Advanced Lessons

[abra]

Ahh, I wouldn't mind taking some advanced lessons myself!

Thanks for the link on register.
As for links, could you look at my thread on Internet sites addressed to native-speakers that can be used in teaching advanced students?

Best of luck
Elena

[Horsa]

I have just found this exercise I made a while ago. It was originally aimed at business English students but it may be of use.

[abra]

Thanks for the exercise. Hope to use it some day.

Plain English Campaign came as a shock - or rather a pleasant surprise. It seems while the foreigners are being forced to learn formal English, native speakers are taught to stick to plain English in order to get their message across.

[ddeubel]

I post up an "Instant lesson" daily and many are for advanced students or are adaptable. You can download the materials directly from each lesson.

David
EFL Classroom 2.0

[abra]

Thanks, David. Had a quick look at your site. Enjoyed 'Three wishes', hope it'll work.
Good luck,
Elena

[abra]

This is a question to native speakers: have you heard a learner use idioms naturally?
Are idioms doomed to remain part of our 'passive' vocabulary, or can they be actually mastered to the extent that they begin to be used productively? Is there any guide to idiom 'frequency', so the non-native speaker teacher could know which idioms are used by ordinary people on a daily basis, and which belong more to the realm of eloquence or creative writing?
Scared of idioms
abra

[Horsa]

Yes, I have but very rarely. Mostly non-native speakers sound at worst pretentious or at best a little strange when attempting to use idiomatic language.

There seem to be a number of reasons for this:

1. The idioms are not used in a natural context.

2. The idioms concerned are no longer in common use. 'It's raining cats and dogs.' We all know it, but the last person I heard use it seriously was my grandmother and she's been dead for twenty years!

3. The non-native user is inclined to use full expressions where native speakers tend to use partial. For example, on most occasions native speakers would say simply 'Too many cooks ..." while the non native will complete the saying with 'spoil the broth.' Perfectly correct but not what we do most of the time. These sayings and proverb types are definitely worth avoiding.

4. Wrong intonation can make idiomatic language sound positively weird.

That said, I have heard non-natives use idiomatic language quite naturally on occasions, so it is possible.

As to frequency lists maybe in the future corpus linguistics will provide the answer.

[abra]

Thought as much.
As always, many thanks for your help.

One more question (hope I am not exploiting you):
Any books or links on writing that you find useful ? Not exam-tasks, but rather a way to get the students writing about their experience, sharing their knowledge and expressing their opinions. What I would like to elicit is not formal essays, but short texts similar to forum posts or blog entries. Haven't seen much along those lines.

Best regards,
Elena

[Horsa]

There are some ideas in the document at the following link

Massi - Interactive Writing in the EFL Class: A Repertoire of Tasks (I-TESL-J)

On this question I'm not going to be much help to you I'm afraid. I tend to make my own writing tasks. I haven't seen a book at advanced level that provides good short writing tasks. Many provide one or two but they tend to concentrate on longer tasks most of which are either academic in nature or exam focussed.

However, if you want them to produce blog style writings, why not start a blog wall in your classroom. Each student posts a weekly blog for everyone to read. You correct them and they rewrite if necessary before posting.

Alternatively, email chains. The students write to each other according to the instructions you give them each lesson. It's best to give them fictitious names and characters for this activity. Pair them boy/girl (if you don't have equal numbers of boys and girls you can make them equal by assigning boy roles to girls or vice versa). Then get them to write to each other. All emails pass through you and are corrected and returned for rewriting if necessary. With each writing you give additional instructions such as 'You are in a bad mood today.' If you treat it as a joke, your instructions can then lead them through the stages of an email romance and break up. Remember to keep it lighthearted or they may become uncomfortable.

[abra]

Any examples of your own writing tasks?
(Aha, I *am* trying to exploit you after all