So, now that the speaking band descriptors are officially public, I've put them into a quizlet to practice at home. That link is HERE.
Friday, June 30, 2023
Trip to Nha Trang, 2023
(For more information about these videos, see HERE)
I had a week off of work, and we decided to travel.
Initially, the wife was planning on going to Danang again, but when she found out I had never been to Nha Trang, she decided that we had to go there instead.
Nha Trang is a beach town in central Vietnam. It's one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam--for years I had been listening to my friends talk about their trips to Nha Trang, or seeing their pictures on Facebook. So I guess it is kind of strange that after 8 years in Vietnam, I never made it to Nha Trang.
The wife did all the travel arrangements (as usual), so the plan was to spend 2 days in a cheap hotel to save money, and then 2 days in a nice resort.
We stayed at Melissa Hotel on the beach in Nha Trang city. Here is some video from the hotel, and from some of the beach next to the hotel.
Nha Trang Beach, Khánh Hòa province, Vietnam (view from Melissa hotel window, and from nearby beach)
I was a bit surprised by how overdeveloped the beach area of central Nha Trang was. For years I had been seeing pictures on Facebook from friends and co-workers that depicted Nha Trang as some sort of secluded tropical paradise. But I suppose those pictures were probably of resorts that were not in the center of Nha Trang.
Also, my wife, who had been to Nha Trang back in 2011, said that most of the tall hotels and skyscrapers that now lined the beach were not there back 12 years ago. So the city has been developing rapidly over the last few years. (And indeed, you could see construction sites everywhere. But then, that's true of most of Vietnam.)
On the first day of site-seeing, the first stop was Po Nagar Cham temple tower, which was a Cham temple from the days of the Cham empire. (It was in the Cham style, and so was similar to a lot of the temples I saw in Cambodia.) According to Wikipedia it was built sometime before 781.
Then, over to Hòn Chồng, which is apparently a tourist destination famous for its rock formations by the ocean.
And then over to Ana Marina Beach Club.
Then, the next day, it was off to the resort.
The resort was owned and operated by Vingroup, which is this huge conglomerate in Vietnam which owns everything from schools to hospitals to apartments to resorts to amusement parks. (See Wikipedia here.)
On our trip to Phu Quoc last year, we stayed at the Vingroup resorts in Phu Quoc, and I talked about how impressive (and slightly strange) everything was in my video narration. The resorts in Nha Trang were largely the same, so I won't go through that whole spiel again. Just see my earlier video. (The development in Phu Quoc is a bit more impressive, and a bit newer than the resorts in Nha Trang, so not exactly the same, but the same general idea.)
Vingroup operated a whole island just off the coast of Nha Trang. (My wife wasn't sure whether they bought it or leased it.) My wife said that there were 3 different resorts on the island, as well as the amusement park Vinwonders. We stayed at the cheapest of those 3 resorts.
Here's video of travelling to the resort, as well as the resort itself.
and here is the amusement park:
Playlist of the trip HERE:
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Chapter 11: The Battle on the Mountainside
Carlyle and Alfred sat on the ground outside the entrance to the cave that used to be Carlyle’s home. Carlyle held Finn’s sword. Alfred had one of the axes.
It was eerily quiet that afternoon. The snow was falling more heavily now than before.
Carlyle was trying to clean the blood off of Finn’s sword. He had an old cloth in his hand, but no soap or water. Nevertheless, he scrubbed at the sword. Some of the dried blood was flaking away.
Alfred was supposed to be keeping a lookout, but he kept looking over to watch Carlyle’s progress. After a while, Alfred finally spoke up. “When do you think the robbers will come?
“I don’t know,” said Carlyle, not looking up from the sword.
Alfred nodded and was silent for a bit longer. He went back to keeping a look out, and scanning across the mountainside. Then, after about a minute, he asked, “How many of them do you think there will be?”
“I don’t know,” said Carlyle. “I think they’ll come with at least twenty, but it could be more.”
“If everyone from the group arrives, there will be twelve,” said Alfred. “Counting me and you of course. Oh, and plus Catherine. That’ll make thirteen. Where is Catherine?”
“I don’t know,” said Carlyle. “She must have gone off with our parents to your home.”
“It’s strange that she’s not here with us,” Alfred said.
“You know what she’s like,” Carlyle said. “She always wants to do her own thing.”
Alfred nodded again. He brushed some of the falling snow off of his face. “You saw what she did this morning, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t see much,” he said. “I was busy fighting.”
“You must have seen it though,” Alfred said.
Carlyle stopped scrubbing the sword briefly. He paused, and then he said, “I saw enough.” Carlyle began scrubbing again.
“It’s just like what she did to me,” Alfred said.
“Maybe,” Carlyle said.
“What do you think is going on with her?” asked Alfred.
“I really don’t know,” Carlyle said.
There was a cawing sound overhead. Both Alfred and Carlyle looked up. A raven was flying overhead. As Carlyle and Alfred watched, the raven flew down and landed on the ground a few feet away from them.
After landing, the raven hopped over, and looked at them. It appeared to be studying them carefully. “Are you Catherine’s brother?” it asked Carlyle.
Carlyle exchanged glances with Alfred, and then looked back at the Raven. “I am,” he said.
“Pleased to meet you,” the Raven said. “My name is Baldrick. I am one of the sons of Branoc.” The raven stretched his wings out. “I must go now and tell my father that I’ve found you here.”
“Why?” asked Carlyle.
But the raven did not wait for an answer. It fluttered its wings, and flew away.
Carlyle and Alfred watched the raven fly away. And then Alfred turned and looked at Carlyle. “It’s been a very strange day,” he said.
“It has,” Carlyle agreed.
Then another voice sounded from down the mountain slope. “There you are!” It was Margaret. She came running up the mountain, with Brian close behind her. “What are you doing here?” she exclaimed.
“This is our home,” Carlyle responded.
“But it’s not safe,” she said. “The robbers are coming. You know that.”
Carlyle stood up and held up Finn’s sword. “When they come, we’ll fight them.”
“You can’t fight them with just one sword, boy,” Brian said. “Your father knew that.”
“You can’t reason with them either,” Carlyle said. “You know that.”
Alfred, who was still trying to keep a lookout, saw a large group of men coming down the mountainside. “Here they come,” he said.
Everyone looked up the mountain. “There must be fifty of them,” said Margaret.
Carlyle and Alfred quickly stood up. Carlyle held his sword firmly.
One of the robbers saw Carlyle, and yelled down at him. “I see you still have your father’s sword, boy. Do you think it will protect you from all of us?”
It was one of the robbers Carlyle had fought this morning. Carlyle yelled back up the mountain. “You seem to be much braver now than the last time I saw you. Come down here and find out.” Carlyle shook the sword.
“Insolent pup!” the robber returned. “Your head will be on that sword by the end of the day.”
Margaret tugged desperately at Carlyle’s arm. “I’m begging you,” she said. “Stop this nonsense and run away. There’s still time to run away. You can’t fight fifty of them by yourself.”
“He doesn’t have to,” exclaimed Alfred excitedly. “Look!”
Alfred pointed across the mountain slope. Coming into view was Shawn, who came running from across the mountainside, carrying his father’s sword. He was followed by Lucinda, who carried two spears with her. And then came Gabriel, with a boy and a quiver of arrows on her back. And next came Lucas and Kevin, each carrying huge clubs, and Paul and Marcus, with their swords drawn, and Stella carrying a battle ax, followed by Molly, who had a giant wooden staff, and Abby who brought her slingshot with her.
Without a word, they all planted themselves behind Carlyle.
Carlyle looked back at the group and smiled. He knew that even with the twelve of them, it was still a suicidal battle. But at least he had not been wrong about the loyalty of his friends.
