Intro. to TKT
well,
I think I have to introduce TKT to you :)
TKT
Monday, July 9, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Glossary p.1-4
*article (GRAMMAR) Show phoneticsnoun [C]
any of the English words 'a', 'an' and 'the' or words in other languages that do the same job as theseSee definite article and indefinite article.
*aspect (GRAMMAR) Show phoneticsnoun [C or U] SPECIALIZED
the form of a verb which shows how the meaning of a verb is considered in relation to time, typically expressing whether an action is complete, habitual or continuous
'He sings' differs from 'He is singing' in aspect.
*demonstrative Show phonetics
adjective describes words such as 'this', 'that', 'these' and 'those' that show which person or thing is being referred to:In the sentence 'This is my brother', 'this' is a demonstrative pronoun.
*gerund Show phoneticsnoun [C] SPECIALIZED
a word that ends in '-ing' which is made from a verb, and which is used like a noun:In the sentence 'Everyone enjoyed Tyler's singing', the word 'singing' is a gerund.
*participle Show phoneticsnoun [C]
the form of a verb that usually ends in 'ed' or 'ing' and is used to form some tenses and as an adjective:In the sentences 'He's sleeping' and 'I've already eaten', the words 'sleeping' and 'eaten' are both participles.
*interrogative Show phoneticsnoun [C] SPECIALIZED
a word or sentence used when asking a question:'Who' and 'why' are interrogatives.
*proper noun noun [C] SPECIALIZED
the name of a particular person, place or object that is spelt with a capital letter:Examples of proper nouns in English are Joseph, Vienna and the White House.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Relflection on Field Project
Congratulations!
I finished my field project (CLT and the Grammar Translation Method) finally. All the sweetness and bitterness should be recorded!
A suffering process?
I don’t know whether it is appropriate or not for me to call the process of doing this project as a suffering. Though my project is definitely not satisfying at all, I spent lots of time on it because it did not work smoothly. I do not have many tutoring experiences like others, so I decided to turn to Pamela for help. Though we are not acquaintances, we do not really familiar with each because I never took her course. She is a very very nice person, and I really appreciate her help. But she was really busy, so the interview actually not went as successful as I thought. As to the observations, I confess that I did not do a good gob because I just jotted down some points about the observations instead of using a set of formal standard to do my observations. I read a book named classroom observation for getting a clearer idea about how to observe a class, but it’s a pity, I did not learn much form that. There is one more problem about my observations, that is, I should have observed Pamela’s teaching for a long time, not a short periods. I believe that if I had observed more classes, I would know how to make my project better. Well, how I wish I have more time. I know this excuse is really sucks!
From others’ projects
After seeing other classmates’ project, I think I should throw my own stuff away because I think their works are more creative and interesting than mine. Haaaa, ok, just kidding. I am not looking down upon myself, I just think their topics can create more “possibilities.” I mean, they were doing experiments instead of comparing those existing theories like me. I like Mike’s project the most. I think what he did were far beyond experiments, he actually could have his own theories in teaching. He skillfully used the learning attitudes of those so-called smart students to fight against their own ego. This is so impressive. Of course, the other classmates also did great jobs. Indeed, I learned a lot from their projects. And I wonder if they also got some new ideas from my project.
Words to myself after the class
Recently, I’ve been thinking about a problem that “Do I really want to/have the ability to study TESOL?” And I’ve thinking the elements to be a good teacher. After this class and the TKT courses I took, I think this field is not the same as what I though. But this is not disappointing at all, because it provides me an opportunity to slow down and make some changes of my plan for things I should / will do.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Blogging Experience and Reflection
Dreams come true
This is blog, “Cherrie”, is my first “English” blog. Having a blog which is about English teaching and learning is what I’ve been dreaming of. It’s great to realize my dream though the process of constructing it is actually a CHALLENGE. I am really not good at using computers, not to mention having an English blog. But now, I have a sense of fulfillment to see my own blog even though it is not good enough.
Intro. to Cherrie
When you get into my blog, you will see a picture of my favorite doll. Then the following are the labels which I use to classify my postings. Almost all the postings are related to the course I take called “Online English Learning.” Then, the session of “I need something new” are websites that I visit very often, so I put the links in my blogs to make it easier for me to get access to them. As to the section of “Role Models”, they are some English learning blogs/websites. I expect my own blog can be as good as those ones. Ha~ then, the following is a news scrolling sidebar. Oh, I have a story to say about this news scrolling sidebar. This news function was downloaded from widgetmate.com. Well, the story goes like this, one day, when I was checking my e-mail, I found a letter from a person named Alex Smith. He said that he likes my blog, and he thinks maybe I would like to add the news function from widgetmate, so he suggested me to give it a try. I was really surprised his praises because I do not think my blog is not that good as he thought. But to be honest, I was really happy to know that there are some other people (except my classmates and my friends) visit and like my blog. Alex Smith’s letter not only gave me another kind of motivation to run my blog, but also remind me again that what I post in my bolg can really be seen all over the world! So, I have to think twice before I post everything. Then, there are some video clips. Whoever I think I need to relax and see something interesting, I will click on those great clips. And the last section, “whisper to me”, in the sidebar is a forum for my dear visitors. You may leave anything to me in that forum. Among all the functions in the sidebar, there are three functions in my blog that I feel proud of. They are a clock a news scrolling sidebar, and a forum. The reason why I feel proud of them is not because they are special; in fact, they are just quite basic functions in blogs. My proud comes from that I spent hours and hours to figure out how to find or create those things. Besides, I tried tens of thousands of times to add the HTML codes in the correct form. This might be an easy task for the average people, but for me, this is tough than even you can imagine. Anyway, I did it. And I will try some more and add more functions in my blog to enrich it.
