The Game - Task Session 3

What do you think it should be called?

How do we play it?

Clear and concise, please!

ERROR IDENTIFICATION #2

What's the wrong with each of the sentences below?

The answers are in the COMMENTS below. Be sure to try to find your own answers before looking at mine!

1. When I grow up I'll be an astronaut.
2. Len shan't be able to join us after all.
3. Take your umbrella; it'll rain.
4. The world's supply of oil is soon running out.
5. Put your coat on before you'll go out.
6. I promise I call you as soon as I get home.
7. I won't be able to meet you next week. I will stay in London for a few days.
8. Can I borrow your camera? I'll be giving it back to you tomorrow.
9. The army needs to change its image if more women will be recruited.
10. There's no point asking John for a lift - he will leave by now.
11. The last time I met John, he's getting on a train to go to Brussels.
12. James was only to have discovered years afterwards that the painting he had sold for a few dollars was actually worth thousands.
13. You'd better to leave now if you want to catch the last bus.
14. If Tom can afford to go on holiday to the Bahamas, he should have lots of money.
15. I'm sure you will already hear the President's announcement.
16. I didn't actually see the film, but from what I've read I'm sure I wouldn't enjoy it.
17. We would have a cat, but one day it just disappeared.
18. Before I went to university, I used to work as a carpenter for about five years.
19. If the drought goes on much longer, there can be water rationing before the end of the month.
20. May it snow this far south?

Don't give in too easily. Don't check the answer as soon as your brain starts hurting. Figure it out for yourself.

VOCABULARY BUILDING – Module 2

2. 1

1. manipulate, 2. creating, 3. conceived, 4. ensued,
5. innovative, 6. automatic, 7. mathematics,
8. achieving, 9. period, 10. equilibrium, 11. tradition,
12. series, 13. preceded, 14. sections, 15. stable

2. 2

1. occurs, 2. passive, 3. respective, 4. infer,
5. accelerating, 6. major, 7. portion, 8. fluctuate,
9. contribute, 10. focus, 11. design, 12. convert,
13. comprehend, 14. authorise

2. 3

1. h, 2. d, 3. k, 4. f, 5. a, 6. l, 7. c, 8. j,
9. b, 10. m, 11. e, 12. n, 13. g, 14. I, 15. o

2. 4

1. decade, 2. emphasise, 3. expose, 4. structure,
5. signified, 6. generated, 7. consequent,
8. capillaries, 9. notion, 10. affects, 11. predict,
12. pertinent, 13. undergone, 14. select

2. 5

1. external, 2. contrast, 3. simultaneous, 4. chapters,
5. approximate, 6. technology, 7. verify, 8. phase,
9. principle, 10. obtained, 11. magnetic, 12. segments,
13. individual, 14. empirical

2. 6

1. natural phenomena, 2. highly sophisticated,
3. sequence of events, 4. reacted angrily,
5. economically feasible, 6. endangered species,
7. assert the right, 8. verbal agreement,
9. precise details, 10. devote time
and money, 11. inhibit growth,
12. transmit signals, 13. separate entities

Task: Session 2 - 3rd September

MISSION AND VISION STATEMENTS

TALENT AGENCY - ORPHANAGE - ENGLISH COURSE - CAFE - YOUTH MAGAZINE - DOMESTIC AIRLINE - UNIVERSITY - SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS - ARCHITECTS - CAR RENTAL - WEDDING CATERERS - BANK

Error Identification # 1

What's the wrong with each of the sentences below?

The answers are in the COMMENTS below. Be sure to try to find your own answers before looking at mine!

