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Unfortunately, I could not attend today's class.
I wish you a great summer and relaxing holidays!!

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Our today’s warm up was quite funny. We had to decide whether we are a dog or a cat person. Is tea or coffee our favourite or do we like spring or autumn? I am definitely a dog person, because my former cat had always scratched me, because I was not her favourite feed supplier. I both like coffee and tea, but on summer I prefer coffee. My favourite season is spring, because I am born in April and always had some special connection to this season. It turned out, that Isabella and I are very much alike. We had always been in the same activity group and always answered the same. She prefers to drink coffee in summer and her birthday is in April as well.

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1)      read and understand the text

2)      Make a list of the main ideas and find alternative words and phrases

3)      Change the structure of the text, identify the meaning relationships and express these relationship in a different way

4)      Rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences

5)      Check your work and make sure meaning, length and style is your own

These 5 steps help me a lot to organize my paraphrase. At the beginning, I did not know exactly how to write a paraphrase, but now I am able to focus on these 5 points. That help me a lot.

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1)      Generalisation (a statement that is true in most situations but not all)

2)      Assumption (sth you consider likely to be true but you have no proof)

3)      Speculation (sth that is possible)

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Today we talked about social media and and which one we are using. My peers and I mainly talked about facebook, snapchat and Instagram, because I don’t use snapchat and instagramm and wanted to know the differences between them and facebook. It turned out that facebook is commonly for the elder ones, because the youngsters are using musical.ly or snapchat. Facebook is sufficient for me to stay in contact with friends or exchange of learning material. In my teenage years, I used MySpace and ICQ and it was great back then. It seems that the younger ones are sharing their whole life on social media and are not afraid of data theft due to the influence of so-called influencers. Nevertheless, one must not forget the data abuse take place and think about alternatives like duck duck go instead of google. However, social media can be very useful, but still, the real world and community should not be forgotten. Therefore, it is very important to stay in touch with your friends and colleagues and take part in community life, in order to don’t get isolated and lonely. I really enjoy not using social media for a few days and spending free time with my family.

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= rewriting other people's words, change words and structure but keep the meaning.

Noun phrases:

They contain a lot of immuration in a shorter phrase and  help to paraphrase a text.

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It has been mentioned that information is the basis of planning profitable and make decision for stable development. Economic and social data are widespread and well known but environmental data differs considerably. Due to the limited environmental data and its complexity it is costly and difficult to produce. Nevertheless, environmental data is necessary in all countries.

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As warm up we discussed about our cultural studies exam on Friday. Every one of us struggles with another topic or another Era. It is quite tough to learn about all kings and queens who has ruled Great Britain, because there has been many Henrys and Jacobs and a blood lusted Elizabeth, who wanted to get rid of Mary Stuart. Due to the immense material my colleagues and I are turning the night into day. Luckily, it is done soon. I really like doing the warm up at the beginning of each EAP lesson, otherwise we wouldn’t have the chance to speak English. Due to the discussion my speaking improved rapidly. Unfortunately, I still have some problems with small talk, because I am not used to it and therefore I make many mistakes and I am very uncertain. I’ll have to practice on that.

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Paragraph : "How modern media has generally changed the way people study and work"

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Paragraph : "How modern media has generally changed the way people study and work"

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Many aspects how modern media has generally changed the way people study and work can be illustrated. Primarily, technology has affected our life steadily, due to the immediate access of information. Students are able to obtain material online or attend webinars, where lecturers offer lessons via the web. Furthermore, it is no use to print papers anymore, because everything can be written and read on - screen. It is important to invest in technology and work with new media appropriate, to use the complete range of possibilities, especially to improve the chances of finding a job. The benefits outweigh considerably the disadvantages, but nevertheless life has become more stressful, because of the 24/7 accessibility, through smartphones, e-mail access and social media. As a result, privacy is ignored and the periods of rest are not respected anymore. To sum up, modern media has many advantages, but it is important to take a break from modern technology and turn off the smartphones and laptops at times.

