Views of Thessaloniki from the past

How has the city changed since these photos were taken ?

Time to practice our acting skills (again)

1 Go to

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches.htm

2 Go to the Ali page.
3 Download the mp3 file. Its not very big, about 1.6 mb
so it shouldn't take more than ten minutes, even on
a slow connection.
4 Listen to the part of the film and read the dialogue at
the same time.
5 Now record yourself giving the speech. If you have a
microphone on the computer use the ηχογραφηση
programme that come with Windows.

The important thing is to practice this so that you no longer are worrying about the pronunciation of individual words and focus on the flow of the language and how the actor is using his or her voice. Now listen to yourself. Do you sound like a real person or just a robot mindlessly mouthing words without any emotion ?

Check out more extracts.

a class music library

I was thinking that we should set up a class music library. If everyone records a cdr with their 10 favourite albums in mp3 format we could then swop and everyone could get the chance to build up a killer music collection without spending loads of money.

Time off for good behaviour

No lessons from 26th to 28th October!!!!

Hi to everyone from Prof 1e

Don't forget to do your own posts for the class blog. Add a photo, if you can.

proficiency1e.blogspot.com

Happy birthday Eleni

A few snaps from our night out at Oxo (cube).

It's official !!

Prof 1c now has their own blog at www.proficiency1c.blogspot.com.

Hi to everyone in LC3

Just a little something to help with our speaking and accent

A great way to improve your pronunciation and your speaking in general is to copy what actors say. Here is a sample of what you can do.

1 Go to

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches.htm

2 Go to the Remember The Titans page.
3 Download the mp3 file. Its not very big, about 1.6 mb
so it shouldn't take more than ten minutes, even on
a slow connection.
4 Listen to the part of the film and read the dialogue at
the same time.
5 Now record yourself giving the speech. If you have a
microphone on the computer use the ηχογραφηση
programme that come with Windows.

The important thing is to practice this so that you no longer are worrying about the pronunciation of individual words and focus on the flow of the language and how the actor is using his or her voice. Now listen to yourself. Do you sound like a real person or just a robot mindlessly mouthing words without any emotion ?

Check out more extracts.

Back to the serious stuff

For all those doing Get Ready For CAE unit 1

Put the paragraphs in the right order.

SECRET AMBITION ? IT'S A MYSTERY!


1 Reading, too, is important - I'd need to reasearch my genre
thoroughly in order to familiarize myself with the conventions
of mystery novels, making sure to develop my own personal
style.There's every possibilty, of course, that publishers won't
like my work. Rejection is difficult to cope with and can easily
lead to feelings of self-doubt.

2 Starting a novel may be easy, but finishing it and finding a
publisher are not. Some manange ro rise above the problems,
though - so why not me ?

3 Last but not least, I couldn't possibly imagine taking up the
challenge without the support of my family, cheering me on in
the backgound. And if my money ran out, I know that I could
always go to them for help.


4 In order to become a writer, however, you have to write, and
as you can imagine, that takes a great deal of hard work and
self-discipline. It also requires inspiration, and one of the
toughest problems an aspriring author is likely to come up
against is "writer's block", when your ideas dry up and you
stare for hours on end at a blank page.



5 Did you know that for every 20,000 novels written, only one
gets published? On the face of it then, the likelihood that I
will ever fulfill my ambition of becoming a professional
mystery writer doesn't seem very high. But the prospect of
turning my lifelong passion into my livelihood and achieving
fame and fortune at the same time is just too exciting for me
to be put off by dull statistics.




The correct answer will be posted soon. In the mean time check out another author's answer to this problem at

http://www.scottsigler.net/earthcore/

Another satisfied customer

I would just like to say that Craig is the best teacher I've ever had. BAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Do you like the new look ? It seems a bit more sophisticated than the old one.

Yet another wonderful lesson

My class on how to make phrasal verbs fun turned out to be a resounding success.We're hoping for an equally enthusiastic turnout for our student motivation seminar (ha,ha,ha).

wanted dead or alive

Members of the public are warned not to approach these deranged maniacs, but rather inform the police as soon as possible!!!!

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.

Greetings to everyone who started today in Prof 2b

Hi,

I hope you all had a great first lesson and we continue with the good work for the rest of the year.

GOOD LUCK!!!

film review and letter practice

FILM REVIEW IN THE FORM OF A LETTER
TO A FRIEND

Fill in the missing gaps with your own words.


Dear ,

I just thought I'd drop you a line to say hello.
I hope you are well and that your family are
all fine.Well, My teacher gave me a film to
watch this week and I thought I'd tell you all
about it.

The film is about



What I enjoyed about the movie was



However, I didn't like



Anyway that's enough of my news, see you soon.

Yours

correction code

To all my new students I'll be using a correction code to correct your written work. Beware!!!


Correction Code

The object of this code is to let you
look at your mistakes on your own and
learn from them.

sp Spelling e.g. Friends not frinds
gr Grammar e.g. Lots of money not many money
pr Preposition eg. I live in London not I live at London
pu Punctuation e.g. I like milk not i like milk
vt Verb tense e.g. I went to Spain in 1995 not I have gone to
Spain in 1995
wo Word order e.g. I like dancing very much not I like very much
dancing
ww Wrong word e.g. I missed the bus not I lost the bus
mw Missing word e.g. I saw a bird not I saw bird
r Repetition i.e. saying the same again and again and again etc.

