5 New Years Resolutions for ESL Learners

One important New Years' custom in North America is to make New Years Resolutions.

A New Year's resolution is a a promise or commitment you make to yourself  to improve your life, or to achieve a personal goals. 

Some ways you can improve your life include: breaking a bad habit, doing something completely new,  or working harder to reach a specific goal. 

New Years resolutions are usually related to your own personal goals, your career, your health, your love and family life, or even your good or bad habits. 

My own New Years resolutions for this year are: 

• Swimming three times a week in order to get more fit and to lose weight. 
• Spending more time with my adult children by setting up specific weekly dates. 
• Spending more time with my husband  by setting up a weekly date night that can not be cancelled unless there is an emergency. 

Here are a few of the Top 10 Resolutions for 2012 . from Slide share. I don't think they have changed much for 2013.

• losing weight
• getting organized
• spending less, saving more  
• enjoying life more 
• staying fit and healthy  

One important thing about New Year's Resolutions that makes them different from other types of resolutions is that people make them in anticipation of the New Year and new beginnings. 

  New Years Resolutions to Improve Your English 

Since this is an ESL blog aimed at helping you, have thought about  making some New Years' resolutions to improve some specific English skills? . 

Listening:  

1. Why not promise to listen to English for 30 minutes a day, even on the weekends.  

You can listen to the radio, television, Internet listening activities with scripts (especially now that you can download them onto SMART phones and Mp3 players.

2. Why not promise to listen to 15 or 30 minutes of English music a day (with  or without the lyrics. You'll have fun, and you'll remember both the rhythm, the vocabulary and the phrases much better than through dry exercises.

Speaking: 

3.  Why not promise to speak English for 15 to 30 
 minutes a day. 
If you live in a country with few English speakers this can be difficult, but not impossible.

• Try using a specific website focused on speaking such as English Central , or joining a meet up  group. 

• While doing your English alone or in your room do them out loud, speak the complete sentences and vocabulary. It will triple your ability to remember what you learn AND in some "muscle memory"  of how to use the correct grammar when you speak. 

Sign up for  Google + .  Then set up your own  hangout page   and  invite your friends to practice English conversation. Then, make sure you actually do it at least once a week -with a topic you have prepared for. 

• Try using any of the software , or programs that allow you to speak and monitor your speaking such as:  Voice Thread , Vocaroo or Voxop.

• If you live in country where people speak English,.you can still use all of the above methods, but you can force yourself to speak English to people at work,  go to a park, a community centre or any other available place to practice making small talk.  

• Try to make English friends through volunteering, a social or professional organization, or a church.

 Oral Grammar

4. Why not promise to work on one specific aspect of grammar when you speak. For  example you could focus on using past tense consistently when you need to, working on he/ she pronouns or adding "s" at the end of words that need it.   

Vocabulary: 

5. Why not promise to improve your vocabulary by learning 5 new words a day, or 50 new words a week.

You can also promise to improve your vocabulary by going out and using the new vocabulary you learn each day in any possible way you can: speaking it out loud, writing sentences or paragraphs, creating your own games and flash cards, recording yourself.... .. 

 

Setting Achievable Goals 

There are MANY more specific resolutions and goals you can make to help yourself speed up your English learning. But, the main thing is you must know what is the most important area for you, and how you can accomplish it.

Early in January, I will discuss some ways to make your New Years resolutions realistic AND achievable. In the meantime, if you hare having trouble choosing resolutions that DON'T involve learning English, try this  Resolution Generator from Monin Verlarde.

In order to get ready, try reading or listening to:  

• The Voice of America: Five New Years resolutions for English learners 
• The BBC New Years Resolution dialogue
• Video: How to Stick to a New Years Resolution 

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Improve your Small Talk: Review 2012

Do you have problems making small talk om English?

You are not alone.


Most of my students say the biggest problem hey have with small talk is NOT knowing WHAT to talk about. 

"We can talk about our hometown, our job or our hobbies for a while," is a common complaint. "After that, we don't know what to say." 

You need to know a little about a lot

The best answer is that you need to be  able to talk a little about a wide range of topics - especially current events, and popular trends  in sports, music, films, electronics, viral videos  etc.. 