Learn something from blog
One year ago, I had a Chinese blog, “巧瑞兒”, that was an assignment of the educational courses. That was my first time to know “blog.” I set the blog under the instruction of the teacher, that is, I followed the teacher’s instruction to finish that blog. Though I accomplished that blog myself, I did not really learn a lot from that because I just did the “steps” that the teacher had already arranged for us. Compare to 巧瑞兒, the blog “Cherrie” was finished by my own exploration, so I think I really learn something from this experience. I think Emma give me a precious notion: you have to try by yourself!!! Just try!!! Though “try and try” took me a lot of time, I think it’s worthwhile for me to do so when I find that I am not so poorrrrrrrr in computer as before. The saying goes like this, “practice makes perfect.” For me, I think “try and try; fail and fail make perfect.”
Words to push myself
All in all, I’ve learned a lot from blogging. Nevertheless, there is much room for improvement. I expect myself to maintain the enthusiasm and confidence in running my blog for keep it progressing. Most importantly, I hope I can see my own progress from it !!!
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Top 3 EFL blogs in my mind!
Let me introduce you to my favorite three EFL weblogs!
★ kidding Me
Among all the EFL blogs that I’ve paid a visit to before, this one is my favorite. Though this blog is not completely related to English learning (Febie also uses this blog to record things in daily life), as an English learner, I think this blog has great attraction to me. My own definition of a good weblog is that it has to make people “feel close” to it. I can not give you a specific reason why I think kidding me has such charm for me, maybe that’s because I like the style and the manner Febie organized this blog. Febie clearly classified the blog into several sections, such as “recent posts”, “recent comments”, “photo albums”, “other English teachers’ blogs”, etc. And also, she used various labels to make every section in order. Searching for the links the meet my needs is not difficult at all. Febie not only shares her teaching reflections but also her unique hand-made teaching aids to us through both pictures and words. From my point of view, it’s important to match the pictures and words well because that would make the posting attractive and persuasive. By the way, I love those teaching aids so much because they are full of creativity and they are actually quite delicate! How I wish I can also come up some special ideas to make fascinating teaching aids!
★ kidding Me
Among all the EFL blogs that I’ve paid a visit to before, this one is my favorite. Though this blog is not completely related to English learning (Febie also uses this blog to record things in daily life), as an English learner, I think this blog has great attraction to me. My own definition of a good weblog is that it has to make people “feel close” to it. I can not give you a specific reason why I think kidding me has such charm for me, maybe that’s because I like the style and the manner Febie organized this blog. Febie clearly classified the blog into several sections, such as “recent posts”, “recent comments”, “photo albums”, “other English teachers’ blogs”, etc. And also, she used various labels to make every section in order. Searching for the links the meet my needs is not difficult at all. Febie not only shares her teaching reflections but also her unique hand-made teaching aids to us through both pictures and words. From my point of view, it’s important to match the pictures and words well because that would make the posting attractive and persuasive. By the way, I love those teaching aids so much because they are full of creativity and they are actually quite delicate! How I wish I can also come up some special ideas to make fascinating teaching aids!
*Presentation: It uses sections to classify the blog and each section brings learners to different topic/theme they want. Besides, it uses labels to make the postings clear to learners. The format and the organization of the blog are friendly to learners.
*Appropriateness: This blog is not really designed for the students who want to “learn English”. Instead, this blog is more beneficial to English teachers, or people who intend to know more about English teaching. So, for English learners, this blog is not so useful.
*Outcomes: Learners have more opportunities and access to communicate and share their experiences with other English teachers.
*Notes: this blog gives people a concept that making teaching aids is fun and helpful for young learners. Oh~I want to try it by myself!
★
The link I provide here is a website, not a weblog. But there are many links in this website, including penny’s blogs. From Penny’s website and weblogs, we can know that Penny teaches in cram school and she has collected considerably rich teaching and learning. I believe that both instructors and learners can benefit a lot from the database. In Penny’s blogs, she recorded her student’s learning with words and pictures. From her postings, we can know Penny really cares about whether students learned something from each activity. Besides, we can see some visual and audio clips made by Penny from her website and blogs. And this feature makes Penny’s blogs much more interesting and beneficial to learners!
*Presentation: It uses clear instructions and links to lead the lerners to the sections they want, such as the links to other blogs which also run by Penny.
