Personnel Service group (AFI Delitzsch)

ESL Projects English Team Trainers
1

Hi Team trainers,

this is the thread regarding the Personnel Service group in Delitzsch.
The group is doing a one-year training program from 02.11.2009 - 29.10.2010 which is funded by the ESF. The organisation of the program is very similar to the program of the marketing group in Eilenburg (to those of you who’ve been there).
The group consists of 15 women with mainly beginner-level abilities and some of them never having had english before.
One girl (Christin) has already been trained by the English-Team in a different course. She and another girl called Christiane are far ahead of the others with their skills. It is somewhat challenging to engage them with suitable tasks since they manage all the basics without any problems whatsoever.
I had 2 days with them so far and they’re having their next training unit tomorrow on the 30th of November. Here is an overview of what we covered until now:

16.Nov.2009

  • alphabet -> spelling exercise
  • Subject pronouns
  • words: “to be”, “to have”
  • Greeting in english
  • Simple Present (Question, Negative, Positive)

‎23.‎Nov.‎2009
On this day I discussed with them the difficulties implied when starting to learn a new language. Since they have english only once a week it would be necessary to maintain and nourish their skills outside of the classroom. They agreed on that but were worrying if they could find the time for doing so.
I did some of the things mentioned in “How to start a new course”. I made a short assessment test with them and the “Client Learning Profile Sheet” to get a better insight on their abilities and potential.

  • Revision: Simple Present, vocabulary so far, alphabet
  • Listening exercise: don’t/doesn’t
  • Question “How are you?”, “How are you feeling today?” and possible replies
  • Assessment Test (questions from the english test package)
  • Client Learning Profile sheet
  • possessive adjectives and pronouns
  • countries
2

Hi Markus,

Thank you very much for your report. It’s great to see that you have been using our materials, especially the ‘Client Learning Profile Sheet’ and you also followed the guideline on how to start a new course. Can you please tell me which 'don’t/doesn’t listening exercise you used?

Next time you might want split the group into pairs and have them dictate words, phrases and contact details to each other. Tell them to create 10 different companies with names, phone numbers and addresses and then have them exchange those details.

Also, you can start using TOEIC Bridge listening comprehension and dictation materials. If you don’t know how or where to get them drop into our office and Slava or I will give you directions.

Please let us also know how November 30 and the other training sessions went.

Best regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A highway bridge[YSaerTTEW443543]

3

Hello Torsten,

thanks for your advice and your offer. I will make use of it.

Regarding the exercise, I used this one: [url]https://english.best/reading/english-audio-course/dont-doesnt/[/url]. I think there is missing a small bit at the end, but I’m not sure.

30.Nov.2009

On this day I introduced possessive adjectives/ pronouns. At the end of the day they had already grasped the concept and could use them with little to no mistakes. They learned the numbers from 1-100 and to tell the time digital as well as old-fashioned.

Overview:

  • Revision: tenses, vocab
  • vocab: household chores
  • words: “to be”, “to have”
  • answers to „How are you?“
  • translation german → english
  • Simple questions starting with „Do I …“ and „Am I …“

7.Dez.‎2009

I showed them the english-test.net website to give them an idea of their possibilities outside of the classroom. Sadly though, I had to discover that it doesn’t work quite that well. We tried to do this exercise: [url]http://www.english-test.net/esl/learn/english/grammar/ei101/esl-test.php[/url] but it seemed that when we clicked the „check you score“ button it would give different solutions on different computers and mark correct answers wrong. This is fatal for the client, of course. And the way it is now I can not recommend the website.

To mix up things a little I had them listen to a Tina Turner Song (as I figured, it was one of their favourites) and fill in gaps of a lyric sheet. After that we tried to find a nice enough translation for it. The gap-filling task was pretty easy for them, but the translation proved to be challenging since it is not always easy to find a nice sounding german equivalent.

Overview:

  • Revision: Simple Present, Progressive
    → questions, positive, negative
  • office vocab
  • question words → questioning
  • abbreviations
  • spelling
  • possessive adjectives and pronouns
  • countries
  • time expressions
4

Hi Markus,

What part are you referring to?

Well, I’ve completed this test several times the results were always the same. It’s almost impossible that on different computers the correct answers are different since any computer accesses the same database. Our site is used by more than 50.000 people every single day and we have received feedback almost on every single test question. So far, nobody has said that the system displays results incorrectly. I’m sorry you experienced those problems and we’ll check into them. When you say, you can’t recommend our website, can you please tell me how many of the tests you have completed yourself?

