Blended learning - to use or not to use?

http://deakinprime.com/services/design/blended-learning-programs

Along with the development of technology and common use of internet and technological devices by almost all students, the traditional way of teachning and learning has been supported by e-learning and other internet-related means of teaching. Whereas the use of e-learning isn't approved by all teachers and methodologists, the subject of present post, namely BLENDED LEARNIG, enjoys much better opinion.

But what is BLENDED LEARNING?

Travel with BuildUpYourEnglishSuperpower blog!

Hi there everyone! It's been quite a busy week again. I hope you enjoyed some of our posts and that some proved useful during your own teachings. Here you have the summary of this week's posts:

1. What is the real cost of travel?

Have you ever wondered what the travelling really costs? If not, then, we come with an answer. Let the numbers speak for themselves: 4 great exercises ready to be used!




2. What is Cymraeg?

A few clever ideas about how to make a lesson about the UK's culture with the wide range of lingustic skills being developed at the very same time.

How do languages change and evolve?

We use language every day, but probably very few people give a second thought to why our mother tongue and the foreign languages we learn look and sound this way and not the other. Why do some languages sound similar? Are they related in any way? The following video aims at answering such questions, revolving around the topic of language change and evolution. Watch it and discover some fascinating facts about languages!

Travelling - listening

Everybody has his own favourite travelling type depending on his character features. Some of tourists prefer to travel alone, others in groups, some want to have everything planned, others are spontaneous, some want to explore everything while others prefer to follow a tour guide. If you want to know how other people travel, listen to our recording and find out the details of one interesting tour of London...:)

1. First think of your perfect type of travelling and tell your partner about it. Consider:

Travelling - vocab - lots of new words :)

Below you will find a few exercises with lots of vocabulary. Some words might be difficult, hence, your students might need some revision before they manage to learn these ;)

1. Match the pictures with the words given: 

seagull   deck chair   motorway   flight attendant   platform   driving licence   seat belt

"Hit the road Jack!"

Today you'll learn some new idioms connected with travelling.

Don't miss the boat and try to remember as many as you can. Good luck and have fun!

idiom	meaning and example
backseat driver	A person who offers unsolicited or unwelcome advice. My brother is such a backseat driver. I hate traveling with him.
hit the road	To begin traveling; to leave a place; to go away. It's time for me to hit the road; it is getting late.
fifth wheel	Anything superfluous or unnecessary. I felt like a fifth wheel when they started looking at each other affectionately.
in the same boat	In the same situation; having the same problems. A: Can you lend me 100 dollars? B: Sorry, I am broke. I am in the same boat.
paddle one's own canoe	To act independently and decide your own fate; to do something by oneself. He's been left to paddle his own canoe when he started his business.

What is Cymraeg?

This week we are learning through travel! Is there a better way of learning a language than
actually living for a while in a foreign country? Nothing more enjoyable than learning words in their communicative contexts. However, before we hit the road we have to learn as much as possible about the places we want to visit. Let's take our learners to the four beautiful nations that make up together the United Kingdom!

By the way, do you know what Cymraeg is and where it is used? 

If not, you might like to read yourself about the customs and traditions of the four nations which include England, Scotland, Wales and the Northern Ireland. We all know at least something about the United Kingdom but it is always a good habit to learn some new facts that you can share with your students. Many interesting facts can be found here:

What is the real cost of travel?

Everybody likes travelling. The excitement it brings about, the unforgettable moments of exploring the unexplored, a spellbinding sense of novelty. There are myriad of other nice expressions to describe how wonderful it is to travel ;) Yet, many of us tend to forget that the ideal tourist destinations we visit are home not only to other people, but also many unique animal and plant species. Probably you never ask yourself the question – what is the real cost of travel? Some people did, hence a short text under the very same title. Let’s help our students perceive travelling from a slightly different perspective, making them aware of the dangers to the environment our journeys may pose. 

 

Travel time!

Hello there everyone! The following week is going to be devoted to a very pleasant and engaging topic of TRAVELLING. As the May weather has been surprising us positively so far, lots of us certainly start planning some trips. Moreover, the holidays are coming. Thus, this is a perfect moment to introduce our students to this topic and let them practise vocabulary and phrases that may be inevitably necessary during their foreign trips! 

Third week's sum up

Good evening everybody! We have just ended the third week of our blog that was on the subject of FOOD. Here you have the collection of what has been posted during the whole week:


1. A recipe for good writing :)

Here you will find tips on how to teach writing ... by writing something as ordinary as a recipe!;)





2. Learning vocabulary - a tough nut to crack?

Vocab? Tough to crack? Nah..! Not with us!

Food-related speaking games and activities

As an extremely talkative person, I am also a teacher who provides a great deal of space for speaking activities. And don't worry - it doesn't mean that I talk all the time :) I just make sure that every learner has plenty of possibilities to develop speaking skills. 

What is more, as I mentioned in one of the posts - any opportunity to practice speaking cannot be wasted! Thus, every subject introduced to the class can serve as a base for further speaking tasks. 

One may ask: how is it possible? How long can you talk about food?? Basing on my own teaching experience, I can guarantee that it is possible to create various questions using only a few words. Working with the use of direct method has taught me that every word can be a basis for both easy and complicated questions for learners of all levels. For instance a simple word 'apple' can generate the following questions:

http://thaom.blogspot.com/2012/11/apple-znowu-pozywa.htm

What is this? [pointing at the apple or at its picture] 

What colour is the apple?

