Gareth Jones
Teaching international learners for over 15 years, helping hundreds of students progress to university study in the UK. Passionate online learning advocate bringing the classroom to your browser.
Location Coventry
Activity
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Scholarship refers to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding through research, study, and critical inquiry. It encompasses the various fields of academic study and encompasses the development of new ideas, theories, and interpretations of existing knowledge. Scholarship can take many forms, including the production of scholarly publications, the teaching...
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Academic sources are materials that are commonly used in higher education and research settings to support arguments, provide evidence, and inform the understanding of a particular subject or topic. These sources can include scholarly journal articles, books, conference papers, and dissertations, among others. They are usually written by experts in the field...
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Literature refers to written or spoken artistic works, including novels, poetry, plays, and short stories, that seek to entertain, inform, or inspire an audience through the use of language and storytelling techniques. It can also be used as a medium to express emotions and ideas, and to reflect on the human experience.
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Scholarship refers to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding through research, study, and critical inquiry. It encompasses the various fields of academic study and encompasses the development of new ideas, theories, and interpretations of existing knowledge. Scholarship can take many forms, including the production of scholarly publications, the teaching...
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Literature refers to written or spoken artistic works, including novels, poetry, plays, and short stories, that seek to entertain, inform, or inspire an audience through the use of language and storytelling techniques. It can also be used as a medium to express emotions and ideas, and to reflect on the human experience.
Academic sources are materials that...
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Gareth Jones replied to Negah Samadi
Hi @NegahSamadi Negah, you can type the vocabulary into the comments in the same way the @Moqadasa has in the pinned post at the top of this page if you like. You could also share a Google Drive document if you want to keep the formatting of the table.
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Re*flection
*Lecture
*Genre
Inde*pendence
Au*tonomous -
Gareth Jones replied to Wally Barkat
@WallyBarkat have you tried downloading the video using the link below the player on the right hand side?
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Gareth Jones replied to Yessica Velez
Hi Yessica, please try and practise using English on this course to help you improve.
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Gareth Jones replied to بشرى ابوبريق
Please try to practise using English throughout this course to get the most from it.
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Gareth Jones replied to Graeme Nelson
Hi @JiahsinLiu, We provide lots of courses online. You can see all of the courses Coventry University offer here: https://www.futurelearn.com/partners/coventry
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Gareth Jones replied to dr IUlia Luca
Good question @drIUliaLuca. Universities in the UK really try to help their graduates get a job in their specific field after they have finished studying. A lot of universities offer students the chance to do placements with companies whilst they study so that they can gain experience and Coventry University even designs a lot of its courses with employers so...
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Hi @RobertoCattolico the best way to learn collocations is to notice how successful writers and speakers use words together and try to emulate them. However, to get you started, here is a list of the most common academic collocations from Pearson: https://pearsonpte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/AcademicCollocationList.pdf :)
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Hi @ElizavetaKrupoderova it is definitely possible to know how every word is pronounced, you can use the dictionary, the audio examples and the phonemic transcript.
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Gareth Jones replied to shimaa makram
Hi @shimaamakram you can use a dictionary to find out which syllable of a word should be stressed but you cannot use a dictionary to understand which word in a sentence should be stressed. To identify which words in your sentence should be stressed you have to think about which words are the most important words to show your meaning. Usually we stress nouns,...
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Hi @GeorgeAnfloOris an infinitive verb is the present tense of a verb. You can think about 1. Present tense 2. Past tense 3. Past participle e.g. 1. Eat 2. Ate 3. Eaten. Collocation means words that go together well. Some words are used together a lot, so they sound 'natural' when we hear them. Other words make sense when they are used together but they are...
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Hello everyone, if you would like to share your vocabulary log with other students on this course you should:
1. Download the 'Vocabulary Log Blank Template' from the downloads section above.
2. Complete the vocabulary log with some examples you would like to share.
3. Upload your completed vocabulary log document to a cloud drive like OneDrive, Dropbox or... -
Gareth Jones replied to Salestin Mary
Hi @SalestinMary you should watch last weeks video, I covered how to create a simple vocabulary log in that. Hope it helps :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Serena M
I ❤ excel!
