Year 4
Number
96
January 26th 2003
4400 SHARERS are reading this issue of SHARE this week
__________________________________________________________
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single
candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never
decreases by being SHARED
__________________________________________________________
Dear SHARERS,
This issue of
SHARE almost never got written. We were all so tired here. Our own private
Demolition Woman, Marina, decided
this week was the best time to do some spring cleaning. Only, it´s summer!!!
These two rainy days we had last week gave her the bright idea that cleaning,
tidying up and sorting things out might keep us all entertained (Who wanted
to be entertained in the first
place?) Anyway, we are now through with it now but it was tough, believe me.
I think Marina has
got the secret illusion one of our boys (or both) are going to become some sort
of celebrity and that in future people will want to know all about their lives.
She´s started some sort of archives or museum. What goes into it? Their report
cards (they are not that good),the best reader, best citizen, best whatever
badges they got in Primary school, most of their school notebooks (Can you
believe it? Marina corrects me : “Only first and second grade notebooks”), the
first books they read in English (she corrects me, again “The first ones they
read aloud!”),and the list goes on. I know what´s coming: there won´t be room
for all this in the bookcases and I am seriously threatened now that my “Todo es
Historia” magazine collection will have to go (Marina adds: “I only asked you to
move them temporarily to your mum´s). Oh, God!
I only hope it
doesn´t rain till classes start. We don´t Marina to think of other alternative
forms of entertainment!
Keep
on enjoying your holidays!
Omar and
Marina
PS: Our next two issues of SHARE will be published around 9th and 23rd February 2003.
In SHARE
96
1.-
Learning Vocabulary, Strategies at Work.
2.-
After Harry Potter, What? (Second Round).
3.-
An Introduction to Applied Drama.
4.-
Tests for Young Learners: How to make them less scary.
5.-
First Seminar on Professional Development in Paraná.
6.-
What are you laughing at? Taking jokes seriously.
7.-
A Holistic Dimension to Language Learning.
8.-
Job Opening in Chubut.
9.-
The “ise” and “ize” endings.
10.- Interpretación
Simultánea: Velocidad y Resistencia.
11.- Spanish
as a Foreign Language.
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1.- LEARNING
VOCABULARY, STRATEGIES AT WORK
Our dear SHARER Claudia Estevez from San Juan, Argentina wants to SHARE
this article with all of us:
Learning
Vocabulary, Strategies at Work
By Ana Robles,
Fraga (Spain)
Whenever we do
something, we do it in a certain way and using a certain procedure and not
others. If I want to pull down a brick wall I can hit it with my hands, or butt
it with my head repeatedly, or can I get a hammer and hammer until the bricks
break, or can ask for help, or go and get myself a drilling machine, or find any
other way of doing it.
The strategy I
choose will certainly affect the results. The time needed to pull down the brick
wall will vary depending on whether I decide to use a drill or my own head. My
own well being will also be affected.
The same applies
to learning a language (or to any other learning). How quickly and how well the
language is learnt will depend to a high degree on the set of strategies I use.
The aim of this article is to examine some of the strategies that affect
vocabulary learning. As teachers very often we plan our lessons only in terms of
the language we want our students to learn (the content), and we don't plan in
terms of the strategy the student needs to use to absorb that
content.
In my experience
when I don't teach strategies some students will be able to discover efficient
strategies on their own, but some will get stuck and fail. Also I have often met
students that were very good at some area of the language, for example, writing,
and failed miserably in other areas, like pronunciation. In many of these cases
the students were using the same strategies to do very different
things.
One of the
challenges learning a foreign language presents is that languages are by their
own nature so complex and multi-faceted that using one procedure is not enough.
To tackle the challenge of mastering a new language effectively a student needs
an array of very different strategies for the different areas of the language.
And then he needs to know when to use which.
As teachers we can
help our students to develop efficient strategies that foster learning. To do so
we need to:
1. Identify the
strategy or range of strategies more efficient for each
task.
2. Identify and
make our students aware of the strategies they are using at the
present.
3. Present
alternative strategies and explain advantages and
disadvantages.
4. Provide
opportunities and activities for them to explore and practise alternative
strategies.
Let's take
vocabulary learning. Learning a language means learning words, lots of words.