1. This large goat is only living in the mountains of Switzerland.
2. I call to thank you for the present you sent.
3. John is resembling his older sister.
4. The rise in demand for timber destroys large areas of rainforest.
5. I work at the University for over ten years now.
6. When have you got here?
7. Have you read a book called Accountancy Is Fun? 'Who has written it?'
8. Charles is a gifted footballer, but up to now he didn't play well in international matches.
9. We've seen Jean in town the other day.
10. Have you ever been to the opera when you lived in Milan?
11. I was meeting a lot of interesting people while I was working in Norway.
12. Being in large crowds was always making her feel nervous.
13. How long are you wearing glasses?
14. We've been staying with Paul and Jenny until last weekend.
15. That's twice I've been forgetting to bring my diary to work this week.
16. I've never been listening to any of Plop's music before.
17. The new bridge had been opened six months ago.
18. He just heard the news and was rushing home to tell his family.
19. When I saw the vase, I knew it was exactly what I had looked for.
20. I had been knowing Helen for a number of years.

No cheating. Agonize a while before checking the answers!

VOCABULARY BUILDING – Module 1

1. 1

1. similar, 2. formulate, 3. context, 4. devised, 5. vertical,
6. impact, 7. usage, 8. summary, 9. denote , 10. arbitrary,
11. assigned, 12. criteria, 13. ignored, 4. data


1. 2

1. evident, 2. publishes, 3. involving, 4. negative,
5. environment, 6. evaluate, 7. range, 8. modified,
9. restricted, 10. derive, 11. varies, 12. pursued,
13. consists of


1. 3

1. m, 2. c, 3. a, 4. h, 5. b, 6. g, 7. j, 8. e, 9. l, 10. k,
11. i, 12. d, 13. f


1. 4

1. comply with, 2. equivalent, 3. specify, 4. is required,
5. obvious, 6. presuming, 7. guarantee, 8. methods,
9. imply, 10. sum, 11. proceeding, 12. concluded


1. 5

1. assess, 2. dominate, 3. definite, 4. approach,
5. potential, 6. elements, 7. components, 8. compensate,
9. subsequent, 10. distinct, 11. indicates, 12. regions,
13. prime


1. 6

1. valid reason, 2. new concept, 3. constant temperature,
4. new dimension, 5. analyse results, 6. establish a link,
7. tense atmosphere, 8. initial results, 9. leading role,
10. ultimate responsibility, 11. marital status,
12. put forward a hypothesis, 13. reverse the verdict,
14. minimum requirement

Web Site - www.samples-help.org.uk

You might find this web site useful:

http://www.samples-help.org.uk/index.htm

Confronted with a task? Not sure where to start? Samples Help! This free website provides definitions, samples of different topics ranging from free samples of letters and Business documents to Report Writing and Body Language presentations! A section on letter writing with good free samples of a resignation, recommendation or reference, a thank you, complaint, business, cover and application letters. There are also samples and examples of report writing, letter writing and how to develop and give a presentation. Our sample invitations include the wording and templates for wedding invitations, birthday invitations, anniversary invitations together with tips and hints for making invitations from our 'Make your own invitations' article.

• Free Samples of invitations, letters and mission statements
• Free samples of presentations & samples of letters - resignation, letters recommendation or reference letters, thank you letters, complaint letters, business letters, cover and application letters & Car Bill of Sale Printable
• Free Samples of Personal Letters, Business Letters & Documents and Presentations & Mission Statements
• Presentation Skills, Report Writing presentation, Letter Writing samples, Body Language Presentation and PowerPoint presentations
• Free Presentations, Samples reports
• Free samples and examples of invitation wording for wedding invitations, engagement invitations, party invitations, Baby shower invitations, bridal shower invitations, birthday invitations, kids party invitations, Christmas, New Year party and Anniversary invitations.
• 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th birthday invitations samples

Mission Statements & Vision Statements

Mission Statements & Vision Statements

Unleashing the power of purpose

Vision Statements and Mission Statements are the inspiring words chosen by successful leaders to clearly and concisely convey the direction of the organization. By crafting a clear mission statement and vision statement, you can powerfully communicate your intentions and motivate your team or organization to realize an attractive and inspiring common vision of the future.

“Mission Statements” and “Vision Statements” do two distinctly different jobs.

A Mission Statement defines the organization's purpose and primary objectives. Its prime function is internal – to define the key measure or measures of the organization’s success – and its prime audience is the leadership team and stockholders.

Vision Statements also define the organizations purpose, but this time they do so in terms of the organization’s values rather than bottom line measures (values are guiding beliefs about how things should be done.) The vision statement communicates both the purpose and values of the organization. For employees, it gives direction about how they are expected to behave and inspires them to give their best. Shared with customers, it shapes customers’ understanding of why they should work with the organization.

Tip:
Mission Statements and Vision Statements usually refer to an organization or an organizational unit. Team Charters can have a similar role when briefing teams.

First we look at creating mission statements. Then we create vision statements.

Mission Statement Creation

1. To create your mission statement, first identify your organization’s “winning idea”. This is the idea or approach that will make your organization stand out from its competitors, and is the reason that customers will come to you and not your competitors (see tip below).
2. Next identify the key measures of your success. Make sure you choose the most important measures (and not too many of them!)
3. Combine your winning idea and success measures into a tangible and measurable goal.
4. Refine the words until you have a concise and precise statement of your mission, which expresses your ideas, measures and desired result.

Tip: OK, so we’re a bit glib here talking about the “winning idea” – this is a prime subject of the discipline of business strategy, and it can take a lot of effort to find, shape and test. See our articles on USP Analysis, SWOT Analysis and Core Competence Analysis for starting points, and make sure you do the homework needed!

Example:
Take the example of a produce store whose winning idea is “farm freshness”. The owner identifies two keys measures of her success: freshness and customer satisfaction. She creates her mission statement – which is the action goal that combines the winning idea and measures of success.

The mission statement of Farm Fresh Produce is:

“To become the number one produce store in Main Street by selling the highest quality, freshest farm produce, from farm to customer in under 24 hours on 75% of our range and with 98% customer satisfaction.”

Vision Statement Creation

Once you’ve created your mission statement, move on to create your vision statement:

1. First identify your organization’s mission. Then uncover the real, human value in that mission.
2. Next, identify what you, your customers and other stakeholders will value most about how your organization will achieve this mission. Distil these into the values that your organization has or should have.
3. Combine your mission and values, and polish the words until you have a vision statement inspiring enough to energize and motivate people inside and outside your organization.

Using the example mission statement developed for Farm Fresh Produce, the owner examines what she, her customers and her employees value about her mission.

The four most important things she identifies are: freshness, healthiness, tastiness and “local-ness” of the produce. Here’s the Vision Statement she creates and shares with employees, customers and farmers alike:

“We help the families of Main Town live happier and healthier lives by providing the freshest, tastiest and most nutritious local produce: From local farms to your table in under 24 hours.”

Further reading for those interested in this topic: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3342.html

Adjective Order

Adjectives cannot be written in any order. There are rules, so you should use the following order:

1. Determiner or article

* Determiners e.g. this, that, these, those, my, mine, your, yours, him, his, her, hers, they, their, Sam's ; or
* Articles - a, an, the

2. Opinion adjective

e.g. polite, fun, cute, difficult, hard-working

3. Size, including adjectives, comparatives and superlatives

* height; e.g. tall, short, high, low; taller, tallest
* width; e.g. wide, narrow, thin, slim; wider, widest
* length; e.g. long, short; longer, longest
* volume; e.g. fat, huge; fatter, fattest

4. Shape

e.g. circular, oval, triangular, square, 5-sided, hexagonal, irregular

5. Age

e.g. new, young, adolescent, teenage, middle-aged, old, ancient

6. Colour

e.g. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, grey, black, black and white, light blue, dark red, pale blue, reddish brown, off-white, bright green, warm yellow

7. Nationality

e.g. Hong Kong, Chinese, English, American, Canadian, Japanese

8. Religion

e.g. Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Moslem, pagan, atheist

9. Material

e.g. wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, paper, silk

10. Noun used as an adjective

e.g. campus (as in 'campus activities')

11. The noun that the adjectives are describing.

Reading Session 1

Books, not instruction, key to creating writers

Setiono Sugiharto , Jakarta | Sat, 23rd August 2008 10:01 AM | Opinion

Conventional wisdom advises this: "If you want your student writers to be able to write, have them write, and nothing else." Our tendency in teaching writing seems to reflect this wisdom.

