GRAMMAR GAMES - BRITISH COUNCIL

COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

Do you want to practice using comparatives and superlatives in English? Play these grammar games from the British Council website, "LearnEnglish Kids", and have fun while you learn.

• Read about the grammar rule.
• Play the two grammar games to help you practice.
• Print the reference card, activity sheet and test for more practice.
• Remember to leave a comment!

CLICK HERE for more information.

Documents for download:

• Print a reference card for this grammar topic.
• Print an activity for this grammar topic.
• Print the answers (activity).
• Print a test for this grammar topic.
• Print the answers (test).

ATPC DE LINGUAGENS (LÍNGUA INGLESA) - 30/09

ENGLISH - ATPC DE LÍNGUA INGLESA

Estão disponíveis nos links abaixo os slides e a pauta da ATPC de Língua Inglesa realizada no dia 30/09, via Google Meet.

September 30, 2020
SLIDES
MEETING AGENDA

HUMAN RIGHTS

THE MIRACLE OF LIFE

Human beings have the right to what is human. All of us are composed of cells, which are composed of molecules, which are composed of atoms. Atoms of the ninety-two elements that make up both the Atlantic ocean and the trees in the Amazon. And that make up the entire universe. The same ninety-two “musical notes” of the cosmic symphony that produced the atoms in the body of the Queen of England or Bill Gates also produced those of a street child.

But today a significant share of humanity still aspires to enjoy the rights of animals. Eating, raising a family, and having shelter are necessities that neither nature nor society deny to animals. Yet the greed of profit and property denies these rights to half the world’s six billion inhabitants. In Brazil, out of a population of 167 million, 54 million live below the poverty line.

A human being is a miracle of life. We do not choose the family, the social class or the nation in which we are born. We can either be rich or poor. We are all children of a biological lottery. However, the extreme inequality in the world is a shocking social injustice. To recognize this should provoke in us – the lottery winners – a minimal sense of personal obligation to those who have not been so lucky. There is a strong ethical need to give voice to the voiceless, so that tomorrow they can speak for themselves. The time to do it is now.

BETTO, F. “Preface: In Defense of the Miracle of Life” (adapted). Human Rights in Brazil. Justiça Global, 2000. In: MARQUES, A; TAVARES, K. New Password: read and learn. Volume 8. 1 ed. São Paulo: Ática, 2002. p. 207-208.

CLICK HERE to listen to the text.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR WITH FUN!

Present Continuous: falando sobre o AGORA em Inglês 

Aula 2 - ENGLISH IN BRAZIL

No vídeo abaixo, a professora Carina Fragozo, do canal ENGLISH IN BRAZIL no YouTube, explica com muito bom humor o tempo verbal Present Continuous. Confiram! 😉

LITERATURE

"I, Too"

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed

I, too, am America.

The Weary Blues, 1926. 

LANGSTON HUGHES (1901 - 1967)

HUGHES, L. In: RAMPERSAD, A.; ROESSEL, D. (Ed.) The collected poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Knopf, 1994. 

CLICK HERE to listen to the poem.

CLICK HERE to listen to Hughes reading the poem.

“I, Too” is a poem by Langston Hughes. First published in 1926, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the poem portrays American racism as experienced by a black man. In the poem, white people deny the speaker a literal and metaphorical seat at the table. However, the speaker asserts that he is just as much as part of America as are white people, and that soon the rest of the country will be forced to acknowledge the beauty and strength of black people. 

“I, Too” Summary 

I also am part of America. 

I am a black member of the American family. They tell me I have to eat alone in the kitchen when they have people over for dinner. But I laugh at their hypocrisy, and eat heartily in order to grow stronger. 

In the future, I will sit at the table when they have people over for dinner. No one will dare to tell me that I have to eat alone in the kitchen then. 

And anyway, they’ll see that I’m beautiful then and they’ll feel ashamed of themselves. 

I also am American. 

“I, Too” Themes 

Racism and American Identity 

“I, Too” is a cry of protest against American racism. Its speaker, a black man, laments the way that he is excluded from American society — even though he is a key part of it. But, the speaker argues, black people have persevered — and will persevere — through the injustices of racism and segregation by developing a vibrant, beautiful, and independent cultural tradition, a cultural tradition so powerful that it will eventually compel white society to recognize black contributions to American life and history. 

Throughout the poem, the speaker insists that he is authentically American and that his community has made important contributions to American life. The speaker begins by announcing, “I, too, sing America”. This is an allusion to a poem by Walt Whitman, “I Hear America Singing”. In that poem, Whitman describes America as a song, which emerges from a diverse chorus of workers, farmers and industrial labors, women and men. 

However, Whitman notably does not include black people in his vision of American life. Even though the poem was written in 1855, just five years before the Civil War started, he doesn’t mention slavery at all. The speaker objects to Whitman’s poem, insisting that black people contribute to the American “song”: in other words, that black culture and black labor have been key to creating America. 

The poem argues that these contributions have been consciously erased by white people. In the poem’s second stanza, the speaker notes that he is forced to “eat in the kitchen / when company comes”. This is an extended metaphor for segregation. It describes the way that white people treat black people and black contributions to American culture. 

The speaker also suggests that white and black communities are quite intimate with each other. The speaker is “the darker brother” — in other words, he’s part of the same family — the American family — as the white people who force him to eat in the kitchen. Despite this intimacy, however, the white members of this metaphorical family force him out of view when other people are around, when they have “company”. In other words, the extended metaphor highlights the hypocrisy of white communities: even though white and black people are part of the same American family, white people exclude, neglect, and ignore black contributions to American history and culture. 