*Appropriateness: From the blog/website, we can know how students learn, and the different ways which Penny applies to her teaching. I think the blog/website are designed for both the instructors and learners. So, I recommend teachers and students to pay the blog/website a visit!
*Outcomes: both teachers and students can obtain some knowledge they want, and also share the teaching/learning experiences.
*Notes: I think this blog really “digitalize” English learning. It sets a good example for English teachers who want to set this kind of database.
★ Cindy 魔法ABC
The style of this blog is quite like Kidding Me which I’ve introduced before, but this one looks not as complicated as Kidding Me. This blog was also organized well with clear sections and labels. Besides, different from Febie, Cindy tends to find some actual materials in life, instead of making her own teaching aids. I am amazed and surprised to see how Cindy turned those ordinary objects to magical teaching aids. But it’s pity that there are not many posting in the blog. And most posting do not have lots of words to explain the pictures. I think it would be better if Cindy can share more her reflections or her ways of teaching.
*Presentation: The style of this blog is quite similar to kidding me. It uses sections to classify the blog and each section brings learners to different topic/theme they want. Besides, it uses labels to make the postings clear to learners. The format and the organization of the blog are friendly to learners.
*Appropriateness: This blog focus more on sharing the teaching experiences rather than proving some new ideas about teaching and learning. So, this blog actually does not give teachers definite thoughts about the ways of teaching.
*Outcomes: the content of the postings are not much. Mostly, we have to get the meanings of the postings from the pictures Cindy provided.
*Notes: if Cindy can try to write more in her postings, I think it would be much better for us to the reason/motivation of using those teaching aids.
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After seriously thinking about why I like the three EFL weblog so much, I find out that sometimes it’s hard to use the criteria and principles to judge whether you like this blog or not. Somehow, you just like, but you cannot figure a definite reason to account for that. And I wonder that does everybody have the same feeling or just me? Ha, maybe I am not that kind of “rational” person. :)
After seriously thinking about why I like the three EFL weblog so much, I find out that sometimes it’s hard to use the criteria and principles to judge whether you like this blog or not. Somehow, you just like, but you cannot figure a definite reason to account for that. And I wonder that does everybody have the same feeling or just me? Ha, maybe I am not that kind of “rational” person. :)
Friday, June 1, 2007
Lab 3 (reflection)
I just sat on the chair, staring at the computer monitor for the whole three classes. The third lab time was definitely not easy at all. At the first, I thought we were going to do the same thing as what I had done in the course of Language Teaching Methodology, but before long, I knew I was totally wrong. What we had to do was much more difficult than that. Christina, my dear partner, and I spent lots of time in searing for the article that interests us. One hour later, we finally decided which article that we were going to use. But we did not read the article out loud until we found some words that might be unfamiliar with learners (our target students are freshmen in Universities in Taiwan) and finished some comprehension questions. So, we were the last group to finish the recording.
Both Christina and I did not know why we do things in such a slow pace that day. Maybe we were tired or maybe we wanted to make this assignment better. Haa, not surprisingly, we stayed in the lab after class to finish the “Hot Potato” part. But actually we did not successfully make the assessment at that time because we did not really know how to master this program. It looks quite easy, yet, it’s not so easy to operate. I was wondering if there are other programs that can help us to make an assessment. As I remember, there are some programs (Chinese version) that can be used. But I just cannot remember what they are.
Oh~ thank God!!! And thank my dear partner, Christina! Our hot hot hot potatoes assessment finished yesterday. After we tried tens of thousand of times, we did it! Both Christina and I felt extremely happy and relax (because we really had thought it was an impossible task before we really did it.) We cannot wait to share our a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction with you all J
Are you ready? Welcome to our hot potatoes!!!
Both Christina and I did not know why we do things in such a slow pace that day. Maybe we were tired or maybe we wanted to make this assignment better. Haa, not surprisingly, we stayed in the lab after class to finish the “Hot Potato” part. But actually we did not successfully make the assessment at that time because we did not really know how to master this program. It looks quite easy, yet, it’s not so easy to operate. I was wondering if there are other programs that can help us to make an assessment. As I remember, there are some programs (Chinese version) that can be used. But I just cannot remember what they are.
Oh~ thank God!!! And thank my dear partner, Christina! Our hot hot hot potatoes assessment finished yesterday. After we tried tens of thousand of times, we did it! Both Christina and I felt extremely happy and relax (because we really had thought it was an impossible task before we really did it.) We cannot wait to share our a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction with you all J
Are you ready? Welcome to our hot potatoes!!!
The following are parts of lab 3's assignments
※News link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-05-28-oplede_N.htm?csp=34
※key words and their English definitions:
▲Source: Cambridge Dictionary, Wikipedia
1.catamaran noun [C]a sailing boat that has two parallel hulls (= floating parts) held together by a single deck (= flat surface)
2.Costa Rica
(literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica, IPA: [re'puβlika ðe 'kosta 'rika]), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
3.entrepreneur noun [C]someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves risks
4.gorgeous adjectivevery beautiful or pleasant
5.pinch yourself verb [R]You say that you have to pinch yourself if you cannot really believe something that has happened because it is so good or so strange
6.whine verb [I] to make a long, high, sad sound:
7.nostalgia noun [U]a feeling of pleasure and sometimes slight sadness at the same time as you think about things that happened in the past: nostalgic adjective
8.scurry verb [I usually + adverb or preposition] to move quickly, with small short steps:
9.obsess verb [I or T] If something or someone obsesses you, or if you obsess about something or someone, you think about them all the time:
10.font (LETTERS) noun [C]a set of letters and symbols in a particular design and size
※comprehension questions and answers
Q1: How old did Dustin Ashley Tester first pick up surfing?