Many of you may not be up to date with u with current events or trends.  You will need to work on this n order to be able to socialize in English. ( But I'll talk more about small talk in another post)

But, right now you have the perfect opportunity to find out a lot about everything important that happened in 2012 without having to do very much work. 

Best of all, you can download all this information for free, and review it every time you want to practice speaking on a wide range of topics.You can even build some vocabulary!

What's the magic formula? 

In these last few days of 2012, every newspaper, television network and magazine is publishing extensive reviews of the major events and trends of  2012 as well as predictions for 2013. .

All you need to do is  read, look at, listen to and download some of the information being published. 

The more you do that, the more you will have to talk about. 

Imagine being able to go to work, school, or the park and be able to comfortably talk about  about who was the most important person in the world in 2012, or what  the most watched video of the year was on the Internet. (By the way that was .Gonging Style by Korean pop star Psy. ) which has reached a world record with more than one billion You Tube hits.
 

Imagine being able to ask someone else what THEY think was the most important event of 2012, and to be able to respond with your own answer. 

 Material to Talk About : 2012 in Review 

I have put together a list of sites that give an easy to understand overview the most important events of 2012. 

Some focus mainly on pictures. Others, such as he Guardian Interactive Review, tell the story with pictures and words. Still others Such ads .... deliver the information with video, music and rap. 
 . 
2012: The Year that Was: An Interactive Review  (The Guardian) 

From the golden summer of sport for Britain to the destruction Hurricane Sandy caused - and Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking jump from space, 2012 was a rich year for news. Here's the Guardian's interactive guide to the most extraordinary moments.

You can simply scroll down to read the entire interactive, or go to the left and click on the month you are interested in.

Australian Broadcast Corporation Year In Review 

For more on what Australians considered the top stories of 2012, go to ABC Net

• "The National's" Top Stories of 2012 (CBC.ca) ( 20 minutes)  As 2012 comes to a close, CBC's flagship news program The National takes a look back at the sights and sounds of the year's top stories. "Rewind 2012."

•  Vote to Help the CBC Pick the Top Story of 2012 (CBC.ca) 

• World Moments of 2012 PBS Newshour from sunken ship to Olympic victory, view the top world moments of 2012)  PBS.org

•  2012: The Year in Graphics ( New York Times)  Graphics and interactives from a year that included an election, the Olympics and a devastating hurricane. A selection of the graphics presented here include information about how they were created.

• Times' Top Ten of Everything for 2012 In 55 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad of the past 12 months

• "The Year in Seconds ( Video) BBC From a royal jubilee, to a royal baby. From drought to flood. Into recession and out again. Elections, protests and of course, the Olympics. It has certainly been an eventful year.  Watch the news stories of 2012 condensed into 201.2 seconds."

 More from the BBC

• The numbers of the year 2012
• Faces of the year: The men
• Faces of the Year: The Women 
• Global notable deaths of 2012

Tweets of the Year BBC News Magazine 

 Every week, the BBC Magazine presents 10 tweets to capture the spirit of the news commanding attention in North America. Now, as we bid adieu to 2012, a look back on the tweets that encapsulated the year. As always, some are more serious than others. 

a Brief Glimpse of Our Writers' Favourite Moments with photos and videos  (from The Guardian U.K)

• 2012 Year in REview ( YAHOO news)  The standout news and pop obsessions gleanedf rom your search ha bits." 

•   You Tube Trends of 2012

• Spotlight 2012 Review (Aljazeera.com ) Interactive infographic on highlights and photos of 2012 
• 2012 China Daily 

• 2012 in Review (The Telegraph.co)  A look at what happened over the last 12 months in the worlds of politics, news, sport, celebrity, science, technology and the arts. 
• The Year in Review from CBS  Look back at some of the highlights of 2012 and peek ahead at what awaits in 2013.

