UNIT 1

Dear B1 24 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 until June. That is, in total, you have 8 months. In 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 Basic, yet I would like to remind you that it exists in every skill. Thus, we will do various integrated activities using our knowledge. The coursebook is New Language Leader Intermediate, which consists of 12 units, and each unit focuses on Vocabulary, Grammar, Functions, Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing.

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)

UNIT 1: PERSONALITY






Adjectives

adventurous	moody
ambitious	organized
assertive	quiet
bossy	reliable
cautios	sensible
energetic	sensitive
likeable	serious
sociable	talkative
thoughtful	reserved

Compound adjectives

easy going	self-confident
open minded	strong willed
even-tempered	warm-hearted
hard working	level headed

Prefixes

antisocial	outperform
bicycle	redefine
discomfort	expresident
overshadowed	overrated
misunderstand	monorail

Present Simple vs Present Continuos

Click here for an interactive exercise


State Verbs

Look at the list below. You may download it if you need.

State verbs from hacersivil

Week 01 s.present&present-cont. exercise 2 from hacersivil

Week 01 s.present&present.cont-exercise 1 from hacersivil

Best Method Actors 

Lincoln Trailer

Alice in Wonderland Trailer

Week 01 present simple- present continuous from hacersivil



Imagine you are going to meet a famous person, dead or alive (e.g. a famous leader in history, a film star, a pop star, a character in a book) Write down at least five questions you would like to ask this person. Use pictures so that we can understand what the person looks like.


Best