Ans: 14
Q2: Why does Tester spend a lot of time “pinching herself”?
Ans: She thinks the life she is leading is too good to be true.
Q3: What may be the cause to send college graduates scurrying into grad school to postpone the process of getting a job?
Ans: Well-meaning family members wax nostalgic about "paying their dues" at first jobs where they manned the office coffee pot.
Q4: What possible situation would we encounter when we find a job in Career fairs feature booths?
Ans: it’s hard for us to find the job that we’ve been dreaming of.
Q5: In the article, what is the attitude suggested toward getting a first job?
Ans: Try to find pleasure in the job. Change the attitude toward jobs from tiring works to self-fulfilling dreams.
※Summary
Dustin Ashley Tester surfs everyday, but she is not on vacation, it is actually her job. Tester is one person who is lucky to find pleasure in work. But many other young college graduates are scurrying to grad school to postpone the process of getting a first job because a dream work seldom exists. The article tells us that we don’t have to hate our first jobs, we can even fall in love with them-if we ask our selves the two questions: What do I love so much I'd do it for free, and how can I get someone to pay me to do that? Find out answers to them, and you will never “work” again.
※News link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-05-28-oplede_N.htm?csp=34
※key words and their English definitions:
▲Source: Cambridge Dictionary, Wikipedia
1.catamaran noun [C]a sailing boat that has two parallel hulls (= floating parts) held together by a single deck (= flat surface)
2.Costa Rica
(literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica, IPA: [re'puβlika ðe 'kosta 'rika]), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
3.entrepreneur noun [C]someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves risks
4.gorgeous adjectivevery beautiful or pleasant
5.pinch yourself verb [R]You say that you have to pinch yourself if you cannot really believe something that has happened because it is so good or so strange
6.whine verb [I] to make a long, high, sad sound:
7.nostalgia noun [U]a feeling of pleasure and sometimes slight sadness at the same time as you think about things that happened in the past: nostalgic adjective
8.scurry verb [I usually + adverb or preposition] to move quickly, with small short steps:
9.obsess verb [I or T] If something or someone obsesses you, or if you obsess about something or someone, you think about them all the time:
10.font (LETTERS) noun [C]a set of letters and symbols in a particular design and size
※comprehension questions and answers
Q1: How old did Dustin Ashley Tester first pick up surfing?
Ans: 14
Q2: Why does Tester spend a lot of time “pinching herself”?
Ans: She thinks the life she is leading is too good to be true.
Q3: What may be the cause to send college graduates scurrying into grad school to postpone the process of getting a job?
Ans: Well-meaning family members wax nostalgic about "paying their dues" at first jobs where they manned the office coffee pot.
Q4: What possible situation would we encounter when we find a job in Career fairs feature booths?
Ans: it’s hard for us to find the job that we’ve been dreaming of.
Q5: In the article, what is the attitude suggested toward getting a first job?
Ans: Try to find pleasure in the job. Change the attitude toward jobs from tiring works to self-fulfilling dreams.
※Summary
Dustin Ashley Tester surfs everyday, but she is not on vacation, it is actually her job. Tester is one person who is lucky to find pleasure in work. But many other young college graduates are scurrying to grad school to postpone the process of getting a first job because a dream work seldom exists. The article tells us that we don’t have to hate our first jobs, we can even fall in love with them-if we ask our selves the two questions: What do I love so much I'd do it for free, and how can I get someone to pay me to do that? Find out answers to them, and you will never “work” again.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Second Classroom Observation
※ Instrctor: Pamela
※ 2007/5/21, 1:00 ~ 1:50 pm, O-106, Language Center, NCU.
Today was the second time for me to observe Pamela’s teaching. Pamela chatted with students and reminded them some assignments in the beginning if the class. I think it’s important and effective to "warm up". By doing so, students can not only feel the comfortable atmosphere in the class but also have time to get ready to pay attention to the teacher.
About five minutes later, Pamela played the CD, which is about a passage from the textbook. Since the passage is long, some of students did not really listen carefully to the CD. After listening to the CD, students were asked to separate into groups to discuss the questions related to the passage. Pamela separated students randomly by asking them to number off from one to eleven. Then, the people who counted the same number would in the same groups. From my point of view, separating students randomly in this kind of small discussion is appropriate, but it’s very likely to cause chaos because students would not remember each other’s number. What Pamela wanted students to do was that they had to go through all the discuss questions (sentences), and then she would assign every group to take charge of two questions after later. I keep this “strategy” in mind because I think it can make students to read all of the questions. If teacher directly ask students to take a look at the assigned questions, students would tend to neglect other questions because they think those questions are not their business.
