English with Ms. Sirianni

What can we do to encourage our students to use the target language more without recurring to our L1?

A few simple tips and strategies that I usually implement in my classes during a speaking task!

What are the strategies that work best in your classes?

Special thanks to and for always making me reflect on my teaching!

Why are you using just one expression when there are tons at your disposal? 😂

After looking at different ways to say ‘thank you’ we explore alternative ways to say ‘you’re welcome’!

Do you know them?
Do you use any of these?

When was the last time you pulled something off and you felt good about it? 😉⁣
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PULL OFF has several different meanings but figuratively means ‘to be successful at what you’re trying to do despite all the odds’!⁣
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Il phrasal verb di oggi è abbastanza comune e si usa in diversi contesti, ma in senso figurato significa ‘portare a termine un compito con successo nonostante le difficoltà o le previsioni avverse! ⁣
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Spesso sentiamo l’espressione ‘I pulled it off’, che significa semplicemente ‘ci sono riuscit*’! 💪🏼⁣
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In che contesto potremmo usarlo?

Sometimes we just need a little push to move forward and stay true to our values!⁣
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A PEP TALK is an encouragement speech that we either tell ourselves, or somebody else does it for us, in order to feel more courageous and enthusiastic about things in life! ⁣
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As Dr. Seuss would say: “You have brain in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” 💪🏼⁣
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Un PEP TALK è il classico discorso di incoraggiamento che un allenatore farebbe alla propria squadra per motivarla a vincere la partita! ⁣

I don’t believe in labels..I think that in each one of us there are so many nuances that it’s difficult to define someone as just ‘introvert’ or ‘lazy’ or ‘shy’...⁣
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That is why the more we know a about a language, the more we can easily convey a specific concept and give the right word at the right time! ⁣
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BASHFUL is a synonym of ‘timid’, ‘shy’. In my opinion, it is slightly different because we would use it to express embarrassment, or a situation in which we feel uncomfortable more than the way a person actually is.
For example, we might feel bashful receiving a compliment or meeting someone famous.⁣
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Conosci il significato di ‘bashful’? Si usa per descrivere una situazione di imbarazzo o timidezza. Ad esempio, nel parlare in pubblico o nel ricevere un complimento. Ti è mai capitato?⁣

GET AWAY is used in different context! Let’s have a look:⁣
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🏃🏻‍♀️ If we want to escape from a place we don’t like that much or if we are in an unpleasant situation!⁣
🏖 If we want to go on holiday!⁣
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If we add the preposition ‘WITH’ means ‘not to be punished for something we have done’⁣
✏️ He should stop behaving like this, he has been getting away with it for too long.⁣
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Have you heard the expression’GET AWAY WITH MURDER’? It’s used to describe people that are allowed to do anything without being punished! ⁣
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🇮🇹 Il phrasal verb GET AWAY viene utilizzato sia con il significato di ‘fuggire’ da una situazione spiacevole e sia con il significato di ‘evadere’, ‘partire’ per una vacanza o per pochi giorni di relax! ⁣
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Aggiungendo la preposizione ‘WITH’ assume il significato di ‘cavarsela’, ‘farla franca’ in qualsiasi situazione! ⁣
Direi che l’espressione ‘GET AWAY WITH MURDER’ rende bene l’idea! ⁣
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🧩 Where would you like to GET AWAY? Let me know in the comments! ⬇️

Sometimes you just need to relax and GO WITH THE FLOW! 🌊⁣
We can’t control everything and even if we tried we would fail and feel miserable! Maybe it’s better to let it go and let it be!⁣
GO WITH THE FLOW (or go with the tide) means to do what other people are doing in a particular situation, to stress out less about something that we aren’t quite able to change!⁣
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Conoscete l’espressione ‘GO WITH THE FLOW’? Significa seguire la corrente, quello che fanno gli altri senza preoccuparci di cose che sono fuori dal nostro diretto controllo! So stop stressing out and go with the flow! 😆⁣