Despite being treated like a second-class citizen, the speaker responds to injustice by declaring that he will “laugh”, “eat well”, and “grow strong”. In other words, black people respond to racism and segregation by developing vibrant and independent cultural traditions. These traditions give them strength so that, in the future, white people will no longer be able to ignore their contributions to American culture — “they’ll see how beautiful I am”, the speaker announces in line 16. Further, as a result of this strength and beauty, white people will no longer be able to exclude the “darker brother” from the table. Segregation itself will break down. 

The poem thus argues that racism involves a willful refusal to acknowledge that black people as just as American as anyone else. And it argues that this refusal will eventually cause the collapse of racism. The poem encourages black people to persevere, to deepen and extend their contributions to American life and culture until those contributions are impossible to ignore. 

Available at: https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/langston-hughes/i-too. Accessed on September 27, 2020. 

MARQUES, A.: SANTOS, D. Links: English for Teens. 9º ano. 1 ed. São Paulo: Ática, 2009. p. 78.

LITERATURE

 “I Hear America Singing”

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day — at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

WALT WHITMAN (1819 - 1892)

CLICK HERE to listen to the poem.

"I Hear America Singing" is a poem by the American poet Walt Whitman, first published in the 1860 edition of his book Leaves of Grass. Though the poem was written on the eve of the Civil War, it presents a vision of America as a harmonious community. Moving from the city to the country, and the land to the sea, the poem envisions America as a place where people do honest, meaningful, and satisfying work — and celebrate that work in song. America emerges from the work of these many and diverse individual people: their separate work comes together to form a coherent whole. In this way, in the poem's account, America is a nation where individuality and unity are balanced, each producing and reinforcing the other.

“I Hear America Singing” Summary

I can hear all of America singing: I hear the many different songs that people sing. I hear mechanics singing, and all of them are singing proudly and strongly — as they should be. I hear the carpenter singing as he measures pieces of wood. I hear the bricklayer singing as he gets ready for work or comes home at the end of the day. I hear the boatman singing about his work in the boat. I hear the crew singing on the deck of the steamboat. I hear the cobbler singing as he sits at his bench and the hatter singing as he stands at his workstation. I hear the logger’s song, the young farmer singing on his way to plow the fields in the morning, or during his lunch break, or at sunset. I hear the sweet song of the mother or the new bride working, or of the girl who sews or washes clothes. Each of them sings about their own work, their own life, and nothing else. During the day, they sing songs appropriate to the day. At night, strong, friendly young men sing with open mouths their loud, tuneful songs.

“I Hear America Singing” Themes

Work and American Identity

"I Hear America Singing" presents an idyllic — and idealized — vision of American life. The poem moves from the city to the country, from the shore to the sea, introducing the reader along the way to all different works along the way — from farmers, to shoemakers, to housewives.
Traveling through these places and professions, the speaker gradually builds a portrait of America as a place where people find joy and fulfillment in productivity and honest labor — even if that labor is not typically "sung" about in poetry. And while the poem takes care to emphasize the dignity and pride of each of these workers in their own right, it also affirms that the workers’ many songs come together to form the sound of "America" itself.
The speaker’s list of jobs cuts across the whole of the United States: moving from urban professionals making fashionable hats to those engaged in rural jobs, like plowing fields; from jobs on shore to jobs on the water. The speaker even includes women alongside men, acknowledging the work they do as important contributions to American society. Though the speaker limits this work to domestic chores like "sewing or washing", the fact that women are included at all is notable given that they were largely excluded from American political life at the time the poem was written.
In the speaker’s vision, it seems everyone gets to participate in creating the American song, no matter their location, class, or gender (even if, to the modern eye, the terms of their participation are somewhat limited and constrained along traditional lines).
What's more, all of these different workers are singing. This probably isn’t literally true, though perhaps a couple folks are indeed whistling away the hours. Instead, these songs are meant to represent the joy these workers take in their labor. Americans, the singing suggests, derive a sense of pride and dignity from their productivity. When the speaker says, "Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else", this affirms the right of each worker to find personal value, and even a sense of self, directly in whatever work they do.
It's also worth noting that music and song are often used in literature as stand-ins for poetry itself. Part of the beauty of America, the poem thus implies, is that regular people are worthy of such song; you don't need to be some sort of mythical hero, beautiful damsel, or wealthy aristocrat for your life to be "sung" about, i.e., to be elevated to the level of poetry.
Yet even as the poem celebrates self-sufficiency and individualism through these "varied carols", it emphasizes that all these workers together form the fabric of America. However unique each of these workers, the poem is saying, what makes America is that they are all singing.
After all, as the poem’s first line announces, the speaker hears "America singing" — not "many workers singing". For the speaker, America is a place where people get to have it both ways: they're at once individuals, with personal freedom and independence, and part of a larger, harmonious collective. That, the poem ultimately suggests, is what America's "song" is all about.

Available at: https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/walt-whitman/i-hear-america-singing. Accessed on September 27, 2020.

LISTENING

Using podcasts to develop listening skills

A podcast is an audio file which you can download to your computer, phone or mp3 player and listen to whenever you choose.

TEACHING ENGLISH - BRITISH COUNCIL

They are an excellent way to work on your, or your students’, listening skills, as you can listen to them as many times as you want to. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also manipulate files so that they are faster or slower, or so that you are only listening to an excerpt of the whole programme.
Podcasts are now available covering almost any topic you can think of. I subscribe to about 30 different series, covering topics like science, films, history, teaching, language, and storytelling. There’s something out there for everyone. You can find some of my favourites, and a list of podcasts designed for English language learners at http://independentenglish.wordpress.com/podcasts.
The majority of podcasts are free, and you can find them in a variety of ways. I find most of the podcasts I listen to from the BBC podcasts page, via the Apple Podcasts app (automatically installed on Apple devices) or through the iTunes podcasts tab, but simply searching on Google will also help you. For example, try ‘film review podcast’ and you’ll be inundated with examples.