Pamela allowed students to use either English or Chinese to do their presentations, I think this is the main reason why students use Chinese during the discussion. Since the students had the “privilege” to use Chinese, I did not hear English in their discussion. Almost at the end of the discussion (about 3 or 4 minutes left), teacher assigned the two questions that each group was responsible for.
And each group had to choose one person to do the report.
Oh ~time flies! 50 minutes passed by. Today’s lesson gives me some new ideas about the field project. Though there is lots of uncertainty about my project, I wish I can turn my disorganized thoughts into a real project! Oh ~ I must to !!! well, I really need some muses.
First Classroom Observation
※ Instrctor: Pamela
※ 2007/5/14, 1:00 ~ 1:50 pm, O-106, Language Center, NCU.
※ Teaching material (textbook): NorthStar, focus on Reading and Writing
(unit 9---the topic about immigration)
For the first ten minutes, Pamela distributed the students’ compositions with both her comments and other three students’ suggestions. That’s one of her ways to polish students’ writing skills. In other words, Pamela thinks it’s important for students to know their errors and also have the abilities to help others to know their errors. Students can upgrade their writing abilities in this kind of mutual (the teacher and students) correction process.
Pamela asked students to read the descriptions of the pictures, then, students had to tell Pamela what they read. Before long, students found out those pictures had one thing in common, that is, these were about immigration. Pamela also sang a song to make it easier for students to guess and know more about this topic. She successfully caught everyone’s attention and made the class much more active.
After that, Pamela asked students try to imagine a situation which was similar to what the textbook mentioned: if you were 16 years old, and you had to immigrant from Taiwan to New York, what difficulties would you encounter? Besides, Pamela also asked them to make a sentence by using “… while….” In this activity, students are free to discuss with each other. Nevertheless, students tended to figure it out by themselves. And also, when Pamela stood beside students to check whether they had any problem or not, students are pretty shy even though they actually had good answers. Regardless of students’ reactions to this activity, I still consider it could positively help students’ learning because it was an open question, which could provide opportunities for students to “brainstorm.” What’ more, since open questions do not have a specific answer, students might be more wiling to share their ideas. In other words, students could let their imagination run wild, and not be afraid of making mistakes.
The last part of this class, Pamela asked students to do the exercises on the textbook, and explained the first three questions for them. From question four, students had to be volunteers to read the questions and say his or her answers. But there was no volunteer at all; Pamela had to randomly appoint some students to answer.
That was the first time for me to observe Pamela’s teaching, I felt really amazed and excited because she indeed has a kind of charisma. However, I think the students in that class are toooooo shy just as what Pamela told me before my observation. Oh~ tomorrow, I am going to observer Pamela’s teaching again, I really hope I can see a better interaction between the teacher and students. Oh, students don’t be shy anymore!!!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
2007/5/11Discussion : weblogs
1. Discuss principles for designing English teaching and learning weblogs with team members Our group thinks that the principles of an English learning weblog should be the use of “multimedia”, the “links” of wide range of information, a platform for posting and receiving “comments” from other participants, and a way to “evaluate” the effectiveness of their learning.Compared to the traditional classroom learning, English learning weblog has the characteristics of online learning, which provides more time and space for learners to think, offers hypertexts for learners to absorb more information if they want, works with multimedia contents to attract learners’ attention.Besides, using the form of weblog, learners can receive immediate articles from that English learning weblog through “RSS.”For example, when an English learner gets into a weblog, he/she will browse a lot of online articles with links and multimedia contents to learn English. Then, he/she is allowed to post his/her personal opinions there, he/she can even give the response to other postings, certainly, he/she can receive the feedback for other participants, so that the learning process involves a kind of interaction of knowledge, instead of just one-way input for a learner. Finally, after learning from the weblog, he/she can receive the updated information from that weblog immediately in their personal blogs.
2. Discuss criteria for evaluating ESL/EFL weblogs with team members. **Multimedia : This is a very basic and important component for a weblog because students can find the most appropriate way of learning. That is, the weblog provide various media to facilitate students’ English learning. If there is no multimedia in a weblog, then, it just has a few differences between those traditional learning materials.
**Comments : To judge whether a weblog is good or not, we can take a careful look at the comments from the visitors. These feedback can provide more objective views of the weblog. In other words, we can also know the advantages and disadvantages of this weblog. Besides, comments can inspire the designer of the weblog to make his or her weblog better.
**Information links(hypertext) : The greatest difference between traditional learning materials is that hypertext can make student’s reading much more efficient. Students do not have to flip through many books to obtain knowledge. They just have to click on the links, than, they can explore as many as other websites or weblogs they want.
**Quizzes/ Tasks : It’s very important for an English learning weblog to have such criteria. In that way, students could have the opportunities to check what they have learned. Most importantly, by taking some quizzes or tasks, students can get to know what else they need to put more emphasis on.
