Friday, November 27, 2015

Mental Health homework for Tuesday

We take our kids for physical vaccinations, dental exams, eye checkups. When do we think to take our - our son or daughter for a mental health checkup?

Gordon Smith

Imagine you get the following quote and one of the following pictures in your oral exam. Write your presentation, minimum 300 words. Use the sheet of phrases to help you. Remember:

- Describe image
- Explain quote and if you agree or disagree with it
- Link it to facts/studies/ ideas - use the internet and the article about to help you (compare to USA or Spain)
- Come to a clear conclusion

Linguistic diversity and Multilingualism/ Bilingualism for IB Oral

TED Talk - The benefits of a Bilingual brain

TED Talk - English Mania

TED Talk - Importance of multiple languages

when-does-bilingualism-help-or-hurt

THE NEWYORKER - Is Bilingualism really an advantage?

Vocab Quizlet: Languages 2

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.

The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).

In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.

Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.

Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Questions on article: Young women on Instagram and self-esteem

1)What do you think about Lindsay Correia’s opinions about Instagram?

2)Do you think social media is to blame for insecurity issues among teenagers?

3)What is your own relationship with social media and instagram? Do you think it affects your self-esteem?

Interesting articles to read for Speaking Exam

Natalie Dormer

Natalie Dormergoin

Statistics about low self-esteem issues among teenage girls

Young woman gripping bed sheet

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Term 1 Exam Content - Exam Monday 23rd November

Reading – Criterion B

Revise by reading as much as you can in English (Library books, news websites – BBC, The Guardian, blogs, The New Statesman). The more exposed you are to vocab, structures, English in general the more your English will gradually improve. Ensure you have read at the very least all the articles below:

Cultural Diversity

New Statesman - Why don't we value older women?

New Statesman - New Passports and Feminism

Health

newstatesman: The NHS and Junior Doctors

New Statesman - Junion Doctors on Strike

conventional-vs-alternative-medicine-explained

Writing - Crtierion C

Part 1: Writing styles to revise (you will have ALL 5 options below in the exam

Article

* will have a title and the name of the author

* will adopt a semi-formal to formal register (as appropriate to task)

* will have an appropriate / engaging introduction and conclusion

* will use a lively journalistic / magazine style

Blog

* will adopt a semi-formal to informal register

* will have an eye-catching title

* will use first person narration

* will show awareness of the reader, e.g. through direct address to the reader

* may include a direct request for comment and response at the end

Official report

* will use a basically formal register

* will use a title introducing the subject

* will have clear organisation, usually indicated by sub-headings, numbered sections, etc

* will usually, depending on task, be addressed to a specific audience

Review

* will adopt a consistent register (informal, semi-formal or formal)

* will have a title

* will use a lively, direct style aimed to interest and entertain the readers

* may have sub-headings.

Brochure, leaflet, etc

* will adopt a semi-formal register, and/or direct address to the intended audience

* will have a main heading or promotional slogan, as appropriate

* will make use of multiple sections : identified by sub-headings, bullet points, etc

* will present lucid overall structure of argument

* may include background information : e.g. 'Contact us' + phone number / email

Part 2: Vocabulary

1) , Multiculturalism and Prejudice

2) Prejudice

3) Health and lifestyle

Part 3: Grammar

1) Prepositions

AT: a position which is thought of as a point, not an area

ON: a position in contact with a surface

ON: a position along a border or a boundary (e.g. the coast, the ocean) or along something which connects two places (e.g. a road, a river)

IN: a position within a larger area or space

1)CAE Students’ book p. 129: ex.1

2)CAE Students’ book p. 130: ex 2 (correcting errors)

3)CAE Students’book p. 114: ex 1 (at, in and on – location)

4)CAE Students’book p. 114: ex3

5)CAE Students’ book p.115 : Island wanted

2) Root words:

Root words Selectividad

Prefixes

Suffixes

3) Conditionals

1st Conditional

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=3226

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/first-conditional-exercise-1.html

2nd Conditional

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=3227

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/second-conditional-exercise-1.html

3rd Conditional

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=3233

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/third-conditional-exercise-1.html

Friday, November 13, 2015

Health Homework for Tuesday 17th November

1) Read the article "I can't sacrifice my family for the NHS"

2) Imagine you get the following quote and one of the following pictures in your oral exam. Write your presentation, minimum 300 words. Use the sheet of phrases to help you. Remember:

- Describe image
- Explain quote and if you agree or disagree with it
- Link it to facts/studies/ ideas - use the internet and the article about to help you (compare to USA or Spain)
- Come to a clear conclusion

"Healthcare should never be privatised, it is a basic human right."

Term 1 Grammar: Root Words - Prefixes and Suffixes

· Prefix – a letter or a group of letters added to the FRONT of a word to create a new word

· Suffix – a letter or a group of letters added to the END of a word to create a new word. There are 2 categories

· Those connected with grammatical form, e.g. –ly (adverb), -ation (noun)

· Those connected with meaning, e.g. –less (meaning without)

Rules prefixes: il, im or ir

· We often use im before words beginning with m and p

· We often use il before words beginning with l

· We often use ir before words beginning with r

Root words Selectividad

Prefixes

Suffixes

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Health: Class work for Tuesday 10th November

1) Read the IB Reading Exam "You too can be a medical practitioner" and complete activities 1, 2 and 3 on the back of the sheet. To hand in on Thursday 12th November

2) Revise vocab for test on Friday 13th November

Vocab: Health and Lifestyle

3) Ensure you have watched the TED talk on pharmaceuticals before Thursday

Is medicine killing you?

