Conversational Club: A great oportunity!

By Ana Blanco
(Valencia, Agosto 03). This Wednesday, the guys of the “Conversational Club” are leaving. Finally, after one year living here, they’re coming back to their country. To people who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, one year ago five guys (three girls, and two boys) came to our country to read the bible, learn our language and help us with our English. Every Friday they did what they call The Conversational Club: one different activity every Friday to make people stop being afraid of speaking English in public, that’s a lot of help to English students!

I was one who took the chance practicing with native people, and some others of this team, and we can say that besides being professors, they became our friends. You can have this opportunity too, because in September two of the girls who were here and four new guys are coming to continue the “club” for another year. If you need some practice like almost all of us, this is your chance, don’t lose it!

VENTESOL: An oportunity to speak and learn!

By Kelvin Cova

(Valencia, Agosto 03). VenTesol is an organization here in Venezuela, in charge of making conferences and reunions between teachers of English and speaker of other languages, in this case, English. Through these reunions, people can exchange information about any topic related to English, and also it’s a great opportunity to make new friends that speak English and create builds between professors and students.

Recently, the Universidad Metropolitana held the National convention (May 29-30, 2009). Particularly, this was an amazing experience because you can learn a lot of new things and strategies to exercise as teachers. You can go to different exposures, and learn a lot of things about it, play games, speak in English with the teachers in there, with your friends, buy excellent books to improve your pronunciation, grammar, buy posters, stickers, etc.

It’s a marvelous experience for you to improve your English, to experience new things and feelings and to make new friends, so I recommend you to go to the next convention, I guarantee you that you are not going to regret it.

Funny Stories: Monkeys have a memory for Grammar!

By Fabiola Soto
(Valencia, Agosto 03).Primates can intuitively recognise some rules of grammar, according to a study of cotton-topped tamarin monkeys (Saguinus oedipus).

The findings do not mean primates can communicate using language, but they do suggest that some of the skills required to use language may be linked to very basic memory functions.
One grammatical structure that is found across many languages is affixation: the addition of syllables, either at the beginning or at the end of a word, to modify its meaning.

For instance, in English, the suffix "–ed" is added to verbs to make the past tense. In German, the same effect is achieved by adding the prefix "ge–" to the front of verb stems.

Ansgar Endress and colleagues at Harvard University thought that, because this structure is found in so many languages, it might be linked to basic memory functions that are independent of language. If they could prove this was true, it would suggest ways that children might be learning grammatical structures. (Taken from newscientist.com)

Learning about the rule of the silent "e"

By Fabiola Soto

(Valencia, Agosto 03). Short sounds, long sounds, and letter names. Confusing? It certainly can be, especially for very young children. Actually, the long sound is identical to the alphabet name of the letter. Probably the reason the term "long sound" came into use is due to the extra tiny motion of the mouth required to say the alphabet name.

Only a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) can say its alphabet name (long sound). When a vowel in a word says its alphabet name (long sound) there is usually a signal or a clue. The best known clue (but not the only one) concerning long vowel sounds is the rule of the silent e: silent e at the end of a word makes the vowel in front of it say its alphabet name. Words such as shade, cute, rope, dime, and dictate demonstrate the use of this rule.

Sometimes, silent e is referred to as "magic e" or "tricky e" Whatever it is called, this e at the end of the word has no sound of its own. It sits quietly at the end of the word, silently serving as a signal that the vowel before it must say its alphabet name.

You can have lots of fun with your child changing short vowel words into long vowel words, or long vowel words into short vowel words by adding or taking away the silent e. Try some of these words: cut. . .cute cap. . .cape slime. . .slim rob. . .robe slop. . .slope shame. . .sham

For other fun activies, check out this web site

http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/silent-e/load.htm?f

Cutting Edge Books Increase their prices

By Kelvin Cova
(Valencia, Agosto 03). Everyone who studies in this mention, know at least something about these books. Cutting Edge books deliver a comprehensive, practical language syllabus and an impressive range of teaching resources.

From beginners to advanced level, students learn to communicate effectively, accurately and confidently through solid grammar work, a focus on high-frequency vocabulary and regular well-structured speaking tasks.(Taken from Longman web page)

However, these books which are so necessary for all of us are coming a little bit more expensive that they used to be, so you better save some money to buy them.

These books used to cost 170 Bs.F because they belong to the old version. Now this company is not producing this version anymore; instead, they are selling to the market the new version, which cost 300 Bs.F, almost twice of the price that we used to pay.

However friends, we have to pay this price because this book is necessary to all of us in the subject Práctica I, II, III or IV, so you better save money o you won’t buy it. For more information about the actual prices, ask in the department of modern languages in the faculty.