Intro. to Weblog
– Understand the weblog and its applications What is the weblog? What are some popular English learning weblogs?
This is the definition of blog (from Wikipedia).
To be honest, I do not know many English learning weblogs because I am still not accustomed to learn English by visiting others’ blogs. I just visit some English websites, selecting something that can arouse my interests. But today I found some weblogs which are about English learning. I cannot promise these are “good” English learning webblogs, but at least, I love them so much. The designers of these weblogs are English teachers, and I think I can see how much they’ve devoted to English teaching by seeing their weblogs.
Kidding me (I love it sooooo much!)
Bonie House
Cindy 魔法
Penny英語教學
– Understand specific weblog features and functions. What can the weblog do compared to the traditional English learning website? What are RSS/ permalinks/ trackback?
Not until Mei-Ya asked us to think about this question, did I really try to differentiate these two seriously. Compare to websites, weblogs provide us with other useful and friendly services which can produce more interactions! Though some special features, such as RSS / permalinks/ trackback, we can share and acquire knowledge much easier than before! Permit me to give you some ideas about these features. (from Wikipedia)
RSS
Permalink
Trackback
–Explore blog features and use them in your blog. How can team blog functions (e.g., comments, moderation, trackback, and pingback) support English reading and writing? How can multimedia presentation (e.g., pictures, and videos, and audio) support English listening and speaking?
Among four functions mentioned above, I do believe that they can facilitate English learning. In particular, I think “trackback” can practice reading ability while “comments” can sharpen writing skills. If you want to apply the function of trackback, it means that you’ve already fully understood and agreed with those articles. In the process of assess whether the article is beneficial for you or not, you have to read very carefully, that is, good reading ability is required in this process. As for giving comments, I consider it’s just like an art of writhing. It’s not an easy task to give appropriate and constructive comments because you have to be very careful not to hurt others’ feelings when you try to give some suggestions. So, writing skills are very critical in giving comments.
It goes without saying that multimedia presentation can support English listening and speaking especially when you are trying to integrate those technologies into your learning. To be more specific, you have to know why and how the multimedia can make you learn better before you decide to take them as learning tools. Most video clips in blogs or youtube have no subtitles. Though you get the general ideas of the clips, you would get more detailed and complete information if you have the ability to listen carefully to the dialogue or explanations in the videos. And also, speaking ability is very important especially when you want to introduce both these multimedia and your own opinion about them to others. In other words, it might be hard for you to persuade how fantastic those multimedia are if you do not know how to describe them properly.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Lab 2 (reflection)
I have to say that I have really bad bad bad experiences in schmooze. Though I had introduced this website before, not until explored deeper during the lab time, did I really get to know what schmooze is.
I really try my best to solve this mission which is like a game of treasure hunting. Unfortunately, I do not accomplish this task, because I do not know how to manipulate this hunting successfully. That is, it seems that I can never understand what to do next! This is really upset. I do follow the instructions that given to me; however, it just doesn’t wok! It’s really annoying to find that I can not move at all. I mean, no matter which direction I key in (N, S, E, W), I JUST CANNOT MOVE! Ohh~ I cannot help but complaining that this is a really unfriendly platform. Because it can only work when we key in the exact words that meet its need. This is not flexible at all. Oh, it’s really difficult for me to imagine there is one class has to deal with this unfriendly game for a whole semester.
Well, I think I have to clam down a little bit. Maybe I am too harsh to this game. But I am really depressed when I know that I actually do not accomplish any task after three hours passed by.
Ok, after complaining, I think I still have to share what I did during the lab time. First, I would like to talk about my experience in MOOrrey's bar. It takes me a long time to figure out how to order something. And the following is what I have experienced:
Iona (Bartender)
Bar (MOOrrey's)
---------------
The bar is long and high. It is made of stainless steel at one end and transforms seamlessly into polished oak at the other, traveling through marble and stone on its way there.
Iona, the bartender, stands behind the bar, idly throwing a cocktail shaker from one hand to the other while she waits for you to decide what to order. She specialises in cocktails and can make almost any in existence (as well as few of her own devising). If you know of something she hasn't come across before, she'll try to oblige by making it for you. (Common non-alcoholic soft-drinks are served by Manuel, the waiter. Just ask him about the menu...) Behind Iona, there's a large, mirrored surface along the wall, with chrome shelves covered in bottles filled with various types of drink. A
selection of cocktail umbrellas, cherries, cocktail sticks, gherkins, olives and onions lines the area in front of her. Of course, you can get Belgian beer too, as well as being able to choose from a fine selection of wines and fruit juices.
drinks Iona - Gives you a list of what Iona serves.
order
ask Iona about
stacy [Guest] comes along from the main room and walks in Iona's
direction. You wonder what it might order.
Haven't heard about that. Can I add it to the menu? [Enter `yes' or`no']
The bartender prepares a drink...
and hands it over to cherrielo [Guest].
