Darusha’s Network

Your Children Know More Latin Than You

• June 17th, 2010

The beautiful language of Latin has been undergoing an incredible revival of interest lately. Why has this formerly moldy language acquired a new luster?

What constitutes a “revival of interest”?

Last year 148,000 students applied to take the National Latin Exam, according to their website (www.nle.org). In North Carolina there was a 156% increase in the number of students taking the exam, in Nevada an 84% increase. You didn’t even know there was a National Latin Exam, did you? Get with the times! What’s old is new, and Latin is cool again.

Pop-culture has had a big hand in this. The Harry Potter books and movies — insanely popular with adolescents — feature Latin prominently as the language of magic. There is even a complete Latin translation of the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. If your child is reading “Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis” you can feel pretty confident about the quality of instruction they’re getting at school.

The more serious side of Latin has been in the movies recently, too. Mel Gibson’s controversial film The Passion of the Christ featured actors speaking in Latin and Aramaic. Although the Bible was not originally written in Latin, Latin became the language of the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently the Latin Vulgate served as the standard Bible for centuries. Inspired by The Passion, many Christians have begun learning Latin so they can read the Vulgate directly.

Resaerch has shown that students who take Latin score higher on their SAT’s, a big incentive for parents. Latin specifically improved English comprehension scores and was shown to sharpen language skills in general.

The study of Latin has significant benefits, and despite (or because of) its arcane reputation it is becoming more common in schools and universities. If you aren’t curious about it now, you will be when your children ask you to read them Harrius Potter at night.

Daniel Detlaf has been infected with Latin-mania — if you are bitten by him you will likely contract this dreaded disease as well. For more information on the study of Latin, including verb conjugations, noun declensions, and basic grammar, visit: www.latin-nerds.com

Effective IELTS Preparation Online – What Should You Expect?

• November 3rd, 2009

The IELTS exam is a difficult test but not an impossible one. It tests the English-language skills that students actually need to succeed in graduate programmes, and its assessments are rigorous and thorough.

That said, IELTS also expects each of the four tasks – listening, reading, writing and speaking – to be done in a particular way. It doesn’t necessarily specify what that way is. Consequently, many ILTS candidates with high English language skills score more poorly than they might if they knew the “rules.”

The prime criterion of a good IELTS preparation course is that it trains candidates in the ways IELTS wants to see things done. Also, because IELTS often asks tricky questions, it is imperative that anyone who wishes to achieve a high score learn the tricks, how to spot them, and how to overcome them.

To decide whether a particular IELTS preparation course is fully adequate, look for specific guidance in the following aspects of each of the four tasks:

Listening

• Check to see that the different demands of each of the four sections of the Listening Test is explained.
• Then make sure that there is a good explanation of the question types that are most often encountered in Listening. Although any of the question types used in the Reading Test can also be used in Listening, the Listening Test is more likely to focus on form-filling, summary gap-filling, short-answer, true-and-false and fact-and-opinion questions. You should find instruction not only on those question types and how they work,
  but also on the indirect ways IELTS often asks questions, the way it relies on rewordings of things that are spoken – so that you have to understand the same idea expressed in two different ways – and words before and after key ideas that change the meaning of words supplied in questions.
• There also should be tips on how to anticipate answers before you hear them.

Reading

• Make sure that there is thorough explanations of all the IELTS question types, how they work, how IELTS sometimes asks them, and how you should answer them.
• Check that there are at least three readings of appropriate IELTS length and difficulty, so you can learn to time yourself to read a passage and answer 13 questions in 20 minutes.
• Look to see if there are useful tips on how to read quickly and with the single purpose of answering questions correctly. Normal advice about “speed reading” is not enough, because the issue is not how fast you read or even how much of the passage you understand – just how many questions you answer correctly.