Also, how many of the responses on the test in question you have read? I’ve listed them for you here:
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … adjectives
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … ine_and_me
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … his_or_her
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … g_of_strum
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … e_word_its
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … ng_of_melt
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … e_pronouns
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … adjectives
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … _for_their
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … ronoun_its

Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, question-response: When did the cargo ship leave Singapore?[YSaerTTEW443543]

5

Hello Markus,

Happy new year, and a hope you had a great time at Xmas.

I was reading this thread with interest, and I have to say I’ve never experienced any problems like you’ve described. This is not to say it didn’t happen as computers and the world wide web can often have gremlins.

One thing I would like to mention, in the past I have had some students who have been slightly confused by the results. Once the student has submitted their answers, the incorrect ones are highlighted and the correct answer is given at the top of the box.

I hope this helps in some way, and I wish you a prosperous 2010.

Best wishes

Scott

6

Hello Torsten and other team trainers,

I wish you a happy new year, as well.

At the end of the voice recording from the audio course “Don’t, doesn’t”
(www.english-test.net/esl/lesson-plans/dont_doesnt.html) the last sentence is missing.
In the transcript the last one is “My colleague also plays chess but I think she doesn’t get to do it often.” She doesn’t say it in the recording.

I just repeated the exercise on my home computer (www.english-test.net/esl/learn/english/grammar/ei101/esl-test.php) and everything was displayed correctly. I should mention that we did the exercise on very old and slow computers which haven’t been maintained for quite some time (At least so it seemed). I remember that they had an old Java Runtime Environment, so could it not be that they weren’t fit for the technology used on the website?
I completed about 11 tests myself, including this one.

I’ve read through some of them, and I’m aware now that the problem has occured for the first time. I presume that it will work on most computers.

best regards,

Markus

7

Hello Markus,

Please take a look at this post: meaning of “There is no guessing”

I see on your progress report that you have a problem with question 9

Correct answer is B
english-test.net/esl/learn/e … nswer_nine

Please read this conversation Could I change “her” for “their”?

Many thanks
Slava

8

Hi Markus,

Yesterday the group consisted of only 7 participants and we started by reviewing the things you had introduced last year. Everyone created a personal profile of one of their fellow group members and gave a short presentation/introduction. We then reviewed the alphabet adding the NATO alphabet and English abbreviations used in the German. Claudia and Christine started creating a German/English keyword list describing the subjects, contents and materials the group is covering in their course (human resources, recruiting, assessment, job application, soft skills, etc.) At this point they just collected words and phrases while going through their materials without organizing the vocabulary in any particular way. That’s something we can do later.

In addition to the alphabet we reviewed the following items:

  • possessive adjectives
  • BE verb
  • question words
  • numbers
  • telling the time
  • things you do at an office

I noticed that some of them had handouts/printouts which they might have received from you. If this is the case, please send me a copy so I know what kind of language you have already introduced. Also, if possible try to concentrate on office/business related vocabulary.

Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, talks: Charity worker leaving voice mail message soliciting donations[YSaerTTEW443543]

9

Hello Mr. Daerr,

I had a very nice training session with the Personnel Service group on friday. They were very concentrated throughout the whole day and in a good mood as well.
On that day, only Diana and Kathia were missing.

They told me that you’ve been doing some speaking exercises with them so I tried to
engage them with more of that. Christin and Christiane got a special task to collect questions for a job interview that a recruiter could ask. We tried to keep them simple
so everyone was able to answer. They were given some time to prepare for the interview and were allowed to answer each question with the help of a few catch words. Afterwards I let them roleplay the interview in pairs.
I would have liked to do it with everyone myself but there was not enough time for that(I tried to combine better students with not so good students).

They told me that you were planning some kind of project with the keyword list. Can you give me more details on that?

Other things we did:

best regards,

Markus

10

Hi Torsten and creative trainers of our English team,

Here is a short summary of what we did today Friday, 29th January 2010 in the Delitzsch, Leipziger Strasse with the 10 ladies group.

