東京理科大学 Listening & Speaking 1a: Intro to literary circles - about the United Nations・文学的なディスカション・グループ「国連について」

Hello!

How are you? As I mentioned in class, one important thing we will do with the textbook listening and reading is discuss what we have listened to and read through literary circles (文学的なディスカション・グループ). 

What is a literary circle? It's an idea borrowed from literature (文学) studies, and is a way to know and understand information and content - such as a lecture or a reading - into a way you can more easily know and understand in your own words and ideas. This can be very useful for any science or technology-oriented studies.

Method (方法) 
How does it work? To begin with, literary circles have groups of 3-4 students. Four (4) students make the best circles, but three (3) is possible. 

The literary circle groups in our classes will each have a leader, a summarizer, a details master, and a vocabulary master. 

Leader
One student is chosen as the leader. He or she makes sure that the other members can stay on task and helps them where is needed, and will ask questions to the other members of the group. 

Summarizer
One student is chosen as the summarizer. He or she writes a short summary (要約) about the lecture or reading topic in his or her own words and reads or shares it with the other members. 

Details master
One student is chosen as the details master. (A detail is a 詳細 in Japanese.) He or she comes up with answers in his or her own words to the leader's detailed questions about the lecture or reading. 

Vocabulary master
One student is chosen as the vocabulary master. He or she comes up with definitions (定義) for important words in his or her own terms that are needed to help the group members' understandings of the lecture or reading.  

So let's start! 

Activity
Here is our first literary circle about the United Nations chapter so far in our textbook. (Are you ready?)

Special note: If you only have three (3) members in your group, the leader should also be the vocabulary master. The details master or summarizer should then ask the leader about vocabulary.

Leader questions

For the summarizer

Are you ready to summarize the reading/CD lecture? (Can you give us your summary of the reading/CD lecture?)

For the details master

1. Exactly when was the United Nations created?

2. What are the four (4) goals of the UN?

3. What does the UN Security Council work on?

4. Where is the headquarters of the UN?
* Where are the three (3) other offices of the UN located?

(Leaders - think of two (2) more questions of your own from the lecture or reading to ask the details master!)

For the vocabulary master

1. What does security mean?
2. What is a court?
3. What is a headquarters?
4. What does the secretariat do?

(Leaders - think of two (2) more words of your own from the lecture or reading to ask the vocabulary master!)

I hope this helps all of you with your understanding of this topic. 

See you next week!

Image: By Wilfried Huss/Anonymous - Flag of the United Nations from the Open Clip Art website. Modifications by Denelson83, Zscout370 and Madden. Official construction sheet here.United Nations (1962) The United Nations flag code and regulations, as amended November 11, 1952, New York OCLC: 7548838., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=437460

ECA (英語基礎表現) I (P): 娯楽、イベント、旅行のヴォキャブラーリ・アイディア

Hello!

How are you? Today I will show you the words and ideas about events and places you like to go to about summer that you wrote in the classroom before.

When we write about things we like to do - places, traveling, and things like that - it's good to have many words and ideas that can help you. These were very good!

Activity (活動) 
Let's write some sentences about things we want to do, or are going to do, or will do. These word maps you wrote in class before might help you! Look at them and they might help you with your writing!

Have fun! See you next time!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved. 

ECA (Travel English): パスポート・出入管理のヴォキャブラーリ

Hello!

How are you? Today we'll look at some things you will see at immigration control (出入管理) when you are at an airport in another country. 

This picture at the top is a visa for Vietnam. Americans need a visa to visit Vietnam, but Japanese do not. But there are things that Japanese travelers have to know before going to other countries. 

Look at the first picture below. See the word "transit" - what does it mean? Who can guess the meaning the fastest? Make a guess – then check the word in your dictionary! 

1.

Now look at these passport stamps in the next picture below. What names of countries do you see? Hint - they're mostly in Africa! 

2. 

Activity/homework 
1. Look at these passport pages below. In 5 minutes or less, look for these words on the pages. You can get a partner to help you if you want:

arrival

admitted

departed
employment
entry

immigration
permitted

arrival

2. When you're finished, find the names of countries, cities or places on the pages. 

3. After you finish - check any words in the dictionary you don't know! 
4. Write sentences using four (4) of these words in your notebooks. I will check them in our next class. 

Have fun!

Images: Top - Personal photograph/1. "Passport Stamps" (courtesy of Arvind Balaraman)/2. "Travel Notes" (courtesy of africa)/Bottom images - "Passport Visa Stamps" (both courtesy of Christineg)/Images 1 and 2 from FreeDigitalPhotos.net/Bottom images from Dreamstime.com/Top image - all rights reserved. 

ECA (英語基礎表現) I (Super A): 作文1のサポート

Hello!

How are you? Here are your word maps from our class on Thursday. I'm very sorry I'm late to post these, but only now did I get a chance to post them.

