English Pronunciation Song

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Finally, which rhymes with enough -
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Excerpt taken from "The Chaos" G. Noist Trenité

Proverbs 7

If the blind lead blind both shall fall into the ditchاذا قاد الأعمى أعمى مثله كلاهما سوف يقع فى الحفره
If you sing before breakfast you will cry before dinnerاذا غنيت قبل الإفطار سوف تبكى قبل العشاء (الدنيا غداره)If you want a thing well done, do it yourselfاذا أردت أن يتم الشىء على أكمل وجه فافعله بنفسك
If you want peace, be prepared for warاذا أردت السلام فكن مستعداً للحربI
ll-gotten gains never prosperالمكسب الحرام لا يثمر أبداً
Ill news travels apace(Fast)الأخبار السيئه تنتشر بسرعه
It is no use crying over the spilt milkلا جدوى من البكاء على اللبن المسكوب
It is too late to lock the stable door when the horse is stolenمن المتأخر جداً أن تغلق باب الإسطبل بعد سرقة الحصان

English Teachers' Barriers to the Use of CALL

Computers have been used for language teaching ever since the 1960's. This 40-year period can be divided into three main stages:
(a) Behaviorist CALL,
(b) Communicative CALL,
(c) Integrative CALL.
Each stage corresponds to a certain level of technology and certain pedagogical theories. The reasons for using Computer-assisted Language Learning include:
(a) Experiential learning,
(b) Motivation,
(c) Enhance student achievement,
(d) Authentic materials for study,
(e) Greater interaction,
(f) Individualization,
(g) Independence from a single source of information,
(h) Global understanding.
The barriers inhibiting the practice of Computer-assisted Language Learning can be classified in the following common categories:
a) Financial barriers,
b) Availability of computer hardware and software,
c) Technical and theoretical knowledge,
d) Acceptance of the technology.

Tips for making peer observation of teaching work

• Be committed: As with all continued professional development, you will get out of the process what you put in;
• It is important to subscribe to both the ethos and the practical issues of peer observation of teaching, such as ensuring you create the time and space necessary for it to be effective;
• Avoid judgmental approaches and negative comments; focus instead on finding ways to develop both your own and your colleague's teaching practice;
• It may prove useful to change your peer observation partnership on a yearly basis - this will allow you to experience a range of different ideas and approaches over time;
• Agree your observation criteria, or focus, and framework in advance;
• Organise a pre-observation meeting, so you can brief each other, before the observation;
• Set aside time for a post-observation de-brief meeting, where you can discuss the observation and participate in a joint reflection process;

Guidelines on peer observation of teaching

Peer Observation of Teaching

(POT)

The purposes of POT are:

1. To contribute to the provision of a high quality educational experience for students
2. To enhance the importance attached to good teaching
3. To encourage all staff to reflect on the effectiveness of their own teaching and identify their development needs
4. To foster discussion and dissemination of best practice
5. To increase staff awareness of the whole student experience
6. To identify any weaknesses so that they can be remedied.
   POT should be part of a system of scholarly peer review of teaching that is normal for the support and development of high quality teaching, just as it is with research.

Principles:

1. Peer observation is for all teaching staff and is separate from other systems such as appraisal and probation.
2. Any implication of inspection or monitoring should be avoided. It would undermine the trust between peers that is essential between an observer and a teacher if they are to make, accept, and reflect on observations made about the teaching.
3. The emphasis should be on the student experience and how learning can be enhanced.
4. Information about the observed teaching should be kept under the control of the teacher observed. It is for him/her to decide if any record is kept or any further use is made of it.
5. The observer should treat the observation as confidential.
6. A group of teachers or a department should decide to pool the information from observations only if there is unanimous agreement.
   

Procedures:

Procedures and paperwork should be minimal, to avoid unwanted form-filling and filing. Nonetheless, the scheme adopted should give enough guidance to the participants about:

1. How observations are arranged (e.g. at random, mutual pairs, triads), and when they happen
2. A pre-observation discussion (to explain the context and aims to the observer and agree what part, if any, the observer will play in the session)
3. What observers should concentrate on when observing e.g. a checklist, a form for observations through time. (Many published checklists and forms for observations list the characteristics of lectures or seminars; they are available from Staff Development & Training. These may need to be adapted to the type of teaching and the subject. Where used, checklists and quantitative scales should not dominate the process, they should serve as a reminder of basic features of effective teaching in the context.)
4. A post-observation discussion
5. What written feedback is given (e.g. a simple report on what went well and what could have been different in the session) and what happens to it (e.g. the single copy should kept by the observed teacher for their own purposes).
6. What public record is kept of the observation for QA purposes (e.g. a departmental record of when it occurred and by whom).