• The Year in Review from Twitter

• Facebook Year In Review  An opopportunity to see your own year in review as well as trends from around the world

2012  in Photographs

• The Year In Pictures from the BBC The pictures that made headlines  in 2012

• The Best Photographs of 2012 in Pictures ( Guardian U.K.co)  "From the camaraderie of the Tour de France to snipers in Syria, Sarah Gilbert selects her favourite pictures of the year." (Guardian.co.UK)
• Best Photos of the Year (Reuters An International News Agency

•  2012: The Year In Pictures from CNN

• 2012: The Year in Pictures Part 1 (The Atlantic)

• The- Year in Photos Part 2 ( the Atlantic)

•  The Year in Photos Part 3 ( the Atlantic)

 Predictions for 2013

• Experts make predictions for 2013

 And last, but not least.... a little RAP from Flocabulary.com to make the history more interesting.  

Watch Flocabulary 2012 in Rap with lyrics 

How much do you remember? 

Try some of these quizzes on 2012 in Review :

• The Year in 52 questions (BBC Magazine) 

• 2012 Quiz from the English Blog  

• 2012 Quiz from New York Times Learning Network

2012: The Year in Review Part 1

2012 was a year of big moments and big changes, from the Olympics games to historical elections and everything in between. In its Zeitgeist site, Google analyzed over one trillion queries to showcase what the world searched for.  

  

 The video below is one small sample of what is available on the site. 

For more specific information and details take a look at the world's searches that defined  2012 at  Google Zeitgeist: 2012 the World in Review .

Check out which events, people, athletes, videos, performing artists, images, consumer electronics, TV shows, performing artists received the most searches from around the world. 

Then, go the select a country , click on the name of your country, or any other country you are interested in in order to see what people were interested in in your country as compared to the rest of the world. 

For example, if you live in China, go to the country section and click on: China 
If you live in Australia click  Australia on. If you live in Poland click on Poland . If you live in Columbia, click on  Columbia.. etc.

I guarantee that you will  NOT be bored.  As well, it might help to remind you of some of the biggest events of 2012 you may have forgotten about.  

If you want to practice some of your English grammar or writing,  this would be a good time to use some. comparative and contrast expressions.   OR  compare and contrast sentence 
Remember that you are writing about PAST events. You need to use the past tense. 

For more practice go to the WRITING PAGE. 

Since this is the time to reflect back on some of the most important events of 2012, in my next few posts, I will add a number of other reviews of 2012 from a variety of international  sources.  

What is YOUR opinion?

•  What are some of the most important national and international events of 2012?
• What did YOU learn about yourself or life in 2012? 
• What positive and negative things will 2013 will bring? 

Please leave your comments below, I would love to hear from you. 

Share the love ! 
 

If you enjoyed this post, become a member, or post this to Facebook or any other social site you belong to.  

ESL: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Go to the 2013 
 How the Grinch Stole Christmas Part 1    for the complete animated story, comprehension questions, speaking activities and a better song gap fill. 

It is still the Christmas or "holiday: season. Many of you have time off from school , so this is a great time practice some  your listening with one of the most loved  Christmas stories of all time.  

If you plan to live in North America, or if you already live here, it is essential that you know about this  story by Dr. Seuss. The more you can casually mention about it, the more Canadian or American you will seem.

I have included the complete script of the animated story. Reading it out loud slowly and carefully with LOTS of expression would help your speaking and pronunciation. You might even want to speak along WITH the narrator of the animated story while copying his rhythm and intonation.

Complete script to How the Grinch Stole Christmas 

 
Part 2: 

1.  Listen to the song without  looking at the gap fill. Try to write down all the negative

     words that describe Mr. Grinch. 

2.  Listen as many times as you need and fill in the gaps. 

3.  Sing-along . This is a great song to practice enunciating. Make sure you open your 
     mouth as wide as you can in order to let your tongue get to the right place. Sing as 
     slowly as the singer. 

   Speaking and Writing Questions: 

1. Dr. Seuss wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas to [point out how the media and 
    marketing  have created a holiday focused on spending money to buy things.  

   Discuss how has the media changed holidays such as Christmas, New Years, Chinese 
   New Year, Valentine's Day, Mother;s Day etc.   and how they are celebrated. 

2. What role does Cindy Lou play in the story. What does she do to change the Grinch? 

3. The Grinch has a serious character flaw. He experiences a crisis and then changes for
     the better. Describe the Grinch's character flaw at the beginning of the story. What crisis 
     changes him? How did he change? 

