Key Competencies Kit
for Facing Lifelong Learning
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This Project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission can not be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. |
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Simple means memorable and understandable.
Have yourself a Happy Easter! or Have a Happy Easter! or just Happy Easter!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Many happy returns of the day!
Happy anniversary!
I am busy now. Come back later.
I will be right back.
Please, hold on.
Watch out, slippery steps.
Questionnaires allow you to gather information you cannot find elsewhere. Thus, the information is unique and updated. On the other hand, the quality and the structure of the questionnaire are very important for the relevance of the information.
It is very important to know that important questions are placed at the beginning of the questionnaire since most of them are returned only partially completed.
If you plan to design a questionnaire, make it convenient. The easier for the respondent to complete, the better.
You can have an open format question, such as:
State your opinion on ….
Or
You can choose a close format question (implying multiple choice answer), such as:
How often do you go shopping?
Or
You can try dichotomous questions – the respondent answers only with yes or no:
Do you like working in a big company?
You can also have rating scale questions (the respondent has to rate a particular issue on a scale ranging from good to poor):
How would you rate the quality of the National Agency for Employment?
Here are some basic commands and their shortcut keys
Select all text – Ctrl + A
Cut selected item – Ctrl + X
Copy selected item – Ctrl + C
Paste selected item – Ctrl +V
Go to end of document – Ctrl + End
Go to end of current line – End
Go to beginning of document – Ctrl + Home
Go to beginning of current line – Home
Form
Will + verb
Affirmative: I will go tomorrow to visit my parents.
Negative: You will not (won’t) play with him anymore.
Interrogative: Will she come to see me?
Another way to express futurity is given by the future of intention – “to be going to” future
Form
Am/are/is +going to + verb
It is used for intended actions:
I am going to buy a new car.
25 Bonaparte Street
Ap.6
New Jersey
March 29, 2010
Robert McPeterson
240, Coventry Street
Edinburgh, UK
Dear Robert,
Please accept my heartiest congratulations on your recent prize.
Your sister, Susan, is the one who spread the good news when she paid us a visit last week. As you can imagine, Susan was very happy about it.
I can tell you that we are all proud of you. As a matter of fact, you deserved the prize after all the years of hard work. It’s a good thing that value is recognized, from time to time.
Once again, my sincere congratulations on your achievement. It is an honor for you and, why not, for all your friends. I look forward to seeing you in July, when you promised you would come to the US.
Best wishes,
Christopher Lambert
Questions:
Who is the sender?
What kind of letter is this?
We can give a search on the internet on different people and events or we can look into an encyclopedia for this information, in order to be able to communicate with the others.
E.g. The Earthquake in Haiti
The epicenter of the earthquake was near the town of Leogane, approximately 25 km west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time, on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The magnitude was 7 and the government reported more than 250,000 deaths, 300,000 injured and 1,000,000 homeless.
As you can see, the information is enough for someone to have an idea on the earthquake in Haiti, at the beginning of 2010.
After reading the text, we should be able to answer simple questions such as:
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 and died on 5 May, 1821. He was the Emperor of French, as Napoleon I. He is remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic Code, the civil code in France.
The above information gives us details about place and time and also significant details.
After reading the text, we should be able to answer simple questions such as:
Practice:
Read about a famous artist and write a few words about him/her.
Read about a famous battle in the history or about an important event and write several sentences about it.
When using a product or a device, you have to observe the instructions otherwise you can have a lot of unpleasant surprises.
Instructions in food packets, recipes or in any other products or devices are commonly written in the imperative:
Let’s see an example about instructions for using injectable drugs:
Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water. If using a new bottle for the first time, flip off the plastic cover to expose the gray rubber stopper. Wipe metal ring and rubber stopper with an alcohol wipe each time you use the drug. Check the liquid in the container. If it is not clear or has particles in it, DO NOT USE IT. Exchange it at your pharmacy for another container.
Exercises
Give instructions on how to make a vegetable salad. Use: put, add, mix, pour.
Read the following text and answer the questions:
Life in England is not easy. A good job is hard to find and the rent is not so cheap. You can have some problems with the changing weather and the traffic is different from that in the Continental Europe. On the other hand, English is not a very difficult language to learn.
What is the text about?
Travelling to England
Continental Europe
Living in England
What do we know about the weather in England?
The weather is fine.
The weather never changes
It is difficult to tell the precise weather
Can you find some short messages on how to use different things?
Fill in with future tense simple or with future of intention: