CV and Linkedin Translations!

Good morning, dear students!  Today I wanted to let you know about a promotion I'll be doing over the course of the next few months.  While translations are not my primary focus (I much prefer teaching!), I often do small translations for my students.  I always have requests to translate documents like CVs and application letters, e-mails, and Linkedin Profiles.  I know this is a service that many people need, but it's such an easy thing to put off and procrastinate.  Right now, I'm offering to translate your CV or Linkedin for 15.000 CLP, regardless of the amount of text it includes.  If you would like to have both translated, I will translate the pair for 25.000CLP.  If you're interested, don't hesitate to e-mail me, or mention it in our next class!

Remember, my e-mail address is :  Rachellaycook@gmail.com

And don't forget to connect with me on linkedin!

Happy Tuesday and happy studying!

Resource Review: Duolingo

Hello, dear students!

Many of you may already know about the app duolingo, but in case you don't, I wanted to give you a review to help you decide if it's a tool you're interested in using!

Duolingo can be used on your computer or as an app on your iphone or android phone.  It's absolutely free!  You can access English lessons without signing up, but to track your progress, you'll need to make an account.

I can recommend this app personally, as I use it to study Portuguese!  But let me show you some of the great features!

1)  You can access the English lessons with the page language in Spanish.   This is useful when reading the corrections or notes that the app offers you throughout your lessons.

2)      You'll need to choose a lesson.  The app will start you at lesson 1.  For all of my students, this level is too basic.  However, the lessons are very short.  You have the option to pass through it anyway, or Duolingo will give you the option to take a test and prove your current knowledge.  After taking the test, you will be taken to a lesson that is at your level.

3)  When you begin a lesson, you will move through a series of slides.  Each slide has one of various types of activities.  Some of them are translation activities, like this one.  When you get an answer correct, you're friendly owl guide will give you praise and tips.  If you get an answer incorrect, you will recieve feedback and advice, plus the correct answer.

4)  Other types of activities may include a matching element, such as the one below.  Only a few new words and grammar points are introduces in each new lesson, to allow you time to master that small set.  From there, you will continue to review your accumulated words in future lessons, and you'll have the chance to go back and review whenever you feel like it.

5) There's also a tab called ''inmersión'' that will offer you listening practice and other interesting activities.  You'll be able to  see the difficulty of your selected activity and track your progress as you complete different activities.

Overall, I think Duolingo is a great language learning tool.  It can't replace English classes but it is a wonderful study tool that you can use to keep your brain sharp.  The app can send you reminder e-mails and will even allow you to compete against friends with your progress.  The design is clean and easy to use.  I love studying Portuguese with Duolingo, and although I'm very busy, I find plenty of time to work through the lessons thanks to having the app on my phone.  I am able to complete a lesson or review older material every day on the metro or in line at the store (you know, the lines at Jumbo around 7:00 p.m.), and with the app on my tablet, too, I can easily blow through a lesson in Starbucks or during commercials while I'm watching a show.

It's a great free resource and I think all of my students can benefit from using this tool!

Product Review: Barron's Essential Words for the TOEFL

Attention, TOEFL students!
This book, Barron's Essential Words for the TOEFL, is a great study tool if you are preparing for the TOEFL.

If you are less than 2 months away from your test date, you probably don't have time to work through this book.  However, if you are preparing for the TOEFL on a more long-term schedule, I highly recommend this book.  At the moment, you can purchase a copy on Amazon for less than $9.00 USD, and Amazon ships to Chile!

The book contains over twenty vocabulary lessons, each lesson with around 15 words.  After reading through the word variations and their definitions and usage examples, you have two practice activities to complete.  The first one will ask you to match one of the vocabulary words with synonyms in a multiple choice format.  The second activity works as a mini-reading practice, giving you a short paragraph using one of the vocabulary words.  You will then be asked to choose a synonym from a multiple choice list of words.  This particular practice activity mimics a question type that is found in the reading section of the TOEFL, making it great practice for not only vocabulary, but also for the reading section.

I use this particular book with my TOEFL students, so it's not absolutely necessary for you to buy it.  However, it takes a while to complete through 20+ lessons in our classes when we must also focus on preparing test strategies, correcting essays, etc.  For that reason, I recommend that my students use this book as an independent study tool.

The purchase link on amazon is here.