Tsuda University - Oral English - Elvin

Dear students, Your final presentation is today. Your topic is anything serious. You should be solo and you should speak for a minimum of five minutes. A good speech will present new and interesting information to an audience by an expert which will be you. Therefore, you should do some research to become the expert. The order of the speeches will be randomized using my cell phone, so everyone must be ready. (Students who are not called to speak today will present on January 22nd.) Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student directed learning activity, and after that you will complete the 1989 prints. You should hand in your portfolio today, not on the 8th of January as previously stated. Finally, please show me your mind map or outline of your final speech that you will present on January 8th or 22nd. Once your outline is complete and can not be improved easily or by much, you may write your speech or design your slides. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a self-directed learning activity and then you will carry on and complete 1989. If there is any free time, please either organize your portfolio or start to work on your final presentation. I would like you to hand in your portfolios on January 8th, which is also the day of your speeches. Your presentation will be assessed using four criteria: content, delivery, fluency, and accuracy. Your topic should be a serious one, so to get good marks for content, you should research, analyze, think critically and express an opinion. Delivery focusses on how you transmit your information, so good slides, eye contact, and a positive approach will be important. Fluency is how well you can deliver your information without reading, and accuracy concerns grammatical range and accuracy and also vocabulary choice. Let me see your mind maps today, as I may be able to give advice or offer a suggestion. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a self directed learning exercise. After that you will carry on with the 1989 prints. If you finish, you will start 1990 (see November 20th for download links). Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Last week you had an interesting self-directed learning exercise about the Titanic, didn`t you? After today`s activity has finished you will continue with 1989, so please finish the vocabulary matching exercise for homework. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, There were some great presentations last lesson, and some of you had clearly put a lot of effort preparing for it. Well done! Today, you will have a self directed learning activity, hopefully with some thought and preparation gone into that, too. Remember, you can do things other than small group discussions; You can use movies or videos on youtube, songs, books, have debates, make more presentations, anything! After that, please continue with 1989 and download 1990 just in case we finish 1989. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1990songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1990s/1990.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today is your mid-term speaking test. I will be assessing delivery and content. For me, content includes: new and interesting researched critical thinking good visual aids Delivery includes: taking a long turn (three minutes or more) regular eye contact good English (fluency, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will read your 1988 research and write essay to your group, start 1989, and prepare for your three-minute presentation mid-term assessment on November 6th. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will probably finish 1988, so please download the following year's prints and bring them to class. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1989songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1989.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student-led activity and after that you will carry on with 1987. If you finish, you may start 1988. Please download the files below. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1988songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1988.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student-led activity (hopefully with some preparation done beforehand), and then you will read your research and write homework in groups of seven, and finally you will start 1987. Please download the files below. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1987/songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1987.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student-led activity and carry on working on the 1986 unit. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Welcome back to class. I hope you had a pleasant break! Today, you will have student-led activity and we may also start 1986. Please download the prints and bring them to class. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1986songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1986.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Here is a link to the results of the survey that you took today, together with another two classes that had a similar schedule. Survey Results In September, you will be working with your partner for student-led activities. Please note that the ideas on the whiteboard were just what other students had chosen to do recently. You are free to do whatever you may choose. Ideally, your plan should include a worthwhile task and hopefully there will be a lot of variety. The first lesson will be by students 1,11 and 21, the second lesson by students 2 and 12, 3 and 13, and so on. Good luck! Chris Elvin

Dear students, I am very sorry about this, but would you mind filling out this survey?  - again for many of you, as the response form has been accidentally deleted. At the end of the semester, I will post a link to this blog so that you can also view the results. Take the end of semester survey My apologies, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will check the answers to the 1985 matching that you did for homework before carrying on with the other activities. This will be the last unit that you will study this semester. On July 24th, please show me your portfolio of prints and activities that you did in class and for homework. Your portfolio accounts for 20 percent of your final semester grade. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will finish 1984 and start 1985. Please download the prints below. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1985songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1985.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student led activity, and after that you will continue with 1984. The first thing we will do is check the answers to the matching activity, so please complete this beforehand. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Dear students, Please download the prints below after Wednesday June 17th, 9pm. The earlier version is no longer the same as the new edition. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1984songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1984.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Dear students, Please download the prints below after Wednesday June 17th, 9pm. The earlier version is no longer the same as the new edition. Dear students, Today you will have a student-led activity by a new group. After that you will continue with 1983 and if there is time you will start 1984. Please download and bring the prints to class just in case. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1984songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1984.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have your mid-term test. Your score will  be an estimation of your IELTS level for the four criteria of fluency, grammatical range and accuracy, vocabulary, and pronunciation. (I think many of you will end up with very similar scores). Before the tests start, we will check the answers to the vocabulary for the 1983 unit. After that, and when you are not being tested, please carry on with this unit. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will finish 1982 and perhaps start 1983. Please download the prints and bring them  to class just in case. You may do the matching for homework in order to maximize speaking time in class. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1983songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1983.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin PS. Your test on June 5th will be one of six topics: my hometown, my high school, my hobby, my friend, my future, or my history. You will be expected to talk for two minutes.

Dear students, Today you will have a student-led activity as usual, and after that you will study about 1982. If you have not done so already, please download the print and bring it to class. http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1982.pdf For homework, please do the matching exercise. We will check it first thing in class. Finally, for your mid-term test, do you want a 2-minute interview, a song cloze, or a presentation? Please think about it and voice your opinion in class. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student led activity and after that you will talk about 1981. If there is time, we may start 1982, so please download the prints in advance just in case. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1982songs.pdf http://www.eflclub.com/1980s/1982.pdf If you would like to do homework in advance, you may research and write about one of the topics on the last page of the 1981 unit. Remember to use your own words, which means no copy and pasting. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today you will have a student-led activity and after that you will carry on talking about the eighties. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, I know some of you are very busy and still settling in, but how was English oral communication? Remember, this blog is for you, so your comments are just as much for your fellow students as they are for me, if not more so. Please post your comments by clicking on the icon below. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

How was your first student led activity? Please post  your comments below (you will need to register first). By the way, you may post a link to your file and ask students to download from the blog if you wish. Kind regards, Chris Elvin PS. Please download the song gap-fill exercise (1980) for next lesson.

Dear students, Please follow the blog by clicking on the google button to the right. We are a private blog so nobody can find this site by using search engines, nor read it unless they know the web address. If you register, you will be able to post comments. Before and after you do your student-led activity, you may wish to communicate with your fellow students by using this site. Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Your grade will be based on attendance (20), mid-term test one-minute challenge (20), final test (20), 1980s portfolio (20) and student-led activity (20). Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Dear students, Today we will carry on with 1980.pdf and after that do a student-led activity. The students numbers are: 3, 4, 14, 20 week 3: 1,6,7,19 week 4: 2 ,9, 15, 21 week5: 10, 13, 17, 8 week 6: the others Also, please download the file below and bring it to class. http://www.eflclub.com/music/1980songs.pdf Kind regards, Chris Elvin

Chris Elvin

April 10th 2015 Dear students, Welcome to Oral English. Today we will discuss our schedule for the year. Will it be discussing the news and the eighties, or student-led activities, or both? Kind regards, Chris Elvin