Explaining new words and refreshing old words in English/vocabulary review/ word formation:

  • progress, development
    success, danger

  • imagine – imaginable – unimaginable

  • manage – manager

  • direct – director

  • assemble – assembler

  • board – board of directors – full board

  • shares – share holder company

  • CEO - Chief executive officer

  • bed and breakfast

  • arrival

  • analysis

research

  • departure etc.
    Some grammar :

Simple present, future

Negation and questions

Time fixing A.M. / P.M.

Telephone training

Plural formation

Working with English-test.net to check the gaps and deficits for further learning.

Next English class in this group will be on Monday, 08.02. and Monday, 15.02.2010. always Delitzsch, Leipziger Strasse. Best reagards from Mrs. Hintzsch and Mrs Lehmann.

All the best for you.

11

Hello Markus,

Yes the idea is for them to collect as many vocabulary items related to HR, recruiting, personal development, staff management, industrial and employee Relations, etc. as possible so they can talk about their field of expertise in English.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: A customer complains about bad service[YSaerTTEW443543]

12

Hi Markus,
I think it make sense to collect as many vocabulary items related to Human Resources as possibe to motivate the Ladies to use these words in specific situations and to talk about their different fields of expertise in English.
Please give my best regards to the ladies.
Best regards
Uli.

13

Hi dear English trainers,

I’d like to sum up yesterday’s English session with the ladies in Delitzsch (English Personnel). Since I was a new trainer for them, we first introduced each other. I asked them to introduce themselves and give the reason why they need English. In order to get a smooth takeover, I asked Anne-Kathrin to show me their written notes. I reviewed then one of the lessons they had already covered last year:

  • a job interview: Tell me how you are/you feel today; Would you like something to drink? Did you have any trouble getting here/finding us? Tell me about yourself.
    What are your strength and weakness/strong and weak point? What do you do in your freetime? How much do you expect to earn? etc…

In this way, they brushed up old vocab that some of them had already forgotten and enhanced it with some synonyms and new sentences I asked them to construct in class. We did oral and written exercises regarding the conditional forms "would/should/could, the pronunciation of this verbs, specially paying attention to the silent consonants. Spelling exercises (NATO-Alphabet).

We played a card game (New Amici- learning cards English). In order to review the numbers, I decided to use my dice too. Thus, we practised a lot of vocab and grammar stuff:

  • some irregular verbs
  • comparative/superlative forms of adjectives
  • articles the/a. They got an exercise where they had to choose the correct article form and decide whether it is necessary to use “the” or not.

As for the business vocab (Human Resources), we reviewed some words regarding the personnel in a company. I had them define the words in English. We defined some words such as unemployment, employee, offer, enquiry, recruitment etc.

In the afternoon, we talked a bit about the school system both in UK and USA and called their attention to the different usage of the word “public school” (privately and government funded). They also learnt something about the Commonwealth.

Moreover, I split up the class into different teams and assigned them different tasks:

-task 1: set up a company or a business (Hairdressers’ products: suggestion in class)
-task 2: write a letter of inquiry/request (you want to buy a product)
-task 3: write an offer for a product X (you invite the “prospective customer” to buy it)
-task 4: as a prospective customer, reply to this offer (accept or reject it)
-task 5: Think about the delivery possibilities

Both Team 2 and 3 wrote a good letter.
At the end, we read an offer (my own handout) and discussed the vocab and grammar in there.

Regards

Roberto

14

Hi dear English-trainers,

a new teaching day is over in Delitzsch again. I’d like to summarize today’s session (Friday 12). This time we began the morning session in a different classroom where the German course (Valentina’s group) usually takes place. We repeated the topic „ a job interview“ and the various questions they had already got from the other trainers.
We discussed the adjective good and the adverb well that is also used as an adjective:

