English Language Center Spring 2015 – Issue #1

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER INSIGHTS

A Newsletter for and about our Students and Faculty

JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2015

What’s up with those Shenanigans? Written by Katie Subra This semester has gotten off to an awesome start and we hope you keep up the energy! The ELC and its friends enjoyed the human hamster ball spectacle at the Shenanigans arcade in La Crosse on January 24th as well as the climbing wall, laser tag and other general shenanigans! In addition, we had a great Conversation Partners Night on February 4th. We have two more Conversation Partners Nights, trips to museums, games, and outdoor adventures planned for you. Not to mention, your teachers aren’t going to go easy on you with the homework. We know you’re up for the challenge! Thanks for being such an outgoing, hard-working, and smiley bunch of students!

Vocabulary Key: 1) spectacle: an event or scene that can be regarded visually; 2) shenanigans: silly or mischievous behavior; 3) to go easy on someone: to make things easier or to not challenge them too much; 4) up for the challenge: willing and able to complete a difficult task

Looking ahead

Conversation Partners

Activities

First Wednesdays – On March 4th and April 1st we’ll meet in the New Center Conference Room

Sunday, March 22nd – NBA Game (Timberwolves v. Hornets and

Wednesday, March 18th – Movie Night at Winona 7

LOOKING INSIDE

Teacher Feature – p. 2 A Word from the Director – p. 2 Student Writing – pp. 3-4 Crossword Puzzle – p. 5

English Language Center Spring 2015 – Issue #1

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A Word from the Director, Dr. Holly Shi

1)    What  is  your  goal  in  life?    To  save  the  world!  2)    What  is  the  place  where  you  wish  to  travel  to?    Why?    Comoros  because  I  love  secluded  beaches.  3)    What  are  your  hobbies?    I  like  to  go  to  the  beach,  practice  meditation,  and  ski.  4)    What  makes  you  angry?    When  I  meditate  and  someone  talks  to  me,  I  get  angry  because  I  want  to  focus.  And  beards.  5)    How  many  times  a  day  do  you  look  at  yourself  in  the  mirror?    Three  times  in  a  day.  When  I  want  to  laugh,  I  make  a  funny  face  in  the  mirror.  6)    Who  motivates  you  at  work?  Students  making  eye  contact  and  

students  sharing  what  is  on  their  mind.    

Teacher Feature: Meet Karla Krause! Interview Conducted by Hamad Al Dowais and Hamad Al Hashel

Dear  students,  

It  is  hard  to  believe  that  soon  it  will  be  the  mid  term.    Mid-­‐term  means  a  time  to  pause  and  reflect  upon  how  much  you  have  learned  so  far.    This  semester  I  am  teaching  a  TESOL  graduate  course  in  grammar.  Let  me  share  with  you  a  few  tips  about  how  to  apply  your  grammar  knowledge  to  your  daily  use  of  English.    

First  of  all,  remember  learning  grammar  is  not  the  end;  rather,  it  is  a  means  towards  meaningful  communication—your  daily  use  of  the  English  language  while  in  the  classroom  answering  questions,  ordering  food  in  a  restaurant,  paying  your  bills  in  Warrior  HUB.  

The  best-­‐learned  grammar  rules  are  often  those  you  figure  out  through  careful  observation  and  analysis.    You  remember  better  the  self-­‐discovered  grammar  rules  because  they  often  make  sense  to  you.  Secondly,  you  must  try  to  use  the  rules.  For  instance,  you  just  learned  the  present  perfect  tense  in  class  today.    Try  it  when  you  talk  to  me.    Say  for  instance,  “Dr.  Shi,  I  have  just  finished  my  tutoring  session  with  Mitch.”  Now  you  are  using  it.  Initially,  it  might  take  some  time  to  get  the  tense  right,  but  with  repeated  use,  you  will  eventually  find  it  effortless.    That’s  when  a  learned  grammar  rule  becomes  truly  yours,  part  of  your  acquired  knowledge.      

In  addition,  you  must  try  to  increase  your  vocabulary  size.    The  more  words  you  know,  the  better  the  chance  you  will  find  the  words  you  need  to  try  out  the  grammar  rules  in  sentences.    Learning  a  word  means  more  than  just  how  to  spell  it;  you  must  know  what  it  means  and  how  to  use  it  in  a  sentence.    Often  grammar  is  determined  by  words.  For  instance  you  can  say,  “I  love  to  see  you,”  but  you  cannot  say,  “*I  enjoy  to  see  you.”  This  is  because  the  structural  property  of  the  word  “enjoy”  forbids  an  infinitive  phrase  as  its  object.    I  encourage  you  to  learn  at  least  10  words  a  day.    You  can  DO  it!  

My  message  is  this—you  need  to  learn  grammar  rules,  and  the  best  is  to  learn  them  meaningfully  and  to  use  them  in  your  daily  communication  with  your  teachers,  classmates,  with  people  in  the  cafeteria,  in  the  library,  in  Target,  and  in  all  other  places.