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@DiegoAndresCastaño it just means that those words go together with 'accurate' and are commonly used together. Some words do not go well together and are not used very often so they can make your speaking or writing difficult to understand.
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Gareth Jones replied to Dhi Fadil
@DhiFadil try to look at the example from @Miryam C below to see if that helps you
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Critic ˈkrɪtɪk
Critical ˈkrɪtɪkəl
Critically ˈkrɪtɪkəli
Criticality ˈkrɪtɪkælɪtiː -
Gareth Jones made a comment
reflection rɪˈflɛkʃən (f)
lecture ˈlɛkʧə (l)
genre ˈ(d)ʒɑːŋrə (g)
independence ˌɪndɪˈpɛndəns (p)
autonomous ɔːˈtɒnəməs (t) -
Gareth Jones made a comment
Reflection = rɪˈflɛkʃən
Lecture = ˈlɛkʧə
Genre = ˈ(d)ʒɑːŋrə
Independence = ˌɪndɪˈpɛndəns
Autonomous = ɔːˈtɒnəməs -
Gareth Jones replied to Monserrat Guerra
The dictionary has a lot of definitions for a single word, you should always read through all of them to make sure you choose the correct definition for the context :)
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The understanding dictionaries course is really great, I highly recommend it as well!
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Gareth Jones replied to Damodar Poudyal
Did you try using the transcript to help you follow Lorraine's accent?
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@JavieraSolar great advice!
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Gareth Jones replied to Gian Gilian
@GianGilian Try to write in English as much as possible, practice makes perfect! :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Felipe Pedraza
@FelipePedraza Try to write in English as much as possible, practice makes perfect! :)
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@AngieStephaniaCardonaOcampo Try to write in English as much as possible, practice makes perfect! :)
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Gareth Jones replied to erika turizo
@erikaturizo Try to write in English as much as possible, practice makes perfect! :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Alejandro Jordán
@AlejandroJordán Try to write in English as much as possible, practice makes perfect! :)
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@RaffaeleBarrientosEscalante I used to live in Arequipa! I miss seeing el misti every morning!
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Gareth Jones replied to Dhi Fadil
@DhiFadil What kind of things do you like to cook?
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Gareth Jones replied to Samuel Riwu Hadjo
I ❤ Bali it's so beautiful!
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Gareth Jones replied to Cy Tumur
@CyTumur are you studying in London at the moment?
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Gareth Jones replied to Frankie Gadel Legaspi
Can you recommend any good documentaries for us all Frankie?
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Gareth Jones replied to Thokozile Tembo
What is your favourite place you've travelled to so far Thokozile?
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Hi everyone, my name's Gareth, but you can call me Gaz if you like.
I come from Coventry, a small city in the middle of the UK. Coventry recently won the city of culture award for 2021 so we are all very excited about the different events that will take place here next year to show the world some of the amazing things about our city. You can find out more...
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Hi everyone, my name's Gareth Jones and I work as a Course Leader for the Pre-sessional English courses at Coventry University. I've lived and taught English in lots of different countries around the world but now I am back home living in beautiful Coventry! I love teaching English because I know the huge impact learning another language can have on people's...
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Gareth Jones replied to Medo Eltaweel
Hi Medo, that's a lot of things! We cover all of this on the Pre-sessional English Online Award: https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/online-learning/pre-sessional-english-online/ but there are lots of free courses on futurelearn that might help as well. Try searching 'ENglish' and you should get a range of different free courses!
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Great question Ahmed, you can define most things in this way but it is better to notice how successful writers and speakers define things and then use the things you notice to improve your own definitions. You could watch some TED talks and try to find definitions in the transcript to see if they structure their definitions differently and then copy that...
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Hi both, we cover speaking in the Pre-sessional English Online Award: https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/online-learning/pre-sessional-english-online/ or you could try 'What makes an effective presentation?' a free course from some of our colleagues at Coventry University: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/what-makes-an-effective-presentation
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Gareth Jones replied to Ahmed Amjad
@MarinaSikharulidze Great explanation!
