Subject: Re: teach ielts writing in China - msg#00029

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English writing contest

Hello everyone, An English-essay-writing contest is on the way to add some fun to English study, and welcome all the Chinese students to take part in the competition; at same time, look for volunteer Judges, and welcome your valuable opinions, Could you help us? detail information: http://bbs.sinolia.com/showthread.php?t=368 Best regards Tony ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _o_ ~ c(___)/` U ~~~~~~~~~ ~ http://wikigogy.org/Portal ~---~~~~~~~~~~~~ TEFLChina Rules & Help: http://wikigogy.org/TEFLChina . . . . . . .

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Spoken English

I sometimes find myself preparing dialogues for students to work on and I've always tried to make them sound authentic but I wonder what identifies spoken English. Nowadays we can look in corpora (Micase is pretty good for academic and for general English http://micase.umdl.umich.edu/m/micase/ ) but I wouldn't want to give students something that read like a transcript because that's just too difficult with its interjections and shared speaker knowledge. What I want is something like a good mini playlet that can be spoken without sounding artificial. I've always had to more or less wing it but with grammars of spoken English starting to be researched, I'm starting to find examples of spoken grammar that can be used when constructing dialogues. I wonder if a list might be useful. It'll be far from complete but it might help. First, here's some dialogues from textbooks that do not work. Waitress: Here's your lobster, madam. Guest: I didn't order lobster, I ordered king prawns. Waitress: Oh, I'm very sorry madam. I'll go and change it. Waitress: Oh, and here's your fresh orange juice, madam. Guest: But I told you I didn't want ice in it and you've put ice in it. Waitress: I'm terribly sorry, madam. I'll get a new one without ice. In this exchange each error pointed out by the guest is followed by an apology by the waitress and an offer to make good. In the first the waitress is very sorry. In the second she is terribly sorry. I guess in a third she would be awfully sorry. The complexities of real life are not there. I bet the waitress would apologise, try to shift blame, give apologetic explanations rather than just apologise harder. And a second Hebberd Good morning, Mr Benson. My name's Hebberd. Can I be of any assistance to you? Benson I hope so, yes. The situation is as follows. On the advice of our consultant, my company is looking for suitable replacements to our existing boilers. Hebberd Yes, I see. Benson He suggested you as a well-known manufacturer of boilers, although obviously I'm contacting other companies as well. Hebberd Yes, of course. Benson I'm wondering if you can send me details of your range. Hebberd I'd be pleased to, but are you talking about oil or gas or coal fired boilers? Benson Frankly, we've not decided that yet. We have the choice of all three, and at the moment we're really looking for preliminary information only. Hebberd I understand. Benson Can you send me some information on that basis? Hebberd Yes, of course. I suggest I send you details of our complete range. I'm sure there will be something there to suit you, both in terms of fuel used and, of course, in terms of output. Benson I'd be most grateful. Hebberd I'll put the details in the post to you today. Could I perhaps come and see you and discuss your requirements further? When you've had a chance to read through the information, of course. Benson I'd like to talk to our consultant first about that. Hebberd Oh, naturally. May I have your address to send the information to. And then I'll look forward to hearing from you. Renson Yes. My name's Benson, initial J. And the address is as follows . . . No spinoffs, no attempt to make human contact, just formulaic exchanges, more or less written style. These typical items in spoken English are mainly from Ron Carter and I think they come from a British corpus so I hope they apply to the US. The examples are mainly my own. 1 left displaced subject with recapitulatory pronoun. The boss, he was shouting. Right displaced subject. He's a dark horse, that one. She's a good organiser is Katy. Complete relative clause Which is why we have to use a low flame. Wh pseudo cleft What I suggest is they should go back to the beginning. Elliptical phrases Harry likes the drum and base stuff, me the indie Fronted anticipatory phrase That shop in Central down Wellington Street, is that the one you mean? The guy with the amazing haircut, he's the one you need. Ellipsis Jim. One thing you need to know. Initial conjunctions for cohesion and dramatic effect So he's going to sell the car, But how will he get the kids to school? Then there are discourse markers like Well, you know, sort of, like, etc. and of course contractions. Another thing worth pointing out is that spoken English is often less dense than written English, even though spoken English can be terse. I wouldn't flood dialogues with these and it's clear spoken to written English is a continuum, but bearing these, and others you find, in mind as you create could be useful. Last of all, the conversation has to have a real communicative purpose and be things speakers and listeners would want to say and want to hear. Dick Tibbetts University of Macau ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/IWOolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _o_ ~ c(___)/` U ~~~~~~~~~ ~ http://wikigogy.org/Portal ~---~~~~~~~~~~~~ TEFLChina Rules & Help: http://wikigogy.org/TEFLChina . . . . . . .

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RE: teach ielts writing in China

"i am a chinese teacher teaching IELTS writing in a private school and am quite interested in it. However, the relevant materials at hand are scarce. can anybody give me some advice?" Aside from the obvious places to look, see: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/IELTS/ http://artefact.lib.ru/languages/english/ http://www.davekees.com/content/view/47/29/ Interesting research on IELTS test score gain after a 10-12 week training course: http://www.idp.com/16aiecpapers/program/wednesday/teaching2/Elder_pp.pdf Dave Kees =========================================================== davekees-zDpH8GSzhyhWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - Guangzhou, China - skype: davekees ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/IWOolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _o_ ~ c(___)/` U ~~~~~~~~~ ~ http://wikigogy.org/Portal ~---~~~~~~~~~~~~ TEFLChina Rules & Help: http://wikigogy.org/TEFLChina . . . . . . .

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Re: Re:Teaching writing courses

Chris <chrisp113-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I usually dowload stuff from the internet... Often the material is > aimed towards foreign students, lots of good sites with simple > explanations. Hi Chris, I was just going through some old e-mails and saw this. Do you have a list of those sites? Thanks, Sheila ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/IWOolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _o_ ~ c(___)/` U ~~~~~~~~~ ~ http://wikigogy.org/Portal ~---~~~~~~~~~~~~ TEFLChina Rules & Help: http://wikigogy.org/TEFLChina . . . . . . .