Once you’ve found a podcast you like, what can you do with it?

As a student, try these activities:

• Read the short summary of the podcast. Predict three things you think the presenters will talk about. Listen and check.
• Choose ten words, phrases or collocations you think the presenters will use. Play bingo. How many did you hear? If you listen to the same podcasts regularly, you will start to notice the same phrases appearing again and again.
• Play two minutes of the podcast. Stop and predict what you will hear next. Continue listening. Were you correct? Repeat this at a few different points in the podcast.
• Listen to the whole podcast without stopping. Write a short summary of what you heard, or record an audio summary of it. Listen again and see if you can add any extra information. Repetition will improve your confidence.
• Choose a piece of grammar you’d like to improve, like the present perfect. Focus on listening for it. How many times did you hear it? What contexts is it used in?
• Listen and repeat what a speaker is saying. Mumble it under your breath. Repeating this a few times can really help your pronunciation.

As a teacher, you could use podcasts in the classroom or for homework.

• Use a clip from a podcast to introduce a new topic. For example, if you’re talking about the environment, try something from BBC’s Costing the Earth series. For a topic on identity, search for programmes from the BBC Identity series from spring 2016.
• Play a clip from a coursebook listening, then one from a podcast designed for native speakers. Students should think about the differences between the two, for example the speed of speech, turn-taking, and how easy it is to distinguish different speakers. They can then assess how easy it is to understand, and you can offer ways they can work on the areas they had the most trouble with.
• Use excerpts from podcasts to focus on features of connected speech. You can clip them using free software such as Audacity or mp3cut online. This works well as a mini dictation activity.
• Ask students to choose a podcast to listen to for homework. You could give them some guidance or allow them to choose anything they like. For the first ten minutes of the following lesson, students talk about the podcasts they listened to, why they chose it, how easy or difficult it was to understand, and whether they learnt anything from it (language or topic-related). Doing this regularly works as part of an extensive listening scheme.

A few tips:

• As a student, don’t be depressed if you find a podcast difficult to understand at first. Some presenters speak very quickly, and there may be concepts you have not heard before. You have two choices: keep listening and be patient – it may take time, but you will start to understand more; alternatively, choose a different podcasts – there are plenty out there!
• Listen to the same podcast a few times. You’ll notice a lot more language the second and third time you hear it.
• As a teacher, think carefully about the level and speed of the language in the podcasts you select. They can also often contain a lot of cultural information that may be very challenging for students if they are unfamiliar with podcasts or have not had much exposure to authentic materials. Introduce them slowly and consider your aims carefully.

Adapted from "Using podcasts to develop listening skills". Teaching English - British Council. Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/sandymillin/using-podcasts-develop-listening-skills. Accessed on: September 25, 2020.

VERB TO BE - WITH FUN!

Aprenda o Verbo TO BE! (Aula 01 - English in Brazil)

Que tal aprender, de forma divertida, o famoso "VERB TO BE"? A professora Carina Fragozo, do canal ENGLISH IN BRAZIL, começou uma série de 14 episódios sobre o sistema verbal da Língua Inglesa. Nada mais justo do que começar com esse verbo, taxado injustamente como o único conteúdo que os professores "sabem ensinar", motivo de zombaria de vários alunos e de outros colegas - but, telling the truth, tem muito estudante que termina o ensino médio e não sabe o bendito TO BE, tão pouco os pronomes pessoais! 😜😱

Confiram o vídeo abaixo. E aproveitem para fazer o download gratuito do material que a Carina vai utilizar nessa série (CLICK HERE).

LEARNING ENGLISH ON-LINE

ENGLISCH HILFEN (ENGLISH HELP)

LEARNING ENGLISH ONLINE

Grammar, Vocabulary, Exercises, Tests, Games

You will find a lot of information about the English language on this site. You can learn English words, practise grammar, look at some basic rules, prepare for exams, do tests or just have fun playing games. Enjoy yourself with more than 1,000 exercises online.

Grammar & Vocabulary

You can look up basic grammar rules in our Grammar section. We provide vocabulary lists, useful phrases and sentences, idioms, sample letters and information about English-speaking countries in our Vocabulary section.

English & School

You can download Worksheets for students and Teaching Ideas for teachers of English as a second language. You find our exercises selected in Levels. Each exercise can be identified by a four digit Task Number.

English Forum

Join our English Forum to discuss special questions about the English language.

Tests & Exams

Check your English with our Tests and Complex Tests. You can prepare for exams with our Exercises for Exams.

English & Free Time

In our Games section you can solve Crosswords, play Hangman or Find pairs of words and pictures. Read News in English or English Texts.

For more information, CLICK HERE.

LEARN ENGLISH - ESL + EFL

ENGLISH ACTIVITIES (on-line)

ENGLISH ACTIVITIES is a free website for English learners. It is packed with simple English lessons, exiting English games and challenging English tests to help you learn English for fun (and free). ENGLISH ACTIVITIES has been specially designed to help those who want to practice their English away from the EFL/ESL classroom in an enjoyable and engaging way. All the lessons, games and tests are free to use with over 100 beginner and lower intermediate topics. Choose options on the webpage to start your English learning adventure! CLICK HERE.

ATIVIDADES REMOTAS

PLATAFORMAS DIGITAIS

Com o propósito de apoiar os professores no desenvolvimento de atividades das unidades escolares de maneira remota, a Secretaria da Educação organizou uma apresentação em PDF com dicas de algumas plataformas digitais úteis para a preparação de aulas (CLIQUEM AQUI). Além do acesso às plataformas, há links de algumas webinars no YouTube que orientam quanto à utilização dessas ferramentas.