Here are your other word maps:

Please take a look at all these. All of you have great ideas and you can use ideas from other students' word maps as much as your own word maps.

I will look forward to seeing your writing next week, on Thursday. Good luck and have fun with this first writing assignment!

See you next week!

ECA (Travel English): パスポート・入国のヴォキャブラーリ

Hello!

How are you? Today we'll look at some things you will see at immigration control (出入管理) when you are at an airport in another country. 

Look at the first picture below. See the word "transit" - what does it mean? Who can guess the meaning the fastest? Make a guess – then check the word in your dictionary! 

1.

Now look at these passport stamps in the next picture below. What names of countries do you see? Hint - they're mostly in Africa! 

2. 

Activity/Homework 
1. Look at these passport pages below. In 5 minutes or less, look for these words on the pages. You can get a partner to help you if you want:

arrival

admitted

departed
employment
entry

immigration
permitted

arrival

2. When you're finished, find the names of countries, cities or places on the pages. 

3. After you finish - check any words in the dictionary you don't know! 
4. Write sentences using four (4) of these words in your notebooks. I will check them in our next class. 

Have fun!

Images: Top - "Hand Showing Passport, Close-up Shot" (courtesy of photostock)/1. "Passport Stamps" (courtesy of Arvind Balaraman)/2. "Travel Notes" (courtesy of africa)/Bottom images - "Passport Visa Stamps" (both courtesy of Christineg)/Top image and images 1 and 2 from FreeDigitalPhotos.net/Bottom images from Dreamstime.com

週10 - ECA (Reading) II (Super A): ヴォキャブラーリ、文法のゲームズ、レビュー

Hello to all my reading students,

How are you? Today I'd like to show you a useful website I found with links to vocabulary and grammar games and review. You can use these to gather more word-learning techniques, and review grammar too!

First, click on this link here to go to the front page of these games and review. 

Then, click on these links here, here, and here to try them out! 

Try these and tell me what you think of them. 

See you next class!

週7・8 - ECA (Survival English): 中間プレゼンテーションのサポートつづいて

Hello to all my Survival English students,

How are you? Here is one more post for you about presenting. 

Speaking in your presentation
Look at the video below. Watch it as many times as you want. It's a Korean English teacher talking about her hagwon - a Korean English school. Look and listen to how she talks, and how she goes from one point to another. 

This video is long, and you don't have to present for this long! But it's still good for how she speaks about her topic. 

Video upload and link from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video or the link. 

They have been uploaded and linked to this post strictly for educational use. 

Now click here to watch the 2nd part of the video. 

Here are some useful expressions!

I posted this last week - but I'll post it again here. 

You can use these expressions when speaking in your presentation. Using these expressions is called signposting - using words and phrases that signal how you introduce your topic, how you go to the next part of your talk, and so on. 

1. Introducing your topic 「トピックの紹介」

Thank you for your time today. we'd like to begin by...

First of all, we'll...

Starting with this point, we'll...

We'll begin with...

2. Ordering points or parts「部分の順番」

First(ly)...second(ly)...third(ly)...last(ly)...

First...then...next...after that...finally...

To begin with...later...to finish up...

3. Finishing one point and starting a new point 「部分の終わり、新しいことを始まっている」

We've looked at...(now) let's turn to...

And that's this point...now we'd like to show you...

From here let's look at...

4. Giving examples「例えば」

For example...

To give you an example...

A good example is...

5. Finishing your talk 「終わった時のフレーズ」

We'd like to finish by saying...thank you for listening today.

Let us finish by saying...thank you for your time today.

To sum up...and that's all. Thank you for listening.

I hope this helps you. Please ask me for help if you need it. 

Have fun!

週7・8 - ECA (Survival English): 中間プレゼンテーションのサポート

Hello to all my Survival English students,

How are you? Here is another post for all of you about topic ideas, words and phrases you can use in your presentations.

Some topic ideas

• Food & drink from another country
• Greetings and everyday phrases in another language 「外国語の挨拶、日常的なフレーズ」
• Festivals and celebrations in another country 
• Transportation in another country
• A famous or important sightseeing spot in another country (= church, temple, building, park など)
• Customs in another culture
• Games or sports in another country

You can think of your own ideas too! You can look at the textbook for some ideas. 

※下に「Read more >>」のこと、情報がクリックしてください。

週7 - ECA (Cinema) II (All): アバウト・ア・ボイのポスターサポート

Hello to all my Cinema students,

Image photographed from film script book for purposes of subject illustration. No copyright infringement intended. 
I do not own the rights to this image.

How are you? Here is an extra post to support you for your posters.