Carlyle turned back to Margaret. “Mother, I will fight here,” he said. “If I die, I die. But I will not run from the men who murdered my father. You are too old for this battle. Go inside the house quickly, and shut the door. Don’t come out again until it’s safe.” Carlyle looked over at Brian. “Go with her and keep her safe,” he said.
Brian turned to Alfred. “Come on, boy,” he said. “Come with us.”
“I’m staying with Carlyle,” Alfred replied.
Brian grabbed Alfred’s arm, and tried to pull him away. But the group all surged forward to help Alfred. Shawn and Paul grabbed on to Alfred to help keep him in place. Lucas and Kevin grabbed Brian’s hand, and pried his fingers off of Alfred.
Brian was furious. “You ungrateful whelp!” he spat out at his son. “Is this how you repay me for raising you all those years? Are you going to throw your life away like this?”
“Don’t be angry,” said Carlyle. “Would you have him run away, and leave his friend behind?”
Brian’s cheeks reddened at Carlyle’s insult. His eyes glared at Carlyle, but his voice stayed calm. “I would,” he said. “If it would save his life.”
“Alfred’s doing the honorable thing,” Carlyle replied.
“You fool!” Brian spat out. “There’s no honor among the mountain folk. People who struggle to survive don’t worry about honor.”
“There isn’t time to argue, father,” Alfred said. “You must either join us, or go to safety now.”
Brian looked back at Carlyle. “You are a child of evil,” he said, his voice seething with anger. “It’s not enough that you have to throw your own life away, you have to take everyone else with you as well. Very well. Since I cannot let my son go into the fight without me, I will join in the fight with him. And you will be the death of all of us.”
The robbers began running down the mountain. Carlyle’s friends braced for battle. There was very little time left. “Mother, quickly,” Carlyle said. “Get in the house.” Knowing that there was no time left to argue, Margaret simply left and retreated into the cave that had been their home for so many years.
Lucinda stepped forward and readied her spears. She balanced one in her hand, ready to throw. Gabriel reached into a quiver, took out an arrow, fitted it to the bowstring, and pulled back. And Abby put a rock into her slingshot.
There was a cawing sound in the air. Carlyle looked up, and saw what looked like three different Ravens flying above. The ravens seemed to be watching everything intently. Carlyle looked at Alfred, and saw Alfred had noticed it as well.
Shawn came up to Carlyle. “Any last words?” he asked with a wry smile.
It was hardly the time to joke. And yet, Carlyle recognized that this was humor designed to relieve the tension. Carlyle forced himself to smile back. “Last words for who?” he asked. “The only ones who will survive to remember them are those ravens up there.”
Shawn chuckled. “Fight well then,” he said. “You don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of the ravens.”
The robbers were almost upon them now. Lucinda let out a war cry, leapt forward, and threw her first spear. It struck the chest of one of the robbers and sent him down to the ground instantly. Gabriel felled another robber with her arrow. Abby managed to hit one square in the head with a rock from her slingshot.
The rest now ran forward with their swords, clubs and axes. Carlyle ran forward with his sword, and swung wildly. The robbers frantically dodged his sword or tried to block it. Shawn also fought with his sword, and he got into a duel with one of the robbers. Lucas swung his huge club and managed to hit a robber on the side of the head and knock him over.
Alfred swung his ax and hit a robber on this chin with it. Another robber tried to run Alfred through with his sword, but Brian was watching out for his son, and tackled this robber to the ground, where the two of them then continued wrestling and fighting on the groun.
It was chaos and fighting everywhere. So far, Carlyle and his friends were keeping the robbers at bay. But as the robbers kept surging forward, everyone could see that the thirteen of them would soon be overwhelmed by the fifty.
Then, a shrill sounding whistle pierced the air. Some of the combatants turned their heads briefly to see Catherine walking up the mountain slope. She was whistling that old tune that Finn used to whistle. Her hands were glowing.
“That’s the witch!” one of the robbers yelled to the others. “Kill her!”
