Tuesday 15 December 2015

Don't forget the Lesson Blog...

Just a reminder that the Park Language Lesson Blog is currently tracking the A2 year, and there is an archive of last year's AS course in its entirety:


https://parklang.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/new-blog-as-language/


That's the link to the first post, and if you click lower left you can march forward through the year.


This will make great revision for A2 students, especially those resitting the AS modules.


For A Level students, the concepts are the same and you might like the explanations there as a second way through the material we're covering. The sequence is slightly different, and crucially anything exam-specific will not apply to you, but it's still basically the same subject! Have a browse and see what's there.

Friday 11 December 2015

Passive Form

Okay, cringey video, but some good advice and interactive practice to help get to grips with the passive form. It's very easy in fact -- it's just a verb form! -- as long as you don't try to make sense of it through the everyday meaning of the word 'passive', or try to take short-cuts in identifying it.


The page here helpfully discusses alternatives that might serve similar purposes, too.


http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/grammar-videos/passive-forms

Simple, Compound, Complex and Minor sentences

Really clear explanation here, in the context of considering your own essay writing.


Missing is the fact that sentences can be compound and complex at the same time, or multiply compound and complex -- with many clauses coordinated or subordinated. It also disregards the 'minor sentence' -- that is, a word, phrase or fragment on its own, marked out as a sentence but with less than a full clause.




http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/sentences.htm