And next is what I have encountered in MOOrrey's Dancefloor:
Dancefloor (MOOrrey's)
----------------------
This is MOOrrey's dancefloor, similar to most dancefloors anywhere in
the world. Just that here you can virtually meet people from all
dancefloors from all over this planet. Of course there are spinning strobes and other
special effects, of course it is rather hot, in spite of the very efficient
air conditioning. But dancefloors are supposed to make you feel the heat
of the night, aren't they? So have fun!
PS: Type HELP HERE to find out how to dance with somebody.
You see Youssou (DJ) here.
Obvious exits: MOOrrey's and Bar
Youssou (DJ) starts to play missing tou by me.
I went to the cafeteria, but I did not really have interaction with any waiter. Oh, I just couldn’t find them:
Cafeteria
---------
You see a large cafeteria that can seat up to 50 people. One large
table goes down the middle of the room, where you see people eating. Ed, the
cook, is serving food. Type 'out' to exit the cafeteria.
You see a pile of trays, a menu, and Ed here.
Obvious exits: out
cherrielo [Guest] has arrived.
Last but not least, I have to say that I did go to library. Besides, I did successfully find “Public Book” and found a poem I like. Nevertheless, I do not know how to add a poem. Oh, I promise I couldn’t find any instruction that would help me to add a poem:
cherrielo [Guest] is looking at the If I can stop one heart from
breaking in
the Public Book.
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Hope that you enjoyed looking at Public Book.
All these above are my experiences in schmooze’s treasure hunting. To be honest, I feel quite disappointed about both myself and this platform. I thought I can achieve these goals that Mei-Ya set for us, but failed. And also, I do think that if this game can be more flexible in reading the words we key in, I believe it will become much more interesting and attracting.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Reflection on Group/Teacher On-line Meeting
Today teacher mei-ya and our group had a on-line meeting. And we share our experience of joining conferences. Since I’ve shared my experience in the class, I did not talk lot. Most of the time, I just listen to my group members’ experiences and give them some feedback.
Abby had a really good time in her conference, which was talking about webhead. I think this is a really interesting and new topic for me, so I check the meaning of webhead from Wikipedia : A webhead in the world of language learning and computer-mediated communication (CMC) as it applies to education is also a member of a community of practice (and its satellite groups) that started in 1998 with a community of language learning students called Writing for Webheads. Once the most vocal participants in the student group tended to become teachers, a session under the auspices of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Vercy and Christina also share their experiences. Though they did not really have a good time there because they did not think they involved in that topic enough, they still learn some precious knowledge about PBL and IBL. Ha~ to sum up, we all learn something for the meetings, whether experiences or new knowledge!!!
First Interview
Interview
※Interviewee: Pamela
※2007/4/16, 3:00 pm, in Pamela’s office, Language Center, NCU.
※After about 15 minutes chatting, the interview begins.
※About the interview: It lasts about 46 minutes; basically, Pamela and I talk a lot. Though she thinks some of my questions cannot really touch the core that I want to know (that is, she thinks those questions are too broad, without a clear focus), she still tries hard to answer my questions. During the interview, Pamela uses some words (maybe I should say some specific terms) which I do not know. It’s really nice of her to slow down and explain those words for me. But to be honest, both of us do not feel content with our interview. Pamela thinks she should say more about the courses in US. As for me, I do not think I’m a good interviewer because I do not lead my interviewee to say something that she really wants to express. And also, I do not interact pretty well with Pamela during the interview. Though I try to give her some responses, sometimes my responses are not totally relate to what she is saying. These are what I should improve!
※What’s next? What I want to do now is to make the transcript of the interview, and, try to find some main topics that I want to focus on. Besides, I think I have to find more information about what the topics I choose for discussing further. But actually, I am quite afraid that it would be hard for me to find much information. No matter what, I will try my best. If necessary, I think it will be great If Pamela and I can have second interview. Ha, so, to be brief, what I have to do now is to make the transcript first! Oh! That’s a big work to transcript a 46-minutes interview!
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The Preparation for Field Project
Language Teaching Methodology
---The preparation for Field Project
Field Project Proposal
---An in-depth interview
★Interviewee:
Pamela, an English teacher in Language Center, NCU.
M.Ed. in TESOL, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
★The way of the interview:
I am not sure it’s an hours-long interview or several short-time interviews. It depends on interviewee’s decision.
★Tentative questions for the interview:
1. Why do you want to study TESOL? And when did you make your decision?
2. What’s your motivation of studying in the United States? And why did you choose America?
3. Before you go abroad, what kind of preparation did you make(like the exams for GRE, TOEFL, etc.)? How did you select your school?
4. How is the school? And how are those courses? Do you really enjoy the courses? Could you name some courses that you like? And why do you like them?
5. Is it possible for you to name some teachers or some courses that influence you the most?
6. Among all you acquired in the United States (knowledge, culture, …..), what’s the most precious part for you?
7. Could you share some interesting or meaningful life experiences (events) that you encountered in the United States?
8. What kind of teaching method do you prefer in your teaching?
9. Is it hard for you to apply what you learned in the United States to Taiwan’s teaching / learning environment? (Because we know that Taiwan is exam-orientated)
10. For students in Taiwan (especially for students in colleges), what kind of problem do you think is the biggest when they are learning English? And is there any teaching method can solve this problem?