When I was just a little girl..I wanted to be a musical ⭐️! I have always been fascinated by those actors that could act, dance and sing live without a flaw!⁣
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I absolutely adore musicals and my all time favorite is Rent! It tells the story of a group of artists trying to make it in New York City🗽 under the shadow of HIV in the early 90s.⁣
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In 2016 I was living in the US and strolling around in NY I came across a Broadway billboard with the iconic silhouette of Lin Manuel Miranda (the protagonist, composer, producer and genius) and with just “Hamilton” written on it! I wondered what it was and wanted to know more about it...⁣
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to go and watch the show, but since then I have been obsessed with the songs and the story of one of the most important and most underrated founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton! ⁣
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If you’re not into musicals, but you’d like to know more about Alexander, I recommend the biography of Ron Chernow, the one that inspired Lin Manuel Miranda to write and compose the musical!⁣
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Besides the story itself, now more than ever a theatrical piece like this one can raise questions about race, immigration, women’s rights and education!⁣
Hamilton was simply an immigrant that had a pivotal role during the American Revolution thanks to his books and his hunger for knowledge and freedom!
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The expression ‘TOP NOTCH’ is one of the numberless adjectives that describe the protagonist throughout the musical: he says that he has got ‘a TOP-NOTCH brain’, an out of ordinary one, indeed.
Hamilton

Do you think too much when you need to make a decision?
🧐 MULL OVER means to think carefully about something for some time before deciding what to do!

🇮🇹Il phrasal verb di oggi è MULL OVER e significa ‘rimuginare’, ‘riflettere’ prima di prendere una determinata decisione!

Happy Friday! 🥳⁣
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this expression before: HAVE A BALL! 🕺💃🏻⁣
It means to have a lot of fun, to have a great time! Where does ‘ball’ come from? If you thought about this 🏀 you’re wrong! ⁣
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You need to think about a Great Gatsby kind of ball, a dance party or gala dance that people organized in the 1920s to entertain and amaze their guests and of course to show their wealth and power! ⁣
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“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy” 😆⁣
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Da dove viene l’espressione ‘have a ball’? Dalle feste stravaganti dei fantastici anni ‘20, gli anni ruggenti (The Roaring Twenties) che mettevano in scena le infinite possibilità del sogno americano, insieme a tutte le sue contraddizioni! ⁣
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DUMB DOWN means to make something simpler in order to be understood by a wider audience! It doesn’t usually have a positive connotation since we do it to be accepted or to meet the needs of the market. ⁣
Have you thought about oversimplification in education? ✏️📚🎓 Over the years a lot of universities and schools have dumbed down the contents of their courses and the choice of books and textbooks most of the times tends towards the easiest, the most user-friendly one.⁣
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Do we enlarge children’s abilities or we diminish them? Do we allow them to actually think, make mistakes and learn from them or we just offer the answers? 🤔⁣
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Oggi parliamo del phrasal verb DUMB DOWN! Significa semplificare e banalizzare dei concetti per fare in modo di essere compresi da tutti. Non ha un’accezione positiva, ricordate che ‘dumb’ vuol dire ‘stupido’ quindi è così che in un certo senso stiamo considerando il nostro interlocutore!⁣
Da insegnanti come ci comportiamo con la scelta dei libri di testo e degli argomenti da proporre ai ragazzi?

We might know the meaning of this expression if we link it to the game of chess! ♟ ⁣
The ENDGAME is the final move of the player that has the highest score!⁣
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But this expression also means someone’s final agenda, final goal in a business transaction or in a movie if there is a villain whose objective is not that clear till the very end! ⁣
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Se avete l’abitudine di guardare i film in lingua inglese non vi sarà sfuggita l’espressione ENDGAME!
Spesso nei film dove ci sono dei cattivi si sente dire “What is their ENDGAME?” Qual è la loro mossa finale? ⁣
Ma anche...⁣
Qual è il loro scopo ultimo? A cosa serviranno davvero le loro azioni?⁣
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Come possiamo applicare questa espressione nella vita quotidiana? Semplice, se qualcuno vi sta parlano dei loro piani futuri, ma non vi è molto chiaro a cosa mirano esattamente, potreste chiedere: What is your endgame? Qual è il tuo obiettivo?

