Have a good holiday!

Have a nice break!

Picture from:
Kolk, Melinda. deer35550.jpg. Jun-00. Pics4Learning. 16 Dec 2005

remodeling

In an attempt to give the CESL webpages a makeover, there was an unfortunate accident in which many pages were lost, links were broken and pictures lost. Sorry! Please be patient while we reorganize!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are 80 things to do with your weblog, if you have time!

picture from:
DeSandies, ManYee. pumpkinturban.jpg . . Pics4Learning. 18 Nov 2005

Congratulations, Soo Jin! Welcome, Dr. Jang!

Our own Soo Jin Jang (EAP1) is a very talented computer graphic designer...and her work, which includes this picture:





will be a part of an exhibit at the Vergette Gallery, 107 Allyn Building, SIUC, Oct. 31-Nov. 4.

But BEFORE THAT, her father, Professor Wan Young Jang, will have an exhibit in the same place, this week! I hope you can attend both!

CESL Today V. 62

The new bright orange CESL Today is now uploaded onto the web. I always like it if people read it but I especially want you to tell me if I have misspelled your name, misrepresented your country, or got the wrong author to an article....it happens! And if we don't catch it now, we never will! I hope you enjoy it...you did a good job on it! -Tom Leverett

055 students WELCOME new students!

New TOEFL

With the coming of the new TOEFL, called the iBT (internet-based test), many people are wondering: when will it come to SIUC? How should we study? What should we do?

SIUC has been identified as a place where the new iBT will be given, but this will not happen until the Spring (or maybe later), and it will be given by the SIUC testing center, not CESL. In general we at CESL see the iBT as probably good; testing speaking is good for CESL students, because CESL students speak more than their friends back home, or even friends in other programs. About the rest of the test, we're not sure; it's pretty new. We understand that Sylvan, where students have been taking international TOEFLs, is now giving the iBT instead of the CBT. But we don't know how the iBT and CBT are different, aside from the speaking section.

The test CESL students will take in October (Oct. 12, 3:00, Parkinson 124), however, will be the paper-based test that CESL students have been taking for many years.

What materials should you use to study?

Materials that are specifically for the paper-based test have largely been out of print for a while. We have been using old materials. You may be able to buy used copies of such books as Cliff's, Longman, or Barron's from friends or on the web.

Materials that are for the CBT may be closer to the format of the iBT, but may not be exactly the same, and these will soon be outdated. Most of what you can buy today at the bookstore is for the CBT. There is no speaking section on the CBT.

Materials for the iBT are just coming out, and one of them is a book by Michigan that we are now using in the TOEFL class. It is still difficult to judge these materials as many of us have not seen an iBT. However we have picked our favorite providers and are getting more materials as soon as possible. ETS (the company that makes the TOEFL) says that you can get a practice test here. Notice that you have to "join"...we don't know if that means that they will fill up your e-mail box with advertisements for years or what. We would like to hear about it if someone has taken one of these tests: is it good? What's it like?

Everyone wants to know. Thanks for your input.

-Tom L., CESL teacher

Is Carbondale a Good Place to Study English?

Since everyone who reads this weblog has a connection to Carbondale and to studying English, you may be interested in what the GE and AE1 students have posted to their class weblogs. The got together in groups and wrote opinion paragraphs to answer the question "Is Carbondale a Good Place to Study English?" Check out their answers and see if you agree. Please leave comments to share your opinion.

Written by Jessica Montgomerie

cesl goes to the fair!

CESL students and teachers went to the DuQuoin State Fair recently.



All aboard!

Congratulations, Miho!

Welcome to Carbondale!

Goodbye Marie!

We understand that Marie is moving back up to Charleston, IL soon.

Goodbye! Good luck in your new life! Stay in touch! We'll miss you!



Love, CESL!

Conversation opportunity

Conversation hour will be held in Faner 1122 every Monday at 3:50.

Welcome to CESL!

Afraid of weblogs? Afraid of posting?

Can't blame you! It's in English, and lots of people might read it!

But that's why it's good for you! Let me remind you of several things:

1) CESL Today is a student newspaper, created from what everyone makes and does in the term. We would like everyone to contribute something...whether that is to tell us about your favorite music, tell us about your hometown, or just put your class assignment on the web...

