Voice Box TV

First up, we have the keynote address of the conference, from Senior English Language Fellow, Marjorie Friedman, titled Reflective Teaching.

reflective-teaching-plenary.ppt

As usual, you can download and print the exercises in Microsoft Word format, to use in the classroom:

episode-20-exercises.doc

Ex1. Match the definitions to the words.
Match the following definitions to the words they describe.

1. Threatened with a danger or extinction.
2. An indication or warning of probable trouble.
3. A long-legged, swift-running wild cat of Africa and southwest Asia.
4. To search through an area for prey.
5. Forbidden by law or statute. (Prohibited by law.)
6. A bovine mammal of western North America, having large forequarters, a shaggy mane, and a massive head with short curved horns.
7. No longer in existence; that has ended or died out.
8. A person or thing that survives or endures.
9. To trespass on another’s property in order to take fish or game (animals).
10. An international non-governmental organization for the conservation, research and restoration of the natural environment.

Words: WWF, hunting, threat, illegal, cheetah, poaching, endangered, survival, bison.

Exercise2. Research
Research an endangered animal in your library or online, then answer the following questions:

1. Where are they found (which region or country)?
2. What is their natural habitat (forest, ocean desert, etc.)?
3. Why are they endangered (hunting, destruction of habitat, etc)?
4. How many are left in the wild?
5. What do they eat (are they carnivores, herbivores or omnivores)?
6. Do they have any natural predators/enemies/threats? What are they?

Some suggestions for animals could be: takhi horse, giant panda, blue whale, rhinoceros, snow leopard.

Exercise3. Information Gap - Talking
With the information gathered from the previous exercise, get into pairs and ask your partner about the animal they chose to research. You can use the same questions as above or improvise some new questions.

Exercise4. Conjunctions
A conjunction joins 2 ideas or sentences. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with one of the conjunctions from this list:
(although, will, such as, because of, due to, since, and, with, have been, as well as)

1. The snow leopard is legally protected in Mongolia, but the population is believed to be in decline __________ poaching for fur and bones to be sold on the black market.
2. Snow Leopards may occur in Khovsgol Mountains —-__________ no confirmed sightings have occurred since the 1960’s.
3. WWF Mongolia has been active in the Mongolian part of the Altai-Sayan ecoregion __________ 1992 __________ species conservation projects and supporting protected areas management.
4. The Daurian Steppe Eco-region encompasses a large portion of Eastern Mongolia, __________ parts of the Russian Far East and North-Eastern China.
5. Several rivers on the Russian side, __________ the Khuya, Ashinga, Balj, Agats, Kher and Teren drain into upper reaches of the Onon River.
6. For the Daurian Steppe, the next priority ecoregion for WWF Mongolia, gazelles (Procapra gutturosa) have been selected as the flagship species.
7. The Argali sheep is an endangered species __________ has been under state protection since 1953.
8. Identifying and prioritizing the major issues and addressing their root causes will remain a major challenge __________ the nature of the threats.
9. In partnership with decision makers, mining investors and local communities, WWF-Mongolia __________ push for the introduction of environmentally sound technologies.

All of the above quotes were found on WWF Mongolia’s website:
English
Mongolian
Answers for these exercises in the following text file: answers_ep20.txt

‘Born to be Wild’, by Steppenwolf. Words and music by Mars Bonfire

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Born to be wild
Born to be wild

This week on VoiceBox, we have a very important episode about Endangered Animals. We speak to Onon Yondon, who is the Species Officer at the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) about the situation of endangered animals in Mongolia and important issues such as hunting, poaching and protection.
Mongolia has several endangered species, the most famous being the snow leopard. There are also the altai argali wild sheep, the saiga antelope and the takhi horse.

There is a lot of really interesting and alarming information about endangered animals on the WWF Mongolia website (in both English and Mongolian): http://www.wwf.mn/

They are doing a lot of really important work to protect wildlife and the environment in Mongolia and have even got some Mobile Anti Poaching Units (pictured above, left) out in the field, working to stop poachers illegally killing and capturing animals. Check out some of their great projects here: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacific/where/mongolia/projects/index.cfm

We also have another page of new exercises to for you to try at home or in the classroom, all about endangered animals. You should find them very helpful.
http://voiceboxtv.org/index.php/2007/05/31/episode-20-exercises-endangered-species/
episode-20-exercises.doc

This week’s Street Karaoke, fitting with the wildlife theme, is ‘Born to be Wild’, by Steppenwolf.