Adjectives 「形容詞」
Adjectives 「形容詞」are very important words. They are very useful for describing characters, scenes and situations in the movie「人物、場面、情勢が描写している」. 

mature = 十分に成長した 「≠ immature = 未熟な」 
funny = おかしい 「≠ serious = 真面目な」 
deceptive = 欺瞞的な 「≠ genuine = 本物の、真の」
fake = 偽の偽の偽のal「同上」
selfish = わがまま 「≠ selfless = 没我的な」
dark = 陰気な、暗い 「≠ hopeful = 希望している」
charming = 魅力的な、素敵な 
「≠ boring = すまらない、退屈な」
responsible = 責任のある、信頼できる 
「≠ irresponsible = 無責任な」
helpless = 無力な 
「≠ empowered = 権力のある、権限がある」

Check your dictionary for more words! 

Sentences「文」
Here are some example sentences using these words 「例え文」: 

Will is immature, but charming. 
Marcus is very responsible, but sometimes helpless. 
Fiona works hard to be a selfless mother to Marcus, but she can be a little boring. 
The "dead duck" scene is funny, but happens before the serious scene with Fiona. 
The women at SPAT are trying to become empowered in their lives. 
Will has been very irresponsible with women all his life.  

Try to write sentences using these words, and other words you find in your dictionary. 

※下に「Read more >>」のこと、情報がクリックしてください。

週3 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II & (Reading) II (Super A): ヴォキャブラーリの覚える

Hello to all my Super A students,

Image "A Lot Of Pink Brown And Orange Dry Leaves Lying On The Ground" courtesy of sritangphoto/FreeDigitalImages.com

How are you? On Monday I showed all of you in the reading class about collocations (コロケーション). Today I have a video for you about some other basic ideas on how to learn new words. Watch this as many times as you want or need. It has a lot of useful ideas about learning words. It's a long video - but a very good one.

Video from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. It has been uploaded strictly for educational use.

Also start trying some of these ideas out in your notebook with words from your textbook! 

In another blogpost soon, I will show you another new technique you can also try out.

See you next time!

週3 - ECA (Reading) II & (英語基礎表現) II (Super A)：コロケーション

Hello to my Super A reading and Eigokisohyougen students,

Image "Buy Tickets Words with fireworks" courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here is a word learning technique for you. I posted this last semester, but I am reposting it again.

Look at the picture above - buy tickets. "Buy" and "tickets" come together so often that we can think of them as a unit. This kind of unit is called a collocation (コロケーション) - a word combination where one word comes with another word in a natural pattern.

Some word combinations you have seen so far in your textbooks - for example, amazing person, sensitive person, young people, difficult life - are examples of collocations. These cases are examples of adjective (形容詞) + noun (名詞) combinations. 

Let's look at the example in the picture at the top. Ticket is a noun (名詞). So let's look at some more examples with ticket:

Verb (動詞) + a ticket 

sell a ticket

lose a ticket

punch a ticket

give away a ticket

purchase a ticket

(purchase = 購入する)

Adjective (形容詞) + ticket(s) 

cheap ticket(s)

expensive ticket(s)

affordable ticket(s)

discounted ticket(s)

reasonably-priced ticket(s)
hard-to-get ticket(s)

Other noun used as an adjective + ticket(s)

Movie ticket(s)

Concert ticket(s)

Parking ticket(s)

Train ticket(s)
Subway ticket(s)

Dry cleaning ticket(s)

Ticket used as an adjective + other noun
Ticket price

Ticket gate

Ticket sales

Ticket taker

Ticket collection

Homework
Look at the unit you have read (Unit 10). On page 82 & 83, there is a section called "Looking at Words that Go Together." Do this section in your textbook, then try to think of other words that go with these words. You can use a dictionary if you have to. Write them in your notebooks. Make a list of these word combinations. 

This is something you can use in both your reading and writing. 

See you next time!

週3・4 - ECA (Survival English) - パスポート・入国のヴォキャブラーリ

Hello Survival English students,

Image "Hand Showing Passport, Close-up Shot" courtesy of photostock/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today we'll look at some things you will see at immigration control (出入管理) when you are at an airport in another country. 

Look at the first picture below. See the word "transit" - what does it mean? Who can guess the meaning the fastest? Make a guess – then check the word in your dictionary! 

1.

Now look at these passport stamps in the next picture below. What names of countries do you see? Hint - they're mostly in Africa! 

2. 

Activity/Homework 
1. Look at these passport pages below. In 5 minutes or less, look for these words on the pages. You can get a partner to help you if you want:

arrival

admitted

departed
employment
entry

immigration
permitted

arrival

2. When you're finished, find the names of countries, cities or places on the pages. 

3. After you finish - check any words in the dictionary you don't know! 

Homework
Write sentences using four (4) of these words in your notebooks. I will check them in our next class. 

Have fun!

Other photo credits: 1. "Passport Stamps" (courtesy of Arvind Balaraman) 2. "Travel Notes" (courtesy of africa)/Bottom images: "Passport Visa Stamps" (courtesy of Christineg)/Images 1 and 2 from FreeDigitalPhotos.net/Bottom images from Dreamstime.com