But then, from somewhere down the mountain slope, the sound of a wolf howling answered Catherine’s whistling. This was followed by several more howls. The howling grew more and more, until it sounded like a whole chorus of howls.
And then, from down the mountain, about 50 wolves came running up the mountainside.
At the sight of this huge pack of wolves, everyone started to run. But then, it became apparent that Catherine was directing the wolves. She pointed to the robbers, and the wolves ran right past Carlyle, Alfred and the rest of the group, and attacked only the robbers. They sank their teeth into the robbers legs and arms. They jumped up and went straight for the throat. The robbers tried to fight back with their clubs and swords and axes, but when a snarling wolf is leaping straight at you, it is a hard thing to defend yourself against, even with a weapon. Pretty soon, the whole group of robbers was put to flight. The wolves chased them up the mountainside.
Shawn, exhausted from the fight, came over next to Carlyle. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “We lived through it after all.”
Carlyle surveyed the scene. There were several dead robbers strewn across the rocky slopes of the mountainside. But all the members of the group were still standing. Lucas, Kevin, Marcus, Paul, Shawn,Stella, Gabriel, Lucinda, Molly and Abby, they were all still alive, and standing. Brian had also survived his fight.
It was Alfred who ran over to Catherine first. “How did you do that?” he asked. “How did you control the wolves?”
“They owed me a favor,” Catherine replied. “Plus, I told them they could eat whatever they killed.”
Some of the group seemed a little repulsed by this comment, but Catherine simply surveyed the mountainside. She turned to Carlyle. “There are ten dead here on the slopes, and we put the rest to flight,” she said. “Who knows how many the wolves will take before they’re done. Father’s death has been avenged today.”
“It’s a good start ,” Carlyle answered. “But we’re not done yet. Not completely. There are many more robbers still left in these mountains.”
Books (68 pages this week)
Journey to the West Volume 3 by Wu Cheng'en p.1200-1258 (58 pages) (from Journey to the West)
How to Teach Listening by J.J. Wilson p.112-122 (10 pages)
Comic Books (Comic Books don't count towards weekly page counts)
Marvel Horror Lives Again! p.1-118
Revolutions Season 5: Spanish American Wars of Independence 2nd Listening From: 5.13- The Letter From Jamaica To: 5.19- The Army of the Andes (from Revolutions Podcast)
Videos from this Week:
For more information about what this is and why I'm doing it, see HERE.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Make the Questions for Your Partner: Listening Text
(TESOL Ideas--Activities that can be used with any listening text)
This is basically the same idea as an activity I previously posted for reading texts: Students Design the Reading Comprehension Questions. The only difference is that this time it's for listening texts.
This is also very similar to an IELTS activity I posted previously: Write Your Own IELTS Listening Part 1 Dialogue and Questions
As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a TESOL classic. It's a very common activity, and it's been around for a long time.
It can work quite well for certain classes. After spending so long simply being told to answer questions, they enjoy the chance to make the questions. They also enjoy the fun of trying to stump their partner. And, in theory, it gets them to listen to the text in detail to pick out the interesting details. (It could also help to get them to understand exam question techniques with a little bit of extra training.)
With less motivated classes, however, this doesn't work as well. Students sometimes balk at the idea of doing the extra work of picking out details and making questions, and they don't always find it engaging.
So, it's one of those activities that when it works, it works very well, but when it flops, it's a disaster. Use your own judgement when deciding if its right for your class.
The set-up is basically the same as Students Design the Reading Comprehension Questions, except that because it's a listening text, students don't have the luxury of going back and forth through the test to find questions. Instead, I have them take notes when they listen, and then use those notes to create questions after the listening.
In my class, I had students work in pairs to create the questions (using their notes) and then change their questions with another pair.
To aid in scaffolding the activity, I had them use this worksheet. I've found that it helps to get students to write the answer clearly when they are creating the questions. (Otherwise students may write questions that they themselves don't know the answer to, or that have no clear answer in the text.) Some teacher monitoring is also useful to make sure the students' answers are actually correct.
