Gapfillers News
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Summer is almost overAs the summer fades – we thought this poem by Cecilia Brabin and taken from our Poetry Archive was quite appropriate. There is a brightness and happiness about the huts in the summer but a melancholy feel about them after the holiday-makers have gone. There is sadness in the way that the huts seem to await the people’s arrival (lots of personification here) and also mourn their departure. They only have life when the people are present – the case with such objects. Some useful vocabulary too: gaze, fayre, glee Poems are a good source of material for language learning. They are usually short, have good vocabulary and can be challenging, making you look carefully at the language to find meaning and message. Check out more poems in our archive and on Cecilia’s blog
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Beach HutsDressed in our best we gaze out to sea sun up and sun down waiting patiently for the people to come with their rugs and chairs and their picnic baskets of wonderful fayre.
We throw open our doors greet them with glee observing their fun on the sand, in the sea
We breathe in the salt-air absorb all their noise store all their pleasure in here, with their toys
Then they shut us for Winter in the cold, wind and rain and we wait here, just gazing ’til they come back again. Cecilia Brabin
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As the summer ends things turn naturally to education. September is always (along with January) a time to enrol on courses and improve your skills. The nights get longer and the weather more inclement so an ideal opportunity to sit at your books/computers and work on your English!
Gapfillers is 3 on October 1st.
Yes, it will be 3 years since the launch of Gapfillers and it has been a learning curve for us as well as you! We now have almost 5,000 exercises on the site and 15 sections. Member Home allows you to respond to messages, post your own, create pages, blogs and add pictures to add to your pages. All these things help you to express yourself and share with others in English. If you want us to check what you’ve written before it goes live – we’re happy to do that – just let us know!
Look out for activities in September and October to mark our 3rd birthday.
More Themes.
We hope that you have enjoyed the themed weeks we have run over the past year. We’re running a theme on The Brits in September. We’ve spent the summer scouring the internet for articles and views on Great Britain, the culture of Britain and the people; some serious, many funny. We’re all looking forward to it.
Murder Mystery
Our famous Murder Mystery game will be running again in September. Look out for invitations to take part.If you missed all the hype last time – the game is a role play where participants have to follow clues and interact through the site to find the solution to a murder mystery – very Agatha Christie! Places are very limited so if you want to take part you’ll need to get your skates on and reply as soon as the message is sent – more on this next month. You can follow progress of the game via the Murder Mystery blog and newspaper articles that appear on the site even if you’re not participating.
Interactive Games
Our 4th year online will be devoted to increasing interaction in Member Home. We have developed other interactive games for small groups and individuals alike. If you have any ideas let us know!!
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Have you..?
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Finally
Don’t forget to tell friends and colleagues about Gapfillers. We would love to see them all here.
Check out updates on twitter.
Follow Berni’s blog for tips and hints on Advanced language learning.
Remember that we do face-to-face training too and have a really beautiful place nestling in the Yorkshire countryside where you can be immersed in language and culture and enjoy a healthy country stay!