13 Jan. 2016

Using Courtesy Expressions

Task 1:

Listen to the conversation between two friends at a community centre. As you listen, fill in the blanks with the courtesy expressions you hear.

Courtesy expressions are phrases that are commonly used in daily interactions. They are used in a variety of social situations to greet people and respond to greetings, to signal the end of conversations, to say goodbye, and to sympathize, apologize, and express and respond to thanks.

Lynn: Hi, Julie. How it’s going?

Julie: Prety good.  How about you?

Lynn: Not bad.

Julie: Listen, thanks so much for referring me to Lorraine Holt. I met with her yesterday and she was very impressed with my resumé!

Lynn: It was my pleasure. I was happy to do it. 

Julie: She’s going to pass my resumé on to someone else she knows who is hiring right now.

Lynn: That’s wonderful, Julie!

Julie: I’ll let you know what happens.

Lynn: Great. I hope you get the job. By the way, how is your cat doing?

Julie: Oh, poor Tiger. He got to the point where he wasn’t eating or drinking so we had to put him to sleep.


Lynn: Oh, Julie, I’m so sorry. Tiger was a wonderful cat.

Julie: Yes, he was. I miss him so much. Anyway, I should get it going.Mark is picking me up and he’s probably in the parking lot. Thanks again for you help.

Lynn: Don’t mention it.

Julie: Have a great weekend.
 

Lynn: you too.

Julie: Bye.


Lynn: Bye.  

Task 2:

Think and write other expressions that you are familiar with for the purposes below.

A.   Greetings & Responding to Greetings	Perfect. /I’m fine. /Pretty good
B.   Responding to Bad News	I’m sorry to hear that.  /Sorry for that. / I’m so sorry.
C.   Signaling the End of a Conversation	It’s time to go, have a nice day./  Time’s up, thank s for everything you done./
D.    Responding to Good News	So glad to hear that./ that’s wonderful./
E.  Responding to Bad News	I’m sorry to hear that.  /Sorry for that. / I’m so sorry.
F.   Expressing Thanks	Thank you. I really appreciate your help./ Thanks so much for….
G.   Saying Goodbye	See you later. /See you./ See you soon.
H.   Requesting a favor	Could you do me a favor?  Would you like to give me a hand? Could you help me?

Task 3:

 Let’s practice hypothetical situations. Imagine you are not feeling well and need to call one of your peers at work to cover for you.

Your talk should include the following details:

·                     Greeting

·                     Stating the purpose of your call

·                     Explaining the situation briefly

·                     Expressing thanks

·                     Closing the conversation

Once you are ready, click on this link and record your “imagined” phone call conversation; make sure not to exceed 2 to 3 minutes.

Friday's Assignment

Good morning everyone,

Listen to the radio talk show. As you listen, check to identify whether each caller is for or against the Toronto bylaw.

Record each person’s argument supporting his/her position. Write your opinion.

	Supporting arguments for the new bylaw	Supporting arguments against the new bylaw
Rick For Against	He was happy about that because people would use less plastic bags if the bylaw enacted.
Darlene For Against	Darlene love the idea because she wants pay any higher cost for what she buy and all real cost including whole process
Ed For Against		He against the new bylaw because he thought he has pay enough already and he don’t want pay for plastic bags.
Jane For Against		Jane didn’t agree with the idea because she thought the government should go far enough and ban plastic bags completely.
Your opinion For Against	I supported the arguments because taking care of our environment is everybody’s responsibility.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1.     What is your highest level of education?  

  Master degree of business administration.

2.     Did you study English before you came to Canada? How long?

     Yes, nearly 30 years.

3.     How you’d like to work on your 4 skills (LSRW)--what tasks you’d like to be able to do in the next 6 months.

    Speaking and Listening Skill. 

4.     What language skill is the easiest for you? Please order from 1 (easy) to 4 (difficult).

a.     reading   b. writing    c. listening               d. speaking

 reading, writing, listening, speaking

5.     List three goals or/and reasons for you taking this program.

     Improve my listening and speaking skills in English

     

6.     Underline the skill(s) you want to work on in this class:

Speaking - listening - reading - writing

7.     Choose the most important skill/topic from the list below, and put them in order according to their importance.

Skills/Topics
1)    Assessing your long and short term goals 2)    Assessing your skills 3)    Understanding the workplace culture 4)    Resume and cover letter writing 5)    Obtain a LinkedIn account 6)    Pronouncing English clearly	3
7)    How Canadian society works	2
8)    How to understand speakers
9)    Starting small talks in English	1
10)           Improve writing skills
11)           Talking on the telephone	5
12)           Improve listening skills	4
13)           Practise job interviews
14)           Practise presentations
15)           Learn how to speak at work
16)           Learn idioms
17)           Learn grammar
18)           Canadian culture
19)           other (specify)

8.     What do you think can make our learning environment more effective and easier, for example, being on time in class, or doing your homework on time etc. Write down two to three ideas to improve our learning environment:

1.     Improve listening skills: try to practice understanding every single words in live news.        

3.     Improve listening skills: Grouped the students by every two students and practice small talks in English 

9.     Write a short paragraph to describe yourself and your goals in Canada.

     Though I began learning English from middle school, I can't express my thought and feeling freely in English by now. I can't have a deep conversation with others or couldn't explain the complicated situation and reasons.

  

Friday's assignment

Task 1:

Below are words from the article. Write the correct letter on each line to match the words with their meanings.

1. intention           l	a. to explain, make clear
2. assume             g	b. to give a wrong meaning to; misunderstand
3. empathize         e	c. to call attention to; make important
4. disapproval       d	d. lack of approval
5. misinterpret      b	e. to understand another’s feelings or motives
6. emphasize        c	f. a general rule or idea that is inferred from particular facts or examples
7. clarify              a	g. accepted to be true without proof
8. rapport             j	h. an oversimplified mental picture of a group of people
9. stereotype       h	i. to help something happen
10. claim             k	j. a harmonious relationship with someone
11. promote         i	k. to maintain; say as a fact
12. generalization  f	l. the purpose behind an action or statement




Task 2:

Write a noun for each of the verbs below. Use either the noun or the verb form in sentences.

VERB	NOUN and SENTENCE
perceive	Perception: Some people have rather good sensitive perception
assume	Assumption: Assumption is a common way used by scientists.
empathize	Empathy: Even a murderer can show his empathy in special situations.
disapprove	Disapproval: His disapproval made me felt very frustrated.
misinterpret	Misinterpretation: Sometimes misinterpretation can cause disastrous result.
emphasize	Emphasization: Our teacher has given his emphasization on English learning.
clarify	Clarification: Timely clarification is very important when misunderstanding happened between both sides.
generalize	Generalization: An adult tend to give a generalization whenever he try to understand unfamiliar things or areas.

Task 3: 

Click on this link to record your answer for the following questions. Then, copy the link once you are satisfied with your recording, and paste it on your blog, together with your previous answers.

Talk about an experience you once had when you misunderstood or were misunderstood by another person and that created an argument. What was your reaction and what did you do to resolve the problem?