Lesson 7
Hello everyone.
In our seventh lesson we looked at ‘4A – I’m more cautious than I used to be’.
For Vocabulary, we spoke about cause and result.
For grammar, we spoke about used to and would.
Here is a video that looks at used to and would:
For homework, I asked you to do the all of the Listening exercises on page 46. You also need to complete exercise 5c on page 46. You should then read the information for 4A on page 140, and then do the exercises for 4A on page 141. You also need to complete Unit 4A in the Digital Workbook.
That’s all for today.
Steve
Lesson 6
Hello again!
In our sixth lesson we looked at ‘3B – There are a lot of good runners in Kenya’.
For Vocabulary, our topic was Sports. Click here for a link to an excellent Sports Definitions website that should help you with almost any specific competitive sports terminology that you might hear or read about. For general sports related terms, a normal dictionary will be sufficient.
For grammar we looked at Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous.
Here is an excellent video that explains Present Perfect Continuous and Present Perfect (Simple):
For homework you need to complete all of the listening exercises on page 36. Next, you should read the information for 3B Present Perfect Simple and Continuous on page 138, and then do the exercises for 3B on page 139. You also need to complete Unit 3B in the Digital Workbook.
OPTIONAL EXTRA HOMEWORK: If you feel like doing some extra writing homework, you can complete exercises 4a and 4b on page 41. Please send me your work directly to steven.brown@folkuniversitetet.se and I can check your writing.
That’s all for today.
Steve
Lesson 5
In our fifth lesson we looked at ‘3A – I’m not very good in the morning’ from the textbook. We did some reading and exercises which focused on the Vocabulary topics of Ability and Achievement. For homework you will look at some Multi-word Verbs (often called Phrasal Verbs).
Here are two videos that explain Multi-word Verbs. The first is a short video that explains how Multi-word Verbs can be used. The second video is a bit longer and focuses on the difference between Transitive and Intransitive Multi-word Verbs.
For homework you need to do the listening exercises on page 34. You also need to read the information for 3A on page 138, and then do the exercises for 3A on page 139. As usual, you should also do the exercises for Unit 3A in the Digital Workbook (or the exercises for 3A at the back of the textbook).
That’s all for today.
Steve
Lesson 4
Welcome back.
In our fourth lesson we looked at ‘2B – If it runs towards you, don’t run away’.
For Grammar we discussed Future Time Clauses and Conditionals.
For Vocabulary we discussed animals and the environment.
Here are two short videos that explain Future time clauses:
For homework you need to do the exercises for ‘3 LISTENING and VOCABULARY’ on page 25. I also asked you to read all of section 2B on page 136, and then do the exercises for 2B on page 137. You also need to do all of the exercises for unit 2B in the Digital Workbook.
OPTIONAL EXTRA HOMEWORK: If you feel like doing some extra writing homework, you can write a few paragraphs that give advice to a visitor to your country. Use the instructions for exercise 4a and 4b as a guide. Send your work directly in an email to steven.brown@folkuniversitetet.se and I will check it for you.
That’s all for today.
Steve
Lesson 3
Hello again.
In our third lesson we looked at ‘2A – It was getting late and I was lost’.
For Vocabulary we looked at various expressions which use the word get.
For Grammar we looked at some examples of how we use Narrative Tenses tell stories about the past.
Here are two excellent videos that explain Narrative Tenses:
Here is a longer video which looks at various uses of the verb get:
For homework you need to read the text for 2A on page 136 and then complete the exercises for 2A on page 137. You should then complete exercises d for ‘4 GRAMMAR’ on page 22. Next, you need to do the vocabulry exercises for 2A on page 155.
Finally, you need to complete the exercises for Unit 2A in the Digital Workbook (or simply do the exercises for 2A in the black and white section at the back of the book).
If you would like to do some extra writing homework for me to check, you can write a few paragraphs in response to the instructions for 5a on page 22. Send your work directly in an email to steven.brown@folkuniversitetet.se and I will check it for you.
That’s all for today.
Steve
Lesson 2
Hi everybody, and welcome back to the blog.
In our second lesson we looked at ‘1B – Are you finding it difficult?’ in the textbook.
For Vocabulary we discussed trying and succeeding. For Grammar we looked at Question Forms.
Here is a video that explains Auxiliary verbs:
Click here to read an explanation of how yes/no negative questions are used, and how to answer them correctly.
Here is a video that looks at the difference between Direct and Indirect Questions:
For homework I also asked you to read the information for 1B on page 134 and do the exercises for 1B on page 135. You also need to complete Unit 1B in the Digital Workbook (or you can do the questions for 1B at the back of your textbook).
OPTIONAL EXTRA HOMEWORK: If you feel like doing some extra writing homework, you can write a few short paragraphs about someone who inspires you. Exercise 5a on page 10 willl give you some ideas about what to write. Send you work directly in an email to steven.brown@folkuniversitetet.se and I will check it for you. (Or, if you prefer, you can send me a response to exercise 4c on page 17 instead.)
I also recommend that you complete all of Unit 1C and 1D on pages 14-17, but you will need to register your book with the website to complete the listening exercises. We will not look at these units during our lessons, but they could prove very useful for you.
That’s all for today.
Steve
Lesson 1
Hello everyone, and welcome to the course blog!
This blog is intended to help you get the most out of this course. After each lesson I will update it with a brief outline of what we cover in each lesson, as well as inform you of the homework that has been set. In future blogs I may also include links to videos or other web pages to read to help your learning.
We began our first lesson by introducing ourselves to each other. I then gave you an outline of what to expect in this course.
The textbook is called ‘Cambridge English EMPOWER Second Edition B2 Combo A Student’s Book and Workbook with Online Assessment (Published by Cambridge University Press).
You can buy the book at Ferdosi Bookshop, Odengtan 21, Stockholm.
These books have a code that will let you use the supporting website for the textbook. The code is on the inside cover of your textbook (You need to carefully scratch the grey material to see the code underneath). You will need then need to scan the QR code OR go to http://www.cambridgeone.org to register your textbook. Before you can register your textbook you will need to create an account. CLICK HERE to see instructions for how to create an account.
*PLEASE NOTE: You do NOT need to Join a Class, that is only for online courses. However, I recommend you use the ‘Self Study’ section. Please have a look at all of this website, it is very helpful. The ‘Getting Help’ section might be useful if you have any problems.
Registering your textbook with the website will allow you to access all the audio files that you will need to complete exercises in the textbook and workbook (the black and white section at the back of the book). You can also do the workbook exercises on the website, which is better because it will let you try again if you do not get the correct answer. If you still can’t guess the correct answer, you can ask for it to be given to you.
The website also has extra resources and exercises if you wish to do extra study (which I recommend) other than your given classwork and homework.
Next, we then started to look at the first chapter of the textbook: ‘1A – She is an inspiring woman’. We spoke about people we admire, and read some related articles. For grammar, we reviewed several different verb tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Present Simple, Present Continuous, and Present Perfect. For vocabulary homework, you will look at some character adjectives.
Here are some videos which explain these verb tenses:
For homework, you were asked read the information for ‘1A Review of tenses’ on page 134 and then do the Grammar exercises for ‘1A Review of tenses’ on page 135. After that, you should do exercise 3e on page 9.
If you have the textbook and have registered with the website so you can play the audio files, you should do all of the exercises for ‘3 LISTENING’ on page 10.
You also need to do all of the exercises for ‘4 Vocabulary’ on page 10, and then do all of the exercises for 1A on page 154. Finally, I would like you to do all of the exercises for Unit 1A in the Online Workbook.
That’s all for today. I’ll see you in our second lesson!
Steve