A Natural Way to Run

Dear B1 06 Students,

Congratulation! Now, you are a member of ITU Family..... After you have proved that your English is proficient enough, you will be able to start the education in your departments, attend student-exchange programs, do research, and the like.

It is great to have lessons with you. It must be a bit confusing for you since you have so many lessons and teachers each week. What I see is that you are self-motivated, which is crucial while learning English. Since we do not have a class picture, I have not uploaded one yet. but will take your pictures and upload them to our blog. Well... Let me explain why I decided to open this blog. To be honest, there are so many reasons:

•  Since you are a tech-savvy, I thought you may use interactive tools easily.
• Due to my workload, I have limited time, so this blog may be a great help to stay in touch with you.
• Your strength: You know grammar by heart. You remember every single rule indeed.Yet, you need  variety and practice. The assignments and suggested activities will help you improve your English.
• I hope by means of the activities on our blog, you will be able to see your strengths and weaknesses.
• I have taken some online courses provided by Oregon University, and the British Council. I believe that if I put into practice whatever I know, it will be helpful to improve your English.  

What is our class profile?

As you know your level is Intermediate, which means you are able to express yourselves clearly despite the limited lexical knowledge and minor grammar mistakes. You are almost adults (17+) and eager to start and complete your academic career. There are 35 students in the class, and most of you are not from Istanbul.

What is the setting?

Thank you for choosing Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where we provide a one-year intensive English program for our students before they start their faculty. It is such a crowded school. We run two different preparatory programs; one for the ones who will study at ITU, and the other for the ones who will study both at ITU and a sister school in the USA.

Apart from preparatory programs, we also have English lessons for Continuous Education Program called SEM shortly. Our classrooms are equipped with a projector and sound system. We do have wireless internet in the whole building. You can use our computer lab, writing center, dining hall, medical center, parking lot, service buses, and library whenever you need.  As part of school facilities, you may also use the health club on the main campus.

 You are so lucky to be in the heart of Istanbul. The location is amazing, you can go everywhere easily or enjoy the historic building.

What are the course goals?

As we all know you are required to prove that your English level is eligible enough. Thus, we offer you an intensive program till June. That is, in total, you have 8 months. At the end, you may take our national exam or an international exam. Your priority might be passing one of the exams, yet remember that you need to use English efficiently in your career and social life.

My course is Reading and Vocabulary. The coursebook is Focus 3 Reading and Vocabulary by National Geographic, which consists of 12 reading texts. 

What do you need?

We provide all the materials including books and handouts. What you need to do is to follow lessons and complete assignments. If you need an additional source, please feel free to use our library or ask for help. I have already provided plenty of activities. If you have not tried them yet, in spite of the deadlines, you can start to explore them.

Best

Class Teacher Hacer Şivil     sivilh@itu.edu.tr (just in case)


Reading 1: A Natural Way to Run

Vocabulary and Phrases

terrain	transfer		in shape
collapse	trace	arch	are known for
impact	reinforced	heel	has an adavantage over
distict	fundamental	sole	in an effort to
stride	barefoot	various	on the market

Click here to play a vocabulary game!!!



HOMEWORK


Dear All!

It is important to revise what we have done so far.Please complete the following tasks
1- Revision  from 4-13
2- Exercises C, A, and B on page 12 and Use of Vocabulary on page 13
3- Extra reading and vocabulary activities  (below)

Unit 1 vocabulary activitiy from hacersivil


Have a nice weekend!...