can consult your Cambridge exam results online. If you need guidance on how to access your scores check out this previous post. You may be certain that at this point I am very curious about my own students' results. However, I am quite confident they have learnt things that I cannot really measure. They are not recorded in standard ways. And yet, they mean a lot to us. But I do need to know and learn myself from your results. They will help me to evaluate part of our experience together and do better next time. So here is what I would like you to do. When you access your results, you will see a pdf page with the details of your performance in all areas evaluated. That is your student's profile page. You are the only person who can access it because it is password protected. Please save it to your computer and send it to me by email. I am also opening a wiki page called Exam Results 2007. You know the wiki rules: make that page yours. Feel yourself at home. If you are not one of my students, leave a comment here and join our conversation. I wonder... I imagine you've been anxiously waiting for this day to come and know how you did. What do these exam results mean to you? What is next? Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunkdujour/373695263/ Author : noreply@blogger.com (Claudia Ceraso) Publ.Date : Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:06:00 +0000 |
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TESOL Certification for teaching english abroad in non-native English speaking countries.