4. What is the message of the story? 

5.  Would you write a different ending to the story? Explain why or why not. If yes, how 
     would you end it? 

6.   Do you know anyone who had some bad personality characteristics, but who  became a 
     better person after something happened to him or her. This could be you, or anyone 
     you know. Tell what happened, and why this person changed. 

ESL Listening A "Joyful" Irish Welcome

How would you feel if you were coming home for a visit and got the kind of welcome home reception you will see on the video below. 

Christmas  Day has come and gone. But, that doesn't mean we can't continue sharing the joy this holiday and many others bring - especially to those those who haven't seen each other in a long time.  

Joy to the World 

After  having been away from Ireland for many years. one lucky family returning home for Christmas received an extra special welcome, when a   flashmob  disguised as other passengers  and airport employees – burst into song as they arrived at the airport.

As the Munroes walked through the arrivals gate at Belfast City Airport, they were greeted by their family in Northern Ireland, as well as the Belfast Community Gospel Choir.

The singers, who were also disguised as baggage handlers and flight crew, sang Joy to the World, as the family was reunited. The whole stunt was captured on camera and posted on YouTube.

Northern Ireland Tourist Board Plays a Big Role 
 The Northern Ireland Tourist Board organized the entire joyful reunion.  Last month, the Board ran a competition offering families all over Ireland, a chance to fly distant loved ones home for Christmas. Roisin Munroe's family in County Down, entered a competition by writing 30 words on why they wanted her to fly home for Christmas. Their entry was picked as the winner, and Rosin and her two children flew back to Northern Ireland only to be greeted with a joyful and enthusiastic rendition of Joy to the World. "Overwhelmed" Roisin said she was "overwhelmed" and moved to tears by the flashmob's greeting at the Belfast City Airport. Roisin said she got to meet nieces and nephews she had never met in person before.  She is originally from Drumaness, outside Ballynahinch, but emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 18, leaving behind her parents, three brothers and seven sisters. She now lives and works in Ohio with her husband and children.  She said she hadn't been able to afford a trip home with her family for many years, and hasn't seen her parents in person for at least six years. You Can't Substitute the Hugs "You can talk on the phone. You can look at each other on Skype or whatever, but you just can't substitute the hugs," said Roisin. 

LISTENING

Listen to the song as many times as you need to. Then try to fill in the blanks Sing-along with the choir as many times as you can. It will help you to improve your pronunciation, phrasing and fluency.

 


The entire song : Joyful, Joyful

 

Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog

  

Highlights of 2012

What started in 2011, continued in 2012 as well - I travelled, I learned, I was invited to speak at conferences, I ran workshops and I co-hosted teachmeets. To my delight, TeachMeet Int'l won second runner up in the Edublog Awards 2012!

The year started with our trip to Cuba - it was a fantastic holiday with no internet access whatsoever! In March, we explored Berlin and Potsdam, in April we flew to Boston, saw the sights and tried our very first clam chowder in a bread bowl! (Absolutely delicious!). Then we headed for Toronto, and on our way there we stopped to visit the Niagara Falls, both on the US and the Canadian side. In Buffalo I treated myself to what is now my beloved Kindle Touch. I never leave the house without it!

In January it was my school's turn to host a Comenius meeting. 31 students and 19 teachers from 7 European countries came to Zagreb to meet their project partners and to learn from each other.

The spring was abound with conferences: Microsoft Slovenia invited me to speak about LEAP 21 at the SIRIKT conference in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. I co-hosted two fabulous virtual TeachMeets, two Studentsmeets and presented at the Sydney TeachMeet via Skype.  I gave a short presentation about Studentsmeet in the Teacher Track of the eTwinning conference that was held in Berlin. I co-hosted the first Croatian Teachmeet Live in Zagreb and ran a workshop on online testing tools at the TESL Toronto. My presentation Online Testing Tools was also well-received by the audience at the TESOL WebHeads 2012 and at the Virtual Round Table Conference. Sonja and I organized a new series of webinars for students, during which we hosted 17 webinars, all of them  well-attended by school seniors from across Croatia and beyond.

