Last week’s conversation class about the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was quite successful. We met at the Egdgware arms pub in Second Life and spent about an hour discussing the first chapter. We mostly spoke about social changes, particularly the role of women in society in the past 200 years. The discussion [...]
Have you seen the video below before? It’s the flight attendant onboard a South West airlines flight who is ‘rapping’ the welcome aboard message.
Come along to conversation hour and learn how to ‘rap’ this song. I’ve posted the words below the video.
When? Tuesday 21st April, PST 11pm
Where? The airport at languagelab.com (Click here to teleport)
YouTube [...]
I am going to run a new and experimental class at languagelab. The aim of the class is to read, study, discuss the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
How can I participate?
1) Make sure that you are a student at languagelab.com. Click here to read more about this virtual school that you can attend [...]
Also posted in English conversation topics, Reading, Speaking | Tagged conversation, dailylit, free, Jane Austen, languagelab, literature, Pride and Prejudice, Reading, Speaking |
The bad news
My computer is still at the repair shop. It doesn’t look like I will get it back until Wednesday the 15th of April. This means that I will not be able to run my classes for next week - the week beginning Sunday 12th of April.
The good news
I am spending the time that [...]
What is an integration task?
An integration task is a task where you must combine two or more skills such as listening, reading, writing and speaking. The TOEFL iBT requires that you complete several integration tasks, some in the speaking section and some in the writing section. To get a complete overview of the different questions [...]
Also posted in TOEFL | Tagged IELTS, integration, listening, notetaking, podcast, Reading, Scientific American, Speaking, summarizing, TOEFL, writing |
Class topics at the last conversation hour ranged from camel riding, to Internet censorship by governments (most recently the Chinese government’s censorship of You Tube) and how to use RSS. The class culminated in a very interesting debate about culture, religion and whether or not some religious or social customs can intefere with a person’s [...]
Today in class we had an interesting conversation about the best ways to prepare for taking an English proficiency test such as the TOEFL iBT or IELTS. I asked the students what they thought was the best way to prepare for the test. Here are some of the things we spoke about:
You need to know [...]
Today we began to talk about the future of ‘the book’. When I say ‘the book’ I mean the traditional kind of book, with a cover, a blurb, a spine and pages that you can turn. Everybody present agreed that the convenience of being able to read online was somewhat marred by the unpleasantness of [...]
The OWL (online writing lab) at Purdue has a good resource page about the technique of reverse outlining.
Reverse outlining is a useful method for taking notes, analysing complex writing, or revising and assessing the quality of your written work.
Click here to read more about this very useful technique.
Can you find an online example of reverse [...]
This week I will be introducing a new weekly class at languagelab.com. The classes will be open to all languagelab subscribers and will be held on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays from PST (Pacific Standard Time) 10 pm to 11pm.
What is PST? Click here.
Want to convert PST to your country’s time? click here.
What is the aim [...]
