Welcome to Round 11

Hi everyone and welcome to round 11 of Soliya at the University of Padova!

I am delighted that there are 14 of you participating this semester, all from the Department of Political Science, which is great.
You now all have your schedules and should be ready to start next week.
This is the Padova-Soliya blog space where you will be writing your weekly reflections which will count towards your assessment. I suggest that you choose a nickname for your blogger identity as you post, or just use your first names, for privacy reasons, then you can let me know your identity.

Here is a reminder of what you have to do for Soliya to count towards your ENglish exam.

Keep a diary (every week post a comment on the week's discussions to this blog)

Do the Soliya pair assignment

Write a final, reflective paper (which can be based on your diaries).

And here is some advice for your online sessions (what I told you when we met):

You might want to keep a window open with an online dictionary so that you can look up words you hear or read but do not necessarily understand. There are links on the side of the blog to various resources. 

You can use the chat box to share links with other students, you may want to illustrate certain points, show them a website about something related to the situation in Italy. You can copy and paste the URL into the text box.

Also use the text chat when you are having trouble with the audio or understanding other people. Some useful phrases:

Sorry I can't hear very well - could you repeat that please?

Could you type that please as I didn't hear?

The volume is low

There is some interference

I'm having trouble with my microphone.

Be right back - am going to ask tech support for help.

After discussions

Read over the chat transcripts after you have finished the discussions, and you can also make notes on the transcripts, add things that perhaps were said but not written.

Find points in the chat where you perhaps did not understand or still do not understand and want to look things up in a dictionary or ask me to help you understand.

Make a record of new vocabulary or expressions that you learn.

Every week send your reflections on the week's discussions as a comment to the post I send. Read the others' comments too and discuss issues that emerge with them too!

Enjoy!!!

Francesca