Learning vocabulary is usually considered the easiest task, much easier than,
for example, learning to write a composition. Even so it is not equally easy for
everybody.
But what is the
difference that makes the difference? What do good vocabulary learners do that
is different from what other students do? In other words, what strategies are
there for learning words? And which ones are more
efficient?
Learning a word
implies doing several tasks and, in order to identify the most efficient
strategies, we need to be clear about exactly what we want to
learn.
* First, a word is
a group of letters and learning a word entails learning how those letters are
grouped together. We have to learn the spelling and mistakes are not
appreciated. Water is not whatter.
When you are
writing, if you have doubts about the spelling of a given word, what do you do?
Do you say the word to yourself to hear it out? Do you write the word, either on
a paper or your mind's blackboard and chose the one that feels right? Do you use
any other strategy? Good spellers usually 'see' the words written in their minds
whereas bad spellers 'hear' the words. The thing is hearing a word like
'necessary' is not going to give me any information about the number of 'C's' it
includes. If a student makes spelling mistakes because he is using an auditory
strategy to check spelling, just giving him the right spelling won't help him
much. Next time he is writing he will resort to sounding the word again and will
make the same mistakes.
On the other hand,
teaching him to think about the letters will help. Something as simple as asking
that student, whenever he is in doubt about a word's spelling, to stop and
scribble down a list with all the spelling combinations he can think of and then
read them and choose the most likely one, will help him to develop a 'seeing'
strategy.
* A word is also a
sequence of sounds and learning a word entails learning to recognise and produce
these sounds. So when I learn a new word I need to learn its pronunciation,
(unless I am aiming only to learn the written
language).
Seeing the word
written in your mind is a good strategy to avoid spelling mistakes but won't
help you to understand an English speaker.
Learning how a
word sounds implies using an auditory strategy: saying it both aloud and in your
head, paying attention to how it sounds when said by a native and then when said
by oneself. Recording oneself and then listening to the tape is the sort of
activity that can help to develop auditory strategies in those students used to
thinking of words only in terms of what they see.
* Then a word is a
label for a shared meaning. The word 'water' is a label for a certain type of
liquid, not to be confused with, let's say, wine. But a label is not the same
thing as the concept it labels.
When I learn
'water' I can link this group of letters and sounds to the equivalent label in
my mother tongue, and through it to the internal image I have for that concept,
or I can link the label 'water' directly to that internal
image.
Visual information
like photographs and drawings help the students to link the new word to that
internal image. And we can also explain to them the importance of linking the
new words to the idea they represent, for instance by visualising the concepts
the words represent as they learn the spelling or
pronunciation.
When I link the
word in the foreign language to the word in my language I gain quick access to
the concept behind the word in the mother tongue, and that's good, but I am also
adding a step between the concept and the word in the new language, which is not
so good.
Linking words in
the foreign language to the equivalent word in the mother tongue can also be
confusing when the same word is linked to a set of concepts that are represented
by different labels in the mother tongue.
A table has legs and a person has legs. I can walk the first leg of a
journey or I can be on my last legs, and all those 'legs' have different labels
in my mother tongue, which can be very confusing if you are used to equating the
label to the meaning.
Sometimes I ask my
students to imagine, for example, a table's leg and to attach to that mental
image two imaginary adhesive pieces of paper, one with the word in the mother
tongue and the other with the word in English. And then to do the same with a
person's leg. The idea is for them to learn the strategy of focusing on the
concept and also, to help them to make the distinction between label and
concept.
Examples of more
activities are asking them to write the new word and image the object behind. Or
imagine a place they are familiar with and fill it with labels in English with
the names of all the different objects and places.
* Last but not
least, a word is a trigger for all the personal internal experiences I link to
that word. When I say 'water' you and I are sharing the common idea of a liquid
which is not wine, but behind that I have all my personal experiences of that is
what comes to my mind when I hear that word. Water for me is blue, cool,
refreshing, and smells of the sea.
I know I have
really learnt a word when seeing it or hearing it triggers that inner world. And
the same goes for my students. When they make the words their own, then they
really know them.