I became an Intel Master Teacher after attending seminars in Prague and in Swindon. There I finally met my friend Rose f2f after being friends online for three years!  

I spent the summer at the Adriatic, but I wasn't idle at all because I was getting ready for my first tour ever -I was one of the speakers in the CARNet project Schools 2.0 and at the end of August I ran workshops about the Skills of the 21st century in seven schools in different parts of Croatia. It was a great experience and I felt like a rock star. it was still summer when I was notified that I'm one of the three finalists for the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship. Who the Humphrey fellow for 2013/2014 is, will be announced in March 2013.

Autumn brought more speeches and workshops - all of them my favourites: I gave a motivational speech about my unplugged eLearning to the participants of the e-Learning Academy. I talked about the Skills of the 21st Century at the national eTwinning conference, gave two workshops on Twitter and two on Facebook at the INFO fair, co-ran a workshop on Web 2.0 tools in eTwinning projects, moderated the second TeachMeet Live in Rijeka and co-hosted the third one in Zagreb. On September 29, we organized the third virtual TeachMeet, which, in my opinion, has been the best Teachmeet ever held!

Autumn was also marked with some writing work that I was commissioned to do as part of a two-strong team. The other half of this strong team was Bart, "my partner in crime in some lovely educational projects and the key member of my PLN". These 2,5 months of extremely hard work, lack of sleep, immense creativity, mutual inspiration and invaluable support are proof to our constant quest for knowledge and lifelong learning.

Even more learning took place in November when I was given a fantastic opportunity to attend the course "Creating interactive textbooks with iBook Author" at the Future Classroom Lab in Brussels. I can't say now which I was looking forward to more - the course itself or the visit to the amazing Future Classroom Lab! Or to Belgian waffles! Not to mention Belgian dark choc with nuts! Well, whichever it was, it all lived up to my expectations... and more!

December brought some more wonderful, but unfortunately also some disturbing news. However, I'm determined to deal with it, to be persistent and to turn it to my advantage.

And of course, it goes without saying, my favorite color in 2012 was definitely cobalt blue.

ESL Christmas: Charlie Brown Style

Christmas would not be Christmas in North America if you didn't watch a Charlie Brown Christmas. 

 Almost every person under the age of 50 has watched this Christmas special at least once . Many of us have watched it 20 or 30 times. 

In fact, one of the most popular English idioms about Christmas comes from this specific Christmas animation. 

When people say they bought, or prefer a "Charlie Brown tree" for Christmas, they are referring to a a a  Christmas tree with very few branches that looks like it needs a lot of love. 

The expression refers to the kind of tree Charlie Brown chose for his Christmas and which is heavily featured in the story. Just look at the picture above to get the idea. 

The True Meaning of Christmas  

This half-hour Christmas show is one of the truly lovable animated specials in TV history, a status proved by its annual network telecast since 1965.

 It is also my favourite Christmas video animations because it focuses on the meaning of Christmas.  

A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first, and best, of a series of programs based on the Charles M. Schulz cartoon strip "Peanuts." Hapless hero Charlie Brown finds himself depressed at Christmastime, searching for the true meaning of the holiday amidst the glitz and commercialism of the modern age. 

Appointed director of the school holiday pageant, Charlie Brown ventures out with Linus to buy "a great, big, shiny aluminum Christmas tree." Instead they bring back a miserable tree--a real one. 


The Peanuts Gang  
A Charlie Brown Christmas shows off the "Peanuts" gang doing what they do best: Lucy is bossy, Snoopy is crazy, Linus is sweet, and Pig Pen is, well, filthy. 

Instead of using adult actors trying to sound like kids, the production features real children providing the voices, an endearing effect. 

The jazz music score, composed by Vince Guaraldi, has become a classic in its own right; like so much about this program, it's an unexpected but perfectly right choice. --
Robert Horton   Source: Xmas Fun 

Go the the new updated 2015 version for the video and many other new activities

A Charlie Brown Christmas

How Well did you understand? 