  • Feel well" and “be well” refer to one’s health. “Well” in this case in an adjective. This is the only use of “well” as an adjective - to mean healthy, not sick.
    Thus we spent the first two hours doing warm-up oral exercises in order to review some relevant useful vocabulary regarding the job interview (feel, arrive/arrival, get, earn, expect, have/be etc…) and some important grammar structures such as polite conditional forms (would, could), auxiliaries (do, does, have/has, be etc. ), indefinite pronouns, prepositions to/for/at/on/in. We also used dice in these exercises.
  • Special focus on spelling and pronunciation of some words (o, oa, oe, ow: stone, roe, row, mow, crow etc.). I gave them some tricks to memorize such words and other ones.
    After the morning break, we came back into the same classroom where we went on dealing with a grammar exercise based on the usage of the article „the“ with such words as hospital, church, prison, home, sea, bed, school, university and so on. In addition, we discussed the new vocabulary and pronunciation patterns contained in this exercise. They did well.
  • Telling the time: the use of the prepositions „to“ and „past“. Spontaneous questions regarding time are asked in class every now and then: Please tell me what time it is now? Could you tell me what time it is? What time is it? etc.
    Then we moved into our last classroom where we were on Wednesday. Here every lady can sit at a computer. I asked them to use the computer to look up new words or translate relevant texts or solve tasks assigned in class. I also reminded them to click on English-test-net. Some of them seem to be familiar with it.
    Before and after the lunch break, we worked very creatively , read, translated and discussed a short text regarding an invitation to go out for dinner. A large part of the group also showed their enthusiasm and motivation at this point. We then played roles: Romeo = Kristin invites Julia = Claudia to eat out……Kristin arranges a bus ride to the restaurant and asks every „employee“ in their company that sells hairdressers‘ products what they want to have for dinner and where they shall go (Food preference: international cuisine) The employees decided to go to a Chinese restaurant. Relevant words: food/meals/sea food, prawns, tuna, rice, pineapple etc…Other words that came up in the text: food poisoning, indigestion, chuck up, sick to death of, spoon, pay, book, booking, vegetarian etc…TOPICS : FOOD/INVITATION Use of shall.
  • Spontaneous phone conversations : to order a meal, to invite someone etc.
    After the last break in the afternoon, some of the ladies left the classroom and headed home, so we were able to work a bit more intensively, although the remaining class participants were kind of tired. That’s why we decided to translate a part of the song by Celine Dion: “Think Twice”.Some grammar structures were also reviewed at this point.

Regards and have a nice day with the ladies on Monday, Torsten!

Roberto

15

Hello Roberto, thank you very much for your detailed report. It’s obvious that you enjoy working as a language trainer and that’s the most important ingredient to success in this job. There is one thing I’d like to ask you: In the future please send me a copy of the handouts you give to the group. This will help me use the vocabulary you have already introduced and shows the group that in addition to the reports we also exchange the materials we hand out. As for me, I used a text I took from the Internet and I’ll post below.
Here is what we did yesterday:

  • review of the alphabet (most have it down to an art now while a few still struggle)
  • review of grammar basics (personal pronouns, be-verb, possessive adjectives)
  • numbers from 0 t0 100
  • telling the time

We started with a memory game in which everyone had to say “My name is Frank and I like fish”. The next person had to repeat “His name is Frank and he likes fish and my name is Mike and I like mangos”. So everyone had to make a sentence saying what they like and the object or thing they liked had to start with the same letter as their name.

Then we did the following dialog: A) Good morning, my name is Frank Gates. I’m from the United States. I live in Chicago, Illinois. What is your name?
B) My name is … and I’m German so my native language is German. I also speak some English and understand a little bit of Russian. What languages do you speak?
A) I speak English and very little Spanish. What is your job, …?
B) I work for an international company as an HR specialist.
A) Oh, that’s very interesting. Actually, I’m interested in HR services.
B) Really, please tell me more.
A) Well, I’m the owner of a medium-sized company and I need 50 more employees for our new production plant in Leipzig, Saxony.
B) I’m pleased to hear that and I’m sure we can help you.

I dictated the dialog in German having it translated by the group then the group acted it out in pairs and then they extended and modified it. We discussed a few grammar items and I asked additional questions related to the conversation.

Then I handed out the following text to the more advanced learners telling them to get prepared to dictate some of the keywords to the group:

People First HR Services delivers high quality business solutions through three areas of practice:

Recruiting
Career Management
HR Consulting
People First HR works in partnership with clients to develop strategic plans and best-practice solutions that are tailored to meet each client’s unique needs.
Our dedicated team of HR professionals have real world, senior level experience across a range of industries, complemented by strong academic credentials and professional designations.

Our consultants work with leaders in Manitoba’s business community and have solid national connections. We are perfectly positioned to assist your company with recruiting, rewarding and retaining the best talent the province, and the country, has to offer.

Recruiting
Our experienced recruiting consultants provide specialized recruiting services and a wide range of search techniques to help find a solution that best meets our client’s organizations unique hiring needs. People First works in partnership with clients to learn about their business objectives and works to ensure that the selected candidate(s) has the talent and skills needed to succeed and achieve the organizations long term objectives. People First HR gives our clients exclusive access to the city and country’s top talent spanning a variety of industry sectors.