TEACHING GRAMMAR

TIPS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR TO

 ESL STUDENTS

Grammar is often the most feared aspect of the English language. Teaching grammar to ESL students is one of the toughest tasks faced by most ESL instructors, and for good reason. Many of us do not even fully understand our own grammar rules. Even when we do, conveying them in an understandable format for ESL students can be challenging.
Regardless of difficulty, grammar rules must be understood to grasp the language. As an ESL teacher, it’s your duty to make sure your students both understand how grammar works and how to use it. The following tips will get you on your way in teaching grammar to ESL students in an effective, fun way.

Teach yourself grammar before you teach others

Chances are, if you grew up in an English-speaking environment, you learned the rules of grammar without even being aware of it. While this does make you a natural at speaking the language, it can present some problems when it comes to teaching it.
It is often argued that it is impossible to effectively teach something you yourself do not understand. To put it another way, who would you want to be taught by? Someone who understands a subject intimately, or someone who is just faking it?
This is perhaps the most challenging step to become a solid instructor of grammar. Take the time to learn how your language works so you can teach it to others. This will allow you to pick up on the types of mistakes your students are making and to easily correct them.

Learn the difference between inductive and deductive teaching, and how to use both

Depending on the background of your ESL student, teaching inductively could prove far more effective than teaching deductively.
Inductive learning is also known as the bottom-up method. Students, especially those without recent educational backgrounds, such as adult learners, often learn more quickly using this method. To use it, you teach grammar through a discovery process, allowing students to discover how the rules function over the course of various exercises.
In a great example of an inductive teaching exercise provided by Kenneth Beare at Thoughtco.com, students begin by going through a reading exercise that describes what various characters do up to a certain period of time. After the reading exercise, the teacher asks students various questions about when each character did something. To address things like the simple past and present perfect, the teacher asks about when things happened at a specific time in the past versus in a person’s general experience. By allowing English learners to go through this process, they discover on their own how grammar functions when discussing time.
In contrast to this is the deductive approach. This is the more standard teaching style, where the teacher begins by explaining the exact rules governing each aspect of the grammar lesson. The teacher explains the rules, then goes on to give lessons that use those rules. The deductive method is certainly tried and true, but it is also arguably less effective. Take the time to try both and observe the results.

Plan your ESL lesson

Far too many first-time ESL instructors go into the classroom without taking the time to plan properly. Just because you can speak the language does not mean you can wing it. Proper planning will allow you to avoid a lot of undesirable situations such as giving an example off the cuff, only to discover it does not work as perfectly as you thought it would.
English grammar is tricky, and there are more exceptions to many rules than we would like. You do not want to find yourself at the mercy of one of those exceptions while up in front of the class. Planning will allow you to map out the course of your lesson beforehand, including all pertinent examples, so you will have a foolproof course to navigate with your students.

Continuous learning and ESL professional teacher development

There is no doubt that teaching grammar to ESL students is challenging, but it can also be rewarding. If you take the time to observe and implement the above tips, you will certainly improve your lesson. That being said, you should not stop there. Continue learning about grammar, and take some time to research all the various approaches to giving an effective grammar lesson to ESL students. You will only get better with practice.

Adapted from: https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/tips-for-teaching-grammar-to-esl-students/. Accessed on: September 21, 2020.

GRAMMAR

PLANNING A GRAMMAR LESSON

Without grammar, words hang together without any real meaning or sense. In order to be able to speak a language to some degree of proficiency and to be able to say what we really want to say, we need to have some grammatical knowledge.

Tanya Cotter, British Council

By teaching grammar we not only give our students the means to express themselves, but we also fulfil their expectations of what learning a foreign language involves. Fortunately, nowadays with the emphasis on a communicative approach and a wealth of stimulating resources, teaching grammar does not necessarily mean endless conjugation of verbs or grammar translation.

Which approach?

There are two main approaches to teaching grammar. These are the deductive and the inductive approach.
* A deductive approach is when the rule is presented and the language is produced based on the rule (the teacher gives the rule).
* An inductive approach is when the rule is inferred through some form of guided discovery (the teacher gives the students a means to discover the rule for themselves).
In other words, the former is more teacher centred and the latter more learner centred. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. In my own experience, the deductive approach is undoubtedly time saving and allows more time for practising the language items thus making it an effective approach with lower level students. The inductive approach, on the other hand, is often more beneficial to students who already have a base in the language as it encourages them to work things out for themselves based on their existing knowledge.

Presentation, practice and production (PPP)

A deductive approach often fits into a lesson structure known as PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production). The teacher presents the target language and then gives students the opportunity to practise it through very controlled activities. The final stage of the lesson gives the students the opportunity to practise the target language in freer activities which bring in other language elements.
In a 60-minute lesson each stage would last approximately 20 minutes. This model works well as it can be used for most isolated grammatical items. It also allows the teacher to time each stage of the lesson fairly accurately and to anticipate and be prepared for the problems students may encounter. It is less workable at higher levels when students need to compare and contrast several grammatical items at the same time and when their linguistic abilities are far less uniform.

Presentation

In this stage the teacher presents the new language in a meaningful context. I find that building up stories on the board, using realia or flashcards and miming are fun ways to present the language.
For example, when presenting the second conditional, I often draw a picture of myself with thought bubbles of lots of money, a sports car, a big house and a world map.

• I ask my students what I'm thinking about and then introduce the target language. "If I had a lot of money, I would buy a sports car and a big house."
• I practise and drill the sentence orally before writing it on the board (positive, negative, question and short answer).
• I then focus on form by asking the students questions. E.g."What do we use after 'if'?" and on meaning by asking the students questions to check that they have understood the concept (E.g."Do I have lots of money?" No. "What am I doing?" Imagining.).
• When I am satisfied that my students understand the form and the meaning, I move on to the practice stage of the lesson. During this stage of the lesson it is important to correct phonological and grammatical mistakes.

Practice

There are numerous activities which can be used for this stage including gap fill exercises, substitution drills, sentence transformations, split sentences, picture dictations, class questionnaires, reordering sentences and matching sentences to pictures.

• It is important that the activities are fairly controlled at this stage as students have only just met the new language. Many students' books and workbooks have exercises and activities which can be used at this stage.
• When teaching the second conditional, I would use split sentences as a controlled practice activity. I give students lots of sentence halves and in pairs they try and match the beginnings and ends of the sentences. Example: "If I won the lottery," … "I'd travel around the world."
• I would then do a communicative follow up game like pelmanism or snap using the same sentence halves.

Production

Again there are numerous activities for this stage and what you choose will depend on the language you are teaching and on the level of your students. However, information gaps, role plays, interviews, simulations, find someone who, spot the differences between two pictures, picture cues, problem solving, personalisation activities and board games are all meaningful activities which give students the opportunity to practise the language more freely.

• When teaching the second conditional, I would try to personalise the lesson at this stage by giving students a list of question prompts to ask others in the class. Example: do / if / win the lottery?
• Although the questions are controlled the students are given the opportunity to answer more spontaneously using other language items and thus the activity becomes much less predictable.
• It is important to monitor and make a note of any errors so that you can build in class feedback and error analysis at the end of the lesson.

Conclusion

When teaching grammar, there are several factors we need to take into consideration and the following are some of the questions we should ask ourselves:

• How useful and relevant is the language?
• What other language do my students need to know in order to learn the new structure effectively?
• What problems might my students face when learning the new language?
• How can I make the lesson fun, meaningful and memorable?

Although I try to only use English when teaching a grammar lesson, it is sometimes beneficial to the students to make a comparison to L1 in the presentation stage. This is particularly true in the case of more problematic grammatical structures which students are not able to transfer to their own language.
It is also important to note that using the PPP model does not necessarily exclude using a more inductive approach since some form of learner-centred guided discovery could be built into the presentation stage. When presenting the 2nd conditional I sometimes present the language in context and then give the students a worksheet with a series of analysis questions to do in pairs.
PPP is one model for planning a lesson. Other models include TTT (Test, Teach, Test), ARC (Authentic use, Restricted use, Clarification and focus) and ESA (Engage, Study, Activate). All models have their advantages and disadvantages and I, like many other teachers I know, use different models depending on the lesson, class, level and learner styles.

Further reading

• Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teachers. Penny Ur, Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers 1988
• Grammar Games and Activities for Teachers. Peter Watcyn Jones, Penguin Books 1995
• How to Teach English. Jeremy Harmer, Longman 1998
• How to Teach Grammar. Scott Thornbury, Longman 1999

Source: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/planning-a-grammar-lesson. Accessed on: September 21, 2020.

LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

PRESENTING VOCABULARY

This article looks at what needs to be taught when teaching vocabulary and ways to present and teach vocabulary.

Richard Frost, British Council

Introduction
With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect. Remember though that the average native speaker uses around only five thousand words in everyday speech. Moreover, your students won't need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize. Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of your particular students is therefore essential. Once you have chosen what to teach, the next important steps are to consider what students need to know about the items, and how you can teach them.

What a student may need to know about an item

• What it means

It is vital to get across the meaning of the item clearly and to ensure that your students have understood correctly with checking questions.

• The form

Students need to know if it is a verb / a noun / an adjective etc to be able to use it effectively.

• How it is pronounced

This can be particularly problematic for learners of English because there is often no clear relation between how a word is written and how it is pronounced. It is very important to use the phonemic script in such cases so the sts have a clear written record of the pronunciation. Don't forget also to drill words that you think will cause pronunciation problems for your students and highlight the word stresses.

• How it is spelt

This is always difficult in English for the reason mentioned above. Remember to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form.

• If it follows any unpredictable grammatical patterns

For example, man-men / information (uncountable) and if the word is followed by a particular preposition (e.g. depend on).

• The connotations that the item may have

Bachelor is a neutral/positive word whereas spinster conjures a more negative image.

• The situations when the word is or is not used

Is it formal/neutral/informal? For example, spectacles/glasses/specs. Is it used mainly in speech or in writing? To sum up is usually written whereas mind you is spoken. Is it outdated? Wireless instead of radio.

• How the word is related to others

For example, synonyms, antonyms, lexical sets.

• Collocation or the way that words occur together

You describe things 'in great detail' not 'in big detail' and to ask a question you 'raise your hand' you don't 'lift your hand'. It is important to highlight this to students to prevent mistakes in usage later.

• What the affixes (the prefixes and suffixes) may indicate about the meaning

For example, substandard - sub meaning under. This is particularly useful at a higher level.

Which of these areas you choose to highlight will depend on the item you are teaching and the level of your students. Now it's time to think about how we can get the meaning across.

Ways to present vocabulary
There are lots of ways of getting across the meaning of a lexical item.

• Illustration

This is very useful for more concrete words (dog, rain, tall) and for visual learners. It has its limits though, not all items can be drawn.

• Mime

This lends itself particularly well to action verbs and it can be fun and memorable.

• Synonyms/Antonyms/Gradable items

Using the words a student already knows can be effective for getting meaning across.

