English Courses in England, Ireland, Study English
by Edgar Burt
Some students’ motivation sways from class to class. This could be from outside factors such as stress with work or relationship troubles or even if a family member is ill. You must be understanding and try to motivate them, but sometimes it can be an impossible task, so just understand.
I once had a student that was 75 years old. She would come to the class and really wanted to be there. She didn’t need to know the language for anything other than she wanted to know it. She also always did her homework and was the most talkative in the class. She loved discussing crime novels and how they related to each of the lessons.
There is a reason that teachers ask students to do their homework and the reason is to practice the skills that were learned in class that day. If you don’t practice, then you are not going to really grasp the concepts and therefore it will take longer for you to learn.
Some students often get frustrated in class because they can’t speak in their native language to communicate to the teacher or other students. This is natural, but by not being allowed to speak in your native language it forces you to grasp the concepts quicker and not rely on your native language for help.
Often students are afraid of making mistakes in class. The student must realize that mistakes are an integral and important part of language learning and by correcting them you are bringing them closer to the target language. The teacher should tell them at the beginning that only by trying to use the language and committing the mistakes do you gain a better knowledge of the language and remember it.
One reason the students often get bored in class is because the way the content is presented. If you try as a teacher to vary up the ways you teach the class and change the structure of every class, so they don’t expect the same things always then the students will be more into the classes. Also if you let the students practice real life examples of what is being taught, then the students will likely put in more effort. Try to add music into your classes, along with fun games, surveys, and anything else you can think of. Another good thing to do is to take a song and take out some of the words and get the students to listen and fill in the gaps. It will often take a couple of times to complete while listening.
Often teachers forget to plan lessons or don’t have the time. Teachers should try to create lessons that go together with each class. The teachers should also spend 15 minutes trying to create a lesson before the class.
To build interest while teaching English may seem difficult but here are some general things to follow. You always need to have clear goals. The students should be aware of content and learning task objectives. For example, a guessing-game may have the language-learning goal of practicing question, and the content goal of guessing answers.
If you are going to teach a lesson on crime, then you need to make it as real as possible. Maybe you would like to set up a jail in the classroom or a crime scene. When the students walk in they will be curious as to why it is there or why the objects are put in certain places. You also might have an interview on a tape with a criminal, so the students can see one and try to figure out what they are saying and the mentality of the person. Then maybe you would like to get the students to create a crime or plan for a crime and then write it down using the vocabulary you learned from the lesson. After this maybe the students can act out the crime and the other students guess what the crime is. These are just a few ways to vary what might be a simple lesson and make it more interesting for the students.
I think now you can see how the teacher can change the motivation of the students by incorporating certain things into their classes by having clear goals, varied topics and tasks, visuals, tension games, entertainment, play-acting, and personalization. If you can keep the class interested the whole amount of time you are teaching, then the motivation will stay high into the next lessons.
Gavin Ramsey is an specialist at English Courses in England, Ireland, Study English (Cursos de Ingles). For more information on Learning English in England. Check out more on English Courses in England, Ireland, Study English
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Fiction Writing: What’s in a Contest Judge?
by Cindy A Christiansen
Have you ever received a negative critique back on your perfect writing entry? Did you want to rip it up or send a nasty comment back to the judge? You are probably not alone. Here are some of my favorite comments:
* Have you ever read a book in your life!!
* Your characters are TSTL (too stupid to live).
* Is there a lower score than 0 for Manuscript Mechanics? I’d give it to you if I could.
I mean, you only have three published books, a Master’s degree in English, and a job editing making $90.00 per hour. You sit in front of your computer screen, blinking at your returned critique, your eyes still frozen on those four little letters TSTL.
You take a deep breath and head for the chocolate to comfort yourself. Then it hits you. Just who judged this entry anyway? You return to your computer and find it was an unpublished/trained critiquer. You give a huge sigh of relief. Whew! Who cares what they think. But then you realize that this critiquer is still a reader. Oh, no. Your shoulders sag.
Who Make the Best Judges?
I’m sure we all agree it is not the grudge judge—another author with a vendetta against contest judges. STAB! STAB! STAB! It is also not the author who knows nothing about writing and wants to gain all their experience by reading someone else’s work. (All comments left blank.) Maybe you’re saying to yourself you would like every judge to be either an editor or a multi-published author. That may not be the right answer either. Surprised?
Many published authors and editors lead very busy lives. They don’t have the time to provide a lot of critique. It’s hard to get exactly what a critiquer is telling you with a 3/5 score unless they leave a comment because only then can you learn.