Then, once they have the questions and answers written, I give them a scissors to cut the answer sheet off, and they only give the question sheet to the other pair.
Once the students have all created questions, I have the class swap questions with another pair. (There are always a few pairs who are behind, so I sometimes tell them that they can swap with another pair even if they are only partially finished.)
We then play the listening text again. Students try to answer the questions from the other pair. Then I have them check their answers with the other pair.
This is a listening for detail activity, so I do it after a gist listening is done first.
Write questions for your partner. Make sure that the questions have clear answers in the text.
Write the answers here:
Independence Palace, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Thursday, June 22, 2023
Discussion Questions for Reporting Verbs
[This was done using the format for I use for Conversation Questions worksheets.]
Reporting Verbs
1. Talk about a time when you argued with a friend about something.
2. Talk about a time when someone persuaded you to do something that you didn’t want to do.
3. Talk about a time when you convinced someone to do something that he or she didn’t want to do.
4. Talk about a time when you recommended something to your friends.
5. Talk about a time when you advised someone about something.
6. Talk about a time when you explained something to a friend.
7. Talk about a time when you pointed something out to a friend.
8. Talk about a time when you asked someone to do something.
Here is a link to a Kahoot Game on Reporting Verbs: Reporting verbs by OrangeTreeVLC
I pass this along, however, with a small warning. I don't think all of the answers here are right.
This is a common issue with Kahoot games. There's a lot of stuff out there, but there's no quality control, so before you use something in class, you really have to check it carefully.
In this case, I checked the questions briefly before my class, and thought they looked alright, but once we got into the classroom and started playing the game, I came across a number of answers I disagreed with.
If I ever reuse this, I'm going to make a copy of it and do some editing. But for now, I'm just posting it here so I don't lose track of it.
Naruto PowerPoint Game for Reporting Verbs
(TESOL Worksheets--Reporting Verbs)
[This game was made using the Naruto PowerPoint template. The questions come from Advanced Grammar in Use (A)]
Sorting Activity for Sentence Patterns with Reporting Verbs
[This is a sorting activity for sentence patterns with reporting verbs. ]
Most experts advised the city authorities that they should demolish the building.
Many experts advised demolishing the building.
Many experts advised the city authorities to demolish the building.
My father argued that the speed limit is too high.
My mother believes that dogs can talk.
My brother claimed that aliens abducted him.
Mary convinced him that the conspiracy was real.
Jessica convinced me to take a break.
My teacher estimates that the class is going to get 100%.
The man explained that the tree was growing too big.
He hoped that the science was wrong.
Finn persuaded me that the car was really cheap.
Simon persuaded me to try the new game.
Tom pointed out that Cindy was using her phone too much.
Jack proposed that we go out for the night.
Lola proposed resting for a while.
Mike recommended that we stay in for the night.
Alice recommended splitting the bill.
My sister reported that our grandmother was ill.
Phil suggested that we get a drink somewhere else.
Some people suggested building a new shopping center.
Jen said that she wasn’t feeling very well.
David stated that the house was on fire.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Using Running Dictation to Reconstruct Listening Transcripts
I've talked about running dictation a few times before on this blog. See previous explanations HERE and HERE.
But, I've recently gotten the idea to use running dictation to reconstruct listening transcripts.
The idea is partially inspired by How to Teach Listening by J.J. Wilson. He doesn't mention running dictation for listening transcripts directly, but he does talk about ideas for reconstructing listening transcripts. And he also mentions running dictation as a listening activity. (Running dictation, after all, involves one student dictating, and the other student listening to this dictation. So it is, as J.J. Wilson points out, an activity that practices listening.)