The best we can do to assist our students of all levels of language proficiency in developing their writing skills is to give them writing instruction, to encourage them to do more writing practice and then to give feedback.

In addition, as writing entails ability in adeptly using language rules (grammar) and as students often find it hard to write using correct grammatical structures, teachers cannot resist the temptation to explain the rules as painstakingly as possible to their students. In this case, grammar instruction is considered necessary.

Both writing instruction and the mastery of language rules, however, are of little value in helping student writers acquire writing competence. Many published studies demonstrate that the effects of instruction on students' writing are weak, fragile and immediately wear off over time. Other studies show that instruction has no effect at all on writing development.

With research confirming that instruction has little or no effect on accelerating writing competence, it is pretty safe to conclude that writing competence cannot be acquired via either instruction or practice.

It is really unfortunate, however, that most teachers are not well-informed about what research on literacy has told us. Because, in their view, research is often incompatible with what they are experiencing in the classroom, they just ignore it.

While it is true that research often makes statements incompatible with teachers' experience, its importance in helping shape our teaching methodology cannot be overlooked.

We need a philosophical justification of what underlies our methodology. At this time, research helps us discern the extent to which our justification is consistent with the reality we are facing.

In fact, teachers' ignorance of research findings has prevented them from finding good solutions to the problems they are constantly confronting. Writing teachers, for instance, have enthusiastically endeavored to assist their student writers in bolstering their writing ability via writing instruction and practice, with little success.

Such a persistent problem can be solved, as long as teachers are willing to pay attention to the following suggestions based on current research, and then take the other alternative which offers much better and less tedious effort on the part of both teachers and students.

Writing instruction doesn't give students a feel of what good and acceptable writing looks like. Specifically, it doesn't help students acquire writing style, appropriate diction and correct spelling. Increasing writing frequency either through self-sponsored writing or classroom-instructed writing doesn't result in significantly increased proficiency. It must be emphasized that the ability to write is the result of acquiring written codes, not the cause of it.

Similarly, the mastery of language rules, which is the result of grammar teaching, doesn't necessarily contribute to writing development. It has been evident that students who are exposed to grammar lessons for many years and grapple with understanding and memorizing rules are still unable to display competence in writing.

A general conclusion then is that writing competence cannot be acquired via either writing and grammar instruction. Forcing students to write without sufficient competence is tantamount to forcing an engine to work without gasoline. This, however, doesn't mean writing and grammar instruction are of no use and should be jettisoned from the school curriculum.

Their relative usefulness can best be explained in terms of Stephen Krashen's dichotomy: writing competence and writing performance. The former refers to the possession of technical writing skills (i.e. grammar, vocabulary and spelling), while the latter designates the ability to write using efficient writing strategies (i.e. planning, drafting, revising and editing).

Writing instruction, it should be reiterated here, cannot make students competent in writing, but it does help equip students with efficient writing strategies. As these strategies are teachable, writing instruction is key to raising students' awareness of how to compose efficiently.

By contrast, writing competence can only be acquired via reading. That is, the ability to write in an acceptable manner using correct grammar, vocabulary and spelling is derived from reading, not from writing practice. It is reading, Krashen says, that gives the writer the "feel" for the look and texture of reader-based prose.

One might argue that language components such as grammar and vocabulary are teachable via instruction. However, it could be counter-argued that they are much too complex, not to mention tedious, to be taught. What is more, we need to invest more time and energy in making students understand and acquire them.

It seems then that the best and the only way of accelerating students' writing competence is to get students hooked on books and to make them fly to books, just as an opium smoker flies to his pipe.

The writer is chief editor of the Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and teaches English composition at Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta. He can be reached at setiono.sugiharto@atmajaya.ac.id.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.

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