Page 138 - BLENDED LEARNING

Making recommendations
My friend Andy is visiting Bursa. He sent me a message and asked: ‘Do you know
of any reasonably priced hotels in Bursa?’ Many passengers ask taxi drivers for
recommendations, right? So, how do you ask and make recommendations?
You can make recommendations about hotels, shops, museums, restaurants, places
to see, places for entertainment, food, and many other things.
Here is how you can make recommendations:
Passenger: Do you know of any reasonably priced hotels?
Passenger: Can you recommend a good hotel?
Taxi driver: I can recommend the Boyugüzel Hotel.
It’s not far from/near the city centre.
Passenger: How much does it cost?
Taxi driver: It costs between 60 and 90 Turkish liras for a single/double room.
Passenger: That’s reasonable. Is it clean?
Taxi driver: Yes, it’s clean and comfortable.
Passenger: How far is it from the Congress Centre?
Taxi driver: Not so far. Ten minutes by taxi.
Passenger: Thanks!
Taxi driver: You’re welcome.

Passenger: Can you recommend any interesting places to see?
Taxi driver: Yes, I can recommend the historic plane tree/Yes, the historic plane
tree is very interesting/Yes, you should see the historic plane tree.
Passenger: Oh, good. Thanks! Is it far from here? I have only three hours.
Taxi driver: No, it’s (quite) near/No, it’s not (that) far away.
It’s about 20 minutes from here.
Passenger: Thanks! Let’s go there, then/That sounds good. Thanks!
Taxi driver: You’re welcome.
‘A podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or
video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication’
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast). Using podcasts in a blended environment
helped my students with all the identified needs mentioned above.
Podcasts provide flexibility, portability and autonomy and promote active, mobile
learning (Kukulska-Hulme and Shield, 2008), which is important in adult education
and lifelong learning. Several studies report that students’ speaking and listening
skills have improved through podcasting (Sze, 2006; Abdous et al., 2009). Abdous
et al. (2009) also mentions vocabulary and grammar skills improvement. Furthermore,
transcripts help students with speaking and pronunciation (Rosell-Aguilar, 2007).
They can also allow students to organise learning into manageable chunks (Chinnery,

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