LANSAD 1 week five

Next week you will have your first classroom test. It will include exercises on the grammar points we have covered in class, vocabulary points from the articles we have seen in class, and translation sentences from the articles we have seen in class. You need to revise, otherwise you have no chance!

You can find J K Rowling's official site here

Here is an opinion site about Harry Potter : what does the webmaster think ?


Here are some articles on Harry from the BBC.

L3 Option A Slave rebellions

You can hear Jonathan Neale, a friend of mine, give a talk on Slave rebellions, if you click here.

L1 Grammar exclamations

You will find here a useful summary of exclamations

L1 Civilization GB- some links for revision

The history books "Oxford History of England" by Morgan and "Histoire de la Grande Bretagne" by Roland Marx are the first place to go for revision. But these links will helps too.

This article from wikipedia on The Pilgrimage of Grace is useful.


YouTube - Death of Thomas Cranmer

This video on youtube, extract from a documentary, gives a short explanation of Thomas Cranmer's death because he refused to obey Mary on religious questions.

This video extract recounts an earlier episode, when Edward VI became King.

And this video extract from a documentary recounts an even earlier episode - the conflict between King Edward and Mary. Though these videos no doubt exaggerate the importance of personal psychology, they are very interesting.

L1 Grammar revision of tags

Here is a short exercise on tags.

LANSAD 1 WEEK FOUR

Here is one more exercise on questions.
You will need to revise all the question forms, because they will be in your test.

And a simple exercise on questions beginning with "How?"

and one more

Go to this page and listen to the world news bulletin.
Listen once.
How many stories are there ?
Listen again.
What countries or famous people are talked about ?
Listen again.
How much do you understand about the stories?

Look around the BBC website and see if you can find articles IN FRENCH on the BBC site about the same subjects.

FLATMATES
The BBC Language learning site includes a soap opera about a group of students who live together. Listen to this week's episode - what do you think ?

L1 grammar Echoes

So do I

Click on the heading above for a short, fun exercise on one type of echo.

L1 Civilisation britannique - first test

Your first classroom test, le premier DST noté, will be on Thursday 30 october. It will last about an hour. Now is a good time to start revising :=)

L3 Option A Slavery resistance and rebellion

About Bristol Radical History Group

A group of historians in Bristol, England, have set up this website which shows you among other things many pictures connected with slavery and with its abolition. There are also some sound files.

L3 Contestation sociale Whig history - Wikipedia

Whig history - Wikipedia

One of the dangers I will be discussing this semester will be the danger of Whiggish history. BUT what is it? THis article may help to explain a little.

L2 Phonetics : Consonants: Fricatives

Consonants: Fricatives

You will find here a short summary concerning fricatives.

L3 Option A Contestation sociale

Les trois étudiantes qui se sont inscrites dans l'option en retard devraient me contacter rapidement pour avoir le programme et d'autres renseignements importants...

L3 Option A Contestation sociale

An important but small uprising in Pentrich, Derbyshire, took place a few years later than the luddite risings, but has a lot in common with them. Here is the wikipedia article.

L1 British Civilization - Elizabethan religious settlement

This article might be useful for revision purposes, though some important information is missing.

LANSAD 1 week three

Today’s news


Go to this page and listen to the world news bulletin.


How many news stories are there ?

Listen again and note down what countries are mentioned.

Listen a third time and note down the people mentioned.

How much do you understand about the different stories ?

Vocabulary and spelling

The BBC site also has crosswords : check here


Grammar – question continued
Listen to my explanation first, then try this very short quiz :

Questions with “Who”


The US Election

Who is going to win ?

Here is an article from back in June. Listen to it, and learn the vocabulary.


Here is what The Independent thinks


What kind of people do you think read the Independent ?

This is what The Sun says


What kind of people do you think read The Sun ?

This is what Socialist Worker says

What kind of people do you think read this newspaper ?

Cartoons on Obama

Cartoons on McCain

Are the cartoonists harder on one candidate than on the other ?





American humour at the snoopy website

L1 Civilization : Dissolution of the Monasteries - Wikipedia

Dissolution of the Monasteries - Wikipedia

Sometimes the wikipedia articles are quite useful as background, especially if the subject is not controversial.

L2 Phonetics : English Plosives

English Plosives

This link takes you to a page which compares English plosive consonants with those of another language : Icelandic.

L1 Thème-grammaire "Indirect questions"

ESL Quiz - Indirect Questions (Vera Mello) I-TESL-J

We saw on Friday that "indirect questions" are not really questions.

Here is an online exercise for you to practice. Try to find the answer, then click on the button to find the correct answer.