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Gareth Jones replied to Faiza Khan
@FaizaKhan Thanks! :)
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Hi @YousefAbdulwahabAbdullahAhmed Youglish.com is a great site for listening to how phrases are pronounced differently. Ted talks are also a great start for practising note taking which you can then compare against a transcript.
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Gareth Jones replied to Trần Linh
Hi @TrầnLinh, for sentence stress you meed to think about what the key words in your sentence are. Which words are the most important to help the listener understand your meaning? E.g. 'I want to go to the shop' = I/go/shop so 'want to' and 'to the' are condensed and use the schwa sound but the key words are pronounced fully and 'shop' is stressed e.g. '/aɪ...
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Gareth Jones replied to Mechel Rafailes
Do you think military is a good collocate for 'discipline' (e.g. subject) in an academic context.
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Gareth Jones replied to Letitia Ch
@LetitiaCh you cannot count the noun 'rain' so there is no 's' at the end. However you can use rain as a verb so 'it rains in England all the time' is correct :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Mechel Rafailes
@MechelRafailes great list! Does Professor Gardner define all of these words though?
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@LetitiaCh Hedging a statement means trying to make it less certain. In academic writing it is important to acknowledge you are contributing to a debate and that others may disagree so saying things like 'everyone knows/It is true that/Every ____ is/' should be avoided. There are some great examples and a much better explanation...
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The second definition is also pretty good!
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Great conversation, I totally agree, participation in all elements is vital to being successful and independent research/learning is key to making group activities meaningful and engaging!
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Which types of assignment were you asked to submit?
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@AsimaManzoom Thanks for your comment. Remember, it is important to use hedging language in your writing, you can see below that Elif has not been in a lecture so 'Many students have been to a lecture' could help you be less certain :)
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Hi Marina, it really depends on your particular module and the tutors/lecturers you have. Often a seminar will give you the chance to discuss a lecture, new topic or reading with your classmates and tutor whereas a tutorial might be looking at work you are doing or have submitted for feedback.
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Gareth Jones replied to Elif Şimşek
@ElifŞimşek Did you learn any new information about our key words Lecture, seminar, tutorial and independent learning?
You should add a new entry in your vocabulary log for the new words you encountered 'provoke, deepen, guidance, 'pitch it'' and start to build your understanding of them over time. :) -
Gareth Jones made a comment
I'm glad many of you like the SKeLL link, it's a great site for seeing how words are used together.
Another great way of doing this is by listening to how words are used in speech. You can do this by typing the word or phrase into YouGlish and then clicking through the different example:
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Gareth Jones replied to Mechel Rafailes
@MechelRafailes We try to cover some of the fundamentals in this course and it gets a lot more in depth/complex on our 16 week pre-sessional course 'Pre-sessional English Online Award' https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/online-learning/pre-sessional-english-online/
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Gareth Jones replied to Bushra Ayoub
@BushraAyoub you should be able to access week two now from the 'to do list' :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Anna Starkova
Hi Anna, I've added a video in the previous step about the phonemic chart, I hope it helps!
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Gareth Jones replied to oueslati mohamed
@oueslatimohamed unfortunately we do not have this function in the open version but we do have wekely video calls in the Pre-sessional English Online Award 16 week course starting again in May.
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That's great Laimeche, I talk to Google and Siri all the time it's great fun :)
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Glad you enjoyed it, I talk to Google all the time!
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@LetitiaCh try using a chrome browser and then search using the microphone symbol, Google voice search is really good at recognising words.
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@FaizaKhan Laimeche Ami has suggested Cortana on a windows computer but you can also use Siri on a Mac or Google voice search in your Chrome browser.
