MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season!
Check out what an American guy did to celebrate - click here!

Assignment 5 - What Spaghetti Sauce can teach us.

Here is an interesting lecture given by one of my favorite writers for the New Yorker: Malcolm Gladwell. Watch it, and let me know (1) if you made it to the end, which is the most interesting part, and (2) what you think.
To see the video, click here.

Assignment 4 - Web research tips

This week, you will be asked once again to do some research on the web. However, this time, you will have to be a bit more careful about the sites that you find on the internet. You can do this by investigating the sources of the information on the sites. Here's how:
1) TRUNCATION: erase all of the characters of the original homepage URL. (Example: www.website.com/info/blahblahblah.etc - everything after .com should be erased. Then, hit return to see which organization has published the site!)
2) ABOUT US: Go to the bottom of the page and click on the words "about us" or words that indicate who might be behind the site.
3) GOOGLE the author: If there is a name on the article, write the name with inverted commas ("name surname")on the google search line and see if that person has any authority to write about that subject. You would be surprised at how much you can learn about people!
4) BIBLIOGRAPHY: Any article, especially about scientific subjects, should have a bibliography, or at least a list of sources. If a research group is named, google it!
Just to show you how it works, let's use this example:
I googled "Martin Luther King", and then chose one of the first sites on my screen. The address is http://www.martinlutherking.org/articles.html
If you follow the steps in order, you will be surprised! Then, do the same thing with a new site chosen from the clusty cloud. When you have investigated the site/article, write to me and tell me whether you think the information is likely to be reliable, false, or something in-between. Good luck!

Observations - grammar and usage

Just a couple of observations about the assignments you have completed up to this point. You can check your own work to see if you have made any mistakes based on these points:

CHOOSE - Many of you have tried to use the word "choose" unsuccessfully. Remember, the act of choosing is something that is finished once you HAVE CHOSEN. Therefore, it is more likely that you CHOSE an activity, and then performed it, so you would need to use the past tense (CHOSE).

WORD ORDER - This is something that is difficult for Italians because it is different from your language. Try to remember to put the subject BEFORE the verb, and you should be ok. For example,"An interesting article appeared..." NOT "Appeared and interesting article...".
In addition, you should write "I found X (to be) interesting" and "I consider X (to be)important" because you have to say WHAT the verb is referring to. If you put the adjective before the noun in this last case, then you are saying that you only consider the "important Xs" - not the "unimportant" ones! Think of it this way: First you have to establish what you are talking about, and then you can give your opinion of it!

PREPOSITIONS: looking AT, listening TO (don't leave it out!), learning ABOUT, etc.
CAPITAL LETTERS: I not i (this is an English class - no internet shortcuts allowed!)
FOR vs. TO for reasons why: Why did you go to Rome? TO see (verb) a friend, or FOR a vacation (noun).
OTHER MISTAKES: Instead of writing "speaks about" (or "spiks" about - Aaaargh!)try using other words like "outlines" or "explores" or "delineates". Also, there is a big difference between "more difficult" (than what?) and "very difficult".

Your task is to find your own mistakes, and send the corrections to me in your comments on this assignment. If you need any help, I will be in Portici every Wednesday from 1 to 4.30 p.m. and on Thursdays from 9 to 4.30. Come and see me if you want me to go over your work!

Assignment 3

You may have already predicted this, but this time, you have to go to the Listening Practice link, choose a topic that sounds interesting to you, and do a listening exercise! Of course, you must write to me and report what you have done. I am also interested in hearing whether you think it has been useful or not. Let me know!

Assignment 2

This week, I would like you to go to the English file page (by clicking on the link on the right side of this page) and choose a vocabulary activity from the list. Remember, try to choose something we have already studied! When you have finished, write to me and tell me what you have done. I think you will find that the activities can be addictive once you get started!

Extra assignment 1

As you may have noticed, I have added a "Clusty Cloud" to our blog. This is a service provided by a search engine that I find to be very useful, www.clusty.com. I think it is better than Google in some ways, because it puts the search results into categories so that you waste less time looking at things that do not interest you.
Your assignment is to click on one or more of the words in the "Clusty Cloud" and take a look at the search results. Then, choose a category on the left, and start exploring the sites. Of course, after that, you have to write to me and tell me about what you have found. If you want to see what last year's group wrote, you can go to my previous post from Monday, May 14th, 2007.
I am looking forward to your comments!

Old group, New group

Welcome! This is the place you will find all of the information you need about the English course for students studying Food and Health.
Please feel free to comment anytime, and I will do my best to respond to your questions and comments.You will need to have your book for next week, so make sure you buy New English File Intermediate (OXFORD). In the meantime, you can click on the link and do some fun exercises. Let me know what you have done!

See you in September

It has been a great year for me, and I would like to thank all of the students who took part in my English courses, because you have made the difference!
If any of you have not yet done so, you may register the exam results in the Autumn, so look for an announcement of a registration date in late September/October.
For those of you who would like to continue to improve your English language skills next year, here are some dates to put on your calendars:

Wednesday, 26 September, 1:00 p.m.:
Corso intensivo per studenti che non hanno ancora superato l'esame del 1° anno
ore 14:30
Meeting for students interested in PET, First Certificate, or TOEFL exams.

Thursday 27 September, 10.00 a.m.(to be confirmed):
Exam 1st, 2nd year English (NOT for new 1st year students)

Thursday 18 October,(to be confirmed):
Entrance exam for 1st year students (matricole)

Have a great summer - I can't wait to hear all about it in the fall!

Assignment 4

This week, I would like you to go to the English file page (by clicking on the link on the right side of this page) and choose a vocabulary activity from the list. Remember, try to choose something we have already studied! When you have finished, write to me and tell me what you have done. I think you will find that the activities can be addictive once you get started!

Assignment 3 - Winning the Prize

Dear Students,
As you all know, our goal in this class is to help you all to pass an internationally recognized exam. Sometimes there are some really strange writing assignments, so that's what we are going to do this week.
The title of your writing assignment is "Winning the prize". That's it. No more information will be given. You have to make up a story to match the title, and it must contain about 100 words. Use your imagination, and send me your stories! I look forward to reading them and guessing whether they are true or not...

Assignment 2: Explore the Clusty Cloud!

As you may have noticed, I have added a "Clusty Cloud" to our blog. This is a service provided by a search engine that I find to be very useful, www.clusty.com. I think it is better than Google in some ways, because it puts the search results into categories so that you waste less time looking at things that do not interest you.
Your assignment is to click on one or more of the words in the "Clusty Cloud" and take a look at the search results. Then, choose a category on the left, and start exploring the sites. Of course, after that, you have to write to me and tell me about what you have found.
I am looking forward to your comments!

WELCOME and first assignment

Dear Students,
This blog will be the control center for all of the activities regarding the 3 credit English course in Food and Health. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, just click on the word 'comments' below the relative posting, and you can share your ideas with the rest of the class! In order to earn your three credits, you are expected to participate in the online part of the course, so get ready to write!
To get started, I would like each of you to send me a 'comment' regarding the course so far - tell me about the activities that you like the most, the ones you have the most trouble doing, and whatever else you think about the book, the organization of the course, and so on.
Everything will be written in English - including your comments. Don't worry about making mistakes - it's part of the learning process...
I look forward to hearing from all of you - remember, it's part of the course, so you are required to make a comment.