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Written by Abdullah Al Dharfan There are ten students in my writing class. Joe is our teacher. He is a fun and active teacher. He has a beautiful smile. Khalid is my classmate and my partner, always. His personality is different and grand. Another classmate is Rakan. He is shy and the tallest in class. His eyes are dark and big. Abeer and Noof are women in class. They are cute. Another classmate is Ali. He is skinny, and he dances when he walks. Written by Hamad Al Dowais They are nine students in my class: Al yami is majoring in law , Ali and Mohammed are good students, Rakan, Abdullah, and Khaled are live in same house, Hashel and I studied in the same school last year, Abeer and Noof are smart. Written by Abeer Al Subaie In my class in ELC, I have good classmates. All of them are boys. Nouf and I are only the girls in the class. She is my best friend. Hamad is student in my class. He studies a law. Khaled also studies a chemical engineering. Abdulah works hard in class. Ali is smart student, and Rakan is quick witted. All my classmates and I are from Saudi Arabia.

005 Writing Students Talk about Their Classmates

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Written by Rakan Al Muhathil There are nine students in my claas: Mohammed's body is short and neat, Hamad Alhashel's glasses are big, Hamad Alyami has handsome face, Khalid's color is has attractive and Abdullah has hair beautiful black hair.

Written by Hamad Alyami There are nine students in my writing class. Dowais, Hashel and I living together. They are wearing a pair of glasses. Mohammed has curly hair and he is short . Ali has brown skin and average length. Abdullah and Khalid are funny. The tallest one in class is Rakan. I have two smart women in my class, Abeer has two children. Noof is the mother of a child.

Written by Hamad Al Hashel I have nine classmates in writing class: They are seven men and two women. One of them is my cousin is Hamad Alyami. All of us from Saudi Arabia. Abeer and Noof are the women in this class, they are married. Rakan is the tallest one. Mohammed has the best smile. Khaled and Abdullah come on time every class. Hamad Al Dowais has glasses like me. Ali has soft and medium sized hair.

ELC Students putting on their ice skates at the Lake Lodge

It was a cold night… better for ping-pong perhaps!

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Donec interdum

Pellentesque:

Consectetuer:

Why I have chosen Winona State University Written by Mohsen Alsaffar

I chose Winona State University because my cousin is studying here and he advised me to choose it. He told me Winona State is a good university, has advance technology, the tuition is cheaper than another universities, and it is acceptable to our Ministry of Education. Also, the city of Winona is a safe place to live in and cheaper comparing to other places in the U.S.A. In addition, the Minnesotans are really nice; they always smile to foreign people and help them when they need help. So, that is why I chose Winona State University.

In the Article, “The biology of altruism: Good deeds may be rooted in the brain”, the Author Michelle Trudeau talk about what and why is altruism. There is a example, her name is Angela Stimpson who donate a kidney, but she don’t know name of recipient, and she don’t have any remuneration. In addition, because other person help Marsh when she will die, so she want to research altruism. She find 39 people to help her research. Final, she find amygdala, if you are a donator, your amygdala is bigger than other people and more sensitive of emotion. Other experiment is for psychopaths, the psychopaths’ amygdala is smaller than normal people and more bluntness. In short. The amygdala is control of emotion of a person. It is a reason of altruism.

Academic Article Summary Written by Yiran Zhong

“The biology of altruism: Good deeds may be rooted in the brain” Written by Young Joo Choi

A article’s title is “The biology of altruism: Good deeds may be rooted in the brain”. This article is written by Michelle Trudeau.

There are three main idea. First, It is a story about Angela. She donates her kidney for no pay as a anonymous. Because she is looking for her purpose in her life.

Second, talk about Abigail Marsh. She is a professor of psychology and a researcher about altruism. She had a accident when she was young. If someone doesn’t help her, Marsh was died. After this incident, she decided to study about altruists’s brain.

Third, last idea is about test of brain. Through This test we can find a difference of amygdale. Altruist has lager, many amygdales. Besides, psychopath has a small amount of amygdales.

English Language Center Spring 2015 – Issue #1

Thank you to all of our contributors!:

Abdullah Al Dharfan, Hamad Al Dowais, Hamad Al Hashel, Rakan Al Muhathil, Mohsen Alsaffar, Abeer Al Subaie, Hamad Alyami, Young Joo Choi, Karla Krause, Dr. Holly Shi, Katie Subra, Yiran Zhong

If you have an idea for the Newsletter, please send it to Katie Subra, ksubra@winona.edu.

Thank you to everyone who submitted!

Down2. the effect that something will have in the future5. a plan used to achieve a goal6. developed using new ways of thinking9. the money that you make from selling something11. a research project about a particular subject12. Chief Executive Officer: the highest person in a company

Across1. a possibility that something bad might happen3. something that is made in a factory or grown4. to be attractive or interesting to someone7. demand for product; a group of people who might buy something8. a new idea, invention, or way of doing something10. classification of people as male or female13. a person who buys something

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Level 1-3 Speaking Class Business & Marketing Vocabulary

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