domingo, 27 de abril de 2008

Planning a school trip around English castles

Another interesting webquest by Galli Giuditta, Alta Scuola Pedagogica and
Larghi Ramona, Alta Scuola Pedagogica

Are you good at planning? Can you prepare an interesting travel? Here is a challenging task for you! Your class is going to England for a five-days trip, visiting castles and you need to organize travel, accomodation and interesting activities linked to castle life.

Introduction

Your class is preparing a school-trip to England, visiting castles in the south.

Your task is to organize a detailed and interesting plan!

Will you be able to do it? Let's start!! Click ON THE ELEPHANT and follow me.

domingo, 13 de abril de 2008

London weekend

What's a webquest?

"A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet" (Dodge, 1995)

El modelo de Webquest fue desarrollado por Bernie Dodge en 1995 que lo definió como una actividad orientada a la investigación donde toda o casi toda la información que se utiliza procede de recursos de la Web.


We're going to follow
this webquest about London. I hope you will learn a lot and enjoy it.




sábado, 12 de abril de 2008

A Gruesome Discovery

Today we visit the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are a group of islands in the English Channel, close to the north coast of France. But they are not part of France. And they are not really part of Britain either. The British Queen is also ruler of the Channel Islands, and the British government looks after their defence and foreign affairs. But in other respects, the islands are tiny independent states – they have their own Parliaments and governments and their own laws. Until about 100 years ago, most people on the islands spoke a dialect of French, but today the main language is English.

The Channel Islands are famous for cows, potatoes and income tax. The Jersey and Guernsey breeds of cattle – which come from the Channel Islands – produce a creamy milk with lots of butterfat. At one time, we could buy Channel Islands milk in England – people said how good it was for you, because it had so much cream. Today, everyone is afraid of getting too fat, so we don’t want milk with lots of cream in it. And the potatoes? Well, many farmers in the Channel Islands grow potatoes which are ready to be harvested and eaten several weeks before potatoes grown in England. These Channel Island potatoes are called Jersey Royals and you can buy them in English supermarkets in April and May. And the income tax? Well, there isn’t any income tax in the Channel Islands. In fact, the Channel Islands is a good place to live if you are very rich. And lots of rich people live there, and the harbours in the islands are full of their yachts.

However, in the last few days the Channel Islands have been in the news for a very different reason. About 12 months ago, the police in Jersey – the largest of the Channel Islands – received reports about the abuse of children in care on the island. I need to explain what this means. “Abuse” means very bad treatment of someone, like violence, or emotional or sexual bad treatment. And “children in care” means children who can no longer live with their parents, but live with foster parents or in a children’s home instead. About 150 people have now told the Jersey police about abuse of children in care on the island, over a period of many years. Many of their reports are about abuse at a children’s home called Haut de la Garenne. The Haut de la Garenne children’s home closed in 1986, and the building is now a youth hostel. A few days ago, the police made a gruesome discovery there. Using a police sniffer dog , they found the remains of a child buried under a concrete floor. The police think that there may be several more bodies to be found.

Jersey is a relatively small community of under 100,000 people. The stories about child abuse have become a major political issue on the island. People are asking how could abuse of children have continued for so long? Who knew about the abuse at Haut de la Garenne? Who was responsible for the bad treatment of children? Why is it that it is only today – 20 years after the Haut de la Garenne children’s home closed – that the police are investigating?

I guess that if you live somewhere like the Channel Islands, it is easy to think that you live in a little paradise, and that the problems of the rest of the world – crime, poverty, war, disease – do not really affect you. The child’s body at Haut de la Garenne tells us that this is, unfortunately, not true.

miércoles, 9 de abril de 2008

Words, words, words...

You can learn pronunciation by using the traditional method: listen and repeat. With this video you can practice 30 English restaurant words.


25 English shopping words:



25 English computer words:



31 English animal words:

miércoles, 2 de abril de 2008

Languages die too

Last week a woman called Marie Smith Jones died. She was 89 years old and she lived in Alaska in North America. Marie was the last person alive to speak a language called Eyak. Eyak is, or was, one of the native North American languages. Linguists have carefully recorded Eyak grammar and vocabulary and pronunciation. But no-one speaks Eyak any more. It is a dead language.

We do not have an official language in Britain, but most people of course speak English or a dialect of English. There are several other native or indigenous languages in Britain. They are descended from the languages spoken by the Celtic people who lived in Britain before the English arrived in the 4th and 5th centuries. The most important is Welsh, which is spoken by about more than half a million people in Wales, or about 20% of the population. Welsh and English now have equal official status in Wales. If you visit Wales, you will see that all road signs are in English and Welsh. Welsh is flourishing.

Two other Celtic languages, Scots Gaelic in Scotland and Irish Gaelic in Northern Ireland are spoken by only a few percent of the population. Another Celtic language in South-West England – called Cornish – died out completely in the 19th century, just like Eyak has died out. It was re-introduced about 100 years ago and today Cornish is spoken by a few thousand people.

It is interesting that we use some of the same words for languages as we use for plants and animals. Here are some examples:

  • We talk about native or indigenous plants or animals – that means the plants and animals which live naturally in a place, and have been there a long time. Similarly, we talk about native or indigenous languages, like English in England, or Irish Gaelic in Ireland.
  • We can say that modern horses are descended from wild horses. Similarly, we can say that modern Welsh is descended from an old Celtic language.
  • We can say, for instance, that wolves have died out in Britain. Similarly, we can say that the Eyak language has died out.
  • We can say that an animal like the rhinocerous is endangered; and we can also say that a language is endangered, if the number of people speaking it is very small.
  • Of course some species of animals are flourishing – probably their numbers are growing and they are not likely to die out. Similarly, we can say that today the Welsh language is flourishing.
  • And some species of animals or birds die out, but are then re-introduced into the wild. We have several examples of this in England, particularly a bird called the red kite. Similarly, we can say that the Cornish language has been re-introduced.

I have also read in the paper that some experts think that three quarters of the world’s languages will die out in the next 100 years. Do you think that this will happen? Perhaps languages and animals die out for similar reasons – reasons such as over-exploitation of natural resources, modern travel and tourism, and population movement. How many people will speak English one hundred years from now? English is widely spoken as a second language today, partly because of British colonial history, and partly because of American economic power. However, 100 years from now, British colonial history will be a long way in the past, and American economic power may be much less. What languages will your grandchildren and great-grandchildren learn? Chinese perhaps?