May Festival 2012: Les Nations
Friday 11 – Saturday 19 May

Les Nations: The Extraordinary Musical Life of Paris takes place between Friday 11 – Saturday 19 May. Highlights include a very special day of music, food, wine-tasting and dance at the Sheffield City Hall Ballroom, the return of the Elias String Quartet for two concerts, actress Maggie Steed inviting us into the world of the Paris salon as host Winnaretta Singer, and two concerts that recreate the spirit of the Louis Moysés Paris cabaret-bar Le Boeuf sur le Toit (The Ox on the Roof).

To view our May Festival concerts visit our what’s on page or receive a copy of the brochure in the post by emailing marty@musicintheround.co.uk

Their website is www.musicintheround.co.uk

See you there!

With the exams now just around the corner I thought it would be useful to post a resumé or all the revision techniques we’ve talked about in our revision workshops.

Thanks to all of you who added your ideas … they’re great!

Remember, the key to a good grade in your language exam is “little and often”. Try to do quarter of an hour’s practice per day – that will give your brain time to process the information. Try “mixing it up” – do some listening one day, some activities from a website another, learn some vocabulary on the third day, etc.

And of course, make sure you do plenty of PAST PAPERS – the more, the better. You’ll come across the same words again and again, and as we discussed, you need to learn a fact three times and forget before you’ve retained it. After that, you know it for good!

So, here are the ideas we came up with for learning vocabulary …

Work through past papers and make a glossary of any new words you come across. www.wordreference.com is a useful online dictionary.
Type lists of new words and delete the English definitions you know until all the definitions are deleted.
Write lists of words on post-its (5 per post-it is a good number). Stick them round the house – every time you see them, translate the words. Once you know them, change the post-its.
Record lists of words on your phone, leaving a short gap so that you can say what they mean in English.
Follow us on Twitter (@BabbleandSpeak). We tweet 5 words per day in French, German and Spanish. The words are tweeted at 7am so you can learn them on the bus on the way to school, at break, or whenever is convenient.
Go online! Here’s a list of useful websites. Some are specifically for GCSE students, some are for any learners, but they’re all good and have fun activities which will help you to learn.

French
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/french
www.s-cool.co.uk
www.revisioncentre.co.uk/gcse/french
www.wildfrench.co.uk/GCSErevision.htm
www.gcse.com/french

http://zut.languageskills.co.uk/intermediate/year10.html

www.accesslanguages.com

German
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/german/
www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/german.html
www.gcse.com/german

http://gut.languageskills.co.uk/intermediate/year11.html

Spanish

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/spanish/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

http://www.revisioncentre.co.uk/gcse/spanish/index.html

http://www.revisiontime.com/gCSESpan.htm

http://oye.languageskills.co.uk/index.html

Work with a friend – two heads are better than one! Make a pact that when you come across a new word you’ll text or tweet it to each other. Get together to revise the new words you’ve learned – you could play some of the memory games we played in our revision sessions, eg. Pass the bomb or Kim’s game.
If you get brain drain, watch a bit of TV, but in the language you’re studying. Put on a favourite film or box set but change the language to French, German or Spanish. You could put the subtitles on in French, German or Spanish – that way you’re practising reading as well as listening.

We really hope these techniques work for you.

Good luck in your exams! We’ll be thinking about you on exam day.

Katie, Sonya and Manue
Babble and Speak Ltd

Our colleague, Dr Anneli Beronius Haake, has years of experience of using the internet for teaching and loves it. Here she writes about the advantages of this type of distance learning. Many thanks for your contribution to our blog, Anneli.

More people than ever before can engage in distance studies and receive tutoring online. This is due to access to internet, headsets and online telephone software (e.g. Skype). But some learners can feel a little bit skeptical about the idea of learning a language via Skype, and feel more comfortable with the idea of sitting face-to-face with their language teacher. Teachers can also feel uncomfortable with the idea of using this new technology for teaching. Therefore, I would like to share some of the benefits of learning a language via Skype and the internet, from my perspective as a language teacher as well as from the perspective of the learner.

1. Location

Learning online means you can learn a language even though there are no teachers available locally where you live. Generally speaking, it can be quite difficult to find a language teacher, unless you live in a major city that has language schools with your chosen language available. The other option is to travel to the country in question and do an intensive course, which is highly effective but may be on the expensive side for many learners. Therefore, learning over the internet means you can still go ahead and learn, regardless of where you live. This is particularly important for those learning less common languages, which can be hard to come by even in major cities.

For language teachers, it means an immense freedom in that you are not geographically restricted in terms of who you can teach. I have taught people from all over the world, from my house in Nottingham.

2. Listening and speaking skills

Whereas some may see the lack of face-to-face tuition as something negative, my experience is that it can actually be beneficial for the learner. The learner automatically focuses more on listening to ‘the music of the language’, and the experience will be mainly auditory. This builds confidence for both speaking and listening, and it stops the learner relying on body language – which often happens when trying to communicate face-to-face. Of course, webcam can be used too, if there are situations where this would be beneficial.

3. Using the chat box

Learners can type directly into the chat box, therefore receiving immediate feedback on their writing as well as on their speaking. In Skype, there are other features that can be used during a language lesson. Both learner and tutor can use the chat box in Skype in real-time, to check spelling and to emphasize other aspects. I often use the chat box to illustrate emphasis in words. Only last week, I wrote to one learner to visually illustrate the emphasis of the word ‘studerar’ in Swedish, which is ‘stu-dEEEEEErar’. A few times I have had completely text-based sessions, where the learner and I have practised writing to each other. I also use it every time I run conversational practice sessions with more fluent students, as I can type out new words as we go along and the learner can save the chat record to their computer after the session, which is very much appreciated.

