Sunday, September 27, 2009
400 discs given away in Bolivia
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Hope ESL in Zambia
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
August update
- In the last 5 months we have personally distributed 1650 free copies of the Hope ESL disc to a global group of mainly missionaries, teachers and students.
- The Indonesian support version of the ESL material is complete. (It is similar to the Mandarin version you can find in the root directory of each disc. See attachment.)
- We partnered with Darlene & Mark Zschech's organisation Hope Rwanda in Africa. "We were able to personally distribute many (hundreds) of disks individually to teachers - who asked for them. And to all christian school teachers who were [at the Rwandan Education conference] as well as through the Association of Christian Teachers. Everyone who has seen it has loved it and raved about it." The Rwandan Ministry of Education has asked that the disk go for approval to be entered into the national curriculum for national distribution and training.
- We have been just been granted limited rights to develop the South African film "Faith Like Potatoes" into ESL material www.faithlikepotatoes
.com/.
- This month we rejoiced that the Hope ESL was offered for free download for the first time due to an urgent request from Senegal Africa. The link to download the complete software is http://www.roofbreakers.com/
TheHOPEesl.iso .
- Fill in a 5 min survey about your thoughts & experiences
- Consider donating to cover the postage for others so that we can continue to offer free copies. (www.roofbreakers.org)
- Copy the Hope disc and give it away.... to people learning English or to missionaries/organisations who work in high need areas.
- Pray that God would bring someone across your path personally whom you could tutor/disciple through the Hope ESL.
"I have just come across an excellent tool for those who teach English as a second language (ESL). It is a free CD, based on the principles of the language learning expert, Greg Thompson, which teaches English based around the chronological gospel film "The Hope". It works in a somewhat similar manner to the Rosetta Stone language learning series, with students interacting with audio and text in English. I have had a bit of a play with the CD and it looks excellent, with the religious content gently spread throughout the lessons in a natural way. In the process of learning English the student will also learn several key biblical stories."
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Southern Ontario Cooperative of ESL Ministries REVIEW
REVIEW:We begin by playing “Go Fish” using picture cards made from the scenes of the film we will be watching later in the class. Files of pictures are included on the CD for each lesson. I print out the pictures and make a deck of “Go Fish” cards for each group. In groups of three to five, the students deal out four or five cards to each player and put the remaining cards in the “fish” pile. Next, they take turns going around the group asking questions about each others’ picture cards in order to find the cards that match the cards they have in their hands. If the person asked the questions has a matching picture card, she hands the card over, but if she doesn’t have a matching picture card, she tells the questioner to “go fish”, and the other person has to take an additional card from the fish pile. The first person to match all the cards in his hand wins the game. At the end of the game, each person holds up her matching pairs and describes the pictures to the group.
Following the game we go to the “Watch It” part of the lesson and watch the film segment the first time.
For the second viewing of the film segment I hand out the script of the film with missing words and a word bank. They watch and listen and fill in the missing words. We take up the exercise and watch the segment a final time to give them a chance to read and follow along with the script of the film.
After we have watched the film segment we discuss some questions about what we have seen and heard.
If the group had difficulty understanding the film we go to the “Get It” part of the lesson and there the students can see and hear each sentence of the film script again. There is also a word bank in this part that lists the key words with their definitions and also a sound bite for pronunciation practice. Additionally, students can listen to native speakers giving descriptions of the various scenes from the film and get more information about the scenes.
My favourite part of the lesson is the “Own It” part. This part has five interactive games and quizzes. A laser pointer is useful for this part since it can be passed around the class easily as students take turns pointing to the right answers on the screen. The first game is called “Match the Picture” and up to fifteen pictures from the film segment are placed in a grid on the screen. A narrator describes one of the pictures and a student has to point to the picture described. We go around the class until all the pictures have been described. The next game is called “Order” and a list of six or seven phrases appear on the screen in a jumbled order. The narrator says the sentence and a student has to point out the correct order in which the phrases were spoken. The “Keyboard” exercise is basically spelling practice. After a keyboard appears on the screen, the narrator repeats a phrase or sentence and then repeats a key word from the sentence and tells the player to type the word using the keys on the screen keyboard. In all the activities, correct responses are rewarded with a happy beep and incorrect responses with a low buzz. Next on the list of “Own It” activities is the “Quiz”. Multiple choice questions appear on the screen and students choose the correct answer, a, b, c, or d. The final activity is called “Journey”. A scene from the film appears on the screen and then a command like, “Click on the eye of the camel” is given and a student then points to the eye of the camel to complete the task.
The “Use It” part of the lesson includes more activities, mainly for pairs and small groups, as well as discussion questions and selections from the Bible that relate to the chapter from the Hope film.
The “Other” part of each lesson has many more activities like crossword and word search puzzles which students can do individually on their computers at home or in a computer lab.
The authors of the CD have granted permission to copy and distribute the CD. Since we cannot do all the activities in class, I always give my students copies to take home for practice.
I highly recommend this innovative curriculum. You can order a free copy of the latest edition from www.englishgift.org
Colin Brewster
SOCEM
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Importance of English language
Learning the English language is important in today's world. When you consider that approximately 375 million people in the world speak English as a mother tongue, an equally large number of people speak English as a second language, and around 750 million people speak English as a foreign language, English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. In addition over one billion people currently learn English. In fact, it is estimated that one in four people learn English as a foreign language and you could be one of them.
English is the global language of communication. Businesses use English to communicate with companies from other countries and with today's global media learning English free could not be easier.
Also in today's international market learning English as a second language has almost become a necessity as English is the language of communication in International Business, and International Politics. Most academic publications across a range of fields are in English. Therefore to study English, learners need to look no further than the internet or media which is dominated by the English language.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Revolutionary Tendencies blog
IN LITTLE MORE THAN TEN YEARS ST. PAUL ESTABLISHED THE CHURCH IN FOUR PROVINCES OF THE EMPIRE GALATIA; MACEDONIA, ACHAIA AND ASIA... TODAY IF A MAN VENTURES TO SUGGEST THAT THERE MAY BE SOMETHING IN THE METHODS BY WHICH ST. PAUL ATTAINED SUCH WONDERFUL RESULTS WORTHY OF OUR CAREFUL ATTENTION, AND PERHAPS OF OUR IMITATION, HE IS IN DANGER OF BEING ACCUSED OF REVOLUTIONARY TENDENCIES. --ROLAND ALLEN
Hope Rwanda distributes Hope ESL disc
In the meantime - we were able to personally distribute many (hundreds) of disks individually to teachers - who asked for them. And to all christian school teachers who were there as well as through the Association of Christian Teachers (ACT). Everyone who has seen it has loved it and raved about it.
