INTRODUCTION & CHAPTER 1

Dear  Students,

Congratulation! Now, you are a member of ITU Family..... After you have proved that your English is proficient enough, you will be able to start the education in your departments, attend student-exchange programs, do research, and the like.

It is great to have lessons with you. It must be a bit confusing for you since you have so many lessons and teachers each week. What I see is that you are self-motivated, which is curicial while learning English. Since we do not have a class picture, I have not uploaded one yet. but will take your pictures and upload them to our blog. Well... Let me explain why I decided to open this blog. To be honest, there are so many reasons:

•  Since you are a tech-savvy, I thought you may use interactive tools easily.
• Due to my workload, I have limited time, so this blog may be a great help to stay in touch with you.
• Your strenght: You know grammar by heart. You remember every single rule indeed.Yet, you need  variety and practice. The assignments and suggested activities will help you improve your English.
• I hope by means of the activities on our blog, you will be able see your strenghts and weaknesses.
• I have taken some online courses provided by Oregon University, and the British Council. I believe that if I put into practice whatever I know, it will be helpful to improve your English.  

What is our class profile?

As you know your level is Upper-Intermediate, which means you are able to express yourselves  clearly despite the limited lexical knowledge and  minor grammar mistakes. You are almost adults (17+) and eager to start and complete your academic career. There are 24 students in the class, and  some of you is not  from Istanbul.

What is the setting?

Thank you for choosing Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where we provide a one-year intensive English program for our students before they start their faculty. It is such a crowded school. We run two different preparatory programs; one for the ones who will study at ITU, and the other for the ones who will study both at ITU and a sister school in the USA.

Apart from preparatory programs, we also have English lessons for Continuous Education Program called SEM shortly. Our classrooms are equipped with a projector and sound system. We do have wireless internet in the whole building. You can use our computer lab, writing center, dining hall, medical center, parking lot, service buses, and library whenever you need.  As part of school facilities, you may also use the health club on the main campus.

 You are so lucky to be in the heart of Istanbul. The location is amazing, you can go everywhere easily or enjoy the historic building.

What are the course goals?

As we all know you are required to prove that your English level is eligible enough. Thus, we offer you an intensive program till June. That is, in total you have 8 months. At the end, you may take our national exam or an international exam. Your priority might be passing one of the exams, yet remember that you need to use English efficiently in your career and social life.

My course is Reading, yet I would like to remind you that it exists in every skill. Thus, we will do various integrated activities using our knowledge. Our coursebook is Reading Explorer 3 by National Geography, which consists of 12 units, and each unit introduces interesting topics.

What do you need?

What you need to do is to follow lessons and complete assignments. If you need additional source, please feel free to use our library or ask for help. I have already provided plenty of activities. If you have not tried them yet, in spite of the deadlines, you can start to explore them.

Best

Class Teacher Hacer Şivil     sivilh@itu.edu.tr (just in case)

PS: Please click on our Wallwisher/Padlet below and write how you feel today. You may upload images, videos or anything else you wish. 

Created with Padlet

Reading finding mainideas_(1) from hacersivil

Reading finding mainideas_exercises1 from hacersivil

Reading finding mainideas_exercises2 from hacersivil

1A Vocabulary

Backpack	Trail	Commence	Navigate	Vista
Result in	Route	Contagious	Date back	Creep
Soul	Extract	Chubby	Resemble	Overlap
Bury	Masterpiece	Statue	Concrete	Embrace
Offspring	Caress	Intense	Perilous	Flee
Drown	Retrieve	Grave	Incense	Dip
Bow	Quirky	Remote	Wise

Re4 unit1 a-vocabulary-definitons from hacersivil

Re4 unit1 a-comprehension-questions from hacersivil

Re4 unit1 b-michael-yamashita-photos from hacersivil

Re4 unit1 b-comprehension-questions from hacersivil

1B Vocabulary / Phrases

Demand	Shoot a photo	Passion
Get in touch	Temple	Consider
Immersion	Pour	craft
Fluent	Caretaker	In the glare of the sun
Obsessed	Anticipate	Wander about
Route	Swift

Dear All,

You are responsible for Units 1 & 2. You are also required to read and complete the handouts provided.