Wednesday Workshops L2 L3 Mag

In group 4 and 5, I discussed employment, health insurance, taxes and gave an quick overview of the politic parties in the US. We later listened to This American Life episode "What kind of Country?" and read the transcript. I explained how we have three tiers of taxation in the US, with national income tax that pays for social security (the money you receive at 65 after you retire) and the health care and medication for the elderly as well, and other government programs. We additionally have state and local taxes. This can vary from state to state, as well at the sales tax (like the TVA) on purchased items. In group 5, I went a bit further in detail in the upcoming election and the concerns of Americans for the Democratic and Republican parties. I explained that the American campaigns for president cost a lot of money, and are often funded by Political Action Committees (PACs) which are special interest groups often funded by big businesses, who pay for campaigns in order to ensure politicians will vote for laws that benefit the businesses. I explained that Obama's campaign is entirely funded by small time donors, and he doesn't accept money from PACs. I showed a current campaign video called "Obamaville" produced by Republican candidate Rick Santorum as an example of some of the over-the-top campaign tactics we have in the US.

In group 3 - I gave a detailed grammar lesson on frequent mistakes at level 3, as well as the explanation between the words: trip, travel, vacation/holidays, voyages, journeys, & cruises. I explained the past simple, past continuous, and the present perfect. The present perfect most closely resembles the past tense in french, because it uses have, has and had. It's not used as past tense, but only in theses circumstances of

Experience

I have been to France.

He has worked in tourism.

Change Over Time

I have improved my English from my year abroad.

The travel industry has become more interested in eco-friendly tourism.

You have grown more mature from living on your own.

He has become less difficult to work with.

Achievement / Accomplishments

He has hiked in the Alps.

She has learned a lot from working in Africa.

The students have finished exams.

Uncompleted Action You Expect to Happen

James has not finished his homework.

She hasn't mastered Chinese, but she is improving.

They haven't arrived at the airport.

The train has not arrived yet.

Multiple Actions at Different times

I have had four classes already today.

We have had many problems while working on this project.

She has talked to many tourists about the town.

Monday Workshop L1

We did the Speed Dating Activity yesterday. Each student came up with a profile, and then each student went on 'dates' with the other students. At the end each student selected their favorite date, as you would at actual Speed Dating. Here is a funny video about Speed Dating, it's supposed to be sarcastic (or ironic).

We had some time left at the end, in which I discussed briefly the immense popularity of dating nights like Speed Dating, or dating websites, and even now, phone applications for dating and meeting up with people who are located nearby. There are two recent NY Times articles I suggested reading, one based on the new phone applications for dating, and the second discusses the 'science' behind the dating websites. (Many websites claim to be able to find your perfect match based on mathematic equations or lengthy personality quizzes)

The last article I mentioned claims that because only 1 million users are on the most popular dating site (eHarmony) in the United State, you may have more of a chance to meet that special someone on World of Warcraft, since it boasts 12 million users. Here is a link to that article with a link to the the infographic. This is not exactly a reputable site, but they raise an interesting point.

Monday Workshops L2, L3, MAG

Yesterday in class, I had groups 4A, 6, and 3B.

In groups 4a and 6, we listened to an episode "What Kind of Country" from NPR (National Public Radio - US) This American Life, discussing taxation in the United States. I gave a brief overview of the political beliefs of the right, or Republicans/Conservatives in the US as well as the Left/Democrats. I explained the differences between a Full Time (FT) and Part Time (PT) job. Even a Full Time job in the US does not entitle you to healthcare. Of the 55% of Americans who have health care, (which is the equivalent of l'assurance maladie and securité sociale, social security in the US in the money that seniors receive from the government when they are over 65 and retired), most Americans receive health care through their employers. The employer has a group healthcare plan for all their employees, and the employees pay for it through a portion (usually 10% of their salaries). Obama is trying to enact universal healthcare, but has not yet succeeded against the Republicans in our Senate.

In group 3B, I gave a basic grammar review on the difference uses between different past tenses in English. We have 3 basic kinds, which are the past simple, past continuous, and the use of past participle. The use of "to have" does not construct the past tense but the present-perfect, which most resembles the French past tense. The sentence construction, subject + "has" or "have" is NOT used the same as French past tense, causing many ESL French students to use "have" when they don't need to. There is a good explanation of this here. And even more, there is a large amount of verbs in the past tense that are irregular, and it's hard for students to learn and remember each one. We then used this information to tell stories of problems while traveling and corrected the stories together.

Simple Past
There are two principal past tenses used to make general statements about the past: The past simple and the past continuous. The two tenses are quite different. Use the past simple to talk about an event which happened at some point in time in the past.

Tom flew to Chicago last week.
Peter visited his friends in Florida two months ago.

Past Continuous
The past continuous is usually used to refer to events happening at the same time that something important happened in the past.