Do your best. Give us a picture of your life now, as it is. Make your own weblog; connect to your friends. If you're worried about privacy, we'll accommodate you; we don't want your ex-girlfriends/boyfriends finding you either!!! Family names are not required....but participation is...

-Tom Leverett, AE2 & Newstalk teacher

Poetry Contest winner!

Congratulations to Young, winner of the CESL Poetry Contest. His poem, You, appears on the EAP Poetry page.

Most of his competition came from the teachers, but the teachers' poetry, rather than inspiring his classmates, may have had the opposite effect. In any case, congratulations!

grammartalk

CESL has a weblog, grammartalk, whose purpose is the discussion of grammar issues. Interested? It's intended for people who are studying TOEFL, who are stuck on certain issues, or who just want to know why things are the way they are. If that's you, come visit! It may take a while to get your answer, but you will. You can read about grammar issues, at your leisure...

opportunity

Know any html? I've been getting bogged down in producing CESL Today, which is the student newsletter, and I strongly feel that since it's the students' production, the students' journal, the students' record of life here at CESL, students should be able to put it together themselves.

Now putting html together is a laborious task, I'll admit. It isn't easy. But when you're done, you'll have something to show people. Interested? contact me...

-Tom Leverett

Privacy

Although it's been said before, it never hurts to say it again!

CESL teachers will ask you to contribute to the class weblogs (this contributes to CESL Today.
CESL teachers will ask you to have your own weblog and have it connected from the class page.
CESL wants full and rich weblogs that show what we do and have good English on them.
CESL teachers will want you to sign your work and be proud of it.
CESL Today will publish your work and may use your full name unless you tell us not to.

BUT

You do not have to have your full name on everything, or anything.
You do not have to allow your picture to be published.
You may tell us not to use your full name or even not to use a correct name.
You do not always have to have your portfolio visible to the whole world including GOOGLE.
You can ask us not to use your full name or picture.
You can "DELETE" your weblog after the term.

We understand that people have old boyfriends/girlfriends
or other reasons to "stay out of Google..."

We want to respect your privacy.
Please LET US KNOW if we need to do this!

Thank you for contributing to CESL Today!

CESL Poetry Contest!

Prizes will be awarded to the poetry contest winners at the end of the term. All styles of poetry are welcome and all CESL students are encouraged to enter.

If you would like to submit a poem for the contest you may post it on the poetry contest weblogs or give it to Marie. Deadline for poems is Tuesday, June 28.


GE & AE Poetry

EAP1 & EAP2 Poetry

CESL Teacher Poetry

*The poetry weblogs can be found on the ceslstudents dashboard.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new term. I look forward to working with all of you this term. Please feel free to ask me for help with your writing or using the weblogs.
Marie Poteete
Writing Assistant

MUSIC PICKS

Before everyone goes their way this spring (some of you are going to SIU, some going home, some wherever)....please tell us about YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC....we want to know who to listen to...PLEASE LINK US UP so we can hear a song of your favorite band, your favorite singer, your favorite song!

We'll collect them and put them in CESL TODAY...thanks!!!
I'll put mine up too...

Don't forget

Don't forget
the ART PARAGRAPH CHALLENGE



Heath, R.. blueparrotl.jpg. 03/03. Pics4Learning. 29 Apr 2005

Interview with Sophi

Former CESL student, Sophi, received the Rickert-Ziebold Award on Monday, April 4th. We had the opportunity to speak with her about the award and schoolwork.

We began by asking Sophi how she felt about winning the Rickert-Ziebold Award. She told us that she really didn't expect it and she was surprised. She explained that in order to be considered for the prize, she had to submit an application along with an artist statement and several slides of her work. She plans to use some of the money she won to help pay for graduate school. She is also thinking about donating a portion of the Award money to an ISS scholarship fund since ISS helped her as a student.

To create the piece of work that won the prize, Sophi used a combination of metal and fabric. The metal was used to represent men while the fabric represents women. The combination is used to show harmony and balance between men and women. Sophi's work will be displayed in the University Museum until May 1st. The museum is located at the north end of Faner Hall.