4) Don't forget! Reading Exam: 33% Criteria B: Tuesday 17th November

Thursday, November 5, 2015

IB Oral Exam Criteria

Criteria A: Productive Skills (10)

ØFluent and clear

ØAccurate and varied language

ØIntonation helps communication

9 – 10 Command of spoken language is EXCELLENT

-Production of the language is FLUENT

-Language is correct varied and articulate

Criteria B : Interactive and receptive skills (10)

ØCan express simple and complex ideas

ØA variety of detailed and devloped ideas with supporting information

9 – 10 Complex ideas are explained clearly

- Simple and complex ideas are presented clearly, coherantly and effectively

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

4 Interesting Articles about Health - Please read them :)

1) conventional-vs-alternative-medicine-explained

Throughout this article conventional medicine is critisied. It criticises how doctors no longer worry about the heart but only curing the illnesses. Nowadays as the article mentions we over take pills, vaccines, etc so as to eradicate our “problem” straightaway. The article points out the importance of having a healthy lifestyle so as to prevent those “problems”. From this article we can get the idea that we over take medication and we shouldn’t because we even take them when not required.

2) stress-can-be-a-very-useful-thing

The article I read was about how stress can be helpful in certain situations. What affects us the most is the way we interpret the way our body reacts. For example if you are very nervous before an exam and you think it is because you are going to fail, you are bound to fail. However, if you think that you are nervous because you are going to do it great, then your performance will increase. I chose this article as it offers us a different perspective concerning how stress affects us, which is commonly thought of as a bad thing.

3) bacon-ham-sausages-processed-meats-cancer-risk-smoking-says-who

A young woman smoking and some burgers on barbecue.

The UN health body says bacon, sausages and ham are carcinogenic substances, ranked alongside cigarettes. For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal due to processed meat is very small, but it is increased if the amount of processed meat consumed is high.

The industries, rejected the extreme comparison between cigarettes and meats, which may affect their sales volume.

Scientist agree that this decision doesn’t mean that we need to stop eating red and processed meat, but that are salad or fish are more preferable, which also helps with obesity and health problems.

Finally, we should draw the line on whether it is more important to consider the meat risk that other realities which derive in diseases, such as sunburn, alcohol or the lack of exercise.

4) is-my-anger-going-to-kill-me

‘It’s not just about being angry occasionally ... these people were more likely to have been consistently angry.’

This article explains that recent studies have shown that there is a correlation between rage and premature death. Apparently, those people with a temper, who have a tendency to become enraged, especially males, are at a higher risk of dying prematurely, as it leads to blood pressure problems. However, the article also states that in many occasions, keeping your anger to yourself without venting it, can lead to high blood pressure, which is not beneficial either.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Term 1 Oral Exam- IB MOCK Preparation

Term 1: Speaking Exam IB MOCK

Presentations will last for 4 - 5 minutes and should give your personal opinions, facts and statistics, information from your research. Focus on structure and responding to the bullet points. I will randomly chose which topic you will speak about. SO, you need to prepare all of them.

Racism: · What engenders racism? · Where does racism still exist (parts of society, countries in the world)? · What can we do to counter racism? · Do racial quotas help solve racism? · Does multiculturalism help to prevent racism? · How does the media affect racism?	Sexism and Gender Equality: · What are the stereotypical gender roles, in your society and in other global contexts? · In your opinion, is sexism still a problem in the 21^st century? · In what different days do men and women experience gender inequality? · Do you have to be female to be a feminist?
Ethnic Diversity and Multiculturalism: · What are the advantages and disadvantages of multiculturalism? · To what extent is your society a monocultural or multicultural one? · Should cultural practices – such as arranged marriages/FGM/wearing the Burka – be allowed to exist in the UK even though they aren´t British traditions? Is it up to the government to intervene? By legalizing these traditions, do we encourage far-right extremism and further intolerance? If the UK had stronger policies against such practices, would there be less popularity with extremist parties? UKIP is becoming more and more popular in the UK right now – is this caused by multiculturalism and a lack of a coherent British identity? · Can a true multicultural society ever exist or is it just a utopian dream?	Migration/ Immigration/ Refugee Crisis · Under what circumstances is it acceptable to migrate to another country? · Should there be any limits on migration from developing countries to developed countries? · What are the causes of the current refugee crisis in Europe? Is it the responsibility of developed European countries to help out? · What do immigrants or ethnic minorities need to do in order to fit in to their new society? Is religion or language the most important? Should they abandon their own culture in order to adapt the new culture?
Stereotypes · Are stereotypes reductive or can they be useful? · In what ways does the media encourage stereotyping? How could the media have a positive impact on stereotypes? · Are stereotypes an example of racism/prejudice?	´Positive´ discrimination and Quotas · What is ´positive discrimination´? · Where is it implemented? · What are the advantages and disadvantages of it? · In what ways could it be considered as offensive? · Are quotas necessary? · Should society be a meritocracy? Is it?
Political Correctness · What is political correctness? · Is political correctness necessary? · Do you agree with politically correct language? · Do you have similar issue with political correctness in your own language?	Can prejudice and bias ever be a good thing? · What is the difference between prejudice and bias? · Are either considered positive ways to approach people/life? · Are they inevitable? · What can be the negative consequences? How can they be avoided?