Learning a word is
then much more than just memorising the spelling, it becomes a process of adding
learning on learning, going from the outer shell of the word (the letters and
the sounds) towards its core to transform it and make it mine. And that process
is done in stages. Learning is a spiral of construction. So the in-depth
learning of a word is also a matter of time, of reprocessing it and using it in
many ways.
Which means that
vocabulary has to be recycled and used many times, but it also means that there
is a time in my students' learning process when I will have to provide them with
the space to make the words their own. So that the outer shell of letters and
sounds becomes a trigger for their map of the terrain.
Humanistic
language learning activities aim to provide the space in which that learning can
happen, by providing the students with a frame to link the foreign language to
their inner world.
An example of
simple activity would be asking the students to choose a word they particularly
like and create a gesture or shape with their hands to represent what they like
about that word.
Learning a word
entails learning different 'pieces' of content, meaning, spelling,
pronunciation, and personal interpretation. Each of those 'pieces' has it's own
requirements in terms of strategies. Using the same strategy for pronunciation
and spelling is as effective as butting the brick wall with your
head.
When I ask my
students how they learn vocabulary, what I find most of the time is that they
have a favoured strategy they apply for all the content areas. Some of them
repeat the new words orally in their head, others create a visual image, others
write them down and make lists of words in English with their translation into
mother tongue and so on. The number of students using more than one strategy is
very small.
Therefore, my main
task as teacher is to expand their awareness both of the different techniques
available, and of their effectiveness and weaknesses, so that they can choose
those that they need for each particular situation.
That awareness is
expanded just by talking in the class about how each of them learns and studies.
The next step is to explore with them the different strategies. First, by
presenting them with activities in which they can learn to use specific
strategies and, then, by discussing with them the advantages and disadvantages
of each strategy.
The knowledge that
there are more ways than one of learning, and that how you learn affects what
you learn is in itself a source of generative learning. Once a student realises
that there are many ways of doing the same task he will often start his own
search for those strategies that fits his needs
better.
(c) Copyright 1999
Pilgrims Ltd.
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2.- AFTER HARRY POTTER, WHAT? (SECOND
ROUND)
Our
dear friend and SHARER Fiona MacKenzie from Oxford writes to us in connection to
the article by E.Kennedy we published in our last issue: After
Harry Potter, What?
Dear Omar and Marina
Hi and Happy New Year. I am enjoying very much your
tales of relaxing, wearing shorts and barbecuing. Spare a thought for me
shivering in the cold and dark of an English winter. We have had occasional
wonderful winter days of sun and crisp cold and sparkling frost - last Sunday
was one, but most of the time is has been grey and wet.
Just been reading Share over lunch. In connection to the
article about what else is there after Harry Potter - have you come across a
trilogy by Philip Pullman called 'His Dark Materials'. The books are Northern
Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass and they are wonderfully
imaginative explorations of the workings of the world - the first book
is set in an Oxford of a parallel universe. (Philip Pullman was an English
teacher in Oxford before he turned to writing full time.) Each person has a
daemon, a kind of external manifestation of a soul to whom they can talk
- and the children's daemons can change from animal form to animal
form depending on how they are feeling. So ideas and feelings are made explicit
in a way children can relate to. They are books for teenagers which are a great
read for adults too - definitely classics of the future. I know that film
rights have been bought but wonder how far the books have travelled outside
the UK as yet.
So - think of me as you relax in the heat and continue
to enjoy it.
Love and best wishes
Fiona
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3.- AN INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED
DRAMA
Our dear friend and SHARER Celia Zubiri sends us this article and
message:
Dear Omar and Marina,
in spite of this terrible heat I was willing to share
with all the SHARERS this introduction to Applied Drama that I am preparing for
the First Annual Conference of Applied Drama. Doesn't it sound too redundant?
Well, but Drama is Drama and I cannot find now, as a dramatist,
another dramatic word to replace it.
My best wishes,
Celia Zubiri
FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF APPLIED
DRAMA
Drama is one of the most relevant disciplines in the
teaching-learning process nowadays. Many things are being said about Drama and
one can hear the most fantastic definitions, comments and suggestions of how to
apply drama at school but they do not guarantee successful dramatic activities
among students. These activities do not mean putting on plays in front of a
passive audience or the stiff “dramatization” of dialogues and sketches. They
are not sessions of self-liberation or a substitute for the “shrink”. Nor is the
teacher training future actors. Successful dramatic activities are the ones that
give students the opportunity to:
know more about their own abilities and
limitations
develop verbal and non-verbal
skills
colour language with mood and
feeling
use their own personality, imagination and creativity
when they are led to provide “material” for the class
find the appropriate expressive frames for the meaning
they are exploring
apply and therefore develop their critical
thinking
learn more about their inner pace and rhythm improve
their concentration and enlarge their span of
attention
develop self-control, self-confidence, co-operation and
group work
be aware of the space
management
The starting point to succeed in this “new trend” should
be based on the accurate teacher-training development.
As I am totally aware of this need and in response to
the uncountable number of telephone calls, e-mails, letters and personal visits asking either for advice
or training courses on Drama, we decided we should try to provide teachers with
some of the tools they need through this Conference. Some excellent
professionals in English and Spanish were willing to join us as lecturers as
soon as they came to know about this big attempt that will be held at Teatro
Santamaria, Montevideo 842, Ciudad de Bs. As on February 27 and 28 from 9 AM to
5 PM and March 1 from 9AM to 1PM. For further information teachers should visit
our web site: www.thebsasplayers.com
For registration teachers should contact us at our
office: 011- 4812-5307 / 4814-5455 from 9 AM to 5PM.
Believe it or not: now we are on holidays, are we?
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4.- TESTS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS: HOW TO
MAKE THEM LESS SCARY
Our dear SHARER
Paulina D´Amico from Buenos Aires has sent us this article she found
in
The Education
Guardian. She also sent us a beautiful New Year message. Thank you for both of
them,Pau.
Make
testing less scary and more positive for young learners
By Nancy
Wallace
Thursday August
29, 2002 - Guardian Unlimited - Education Guardian
The questions as
to how, or indeed whether, young learners - children aged between seven and 15 -
should be tested remains a grey area. The reality is that regardless of how
teachers feel about testing, they are usually involved in some way in assessing
their students' performance. So how can teachers make testing a more positive
and less frightening experience for young learners?
Some of the same
principles for teaching general English apply to exam preparation because they
suit young students' learning styles. For example, the lessons should have
elements that are either physical, visual or fun to add variety and pace,
especially in longer courses.
Learning by doing
also engages young learners and can be a good way to channel their energy. This
might involve making a poster to revise a topic or writing exam or study tips to
display on the classroom walls to remind students of their goals. The
end-product is satisfying, but also the process of working physically and
collaboratively on such a project can be motivating.
Language practice
should be maximised early on in the course, followed by exam practice later on.
This ensures that students are actually learning and not just being tested
throughout the course. It is also a way of preventing exam burnout.
The emphasis in
class time is on remedial work. Lots of homework should be set, such as language
exercises and, if there is a written component to the test, a lot of writing
practice. An ideal activity is for the teacher to collect errors from written
homework, type them up and use them as a basis for the language focus during the
following lesson for students to correct.
A topic-based
approach is an ideal way to revise vocabulary. Brainstorming topics such as the
environment or school life can be an invaluable way to activate vocabulary for
discursive essay-writing or talking about themselves.
If students need
spoken fluency practice they can give a short talk in small groups on a familiar
topic, such as their hobbies. If grammatical accuracy is the focus, encourage
students to record themselves or make mini-presentations to the rest of the
class. As they are performing "in public", students will wish to be as organised
and error-free as possible and they will get used to spoken tests.
Shorter courses
may not have the time to dedicate to non-exam specific tasks, in which case
teachers will have to plan their course around the different areas to be covered
for the exam. Regardless of the syllabus, it is important that students are
familiar with the format of the exam and the marking scheme. Students can mark
their own work occasionally to develop this familiarity.
Children need to
be reminded of the learning outcomes and the purpose for doing activities. This
is particularly useful where reluctant or weaker students are concerned, as more
motivated learners may not need the connection to be explicitly made, whilst for
some students not seeing the point in doing an activity reduces motivation
further. Equally, students need to know their target grades and how close they
are to achieving them. Giving individual tutorials helps towards this, and
offers students some time to talk about their performance.
To foster learner
independence they need to be encouraged to take responsibility for their
learning and to develop good study habits. One way of doing this is to get them
to write a "contract" at the beginning of the course, which has targets to be
reviewed regularly. For example, "I will do one practice test per week" or "I
will keep a vocabulary book of new words".
CD-roms and
internet websites, such as Cambridge First Certificate exam also allow the
students to work independently and at their own pace. They can work on practice
tests, which have the added benefit of instant computerised marking while also
providing some variety to coursework.
Another idea is to
involve students in evaluating their own work or progress. Older ones could
write their own progress report or younger ones could make a wall chart and
tick-list of areas covered.
A more holistic
way of assessing a learner's performance is to keep portfolios of their work.
These are simply samples of individual pieces of writing or tests. If portfolios
cannot replace traditional exams they can still be a useful tool on exam
courses. For example, students can choose some pieces of work to meet criteria
given by the teacher. The students then justify their choices. Such portfolios
are also useful starting points for tutorials, as well as for giving parents
feedback on their children's performance.
Finally, no matter
how well you prepare young learners for an exam, there will always be those who
underachieve whether through sheer panic, illness, apathy or adrenalin rush, so
make sure students are given more than one opportunity to be assessed and to
shine.
Nancy Wallace
specialises in young-learner teacher training at International House, London
© Guardian
Unlimited - Education Guardian
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5.- FIRST SEMINAR ON PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT IN PARANÁ.
Our dear SHARER Luz Sain from Paraná, Entre Rios, Argentina sends us this
invitation to :
First
Seminar on Professional Development For Teachers, Translators and Advanced
Students of English.
Venue:
Salón de Convenciones Hotel Círculo (air-conditioning)
Belgrano
157 - Paraná - Entre Ríos
Date: Wednesday,
February 12th and Thursday, February 13th, 2003
PROGRAM
Wednesday,
February 12
8:00 - 8:30
Registration
8:30-12:00 Module
1: Exploring Learner Language - Ana María Russo - Liliana
Silber
An invitation to
examine some of the latest theories that shed light on L2 acquisition: the
difference between errors and mistakes, the notion of interlanguage, the
concepts of normative- non-normative forms of language, accuracy
vs. appropriacy and strategies of L2 communication.
All topics will be
profusely exemplified with authentic data from L2
learners.
14:30-16:30 Module
2: Teaching Spanish as a Second / Foreign Language - Alicia
Cipria
The phenomenon of
globalization has brought the need to learn Spanish to the foreground of foreign
language teaching both in native countries like Argentina and in foreign
countries like U.S. Different kinds of learners, contexts, materials, dialectal
and cultural considerations are reviewed. These different factors make the
teaching of Spanish hard to be restricted to one single
approach.
17:00-19:00 Module
3: Some Spanish / English Contrasts - Alicia Cipria
Research on
language contrasts is as diverse as the number of linguistic theories. More
formal linguistic approaches have usually neglected application to language
contrast. The workshop focuses on tense and aspect distinctions in Spanish and
English, specially the use of past and progressive forms. Other problematic
issues are reviewed based on the language of origin of the
learner.
Thursday, February
13
8:30-12:00 Module
4: Learning Strategies: From Theory to Practice –
Ana María Russo - Liliana Silber
As a rule,
students do not realise the power of consciously using language learning
strategies in order to make L2 learning easier and more effective.
The aim of this
lecture is to analyse some classroom activities in the light of the strategies
students use in order to acquire knowledge.
14:30-16:30 Module
5: The Earlier the Better: English for Babies and
Pre-schoolers
María
Marta Suárez
Find out how
babies and pre-schoolers are learning English through a holistic methodology
that makes the most of the huge learning potential of the first years of
life.
Through stories,
play, singing and dancing you will be introduced to the methodology that is
being used at the moment with groups of pre-schoolers and babies as from 4
months of age.
17:00-19:00 Module
6: Alternative Language Learning: A Holistic Dimension in
ELT
María Marta Suárez
Find out how you
can give your students what they want: learn how to speak English in a short
time while having fun.
During this
workshop you will learn how Alternative Language Learning has successfully
synthesized holistic techniques such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming,
Suggestopedia, Accelerative Learning and Whole Language to accelerate the
foreign language learning process.
Ana María Russo
Teacher of Methodology, Civilisation and English Grammar at ISP Nº 8 "Alte. G.
Brown". Has lectured intensively and conducted several workshops at Conferences
and Seminars. Worked
as Consultant with Comisión de Diseño Curricular (Ministerio de Educación -
Pcia. de Santa Fe).
Liliana M. Silber
Teacher of English Grammar, Psycholiguistics, General Linguistics and Literary
Translation at ISP Nº 8 "Alte. G. Brown". At present Head of the Teacher
Education Programme (ISP Nº 8). Has lectured intensively and conducted several
workshops at Conferences and Seminars, and has published in "El Lenguaraz",
academic magazine of Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos
Aires.
Dra. Alicia Cipria
Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics, University of Alabama. Ph.D. in
Hispanic Linguistics, The Ohio State University, 1996. M.A. in Linguistics,
Michigan State University, 1990. Traductora
Literaria y Técnico-Científica Instituto Superior en Lenguas Vivas,
Buenos Aires, 1987.
María Marta Suárez
Has co-founded IACA, Holistic English Institute. She has a wide academic as well
as experiential background in ELT as teacher, teacher trainer, curriculum
designer, and school manager. Her research on humanistic language learning has
led her to work and study in Great Britain and Germany. She has run holistic
immersion courses and teacher training courses in the Mercosur area and at the
Findhorn Foundation in Great Britain.
Fee: Up to Feb.
8th: $ 30 / F 45 (for the whole Seminar) From 8th onwards: $ 35 / F 52
If you choose to
attend separate modules: $10 / F. 15 (each)
Enrolment
: Advice Paraná - 25 de Junio 214 - Tel/Fax: 0343 -
4316100
The Seminar bears
"Reconocimiento Ministerial"
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6-
WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?
TAKING JOKES SERIOUSLY.
Our dear SHARER Frank Thorndike from Sidney has sent us
this article to SHARE :
So, Here's One...It's Official: The World's Funniest
Joke
By Corey Ullman
London, Oct. 3 - After a year of painstaking scientific research, the
world's funniest joke was revealed today.
In a project described as the largest-ever scientific study into humor,
the British Association for the Advancement of Science asked Internet users
around the world to submit their favorite jokes and rate the funniness of other
people's offerings.
More than 40,000 jokes from 70 countries and 2 million critiques later,
this is it:
"Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't
seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other man pulls out his phone
and calls emergency services.
He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The
operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: "Take it easy. I can help. First,
let's make sure he's dead."
There is a silence, then a shot is heard.
Back on the phone, the hunter says, "OK, now what?"
National Tastes, or Lack Thereof
Researchers found significant differences between nations in the types of
jokes they found funny.
People from the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand
preferred gags involving word play, such as:
PATIENT: "Doctor, I've got a strawberry stuck up my bum."
DOCTOR: "I've got some cream for that."
Americans and Canadians favored jokes where people were made to look
stupid.
TEXAN: "Where are you from?"
HARVARD GRAD: "I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with
prepositions."
TEXAN: "OK - where are you from, jackass?"
Europeans Dig Surreal Gags
Meanwhile, many Europeans liked gags that were surreal or made light of
serious subjects such as illness, death and marriage:
A patient says, "Doctor, last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having
dinner with my mother-in-law and wanted to say: 'Could you please pass the
butter?'
"But instead I said: 'You silly cow, you have completely ruined my
life."'
Marriage-mocking also featured in the top American joke:
"A man and a friend are playing golf one day. One of the guys is about to
chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to
the course.
"He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows
down in prayer. His friend says: 'Wow that is the most thoughtful and touching
thing I have ever seen. You are truly a kind man.'
"The man then replies: 'Yeah, well, we were married 35 years."'
In Scotland, Death Earns Laughs
Death earned big laughs in Scotland:
"I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming
in terror like his passengers."
And animals figured prominently. Take the No. 1 joke in England:
"Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One starts to insult the other
one. He screams, 'I slept with your mother!'
"The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will
do.
"The first again yells, 'I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER!'
"The other says: 'Go home dad, you're drunk."'
Germans Laugh Most
The survey revealed other fun facts:
Of the countries rating the highest number of jokes, Germans, perhaps
surprisingly, laughed the most. Canadians laughed least.
If you want to tell a funny animal joke, make it a duck.
The most frequently submitted joke, at 300 times, was: "What's brown and
sticky? A stick." Researchers said no one ever found it funny.
The findings can be read at
www.laughlab.co.uk
© 2002 Reuters.
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7.- A HOLISTIC DIMENSION TO LANGUAGE
LEARNING
Our
dear SHARER Maria Marta Suarez from Buenos Aires sent us this announcement:
ALL
Alternative Language Learning - A Holistic Dimension in Language
Learning
If you would like to be
trained to apply the holistic methodology, ALL (Alternative Language
Learning) to teach students of all ages, even babies, María Marta Suárez
and the ALL team of teachers and trainers announce the
following trainings and workshops in Buenos Aires, Paraná, Ushuaia and
Trelew:
Trainings In
Buenos Aires:
ALL English for pre-school -
February 10 and 11
ALL English for kids -
February 12 and 13
ALL English for juniors and
seniors - February 14 and 15
ALL English for babies -
February 21 and 22
Workshop in
Paraná:
ALL Alternative Language
Learning: A Holistic Dimension in Language Learning - February 13
The Earlier the
Better: English for Babies and Pre-schoolers
Find out how babies and
pre-schoolers are learning English through a holistic methodology that makes the
most of the huge learning potential of the first years of
life.
Trainings in
Patagonia:
In Ushuaia:
ALL- Español como Lengua
Extranjera - entrenamiento y pasantía - Febrero 17 a Febrero
27
In
Trelew:
ALL English for babies:
February 28 and March 1
For further information
contact Verónica Güemes at IACA, Holistic English Institute, Billinghurst 1741
(1425) Buenos Aires (Alto Palermo area) all@iacainternational.com.
Phone: (011)
4821-0280
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8.- JOB OPENING IN
CHUBUT
Our dear SHARER Adriana
Eugui from Instituto Superior de Formación Docente Nro 1906 in Comodoro
Rivadavia, Chubut wants to post this
announcement.
ISFD Nb 1806, a
private Teacher Training School within the Ministry of Education
in Chubut seeks GRAMMAR and WRITTEN EXPRESSION Teacher of English
(Graduate from
"Profesorados" only)
Excellent salary, OSDE
H.M.O., initial housing provided.
Contact us at 0297-4480907
or send your C.V. to celi@satlink.com
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9.- THE “ISE” AND “IZE”
ENDINGS
The
following is a reproduction from a question and answer published in
World Wide
Words that we thought might be of interest to all our word-loving SHARERS
Q. In words including the ending "-ize" or "-ise", such
as "organize" and "categorize", does British English spell them with an "s" or a
"z"? I would also appreciate a comment on derivation.
[Sid
Murphy]
Q. The broad rule is that the "-ize" forms are standard in the
US,but that the "-ise" ones are now usual in Britain and the Commonwealth in all
but formal writing. For example, all British
newspapers use the "-ise" forms;
so do most magazines and most non-academic books published in the UK. However,
some British publishers insist on the "-ize" forms (Oxford University
Press
especially), as do many academic journals and a few other publications
(the SF magazine "Interzone" comes to mind). Most British dictionaries quote
both forms, but - despite common usage - put the "-ize" form first.
The
original form, taken from Greek via Latin, is "-ize". That's the justification
for continuing to spell words that way (it helps that we say the ending with a
"z" sound). American English
standardised on the "-ize" ending when it was
universal. However, French verbs from the same Latin and Greek sources all
settled on the "s" form and this has been a powerful influence on British
English. The change by publishers in the UK has happened comparatively recently,
only beginning about a century ago (much too recently to influence American
spelling), though you can find occasional examples of the "-ise" form in texts
going back to the seventeenth century.
I like the "-ise" forms myself, in
part because being British I was brought up to spell them that way, but also
because then I don't have to remember the exceptions. There are some verbs that
must be spelled with "-ise" because the ending is a compound one, part of a
larger word, and isn't an example of the suffix. An example is "compromise",
where the ending is "-mise", from Latin "missum", something sent or placed. Some
other examples spelled "-ise" are verbs formed from nouns that have the "s" in
the stem, such as "advertise" or "televise".