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In our class today, we started the topic essay writing. Every essay needs an

·       Introduction – to orient the reader

·       Body – which includes a topic sentence, supporting sentence and a concluding sentence

·       Conclusion – summarise the statement

Afterwards we did some exercises on the worksheet “Essay introduction” to get familiar with the features of an introduction (the rationale, the thesis statement, contextualizing material, a statement to gain the reader’s interest, a basic definition). First, it was a bit confusing, because I am not used to this feature, but by analysing the second paragraph I did very well. I am still uncertain with academic writing and now I am uncertain to write an essay, but due to our essay homework I hope to get more certain and used to this kind of writing.

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As warm up we discussed how modern media generally changed the way people study and work. Most of my colleagues and I came to the decision that modern media has many advantages nowadays but disadvantages as well. Generally, modern media offers information easily but life has become more stressful because of the 24/7 accessibility. Therefore, it is important to take a break from modern technology and turn off the mobile phone and laptop occassionally.

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Ulrike and I did very well but made some mistakes as well.  An academic paragraph should not contain personal pronouns as “you”. Instead use the passive form. Besides, avoid the word “get” or “getting to”.

Travelling abroad offers various benefits for open minded people. To widens the traveller’s perspective and the knowledge about knew culture is one benefit. Moreover, the interaction with other people seems very delightful. On the one hand travelling offers the experience to improve language skills, on the other hand the knowledge of independence. Travelling abroad tend to be the right choice for open minded people.

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Hedges are mitigating words which are markers of uncertainty and soften claims in interactions for instance:

·       Introductory verbs

·       Modal verbs

·       Adverbs of frequency

·       Phrases

·       Modal adjectives & adverbs

·       Modal nouns

·       That clauses

·       To-clauses + verb

Unfortunately, I still have some difficulties writing academic texts and paragraphs. By practicing and leaning different methods, I am getting more and more confident.

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Travelling abroad offers various benefits for open minded people. One benefit is getting to know new cultures and widens the perspective of the travellers. It is always delightful to meet and interact with other people. On the one hand it improves language skills, on the other hand you learn how to be independent. When you are open to new experiences and cultures travelling abroad is the right choice.

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Today it was quite interesting to reflect about our reflection on padlet. Anyone of us struggle with different reflection difficulties. The main questions contained “what do I like about reflection about my learning and what do I don’t like about reflection.” In my view a reflection is a good opportunity to have an overview about our language level and how to improve constantly on speaking formal and writing in an academic style. Personally, I struggle with the word order and sentence structure and how to use new adjective and adverbs appropriate. Unfortunately, every sentence in my reflection starts with the same structure but luckily, Miss Miglbauer showed me new opportunities how to start differently. Afterwards we compared our WS paragraph structure and mended each other. Subsequently, a new topic was invented – Stance. What is stance - The attitude of a person or organization towards something; a standpoint. For practising we skimmed an article and identified the author’s stance. Finally, we tried a co-writing paragraph with our colleague in edupad. Edupad is an entertaining platform to write anytime and anywhere with our partner via the internet.

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Today, my colleges and I recorded our academic discussion with Caroline. We had been well prepared nevertheless, we all had been a little bit nervous. Because of the well-prepared topic, Caroline had to cut us off after 45 minutes. As topic we had chosen sustainability in different aspects - nutrition/food, fashion/textiles, traveling/transport and industry. Due to our interest in sustainability, we would have been able to talk for more than one hour. Despite the problematic of remembering specific vocabulary, our discussion went well. Unfortunately, Cornelia and I had not got the chance to recite our topics as planned because of the lack of time. Nevertheless, we were constantly able to get involved in the discussion because of our counterarguments. Retrospectively, it was an exciting and educational experience to research this topic and afterwards to discuss it in our group.