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Gareth Jones replied to Sabeeha Saddique
Independence is stressed on the 3rd syllable :)
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Gareth Jones made a comment
Reflection = /rɪˈflekʃ(ə)n/ 3rd syllable
Lecture = /ˈlektʃə/ 2nd syllable
Genre = /ˈʒɒnrə/ 2nd syllable
Independence = /ˌɪndɪˈpendəns/ 4th syllable
Autonomous = /ɔːˈtɒnəməs/ 3rd and 4th syllables -
Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@AnnaShepet A tiny bit of Thai and an even tinier bit of Spanish :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@MarinaSikharulidze I hope not too! Will you start in September? I think everything will be back to normal by then, fingers crossed!
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@ViewRavita you forgot hot, hotter, hottest ... RAIN!
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@PlalalaNichanan super smart, super cute!
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Gareth Jones replied to Elena W
Hi Elena, as a former ESOL teacher myself I can wholeheartedly recommend https://www.baleap.org/ as a great place for teachers to connect with EAP professionals and https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/writing-purpose as an excellent resource for learning about differences in genres across the disciplines. Good luck!
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Gareth Jones replied to Jerry Tran
:) Great answer! Learning a new word is a process and it involves all of the steps mentioned at different times. :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Jimmy Dubuisson
Great idea, don't let the word stop you from understanding the gist but then go back and research the word when you need to get a detailed understanding :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Mar B
Exactly, learning how to work with others successfully is a key benefit of university study :)
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Great, listening for gist on the first go and then listening again for specific details is a great technique for getting the most from listening texts :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Marina Sikharulidze
@MarinaSikharulidze that's a good definition of resilient :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Mehwish Chaudhry
Great!
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Gareth Jones replied to Ramzia Aram
Yes, don't worry about mistakes and try to use the responses from other people to write your own ones in English :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Areeg Ahmed
@SamuelArifPrince great idea 'thinking like your own professor' is a great way to understand the context and it will help your brain access vocabulary and connect ideas a lot more easily!
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I agree Mohammad, it takes a lot of practice not to get distracted by unknown words but it gets easier the more you do it.
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Great strategy! It's really good to try and download or print the lecture slides in advance if they are available to help you take notes!
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Gareth Jones replied to Laimeche Ami
One of the best ways to keep improving your academic writing is to do lots and lots of academic reading!
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Gareth Jones replied to Anam Khizran
What's your favourite food?
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Gareth Jones replied to Jessica Angela Souw
What subject would you like to lecture in Jessica?
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@JessicaAngelaSouw Thanks for asking! I have a big rottweiler! Sounds scary but she is the cutest friendliest dog ever! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0JPsX1dBKY
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@EyaFatn'si Why not?! Aim high!
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@SimoneSoldato Hahaha good question! I think the strangest thing was when I lived in NakhonSawan in Thailand and the whole city flooded so we had to get around in boats, it was sad but kind of cool and weird!
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@MarinaSikharulidze Which Master's degree will you study? Online or on campus?
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@苏永恩博 Try to use this opportunity to practise writing short sentences in English, you can use the other responses to help you write your own and don’t worry about mistakes, we’re all here to help each other!
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Gareth Jones replied to Loren Fabian
Hi Loren, try to practise writing in English, don`t worry about making mistakes, we`re all here to help each other improve! :)
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Gareth Jones replied to Emily C
I like “student groove” :)))
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@AminataSow After the first two weeks you can join the PSE Online Award by registering at https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/online-learning/pre-sessional-english-online/
Or, if you are talking about the next steps on this course then you should click the `to do` icon at the top of the page and it will display all of the steps for this course ad...
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@robertrwebangira Have you seen our FutureLearn course MBA for the Healthcare Sector? https://www.futurelearn.com/degrees/coventry/mba-healthcare
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Gareth Jones replied to Gareth Jones
@SamuelAribisala We have great Physio courses here at Coventry University, where are you thinking of studying? https://www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/ug/2020-21/hls-nhs/physiotherapy-bsc-hons/
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Gareth Jones replied to Woranut B
Great question Woranut and the answer is no! Both pronunciation and stress are different in British V American English. Here's a good list of how words are stressed differently from Wordstress.info:
https://www.wordstress.info/word-stress/differences-english-varieties/stress-differences-between-american-and-british-english/ -
That's great Woranut! Did you check with Google/Siri?