Writing Task 1

• Look to see that there are complete explanations about how to comprehend information presented in graphic formats such as graphs, bar charts, pie charts and diagrams. You must know how to “read” all six types of graphic data correctly, or you will make inaccurate observations that are the fatal flaw of Writing Task 1.
• Make sure there is a complete, sentence-by-sentence explanation of the report form. No matter what data you are
  asked to describe, the report format is the same and must be understood completely and thoroughly.
• Check to see that all the vocabulary you need to describe information precisely is provided. There should be appropriate vocabulary lists, indications of how to combine words, and clear explanations of the different kinds of vocabulary different features of graphic information require.

Writing Task 2

• Make sure that the IELTS preparation materials teach you what kind of essay – opinion, explanation, or discussion – is required to answer the IELTS question properly. Writing the wrong kind of essay, no matter how well, could cost you as much as a whole band point.
• Check that the formats for all three essay types are presented in full, with the names and functions of each of the sentence types precisely described. Following the expected format is key to writing a good essay.
• Look to see that the preparation materials include ample exercises. Most students need practice to learn how to write the different kinds of sentences – from hooks to thesis statements to supporting sentences – that work together to make a successful essay. Make sure that the course you take includes plenty
  of exercises so you can get the practice you need.

Speaking

• The Speaking task has three distinct parts. Make sure the nature and function of all three is clearly explained.
• Check to see that there is clear explanation of the “Long Turn,” the central section in which you must speak by yourself without any help from the examiner. There should be clear directions about how to give your answer to that critically important question shape and form.
• Look to see that the preparation material gives you concrete tips on how to turn question-answering into real communication and natural conversation.
• Make sure that there are explanations of more than just proper verbal language. Good, appropriate body language
  can be almost as important in this task, which is the only one that puts candidates face-to-face with the examiner.

Svend Nelson is a university lecturer and internet entrepreneur. He is director of UniRoute Limited, a Hong Kong based company with offices in Bangkok and London providing IELTS online preparation, a study abroad program and other web-based courses for
online university preparation. Svend lived and worked in various countries across Latin America, Europe and
Asia before settling in Thailand.

Great Books to Listen to: a Perfect Way to Fit them into Your Life

• March 27th, 2009

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Pimsleur Greek (Modern) I Part 1 by Dr. Paul Pimsleur might be a gratifying book, however busy lives make that difficult to do. Long journeys to the office and other activities might take up enormous portions of time everyday. Your favorite hobbies get set to the side for other more urgent projects. You could simply use the hours spent doing housework to get up to date on novels you can’t get around to reading. With user-friendly downloads, it’s simple to indulge in Mary Mary by James Patterson by Download Audio Book Online, or audiobooks brought to life by Lois P. Frankel without ever picking up a book. Nowadays multi-tasking has become the norm. Audio books such as Pimsleur Albanian Compact by Dr. Paul Pimsleur for sale from Download Audio Book Online take advantage of the dead minutes in our daily routine, whether it’s minutes passed waiting at the dentist’s surgery or driving the kids to music lessons. Audio books are now for sale to download as mp3 data files for instance Pimsleur English for Korean Speakers I Part 1 by Dr. Paul Pimsleur, so grab your mp3 player and take the opportunity to hear a best seller or a fantastic novel, like audio-books by Jerry Stearns & Brian Price without dragging cumbersome books around. Audiobooks provide various benefits like the ability to rent or buy many titles and peruse them at your leisure. Do you wish to study French? Try audio-books! It’s easy to catch up on the very latest business practises, or you can enjoy mulling over current thoughts in religious belief. Audio-books exist in a massive variety of titles and genres. Whether you like history, or you are crazy over love stories or even if your interested in self-help, most can be downloaded immediately. Choices are wide open; you can easily take a subscription to a rental program or buy them outright.

Reading will always have its place, however a more convenient way could be the myriad of audio titles now available. A author or actor can enhance the enjoyment of many novels. Simply reading a novel is not the same as enjoying audio titles recounted by Janette Oke, with nuances presented during a rendidtion. Your reading experience will be increased by listening to an audio book like Murder on the Run: A Ronnie Ventana Mystery by Gloria White and can convey more than words on a page.

So the next time in future should you are thinking of buying the hard copy of a book you might not get around to reading, think of an audio-book as a better option.