The best judges tend to be those who take the time to point out their reasoning for their scoring with kind explanations (notice I said kind). They also point out positive strengths about your work.
Why Judge a Contest?
You can learn a great deal about writing from reading. (I’m sure you’ve heard that one before.) A good place to do it is reading contest entries. We all know how important those first few pages are, and boy is it easy to spot someone else’s mistakes. The more you are willing to help others see their mistakes, the easier it will become to spot them in your own writing.
What Makes a Good Judge?
Of course it is someone who will put a little time and thought into it, but here are more specifics:
* Critique doesn’t mean to criticize. The definition of critique is, “an instance or the process of formal criticism”. But come on. Do we really do that to each other when we are face-to-face in our critique groups discussing our own work? What I think any writer is looking for is good honest help—constructive criticism.
* In one of my entries a judge was so critical of my characters that she said the heroine was an air-head and the hero was a moron. I had given the heroine the character flaw of being spoiled by a rich, over-protective father and the hero an unknown diagnosis of ADD which both characters overcome by the end of the book. It is also a light-hearted comedy. Did the judge take into account that I said my hero was an expert in his field? Hmmmm. Did the judge take into account that the heroine was escaping a controlling father, starting a new business, and had bought a run-down home that needs restoring? Not sure.
* There again, you as the writer need to determine whether to take a judge’s comments with a grain of salt or decide whether you haven’t done your job telling your story.
The Dos and Don’ts of Judging
1. What’s in a point? A numbering system is a great way of scoring, but what does it really tell us? Sure the contest coordinator has assigned general comments to each number like a score of 5 means, “READY FOR SUBMISSION” and 1 means, “CHUCK THAT SUCKER IN THE GARBAGE”. Something like that.
Don’t plan on judging if you can’t back up that number with a reason for it. It needs to be valid writing criteria—something specific. If you can’t identify to the writer what is wrong, how are they going to learn from it? And if you can’t identify what is wrong, how are you going to learn?
2. Don’t get a bighead. You are on a roll, marking up that manuscript left and right. You want to help this writer become the next best-selling author. The fact is, you still haven’t considered you may not know everything there is about writing yourself. Think humility. Sure you want to point out what you know but try not to come off like Mr./Ms. Perfection. Remember to make your comments, but realize they are your suggestions to the writer–not the Ten Commandments.
3. Have a heart. A writer can learn from what they’re doing right, not just what they’re doing wrong. It never hurts to point out what a writer is doing well. It can only make them better, and it makes you both feel good.
You are not going to be happy with every judge who scrutinizes your work. Being unhappy with their critique doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them. If you receive two low scores and one high on dialogue, don’t be so conceited that you assume the high score is accurate. It’s not hard to figure out that your dialogue needs work. Sifting out important information is what we do as writers. If the judge criticizes your characters, you need to figure out why they felt that way.
After years of writing romantic suspense with serious subjects of murder, abuse, etc., I decided to write a much more light-hearted, humorous book where the villain wouldn’t go so far as to kill and the characters are a little less serious about the situation. Because it still has a protagonist and the heroine’s life is in danger, I submitted my entry under romantic suspense. I was criticized by some of the judges that the villain wasn’t mean enough and the characters were flaky.
Should I throw the book away? On the contrary. Instead I analyzed the bigger picture of what was being said. I realized I was targeting the wrong genre.
Now you can head to the freezer for that box of ice cream but this time to celebrate. You’ve learned that even the raunchiest critique can benefit you if you look for the positive in it. On the other hand, if it is really malicious and you just can’t figure out anything positive the judge could have been trying to tell you, then print it off, rip it to shreds, stomp on it, and then set it on fire. That should help.
Cindy A. Christiansen is a multi-published romantic suspense author. She has judged writing contests and teaches writing classes. Visit her at:http://c.a.dragonfly.googlepages.com
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4 Dynamic Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking
by Edgar Burt
Whether you’re standing before an audience of businesspeople or your classmates, the effect is the same. All of your preparation flies out the window, your knees knock together and you must force yourself to take the stage. Public speaking is a terrifying experience for most people, but it need not be. Most people would rather have a root canal performed than speak in front of a group of people. However, performing well in this environment is not as difficult as it sounds. In fact, it can be an enjoyable experience once you get past your fear of public speaking.
To suceed in the corporate world and to some extent your own personal world, overcoming your fear of public speaking is essential. Which poses the questions: How do you get past this seemingly insurmountable obstacle? How do you bury that fear deep in your heart and not let it overwhelm your defenses? How do you survive such a ghastly ordeal?