Sophi studied at CESL before becoming an Art and Design student at SIUC. She told us that when she first arrived in the United States, she was afraid to speak to people because she felt as if she didn't have enough language abilities. After one year in CESL and another two at SIUC Sophi is very comfortable with her English skills. She told us that CESL was very helpful in improving her English and she really appreciated the patience and understanding of her CESL teachers. She also wants to let current students know that even though EAP 2 writing class is very difficult, "it is very important."

Congratulations Sophi! We wish you the best of luck in your future.

Weblog Workshops

If you'd like to post your pictures on your weblogs ask how in a weblog workshop or see the writing assistants during office hours.

Weblog workshops are every Tuesday at 3 and Wednesday at 4 in the CESL computer lab.

Have your pictures taken.

Dear Students,

In the past, we have had many great essays and weblog postings posted on CESL's weblogs. But, most of the works are only regonized by name. We wish our students to be regonize for their accomplishments. So, come and have your picture taken and be known for who you are along with your work ! Let people see who you are too ! If you do not wish to have your pictures posted on weblog, that is okay too. If you would like to have your pictures taken (so we can put it on our website) please contact John or Marie to schedule an appointment.

thanks and have a great day,

CESL writing assistants~

Art Links

Here are some art links to help you get started on the art paragraph challange. Scroll down to see more information on the Art Paragraph and feel free to contact the writing assistants if you have any questions about it.

Momoko Okada

Limelight Art

Painting by Han Gan and other Chinese art

Islamic Art

Art and Art History Links

World Civilizations image repository

Free Art Site

You can use pictures from this site, as long as it's an educational purpose, and you include the bibliography. We have an educational purpose; we're learning about art and we're learning about writing English. So here goes...

http://www.pics4learning.com/?search=cat&query=Art_Paintings
pics4learning
art and painting
(you can also find sculpture, etc.)

For example, I found this one:



Source: Humphreys, Steve. japanartist.jpg . August 1982. Pics4Learning. 13 Apr 2005

Former CESL Student awarded Rickert-Ziebold prize.

Former CESL student Jung-Am Park (Sophia) of South Korea was one of three SIUC senior art majors to win the Rickert-Ziebold Award on Monday, April 4th. A reception to honor the winners will be held Friday, April 15th at 5:30 p.m. in the University Museum of Faner Hall. The work of these three artists will be displayed in the University Museum until May 1st.

For more information on this story check out the article in the Daily Egyptian and check this website in the future for updates.

Need help using weblogs?

Come to a Weblog Workshop in the CESL Computer Lab (3206)
Tuesdays 3:00-4:00
Wednesdays 4:00-5:00

Conversation

Practice English conversation in room 1122
Monday 3:00-3:30
Thursday 3:00-3:30 Beginning
Thursday 4:00-4:30 Advanced

If you prefer to meet with a conversation partner rather than with a small group, please notify writing assistants to make arrangements.

Students !!

If you are interested in our new "Art Paragraph" or in writing one and need some help.

We are here to help you ! Please contact Marie or I, we can set a time to help you out!

First thing you need to do is to contact CESL's writing assistants.

E-mail or come by our office and we can get started.

Have a wonderful day!!

ART PARAGRAPH CHALLENGE 052

Stay tuned for some examples of the Art Paragraph Challenge. The idea is to
1) Link us to some interesting art. This can be defined widely: photography, quilts, web design, sculpture. But it should be something we can SEE on the web. Link us to it so we can SEE it.
2) Write a paragraph about it. You don't have to like it; you can write a paragraph about why you DON'T. But tell us what is special about it. What is interesting? Why did you pick it?
3) Put your paragraph on your class weblog and on your own.

Show us some art from your country, if you can.

There will be some examples in this space soon, and some links where you can find some if you really don't know where art is kept on the web.

Thank you for contributing to making these weblogs interesting!

Best weblog 051

Congratulations to Danny for a very nice weblog: good personal picture, good posts, original wisdom brought in, a nice model for the rest of us. Keep up the good work!

Best LOGO

Congratulations to Awni Najim, for the BEST LOGO (see top right). Thanks, Awni! Look for it on CESL pages on the web, and elsewhere.

