Toyo Gakuen University Freshman English 2 - Reading Final Exam Information

Photo by dieselbug2007

The final Exam will be on the 14th of July 2008. The exam will cover Units 1-5. There will be 6 types of questions:

1. Timed reading: scan a reading for 1 minute in order to find specific information. This is a short answer type questions. You will have to write one word or phrase for the answer.
   
2. Reading for the main idea. This is a multiple choice type of question. You will have to choose from 4 choices.
3. Reading for details. This is a multiple choice type of question. You will have to choose from 4 choices.
4. Making inferences. This is a multiple choice type of question. You will have to choose from 4 choices.
5. Matching activity. Match the vocabulary from the textbook with the Japanese translation.
6. Personal response. This is a short paragraph type of answer. You will have to write 2 or 3 sentences in order to answer the question. Your answer should be at least 50 words.
   

The test will be 60 minutes.
Use the following resources from Sarah's blog in order to study for the final exam:

• On-line exercises from American Headway (Units 1-5)
• A timed-Reading about shopping. Click start reading.
• Vocabulary flash cards for Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3.
• Readings with exercises about life as an immigrant to the USA:
• Newaz's Story
• Hannah's Story
• Sarah's Story
• Victor's Story

If you have any questions please e-mail me on michael.stout@tyg.jp

Finally, please post a comment on Sarah's blog. Please say, "Thank you !" to her for giving us all these wonderful resources.
Good luck!

San Francisco by Maria, Yulia and Karina

Shibaura Institute of Technology Listening Comprehension Mid-term Exam

The Midterm Exam is next Tuesday. You can prepare by watching and listening to some videos. Click this link to watch the videos: http://mrstoutsblog.blogspot.com/search?q=videos
You can get more practice by listening to these podcasts:

• English Journal Podcast
• ELT Podcast
• ESL Radio Show
• ELLLO Podcast
  

You can find links to many other podcasts by clicking this link: http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/Podcasts/


Happy listening and good luck on the exam!

Making a Date

Recently we have been learning about dates and time in the FE4-Speaking Class at Toyo Gakuen University. For the next test you will have to make a date to go to a movie. Here's a video from EF Education First to help you. The video talks about polite ways to make a suggestion in English. There are various ways to make a suggestion including:

• How about....?
• Would you like to...?
• I was wondering if...?

Which of the ways above do you think is the most polite? Watch the video and find out.

Here's another video about making dates. This video is an animated video. My friend Paul made this video. Paul has a video podcast called ESLpodTV. It's a great podcast. This video is about an English man called Ed. U. Cator. He calls his new friend to invite her to his house. You can learn more about making suggestions, invitations and polite requests (丁寧語、招待) in this video. here's some vocabulary to help you:

guy - person, usually a man

anytime - whenever

nothing special - nothing different or unusual

accent - the way your voice sounds shaped by where you’re from

housewarming party - special event celebrating moving into new home

neighbours - the people living nearby

got nothing on - not doing anything at that time

few - a small number of something

funny - strange

I was wondering if… polite expression requesting somebody do something

If you’re free… - expression often used to ask for a date or request favour

Educator Diaries 3 from kibishipaul on Vimeo.

When we make a date in English we need to be able to say dates. For example: June 11th, August 30th, December 25th. We need to be make to make the "th" sound. You can watch some videos about making the "th" sound by clicking here.

When we make a date in English we need to be able to talk about time as well as dates. Here's a video from Real English about time.

Here's another video that talks about prepositions of time. This video comes from JenniferESL

For your next test you will have to make a date to see a movie. Good luck!

Talking about family

This is a great video from EF Education First. The topic of the video is talking about families.

Here's another video about families. This one is from Real English. Enjoy!

JALT CALL Conference 2008 at the Nagoya University of Business and Commerce

This past week-end, from the 31st of March to the 1st of June, I attended the JALT CALL Conference at the Nagoya University of Business and Commerce. CALL means Computer- Assisted Language Learning.

I met many old friends at the conference. I made new friends too. My new friend Martin is in the picture above. He is standing on the left. My old friend Adam is standing on the right. I'm in the middle, of course.

Some Toyo Gakuen University teachers attended the conference too. Andy Boon was one of the conference organisers.


Clair Taylor and Sarah Louisa Birchley were there too. I attended some presentations with them. I attended some preentations with Adam too. We went to a presentation about wikis. Another presentation I went to was about blogging. My new friend Steve Henneberry gave the presentation. Perhaps we will work on a blogging project in the future. Below is a voicethread slideshow of Steve's presentation.


The campus of NUBC is gorgeous. Below are some pictures of the Language Centre.



Here are some pictures of the campus. There are many beautiful trees and flowers on the campus of NUBC, and theres lots of grass!!


I hope I have a chance to visit NUBC again!

Welcome Party in the English Lounge at Togaku

Today a fantastic event was held in the English Lounge at Toyo Gakuen University. It was a Welcome Party. It was organised by Harumi, Megumi, and Asami. Asami drew the beautiful poster above. Harumi made the posters below.


Harumi was the MC and she did a great job. She spoke very clear and easy to understand English. Megumi and Asami helped out with the MC duties too. The also did a fabulous job.

The party started with a tour around the campus. At various checkpoints along the way we had to carefully observe the areas and be prepared to answer a quiz. It was a great way to see the campus. Then, many students and teachers sang and performed songs by The Police, The Beatles, Radiohead, Van Morrison, and The Troggs. There were a few songs from the Sound of Music performed too.