The rules and theory of running dictation I've already described in a previous post. I don't think I can improve on my previous explanation, so I'll just quote myself from the previous post:
In running dictation, the students are put into pairs. The teachers places a sheet with some English sentences either at the front of the room, or outside of the room. (I usually prefer to place it outside the classroom in the hallway somewhere, but it all depends on the size of your classroom, how much freedom you have to use the outside hallways, and how much you trust your students to be relatively well-behaved in the school hallways). One student can run and look at the sentences, but they can't write down anything. They must memorize as much as they can, and then run back and dictate the sentences to their partner. Their partner, by contrast, is allowed to write, but cannot leave their seat to look at the sentences themselves. They must simply listen to their partner, and write down what their partner dictates. (In my experience, constant vigilance is required to ensure that the rules are actually followed.) The "runner" holds as much of the text in their memory as they can, runs back and tells their partner what they can remember, and then has to run back to the text to look again and memorize the next section.The game continues until one pair has successfully reconstructed all the sentences.
The variation with transcript reconstruction is that a small part of the transcript is placed outside the room. (With longer listenings, students can't reconstruct the whole transcript, obviously, but they can reconstruct a small part of it.) I gave students one sheet in which there was one blank line for every word. On partner had to go outside and look, and the other partner sat and wrote.
After the students had done their best to reconstruct the text in this way, I then played the relevant portion of the audio twice. Students got a chance to listen to the audio, and check to see that they had all the words correct. (This practices micro-listening skills.)
Running dictation is traditionally done as a competition, and so I also did this as a competition. After the students had had a chance to do the running dictation, and to listen twice to check their answers, I then had them change papers with another pair, handed out the answer key, and said that they get one point for each correct sentence. (The sentence had to be duplicated exactly for them to get a point for it.) I then had them tally up the points, and we figured out who was the class winner.
For my class, I prepared two paragraphs from the listening transcript, so that we could run this game twice. That way each student got a chance to be the runner, and each got a chance to be the listener.
The example activity linked to above is from Video: The Sustainable City p.100-103, Reflect Listening & Speaking 5.
Llewellyn: ________, ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________, ________ ________, ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________, ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________, ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________ ________ ________, ________ ________ ________. ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________ ________ ________ ________. ________ ________, ________. ________ ________ , ________ ________ . ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ .
El-Jisr: ________ ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________ .________ ________ ________ ________ . . . ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ . ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________ . . . ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ . ________ , ________ ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________, ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ . ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ . ________ ________ , ________ ________ , ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ .
Llewellyn: Hello, and welcome to Fully Charged. My name is Robert Llewellyn. This is a series about the future of energy and transport, electric cars, all kinds of cool stuff like this. And today, I’ve just come along to see this normal town, just another town in Dubai. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. And I don’t know, it’s very nice. It’s very quiet as you can tell. Not a lot of traffic. In fact, none. In fact, it’s amazing. This is the Sustainable City.
El-Jisr: First of all, thank you for coming. I mean this is . . . it’s a delight to show you all of this. So, this is the Sustainable City and we, we regard it as . . . Our goal is to have a net zero energy development. So, everything you see, first of all, the principle design element, is to reduce the energy intensity of the city. And so, if you notice, as we drive through those streets, the orientation of the villas. You know, these villas, they benefit from the shade.
Llewellyn: (1)Hello, and welcome to Fully Charged. (2)My name is Robert Llewellyn. (3)This is a series about the future of energy and transport, electric cars, all kinds of cool stuff like this. (4)And today, I’ve just come along to see this normal town, just another town in Dubai. (5)Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. (6)And I don’t know, it’s very nice. (7)It’s very quiet as you can tell. (8)Not a lot of traffic. (9)In fact, none. (10)In fact, it’s amazing. (11)This is the Sustainable City.
El-Jisr: (1)First of all, thank you for coming. (2)I mean this is . . . it’s a delight to show you all of this. (3)So, this is the Sustainable City and we, we regard it as . . . Our goal is to have a net zero energy development. (4)So, everything you see, first of all, the principle design element, is to reduce the energy intensity of the city. (5)And so, if you notice, as we drive through those streets, the orientation of the villas. (6)You know, these villas, they benefit from the shade.
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