After a few technical problems (gosh! this technology's gonna kills us all!) I have succeeded in figuring out how to add a post to my blog! Yes, something that sounds as easy as that, but apparently I was unsuccessfully trying to do it from the wrong place and i could not find the link to the post box. I am becoming a bit of an expert at blogs now....Yeah right! I wish.
Anyway, I am pleased with this new attempt at using technologies in the class. IH Teacher Developement course pays!
What are your plans for this upcoming weekend guys? What are you up to tonight?
Friday 4 April 2008
Thursday 3 April 2008
a Phrasal Verb a week
Work something out
Well, we all know that 'work' is "trabajar" and those a little more advanced students are surely familiar with "this doesn't work" "the machine stopped working (=it broke down). ... So, yes, work also means something like "funcionar". Notice that metaphorically speaking, it's a very similar idea! So far, so good, but let me make things a wee bit harder.
Let's try to work out the meaning of "work out"! Look, I've come up with a fairly good example.
it means something like "understand" or "deduce" "try to find the answer to something"
eg. I know it is a strange situation we are in but we'll work out what happened" (=we'll try to undersand what happened).
have you worked it out?= lo has resuelto?
This phrasal verb has also a number of other meanings, so remember that when you look up a verb in the dictionary (on-line or traditional), so my piece of advice is to pay careful attention to the different entries. The first ones are the most common meanings and the ones at the bottom, the least common and / or fixed expressions. Something to be careful about is whether the verb carries a preposition or adverb behind (or both!), as is the case with "work out".
look at the word order: work something it, we'll work it out.
but i work out twice a week.
it will work out well/bade= saldra bien/mal
my relationship with... didn't work out
I could give you more detailed information about this but I think it's enough. We'll see how you get on with it and expand the explanations if you take the risk of using this target language!
I hope you like the idea. More ideas and vocabulary and L1-L2 mistakes shortly.
ps. in bold, other phrasal and prepositional phrasal verbs... arghhh!
Well, we all know that 'work' is "trabajar" and those a little more advanced students are surely familiar with "this doesn't work" "the machine stopped working (=it broke down). ... So, yes, work also means something like "funcionar". Notice that metaphorically speaking, it's a very similar idea! So far, so good, but let me make things a wee bit harder.
Let's try to work out the meaning of "work out"! Look, I've come up with a fairly good example.
it means something like "understand" or "deduce" "try to find the answer to something"
eg. I know it is a strange situation we are in but we'll work out what happened" (=we'll try to undersand what happened).
have you worked it out?= lo has resuelto?
This phrasal verb has also a number of other meanings, so remember that when you look up a verb in the dictionary (on-line or traditional), so my piece of advice is to pay careful attention to the different entries. The first ones are the most common meanings and the ones at the bottom, the least common and / or fixed expressions. Something to be careful about is whether the verb carries a preposition or adverb behind (or both!), as is the case with "work out".
look at the word order: work something it, we'll work it out.
but i work out twice a week.
it will work out well/bade= saldra bien/mal
my relationship with... didn't work out
I could give you more detailed information about this but I think it's enough. We'll see how you get on with it and expand the explanations if you take the risk of using this target language!
I hope you like the idea. More ideas and vocabulary and L1-L2 mistakes shortly.
ps. in bold, other phrasal and prepositional phrasal verbs... arghhh!
By setting up a blog, my aim is to encourage my students to do a bit of writing on a daily basis and to provide them with a different means of getting feedback about their mistakes and a somewhere from where I can suggest, correct or provide alternatives to their choice of words and phrases. A place to question their choices. And undoubtedly, congratulate them on their progress, too. All kept together in one single permanent and accessible on-line space.
So far we've been using our work email but this is a fairly new tool, and as a new element, it looks more dynamic, even more personal, with the advantage of it being all kept together instead of single, separate emails or, say, quick explanations on the phone. It's quick, it's instant, it's engaging, it's permanent, it's "editable", ...you name more adjectives!
I am always a wee bit reluctant when it comes to introducing new technologies into my daily life, I just don't seem to get round to learning how to do certain things and when I actually get down to doing it,I find it a lot easier than it appeared!
Not only can it be used to provide feedback and as an engaging writing tool but also to discuss the latest film you've seen, the book you are reading or how you satisfied or frustrated you feel with work or your learning process or even to curse this hard-to-remember expression or verb in English which never seems to stick in your minds! By writing about it and by having your teacher (or other colleagues / students, eventually and if you want them to) write comments about it will help you learn the word, you'll see. Anyway, I hope they make use of it and we are able to exploit it for learning and teaching purposes. No need to say that I am open to any suggestion you guys can make, too.
So far we've been using our work email but this is a fairly new tool, and as a new element, it looks more dynamic, even more personal, with the advantage of it being all kept together instead of single, separate emails or, say, quick explanations on the phone. It's quick, it's instant, it's engaging, it's permanent, it's "editable", ...you name more adjectives!
I am always a wee bit reluctant when it comes to introducing new technologies into my daily life, I just don't seem to get round to learning how to do certain things and when I actually get down to doing it,I find it a lot easier than it appeared!
Not only can it be used to provide feedback and as an engaging writing tool but also to discuss the latest film you've seen, the book you are reading or how you satisfied or frustrated you feel with work or your learning process or even to curse this hard-to-remember expression or verb in English which never seems to stick in your minds! By writing about it and by having your teacher (or other colleagues / students, eventually and if you want them to) write comments about it will help you learn the word, you'll see. Anyway, I hope they make use of it and we are able to exploit it for learning and teaching purposes. No need to say that I am open to any suggestion you guys can make, too.
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