Thursday

Idea from: LTest L Pete MacKichan (Thessaloniki - Greece)

Here are a list of Tests of Business English.

Cambridge ESOL - Business English Certificate - 3 Levels
http://www.cambridge-efl.org/exam/business/bg_bec.htm

LCCI - English for Business - 5 Levels
LCCI - English for Commerce - 3 Levels
http://www.lccieb.com/

Pitman English for Business Communications - 3 levels
http://www.pitmanqualifications.com/

Anglia Examination Syndicate GPB tests - four levels.
http://www.anglia-examinations.co.uk

ETS - The Test of Professional English (TOPE)
http://ets.org/tests/etest.html

There used to be a test called the Oxford International Business English
Certificate (OIBEC) but it seems to have vanished without trace, but
there is a sample certificate here:-
http://www.geocities.com/philip_hediger/OIBEC_1st.html

Idea from: TESL-L member: James Trotta
Visiting Professor at Catholic University of Korea



I recently did a lesson in which I asked my students to list everything they knew about to words (obtain, obsession) that had recently come up in class. I let them use their electronic dictionaries.
We pooled the knowledge and I wrote it on the board. I asked if students knew the words well enough to use them. The answer was no.
I said that we were going to find out what needs to be known in order to "know" a word. I gave them entries from Cambridge learners dictionary and Oxford Collocations and had them add to their list of things they knew about the words. Now (hopefully) they have a better understanding of what it means to know a word.


Idea from: TESL - L

Metaphors for explaining the teacher/student relationship to learning.

Learning to drive, swim or type. Teachers can impart the knowledge...but you can't make a student learn to swim on dry land.

Barry Bakin wrote:
Suggest the analogy of throwing and catching a ball. The teacher can throw as many
balls at the student as he or she wishes but unless the student makes an
effort to hold out a hand and close fingers around the ball at the
moment of impact the likelihood of catching the ball is minimal. Notice
I didn't say impossible. It is of course possible that a carefully
thrown ball will land at a place on the body and not drop to the ground,
but not likely.