At the risk of sounding like
a style guide, but in the hope you may find them useful for reference, these are
the words always spelled in "-ise", whatever your local rule about the rest:
"advertise", "advise", "apprise", "chastise", "circumcise", "comprise",
"compromise", "demise", "despise", "devise", "disfranchise", "enfranchise",
"enterprise", "excise", "exercise", "improvise",
"incise", "premise",
"revise", "supervise", "surmise", "surprise","televise".
World Wide
Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2003. All rights reserved. The Words Web
site is at <http://www.worldwidewords.org>.
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10.-
INTERPRETACIÓN SIMULTÁNEA: VELOCIDAD Y RESISTENCIA
Our dear SHARERS from McDonough have sent us this announcement about a
course to be held in the City of Buenos Aires:
Curso de Verano 2003
VELOCIDAD y RESISTENCIA en Interpretación
Simultánea
El curso del verano de 2003 apunta a alumnos avanzados de la carrera de
interpretación
simultánea que quieran mantener su velocidad y adquirir resistencia en
cabina.
Práctica de interpretación simultánea de las últimas conferencias del
mercado
Los temas más actuales: Telecomunicaciones, networking, electricidad,
management, ingeniería, delitos cibernéticos, entre muchos otros.
Seguimiento individualizado del alumno - Carga horaria de 4,5 horas
semanales
Práctica de relay - Grabación autónoma y centralizada
Días de clase: Lunes, miércoles y jueves de 18:30 a 20.00 hs. - Duración:
Mes de febrero.
Requisitos: Haber cursado interpetación simultánea
Para mayor información comunicarse al 4325-3101 (líneas rotativas).
www.mcdonoughsrl.com
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11.- SPANISH AS
A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Our
dear SHARER María José Gassó from Alpha centro de comunicación y cultura,sends
us this invitation :
CURSO CAI-ELE
Curso
Alpha de Iniciación a la Enseñanza de Español como Lengua
Extranjera
Verano
2003 (febrero)
Este
curso está destinado a todos aquellos que quieran incursionar en la enseñanza
del español para extranjeros.
Cronograma:
Días: martes 11 y 18, miércoles 12,19 y 26
y jueves 13, 20 y 27
Horario:
de 18:30 a 21:00
Fecha:
desde el martes 11 de febrero hasta el jueves 27 de febrero.
Charla
gratuita informativa: Se realizará el Lunes 10 de febrero de 18:30 a 19:30 hs.
Los interesados deben confirmar su asistencia por TE o por e-mail.
La
inscripción al curso cierra el día lunes 10 de febrero
Informes
e inscripción: 4393-1972 E-mail: informes@centroalpha.com.ar
Página
web: www.centroalpha.com.ar
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Time
to say goodbye again. This time we will leave you in very good company. Here is
a message that our dear SHARER Maria Minghetti sent us and that we hope will
help us all to learn to count our many blessings. Thank you from the Ingalls (Grrrrr),
Maria!
----- Original Message -----
From: María Minghetti
To: omarvillarreal@netizen.com.ar
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 8:10 PM
Subject: Hello Ingalls Family!!!!
God's Boxes
I have in my hands two boxes which God gave me to hold. He said, "Put all
your sorrows in the black box, And all your joys in the gold."
I heeded His words, and in the two boxes both my joys and sorrows I
stored.
But though the gold became heavier each day, the black was as light as
before.
With curiosity, I opened the black, I wanted to find out why,
And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole which my sorrows had fallen out
by.
I showed the hole to God, and mused, "I wonder where my sorrows could
be."
He smiled a gentle smile and said, "My child, they're all here with me."
I asked God, why He gave me the boxes, Why the gold, and the black with
the hole?
"My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings, The black is for
you to let go."
GO
ON ENJOYING YOUR HOLIDAYS!
Omar
and Marina.
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SHARE
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also absolutely free of charge. We do not endorse any of the services announced
or the views expressed by the contributors. For
more information about the characteristics and
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VISIT OUR WEBSITE
: http://www.shareeducation.com.ar
There you can read all past issues
of SHARE in the section SHARE ARCHIVES.
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