• Definition

Make sure that it is clear (maybe check in a learner dictionary before the lesson if you are not confident). Remember to ask questions to check they have understood properly.

• Translation

If you know the students' L1, then it is fast and efficient. Remember that not every word has a direct translation.

• Context

Think of a clear context when the word is used and either describe it to the students or give them example sentences to clarify meaning further.

Again which you choose will depend on the item you are presenting. Some are more suitable for particular words. Often a combination of techniques can be both helpful and memorable.

Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary

• Give your students a few items of vocabulary and tell them to find the meaning, pronunciation and write an example sentence with the word in. They can then teach each other in groups.
• Prepare worksheets and ask your students to match words to definitions.
• Ask students to classify a group of words into different categories. For example, a list of transport words into air/sea/land.
• Ask students to find new vocabulary from reading homework and teach the other students in the class.

Other things to consider

• Review the vocabulary you teach through a game or activity and encourage your students to do the same at home.
• Encourage autonomy in your learners. Tell them to read, watch films, listen to songs etc and note the useful words.
• Have a section of your board for vocabulary items that come up as you are teaching. Use different colours for the word / the phonemics / the prepositions / the part of speech.
• It is a good idea to teach/learn words with associated meanings together.
• Encourage your students to purchase a good dictionary and use class time to highlight the benefits of one.
• Teach your students the grammatical names for the parts of speech and the phonemic script.
• Always keep a good dictionary by your side in case a student asks about a word you don't know.
• If you don't and have never heard of the word, tell the student you will check and get back to them. Do get back to them.
• Give extra examples sentences to the students if they are unsure and encourage them to write the word in an example sentence (maybe for homework).

Source: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/presenting-vocabulary. Accessed on: September 21, 2020.

LEARNING ENGLISH GRAMMAR

BRITISH COUNCIL - GRAMMAR REFERENCE

O site da British Council apresenta uma seção de estudos da gramática da Língua Inglesa com explicações objetivas e exemplos que esclarecem o uso do idioma. Há exercícios para praticar os conhecimentos linguísticos. Confiram AQUI.

CHATCLASS - OLIMPÍADA DE INGLÊS

Live: Como participar da Olimpíada de Inglês

No último dia 16 de setembro foi realizada uma live esclarecendo como estudantes e professores podem participar da Olimpíada de Inglês 2020, a ser realizada no próximo mês. Confiram! 😉

LEARNING ENGLISH

"Why Should I Learn English?"

10 Compelling Reasons for EFL Learners

English has been described as “the language of opportunity”, and by the time you get to the end of this article, we’re pretty sure you’ll agree.
If you’re currently in the throes of trying to pick a language to study at school, or you fancy taking on a new language in your spare time, we’re willing to bet that the English speakers of this world would join us in giving you the following words of advice: if you have to choose one additional language to learn during the course of your years at school, make it English. Why? Let us count the ways…

1. English is one of the most widely spoken languages

Although it comes second to Mandarin in the total number of speakers, English is the language you’ll be able to use most widely, as it’s spoken in more countries than any other language. That means that English is the language that will give you the best return for your efforts; after all, intellectual challenge aside, there’s little point putting a huge amount of time and effort into learning a language that you’ll hardly ever have the opportunity to use.
As well as the UK, a whopping 60 of the world’s 196 countries have English as their official language: the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, to name but a few. It’s the language of diplomacy and the official language of the European Union, the United Nations, NATO and the European Free Trade Association, not to mention many Commonwealth countries. What’s more, English is the commonly adopted second language of people in a great many more countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland. In total, around 1.5 billion people speak English worldwide – and another billion are in the process of learning it. Will you make this number even bigger by learning it yourself?

2. English will open up more opportunities for you

Being able to speak English allows you to communicate effectively in numerous countries, and this opens up lots of possibilities for you in terms of the countries you could choose to seek work in one day – not to mention travel to as a tourist. You won’t have to worry about getting lost when you travel to an English-speaking country, as you’ll easily be able to ask for directions, and taking guided tours, ordering food and chatting to the locals will no longer be a source of stress.
What’s more, careers that involve lots of travel or international exposure, such as the airline, tourism and film industries, use English as their official language, and many employers in these sectors are likely to require evidence of a certain level of proficiency in English before they will consider employing you. This means that if you can speak English, you’ll find that you have a greater number of possible careers to choose from after you finish at university.

3. English will make you more desirable to employers

Being fluent in a second language clearly demonstrates a powerful brain and reflects someone who has put in the huge amount of time, resources and commitment needed to master another language. But while being bilingual is impressive full stop, no matter what combination of languages you speak, adding English to your CV will be particularly useful. Not only is it an especially complex language to get to grips with, a fact that reflects well on you for having mastered it, but as we’ve seen, it’s also an incredibly useful language to learn because so many countries speak it. You’ll be in a much stronger position to apply for jobs overseas if you’ve reached a good level of fluency in English.
English has been referred to as “the language of business”, and it’s not hard to see why. If you have ambitions to become an international businessperson, it’s essential that you’re able to speak English fluently; business conducted internationally is done in English more often than not. Even if you’re not thinking of living and working abroad, that doesn’t mean you won’t find English a helpful language to put on your CV. There may well be plenty of English-speaking multinational corporations with offices in your home country. What’s more, English skills are just as desirable to employers in your own country and language as they are to employers in English-speaking countries. Here are just three examples to give you an idea of the kind of situations in which English may come in useful in your own country:
Business meetings – being able to speak English puts you in a position to be able to attend or hold international business meetings. Where several languages are represented, the chances are that the meeting will be conducted in English – and if you’re the only one in your team who can speak English, you may find yourself being put forward to attend important meetings, advancing yourself up the career ladder in the process.
Customer service and sales – you’ll be able to help with any English-speaking customers your employer may have – and sell to them. This gives you the chance to build relationships with overseas customers, and the ability to build relationships is an important business skill that puts you at an advantage over non-English speaking fellow employees and makes you more valuable to the company you work for.
Marketing and communications – if the company you end up working for markets its products or services to English-speaking countries, or releases other sorts of communications such as press releases to these countries, your knowledge of English may come in handy for translating marketing materials or communications with customers or sales prospects. The cultural knowledge you’ll acquire through learning English may also come in handy in knowing how to pitch products and ideas to English-speaking nations.