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Today we still focused on the process of writing and how to write a paragraph appropriate. First, we started with a little warm up, talking about our home town and region. Everyone mentioned some reasons why the fellow colleges should visit our home town. Some main points are discussed, for instance what is noteworthy and what is interesting to visit off the beaten track and additionally the specific meals of our region. Interestingly, we all chose the same three topics "restaurants, main tourist’s attractions and party places". Now I know where I will spend my next few weekends. Afterwards we discussed the process of writing. Especially, the writing circle of preparation, planning, drafting and writing, reviewing and editing and at last proofreading. The following survey showed our usual starting style of a text. The main styles of the peers are mind maps and doing lists. I personally prefer freestyle writing. I just want to start writing anything what comes in mind. Afterwards we heard about generating and structuring our ideas and thoughts and subsequently we did a mind map about our home town and as homework we have to write a paragraph. I will try out to apply the discussed points on writing in this paragraph. After the mind map we learned about drafting and writing and how to structure a paragraph. Each paragraph needs a topic sentence, supporting sentence and an evidence sentence and a concluding sentence. To practice these sentences, we analyzed our last paragraph which we had to write at home. In my opinion, my paragraph contains all 4 sentences of a paragraph structure. Finally, my colleagues and I compared our last homework about how to link ideas and what does formal and informal language mean. To use “yet” as a sentence starter was definitely new to me. Just as useful was the comparison of our last homework because we had the chance to help and to mend each other. I definitely like in this lesson and in this course as well, how to write in an academic way, not only by theory but also to practice this theory. The exercises are an excellent opportunity to practice and apply afterwards in the texts.

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Frauenkirchen is one of the most beautiful city in the edge of Seewinkel National Park and worth a visit. Famous for the stunning landscape and biodiversity, grand tourists and inhabitants to take a break and enjoy the magnificent view.  The baroque Basilica with its monumental clock towers is one of Frauenkirchen’s tourist attractions. The Franciscan monks annually organize a pilgrimage to Maria Zell or classical concerts in the church. Discover Central Europe’s only Thermal Bath and Lodge Resort, the St. Martins Therme and Lodge, to get offered delicious breakfast and dinners, swimming and sauna areas and explore the Neusiedler See Seewinkel National Park by bike or join a bird watching tour to see the typical Pannonia wildlife and unspoiled scenery. At the end of the day, the city offers a variety of restaurants and “Heurige” with typical Burgenland dishes and wines.  Italian ice cream is applied as well. For horse enthusiast, provides Frauenkirchen day rides, pony rides and horse carriage rides. Therefore my city is popular among countless tourists.

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Ed Sheeran - Perfect (Official Music Video)

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At the beginning of our 4th lesson we did some warm up about reading skills and writing difficulties. Unfortunately, the reading topic in Moffett was a few weeks ago and therefore we had some difficulties to remember. Nevertheless, we could find some reading skills. As our group grows together more and more, we easily managed to come up with a solution. Subsequently, we talked more precisely about reading skills in class. To summarize the skills, my colleagues and I got the opportunity to imagine how we have read academic books in the past and how we can improve our research skills in the future. We learned how to skim through academic books without having to read the whole books for our papers. Then we talked about our writing difficulties and analyzed our own difficulties in writing. I still struggle with academic texts, because I prefer to write informally rather than formally. The tasks we had to do in class were definitely extremely helpful to improve my writing skills. Afterwards we had to read the headline of our partner's article and to find some keywords. Then we skimmed and scanned the article to find these keywords and to take some notes. This exercise led us to talk about special words that are typically for academic texts. Through the subsequent theory unit about "The process of writing" we learned about the meaning of formal writing, the difference between academic and non-academic words and which sentences are typically formal and which should be avoided. These exercises and examples were very helpful for me, because now I can orientate myself and write formal texts more easily.

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SummaryMountain man (Spotlight 10/2014 p. 8-9)

Piaras Kelly is a member of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team. In the past, he did some hill walking, rock climbing and mountaineering, but quickly his hobby turned into passion and now he works as a guide and climbing instructor. His wife Catherine is also involved in mountain rescue as the training officer with the Search and Rescue Dogs Association of Ireland. The team consists of 35 members from all walks of life – graphic designers, engineers, and electrician. Mainly, they were called out to assist walkers who were lost or in trouble on the Reeds, but unfortunately there were also one fatality. He feels privileged to be one of the team, because his work is very important for unknown hill walkers. Many people underestimate the dangers of the mountains. The weather can change quickly and you can get lost easily. Kelly loves his job especially, on a satisfied day with his clients.

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The article “Mountain man” focused on Piaras Kelly a member of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team and on his daily routines. His obsession in hill walking, rock climbing and mountaineering in the past, turned into a huge passion and therefore he works as a guide and climbing instructor. Since his wife Catherine shares his passion, she belongs to the team as training officer with the Search and Rescue Dogs Association of Ireland. The team consists of 35 members from all walks of life – graphic designers, engineers, and electrician. Mainly, they were called out to assist walkers who were lost or in trouble on the Reeds, but unfortunately one fatality has been counted to the daily routine. He feels privileged to associate this team, because his work is very important for unknown hill walkers, especially many people underestimate the dangers of the mountains. Due to the fast weather change many get easily lost. Kelly loves his job especially, on a satisfied day with his clients.

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In our third lesson we started with some warm up by focusing on reading genres. It was interesting to know that my study colleagues and I have nearly chosen the same genres. Afterwards we discussed about researching for journals and essays and how to use search engines appropriately. Many search engines were mentioned, especially Google, Google Scholar, Google Books and University Library. I did not know Google Scholar before, but I will definitely use it for future papers instead of Google. In the past I have always used Google, even for academic researches. By discussing various search engines, I will be able to do more research on different topics in the future easily. After that we did some discourse about academic language. We talked about various ways to express opinions in an academic way. The subsequent exercise helped me to practice the theory we had learned before. I have expressed my opinion in very simple sentences in the past, but from now on I know how to express myself in academic language, because of the plenty speaking tasks. In my view, my speaking skills in English are getting better and better in each lesson.

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Unfortunately, we started the lesson a bit late, because of a presentation about a teaching school in England. Since I'm the mother of a 3-year-old son, this trip is unfortunately out of the question for me. First, we started with a speaking warm up about our learning journal and reflecting types. It was quite interesting to hear from the other students how they felt about the “padlet” and that we all faced the same problems with this collaboration tool. It was nice for me that I am not alone with these problems and to be understood. Also the reason why they chose their specific layout was delightful, as I chose my layout due to my fascination of England. The details about reflecting types helped me a lot to handle the second reflection, because as I wrote the first one I did not really know how to accomplish this task. Now I have an idea of how to deal with reflections und I am not afraid of them anymore. Then we discussed EAP in context and did the second activity which was about the reading task “genre”. We discussed the meaning of the term “genre”, the audience and the four aspects of a genre. The text we got was quite informative and I think it will help me for my future writing, because I can differ between the different genres now. Afterwards we did the third activity which was about readings and analysing readings. My reading was about the book “Outlander” which amused all of my friends when I talked about the four aspects especially when I mentioned the target audience of the book. All activities are really helpful, because we can improve our speaking and get the chance to speak in English. Each lesson develops my vocab range. As a result, speaking English feels more and more natural.

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EAP = the teaching of English with the specific aim of helping learners to study, conduct research or teach in that language.

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I was really excited at the beginning of our first lesson, because I could not imagine anything under EAP. After the general information about the course, we started  the first task. With the help of an evaluation sheet, we should find out our strengths and weaknesses regarding speaking, reading and writing. Afterwards we  discussed them in a group of four. For me personally, it was very helpful to see where my current level of these three skills is, so I could find out that I'm good at writing and reading, but still need some practice in speaking, especially in the preparation of a discussion. My group members felt the same way as I did and came to the result, that they need to work on their speaking skills, too. We also did some poll in class, where we evaluated ourselves unnecessarily harsh, but we all agreed that self criticism can be very helpful to improve our work.

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"the earth has music for those who listen"
--William Shakespeare --

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In today’s lesson I got the change to be the teacher’s assistant because Ms. Miglbauer could not attend our class today. First, I was a bit nervous about my colleagues accepting me as an assistant, but it went very well and we decided to do the exercises together as a group.

First of all, we did the warm up, Autonomous learning. It can be seen that learning on our own has some advantages and some disadvantages. Personally, I prefer to learn on my own because it helps be to concentrate better, but I also like to attend additional seminars to exchange and deepen my knowledge. Furthermore, to ask questions as well.