eslwriter

Rob Whyte is a university teacher, teacher trainer and writer.

City Hall CT 1

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This Friday we will start the first of a few lessons to improve your critical thinking.

Conversation and Critical Thinking Lessons

  • Week 1: Arguments
  • Week 2: Fallacies of Relevance
  • Week 3: Fallacies of Insufficient Evidence
  • Week 4: Analogies and Review
  • Week 5: Case Study
  • Week 6: Critical Thinking Test 

This Week’s Lessons

Today we begin a series of lessons that will help you think and speak more clearly, logically and precisely.

This is the beginning of our lesson on critical thinking.

  1. The first step in that learning is to understand arguments.
  2. The second step for today is to understand the difference between facts and inferences.

Inference and Facts

Here is a quick exercise to understand inferences. Look at this photo.

Read these statements and mark, true, false or can’t answer.

  1. This is graduation day for the Thomas family.
  2. The father is proud of his son.
  3. The sister looks up to her brother.
  4. This is a prosperous family.
  5. The son has just graduated from law school.

ESL Intermediate Conversation – Week 7

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This is review week for the ESL conversations students.  So let’s review the exam questions so the students can learn the English words, phrases and answers.

ESL Conversation Question 1

From the book, page 8 4b. Read the revised paragraph. Pay attention to the final S sound.

ESL Conversation Question 2

Say three words for each box. You’ll get one or two of these boxes during the exam.

Nouns Verbs Adjectives
1 syllable
2 syllables
3 syllables

ESL Conversation Question 3

Adverbs of Frequency. Answer a question and speak for … at least …. 30 seconds.

How often do you …. ? Do you ever … ? Are you ever … ?
  • drink black tea
  • iron your clothes
  • come to school
  • get up late
  • get together with friends
  • go to a public bath 
  • a temple
  • an English newspaper
  • public transport
  • an amusement park
  • hotteok
  • go to the gym
  • bored at school
  • confused in English class
  • excited about the future
  • interested in your major
  • satisfied with your home
  • exhausted by Friday

ESL Conversation Question 4

Make a quick word list for each question.

  • Eight kinds of food in a buffet restaurant
  • Seven kinds of fruit
  • Six side dishes in a Korean meal
  • Five things made from corn
  • Four kinds of tea
  • Three kinds of food in a carton

ESL Conversation Question 5

Answer the question and talk for 90 seconds.

  1. What was the happiest moment of your life?
  2. Who has been the biggest influence on your life?
  3. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?
  4. How has your life been different from what you imagined?
  5. How would you spend an ideal day?
  6. What was your Favorited subject in high school?
  7. You have one wish. What would you wish for? Why?
  8. What’s your favorite movie of all time and why?
  9. If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?
  10. What’s the most expensive gift you’ve ever received from someone?

ESL Conversation Question 6

Define and explain a few words from the vocabulary list.

Writing Class Week 7

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This week the class will learn new English writing skills and review material. These activities will help the students learn the English tools they need for the mid term exam. The exam questions are below; print the exam questions from this doc.

ESL Writing Activity #1

This is an activity which we did not have time for last week. This writing activity will be on the mid term exam.

Choose two things which might not normally be compared. Find three ways to describe how they are similar. Write a full paragraph with a topic sentence, proof and a conclusion. 

Here is an example by a middle school student, about

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