23 September, 2007
This Week’s Contest: Socializing with Students
In our most recent contest, we asked you to tell us how you assess the language level of new students for placement into an appropriate group. Most of you wrote that you did it on the basis of a short chat, rather than any formal software or written/oral test. However, Diane J. in Hamburg, Germany combines both. After making small talk with the prospective student, she then gives him a short paragraph written in German and asks him/her to translate it as accurately as possible into English after they read it through once in German. The paragraph contains quite a number of different grammatical elements, and so it gives Diane a chance to see how much the student knows about grammar, word order and vocabulary in just a couple of minutes. Here’s the English version:
"Manfred is 47 years old. He works for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg. He has worked there for ten years. Yesterday, he bought a new Golf from the company for a cheap price. Next week he will begin his holiday, and he will drive his new car to Italy. He has been to Italy many times, because he loves Italian food. Two years ago he visited Rome; last year he visited Venice; and next week he will visit Tuscany. He is working very hard this week to finish all his projects before he goes on holiday."
Diane stresses that you should get a native-language translator to create the L1 version for the student. Good job, Diane: you get five free English Toolbox credits!
The topic for the next contest is socializing with your students. Do you get together with your students for meals, drinks or weekend activities? Tell us why you think this is either a good or a bad idea via e-mail to info@englishtoolbox.com by 30 September, and we’ll pick the most interesting argument and post it here. The winner will receive five free English Toolbox exercises, even if s/he isn’t a subscriber!
"Manfred is 47 years old. He works for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg. He has worked there for ten years. Yesterday, he bought a new Golf from the company for a cheap price. Next week he will begin his holiday, and he will drive his new car to Italy. He has been to Italy many times, because he loves Italian food. Two years ago he visited Rome; last year he visited Venice; and next week he will visit Tuscany. He is working very hard this week to finish all his projects before he goes on holiday."
Diane stresses that you should get a native-language translator to create the L1 version for the student. Good job, Diane: you get five free English Toolbox credits!
The topic for the next contest is socializing with your students. Do you get together with your students for meals, drinks or weekend activities? Tell us why you think this is either a good or a bad idea via e-mail to info@englishtoolbox.com by 30 September, and we’ll pick the most interesting argument and post it here. The winner will receive five free English Toolbox exercises, even if s/he isn’t a subscriber!
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