For Everyone

During the off peak period at CESL, I would like to offer my services for any student at CESL in regards to help with weblogs, conversation, or any help related to writing or computer related questions. Please e-mail me at Whitaker@siu.edu if you need any help.

thanks,

John

Best weblog awards

There is no eot exhibit this term, so we will not have the ceremonial occasion like the Oscars, where one makes thank-you speeches, wears special dresses, is filmed briefly while getting in or out of a limo, etc.

We will, however, have Best Weblog Awards. These will be announced in the new print and web versions of CESL Today, the student newspaper.

We will have prizes too, though these always depend somewhat on the generosity of local merchants!

There are a lot of nice ones out there this term!

Privacy

At this time of year, we begin to pull together the next volume of CESL Today, the program newsletter. To do this, we use the class weblogs, and if we see something in your personal weblog, we might ask you if we can use it. But it's good for us to remember that some of you prefer not to have your name, picture, etc. in the public eye.

If you are one of those people, this is to remind you: If you DON'T want your name, picture, or even your writing on the public web, OR in the print version of <CESL Today, let us know! We will by all means respect your wishes! You really have three possibilities, or ways to complete the assignments without having your name on the web.
1. Ask us to remove your full name.
2. Ask us to remove ANY NAME.
3. Ask us to just not include your writing; then, after next WED, remove it from the weblogs yourself.

We think you should be proud of your work, and of doing the best you could. However, privacy concerns are sometimes more important than that. If so, let us know!

-Tom Leverett

Grammartalk weblog

Questions about TOEFL? Questions about grammar? A new weblog has been started for you. It's for anyone who wants to get to the bottom of questions about grammar that are very difficult for learners.

It's called grammar talk. Come visit! Bring your questions! Pass the TOEFL!

CESL LOGO Contest

Hello everyone,

I am the new writing assistant for CESL. I would like to let you know that I am available to help anyone with this contest. I can not make it for you, but I can show you how to make it by using various tools on the computer or through the arts and crafts shop.


Lets find the artist among us!!
Even if you are not the best at it, that is okay.
If you need help with ideas or creating a logo. Please, let me know.
Contact me or Marie, and we will help you.


Thank you everyone,

John Whitaker

Wednesday Weblog Workshop

Marie will be staying in the CESL lab this Wednesday from 3:00-4:00 to work on weblogs with those who are interested. Those who still want to start one may move to the LMC if she gets help with this workshop. We would like you to be able to fix them up, work on them, upload pictures, etc. if you like. In TOEFL class? Take heart, someone will still be around when TOEFL class is over...

Best weblog contest: every term we offer Best weblog prizes. These depend on the generosity of local merchants, but we're hoping to do it again. Also, we'd like to reward those who laboriously put good content (i.e. good papers, reports, etc.) on their weblogs, as well as those who fix them up with flashing and dancing things (also good). This shows the world what we do...and what we learn...and that's good!

CESL LOGO CONTEST---Artists among us, see the message below!

Logo Contest!

CESL needs logos! We need logos for various reasons: for stationary, for the web, for the "best weblog" contest, and.........for t-shirts! That's right....the details are still being worked out, but we are thinking about making t-shirts for all our students, faculty, friends, etc., available at cost. This is often done by groups on campus, but we haven't done it in years. Why not? BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE A GOOD LOGO. That's where you come in! Are you artistically inclined? Make a good logo BY MONDAY MARCH 1 to win. You may enter any or all of these as many times as you want:

1. General logo (color)- for t-shirts, pictures, brochures, web

2. General logo (black & white)- generally easier for t-shirts, and cheaper too.

3. General logo for web (this could also be one of the above)

4. "Best weblog" logo

All logos should say CESL on them somewhere.

Give logos to Marie Poteete, Undergraduate Assistant.
Good luck!

Help a charity, have fun, show off trivia knowledge!

The International Trivia Contest is being sponsored by SIU Rotaract (a civic organization) to help the fight against polio. Entry fee is $5 per person, which will go to the fight against polio. Prizes are: 1st place, $250, 2nd place, $175, 3rd place, $100, Best Decorated Table, $25. Teams must have a minimum of 3 countries represented, maximum of 8 people per team. The LSA (Linguistics Students Association) has already organized two teams which CESL students can join, or, CESL students can have our own team.

