Celta Focus on Learner

She followed her husband to the UK with her children. Her husband is doing a PhD. at Oxford University and has a couple of years further study before he finishes. xxxxx is currently working at Primark as a shop assistant. She learnt some basic English while at school, however much of this was listening, reading and writing based and the opportunity to speak with fluent English speakers was limited. Her motivation to improve is initially based on her need to communicate better at work and in everyday life activities, such as shopping. She would also like to do some further study in England but realises that her level of English needs to improve before she would be accepted onto a course. She sees the benefits of her improvement and this motivates her to learn more. She is very much a concrete learner. She enjoys the oral interaction and believes this is how she learns most effectively. She believes her strengths are in reading and listening. She says she understands most things she reads and hears but struggles when trying to express herself orally. She believes her vocabulary could be significantly improved; and from listening to her I believe her pronunciation could also be improved. Part of the reason for this is her lack of social interaction with native English speakers and also her lack of confidence as she believes this is her weakness. However the challenges of a Nepalese person to differentiate some consonant clusters, stress values, vowel sounds and diphthongs alluded to below needs to be taken into consideration. xxxx enjoys the oral interaction exercises most of all. She doesn’t particularly dislike anything in the lessons, referring only to doing nothing while waiting for others to finish an exercise. Analysis To help xxxxx I believe some focus on speaking to give here more practice and improve her confidence would be appropriate. Also some work on pronunciation would be beneficial. xxxxx tends to be monotonic and sometimes mumbles (maybe due to her lack of confidence) so I believe an exercise forcing attention to stress and maybe intonation would be helpful. I noticed in our chat, and also in lessons, that she uses present simple forms when past simple is the correct form. For example she will say we speak about or we talk about rather than we spoke about or we talked about. I will address improving speaking as a skill and incorporate into this the correct use of past simple. I will address pronunciation as a language area. In particular stress. The extract for a NELTA Journal below gives an example of the challenges a Nepalese person encounters when pronouncing English words. Activities Speaking For improvement of speaking I have selected 2 exercises from 700 Class Room Activities Instant Lessons for Busy Teachers by David Seymour and Maria Popova. These are speaking exercises with an emphasis on past simple forms. Sequences p 93 – this is an interactive exercise where the students take it in turns to ask and reply to questions relating to what they have done in the past. This will encourage speaking with a partner and provide for a good feedback section where the students relay what they have found out about their partner’s past activities and give the teacher a good opportunity to also correct grammar and pronunciation. The Last Time p94 – this exercise places students into pairs where they take it in turns to ask each other â€Å"when was the last time they did a particular activity†. This exercise promotes an excellent opportunity for speaking and again the promotion of the correct us of the past simple form. Feedback session would enable the teacher to correct any grammar and pronunciation errors. Pronunciation For improvement of pronunciation I will address stress as the key area. I have selected Pronunciation: Stress from Just Right Upper Intermediate by Jeremy Harmer and Carol Lethaby. Exercises 26 to 30 on p 12. In exercise 26 the students listen to some sentences and circle the words which are stressed. Exercise 27 gives the students an opportunity to then repeat these sentences using the same stresses. There is also opportunity in feedback to move the stress points around and gain input from the students on which other variations could be used and when. Exercise 28 gives the students practice in the use and emphasis of â€Å"so† and â€Å"such† in response to bad news. Drilling them to apply the appropriate stress would be employed. Exercise 29 is a pairs exercise giving the students turns in using appropriate stress in sentences expressing sympathy. This will give the students an opportunity to practice and reinforce what they have learnt in the lesson so far. Feed back to the class enables the teacher to correct and drill where necessary. Exercise 30 is a variation on 29 but where the student has to be more creative and devise their own scenarios. Again the exercise reinforces the lesson learning points.

Contemporary Architecture and Ecological Knowledge Essay

Contemporary Architecture and Ecological Knowledge - Essay Example The essay "Contemporary Architecture and Ecological Knowledge" discovers the impact of ecological knowledge in molding the architecture. The effectiveness of the design in terms of incorporating ecological concepts will be evaluated, and the validity of its scientific claims, will be seen. Lastly, the new directions in this area of creative pursuit will be identified, by additional ecological knowledge. â€Å"Our duty is to translate the codes of the ecological language in a poetic way, to marry beauty with respect for the environment† (The Dirt). Such were the words of Renzo Piano, the Italian architect, while discussing ecology and architecture with the local newspaper. In his design of the Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco, Piano makes the clear decision that creating a fine balance between natural and built environment, should be the driving theme in any new building. The 400,000-sq.-ft.structure, built at the cost of $488-million, is certainly an excellent end eavor of Piano, to bring together cutting-edge technology and green design in 3- dimensional form. An aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum, are part of this building. The building also houses 20 million specimens, and provides a platform for scientific research. The architect’s sensitivity towards ecology can be clearly seen in the entire design, and most impressively in the design of 2.5 acre living green roof. Although Greens roofs are no new technology, but the idea of using green roof that can generate power is new.

Review of Life Lessons from the Movie New York Stories

Of Life Lessons from the New York Stories - Movie Review Example The plot of â€Å"Life Lessons† looks simple but is emotionally intense and captures the psychological turmoil of an abstract artist in the wild city of New York. The opening scene of the film shows Lionel struggling to work for an upcoming exhibition and his dealer fears that he will not be able to produce the numbers of canvases he is required to produce. The reason is later found out to be the absence of his assistance cum apprentice Paulette who has almost taken the shape of his personal muse. They both are shown to be in a troubled and complex relationship and apparently Paulette has left Lionel for a young comedian, who dumps her in one day. Lionel is ready to take her back at any cost and when he sees that she is not ready takes her back to his studio saying that it will only be a work relationship. Throughout the film it is seen that Lionel feeds on the sexual tension between him and Paulette and in his fits of passion, desire and anger is able to produce excellent work. The story ends on Lionel completing his master piece, Paulette leaving him and a Lionel meeting a young female artist, who he immediately offers the position of an assistant. The film can be seen as the director’s tribute to the true genius which lies trapped with in the artist and the agony that artist has to go through to unleash the pulsing energy of true art. The film is directed beautifully and the cinematography has played a successful role in portraying what the director wants to show about the artist. Joe Brown wrote in his review of the film that the camera work was â€Å"sensuous† and the wet paint and vibrant colors brought life to the screen. The musical scores have been incorporated in the film at such instances that they add to the drama and intensity of the whole scene. The character of Lionel known as The Lion in the art world (Brown) is shown to be an artist like Jackson Pollock, who holds a unique place American art history (Alloway). The opening scene where the agent comes to see Lionel really shows Lionel as the caged lion through the bars of the old fashioned elevator. He is a prisoner of his own mind and has to paint n ot because he needs to but because he simply has to. Hal Hinson is also of the view that Lionel with his dirty blonde bangs and pulsing angry energy portrays the lion of an artist he is shown to be. Nolte/ Lionel is portrayed as a true artist who is selfish about his work will do almost any thing to keep his â€Å"muse† with him. The two lead characters of the film have thoroughly done justice to their characters and the onscreen chemistry between the two is volatile and electric. Love is used as meaningless word many times between the two. He claiming again and again that he loves her and she asking again and again that if he loves her or not. Lionel acts as love stricken puppy following Paulette around and acting possessive and jealous yet it is seen that her teasing and hard to get attitude are the things that are a bridge between his mind and his canvas. Nolte has successfully portrayed the agony of an artist who is unable to find an inspiration and how low the artist can fall to hold on to the thing or person that inspires him. The women in the film play a more physical role. The camera captures the contours of their ankle, neck, fingers all of which are adorned