Permanent Recruitment: We focus on fit and retention. From our initial meeting to learn about the role and company culture, to developing a recruitment strategy, to sourcing of candidates, to presentation, and assisting with offer of employment, our goal is to work with you throughout the entire recruitment process.
Project/Contract/Interim Staffing: Many companies face the need to fill multiple positions in a short period of time. Whether it is junior professionals or senior level managers, we make sure to recruit the candidates you need to meet your business goals through times of change.

Talent Marketing: Our clients are the first to know about top quality candidates that we encounter. If you have a recurring need for a certain skill set, let us know and we will contact you when we encounter someone who might be a fit.

Service Offerings: We have recruiters dedicated to finding candidates in the following areas.
Executive Search
Finance & Accounting
Information Technology
Engineering & Technical
Supply Chain
Healthcare
Human Resources
Sales & Marketing
Office Professionals
Contract Staff

We practiced the pronunciation of the keywords and translated them. I told the group that you would continue reading the text with the group on Monday. Please also ask them some simple comprehension questions related to the text.

We finished by using the second lesson of ‘Learning English without a Book’ by the Hueber Verlag.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture in Political Science[YSaerTTEW443543]

16

Hi dear English trainers,

here I am again with a new update on the new English class on Friday 19. The class consists of about 18 women with different English skill levels. The best ones are to my mind the youngest women in the group, although the oldest lady seems to remember a lot of the lessons she had at school perhaps 35 years ago. Other ladies confessed that they had not used English for more than twenty years. There is also a special case: Tatjana from Ukraine is a beginner both in English and German with some basic skills that need brushing up. That’s why I started the course with a motivation exercise for everyone splitting the class into different groups made up of refreshers and beginners. I suggested that the refreshers should help the beginners.
The first exercise after a shoirt introduction of each participant in class was collecting enough English words related to a specific topic. We practised the numbers from one to ten and then began playing dice in order to determine a specific lexical area:

  • travelling, means of transport(ation)
  • holiday, free time
  • work
  • office
  • family
  • food and drinks

Each group collected a list of words ranging from 10 to 20. Apart from one group (the one responsible for the topic “family”), I decided to write down all of the words they had collected and explained them to the class:
a) Pronunciation: the advantage of learning patterns and comparing words with each other: bite and bit…The sound of the vowel i in these two examples, or in kite and kit, write and written, invite versus invitation. This time, I focused the pronunciation of some vowels: a, i, o.
b) Spelling words (NATO Alphabet, sounds of letters): the importance of spelling words: row or roe?? to or too? etc…Context significance.
c)Translation of the words, specially for the absolute beginners. Repetititive exercises
d) Association exercises with known words: train = Zug and training = Ausbildung, Schulung How come? I suggested that they should think of some German words with the stem "ziehen, zog, gezogen, Zug etc…) and find out some analogies in this context. After a short while we found out: Erziehung and Zug (von der Lokomotive gezogen). As usual, I expounded the reason why English has got such a heterogeneous vocabulary: Latin/French/Anglo-Saxon/Scandinavian roots. Lots of examples picked out of the words they had just collected were used then to elucidate this aspect: a > ee: sleep, street, steel, eel etc… Training of some patterns I apply in class to learn vocabulary in a fast and efficient way, in addition to the aim of increasing their memory power.

We worked in a dynamic and interactive atmosphere and I was even able to persuade some of the most sceptical participants towards their English skills. This is one of my goals when I am training a class: self-motivation, producing light bulb moments (aha- reactions or experience) combined with a pinch of humour and entertaining.
Peggy and Sandy wrote down their words on the whiteboard concerning family. I stressed that we have to begin with the basics (grammar and vocab) and increase progressively this basic vocab. However, at the same time we should try to learn technical words and read short texts related to Customs/Import/Export gradually. Here are some words: international trade, customs, import, export, transport, business, be busy, work, offic, law, routine (check) etc…

Grammar: Present simple, ending s: Conjugation pattern. Oral exercise in class, role- play exercises, pantomime in the foreign language classroom. Some of the verbs: sleep, drink, sit, stand, read, write, iron, wash etc…

We’ll continue learning, playing, reading, writing, smiling? next week.

