Hi everyone,

Christmas is just around the corner.  Decorations and Christmas lights are up throughout Tokyo!   I always love the Christmas season in Tokyo!

Explaining Maps:
At the beginning our our lesson, we continued with visual aids.  We learned how to explain maps.  When you explain a map, you need to: (1) Introduce and (2) Explain it. 

When you (1) Introduce a map, you can say:
Here is a map of _____.

When you (2) Explain a map, you can explain:
a.  its location
b.  its capital city
c.  major cities
d.  features

Please see the handouts from class for the "map expressions. "

Interactions Feedback:
As usual, you're doing a great job with your interactions.  I'm glad to see that you're paying more attention to your group during the skills activities.  Many of you are very helpful towards your group members.  

As part of your feedback, we looked at examples of elision.  This is when words join together to make one phrase when you speak quickly in English. 

Examples:

• What do you want?  = Whaddya want?
• Let me have it.  = Lemme have it.
• I want a vacation.  = I wanna vacation.

Homework:
1.  Interactions
2.  Listening Report #4 (due November 28)
3.  slide presentation

No blog comment this week!

Hi everyone,

It was another busy class today since we focused on  listening discussions and visual aids.

Visual Aids:
At the beginning our our lesson, we continued with visual aids.  We learned how to explain a graph.  Many of your will need to include graphs in your presentations, so you can use these steps to help you:
1.  Introduce
2.  Explain
3.  Emphasize

There are a variety of expressions you can use to explain your graphs, and these are in your handouts from class.  We learned three expressions in our lesson:
1.  This ___ graph shows _____.
2.  The x-axis shows _____ and the y-axis shows _____.
3.  The key point is that ____.

Interactions Feedback:
As usual, you're doing a great job with your interactions.  I'm glad to see that you're giving clear instructions and managing your time effectively.  For next week's interaction, remember these points:  

Speak loud enough

1. Can you speak louder, please?
   

Ask for repetition

1. What was that?
2. Can you say that again?

Homework:
1.  Interactions (see schedule)
2.  Blog Comment #6
3.  Listening Report #3
4.  Start your slide presentation

Blog Question #6:

1. How do you feel about the progress you've made with your listening skills this semester (e.g. interactions and listening reports)?  
   
2. What can you do on your own after our course is finished to maintain your listening skills?

• Write 10-12 sentences.
• Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
• Submit by Wednesday, November 13 by 6:00pm.