18-22 October, 2010: B2 Class

Lesson 3

In this lesson, we reviewed the letter to the pen pal and the structure.  Then, we answered some questions about ourselves (How old are you? Where exactly are you from? What's your best friend's name? What year are you in at school? and What are some of your favourite things?).  Then, we took turns telling the class our answers to these questions (in complete sentences).  


**Homework**
Imagine you have a pen pal.  Using your answers from the questions we talked about in class, and using the same form as the letter on page 14, write your own letter to a pen pal.


Lesson 2
In this lesson, we reviewed how to ask and answer where people come from.  I told the class about my friends Frank and Roland and we asked and answered:

Where's Frank from? --> He's from Hawaii.
Where's Roland from? --> He's from Germany. 

After that, we did a short speaking activity in which we had to practice asking and answering where people come from.  When we finished the speaking activity, we had to group people according to the language which they speak based on the countries they come from.  The countries and languages were:

Australia --> English
USA --> English
Germany --> German
Austria --> German
Spain --> Spanish
Mexico --> Spanish 

At the end of the lesson, we reviewed capitalization.  Remember that the first word of a sentence is always capitalized.  So is the word "I", as are the first letters in people's names, in cities, and in countries.  Then we read a pen pal letter and corrected any capitalization errors.

i am marie. --> I am Marie.
we live in mongolia. --> We live in Mongolia. 
I like ulaanbaatar. --> I like Ulaanbaatar.  

Lesson 1


In this class, we reviewed the stress and pronunciation for some words and nationalities.  The bold syllable in the following words are the ones that get stressed (remember that the stressed syllable is the syllable that sounds louder or that gets said with more force):

Italy
Italian
Brazil
Canada
Poland
Austria
American
Mexico
Canadian
Brazilian
Chinese
Russia
Japan

We also learned how to use the verb BE in the negative form (with the word "not"):

I am not = I'm not --> I'm not Russian!
You are not = You're not  = You aren't --> You aren't Chinese.
He is not = He's not = He isn't --> He isn't from Turkey.
She is not  = She's not = She isn't --> She isn't listening.
It is not = It's not = It isn't --> It isn't from Canada.
We are not = We're not = We aren't --> We aren't checking this blog regularly.
They are not = They're not = They aren't --> They aren't passing notes in class.

Afterwards, we learned how to make a question with the verb BE.  To make a question with the verb BE, all you have to do is remember to put BE at the beginning of the sentence and put your subject after it.  So,

Altaa-teacher is from Mongolia. --> Is Altaa-teacher from Mongolia?
Marie-teacher is Canadian. --> Is Marie-teacher Canadian?
Italian shoes are really nice. --> Are Italian shoes really nice?

At the end of class, we learned how  to ask and answer questions about where people come from.  I told the class about my friends Linda, Leone, Mecca, Maria, Dongwoo, and Mohammed, and we practiced asking and answering where they come from:

Where's Leone from? --> She's from Sri Lanka.
Where's Linda from? --> She's from Ecuador.
Where's Mecca from? --> She's from the USA.
Where's Maria from? --> She's from Denmark.
Where's Dongwoo from? --> He's from Korea.
Where's Mohammed from? --> He's from Kuwait.