Hi to everyone from prof 1e

Well, we have just finished our first "real" week and I hope that I didn't bore you into a temporary coma. If you don't get any of the photocopies I hand out then you will be able to find them here during the course of the year. If anyone has any comments on what we can do to make the lessons more effective, don't hesitate to post them.

Check out Ellen MacArthur's site

Also the film White Squall is kinda connected with the topic. Check out the IMDB (Internet Movie Date Base) site below. Just put White Squall in the box on your left when you get there. For some reason it won't let me send you directly to the page.

White Squall

cpe interview tips

CPE interviews do's and don'ts


PART ONE

1 Be friendly, be polite. This is a chance to show the
examiners how well you can speak English, not a fight to
the death.

2 Learn some words that may come up, e.g. the name of
the subject you are studying or the job you want to do
in the future.

3 DO NOT learn a little speech by heart. It sounds
unnatural and you'll get even more nervous than you
need to be trying to remember it.

4 Keep eye contact with the examiner. That means looking
him or her in the eye rather than staring at your shoes
or some point on the wall behind them.

5 Remember there are no wrong answers here, only well-
expressed and badly expressed ones.

6 DO NOT give short, monosyllabic answers, nor tell them
the story of your life.

PART TWO


1 If you don't understand the question ask the examiner to
repeat it. You'll not lose marks for this. However, you will
lose marks for answering the wrong question.

2 Move your chair so that you are facing the other person.
Remember what we said about eye-contact.

3 Start with a question, not a monologue.

4 Listen to what the other person says, comment on it, ask
them questions.

5 Disagree with the other person whatever they say. It's
always easier to have something to say if we disagree.

6 Give the other person chance to speak. You'll lose
marks if you monopolise the conversation.

7 DO NOT stop speaking until the examiner tells you that
your time is up.

PART THREE (part one)

1 Make sure you understand the question before you start
speaking. If necessary, ask the examiner to explain it.

2 Give yourself a few moments to think about what you
want to say.

3 Remember there are no wrong answers. Nobody
expects you to be an expert on the subject of the
question.

4 Feel free to ignore the prompts suggested. You do not
have to use them, if you do not wish.

5 DO NOT stop speaking until the examiner tells you that
your time is up.

6 Listen to what the other person says as you will be
asked to comment on it.

PART THREE (part two)

7 Remember the longer questions asked towards the end
of this part are always connected with the topic
discussed in the prompt cards.

8 Give full answers, not just short, monosyllabic ones

9 Comment on what the other person says, use their
name.

10 There are no wrong answers, only badly-expressed
ones.

Advice for the FCE interview

FCE INTERVIEW TIPS

PART ONE

1 Be friendly, be polite. This is a chance to show the
examiners how well you can speak English, not a fight to
the death.

2 Learn some words that may come up, e.g. the name of
the subject you are studying or the job you want to do
in the future.

3 DO NOT learn a little speech by heart. It sounds
unnatural and you'll get even more nervous than you
need to be trying to remember it.

4 Keep eye contact with the examiner. That means looking
him or her in the eye rather than staring at your shoes
or some point on the wall behind them.

5 Remember there are no wrong answers here; only well-
expressed and badly expressed ones.

6 DO NOT give short, monosyllabic answers, nor tell them
the story of your life.

PART TWO

1 Remember that the question you'll be asked about the
photos will have three parts, answer all of them.

2 If you don't understand the question ask the examiner to
repeat it. You'll not lose marks for this. However, you will
lose marks for answering the wrong question.

3 DO NOT stop speaking till the examiner tells you your
time is up.

4 Pay attention to what the other person says as you will
be asked a similar question to theirs when they finish.

PART THREE

1 Make sure you understand the question before you start
speaking. If necessary, ask the examiner to repeat it.

2 Move your chair so that you are facing the other person.
Remember what we said about eye-contact.

3 Start with a question, not a monologue.

4 Listen to what the other person says, comment on it, ask
them questions.

5 Disagree with the other person whatever they say. It's
always easier to have something to say if we disagree.

6 Give the other person chance to speak. You'll lose
marks if you monopolise the conversation.

7 DO NOT stop speaking until the examiner tells you that
your time is up.

PART FOUR

1 Remember the questions asked in this part are always
connected with the topic in part three.

2 Give full answers, not just short, monosyllabic ones

3 Comment on what the other person says, use their
name.

4 There are no wrong answers, only badly-expressed
ones.

Open Question

Does anyone know what my comments keep on appearing on a new page ?

Hi to all the new students from the LC3 and Prof 1C

Hi,

I hope you all enjoyed our first lesson today and that we all have a great time (and lots of exam success) over the course of our eight months together. Remember, if you want to comment you have to set up a blog. It's very easy and lots of fun, so why don't you try it?

Greetings and salutations to all my students (God help them !!!)

This is going to be a quick post for all my students, I hope you all have a great year and get what you want. Just remember that through the wonder of technology I can keep an eye on all your blogs. HaHaHa he says in his most maniacal laugh.....So get posting and express yourself.