The last two weeks were a great time to be on campus because the students were practicing their songs every day. So, we could hear music around campus every day. It brightened our spirits on these rainy days. I hope we have another event like this soon.

Introducing France

This is a slideshow about France made by David Deubelbeiss, a great teacher in Korea.
I have been to Paris. I visited Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre, and Centre Georges Pomipdou. Centre George Pompipou was my favourite place.

Watch the slideshow.
Do the tasks below.



Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Tasks:
Tell me 3 places that you want to visit in Paris. Why do you want to visit these places?
Your talk must be at least 50 words.
E-mail your recording to me.

21st Century Learners

This is a great video by a teacher in the United States called Nathan Lowell. Are you a 21st Century Learner?

Shibaura Institute of Technology Listening Comprehension 2008 Assignment 1

The topic of your first assignment is music.

You will hear three interviews. Listen to the interviewers and do the tasks on the worksheet. Follow these steps:

First download your worksheet. Click this link:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4489121-fa6

Task 1
Click this link: http://www.elllo.org/august/alex/aradio.htm

Task 2
Click this link: http://www.elllo.org/Pages0301/303-Adrienne-Violin.htm

Task3
Click this link: http://www.elllo.org/english/0801/Q817-Eoin-After.html



These interviews come from a great website called ELLLO. ELLLO means English language Listening On-line. The interviewer is my friend Todd Beuckens. You can hear more of Todd's interviews by clicking here.

This is Brazil: A voicethread presentation by students in Brazil

This is a terrific slideshow presentation about Brazil done by students in Brazil. Their teacher is Ronaldo Lima. Mr. Lima must be a great teacher because his students speak English very well.
I hope this presentation inspires you. It inspired me!

Toyo Gakuen Students Talk About Music Genres

A model language learner

We all need role models (模範的な人, 手本). Language learning role models are especially important. My friend Sanae is one of my language learning role models. I think she is a great role model. She studied English in Junior High School and Senior High School but she didn't learn English. She wasn't happy that she didn't learn English, so she made an effort to really learn English. Now her English is excellent. She has written books about learning English and she is an English teacher. Please visit her website to read her story. Her website is called Sanae's Place.

The First Day of School: Introductions

I teach my first classes of the 2008 academic year beginning tomorrow. I teach many first year students so I made this slide show in order to introduce myself. I made it using a website called voicethread. You can make your own slideshow with voicethread or you can comment on other people's slide shows.




Enjoy!

Back to School - The Toyo Gakuen University Barbeque

Today was the annual barbeque at Toyo Gakuen University. This is the first big event of the year. Unfortunately the weather wasn't good. So the barbeque was held in the gym.

The food and conversation were good. I enjoyed meeting my new students and I enjoyed seeing the students that I taught last year too.
Classes start tomorrow. Hurray!!

Back to School - Shibaura Institute of Technology

The new academic year (学年) in Japan has begun. The academic year in Japan begins in April. Yesterday students at Shibaura Institute of Technology held an event in order to recruit new members to their various clubs. There are many clubs at Shibaura Institute of Technology. Some clubs are traditional Japanese clubs and some are international.

This picture is a picture of the kyuudou club (弓道). Kyuudou is Japanese archery.

Shibaura Institute of Technology has a baseball club too. Baseball is very popular in Japan.

Shibaura Institute of Technology also has an American football club.

The Shibaura Institute of Technology Jazz band is very good. I enjoyed listening to it play swing era Jazz.

The event also had a character walking around. Japanese people like characters very much.

Buddha Park

I visited an interesting place called Buddha Park. Buddha Park is about twenty-five kilometres southeast from Vientiane. I went to Buddha Park with two colleagues and a Laotian called Lee (pronounced /lei:/). Lee was our guide. Lee speaks English very well, and he knows a lot about Buddha Park.
We went to Buddha Park in a tuk tuk. The journey was bumpy because many of the roads were unpaved. Along the way we got to see the Mekong River.

We were very lucky to see a traditional Lao fisherman on the river.


The picture below is a picture of me standing in front of the first sculpture that you see when you enter Buddha Park. Inside this sculpture are three levels: Hell. Earth, and Heaven.


This is the entrance to Hell. The entrance is very small. It was difficult for me to enter.

The picture below is a picture of the inside of the sculpture. I took the picture on level two: Earth.
Here is the view from the top level: Heaven. You can see all the sculptures in Buddha Park.

The pictures below are close-ups of some of the interesting scultures in Buddha Park.




｛ぶっきょう｝Some of the sculptures are based on Buddhist mythology (仏教の神話学) and some of the sculptures are based on Hindu (ヒンドゥー教) mythology.

Sightseeing in Vientiane, Laos: Pha That Luang - The Great Stupa

I visited Pha That Luang. Pha That Luang is called the Great Stupa or the Golden Stupa in English. Pha That Luang is the national symbol of Laos.


I travelled to the Great Stupa in a tuk tuk. Tuk tuks are like a taxi. They are a great way to go from one place to another place in Vientiane.

This is the gate to the Great Stupa.

The picture below is a picture of a wat (temple) next to the Great Stupa.

This is another wat near the Great Stupa

Here's another wat near the Great Stupa. It looks very similar to a Thai wat.

The pictures below are guardian dragons.

These are buddhas

Next time I'll post some pictures of the Buddha Park.