They were doing their homework when she arrived.
Jack was studying while Dave was cooking dinner..

The past continuous is also used to express what was happening at a precise moment in the past.
I was attending a lecture at 2.30 yesterday afternoon.
Alice was reading a book at six yesterday evening.

Past Simple Structure:
Positive
Subject + Verb + ed OR Irregular Past Form + Objects
I, You, He, She, We, They -> played golf yesterday afternoon.I, You, He, She, We, They -> went lunch at noon.

Negative
Subject + did not (didn't) + Verb + Objects
I, You, He, She, We, They -> didn't go on vacation last summer.
Subject + did not (doesn't) + Verb + Objects

Questions
(Why, What, etc.) + did + Subject + Verb + Objects?
Did -> I, you, we, they -> attend the meeting last week?

Past Continuous Structure:
Positive
Subject + conjugate the helping verb "be" + verb + -ing.
I was, You were, He was, She was, We were, You were, They were -> watching TV when I arrived.
Negative
Subject + conjugate the helping verb "be" + not + verb + -ing.
I wasn't, You weren't, He wasn't, She wasn't, We wasn't, You wasn't, They wasn't -> working when he came into the room.
Questions
Question word + conjugate the helping verb 'be' + subject + verb + -ing
What -> were you, they -> doing at seven o'clock?What -> was I, he, she -> doing at seven o'clock?

Study the Past Simple and Past Continuous in Depth:
Here are detailed guides to the past simple and the past continuous tenses.
Each guide provides situations, common time expressions used with the tense, as well as examples.
These guides were prepared especially for beginners and include dialogues and a short quiz.
Past simple with the verb "to be" for beginnersPast simple with regular and irregular verbs for beginners
It's also important to know your irregular past simple forms which are included in this list of the most important irregular past simple and past participle verb forms

Wedesday Workshops L2, L3, MAG

I had groups 4B, 3A, and 5.

In all groups, I asked students to give me examples of questions that are frequently asked in job interviews. The idea is that when preparing for an interview, you should try to think of the types of questions you will be asked, and prepare your answers in advance. This way you will be much more confident when it comes to the actual interview, and more comfortable with answers you have already practices reciting, especially if you ever have to do an interview in your second language of English. After the students gave me their questions, I read off this list of commonly asked interview questions. In some classes I gave additional CV advice. I also in some classes discussed using career building websites like LinkedIn.fr or .com to post your CV in French and English, and using facebook applications like BeKnown to build an online presence. Most employers these days will Google prospective employees, and it is a good sign to have an additional online presence other than facebook. I also advise students to start blogs about travel or something else they are interested in. It's good to have a good online presence, and will only become more important in the future.

In group 4B, we talked about some good adjectives to use, as well.

In group 3A, we are ahead one week of the other classes. I missed an update. We have already worked on the travel stories the Week of March 14th. We did not fully discuss the past tense, and so I ask if you have the chance to refer to the next post - for Monday the 26th, for group 3B to look at some of the usage of past tense.

In the group 5 class, with the extra time in class, I gave a brief description of the difference between CDI/CDDs in France, and the basic overview of how a job and taxes work in the US. I decided we will continue this discussion next Wednesday in more detail.

Workshops L2 L3 MAG & Reinforced L1

Yesterday in class, I had groups 4A, 6, and 3B.

In all groups, I asked students to give me examples of questions that are frequently asked in job interviews. The idea is that when preparing for an interview, you should try to think of the types of questions you will be asked, and prepare your answers in advance. This way you will be much more confident when it comes to the actual interview, and more comfortable with answers you have already practices reciting, especially if you ever have to do an interview in your second language of English. After the students gave me their questions, I read off this list of commonly asked interview questions. In some classes I gave additional CV advice. I also in some classes discussed using career building websites like LinkedIn.fr or .com to post your CV in French and English, and using facebook applications like BeKnown to build an online presence. Most employers these days will Google prospective employees, and it is a good sign to have an additional online presence other than facebook. I also advise students to start blogs about travel or something else they are interested in. It's good to have a good online presence, and will only become more important in the future.

In the Group 6 class, I also spent the last few minutes of class giving a basic overview of the United States geographically speaking, with a brief overview of our history as a country. I described the regions of the United States, and what brings tourists to each region. I additionally discussed travel across the United States. Many people believe that we use planes more to travel, however, travel is always quite expensive because things are much farther apart. I discussed the difference between using planes contrary to cars, where you can enjoy the country side, but that is takes much longer to travel from place to place by car, and can cost as much with the cost of gasoline. Our highways and roads are the easiest way to travel. I discussed the use of buses (autocars) that can be much cheaper than using trains. In the 1960s and 70s, we got rid of many train lines, or abandoned the train stations and tracks, and instead built roads and in some cases paved over the old train tracks, especially in the Northeast, where we had already a lot of well developed areas. Here is a list of some links to websites for different travel modes in the U.S.

