Task 2

In this task you will have to identify all Noun phrases in the following essay. After you have done it, select 10 and label each of the elements constructing the phrase. Use brackets to label them. We will correct some of the phrases in the workshop. This task is due on Friday, Sept 26th.
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Learning is definitely best developed socially. Thus, what others think about you is relevant and can help you build your own identity. Peer feedback should be included in all classes so that students become more aware of how they see themselves and how others do too. I will mainly discuss the importance of peer feedback with adolescents and its richness.

Being an adolescent implies the construction of yourself. As Marshall and Stern pointed out "they are forming a whole picture in their minds of who they are" (2004); consequently, the formation of that self image can be extraordinarily improved by receiving comments from one’s peers. When we realize that another student believes you are not kind with him or her that feedback can help us change the image we present to our peers.

Apart from helping students build their self image, you can aid the class create their own identity. If we know each other, we can respect opinions, care about others and grow together. Respectful environments can be extremely useful when teaching. Having worked with teenagers, I could see how they bullied and insulted each other. I believe that with the incorporation of emotional learning exercises of peer feedback all these situations could have been somewhat avoided. In addition, establishing trust inside the class will absolutely assist students solve their personal problems. Thus, we will avoid misunderstandings and bad energy within the classroom.

Having peer feedback incorporated in the class can aid students build their own identity. Also, it will help the class be more respectful to each other and be able to solve problems more easily. As a final conclusion, peer feedback can and must be included in our EFL classroom because everybody will be at ease when dealing with problems and developing social interaction.

Task 1

In this task you will have to print the following essay and highlight all the noun phrases you can find. We will work with it in the first assistantship.

Being under Pressure

It is known that sometimes people under pressure perform actions which do not want to. The main character of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is pressured to shoot the elephant even though he did not want to. In this essay, I will try to prove this thesis with three different assertions presented in the story.

The first assertion is: “As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” The character is from the beginning desiring not to perform the action of killing the elephant. The second fact is that the character explains that when he was facing the elephant a huge crowd of “natives” were behind him so “And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward.” It is clear that this man felt the pressure and immediately understood that he would have to do something he did not want to. The last piece of evidence is that since he was a “sahib”, a European man, he had to act like one, being very resolute and do definite things. “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him.” So, the character finds out that in the end all sahibs need to do what others want them to do.

In order to conclude, I can say that with the evidence provided I was able to prove the fact that the main character had to shoot the elephant because of the pressure natives imposed on him. Throughout human history, many situations have occurred because of the pressure people feel, for example wars. Many of the actions we performed are modelled by what the society expects of us. Sometimes, people should try to act correctly, doing good to others, instead of acting according to what others expect of them.

Task 5

In this text you will have the opportunity to analyze and identified each sentence, clause and all phrases you have studied so far.
If any question emerges, please let me know.

At the little town of Vevey, in Switzerland, there is a particularly comfortable hotel. There are, indeed, many hotels, for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place, which, as many travelers will remember, is seated upon the edge of a remarkably blue lake--a lake that it behooves every tourist to visit. The shore of the lake presents an unbroken array of establishments of this order, of every category, from the "grand hotel" of the newest fashion, with a chalk-white front, a hundred balconies, and a dozen flags flying from its roof, to the little Swiss pension of an elder day, with its name inscribed in German-looking lettering upon a pink or yellow wall and an awkward summerhouse in the angle of the garden. One of the hotels at Vevey, however, is famous, even classical, being distinguished from many of its upstart neighbors by an air both of luxury and of maturity. In this region, in the month of June, American travelers are extremely numerous; it may be said, indeed, that Vevey assumes at this period some of the characteristics of an American watering place. There are sights and sounds which evoke a vision, an echo, of Newport and Saratoga. There is a flitting hither and thither of "stylish" young girls, a rustling of muslin flounces, a rattle of dance music in the morning hours, a sound of high-pitched voices at all times. You receive an impression of these things at the excellent inn of the "Trois Couronnes" and are transported in fancy to the Ocean House or to Congress Hall. But at the "Trois Couronnes," it must be added, there are other features that are much at variance with these suggestions: neat German waiters, who look like secretaries of legation; Russian princesses sitting in the garden; little Polish boys walking about held by the hand, with their governors; a view of the sunny crest of the Dent du Midi and the picturesque towers of the Castle of Chillon.

Task 4

Please identify all the noun phrases in your latest post.
Example:

the red ball
the university student
the rich
the poor
etc

This is due next Wednesday Sept 30th.
See you at the assistantship.

Task 3

Please, write a 300 word short story using as many idioms and collocations as you can (at least 15 idioms). Some of the ones you can use are the following:

Rise and shine
Pull somebody's leg
Shake a leg
Straight from the horses mouth
Different strokes for different folks
Smell a rat
Fishy
Horse of a different color
Take the bull by the horns
Let the cat out of the Bag/ Spill the beans
Horse around
Cat got your Tongue?
Get in someone's hair
Pay through the nose
All thumbs
Leave someone high and dry
Hit the hay
Hit the ceiling
Go fly a Kite
Kick the bucket

And many others. Also, include the ones that you have been seeing with Miss Cecilia in class.

This is due on Wednesday September 16th at midnight.

TASKS

• Throughout this lexico grammar course we will be working with blog entries. Therefore, you will need to create a blog for this course. Every week you will have to respond to different tasks created especially for you to reflect and study the various topics. All these will be due every Wednesday, unless there is an especial circumstance. This task will be divided into three parts. First, you will have to respond to the task. Second, you will work with lexis and grammar as such by correcting one other classmate blog using the following symbols in their comments:

S Incorrect Spelling *I recieved your letter.
W.O Wrong Word Order *We know well this city.
T Wrong Tense *If he will come it will be to late.
C Concord - Subject and Verb do not agree *Two policemen has come.
WF Wrong Form *That table is our.
S/P Singular or plural problem *We need more informations.
SM Something Missing *They said λ was wrong.
( ) Something is not necessary *It was too much difficult.
?M Meaning is not clear *Come and rest with us for a week.
NA Use not appropriate *He requested me to sit down.
P Punctuation *Whats your name.
WE Wrong expression * For one side
WW Wrong word * Where do you guard the dishes?
SS Sentence Structure * I like dancing it is really fun.
L Capitalization * i was in santiago.

After you have received your correction, you will have to rewrite your entry.


• Another task will be vocabulary building. You will have to work on the meaning of 5 words every week. These must be frequent words related to different topics such as Applied Linguistics, Psychology, etc. These shall also be posted on your blog as in the following example:

WORD: Pull (Sentence taken from) After a hard day of cracking jokes, pulling pranks and causing…
MEANING: To succeed in doing something illegal or dishonest or in playing a trick on someone.
GR. INFO: Verb—intransitive—S1—W1—regular
COLLOCATIONS: Pull a stunt/trick/joke/a fast one (deceive)
EXAMPLE (From the dictionary): Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that.
MY EXAMPLE: I hoped he was pulling a joke, but he wasn’t.
OTHER: idiom: Pull somebody’s leg: to tell someone something that is not true.
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If there is any question please ask me in class. We will discuss this on Wednesday, August 19th.
The first entries (Response task and vocabulary) will be due on Wednesday, August 26th.


PLEASE BE SURE YOUR BLOG HAS THE DATE ON ITS ENTRY. OTHERWISE, I WON'T BE ABLE TO EVALUATE YOU.