Is the apple red or green?

What colour can the apple have?

Do you like apples?

Does your mum/dad/etc. like apples?

What can you make from apples?

Is an apple a fruit or a vegetable?

Can you imagine not eating apples?

Do you remember what happened with the apple in the Bible?

How can you interpret the picture on the right?

What does an apple symbolize?

Do you have Adam's apple? Can you show it?

What does it mean to be the apple of sb's eye?

Organic or non-organic food? Reading comprehension

Do you like eating? I think that everybody does:)

Our eating habits may differ and I don't mean only the fact that some of us are vegetarians or vegans but rather the products we choose. Some people try to buy mainly things that are grown in a country they live, the others prefer those with low prices but there are also people who would do completely the oppoosite - they choose very expensive, organic food because they hope that the more they pay, the better their meal is.

What kind of consumer are you?

Organic food is my choice for today's reading comprehension:)

The text for reading comprehension you can find here:

Organic food - text

Listening exercises

You are going to listen to 3 recordings. One is about making a pie, one about ordering meals at a restaurant and the last one about deciding what to have for breakfast. Enjoy!

Listening 1 Making a pie

I. Fill in the gaps and answer the questions.

1. The first thing to do is to .................. onion and .......................
2. How should it be chopped? ..........................................................
3. Put the onion and the garlic into .................................................
4. What should be added to it?
5. What kind of meat do we need?
6. What should we do with it while cooking?
7. How much water should we add?
8. What should we do with it for 15-20 minute?
9. 20 minute should be enough for the meat to be nice and soft and ...............................
10. What should we do with potato?
11. We should ....................... the potato with a ..................... of milk

Food idioms - a piece of cake!

Idioms, idioms, idioms… Most of the time they are so weird looking and sounding that it’s almost impossible to remember what they mean. Take for instance the titular ‘a piece of cake’. I mean, really? How to combine the meaning with the form in a reasonable way? It’s challenging indeed, but you have to agree here that it sounds extremely sophisticated when an idiomatic expression is popped up every now and then in a conversation. Let’s show our students then that amusing visual aids may help a bit in memorizing idioms!

Following is the table with idiomatic expressions as well as three exercises practising their usage in context!

Learning vocabulary - a tough nut to crack?

How to learn a long meaningless vocabulary list? By writing words and their translations in two columns? No way! Is learning of vocabulary easy, boring or challenging? If it is so, let's make it exciting! Have a look at some ideas for a lesson that may appeal to different types of learners.

First let them involve in small competition to motivate them and make the lesson more enjoyable. Then create opportunities to learn for kinaesthetic students (let them show the meaning with gestures or "bring" the objects they bought), visual learners (ask them to draw pictures and visualize objects in the room), auditory learners (ask them to follow oral instructions) and analytical learners (ask them to put the words in different categories).

Warm-up

Task 1 (analytical learners, group work activity)

Divide students in 4 groups and give them 5 minutes to write down as many food items as they know (ask them to write them in alphabetical order) in the categories provided below. Award the group with the most words with pluses or points and let them choose their opponents for the second round (see Task 3). After you check your vocabulary lists together you may like to extend it using:

FOOD AND DRINKS - thematic dictionary

A recipe for good writing :)

Writing doesn’t have to be associated with something unpleasant and difficult. Students can practice writing even in the simplest way which is recipe. Each of us, no matter we are students, teachers, parents or children has written or will write a recipe. They may be written for your own needs, blog, recipe books or for your friends. That’s why it’s good to know some rules necessary to create a clear and well-organized recipe.

Top Tips for writing recipe:

Put the title first – name of a dish (the shorter the better to remember :) )

Don’t forget about two main parts of a recipe: INGREDIENT LIST and METHOD.

INGREDIENT LIST	METHOD
While listing ingredients, use the numbers or dashes.	Describe each step carefully, briefly and clearly.

Week No. 3

Hi there everyone!

Still haven’t got enough of us? We are about to begin a new week, which, of course, means a new topic and new ideas on day-to-day basis! What’s the subject for this incoming week, you may ask, and I am glad to answer that it’s going to be FOOD!:)

We are going to present a variety of exercises that you will be able to employ during your EFL classes.

Revision of the Sport's week

Woah! This was quite a week. Here you have the summary of what we have posted this week:

1. An Olympic blog - reading

The very first post of the Sport's week focuses on reading as well as introduces some more common vocabulary to familiarize your studdents with.





2. Let's get the ball rolling! Let's talk sports!

This one is about teaching speaking and vocab. There are a few basic ideas of what you can ask your students and what words are necessary for them to feel more confident at this subject.

Sporty idioms

Hello!
Since Ania's idea of presenting idioms was a full success and all of us enjoyed it, now it's time for somebody else to continue. I hope you have fun!

If you want to know where the idioms come from look for the sport disciplines in brackets.

the ball is in your court (tennis)	You need to answer or react		-What should I do now? * I don’t know, the ball is in your court.
blow the competition away (any sport)	win easily		If you do your best, you will blow the competition away.
get a head start (horse racing)	start earlier than the others/ have advantage over somebody		If you want to avoid traffic jams, leave at 3 o’clock – you will get a head start.