Languagelab.com Blog » PaulSwin

Language Lab Soap Opera Productions Presents…..

PaulSwin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:57:37 +0000

Last week, our advanced English class learnt about different kinds of questions used in holiday situations.
We talked about how these questions not only give information but also can express target =”_blank”>emotions from anxiety to anger. We also role played different situations where we had to
negotiate something.

In this week’s lesson, our English teacher gave us a challenge: To make the first episode of a
soap opera
using the language we have learnt.

First, we talked about the characteristics of a good soap
(colorful people, families, greed, betrayal, secrets were some of the answers,) Then, we talked about the
characters for our soap
and the story which had to include a holiday situation and a negotiation. Finally, we took pictures of the characters
acting out their parts and added dialogue to the pictures.

We have some great stories including 2 sisters (who don’t know
they are sisters) who meet accidentally at a space airport terminal and a rich spoilt American girl who meets a poor (but very handsome)
artist. Already the sparks are beginning to fly!

Tune in next week for another exciting episode.

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If I were a rich man: more wierd and wonderful grammar lessons in a virtual world

PaulSwin — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:31:07 +0000

This weeks English lesson was all about using the
‘if conditional’. Now I must admit it’s not usual to find ‘exciting’ and ‘if conditional’ in the same sentence but I have some
talented teacher colleagues here in Languagelab and this lesson was put together by the Captain
- Language Lab teacher Chris
(Captain Jay Bird Beck). Together with some very clever students, we all had a great (and very informative) lesson.

We began by reviewing 3 different kinds of sentences using ‘if’ in the sentence. These were called the 1st, 2nd and 3rd conditional.
We looked at the grammar structure of each sentence and what meaning each sentence had. When we were confident of how to use the sentences,
we then paired of into groups to play some great games. In one game, we had to use the sentences to open a treasure chest with a big prize.
In another game, we again had to use the sentences correctly to climb some stairs and reach the prize at the top.
It was very cool because we got to learn about the different kinds of sentences and then practice using the sentences with fun games.
If you want to practice some if conditionals, then click
target =”_blank”> here

By the way, the title ‘If I were a rich man’ is a song from a famous musical. Which musical?

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When Harry met Sally (well sang to her really)

PaulSwin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:20:15 +0000

cheese factor 10 and rising

Where could you find a piano, a music and film expert, an English teacher and a technical director who can’t sing and a group of very talented Language Lab students? The answer was ‘When harry pronounced Sally – The Musical. Our latest event combined pronunciation and stress skills with music to produce the first musical ever done in Second Life! ?

First, everybody watched the scene from the movie ‘When Harry met Sally’ where Harry and Sally meet in a restaurant. The students discussed what feelings Harry and Sally had towards each other and why. Then, we started to look at the sentences in more detail and discuss the meanings of words. Finally, all our students practiced saying the sentences. In particular, we focused on questions and rising intonation.

When all the students had finished, Griffin (Language Lab’s city resident and music expert) taught everyone how to sing the sentences with the music he had made for the event. To do this, we had special giant screens with all the words and how they should be sung. We also had Griffin singing and playing the piano. After a bit of practice, everyone started singing. It was brilliant!! We found that there was a little delay because of internet connections so we couldn’t all sing at the same time but this made it very funny. Congratulations Language Lab students for performing the first musical in Second Life and thanks to everyone for participating. Maybe next time we can do Terminator- The Musical?

3D teaching: Is it virtual or real?

PaulSwin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:17:53 +0000

Since I started training and then teaching at Languagelab.com (in Second Life) , colleagues and friends have been intrigued with the idea. They have asked me many questions about teaching avatars in a 3D world. I am sure that many teachers around the world would ask me the same questions. That´s why I have decided to write a weekly entry trying to answer these questions based on my experience.

What are these questions? Well, some of the ones I will be referring to are:

What does it take to teach in SL? What do you need to know?
How do you communicate with the students?
Do you know your students ‘names and faces in RL (real life)? How do you relate with your students? Are they real people? (believe or not I have been asked this question on Facebook )
What kind of activities do you plan?
What kind of materials do you use? Do you create them yourself?
Is teaching in a virtual world very different from teaching in RL or from teaching web-based online courses?

These are some of the topics I will be dealing with, as well as my own personal reflections about lessons learned while planning and teaching.

To start with, I have to say that my first thought was “Wow, this is going to be difficult, I wonder if I will ever be able to cope with all the multitasking implied in delivering a lesson in SL”, and let me also share that I have always been a multitasker. However, even though it has been a challenge, after a couple of months I now feel confident and happy with my work at Languagelab :-)

Before I call it an entry, I am going to share this photo gallery from one of my Spanish classes:

BubbleShare: Share photos – Powered by BubbleShare

See you next week!

By the way, I teach Spanish :-)

Travel writing in Yosemite Park

PaulSwin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:13:31 +0000

The purpose of this lesson was to introduce language lab students to different styles of writing used in a travel brochure. This was part of our upper intermediate / Advanced Travel & Leisure module. We looked at 3 different paragraph styles commonly used in English travel brochures:
Introduction: Use of descriptive adjectives and future tenses for predictions.

Things to do: Sequence of events and future tenses using the word ‘enjoy’.

What to remember: Use of imperatives and ‘must/ have to’ to show obligation.

We met near the airport and looked at some sample paragraphs and in groups talked about the general grammar structure and organization of the paragraphs. For example, the grammar structure in the sample introduction was generally future tense and showed how you will feel if you went there: (you’ll love, you’ll never want to leave, will be happy). Also, there were lots of descriptive adjectives that made the writing colorful: (luxury amenities, classic cabin décor, perfect cabin retreat, tempting local attractions)

Then, we had to decide how to write paragraphs in Second Life. We used Chathats (special hats that show sentences above your heads) and projectors to show the finished paragraphs. We also created our own little ‘Virtual Yosemite Park’ (the real one is here) with waterfalls and mountains. We even created a campsite with some tents and a fire!

Finally, working together, we wrote our paragraphs and displayed them on screen projectors…