Today "Window on America" center (Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) had a presentation of free resources for those wishing to improve their English skills. The presentation was arranged for the first-year students group from the Dnipropetrovsk National Mining University of Ukraine (NMUU).
They listened to the presentation of the useful library resources for languages’ study and free resources for improving the English skills. Students examined the WOA’s technical equipment, the DOUNB Library’s collection of documents in foreign languages at the respective department, the WOA’s book & image display “If you want to study in the USA” and “America 24/7”.
Students learned about the numerous activities:
- free access to the digital “eLibrary USA” to prepare scientific papers,
- possibility to watch US movies with authentic soundtrack ( in a group or individually),
- possibility to meet native speakers at the “Gabfest” English-speaking club sessions.
The students reviewed the promotional trailer about the library resources and received promotional materials. They were invited to follow the WOA’s announcements via the website, social networks (Facebook), to view reference materials and on-line links to the blog (http://woadnepr.blogspot.com/).
Number of participants – 15 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please
This Saturday the Gabfest Club (Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) members took part in the global event – the International Games Day.
The first part of the session was dedicated to the introduction of the event and the conversation about board games and their role in the lives of modern people. The phenomenon of “game-based learning” was introduced to the group and illustrated with several You Tube videos. The club members shared their experiences of having gamification elements in training and their attitude to the games that actually teach you something. New vocabulary to the topic was also introduced.
The second part of the Games Day session was the introduction of the WOA’s board games collection. Our American volunteer Mr. Jason took an active part in the games introduction. We started with the elementary school games that may be useful to American English learners as they teach spelling (“Boggle”) and progressed to the most challenging ones (the crossword game “Scrabble” and its varieties). The popular games that are just fun were also introduced (“The Jungle Speed” and “Monopoly”). The most helpful games for the Gabfest Club members are: “Apples to Apples” that enriches vocabulary and “Taboo” that improves descriptive and speaking skills.
The highlight of the session was introduction of the board games set “Activate”. The group was offered a trial set of educational games for American English learners. The participant formed pairs and actively had conversations according to the games’ titles.
The session was a funny and educational event that introduced new trends in language learning.
The Gabfest Club members made a video about their Games Day at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine for the global International Games Day site.
Number of participants – 27 persons.
Today’s session of the Dnipropetrovsk Gabfest Club was dedicated to the topic that is important for all language learners: the English Grammar. In the USA March, 4 is a nationwide Grammar Day. We started with discussing some funny cartoons about grammar. The group agreed that English verb tenses and aspects are very difficult for understanding. We reviewed the table of the English tenses and completed a grammar test. The brainstorming allowed us to get a decent score. All answers were correct.
The next activity for the group was composing of the “Bio Poem”. The club members formed groups and started to create Poems about themselves. Poem recital was a good start for the Introduction ritual – there were quite a number of new comers today. The activity was recommended on the “American English” website for practicing the forms of the verb “to be”.
Our newcomer Evgeniy continued to share with the group his experiences from working onboard an American cruise liner. Today we focused on the American service culture aboard the cruise ships. Some facts really surprised the group and they asked Evgeniy numerous questions.
The session was both funny and educational.
Number of participants – 25 persons.
To the American English Day the book display American English was presented to the visitors of Dnipropetrovsk Window on America center.
Numerous dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, grammar and phonetic guides reveal the current state and the vast resources of the English language in the United States.