This short exercise has only ten questions, about question tags...

L3 Option A - the abolition of slavery

Documents sur l'abolition

This page presents four documents concerning the abolition of the slave trade - including documents in favour of slavery, and against.

Université de Bordeaux à Agen : Scant evidence or scanty evidence ?

"scant evidence" - Recherche Google

If you click on the heading above, you will see what you get on Google if you search for "scant evidence" (you have to put in the inverted commas of course).

If you try with "scanty evidence" this is what you get.

What conclusion can you draw ?

Google of course cannot replace your dictionary, but it can help you , in particular with collocation.

More information on detailed vocabulary in this bulletin.

LANSAD 1 week two

LANSAD WEEK TWO



Using English in France

Reading, listening and vocabulary

The first theme we have been looking at has been stereotypes. But there are other questions which affect relations between the English and the French.

Do you think that too much English is used in France ?

- Do you say “email” or “courriel”?
- Do you say “baladeur” or “walkman”?

Can you think of other examples of English words which some French people try to avoid.?

What is your opinion ?


Look at this article about the use of English, listen to it a couple of times. Then look at the “read more” section. This piece is of course, again, from the BBC.



Read another article about the domination of English in today’s world.




Grammar : questions

Short exercise on Yes/NO questions



Short Exercise on Information questions




More difficult exercise on question forms in general





Discussion : Stereotypes

What stereotypes of Englishmen are common ? Is there a little truth in them?

Look at these cartoons about Englishmen. Do you understand them


What stereotypes of Spanish people are common ?

Spanish


What about Italians?




Listen to the latest news from Radio Netherlands

L1 civilisation britannique

::The Reformation::

This site ( click on the headline) gives you a very simple introduction to what Henry did to the Church in England.

L1 thème grammaire yes No questions

Don't forget to finish the first sheet of exercises I gave you, before our lesson on Friday. Remind the others.


Here is a fairly simple revision of Yes/no questions, in three parts

part one

part two

part three

And here is an online exercise on information questions.

L3 Option A Contestation sociale : BBC - History - The Tools of the Abolitionists

BBC - History - The Tools of the Abolitionists

Click on the title above to see the special BBC history page on the abolition of slavery; a good summary, with pictures.

L3 Option A : Who abolished slavery?

If you follow this link, you will find a general introduction to the abolition movement in Britain, from the Encarta encyclopedia.


In 1807 the slave trade was banned by the British parliament. In 1833 slavery was banned. 2007, then, was the two hundredth anniversary of the banning of the slave trade. This led to a certain number of books, events, museum exhibitions, television programmes etc on a subject which is not well-known and is little studied in school history books. This link will lead you to an MP3 file of a meeting in London on the question "Who really ended slavery". There are two speakers. One of them is Robin Blackburn, author of a number of books, but in particular of the (extremely long) classic history book "The overthrow of colonial slavery". The other speaker is Weyman Bennett, one of the organizers of the present-day campaign in Britain "Love Music Hate Racism." Each speaker speaks for about twenty minutes. Download the file, put it on your MP3 player, and educate yourself while on the bus!

The best way to download the file is to right click and choose "enregistrer le cible sous"...

Be patient - the speakers are easier to understand than the chairman!

L2 Phonetics : alphabet quiz

symword1

If you have the impression that you have forgotten part of the phonetic alphabet, or you are not sure which vowel sounds go where, this quiz (click on the title above) will help you. It is an online quiz with 25 questions. If you get one hundred percent right first time, I will be very surprised.

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L1 Thème grammaire Group 3

Important! J'aurais dû vous le dire, je voudrais que vous finissiez les exercices sur la première feuille d'exercices avant le prochain cours. Je donnerai le corrigé en cours. Faites passer le message aux autres étudiants dans le groupe

I will put on this blog later in the week some revision exercises for people who are having difficulty with making questions in English. Come back and look regularly.

LANSAD 1 week one

This page gives you access to all BBC radio programmes : news, music, documentaries. You can listen as often as you like .


On the BBC learning English site, ever week there is a document like this one on smoking in France. You can listen and learn vocabulary. These documents are fairly advanced. There is also a quiz on each story.


Finally on the BBC site you can find grammar and vocabulary sheets like this one on phrasal verbs Again, you need a fair level of English.

Easier grammar quizzes can be found on the web. Try this one on articles.
That should be quite easy. This one is a little more difficult.

This one is difficult too.

Finally, read this explanation of when we use "the" to talk about Geographical places.


Cartoons about the French

Do you understand the cartoons on this page?

These cartoons are about the French. Are they all funny? Are any of them offensive?