I am not buying what you’re selling! 😆

One of my favorite phrasal verbs...TOUGHEN UP!
Significa diventare più forti, temprati e pronti ad affrontare le sfide più difficili della vita!
Significa anche ‘inasprire’ e potrebbe essere usato riferendoci al bisogno di regole più rigide:
✏️Due to COVID-19 we are going to TOUGHEN UP the rules in schools.

Do you have siblings? Do you squabble with them? 😝
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SQUABBLE significa ‘bisticcio’ ed è utilizzato anche come verbo ‘bisticciare’!
È un battibecco, un litigio non grave e spesso passeggero, tipico tra fratelli e/o sorelle o comunque in famiglia!

Ps: nella foto siamo io e mio fratello un po’ di annetti fa felici di condividere palette e secchiello! 🤪

Do you believe in the power of education? Do you think education plays a PIVOTAL role for our future? I know, it may sound weird asking this question, but after months of distance learning and social distancing I have been thinking a lot about the things that really matter to me as an educator and whether I can overturn some misconceptions around languages and second language acquisition.

At the end of this school year I realized how important it is to stay focused and stand up for what you believe, no matter what! 💪🏼
Next year I want to experiment more with my students and train them to think outside the box and be braver with languages! There is no secret! You TRY and KEEP TRYING till you reach that goal so you can move onto the next one! 🇮🇹 Pivotal significa cruciale, molto importante, qualcosa o qualcuno che occupa una posizione chiave!

How do you usually WIND DOWN?
I am looking forward to reading more books this summer! 📚
Being constantly on my computer for the past few months has severely limited my ‘reading books for pleasure’ sessions! 😆

I am currently reading The Underground Railroad by C. Whitehead and so far so good!

Any other books I should check and add to my reading list?

Hello folks, it’s been a tiring day dealing with school stuff, BUT I have a new expression for you all that has a double meaning and use!
Have you ever heard the expression ‘NO STRINGS ATTACHED’?

🧩 We use it when we want to point out that we are doing something (often not that pleasant) with no restrictions or special conditions!
If we are helping someone with no strings attached means that we don’t expect anything in return!

🧩 It’s also used to describe casual relationships ❤️ and it means that we don’t have any expectations, we aren’t emotionally involved! 😆

Can you use it in a sentence?

Happy Wednesday! Things or people that are worth mentioning for what they do and that are out of the ordinary are REMARKABLE!
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Try to use it in a sentence to describe someone in your life who has got striking qualities!

New day, new phrasal verb! Unfortunately, we’ve all had to CALL OFF a few commitments recently! We can call off meetings, parties, family gatherings, festivals and so on.. 🇮🇹
CALL OFF means ‘annullare,’ e si usa quando dobbiamo cancellare un incontro di lavoro, una festa, un appuntamento, ecc.
Can you think of any arrangement you have called off?

Today we look at one of my favorite slangs! If you have been binge-watching these days you might have come across it! TO HAVE DIBS ON SOMEONE or SOMETHING! We use it colloquially to claim our right on something that we like or we want!

🇮🇹 L’espressione TO HAVE DIBS è molto colloquiale e la usiamo quando vogliamo qualcosa o se quel qualcosa in qualche modo ci spetta! Se diciamo semplicemente “DIBS!” davanti all’ultimo pezzo di torta, di regola dovrebbe essere nostro! 😆

Happy Monday 😊
Have you been feeling restless and not so ready to go out lately?
If you experience CABIN FEVER you are usually irritated and stressed after living for some time in isolation! One step at a time and we’ll be fine!
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CABIN FEVER si traduce con ‘sindrome della capanna’ ed è il senso di smarrimento e irritabilità che potrebbe scaturire dopo un periodo passato in isolamento!

Have you ever praised someone to get what you want?
BUTTER UP means to flatter someone to obtain something, to make them willing to help you or accept your request!

Butter up significa lusingare qualcuno con lo scopo di ottenere ciò che vogliamo! Vi è mai capitato? 😆

Today I have an American slang to describe a person who is really unreliable! It’s usually used with men who never call or they “forget” to show up for dates and appointments! People who promise to do things with you, but they never seem to make them happen! 🙈
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Un ‘FLAKE’ è la classica persona che ci dà buca agli appuntamenti, che ci promette di richiamarci, ma sappiamo che non lo farà mai! 🤷🏻‍♀️