Teachers and students around the world!

Voice of America's English Learning Service 03 December 2010

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Teachers and students around the world!
Welcome to VOA’s Classroom! Whether you are teaching English or learning English as a foreign language, VOA’s Classroom will guide you in your journey through the English language.
Our primary objective is to take all your language needs into consideration, so each complete lesson plan incorporates activities, lessons and exercises that are tailored to specific goals. The lessons show a progression in skill level starting with beginner, intermediate or advanced levels. In the future, the downloadable lesson plans will be complemented by video, audio and additional activities.
We need to hear from you!
This is a global classroom so we need your suggestions on what topics you would like to see in “The Classroom.”
Join us on Facebook @ VOA Learning English
Our VOA teachers are always on Facebook so you can chat with us at any time!
Thanks and enjoy the Classroom!
The goals of this week’s Classroom lesson (#3) are to learn more about adjectives. Adjectives are useful words to describe people, places, situations, and things. In this lesson, you will learn how to recognize, create and use adjectives in formal and informal real-life situations.

Early Classes = Sleepy Teens!

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Read and listen to the article. Then open the activities on the right side of the page to improve your English!
Half of American teenagers don’t get enough sleep on school nights.  They get an average of 60- 90 minutes less than they need, experts say.
One problem is biology.  Teens are programmed to go to sleep later and wake up later than other age groups, but many schools start classes as early as 7:00 a.m.
Many students go to class feeling tired.  One student, Danny, says that getting up in the morning is terrible.  He feels tired.  During his first classes of the day, it’s difficult to stay awake.
Michael Breus is a psychologist.  He’s an expert in sleep problems.  He says that teenagers need eight to ten hours of sleep a night.  He feels that sleepy teens can become depressed.  This can also affect their ability in sports and driving.  Michael Breus says a tired driver, especially a tired teenage driver, is dangerous.
What can schools do?  Psychologists say schools can start classes later in the morning.  Studies show that students’ grades improved by starting classes later.
St. George’s School in Rhode Island wanted to try this.  They started classes just thirty minutes later.
Visits to the health center by tired students decreased by half.  Late arrivals to first period decreased by one/third.  Students felt less sleepy during the day.  The teachers also noticed that students were happier and more awake.

YouTube Creative Video Competition Gets 23,000 Entries

Voice of America's Special English 08 October 2010

Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Read and listen to the article. Then open the activities on the right side of the page to improve your English!
The video sharing website, YouTube, was created in 2005 and became an overnight success.  Google bought YouTube for more than $1,600,000,000 the following year.  In May, YouTube announced that two billion videos were watched each day.
In June, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City announced it would hold a competition among YouTube videos.  Now, the judges have chosen the top 125 videos.  Mario Ritter has more.
The Guggenheim and YouTube launched the competition called “YouTube Play.  A Biennial of Creative Video.”  The information technology companies HP and Intel are supporting the event.  23,000 videos entered the competition.  They represented 91 countries and every possible style of movie making.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

YouTube Play: A competition of creative video.

The rules of the competition were few.  Video makers had to be eighteen years or older.  They could enter only one video.  It had to be no more than ten minutes long.  Any language, subject, sound, and style were considered.
Eleven people are judging the videos.  They include artists, musicians, and filmmakers.  Laurie Anderson is all three.  She says all her art starts with a story, so she looks for a story as she judges the videos.
Other judges include the filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the band Animal Collective, and artist and filmmaker, Shirin Neshat.
New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed’s video is one of the finalists.  She used the camera in her computer to record herself describing her daily food desires for one month.  The video is simple, short, and interesting.
A frightening, but beautiful video came from Chile.  The video by Niles Atallah, Joaquin Cocina Varas, and Cristobal Leon is called “Luis.”  It is an animated ghostly story of a tense, angry boy.  It is very dark, but impossible to stop watching.
“Mars to Jupiter” is a video from Canada by Sterling Pache.  It is about a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.  The video explores how her past still haunts her.
Other chosen videos are from France, Spain, Taiwan, Australia, and Israel.  Almost thirty countries are represented.  You can see them if you link to YouTube Play from our website at voaspecialenglish.com.
People can also see the 125 videos at the Guggenheim museums in New York; Bilbao, Spain; Berlin, Germany; and Venice, Italy.
On October 21, the YouTube Play judges will announce the final twenty winning videos at a special event at the Guggenheim in New York.  The videos will be on view there until October 24.