4. English gives you access to some of the world’s best universities

English is widely regarded as the language of higher education. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and MIT are just a few of the famous universities that occupy the lofty heights of the top of the world education league tables, and you’ll need to speak English fluently for access to any of these, as they’re all English-speaking. It goes without saying that if you are able to study at one of these institutions, you’ll start your career with an illustrious name on your CV – and the benefits of that speak for themselves. If English isn’t your native language, you’ll need to take an English test during the admissions process to prove that your level of English is up to scratch for the demands of the academic environment. If you have your sights set on a top university, the effort you put in to study English as early as possible in your school years will be rewarded when it comes to the choice of universities to which you can apply.

5. English is the language of some of the world’s greatest literature

If you learn English, you’ll be able to enjoy works by some of the world’s most famous writers, in the language in which they were intended to be read or heard. The works of Shakespeare will take on a new meaning when you’re able to speak English, and you can look forward to enjoying such influential classics as Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and her sister’s Jane Eyre, George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and many, many more. Translation rarely does a writer true justice, so the only way to appreciate a classic literary work properly is to read it in its original language. Even better, through doing so, you’ll deepen your knowledge of English by enriching it with new words and sentence structures.

6. English allows you to get more from popular culture

The world’s highest-grossing movies are made in Hollywood, and needless to say, they are made in English. How many times have you been to see an American blockbuster and been frustrated by having to keep up with fast-paced subtitles? And how many times have you hummed a favourite pop song, but not been able to sing along because it’s in English and you don’t know the words? There’s a solution… Kiss those annoying cinema subtitles goodbye and get more out of the music you enjoy by learning English.

7. English allows you to attend international conferences and events

Major sporting events such as the Olympics are held in English, and so are international conferences, so competitors and delegates will need to be able to speak English to be able to get the most out of taking part. You may find yourself needing to attend conferences as part of your chosen career, so learning English now will be of enormous benefit to you in years to come. Not only will you be able to understand the talks, but you’ll get a lot more out of the networking opportunities that come with such events if you can talk effectively in English. You never know – there may be a new employer or client among the crowds of fellow delegates, so make sure you can communicate with them!

8. English has a simple alphabet and everyone’s equal

The English alphabet is straightforward, making it easier to master than the symbols or pictures that make up some languages. If you’ve struggled to learn more complex alphabets, you may find you make more progress with English, which shares an alphabet with many other languages.
There are no complicated symbols and characters to get to grips with in English, either; even in French, which essentially uses the same alphabet, there are several accents used on certain letters that alter the pronunciation. Not so in English. Furthermore, not matter how important they are, everyone is addressed as “you” – there are no polite and informal variants to agonise over (as there are in French with “tu” and “vous”, for instance), so you won’t need to worry about inadvertently creating social awkwardness by being overly familiar. And unlike many European languages, there are no masculine and feminine words to remember – it’s “a dog”, not “le chien”.

9. English gives you wider access to knowledge

Did you know that 55% of the world’s webpages are written in English? This absolutely dwarfs that of any other language, with the next most widely used language on the internet being Russian (which constitutes just 6% of pages). Knowledge of English therefore allows you to tap into far more of the world’s intellectual resources.
English is also the language of science. If you learn English, you won’t just have access to a greater proportion of the vast amount of knowledge available on the web; you’ll be able to educate yourself still further by being able to read scientific books and papers. English is, of course, essential if you intend to pursue a scientific career. Within the Science Citation Index, compiled by the Institute for Scientific Information, an estimated 95% of articles are written in English despite only around half being from English-speaking countries. According to the Open University, “At Oxford University two thirds of post-graduate students come from outside the UK. The students in the university’s chemistry research lab admit that working in English is a key attraction.”

10. English is a fantastic intellectual challenge!

English is undoubtedly one of the harder languages to learn. Full of nuances, unexpected pronunciations, odd rules and infuriating exceptions to rules, it takes dedication and perseverance to reach a good level of fluency. If you’re on the lookout for a new challenge, learning English may be just what you’re after. Not only that, but because it’s so widely spoken, it opens you up to a huge number of new cultural experiences, which will help you develop life skills, meet new people and grow your confidence in handling new situations.

Adapted from OXFORD ROYALE ACADEMY homepage. Available at: https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/reasons-learn-english/#aId=01b5c611-67c9-4c57-aa6d-e08dd42bd0d4. Accessed on: September 17. 2020.

ENGLISH WITH MUSIC

COLBIE CAILLAT

"BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN"

Written by Colbie Caillat and Ryan Tedder

From the 2011 Universal Republic Records Album All of You. All rights reserved.

Stop me on the corner
Swear you hit me like a vision
I, I, I wasn't expecting
But who am I to tell fate where it's supposed to go?
With it
Don't you blink; you might miss it
See, we got a right to just love it or leave it
You find it and keep it
'Cause it ain't every day you get the chance to say...

Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky
Shining how we want, brighter than the sun

I'd never seen it
But I found this love, I'm gonna feed it
You better believe
I'm gonna treat it better than anything I've ever had
'Cause you're so damn beautiful
Read it, it's signed and delivered, let's seal it
Boy, we go together like peanuts and Paydays
Marley and reggae
And everybody needs to get a chance to say...

Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky
Shining how we want, brighter than the sun

Everything is like a white out
'Cause we shika-shika shine down
Even when the, when the light's out, but I can see you glow
Got my head up in the rafters, got me happy ever after
Never felt this way before, ain't felt this way before
I swear you hit me like a vision
I, I, I wasn't expecting
But who am I to tell fate where it's supposed to go?

Oh, this is how it starts (This is how it starts)
Lightning strikes the heart (Lightning strikes the heart)
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky (Falling from the sky)
Shining how we want, brighter than the sun
Oh, this is how it starts (This is how it starts)
Lightning strikes the heart (Lightning strikes the heart)
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky
Shining how we want (Shining how we want)
Brighter than the sun

Brighter than the sun
Brighter than the sun
Brighter than the sun
Oh-o, yeah, oh-o

Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun
Oh, this is how it starts, lightning strikes the heart
It goes off like a gun, brighter than the sun

ATPC DE LINGUAGENS (LÍNGUA INGLESA) - 16/09

ENGLISH - ATPC DE LÍNGUA INGLESA

Estão disponíveis nos links abaixo os slides e a pauta da ATPC de Língua Inglesa realizada no dia 16/09, via Google Meet.

September 16, 2020
SLIDES
MEETING AGENDA

AULAS REMOTAS

PLANEJAMENTO DE AULAS REMOTAS

Confiram o vídeo abaixo com dicas para preparação de aulas remotas utilizando o ChatClass.

SPEAKING

10 ways to improve your English speaking

Speaking English doesn’t have to be stressful!
Here are ten extra tips to help you increase your confidence and speak more naturally.

1. Take it step by step

Learn a few important phrases at first, and learn how to pronounce them well. When you’re confident with these, you can choose a few more to practise. Start with simple phrases first, then go on to more complicated ones.

For example, learn key phrases for saying hello and greeting someone:
“Hi! How are you?”
“Fine thanks. And you?”

Or a simple phrase to ask directions:
“Excuse me! I’m looking for … (London Road)”

Or a simple phrase to order food in a restaurant:
“I’d like the … (fish and chips) please.”

2. Don’t say too much

You don’t need to speak a lot to express yourself. In many situations, such as travelling around, shopping, phoning, etc, you don’t have the time to have a long conversation. Concentrate on communicating the essential part of your message until you start feeling more confident.

3. Practice makes perfect!

This is probably the most important tip. The more you practise, the better you get – and the more confident you will become. When you practise important phrases, they become natural and easy for you. If you aren’t in an English-speaking country, you can go to conversation clubs, or go online via Google Meet or Hangout, for example. 

4. Keep it simple

You don’t need complicated grammar or sentence structure. If your sentences are short and grammatically simple, you are less likely to make mistakes or confuse the person you’re talking to.

Sentence structure tip!

Remember the SVOMPT word order rule:
Subject
Verb
Object
Manner (how)
Place
Time

For example:

"I like walking fast in the forest in winter."
I (subject) like (verb) walking (object) fast (manner) in the forest (place) in winter (time).

Remember: not every sentence has all six components, and you can omit manner, place and time and still have correct sentence structure.

5. Use every way you can to communicate

When you need to communicate a message, you will find the way to do it! For example, you can use gestures to help you explain to another person. If you are in a train and feel hot, you could say “Can I open the…?” and gesture towards the window if you can’t remember the word for “window”.

6. Listen and watch

A great way to improve your confidence is to watch other people speak English. What phrases do they use? What gestures do they use? How do they respond to each other? Perhaps they use special phrases or particular intonation. Observing how other people communicate is a great way to extend your own “library” of useful phrases for different situations. If you don’t live in an English-speaking country, check out film and TV, or trailers on YouTube, for example.

7. Record yourself

Use your phone to record yourself speaking phrases or words. When you listen back to yourself, how do you sound? Don’t be too critical about your accent – it doesn’t matter if you sound like a non-native speaker. But it’s important to speak clearly. Recording yourself helps you become more aware of how you speak English, and you’ll begin to understand which English sounds are most difficult for you. Then, with a little practice, you can soon get better at saying these difficult sounds.

8. Don’t speak too fast

If you’re nervous or embarrassed, you might speak too fast – or too quietly. It’s normal to feel worried, especially in new situations. But concentrate on those few phrases and try to speak at normal speed and volume. When you see the other person responding naturally to you, you’ll know that what you say is good English!

9. Don’t give up

Some days it’s easier to speak English than other days. Sometimes you can find the words and phrases you need without any problems, but other times everything is really difficult. Some days you never seem to make mistakes – and then the next day it’s all wrong! But don’t worry. This is completely normal! The important thing is to understand that tomorrow is a different day. Keep practising and you will improve your speaking. Don’t worry too much about making mistakes, either. They help you improve your English.

10. Accept help from other people

Native speakers will rarely correct your grammar, but they’ll probably correct your vocabulary and pronunciation. You can even ask, “Sorry, what do you call this in English?” and people are usually very happy to help you.

Adapted from "10 ways to improve your English speaking today", an article written by Clare Whitmell, available at https://www.english-at-home.com/speaking/10-ways-improve-english-speaking/. Accessed on September 14, 2020.

CHATCLASS

Como otimizar seu tempo usando a ChatClass

Este vídeo, com pouco mais de uma hora de duração, traz dicas de como utilizar a ChatClass para economizar seu tempo - levando em conta o período de atividades escolares não presenciais e a Olimpíada de Inglês. Confiram! 😉