4. File transfers, sharing screens/links and giving examples

Sitting in front of your computer means more flexibility. The tutor can instantly transfer files or documents that can be useful in addition to the lesson material. Both learner and tutor can share links and use images to exemplify meanings and concepts. A picture says more than 1,000 words, as the saying goes, and I find it highly effective to sometimes be able to quickly find a picture on the internet that illustrates exactly what I mean. It also provides the learner with a more varied learning experience. Skype also gives you an option to share your screen, which I use when I want to show websites, or play around with grammar using Powerpoint, for example. I share my screen, and the learner can see exactly what I am doing, whilst also seeing and hearing me. This level of flexibility is not possible in face-to-face tuition.

5. Saving time

Learning online saves time and money. Travelling cost is none. Travelling time is, if not completely eliminated, minimized to however long it takes to turn the computer on, or walk down the stairs to the office/kitchen/lounge, or wherever the computer is located.

Some people are worried about the technology failing (internet crashing and Skype not connecting). This happens very rarely, in my experience. I would say that probably 97% of all my Skype calls are great. Of course, sometimes technology fails – my broadband provider had some local issues a few weeks ago, resulting in me doing one lesson via phone and re-scheduling another one. But this is rare, and I would say you are equally vulnerable to failure sometimes if you travel to a teaching location (traffic issues, car breaks down, etc). In other words, I think it is wrong to think that IT technology leaves you more vulnerable than travelling geographically. Both have their risks, but work fine most of the time. And today, most people have powerful broadbands and internet connections are not as unreliable as they were 10 years ago.

http://bit.ly/Hmotou

German is notorious for having crazily long words. If you don’t know how to deal with these, your one thought when you run into them will be “Aaagh!!”

However, once you know the logic behind these words there’s really nothing to them. All you need to know is that in German you can stick lots of words together to form one long word. To understand what they mean, you just need to divide the long word back into its component parts.

Can you work out what these compound nouns mean …

die Bushaltestelle
die Fußgängerzone
die Armbanduhr
der Apfelbaum
der Augenarzt

ANSWERS …

Bus - halte stelle = bus - stopping - place (bus stop)
Fuß – gänger zone = foot – going - zone (pedestrian precinct)
Arm - band uhr = arm – band - clock (watch)
Apfel – baum = apple – tree
Augen - arzt = eye – doctor (optician)

There are some really weird-looking compound nouns, especially ones where one of the component words ends in a double letter and the next part starts in the same letter, meaning that they have three of the same letter in a row.

Here are a couple of examples …

die Schifffahrt = Schiff - fahrt (ship journey)
die Imbissstube = Imbiss - stube (snack bar)

So there you go, there’s nothing to it! For more examples compound nouns, click here

And for some really funny, made-up German nouns (bear in mind that these are just spoofs and don’t actually exist!) click here

We are still lacking Greek and Russian tutors in Nottingham, so I’m on the search.  Please get in contact if you have experience of teaching these languages.

Enjoy the sunshine language lovers.

That time of year has come again when the GCSE and A level exams are just around the corner. If you’re going to be sitting your exams this summer, and unless you’re as cool as a very cool cucumber, you’re probably beginning to feel the pressure.

So, what can you do to beat the panic and do your absolute best in your exams? Here are some ideas which may help …

1. Get focused.
Realistically, the next few months are going to be hard work, so you may as well embrace it! Make a pact with yourself that your main priority between now and the summer will be your exams. Imagine yourself getting your results and being over the moon with what you’ve achieved.

2. Get organized.
Spend an afternoon sorting out all your books and folders so you know where everything is. Throw out anything that isn’t relevant. Clear your workspace and make sure it’s free from noise and distraction.

3. Become an expert in the exam you’re taking.
Ask your teacher for a summary of the exam you’re taking, the different modules it consists of, what you’ll need to do for each module and the mark scheme, ie. which questions are worth the most marks. If your teacher can’t give you this, visit the exam board’s website and download the exam specification.

4. Schedule your time.
Work out a revision timetable which is realistic, and which allows you time for enough sleep, regular (shortish!) breaks, a night out every so often with your friends and regular exercise. Give yourself some family time, too – hopefully they’ll be your best support network while you’re in the thick of revision.

5. Avoid procrastination!
Unfortunately, randomly surfing the net, updating your facebook status or sharpening pencils do not count as revision! If you find yourself frittering away your precious revision time, try to get back on track straight away. If this means moving away from the computer screen, so be it.

6. Get to know the exam papers.
Leave plenty of time to do lots of past papers before you sit your exam. You may be able to get these from school or if not you can download some from the exam board’s website. This is one of the most useful ways to revise because the questions are similar each year, so the more past papers you do, the more comfortable you will feel with the format of the paper.

7. Don’t listen too much to what your friends are saying.
If your friends are starting to panic about their own exams and are feeling guilty because they aren’t working hard enough, they might try to drag you down too – it’s human nature. Don’t be sidetracked by people trying to make you feel embarrassed about working hard. Just think of that long summer holiday after the exams when you can catch up with all your socializing with a clear conscience!

8. Be your own best friend.
Be kind to your body and your mind. Get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water and eat a healthy, balanced diet. This isn’t the time to burn the candle at both ends. You need to be on top form if you’re going to get a top grade!

If you follow me on Twitter and learn the 3 words a day, that will mean that you’ve revised approx 300 words by the time your exams come round in June – can’t be bad!

So, follow us @BabbleandSpeak and get your revision off to a good start!