As always, you can download the script and follow along with the show: voicebox-episode-20.doc

I’d also like to inform you about a new section of the VoiceBox website called “TEFL 2007″. There was a conference for English teachers in Mongolia earlier this month and we are working on putting all of the handouts and other materials from the presentations on the VoiceBox website for all to learn from. There were some great presentations with really good teaching ideas and exercises to try in classes, so be sure to check them out.

This section will be dedicated to the TEFL Conference 2007. This has been set up to provide attendees of the conference with the papers, handouts, notes or any other materials from the presentations and workshops. If you missed any sessions you would like to have seen, you can catch up on what you missed here.

There were some great teaching methods, ideas for class activities and many more useful ideas in the presentations, so we’re hoping as many people as possible can benefit from these. I’ll be putting them up as they come in, so stay tuned.

To use these exercises in the classroom, download and print the Microsoft Word document below. The answers are in a seperate .txt file at the bottom of this page:

yakexercises.doc

Exercise 1 - Creativity
Yak caption contest. What is the yak in the photograph thinking?

Exercise 2 – Listening/Watching
After watching the VoiceBox discussion about yaks, answer the following questions:

1. How many yak products can you name? Aim for 10.

2. Why is yak leather used for souvenirs?
3. Is it possible to play yak polo?
4. When did the yak festival stop?
5. When did the yak festival start again?
6. Where is the yak festival held?

Exercise 3 – Writing
Answer the following questions in full sentences:

Have you ever ridden a yak? If so, what was it like? If not, what do you imagine it would be like?

Exercise 4 - Articles
From the following paragraph from (http://www.animalinfo.org/), fill in the blanks using a, an, the or X (if the space does not need an article).

Behaviour:
“The wild yak feeds mostly in the morning and evening. Due to the sparseness of vegetation in its environment, ___ yak must travel long distances to obtain its needed nourishment. It is ___ sure-footed climber. The wild yak is extremely sensitive to heat and coordinates its seasonal movements with the temperature and ___ food supply. While in ___ highlands, the wild yak withstands violent winds and snowstorms for hours at ___ time. It can tolerate temperatures of -40° C. It also bathes in ___ lakes and streams in severe cold. The wild yak stays in high areas with permanent snow during ___ relatively warm months of August and September and spends ___ rest of the year at lower elevations.
The wild yak is generally wary - if a herd is disturbed, the yaks will flee for ___ long distance, galloping with their tails held erect.” (Bhatnagar 2002).

Exercise 5 – Conditionals
Answer the following conditionals (if questions).

If you had a yak, what would you name it?

If you had a choice between riding a yak, a camel or a horse to school, which one would you choose? Why?

If you had a yak, would you use it to make butter, airag, buuz or wool products?

If you had played yak polo at the yak festival, how many goals would you have scored for your team?

If the riders had given their yaks airag before a race, would they have run faster? How would their behaviour change?

answers_19_yaks.txt

Hi Everyone. Coming up on this week’s VoiceBox, we have a very special episode, which we had great fun filming. It’s all about yaks! We visited some yak herders out near Terelj and found out all about yak herding. Tune in for all the action.

We have some great new exercises for you, which teachers can download and print to use in the classroom, or students can complete online here: http://voiceboxtv.org/index.php/2007/05/25/episode-19-exercises-yaks/

Download the script and follow along at home: voicebox-episode-19-yaks.doc

And check out the lyrics for this week’s Street Karaoke song, ‘Can You Ride a Horse?’

Can you tell we had fun?

Also check out the new quizzes in our Fun and Games section. You have to watch the videos and listen carefully, then answer the questions in the quiz. There’s one about Archery and one about Orgil’s interview.

‘Can you Ride a Horse?’ by Peace Corps volunteers, Mongolia.

Can you ride a horse?
Can you ride a horse?
Yes I can. Yes I can.
Can you milk a cow?
Can you milk a cow?
Yes I can. Yes I can.

I can ride a horse, I can milk a cow.
I can do anything if you show me how.
Yes I can.

Can you play chess?
Can you play chess?
Yes I can. Yes I can.
Can you sing a song?
Can you sing a song?
Yes I can. Yes I can.

I can ride a horse, I can milk a cow.
I can do anything if you show me how.
Yes I can.

Can you fly a plane?
Can you fly a plane?
No I can’t. No I can’t.
Can you play guitar?
Can you play guitar?
No I can’t. No I can’t.

But I can ride a horse, I can milk a cow.
And I can do anything if you show me how.
Yes I can. Yes I can.

voicebox-episode-19-yaks.doc

Watch this interview with Orgil Makhaan, then complete the quiz below.