Classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages are
offered for adult Nashvillians in classrooms provided through the generosity of the members of the Belmont
United Methodist Church, at 2007 Acklen Ave., Nashville, TN 27212. Our primary class meets Tuesday
and Thursday mornings from nine to noon. We have a very diverse and interesting group of students, and we welcome new students. For further information,
go to contact us on the navigation bar and send me an e mail.
Click here to download map of parking in the vicinity of the school
Happy
Mardi Gras! We celebrated by parading through the other classes and throwing beads. We're happy to be together.
Victor was our concertmaster. Brazilians know
all about Mardi Gras.
BELMONT
ESL WRITES 2019 On
Thursday, April 25, a special celebration was held in the Community Center of Belmont United Methodist Church to celebrate
those who had contributed to the Writers' Showcase. Students, their families, and members of the community were invited.
Winning stories from each class were read by guest speakers. Refreshments were served. The winners in our sixth
level class were Luis De Medeiros from Brazil, Saška Ivanovic-Lilic from Serbia, and Nigora Sadikova from Uzbekistan.
I'm really glad that I wasn't a judge, because all that I read were great! Some were funny, as Luis's was, and some
were lighthearted. as Saška's was, and some were inspiring, as Nigora's was. They were all different, and all
wonderfully written. Congratulations to our winners and to all the winners from all the classes.
The
class 6 winners of the Belmont Writes essays for 2019. Pictured are Nigora Sadikova from Uzbekistan, me,
Saška Ivanovic-Lilic from Serbia, and Luis De Medeiros from Brazil.
BELMONT ESL WRITES 2020 Because
of the viral pandemic, the Belmont ESL Writes 2020 has been cancelled. What a pity. The essays I have recieved
are wonderful, and all of them could have been winners. At least the authors got the benefit of improving their English
by writing. The losers are those who never got to hear these interesting essays.
Homework Homework is an important part of the learning process, and I expect every student to do his
homework every week. When I read over your written work, I can identify areas in which the whole class needs further instruction.
This helps me to plan my lessons. In addition, I can find some individual problems that I can help you with.
There are three
homework assignments this week. They will be about the same every week. 1. Choose five of the phrasal verbs that I gave you Tuesday, and write one sentence
using each of these phrasal verbs; a total of five sentences. You may send your homework to me by e mail. If you send
it as text, I will print it out, correct it, and return it to you next week. If you send it as a MSWord attachment, I
will correct it using track changes, and e mail it back to you. You may also simply write your homework on paper and give
it to me later this week. We will discuss the phrasal verbs and work on the substitutions next week. 2. Read an article in a newspaper or magazine, and be prepared to present it to
the others at your table on Thursday. I want you to look at your listeners, and tell them about the article. Don't
read to them. 3. Read
chapter 1 of Call of the Wild, by Jack London. The language isn't difficult. It's a very interesting
story, and it's a classic of American literature. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I want you to read it rapidly,
to get the sense of it and to enjoy it. I want you to use your dictionary very little, or not at all. Guess at
the meaning of new words. You will read the chapter at home, then we will discuss the chapter in class, and then
we will watch a video of that chapter. Study questions are available below to help you understand the story. You should easily answer these questions as you read the book. Knowing these answers will be useful to
you when we discuss the book in class. You need not write anything for this exercise.
Click here to download study questions for Chapter 1 of Call of the Wild
Click here for a map to my house, 724 Summerly Dr.
Grammar
Book As
I mentioned in my introductory letter, we will use Understanding and Using English Grammar, by Betty Schrampfer Azar.
We are using the third edition in class, but the fourth edition, available here in .pdf form is very little different.
You may access the entire book any time, free. We don't do a lot of work on grammar in this class, but we do some.
Click here to access pdf version of Understanding and Using English Grammar, 4th edition.
(Click on the pages themselves to turn pages.)
I would also suggest that you print out pages 20 and
21, a list of common irregular verbs. Unfortunately, the commonest verbs are very likely to be irregular.
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