TWENTY CLASSICAL TEACHING MISTAKES

1. Guess What’s In My Mind. As a student this one drives me nutsI consider this game dishonest. If you ask a question, you should care about the person’s answer. The best questions (unless it’s a review for a test) are those the speaker does not have a definitive answer to. If you find yourself asking others to guess what’s in your mind, I think the most obvious thing to do is to tell your audience to guess what’s in your mind or to give them the answer and move on.
2. Poll Taking. Virtually every teacher I have observed makes this mistake frequently. They ask "does everyone understand?" or "can we go on?" or "do you remember that?" And three "smacks" who always nod their heads affirmatively nod their heads affirmatively and the teacher assumes these three speak for the entire class and continues. If you want accurate class feedback to an important question, you should take a quick, but accurate, person-by-person pole.
3. Competing with self. This mistake is almost as ubiquitous as the previous two. Its most frequent manifestation is that the teacher has already passed out the worksheet and now s/he is trying to make some unrelated point to the entire class." In private you can have honest discussions with students, but "arguments" in front of the class harm the integrity of the professional role. "Let’s talk about it after class" is a much safer out.
4. Disciplining a student in front of peers. I have never had a student who was a discipline problem when confronted alone. I have never found a "safe" discipline problem when confronting a student in front of his/her peers. Don’t put them in that predicament of being "cornered."
5. Apologizing Don’t ever apologize. And I mean by that don’t ever make excuses in front of the class. "I forgot the worksheet." I couldn’t get the movie projector."Sometimes the lessons with missing components work for no explicable reason. So don’t apologize, justify, defend. No use making things even worse.
6. No wait time after questions. I think every teacher makes this mistake every class. It’s okay to wait at least ten seconds so students learn you are serious about soliciting good answers.
7. Not circulating throughout the class during seat work. I know why teachers don’t circulate much during seat work and why they don’t like to do so. Students need to be successful early to reach high standards later.
8. Attention reinforces negative behavior. As much as possible, ignoring the negative behavior and reinforcing other constructive behaviors works more effectively.
9. Teaching stuff you wouldn’t learn.
10. Overcalling the name of a student you are worried about. I recently observed a truly exceptional P.E. class, but his near flawless teacher called one name, "Anthony," over half the times a student’s name was called.
11. Bias in grading tests with names on them. In my undergraduate days I saw a classmate in her freshman year get typified as an "A" student.
12. Taking things personally. One of the radical ideas is the old Postman and Weingarten’s book Teaching As A Subversive Activity was that teachers be required to teach outside their specialty.
13. Red INK. Who decided to use red ink? James Herndon know. It was Noman. Red ink is as indigenous to teaching as unreadable prescriptions to medical doctors. And like unreadable prescriptions, red ink is dangerous.
14. Threats. Many, if not most, books on discipline recommend making conditional statements to students. "If you don’t __________, then I’ll _______." Fill in the blanks. I’m troubled by that approach for two reasons. First, too many teachers learn to make the threat, but don’t follow through. Slow death. Second, as soon as you say, "if you don’t sit down, I’m going to send you to the principals," you’ve backed yourself up against a wall.
15. Asking, "Why are you doing this?" I am amazed how many teachers ask students, "Why are you doing that?" Haven’t teachers read Mad Magazine’s Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions? Why did you hit Sam? Why did you pass that note? What do you think you are doing? Dumb! I hit Sam because he has an ugly wart on his nose
16. Being perfect. I do a rather elaborate oral interpretation of Edgar Allen Poe’s "Telltale Heartyou can see all the artical inthe following site http://arachnid.pepperdine.edu/goseweb/GMSTKES.html

English Idioms

Don`t tempt the evil eye اخزى العين
Don`t wear your heart on your sleeve دارى على شمعتك تقيد
Do or die يا قاتل يا مقتول
Do some one proud بيض وش فلان
Do the dirty on someone قل باصله مع فلان
Dot the i`s and cross the t`s حط النقط على الحروف
Double-entendre كلام محسوس
Double or qits يا طابت يا اتنين عور
Down to the ground متفصل على فلان
Do wonders سوى الهوايل
Do you still have the gall ولسه لك عين
Do your worest أعلى ما فى خيلك اركبه
Drag one`s feet قدم رجل واخر رج
Drat it قطيعه تقطعنى
Dressed to kill لابسه عريان
Dressed up to the nines لابس اللى على الحبل
Drink like a fish صاحب قزازه
Drive someone to an early grave موت فلان ناقص عمر