1. It’s Not as Bad as It Seems
The very first thing you need to understand is that it is not as bad as it seems. You are focusing on the bad things, the things that might happen or could happen that would make you seem foolish or unprepared, that would make your audience laugh in derision, rather than in good humor. Such fears are natural, but baseless. The audience is not there to laugh at you; they have no desire to pick apart your performance looking for absurdities. They have come to hear you speak. They believe you have valuable information to impart and they want to know what you have to say. They obviously place a great deal of value on your opinion and expertise; else, they would have found somewhere else to go.
2. Everyone Experiences a Fear of Public Speaking
Everyone experiences a fear of public speaking, no matter how experienced a speaker they might be. This is important to understand — everyone feels the same fear, the same trepidation. Everyone gets the same butterflies in their stomach and experiences the same sweat-slicked palms; even those with years of experience under their belts still succumb to the fear of public speaking. So what does this tell you? It tells you two things: first, the fear you feel is natural and nothing of which to be ashamed. Second, it tells you that you are not alone and if you work through it, you can reap tremendous rewards.
3. You are the Expert — You were Chosen to Speak for a Reason
Perhaps you have the most in-depth understanding of a particular product’s features. Perhaps you are responsible for developing and implementing new techniques with wide-ranging ramifications. Maybe you are the only person who understands your company’s new product/service and must explain how it works to potential investors or even to company sales reps. Regardless of the reason, you are the expert — it was no mere accident you were chosen to speak at this event. You have important, vital, unique information to impart, which brings enormous value to your audience. This is your chance to share your information, so that alone should help you resolve your fear for public speaking.
4. Understand the Value You Bring to the Table
Once you understand the value you bring to the table, the rest of the process is very simple. While overcoming that fear of public speaking might seem impossible, you can use numerous techniques to help you move past it. For instance, meditation-style breathing techniques, used before you take the stage, will help slow your racing heart and stem the flood of adrenaline surging through your body.
Remember that the audience is likely not going to notice your sweating palms or your nervousness; in many ways, fear of public speaking is simply all in your mind. Having a positive mindset and the right outlook on the event will help you move past this fear. Remember, you are the expert here, take that to heart, and all else will fall into place and you can confidently deliver your engaging speech.
David Wilkins has put together a complementary 20 page report full of simple and effective ways to reduce your fear of public speaking, which will help you quickly deal with and solve any anxiety issues. To download it instantly visit: http://www.publicspeakingmentor.com/banishfearreport.html Check out more on 4 Dynamic Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking
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Squinting in the Moonlight
by Jay Speyerer
Do you squint in the moonlight because it’s too bright? Neither do I. And neither does anyone else, except for the characters on TV shows from the 1950s and budget-sensitive (cheap) “B” movies. Why? Because of a cinematic technique called “day for night.”
This technique was often used in those old TV shows, to which I’m addicted. The addiction is not only for the nostalgia, but as evidence that I see things in them today that I didn’t notice when I was nine.
Part of my brain always wondered why the campfire wasn’t brighter as Bat Masterson and his friends drank their coffee and talked about how they would catch the bad guys when the sun came up. The same section of my cerebrum wondered why the headlights of Perry Mason’s car gave off so little light as he and Paul Drake arrived at a midnight crime scene. And I certainly wondered why everyone was squinting.
The reason is that it wasn’t really night when the scenes were shot. It was broad daylight with the sun blazing overhead, but the cameraman underexposed the film so it would have the semblance of night. (FYI, the term “cameraman” is not sexist. In those days, all camera operators were men.)
When you underexpose film, everything is darker. Depending on what is in the shot, the technique works. But if the shot includes a light source, believability is blown out of the water because campfires and headlights are darkened along with everything else.
Shooting day for night is cheaper than paying actors and crew overtime for night shooting and going to the expense of extra lights. I’m referring here to black and white photography, where the filmmaker could put a red filter over the lens to darken the blue sky and close the lens down an f-stop. It’s a bit more complicated in color. There, along with underexposure, a blue filter is used to simulate moonlight. Even though real moonlight isn’t particularly blue, we perceive it as such.
“Does he have a point that relates to communication?” you ask. Why yes, he does.
In fiction writing, we have a concept called willing suspension of disbelief. It amounts to a mutual agreement: the storyteller agrees to lie and the audience agrees to believe it. But the storyteller is still obligated not to do anything that would pull the reader/listener/viewer out of the story.
If there are mistakes in the story, the audience members’ belief in the story depends whether they notice the mistakes. And that all depends on what they know. And you, the writer, don’t know what they know, so you have to assume they know everything.
For instance, if you’re attempting to reconstruct a conversation that took place in a bygone era, be sure the characters are using the right language. I remember an episode of M*A*S*H, one in which the actors improvised many of their lines. The story was about a newsreel film crew interviewing the personnel of the 4077th, and when they got to Radar, actor Gary Burghoff goofed.
Radar is answering a question about his mission there, and he says something to the effect that it’s all about helping people and “that’s where it’s at.” That age-of-Aquarius-era expression didn’t exist at the time of the Korean War. Fiction or non, no anachronisms allowed.
No credible fiction writer wants the reader to be pulled out of the story. But if the viewer of that episode of M*A*S*H was born after the 60s, they would need an unusually sharp cultural awareness to pick up on the error. But it will happen with older viewers. The seams will start to show.
Maybe it’s less a suspension of disbelief than it is a balance between the audience surrendering to the story and maintaining an awareness of the techniques of storytelling or filmmaking. In nonfiction, there should be only belief. The storyteller should do nothing to alter that. The writer must take care in researching the background details.
Fiction and nonfiction are the same in that your audience must believe you and believe every word of the world you present to them. No writer wants to lose his readers. No speaker wants to lose her listeners. Pay attention to all of the details, because you have no idea whether your audience will notice the squinting in the moonlight.
Jay Speyerer has been a writer, a speaker, and an educator for more than 30 years, successfully helping people achieve their communication goals in memoir writing, e-mail, cross-cultural communication, and presentation skills. Want to communicate better? Find out how at his web site: => http://www.jayspeyerer.com
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Start Writing Your Life Story in Just One Hour
by AnnA Rushton
Your life story can be put into motion in just one hour with a very simple technique. No matter how long you have lived, or how action-packed your life, you can start to write your life story in the time it takes to watch your favourite TV drama.
Being overwhelmed is a common feeling when starting to write your life story, after all there are years of experience, anecdotes, and memories packed in there. By talking to lots of people about what has held them back, it seemed to me that knowing where to even start was a huge obstacle.
Well, it doesn’t have to be, just put aside an hour of your time in a quiet place with no interruptions. Settle down somewhere comfortable with a large notepad and a pen - and no matter how computer literate you are, this process needs to start with you physically writing stuff down. The Irish novelist Edna O’Brian said that there was an emotional connection between the hand and the heart, and it’s your heart that is going to give you all the material you need to start writing your life story.
Don’t worry, it is going to be transferred to a computer later and that’s when you will be using the more ‘business like’ side of your brain, but right now you want to access those emotions and feelings in the most elemental way - connecting your hand and your heart through your pen.
The Fast Start Method: This initial stage is all about spontaneity, and what you are going to do is just sit down and brainstorm onto your pad in a random fashion a rough outline of your life so far. Don’t worry about it being correct or in order, but start to make notes of the important events in your life by putting each one on a separate line and leaving a couple of lines space between each one.
It will be all over the place, but you can tidy it up later so right now take a look at the list you have made and start to add a line by each one to remind you of that event or time in your life. Just keep the pen flowing over the paper and don’t force it, just relax and write down what comes to mind. When you have added a rough note to remind you of the event, it could look like this:
1953 - born St Judes Hospital
1958 = primary school
19?? family emigrated - check Dad for date
1963 - first school in Australia - julie my best friend
1974 - first job at Ashworths - horrible boss!
1966 - sister born - home or hospital?
1959 - found out I was left handed
As you can see, the list can be a random mix of dates, events, and memories, so jot down everything as it comes into your head - you can discard or edit later.
Please, don’t worry about missing things out, or the order they are in for the moment. Just write them down as they come to you and when you feel you have ‘run dry’ then put the pad aside to come back to later.
Even if you are not aware of it, you are now starting to access memories by the very process of starting to think about your life so that you will find yourself recalling things that you thought were long forgotten. When something occurs to you, write it down in a brief note form, on your list if you are near it, or on anything else handy so that you can transfer the memory onto the list on your pad later.
This one hour session gives you the essentials for the ‘data bank’ you need to access for the actual writing and I suggest you plan to have at least one or two more like it to keep jogging your memory and remembering things you will want to have in your life story. When you feel you really add any more, then put it into a rough time order as near as you can and type it up in your computer or write it out more neatly.
This is your route map through your life story and remember it is not a ‘closed document’ but something that you can keep adding to all the time you are writing. There are several ways you can use this material for different types of life story - but first, get that list written!
AnnA is the author of ‘How To Write Your Life Story In 6 Easy Steps’ and an inspirational author and speaker on health, personal development and creativity. For more life story information visit http://www.writeyourlifestory.co.uk/ and for free email newsletters, resources, books and archives to enjoy visit http://www.catalystonline.co.uk
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