Saturday, May 22, 2010

Final Presentations

Abdulla Masoud H00131565

Date: 23.05.2010. Time: 1025-1040.

Title: Endangered species & how to save them.

Introduction & wrap: clear introduction & statement of problem. Questions painstakingly handled at the end, in spite of some language difficulties.

Body language and eye contact were positive and adequate.

Slides: colourful & clear and well-handled during questions.

Some pronunciation problems with key words e.g. extinction/species, which could have been better practised beforehand.

Response of audience: interested, positive, favourable.

Faisal Saif H00133058

Date: 25.05.2010 Time: 1203-1213

Title: Junk food

Introduction clear; he fielded questions reasonably well.

Body language positive; eye contact OK.

Slides were colourful & informative. He did tend to read from the slides but, to be fair, he added his own observations, including a personal anecdote, for the slides.

Language was fit for purpose.

Audience reaction: quite positive.

Mohamed Saleh H00128186

Date: 25.05.2010 Time: 1225-1235

Title: Hacking

Introduction and question-handling competent.

Enunciation was loud but quite often inaccurate. Not always 100% clear but, overall, quite effective. Some linguistic errors, e.g. he have & he need (on a slide: poor prep.)

Body language positive; eye contact OK.

Slides not colourful and better graphics would have helped.

Ahmed Abdul Rahman H00132633

Date: 25.05.2010 Time: 1239-1248

Title: Traffic congestion problems in the UAE & how to solve them.

Very clear introduction. Delivery loud, clear & confident.

Body language & eye contact good.

Good bar charts to show parking problems & journey times to work for the UAE & neighbouring countries. Dubai worst with 1h 45mins. Surprisingly parking bigger problem in Dubai than AD.

A confident & assured presentation but, unusually, a little hesitant in fielding some of the questions.

Saood Abdulla H00131022

Date: 25.05.2010 Time: 1249-1306

Title: Growing crime rates in Dubai.

Delivery occasionally a trifle jerky but loud and ver clear.

Types of crime & criminals: clear categories shown on the slides but descriptions contained minor inaccuracies, e.g. distinction between murder & manslaughter.

Well received by the audience.

Mohamed Rashed H00132635

Date: 25.05.2010 Time: 1325-1343

Title: Obesity

Introduction & general delivery clear & quietly confident.

Body language could do with being a little more positive. At times, rather diffident.

Slides: wording often obscured by images. Tended to be rather repetitive & non-specific.

Fahad Abdrabboh H00130970

Date: 25.05.2010 Time: 1345-1355

Title: Tyre recycling

Introduction & delivery quite clear and confident.

1 or 2 factual errors marred presentation, e.g. the information that tyres were made from 20 different chemicals was accompanied by a slide showing 6 component parts of a tyre.

Some grammatical errors on slides. Could & should have been better prepped.

Mohamed Hasan H00132994

Date: 26.05.2010 Time: 0830-0840

Title: Population problems in Dubai

Delivery quite good. Could have spelled out the problem more clearly in introduction.

Tended to read from slides.

What boosted his mark was his body language, eye contact & pertinacity when fielding questions at the end.

Munther Taj Aldeen H00128002

Title: Divorce in the UAE

Introduction very clear; questions effectively fielded.

Attitude & body language excellent. Delivery confident & assured. Good articulation.

Slides very colourful & informative.

Ahmeed Ali H00130910

Date: 26.05.2010 Time: 0910-1920

Title: Soft drinks

No real problem was spelled out clearly at the outset.

The presentation consisted of the presenter reading out, not very well, large chunks of text from the slides. All students had been warned of the folly of this appr0ach.

An inadequately prepared and delivered presentation.

Abdulla Khaled H00137908

Date: 26.05.2010 Time: 0922-0931

Title: Bankable dreams

Abdyulla presents competently with adequate eye contact & positivity of body language.

But it was not clear from his introduction what problem he was trying to describe, nor at the end what his solutions were.

The slides, however, were colourful & informative and the presentation entertained the audience.

Rashed Mohamed H00132879

Date: 26.05.2010 Time: 0935-0940

Delivery was reasonably clear, if somewhat perfunctory.

Introduction did not satisfactorily highlight a specific problem.

Read from slides as if presenting a travelogue. No real analysis.

Overall, superficial & short. Barely adequate.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Logbook

Date: 30.03.2010

Time: 1223-1243 p.m.

Location: F52

Presenters: Ahmed Ali H00130910 & Hedley

Subject: Polluted cities worldwide.

Slides:

Ahmed showed 10 slides to illustrate the worldwide nature of urban pollution: Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Cairo, London, L.A., New Mexico, Paris, Santiago, Texas and one entitled World War Two.

Hedley then followed up with 10 slides of the most polluted cities today. The problem is acute in several Chinese, Russian & Indian cities.