Regards,

Roberto

17

Dear Roberto, thanks a lot for your great work and your detailed report. I’m sure you’ve had another pleasant and productive day with the group today. Best regards from Nordhausen. Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEFL listening discussions: How does Dr Beech characterize the assistantship?[YSaerTTEW443543]

18

Hi dear trainers,

here I am again to give you a report on my English session on Monday 22. I’d like to summarize the most important aspects we covered on that first day of the week, Monday. On Monday some participants need a bit of patience until they are quite “awake” and fit. However, all of them were able to take part actively in the course since the very beginning.

We started with the text Torsten had partially read with them already: People First HR Services. I revised this text and explained every single new word:
deliver, provide; high quality, high standard; solution and solve.
recruiting, recruit, recruiter, recruitment, staffing, hiring, firing, consulting, consult; partner, partnership > the ending ship = -schaft: membership, citizenship, partnership, fellowship, comradeship, companionship, leadership readership etc…
in partnership with;
clients and customers; develop, development; best practice; tailored to (zugeschnitten, maßgeschneidert: tailor = Schneider); meet someone’s needs/requirements; dedicated; profession, professional; senior level experience; experience, experiment, expert; academic credentials;
Verb: lead = leiten : ea /i: / = German /ai/ = ei: heat, mean, lead, spread /spred/.
common, community; assist, help, assistance, be of assistance; reward, retain;

Verbs ending in -tain: abstain, contain, detain, retain, maintain, entertain, pertain. Most of these verbs end in -halten in German: (sich) enthalten, beinhalten, aufhalten, aufrechterhalten, unterhalten etc…
Verbs ending in -sist: assist, consist, persist, insist, exist, desist. Some of them end in -stehen in German: bestehen (= existieren, oder beharren auf…beistehen etc…).

offer: an offer and the verb to offer; offer, provide, deliver.

specialized = fachlich, fachbezogen; wide range of = breite/große Auswahl/Palette an/von. Search and research. Objectives and goals. Ensure and make sure. Achieve, achievement, reach: a goal, an objective; long-term, medium-term, short-term; exclusive and inclusive; access; spanning, span, variety.
Permanent, interim, temporary, provisory; fit, retention, retain; encounter, meet, find.
skills, experience, know-how, skill set; to be a fit etc…

Some of these words were repeated in the course of the day. I insisted on the correct pronunciation of some words in English, specially those words that have a different accent in spite of being similar in both languages: quality, strategy, industry, professional, province, position, initial, presentation, candidate, talent etc…
Then I went on with a repetition in the form of a crossword puzzle regarding HR vocabulary. I left a handout on the front desk.

Across:

  1. I’ve informed the …office about the salary increases.
  2. Sue had a baby, she is on …leave now.
  3. I’m late. Now I won’t be able to punch … on time.
  4. The didn’t … him. He quit.
  5. The company has … … all its summer employees.
  6. Please … to it that the report is in by tomorrow.
  7. Don’t call me a … I’m telling the truth.
  8. It really made me … when my boss left the company.
  9. Don’t you think I deserve a good … in my salary?
  10. Why didn’t you come to work … time?
  11. He wasn’t happy with his job so, he handed in his …
  12. He has one … and two daughters.

Down:

  1. John’s accident occurred on the job. He’ll get …
  2. Due to financial problems we have to … 10 people.
  3. Last night they … dinner at Maxim’s Restaurant.
  4. We offer extra discounts as an … to ous retailers.
  5. He … last year after 35 years with our company.
  6. We’ve decided to merge and to … our resources.
  7. What type of …plan do you have for employees?
  8. Victoria … all the new employees before giving allowing them to work alone.
  9. …, thank you. I don’t want a drink right now.

Solutions: Across: payroll, maternity, in, fire, paid off, see to it that, liar, raise, on, notice, son; Down: compensation, lay off, ate, incentive, retired, pool, pension, trains, no.

All of the new words (increase, raise, rise, punch in, retire, quit etc…) were also explained. I must admit that most of the participants in this group are really motivated and willing to learn.
We spent the morning reading, pronouncing “hard” words, translating the text, solving the crossword puzzle, repeating old and new words, constructing new sentences, talking and writing and using the computer and dictionaries.