Women Edge Past Men in Getting Doctorates

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Read and listen to the article. Then open the activities on the right side of the page to improve your English!
In the United States, about six out of ten students in graduate schools are women.  The same is true of today’s young adults who already have a degree beyond college.  As a result, the Census Bureau expects that more women than men will hold professions such as doctors, lawyers and professors.
Men had faster growth rates than women in going to graduate school in 2009.  Still, women earned 60% of the master’s degrees.  That was the level of about 90% of all the graduate degrees awarded.
But a new report says the 2008-2009 academic year marked a change.  Women also earned 50.4% of the doctorate degrees.  The Council of Graduate Schools says this was the first year ever that women earned more doctorates than men.
The largest share of all doctorates that year - 42% – were in education, engineering, and biological and agricultural sciences.  But the report says between 1999 and 2009,  graduate enrollment increased in all subjects.  The fastest growth was in health sciences, business and engineering.
In 2009, graduate schools reported strong growth of 6% in first-time students from the United States.  But enrollment of new international students decreased by about 2% -- the first drop since 2004.  The share of foreign new students in graduate schools fell from 18% to 16.5%.

How to Get a Certificate at Your Home

How to Get a Certificate at Your Home
Visit this site for one month everyday and read valuable content just for 15-20 minutes. Give a test after one month. If you get 60% marks in the test you will get a certificate. In case you are unable to pass in the test you can request for re-test after ten days.
Register as a member and submit your accurate details. Then deposit your fees by one of the following means: Credit card or Paypal. Go to the following link for more details: English Courses online.

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5 Tips to Improve the Way You Speak English

# Observe the Mouth MovementsClick Here for Conversations
Whenever you watch television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.
# Being a Beginner Speak Slowly
If you speak too quickly in the beginning, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.
Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.
# Prepare a list of frequently Used Words
Prepare the list of those words which you feel problem to pronounce than ask some one to pronounce for you or try to catch those words from T.V.
# Pronounce the Ending of Each Word
Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.
# Have Pateince
You can learn the art of good speaking but it won't happen overnight. People often expect quick results and give up too soon. Adopt the never say die policy and work harder to get better results.

How to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

Improving your English speaking skills will help you communicate more easily and make you successful in life. Here are some ways to enhance your skills:
Practice Whenever You Get Time: The Golden Formula of English "The more you practice the better you would be".
Set Achievable Goals: Set a goals related to speaking English which you can achieve. You can do few things given here: Join a good English institute, watch new English movie every week and listen to the dialogues carefully, learn 3-5 new words daily, speak in front of the mirror when getting ready for your office, read a news article daily if possible.
Be with the People Who speak English: If you spend your most of the time with those people who speak good English, it will help you a lot. You will get new words and an art of speaking English.
Make English speaking your habit: Make speaking English a habit. Find at least 20 minutes a day to speak English. Find a native speaker or talk with your friend.
Always Try to Respond People: Get clues from people's questions and answer them effectively.
Don't Worry if You Forget Something: If you forget a word, try using um, or er.
After Completing Short Goals Give Yourself Rewards: It is very good technique to learn or gain something. Set short goals and reward yourself with a new dress, dinner at restaurant etc.

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Keep Your English Up to Date

Staycation

Listen

Mark Shea explains the origin, meaning and use of the expression 'staycation'. Click below to listen:

A holiday in Britain

Staycation

These days people have less and less money to spend on luxuries, things like holidays, for example. So, when they have some time off work, some are choosing to stay at home, instead of flying, or driving perhaps to the beach or mountains, maybe to another country. It’s a staycation, a combination of the words stay and vacation. Particularly if you live in a big city, you might not get time to enjoy everything that it has to offer in terms of entertainment – to go to the theatre, to concerts or just to go sightseeing. So a staycation might be an attractive idea. Other reasons to take a staycation might be having very young children, or perhaps you want to make some home improvements, like redecorating. In any case, a staycation will almost certainly save you money! I have some friends from the US who come over to London every year or so and stay with me – so I regularly take some time off and have a staycation. Sometimes I visit them in Seattle, and they have a staycation.

Talk About English

Talk About English (Learn English)

Improve your English vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills with the BBC. Our weekly 20 minute chat show includes features and interviews to help you practise and develop your English. We cover a range of topics using everyday informal English, highlighting useful words and expressions. Talk about English is presented every Thursday by the team from BBC Learning English including Callum Robertson, William Kremer and Jackie Dalton.