Try the following quizzes

• Charlie Brown Christmas Quiz 1 (easier) 
• Charlie Brown Comprehension Questions
• The Complete Script to Charlie Brown Christmas 
• Vocabulary Charlie Brown Christmas 
• The Making of Charlie Brown Christmas 
• Ten Things You Didn't know about Charlie Brown Christmas

How about YOU?  What does Christmas mean to you?  

Write  a comment in the box below to let me know if you think Christmas is too commercial or whether it has any meaning at all. 

Specifically, what does it mean for YOU?   

ESL Christmas: The Nativity Story

Children participate in a nativity play at school as part of  a Christmas program

Many people around the world world celebrate Christmas with family dinners and gift giving.  But many are not all familiar with the reason Christians celebrate this special day.  

The following video tells the story of Christmas that comes from the Bible.  It does not matter if you believe the story or not, but IS is important to know the story itself if you want to understand Christian beliefs and culture.


Instructions: 

• Try to listen to the story several times WITHOUT reading the subtitles. 
• Then, try to answer the questions. ( Do NOT check your answers)   
  
• Next, go back and listen to the story while you read the subtitles.  
• Answer the questions again.  Check the answers. 
• Read along WITH the speaker - at the same time, NOT after him. When you speak at the same time as the speaker, this is called shadow speaking. 

Before you listen, 

What is frankincense?

What is myrrh? 

 

MATCH:             shepherd:                 ruler                    to worship              angel  

                     (answers below)   

                                       

           

Traditional Christmas Carols: 

I'm including some traditional Christmas carols  that focus on the real meaning of Christmas.  People have sung these carols for hundreds of years, so it is useful for you to know some of them

Silent Night
"Silent Night" (German: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 in Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by the UNESCO in March 2011.  The best known Christmas carol in the world has been translated into more than 140 languages, and sung by every singer who has released a Christmas album.   

Silent Night  The song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops during the Christmas truce^[7] of 1914, as it was one carol that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew. ( Source: Wikipedia) 

Silent Nifght and the Secon d O'clock News 
In 1966 Well known singers Simon and Gargunkel    O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of anoverdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

The "Silent Night" track consists of Simon and Garfunkel singing the first verse twice over, accompanied by Garfunkel on piano. The voice of the newscaster is that ofCharlie O'Donnell, then a radio disc jockey. As the track progresses, the song becomes fainter and the news report louder. Matthew Greenwald calls the effect "positively chilling".^[1] Bruce Eder describes the track as "a grim and ironic (and prophetic) comment on the state of the United States in 1966".^{[2] ( Wikepidia)} 

                                           Read about the Nativity Story 

 The Nativity Story: A Reading ( medium) 
The Christmas Story Comprehension: Source BBC
A Christmas Story Quiz 
A more difficult Christmas quiz  
  

Fun with Christmas Vocabulary

Christmas Vocabulary Quiz 
Christmas Vocabulary Quiz ( in context) SOURCE English Page  
Funny Christmas Sayings and Expressions  

Breath of Heaven

This song focuses on how frightened Mary was and her hopes that she could live up to the responsibilities she was going to have as the mother of God. The video features scenes adapted from the 2007 film "The Nativity Story" by New Lines Productions Inc. 

O Holy Night 

This song was originally written in French and is often sung at Christian services on Christmas eve. More than 100 artists have recorded this song, but my favourite has always been the Celine Dion version. I have included the French version with lyrics. 


Do You Hear What I Hear?

This song  focuses on what the shepherds in the field heard and saw on the first
Christmas when Jesus was born.







What Child Is This 

"What Child Is This?" is a popular Christmas carol  written in 1865.  At the age of 29, English writer William Chatterton Dix was struck with a sudden near-fatal illness and confined to bed rest for several months. He fell into a deep depression during his illness, but out of his near-death experience, he  wrote the song What Child Is This set to the traditional English tune of Gleensleeves.  

Sarah McLaugllin  version is a little different, set to different music using the same words and could almost be a lullaby sung to a baby. .  

The next two songs focus on the joy Christmas is supposed to bring and reminds us that we need to remember to keep some of that joy in our heart even when things in our life are bad. 
 

Try to sing along with this next song as loudly as you can. Make sure you really open your mouth wide. It will help with your pronunciation, your phrasing and your speaking fluency.