Thursday, 24 April 2008

And the big winners are ... [Journal for Role-play]

Once the tables and chairs had been put back to its usual place and the bell had rung, we now can sit down and take a look back at the role-plays for mid-term test this morning.

-- + F5 + --

F5 made a great beginning with an interesting story full of funny situations. The pronunciation was quite good and clear. However, some members might have forgotten that in such a big room, small sound is equal to "no sound" and that's why we sometimes missed something of the story because they seemed to be whispering at that time. But in general, I believe wholeheartedly that they had prepared well before.
Who made "grandmother" angry ? ^^

-- + Flying Kites + --

Flying Kites, as usual, made us surprised by their imagination and creation and this time was a story about a "foreteller" [guest who was in charge of this character he he ?]. They acted so well and the voice was loud enough for us to follow the story. In addition, their situation was full of good functions. However, it was a pity that sometimes they still kept their habit of using Vietnamese slangs such as "Ấy lộn" "Ấy già ..." . But if I was to make a judgement, I think their skills can transcend the weak points.
[Guest who ? ^^]


-- + Happy Family + --

Happy Family might be remembered for their unity and good pronunciation. However, they seemed to keep standing in a specific position, which made the audience feel bored at the end of the "show" and thus caused a loss of attention from the audience. Eye contact was another weak point of this group, as others have made judgement.

--+ 3 Snakes and 1 Cat + --

About 3 Snakes and 1 Cat, they also made an interesting situation and was good at expressing characters' feelings and characteristics. Ai Linh still kept her great pronunciation.
["Nothing's gonna change my love for you..."]

-- + 1C all for One + --

Next was 1C All for One, this group surprised the whole class for their interesting and amusing story. The voice was loud enough but the pronunciation of some members was not quite good. Again, eye contact seemed to be a problem of some members of this group. Just one more thing about the their situation, we liked it very much.
["Lie down or I'll shoot you ..."]

-- + Born to Shine + --
Born To Shine this time made another lively situation and from this situation, some member who had been considered as "shy students" first time showed "the outside world" how active they were.


-- + Viva Vietnam + --

Finally, our group, Viva Vietnam. We did a good job at the beginning and although mistakes had been made, we could say that we had no regret for them. That may be our group's way to work: "Mistakes are a fact of life, it is the response to them that counts". We did not feel sorry for it but learned from it, like a saying:"To be succesful, sometimes you have to accept failure".

The costs and gains from this role-play ? They're obvious.
In this semester, especially during the project period for Midterm Speaking, we discovered the strength of Unity, Groupwork and personal abilities... This period gave us the most precious chance not only to merely improve our skills by daily practising and researching but also to find out about our partners. And although many times we lost the unity, got into misunderstandings and disagreements, we finally cooperated well for the sake of the group. Maybe this is the first time in my life I have seen such great effort made to achieve the goal. A lot of efforts have been made and a lot of obstacles have been overcome, we now can think of further intentions for the final test, also the preparation. Hope that our classmates keep going on the right track ^^ Cheer ^^.

Monday, 21 April 2008

GAINS AND LOSSES: A brief summary of "summaries"


The presentation has passed and now it's time to look back...
-Rich in contents and varied in presenting. That's the first thing we must say about our show. I'm under the impression that we have just attended a party of colorful templates which showed meticulous preparation that their designers tried to show. Yes, we did do our best and we knew that. That's the first gain.




- It's also blindingly obvious that the show purposefully got us ready for the upcoming exam. It also saved us from sudden onslaughts of lessons, or actually, functions that we were supposed to digest before the exam. At least, this is the main target of this show.




-A host of experience were drawn out as mistakes were unavoidable. We learned a lot about many interesting things not only from the contents of summaries but also about some seemingly trivial things from presenting skills such as designing templates, how to deal with attention span, interaction activities,... to academic points like the pronunciation or the intonation...I'm personally really interested in the work of Flying Kites since it was composed of a lot of unique photos (still in doubt whether my flip-flop can speak or not ^^), some funny sayings( "gian hu than", for example)... The show also reavealed some truths about hidden aspects of my friends' personalities. All of them seemed to possess great sense of humor , which was really a striking fact since some always keep a low profile in the class ^^.



- And loss... We put a lot of effort in our projects and it is undeniable that this was a very time-comsuming project. However the biggest loss is our shyness. We lost our shyness or, in other words, we successfully managed to conquer ourselves and rise over our fears of speaking in front of a large audience and I strongly believe that after this project , our confidence has been more or less built up... So, the biggest loss seems to be the biggest gain, right?

IN BRIEF, THOUGH THE TEACHER DIDN'T SPEAK MUCH IN THIS SHOW, WE REALLY GOT VERY PRODUCTIVE SPEAKING PERIODS. I'M SURE THAT ANYONE WHO PAID ASSIDUOUS ATTENTION IN THOSE PERIODS GAINED EVEN MORE THAN WHAT I HAVE MENTIONED ABOVE. AM I RIGHT?
(Marsu)

These pictures belong to the whole class 1C so I think everyone can use them for useful and good purposes, right ? [Mr Violence]

Monday, 14 April 2008

ABOUT "POSSIBILITY"

Yesterday, when I was digging into piles of books to search for information preparing our project, I came across very interesting functions that I hoped would be useful for you in improving you speaking skill. Take a look at them, will you?