After the lunch break, we played with fun learning cards:
Game idea: the players uncover an animal card and try to assign the card to a continent where it has its natural habitat. Finally you are rewarded gold coins for correctly assigned animals. The aim of the game is to collect the most gold coins.
The animal cards were shuffled and put in a pile face-down in the centre of the table. The seven continent cards were arranged face-up in a circle around a pile of animal

I asked Kristin to read these instructions. Margit translated them then. The names of the animals were spelt out. There were only two failures!

After a full, industrious morning, the participants were able to relax a bit and enjoy the game in a dynamic and pleasant atmosphere. I reminded them to access the english-test.net exercises (in and after class/the course!!)

Regards,

Roberto

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Good evening Roberto, thanks a lot for your excellent and valuable input. It’s great to you had such a dynamic session with both the HR as well as the Import group. As for the Leipzig trip with the Nordhausen group, what do you make of Uli’s proposal and Scott’s suggestions? You can find them here: Leipzig field trip

Many thanks, Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two students (2)[YSaerTTEW443543]

20

Hi dear trainers,
I’d like to give you a report on our last English session in Delitzsch with the Import/Export group.

We started with the description of some objects found in class, e.g. on the desk: a bottle, a notebook, a dictionary.
Then, we continued constructing simple English sentences using these words:
I see a bottle…The bottle is on the table…It contains water…Are you thirsty? Yes, I am…Would you like to drink some water? Please give me some water etc…

Then we continued with the definition or the revision of some grammar basic aspects found in the examples given in class:

  • verb to be/not to be.
  • article the, usage.
  • some useful prepositions (in, on, at) and conjunctions (and, but, or)
  • present simple versus present continuous. Ending -s (3. person singular) + -ing (progessive tense). Signal words. Lots of exercises in class.

We picked out some useful sentences of the grammar exercise concerning present simple and progressive and acted the situations depicted in them:

  • I asked Heidi, Anna and Sabrina to start talking about something in order to play the role contained in these sentences:
  • Can you hear those people? What are they talking about?
    Then I asked Anja and Peggy to tell the class what Sabrina, Anna and Heidi were talking about.
    Another example:
  • Hurry up, it’s time to leave. OK, I’m coming, mom.
    This time I asked Ivette and Ulrike to play this role in class.

Petra and Ivonne played this other one:

  • Can we stop walking soon? I’m starting to feel tired.
    Both stood up and started walking in class in order to clarify this example.

Other example sentences: I hear you have got a new job. How are you getting on?, The water is boiling. Can you turn it off?

All of the sentences contained in the grammar exercises were translated. The new relevant vocabulary was explained and some new examples were given.

I assigned different organizational tasks to two groups in class in order to structurize the progressively acquired grammatical and lexical skills:
Anna, Ivonne and Peggy take on the lexical part we continue increasing in class: translation into German, classification into general and specialized (customs) vocabulary.

Gudrun and Ivette take on the grammatical part.

These two above-mentioned tasks should be performed by means of the computer. Then we can make some copies and give them to the whole class.

We read the following text in order to understand simple English structures: articles, nouns (import, export, customs), verbs (bring, sell, work), prepositions (in, at, on, for etc), conjuntions (but, or, and), adverbs (mostly, well etc):

"Most countries have a Customs Service. The customs service works mostly at ports, airports and the countries borders to make sure that people do not bring things into the country which are banned, or that the right amount of tax has been paid on goods that can be imported (brought into the country).

Some customs officers work at a post office. They do not meet the public, they examine letters and parcels which have been sent from outside the country, to make sure nothing illegal is being brought into the country.

In the United Kingdom the customs service was called “Customs and Excise”. This is because it was once two separate bodies. The Customs service collected tax (called customs duty) on goods being brought into the country, for example brandy from France or tea from India. The Excise service collected tax (called excise duty) on goods made in the country, for example Scotch whisky or Irish whiskey. Today all cars and lorries must pay a tax to be allowed to drive on the road. Although most people call this “road tax” or “car tax”, it is officially called “vehicle excise duty”. ":

The text was read aloud and slowly and translated into German.
As usual, I gave some tricks how to learn new vocab (specially for German people). We spoke about the high frequency of some “little” words such as THE, A, IN, OF, TO, AND etc…

We also role-played a short and simple phone conversation in class.

In the afternoon, we discussed some vocab regarding an average office.

All in all, we had a productive, creative and intensive English session.

Regards,

Roberto

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