Are Exams Necessary?

 

As a follow-up on the broad topic of Education, now I'd like to focus on the actual value of EXAMS. You will have to write an essay FOR or AGAINST exams.  Check these two links below for inspiration:

Some FOR and AGAINST arguments

Read the article: Should we do away with exams altogether?

Read the article: Are high-stakes exams useful to the learning process?

Word limit: 200. Submit by: 5 October

Then, we will hold a two-sided debate on this matter. All the class will participate, so be ready to defend your stance.

C2 Proficiency Speaking Phrases

We Need Our Creativity Back

You have probably realized by now that learning a second language means taking risks, and regaining our own creativity. For that it is important that we lose our own fear of being wrong. 

Here follows the talk we just watched in class, where Ken Robinson speaks about some problems with our education system, and point to things that we should change if we want to make the most of our human capacities. 

Before watching the video, revise the list of vocabulary and expressions he uses, which are going to help to follow the thread of the story.

                       Vocabulary revision                 

Find below the questions we will discuss in class.

Open questions for discussion

Talking About Register

The word "register" came up in class the other day as we were revising your writings. Here follows an interesting article from The Guardian about formal expressions that are really going out of fashion. Informality is all that matters now

'Yours sincerely’ is dead. So how should you sign off an email?

Shadowing Practice

Shadowing is a learning technique where you listen to a text in your target language, and then repeat it aloud right after the speaker, so that you become his/her shadow.

You play the video, and after one sentence or two you pause it to repeat the words that you just heard with a minimum delay. You can do this as you sit down, stand or walk around the house... the point is that you repeat the exacts words in the exact same manner (tempo, intonation, nuances, etc.) as the speaker.

So, here's my proposal to get started in this new technique: Become the shadow of Patch Adams. Patch Adams is an American physician, social activist, clown, and author whose ideas were featured in a famous Hollywood film (Robbin Williams starred in it). Do no more than 2 minutes of his speech at a time.

"I want a world where no one alive can remember what the word war means..."

Getting rid of those fossilized errors...

Fossilized errors worksheet

Online Activation of On Screen C2 Express E-Book

 Online Activation of Express Digibook step by step

Getting Started in C2.1 September 2023

                             

Here follows some General Information about this course:

Teacher: María Cristóbal

Teacher's  contact email address: mcristobal@educa.madrid.org. Please write your name and group in the subject.

Room: 5.11

Textbook : On Screen C2, by Jenny Dooley. Express Publishing: Student's Book (you will need to download the digital book too -- instructions on the next post).

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