* When you are sure that something won't happen,

-There's not the remotest chance of ...

-Prospects of sth look slim.

- There's no way that ....

- Sth is out of the question.

- It seems unlikely that...

- Sth/ Sb stands no chance of ....

- There's no possibility of
EX:
  • There's not the remotest chance of any of them being found alive now.
  • There's no possibility of any progress if you still remain so stubborn.
  • There's no way that HOANG ANH GIA LAI will defeat DONG TAM LONG AN. (DONG TAM is the best ^^)
  • A rise in the class fund is out of the question. ( hope Ms Hien doesn't take amiss ^^)
  • It seems unlikely that we can get out of the presentation.
  • She stands no chance of being the winner.
  • Prospects of an end of th strike look slim.

* But if you are in doubt,

-be still in the balance

- be extremely doubtful

- be on the cards

* When there's an open possibility,

- There's a distinct possibility that

- be anybody's guess.

- It is open to question that...

EX:

  • The safety of the hostages is still in the balance.
  • After two days of rain, it is extremely doubtful whether we will have little sunshine tomorrow.
  • The increased tax in cargos is still on the cards.
  • There's a distinct possibility that we will have to learn by heart everything we study for the forthcoming exam. ( Oh, no: Political Economics: NIGHTMARE!!!)
  • The next move of the hijackers is anybody's guess. (= They can do anything)
  • Whether she will receive the gift is open to question.

* When you seize an air of certainty? Try these ones:

- in all probability

-be sure to

- be bound to

- look as if

EX :

  • The train will , in all probability, have left before we arrive.
  • She is sure to win the game.
  • Waterlover is bound to be a good teacher. (Pleased? ^^)
  • It looks as if tomorrow will be a gloomy day.(Lot of projects to do, hik hik...)

HOPE YOU HAVEN'T WASTED YOUR TIME READING THIS ENTRY. ^^

(MARSUPILAMI)

(SOURCE: BOOK "WORDBUIDER")

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing ...

[OK, yesterday we finally understood what the so-called"Reflective Journal" in Speaking was, so today I am sitting here in this old and hot room writing about some functions we learned from yesterday class.]

It's usually seen that when you have an opinion, you can use some normal expressions like:
- In my opinion, ...
- I think that ...
- In my point of view, ...
- To me, ...
These functions are widely used in both speaking and writing [ because they're easy to remember ^_^]. But using different functions to show your opinion may make your essays, your speeches more vivid and clear. This also prevent readers or listeners from feeling bored. You certainly don't want the readers or the listeners to read or hear the same expression: " In my opinion,..." every time you give out a new idea, right ? So try to use some other expressions:

+ Informal : - If you ask me ...
- I'd say that ...
- The point is ...
- As I see it ...
- I'd just like to say that I think that ...
+ Formal: I'd like to point out that ...

In addition, sometimes you need to show others how you feel about what they are saying, keep in your mind that you should always be polite when you disagree with them even though they might be your close friends.

+ Agreement: - I can't agree with you more ! [strongest]
- That's just what I was thinking.
- I agree entirely.
+ Disagreement: - Yes, that's quite true, but ...
- Well, you have a point there, but ...
- I see what you mean, but ...
* The following functions are used when you know the person speaking very well, but in my opinion, you'd better not use them in any cases:
- Come off it!
- Don't be silly!
- You can't be serious!



Alright, so ... what about functions used when discussing ?
If you don't want to strongly present your opinions because you don't want to start an argument. Here are some expressions that might be useful:
- I sometimes think that ...
- Would you agree that ... ?
- Do you think it's right to say that ... ?

If you do not clearly understand what someone 's talking about and want them to explain more, you can use the following expressions:
- I don't quite follow what you're saying about
- I don't quite see what you mean, I'm afraid.
- I don't quite see what you're getting at.

And if someone don't understand what you're saying, you may need the following expressions to rephrase your statements:
- That's not quite what I meant...
- Let me put it another way...
- Sorry, let me explain ...


Phew, I've just introduced some expressions that you might find useful in a discussion or a debate . Hope you'll find them useful. [Mr Violence]

[The expressions and facts come from the book "Functions of English" by Leo Jones]
Here are the links for the pictures I used:

http://www.pmcleadership.com/images/disagree.jpg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/03/29/npolitics229.jpg

http://www.baronhats.com/images/gatsby-idea!.jpg

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/236674/2/istockphoto_236674_agree_2.jpg

http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/images/2006/03/Question%20Mark.jpg

http://picasaweb.google.com/canonsnaps/AirForceAndI/photo#4988400447734022162

http://www.reading-sfl.org.uk/images/workshop04/Discussion.jpg