Important Websites

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2. BBC learning English
3.Youth Employment Network
4. Doem Ampel News
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6. English Khmer Dictionary
7. Templates-3 columns
8. Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Presentations: opening

Introduction

In this module, we’ll be looking at some useful words and phrases for giving presentations. We have units on the main stages of presentations and a unit with tips on delivering effective presentations. Let’s start with opening presentations.

Think

Imagine that you are starting a presentation. What phrases might you use?

After you've thought of five, click here for some more ideas.

Listen

Now let’s hear two ways of opening presentations. As you listen, see if you can hear some of the phrases above.

   Presentations: opening

Check understanding

Check your understanding by reading the scripts below:

Clip 1
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming along here today. I hope my presentation isn’t going to take too long and that you will find it interesting. The purpose of today’s presentation is to discuss how we can improve internal communications within our company.

Now let me begin by explaining that I’d like to talk about the business case for better communication; secondly, I want to cover different styles and methods; and finally I would like to finish off by talking about some of the basics we need to have in place to deliver good quality, consistent communications across the company. I’d be very happy to invite you to ask questions at the end of the session and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time for us to discuss some of the points that have been raised.”
Clip 2
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to come and join me for this presentation this afternoon. My name is Tim Mason, I‘m a retail consultant, and many of you will have seen me shadowing you in your jobs and looking through the accounts and so on in the company over the last week. I’ve invited you here today to have a look at my findings. First, I’d like to have a look at the performance of the company, the sales of the company over the last three years; then I’d like to have a look at our market share in the womenswear market and look at our competitors; and thirdly, I’d like to suggest some improvements in our range of womenswear. At the end I’d be happy to answer any of your questions.”

Download audio     Download scripts and phrases

Practise

Now test yourself with our quiz!

 Flash Version - requires Adobe Flash Plug-in to be installed
 Non-Flash Version - printable, text-only format

Telephone: connecting

Introduction

This section features phrases you might hear when you telephone a company hoping to talk to someone.

Think

Imagine you are calling a company and want to speak to someone who works there. Can you think of any phrases you might use, or that you might hear?

After you've thought of five, click here for some more ideas.

Listen

Now listen to two conversations. In the first conversation Richard Davies is calling the marketing department of a company and wants to be put through to Rosalind Wilson. In the second conversation Mike Andrews wants to talk to Jason Roberts in the marketing department. As you listen, see if you can hear some of the phrases above.

   Telephone: connecting

Check understanding

Check your understanding by reading the scripts below:

Michelle:	Hello, you've reached the marketing department. How can I help?
Male:	Yes can I speak to Rosalind Wilson, please?
Michelle:	Who’s calling please?
Male:	It’s Richard Davies here
Michelle:	Certainly.  Please hold and I’ll put you through.
Male:	Thank you.
Michelle:	Hello, marketing.  How can I help?
Male:	Could I speak to Jason Roberts please?
Michelle:	Certainly. Who shall I say is calling?
Male:	My name’s Mike Andrews.
Michelle:	Just a second -  I’ll see if he’s in. Hello, Jason, I’ve got Mike Andrews on the phone for you ... OK - I’ll put him through. Hang on a moment, I’m just putting you through.

Download audio     Download scripts and phrases

Practise

Now test yourself with our quiz!

 Flash Version - requires Adobe Flash Plug-in to be installed
 Non-Flash Version - printable, text-only format

English Makeover

About the series

If you want to change your appearance, you might go for a ‘makeover’ – fresh haircut, different clothes, a new you! If it’s your English you want to transform, perhaps it’s time for a language ‘makeover’! Improve your pronunciation, make advances in grammar and expand your vocabulary.

In this series, learners of English from around the world tell us their language problems. And there's advice for them and you, from experienced teacher of English, Karen Adams.

Part 8

Patricia Pereira (We apologise for some minor variations in the sound of this archive material.)

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Part 7

Mohammed Ibrahim (We apologise for some minor variations in the sound of this archive material.)

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Part 6

Metaraja Anburasan

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Part 5

Adela Taleb (We apologise for some minor variations in the sound of this archive material.)

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Part 4

Joao Lourenco

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Part 3

Hawo Shafat

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Part 2

Amanda But

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Part 1

Sora Hong

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