The slides were colourful, informative and interesting. Apart from population figures, the slides had no written content.

Body language: Ahmed & Hedley talked directly to the audience. They did not read from notes. They established eye contact and appeared to enjoy giving their presentation.

There was plenty of comment from the class during the course of the presentation. Questions & observations were confidently handled.

The English was accurate & clear throughout.

Date: 11.04.2010

Time: 1015

Location: F52

Presenters: Abdulla Khalid H00137908 & Al Munther H00128002

Subject: Toyota

Slides: colourful, relevant & informative. The founder's family name was Toyoda. One or two grammatical errors, e.g. conclution.

Generally both had good eye contact and body language was positive.

English clear and, for the most part, accurate.

Questions in general were answered competently.

Date: 11.04.2010

Time: 1030

Location: F52

Presenters: Abdulla Masoud H 00131565 & Ahmed AbdulRahman H 00132533

Subject: Water Consumption

Slides: 12 colourful and informative slides, with an emphasis on statistics from Canada.

Eye contact from both was good, delivery confident and body language positive. Both unfortunately tended to read points word for word from the slides, which were a tad wordy.

English was very clear and accurate.

Questions were answered most confidently.

Date: 11.04.2010

Time: 1045

Location: F52

Presenters: Abdulrahman H00128332 & Mohsin H00132268

Subject: The UAE 1960-70

Slides: Mostly black & white, but relevant, informative & interesting.

Good eye contact and positive body language.

English clear and questions dealt with adequately.

Questions competently dealt with.

Date; 11.04.2010

Time: 1100

Location: F52

Presenters: Fahad H00130970 & Mohd Hassan H00132994

Subject: Recycling

Slides: colourful & informative. Mohd Hassan had a tendency to read the wording on the slides.

English & eye contact adequate; body language quite positive, in spite of some nerves from both.

Questions handled quite competently.

Date: 13.04.2010

Time: 1215

Location: F52

Presenters: Saif H00132862 & Faisal H00133058

Subject: The UAE, past & present

Slides: interesting & informative.

Attitude & body language positive. Saif's delivery particularly confident & fluent.

English very clear & accurate.

Questions answered most confidently & clearly.


Date: 13.04.2010

Time: 1245

Location: F52

Presenters: Mohd Rashid H00132635 & Sultan H00134237

Subject: Starting a business

Slides: clear but perhaps a little wordy. The subject doesn't easily lend itself to pictorial representation.

Both made reasonably good eye contact but perhaps referred to the screen too often.

English and question answering were satisfactorily clear.

Date: 13.04.2010

Time: 1300

Location: F52

Presenters: Saood H00131022 & Mohd Saleh H00128186

Subject: The UAE in the past

Slides: black & white but interesting, informative and relevant.

The body language of both was very positive and they both made excellent eye contact. Their spoken English contained some errors but they both spole loudly & confidently. They both answered questions readily & cheerfully.

Date: 13.04.2010

Time: 1315

Location: F52

Presenters: Rashid H00132879 & Salem H00133895

Subject: Giving up smoking

Slides: only 8 but reasonably informative/relevant.

Eye contact from both was adequate overall but Salem, in particular, could work on ths aspect of his prentation style. Body language of Rashid OK but Salem rather diffident.Both answered questions but Salem often needed a lot of prodding & encouragent to become more than monosyllabic in his responses.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Semi-formal presentation

a) Saif & Faisal: The UAE in the past

b) Rashid & Salem: Smoking

c) Abdulrahman & Mohsin: Yas Island

d) Abdulla Khaled & Munther: Toyota

e) Mohd Rashis & Sultan: Economic depression

f) Saoud & Mohd Saleh: Preserving our culture

g) Fahad & Mohd Hassan: Recycling

h) Ahmed Abdulrahman & Abdulla Masoud: Wasting water

i) Ahmed Ali & Hedley: Air pollution

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Group A:

Mohd Saleh (H00128186) Chairman
Ahmed Abdulrahman (H00132633) Secretary
Abdulla Masood (H00131565) Participant
Saood (H00131022) Participant


Mohd led the meeting effectively. There was good use of language when discussing the issue of gender integration, e.g. Ahmed mentioned the possible problem of flirting. He also put forward the ides of having some segregated/ some mixed classes in the same college. Abdulla raised the possibility of having CCTV and Mohd suggested that one benefit of mixed classes would be helping students to overcome shyness & gain confidence.

Group B:

Rashid (H00132879) Chairman
Abdulla Khalid (H00137908) Secretary
Sultan (H00134237) Participant


The meeting was to discuss how students in HCT could maximize their learning opportunities through use of technology, educational resources, educational visits, etc.

Group C:

Saif (H00132862) Chairman
Faisal (H00133058) Secretary
Salem (H00133895) Participant


The meeting discussed the problem of student parking at ADMC. The meeting was quite effectively led and reached a conclusion speedily but discussion was rather perfunctory, with no wide-ranging examination of alternative solutions. On the other hand the group did some research to find out student nos., no. of parking speces etc.



Group D:

Mohd Rashid (H00132635) Chairman
Fahad (H00130970) Secretary
Munther (H00128002) Participant

The meeting discussed ways of maximizing HCT students’ chances of success & how to deal with problems caused by lack of success & underachievement.

Group E:

AbdulRahman (H00128332) Chairman
Mohsin (H00132268) Secretary
Mohd Hassan (H00132994) Participant


The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of gender integration at HCT. All 3 group members actively participated in a lively discussion, which AbdulRahman chaired effectively.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Mohamed Saleh

I’d like to introduce Mohamed Saleh.

He was born on 21st July 1990 and so he is now 19 years old. He was born in Sharjah but now lives in Abu Dhabi. He has six brothers and seven sisters. His father used to be a soldier but is now retired. In his free time, Mohamed likes computer games and watching movies. He has visited two other countries, Oman and China. He went to Beijing last year with his classmate, Abdulla Khaled. They went to see a martial arts demonstration. They stayed about five days and also visited museums and the Great Wall of China.

His ambition is to be a successful businessman, perhaps in the building trade.

His best holiday was when he went to Muscat, Oman, last year with his family. He has been to Oman several times and he likes it because he has so many friends there.

He thinks the best thing about ADMC is the teaching which is so much better than in secondary school. His English teachers, for example, speak English all the time and so he has to do the same in his English classes.

And the worst thing is the attendance policy: 5%, 10%, etc. He thinks this is too tough.

His motto is: failure is just one step on the road to success. I told him we have an English expression which ties in with this: we learn more from our failures than from our successes.

Now you know a little bit about Mohamed Saleh, his family and leisure activities.

258 words

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Flow

flowthefilm.com

This is a movie by Irina Salina.

The human body is 70% water & takes in impure water not just by drinking but also by washing & showering.

India:

Getting clean water to the poor is difficult using traditional methods because it's too expensive. 10 litres of water per day costs US$2 per person per year. Suez is the company that is damming the Ganges in order to sell back water to Indian citizens at 10 times the price it had been. There are 7,600 community-built water harvesting projects in India. The women in the movie are sitting in protest against Coca-Cola. The result of the protest against Coca-Cola was that the company was forced to close the plant. The BBC found that the free fertilizer given to the people was actually waste, full of toxins like cadmium.
The organisation which has legal immunity, and so can't be sued for breaking promises, is the World Bank.

The USA:

Atrazin is a weedkiller. Some of its side-effects are that it makes men more feminine & also causes prostae & breast cancer.
The state of California has 27 years of water left, Arizona 4.5.
3 out of 4 Americans drink bottled water. Nestle markets 70 brands of bottled water. It does not pay for the water it takes from the community. It receives a tax break of US$10M over 10 years. During a time of drought the company continued to pump water. The judge in the court case found 'diminishing the integrity of the flow of water.' Nestle appealed and, during the appeal, continued to pump water.

Bolivia:

The blood in the drinking water comes from a slaughterhouse. The companies supplying water to poor people for profit are Suez & Vivendi. The country privatised water because the World Bank demanded it.

311 words

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Vocabulary log

10 words:

1. accommodation, noun, a residence, a place where you live.

My accommodation in Doha was a villa, but here in Abu Dhabi it is a flat.

2. achievement, noun, something difficult you succeed in doing.

Putting a man on the moon in 1969 was a great achievement for NASA.

3. ambulance, noun, a vehicle used to take a sick or injured person to hospital.

There was a major crash involving several vehicles on the Sheikh Zayed Road and several ambulances were called to the scene.

4. attract, verb, to draw by appealing to the emotions or senses, by stimulating interest, or by exciting admiration; allure; invite: to attract attention; to attract admirers by one's charm.

The first F1 race in Abu Dhabi attracted a huge crowd of spectators to Yas Island.

5. Australia, proper noun, a large country in the southern hemisphere.

I have visited Australia twice and seen some very large crocodiles in Northern Territory.

6. available, adjective, accessible, usable, handy, buyable.

Many 4-WD vehicles are available in the U.A.E.

7. beautiful, adjective, lovely, pretty, gorgeous, attractive, fine.

She's wearing a beautiful gown.

8. because, conjunction, for the reason that; due to the fact that.

He was absent from class because he was sick.

9. before, preposition, previous to; earlier or sooner than, ahead of; in the future of; awaiting.

Phone me before noon.

10. believe, verb, to think that something is true;to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.

I didn't believe her story.