WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU, TO LEARN ENGLISH?

Level 4 - Post 3 (week 5) >>> Themed/Free Post 1

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU, TO LEARN ENGLISH?

 organise your writing with these  bullet points:

• - What does it mean to your family?

• - What did it mean when you were at primary school?

• - What does it mean today?

• - How do you feel about learning it?

- Comments: leave a comment on my post + 3 of your classmates posts
- Word Count: 180 words.

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When I was at school learning in my family was a "must", one could not prevent oneself from learning because in doing so, all the hell punishments would fall upon you. Consequently with their belief and even though we were not at all a wealthy family my parents were always buying books for us at home. So learning was something compulsory, it was strongly praised with money if the grades we got at school could show we had learnt or severely punished if the outcome was otherwise.

In this context my relationship with the language, at first, was totally instrumental and money triggered, I needed a good grade and by getting it I would receive money from my parents, and my personal need for acceptance and the continuous stress for being good at learning made me learn it fast and be one of the best in the subject.

Later on, in high-school, my relationship overcame this instrumental period and it turn to be meaningful in other and more diverse ways; in my need for acceptance (not only from my parents now) I noticed that by being very good at learning it, I would receive more appraisal from the school institution and also my classmates would seek for my help to study. So I became the "guy of English" and at some point I made more friends and became more popular and accepted due to my internalization of the foreign language.

Years after, I noticed I had developed "the taste" for teaching and English, so I though why not to mix both interests and venture in the study of the language aiming at teaching it later. My perspective and the significance became mixed, on the one hand it had an emotional root and on the other a professional (instrumental) perspective.

Nowadays, my relationship is more instrumental than ever because with all these many years of learning and training for it, it became no longer distant from my internal world and I have naturalized it so deeply that I no longer think about the learning of it, now I am more concentrated on thinking about teaching it and how deep my way of teaching can influence the lives and perhaps, evolution of the people I have the opportunity of meeting in my classroom.

Video 1 Rubric

Post 2 & Video Instructions

Post 2 & Video Instructions / Video Hand In Next Wednesday 20th April during class

LEVEL 4 >> Post N°2 The best Holidays/Concert ever (week 4)

Dear all: Today you will tell us about the best holidays or concert you've been to (choose ONLY 1 theme). 

You should mention:

Holidays:

- when it was
- where they went
- how long it was
- people they went with
- things / activities they did
- why it has been the best so far
- any other relevant info

Concert:

- when / where it was
- the artist they saw
- a bit of info about the artist
- describe the atmosphere during the event
- describe how they felt and why they enjoyed it
- any other memories about it



>>Worcount: 170
>>Leave comments on 3 of your classmates posts + comments on your teacher's post.

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Example: 

The best Holiday/Concert I’ve had                        

This topic complicates me a bit, because, believe it or not: I have NEVER been to a concert!; I’ve always been reluctant to big crowds, adding the fact that I am always part of the group of the shortest people in a crowd. I have never dared going to a big venue, thinking I am preventing myself from not being able to see anything on stage, and/or being smashed by the attendees.

Giving all the former, I will tell you about my best holiday ever, and even though I haven’t had many superb holidays, because most of time I prefer visiting my family more tan anything else, I have had some memorable ones.

It was the year 2009, if I don’t remember incorrectly; and I was under big stress because I had had several problems at my job. Anyway, to make a long story short, I dropped by the place I used to work for and they told me: “here you are”… it was a NICE, FAT Christmas bonus.

That day, I was with a friend of mine who was leaving on a tour that same afternoon, and after hearing that I had received my present, she shouted at me, from the entrance: “Man!!!! Let’s go together!!!”….

Two hours later, we were travelling around 3 regions, we meant to tour as much as posible, getting to see idilic landscapes and also, both being teachers, we wanted to share with the locals and not visiting the typical touristic places.

The tour went over the 8th, 9th, 10th, and partly, 11th regions, we spent nearly 3 weeks travelling, and from that improvised adventure, there are many stories we can tell, and another thousand anecdotes, I cannot let you know in this blog entry’s extension.

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   - Video 1: Due to 20-04-2016 (hand in in the class, no exceptions)

A SUBJECT YOU ENJOYED AT SCHOOL Record a 2 minute mobile phone video presentation* about a subject you enjoyed at school

Say: 

• What the subject was,

• Who taught it,

• Why you enjoyed it,

• What things you learnt in this subject.

• Mention anything else you think is important.

A mobile phone video presentation is a video of the student talking directly to the camera. This activity is seen as part of the learning process. Videos are made in the students’ own time and they are free to practice and record as many versions as they see fit in order to complete the task. However, the final video must be in one take (i.e. they must not be edited). Moreover, the professor must be able to see the student clearly in the video (i.e. No sunglasses!). If the professor thinks that the text is being read, s/he can arrange for the student to re-record it or repeat the talk in class.

#1 ENTRY: A COUNTRY I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT

1st Term 2016 / LEVEL 4 >> POST 1 (Week 3) >> A COUNTRY I'D LIKE TO VISIT

- Which country would you like to go to? Why?
- What do you know about it?
- What would you like to do there?
- Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.
- Upload pictures
- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your        teacher's post
- Word Count: 160 words

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RUSSIA:

Although money can be an issue, and going to distant places can be a broken dream before you start dreaming, I would anyway love to visit Russia. Because of many reasons, but mostly, because it is such a varied and colorful contry.

Russia has an incredible population,  they are 142.5 million people according to the statistics given by the UN in 2007. The number might seem scary, but don't worry! Density is low because of the country’s enormous size, in fact,  its geography is composed of more than 17 million square kilometres!

This huge land is the home of one of the most multi-ethnic nations in the world, and it is considered to be the world’s most diverse society – there are as many as 160 ethnic groups living there, i.e. 160 ways of viewing life, asian people, eurpeans, people from the arctic, etc!, and just the thought of all the traditions, cotumes, and folclore they have, makes crave for going ASAP! 

Another of the reasons I would like to see Russia, it's its multi-lingualism, I mean,  being honest;  with that ammount of squared kilometres and ethnicities, you could not expect any less. 

There more than 100 tongues spoken in all the country, and even though Russian is the official language, one can always learn a word or two in an incomprehensible, new-for-us language!, Furthermore, I find particularly interest the fact that when writing, the Russians use the Cyrilic Alphabet, and simply, no-one can say it is not a whole world to discover.

Apart from the above mentioned, I have real interest in taking a tour around the geography, and have a good time travelling Asia and Europe, but even more, I would just love to take a culinary tour, can you imagine the ammount of strange dishes one can find among all those ethnicities??

So far, I have had the chance of eating a couple of traditional russian dishes, they have both been very stimulating and a bit unknown for me, and since I have loved them, I am looking forward to eating them again in situ, and also, have a bite of everything I can, and I am sure that when money gets to be a friend of travelling, I will be sending you postcards from there.

See you in Russia!!!