Oppose and Opposed To

Oppose and Opposed To Oppose and Opposed To Oppose and Opposed To By Maeve Maddox A reader questions the use of the preposition against to follow the verb oppose in this example from an entertainment site: [Madonna] wanted to be the only female voice of the band, and opposed against the introduction of another female vocalist. The reader asks, â€Å"Isn’t opposed enough?† Yes. In this sentence, the meaning of opposed is objected to or was against. The transitive verb is sufficient: She opposed the introduction of another female vocalist. NOTE: The verb oppose has several meanings. This post is about the use of oppose to mean, â€Å"to object to,† â€Å"to be against.† Used transitively, oppose is followed directly by a noun or a pronoun (its direct object). Here are examples of correct usage: There are also personal, political, religious, and spiritual reasons to oppose capital punishment.   Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the  World Trade Organization   Why I oppose Common Core standards The men and women who  opposed womans suffrage  did so for many reasons.   Oppose also functions intransitively (no object). When it is followed by a prepositional phrase, the preposition to use is to, not against. Here are examples of intransitive use: Coach Gus Malzahn not opposed to switching divisions Why so many immigrants in Germany are opposed to the refugee influx Here are some examples of unidiomatic uses of oppose, with suggested corrections: INCORRECT: Woman Becomes an Atheist After She  Opposed Against  Prayer at Her Sons School   CORRECT: Woman Becomes an Atheist After She  Opposed Prayer at Her Sons School   INCORRECT: â€Å"I think this administration is adamantly  opposed against  fossil fuels, period,† said Young, Alaskas sole House member. CORRECT: â€Å"I think this administration is adamantly  opposed to fossil fuels, period,† said Young, Alaskas sole House member. INCORRECT: Are these people also  opposed against  the genocide the Caliphate is doing against Christians and Yazidis?   CORRECT: Are these people also  opposed to the genocide the Caliphate is doing against Christians and Yazidis?   INCORRECT: Yet there are plenty of [people] who are opposed against the scientific facts you throw around about vaccines. CORRECT: Yet there are plenty of [people] who are opposed to the scientific facts you throw around about vaccines. NOTE: A better revision for this example would be to choose a different verb altogether: Yet there are plenty of [people] who do not accept (or believe) the scientific facts you throw around about vaccines. INCORRECT: The Supreme Court of India  opposed against  any sort of hooliganism in the name of bandh in 1998, but political parties still organize them.   CORRECT: The Supreme Court of India  opposed any sort of hooliganism in the name of bandh in 1998, but political parties still organize them.   The concept of against is built into the verb oppose. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What Does [sic] Mean?5 Lessons for Mixing Past and Present TenseWords That Begin with Q

Making a video in ESL class

Making a video in ESL class Making a video in English class is a fun way to get everyone involved while using English. Its project based learning at its best. Once you finish, your class will have a video to show off to friends and family, theyll have practiced a wide range of conversational skills from planning and negotiating to acting, and theyll have put their technological skills to work. However, making a video can be a big project with lots of moving pieces. Here are some tips on how to manage the process while involving the whole class. Ideation Youll need to come up with an idea for your video as a class. Its important to match class abilities to your video goals. Dont choose functional skills that students dont possess and always keep it fun. Students should enjoy and learn from their experience filming, but not be too stressed out about language requirements as theyll already be nervous about how they look. Here are some suggestions for video topics: Study Skills - Students can break into groups and produce a scene about a specific study skill, or a tip on how to study.Functional Skills - Have students create scenes focusing on functional skills such as ordering at a restaurant, job interviewing, leading a meeting, etc.Grammar Skills - Students can include slides asking the viewer to pay attention to specific structures and then act out short scenes focusing on tense usage or other grammar points. Finding Inspiration Once youve decided on your video as a class, go to YouTube and look for similar videos. Watch a few and see what others have done. If youre filming something more dramatic, watch scenes from TV or a movie and analyze to gain inspiration on how to film your videos. Delegating Delegating responsibilities is the name of the game when producing a video as a class. Assign individual scenes to a pair or small group. They can then take ownership of this part of the video from storyboarding to filming and even special effects. Its very important that everyone has something to do. Teamwork leads to a great experience. When making a video, students who dont want to be in the video can take on other roles such as editing the scenes with a computer, doing make-up, making voice overs for charts, designing instructional slides to be included in the video, etc. Storyboarding Storyboarding is one of the most important tasks in creating your video. Ask groups to sketch out each section of their video with instructions on what should happen. This provides the roadmap for the video production. Believe me, youll be glad youve done it when editing and putting together your video. Scripting Scripting can be as simple as a general direction such as Talk about your hobbies to specific lines for a soap opera scene. Each group should script a scene as they see fit. Scripting should also include any voiceovers, instructional slides, etc. Its also a good idea to match the script to the storyboard with snippets of text to help with production. Filming Once youve got your storyboards and scripts ready, its on to filming. Students who are shy and dont want to act can be responsible for filming, directing, holding cue cards, and more. Theres always a role for everyone - even if its not on screen! Creating Resources If youre filming something instructional, you may want to include other resources such as instructional slides, charts, etc. I find it helpful to use presentation software to create the slides and then export as .jpg or other image format. Voiceovers can be recorded and saved as .mp3 files to add to the film. Students who arent filming, can work on creating resources needed or each group can create their own. Its important to decide as a class which template youd like to use, as well as image sizes, font choices, etc. This will save a lot of time when putting together the final video. Putting the Video Together At this point, youll have to put it all together. There are numerous software packages that you can use such as Camtasia, iMovie, and Movie Maker. This can be quite time consuming and aggravating. However, youll probably find a student or two who excel in using storyboarding software to create complex videos. Its their chance to shine!