Thursday, March 27th

Dear all,

I'll be back with you on Tuesday, but unfortunately I've fallen ill and will only be online intermittently tomorrow. I have, however, set up a series of tasks for you to do during your time in your lab. I hope you do them and that we can discuss them next Tuesday in the classroom.

Group 1
Carmen, Rossella, Tatiana, Valeria e Lara
You all know more than you think you do and you need to be more confident! Please, together with whoever is in the IT room, complete A2, Modules 2, 3 and 4. For homework, complete the modules and write a brief paragraph in your learner diary about what you learned. Un consiglio: be patient!

Viviana, Alessia e Elisa
Think about the future. I would like you to do A2, Module 2, 'This Christmas she's going to'. Please complete the full guided path. For homework, write a brief paragraph about your plans for the Easter holiday.

Group 2
Theoretically you all have understood that the simple past in English, for a finished action is ONE VERB (e.g. went) or one verb with DID in a question or DIDN'T in a negative. Now, let's move on to the more complicated present perfect, which does not exist in Italian so don't try to find an equivalent. Complete B1, Module 3, 4 and 5. For homework, write down all of your doubts and questions (in Italian or English) about these different verb tenses and we'll discuss them in class next Tuesday.

Keep on learning!

Sarah

Tuesday, March 25th Group 2

Review of the future forms.
Review of music & past forms through music:
click on this link. Download the doc or make a copy of it for you personally. Then complete the tasks. The last task includes making a comment to this blog post.

Tuesday, March 25 Group 1

Good morning everyone! Let's see if we can video conference using Skype or Google Hangout. As soon as everyone's in the IT room, send me a comment to this blog post and we'll see what can work.

If it doesn't work ... :-( today I'd like to focus on work vocabulary so that you can clearly and easily talk about what you do. Take some time in your learner diary to describe the following:

• what you do during a typical day
• the people you work with and interact with
• the institution and department you work for
• things around your office

I'll be observing you in your learner diaries as you write so I can provide support there.

Sarah

Thursday, March 20

In Class
Today in class, please work on the Learning Links activities below. I will continue to correct the work you did in your learner diaries over the weekend. Please work on the Learning Links activities in groups.

Group 1
Carmen, Rossella, Tatiana, Valeria e Lara
Some of you have already started working on the A1 Modules (Rossella, right?). Please complete them between now and next Tuesday. Follow the 'Guided Path' buttons.

Viviana, Alessia e Elisa
Review and complete A2, Module 2 and Module 3.

Group 2
Complete the tasks and activities in B1, Module 2.

Homework
Man mano che fate gli esercizi in Learning Links, dovreste avere aperto anche il vostro learner diary. Puo' darsi che sembra fastidioso, ma copiare nel learner diary vocaboli, regole e strutture nuovi e' utile. Inoltre, sicuramente a volte ci saranno cose che non capite oppure avrete delle incertezze. Usate il learner diary anche per questo. Piu' scrivete nel learner diary, piu' posso capire come indirizzare le lezioni. 

Tuesday, March 18, Group 2

What are your plans for the Easter holiday?

For homework, you reviewed various forms to talk about the future. In pairs or groups of three, compose a dialogue in which you discuss the theme 'What are your plans for Easter?' Take your time, use your online resources (Learning Links Grammar Reference, Google Translate, Google Fight, etc.) to write a dialogue in which you discuss what you are planning to do for Easter-April 25th-May 1st holidays. A dialogue means that there is interaction, which means QUESTIONS (Are you going to stay home or go away?) and answers (I can't afford to go away so I'll just meet up with friends. How about you?) and question (I'm not sure. What are you going to do with your friends?)

Please work together to develop the dialogue in one of your learner diaries. When you have completed the dialogue, reply to this post with a comment letting us know whose diary you used to write the dialogue.

Homework for Thursday
As I've encouraged you so far, you need to do something, anything to practice your English outside of class. This could be 'giving directions' in your mind as you drive, listening to English-speaking radio or watching a DVD in English. Please make an entry in your learner diary describing what you have done or plan to do to practice your English outside of class.

As always, if you have questions, write a comment to this post or write me an email.

Sarah

Tuesday, March 18, GROUP 1

What did you do last weekend?

For homework, you reviewed (or studied for the first time!) the past simple. In pairs or groups of three, compose a dialogue in which you discuss the theme 'What did you do last weekend?' Take your time, use your online resources (Learning Links Grammar Reference, Google Translate, Google Fight, etc.) to write a dialogue in which you discuss what you did last weekend. A dialogue means that there is interaction, which means QUESTIONS (Where did you go?) and answers (We went to my sister-in-laws house for dinner on Saturday night.)

Please work together to develop the dialogue in one of your learner diaries. When you have completed the dialogue, reply to this post with a comment letting us know whose diary you used to write the dialogue.

Homework for Thursday
As I've encouraged you so far, you need to do something, anything to practice your English outside of class. This could be 'giving directions' in your mind as you drive, listening to English-speaking radio or watching a DVD in English. Please make an entry in your learner diary describing what you have done or plan to do to practice your English outside of class.

As always, if you have questions, se non capisci qualcosa, write a comment to this post, scrivi un commento al post, or write me an email.

Sarah

Grammar and Speaking: Future Forms

In-class, Group 2: Different ways to talk about the future

Learning Links, Level A2, Module 6, "This Christmas she's going to"

Learning Links, Level B1, Module 1, "I'm going on holiday" and "I'll check it for you"

Pronuciation
Shania Twain "I'm gonna getcha good"
Song Lyrics

Homework, Group 2

Complete Learning Links, Level B1, Module 1

Write a comment to this post with something that you learned and/or did not understand in Module 1

Grammar: Present Simple and Simple Past

In class, Tuesday March 11
Learning Links Reference: Level A2, Modules 2 and 3
Simple Past:
Module 2, "She travelled the world", 3 pages
Module 3, "We flew to Liverpool", Guided Path up to 14/49, then 21/49-30/49
Present Simple:
Module 3, Guided Path 17/49-20/49

Homework Group 12.30-2.00 for March 18, 2014
Complete all of the Learning Link activities above. Write a comment to this post if there is something you don't understand. When you are finished all of the tasks write in your learner diary about something you learned while doing these tasks.

Giving Directions - Accuracy

In class, Tuesday March 11
Listening and learning: Learning Links, Level A2, Module 1, "Excuse me, where's"? pages 1 and 2, Guided Path 30/43
Speaking Learning Links, Level A2, Module 1, Giving Directions, Guided Path 33/43

Homework for Group 12.30-2.00
As a comment to this post, give directions from the IT room where we have class to somewhere in Padova.

Giving Directions

Learning Links, Level A2, Guided path 30/43-34/43.

Welcome to the online learning space for English for Administrative Assistants at the School of Law. This is where I will post notes I take during class, where we will do some homework activities and where you have links to important resources and your learner diaries.

Since this is a blog, if you have questions, just write a comment to this post and we'll try to answer them!