Southwest - not exactly Ryanair, but a discount domestic flight company.

Amtrak - an expensive Train service that travels between States.

MTA - Manhattan Transit Authority - Here is an example of a city transit system - that also extends in the surrounding areas. For example, trains also leave New York City and go into the surrounding areas, much like the RER.

Greyhound Lines - A bus company that goes between most major cities in the U.S.

Megabus - A discount bus service, also available in the U.K. and Canada.

Boltbus - additional discount bus service.

Language Workshops L2 L3 MAG1

Today I met with groups 4b, 3a, and finally group 5. The grammar I discussed with group 3b on Monday the 12th is also listed here below.

In group 4b, I assigned everyone to bring their CVs for next week. We spent the class reviewing the past simple and past continuous verb form. The past simple is not as simple as it seems, because there are many irregular past verbs in English. It helps to review them to commit them to memory. I talked about the past continuous as well. The difference between the two is that past simple is an action that is finished in the past. For example, I went to Paris. The past continuous exlains an action that was taking place over time in the past. I went to Paris, when it was snowing. You can see the past simple has now been connected with the past continous. The continous is formed by using and auxilary verb with the -ing ending on the action verb. I had the students write a 10 sentence story about a problem they had traveling attmpting to use 5 sentences with the past continuous. Everyone read their stories.

In group 3a, I assigned everyone to bring their CVs for next week. Please make sure to read the article here on my blog titled CVs. I also then gave a crash course on some common problems with level 3 students. We talked about the use of "moreover" and "indeed", I explained these words are rarely used in English, and there are many other ways to start off sentences, for example with: furthermore, certainly, and to continue. Another example of this is the direct translation of "To my mind.." students should instead use: In my mind, In my opinion, or According to me. I explained more often that not, when it comes to "during" or "since" students most of the time when confused, should use "for". Example, "I have been studying for four year." You only use during or since with a specific date. "I have been studying since 2009." I also explained the difference between coming and going. These are both irregular verbs in past tense. I come, I came, I have come OR I go, I went, I have gone. You can only come to places you currently are, and you can only go to places you were in the past, or will be in the future. Example, I came to Angers, France in 2009. Second example, I went to Paris in December. Last example, is that it is different when talking about someone else. They can 'come' where you were in the past, or will be in the future. Example: "My best friend came to my house last night," or "My friend will be coming (or you can use going) to Rome visit me in July."

We had the first course of Group 5, in which we used questions to interview our partners and then introduce them to the class. I also assigned CVs for the following week.

Reinforced English L1

Yesterday in class, we discussed asking questions. I asked each student to think of a question that wasn't, "Where do you come from?" or "How old are you?" and to try and think of questions with more interesting responses. I gave the example of my favorite question of all time, "If you were an animal which one would you be and why?" This excercise is to help students get better at thinking and asking questions in English, but also to make sure the questions are being asked correctly. Sometimes the grammar is correct, and English speakers can understand the question, but it is not phrased as we ourselves would ask the question. Introductory questioning is a valuable asset to know perfectly.

I also presented the irregular verbs rap, to give an idea of how many irregular verbs there are in English. Homework is to check out out the post I have on creating a CV in English and bringing it to class next week, which will be at 17h in salle 508.

Ateliers de Langue: L2 L3 Mag 1

Monday we had groups 4a, 6, and 3b - there was a change to the schedule.

In group 4, this was the first time we were meeting, students gave me examples of questions they might ask someone, other than the usual questions of, "Where do you come from?" and "What is your name?" The students then introduced their parteners to the rest of the class.

In level 6, as the class was changed from Wednesday to Monday, I decided to push back the CV activity until next Monday. If you were not there, please bring your CV next Monday in English, of course. Please don't forget to take a look at the CV post of this blog. I spent the last 20 minutes of class discussing the popular technogoly and phone apps in the US that have yet to reach France. We also watch a video on the app, Foursquare.

In level 3, the sudents presented their partners. I gave a basic grammar crash crourse, which I will post here tomorrow, based on common problems at level 3. I also spent the end of class speaking about the phone apps in the US. I ask that level 3b students come with their CVs in English on Monday.

Ateliers de Langue - L2/L3/MAG2

Classes will meet once a week and based on your group number, the lessons will meet Monday or Wednesday. You can find this information under the link for Atelier Schedule.

You are expected to attend class with university policy, as most of the work is done in class activities. You are expected listen, as well as participate. If you have an English dictionary, I ask that you bring it with to each class. If you ever have questions, I am always available via email.

I have blog post about about English language resources online and in Angers, job resources, and making an English CV or letter of motivation. You may want to look these over, we won't cover all of it in class.