What do you think? If you're interested, contact Marie Poteete (undergraduate assistant); go to CESL Conversation Hour (TH 3:30-5, south end of the International Lounge, second floor, Student Center...See you there!

English Conversation Table

Practice English with casual conversation.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30-5:00,
International Lounge, second floor of the Student Center.

Hope to see you there!

Contact writing assistant for more conversation opportunities.

Welcome, John!

Our new Undergraduate Writing Assistant is John Whitaker. Some of you already know him from the Conversation Hour. He's a nice guy. He'll be hanging around the LMC, CESL lab, and certain classes trying to find out a little about CESL in the next few days. He'll have his office hours posted soon.

He knows a lot about computers, but maybe you can teach him a little about Macs and about weblogs!

An Apple For the Teacher!

Thank you, Shalaigh!

Shalaigh has left us for somewhere we don't know....I hope you contact us and tell us where you are! You know the password!

need ideas for your blog?

Take a look at student weblogs of The New Tanuki, Aaron Campbell's students in Japan; or, click on the students' names on the side of BeeOnline; they are in Brazil. Nice weblogs! Not better than ours, though...

Best Virtual Tours

Congratulations to everyone who made a virtual tour: they're great, they show us the world, and they show us your favorite parts of it.

The winner of the 046 Best Virtual Tour Award, First Prize, was Ammro Al-Kurashi, AE1, for a tour of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, entitled "My City". Good job! I love the pictures, though I'm not sure you took them yourself, or they would be directly in CESL Today...

Second Prize is Pei-Shan Yu, of AE2, for 5 Days in Beijing, which was very interesting and told a story about a trip there that she took with her friend.

Third prize is Chih-Ying (Jamie) Lin, of AE2, who did New Orleans, a wild city south of here where they have a Mardi Gras festival. She also got a nice picture which became the center of the latest edition of CESL Today.

But there were other good virtual tours. Don't forget Istanbul (by Alp), Palestine (by Awni), or Cheju Island (Korea), by Myo Young.

Teachers made some good ones, too. Take a look at New York (by Marie), Chicago (by Shalaigh), and Carbondale, by yours truly.

One good thing about a virtual tour is that one thing leads to another. You go there, you see cool stuff, and it just gets better and better.

Thanks again!

Best Weblogs

Congratulations to Luciana Mottola-Lugo, Grand Prize Winner who worked hard on her weblog and included great photos from her trip to Aruba, an island between here and her home...

Also, Awni Najim was First Prize Winner: he's got colors, pictures, friends, tons of links, friends, a virtual tour, tons of things! Good job, Awni!

Finally, there's Soo Kwon Jung, whose award is entitled Best Scrolling Poetry, because the original scrolling poetry is the best part of the page. When he won the prize, you had to wait a minute for the poetry to appear, but it did, and it was good. Now it's changed a little, or maybe it doesn't work the same way on Safari. I'm not sure. Anyway, good job!

By the way, there were lots of excellent weblog portfolios in the upper classes, which are learning how to put formal writing on weblogs and make presentation an art. Of mention here are Yen and Selena especially, who worked hard on their papers and did an excellent job with their weblogs. This is not easy. It's especially difficult to take a paper and present it to the world in a formal way. But, now you can find yourself on the web: just type in key words to Google!

Congratulations to all CESL students! And Happy New Year...I look forward to more!

CESL Today V57

Hello everyone and I hope you had a good holiday and a good New Year.

CESL Today Volume 57, which was made from the work from term 046, is now available for you to look through, click around, etc. As you know this newsletter now has a print version and a web version, and your work may go in both or either, depending on when it's available and its quality. We can't and won't print anything you copied, but we like most of the other things you've written!

By the way, Volume 56 (term 045) was pretty sloppy in its links, but now it's a little better: you should be able to see the whole thing. It too was fantastic!

Once again I'd like to remind you of several things: the web will be here for a long time, and will allow people to find you; if you don't like that, let us know; anonymity is possible! And it's possible in several ways, including just deleting your work! We don't like to do this, of course.

We are very proud of CESL students and hope to have another good and creative term in the spring!

Cheers,
Tom Leverett, CESL