11. Do you think the learning resources for TESOL are rich enough in Taiwan?
12. Do you recommend the students who are interested in TESOL study abroad?
★(Tentative) How to present this field project?
I will record the whole interview but I will not transcribe all the conversations because I do not want my field project is just an interview transcription. That is, I will use my own words to describe the interview, and quote some Pamela’s words. But I will still put the emphasis on what Pamela actually says.
Authentic Experience
Authentic Experience
An Online Presentation in Tapped In
Title: Teachers in Training
An Online Presentation in Tapped In
Title: Teachers in Training
Start Time: Apr 13, 2007, 9:00 AM, Taiwan [GMT +08:00]
Duration: 1 hour
Leader: Dianne L. Allen
◆The summary of the presentation:
In this presentation, we discussed the topic about how to help the students who are really not interest in learning and interacting with others. And also, one of teachers mentioned that she did not know how to do things well (she is a new teacher in that school), and she did not who could she turn to for help. Besides, we tried to know how to be a teacher in another state (in America). What’s more, we also talked about some education policies and learning program in America.
◆The Experience of join this presentation:
From the title, I thought it’s a meeting which can train teachers to be more successful in their teaching. However, when I got into that room, I found that people were asking some questions they had encountered in teaching. Before long, I understood that the “training” here not specifically referred to tell you the way of teaching; instead, it provided a platform for teachers (or teachers-to-be) to share their problems. That is, you can know others’ opinion about your problem.
Frankly speaking, I did not have a good time during this meeting. I think the main reason to account for this is that I am still a student, not a teacher now. So, it’s quite hard for me to give them established advice. And since most of them are teachers in America, they have the same issues to talk about which are difficult to understand if you are not in that teaching environment. What’s more, my English typing is not fast enough to catch up with them. I think that’s partly because that I think too much before typing. I mean, I was trying to not to say something in formal to show my sincerity in this presentation. But after this meeting, I think my “sincerity” is not really necessary because it would make me become totally n silent “observer” in that presentation. That’s really upset.
Though my first Tapped In experience is frustrating, I understand this is the stage I have to overcome. Just as Mei-Ya says, things will definitely getting better if I am a regular visitor of Tapped In, and try to make more friends. And I really hope that I can meet some friendly friends there and learn lot from presentations.
Duration: 1 hour
Leader: Dianne L. Allen
◆The summary of the presentation:
In this presentation, we discussed the topic about how to help the students who are really not interest in learning and interacting with others. And also, one of teachers mentioned that she did not know how to do things well (she is a new teacher in that school), and she did not who could she turn to for help. Besides, we tried to know how to be a teacher in another state (in America). What’s more, we also talked about some education policies and learning program in America.
◆The Experience of join this presentation:
From the title, I thought it’s a meeting which can train teachers to be more successful in their teaching. However, when I got into that room, I found that people were asking some questions they had encountered in teaching. Before long, I understood that the “training” here not specifically referred to tell you the way of teaching; instead, it provided a platform for teachers (or teachers-to-be) to share their problems. That is, you can know others’ opinion about your problem.
Frankly speaking, I did not have a good time during this meeting. I think the main reason to account for this is that I am still a student, not a teacher now. So, it’s quite hard for me to give them established advice. And since most of them are teachers in America, they have the same issues to talk about which are difficult to understand if you are not in that teaching environment. What’s more, my English typing is not fast enough to catch up with them. I think that’s partly because that I think too much before typing. I mean, I was trying to not to say something in formal to show my sincerity in this presentation. But after this meeting, I think my “sincerity” is not really necessary because it would make me become totally n silent “observer” in that presentation. That’s really upset.
Though my first Tapped In experience is frustrating, I understand this is the stage I have to overcome. Just as Mei-Ya says, things will definitely getting better if I am a regular visitor of Tapped In, and try to make more friends. And I really hope that I can meet some friendly friends there and learn lot from presentations.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
A Website in Ch 7(CALL Essentials)
Ch7 Content-Based Instruction
“MuseumLink's Museum of Museums”
Ha, this not a tongue twister. It's the website I am going to introduce to you!
We all know that some news websites such as CNN, BBC, USA TODAY, are considered “news” content-based website. And “MuseumLink's is a “museum” content-based website which provides almost every museum’s website. This is really special!
Students can understand the content necessary to have a successful journey to museums.
*First contact: when I see this website at the first sight, I think its homepage is not complicated as I thought! Its homepage has clear classification of all information you may want to know, so you will not get lost among those museums.
*try to explore: before long, I find out the museums which are introduced in this website mainly focus on America and Canada. Because there are two specific and links for the two countries. Because I just visited Toronto, Canada, last summer, I click the link at the once. Then I am so delighted to know that I've already visited some museums on that list. I've been to The Art Gallery of Ontario, I still remember I went there on Wednesday because after 5pm on Saturdays are free! You know, the most important thing for a backpacker is to cut down your budget! 
(oh, it's the pic I took in AGO! notice the wall!!)
It's a pity that I did not really visit ROM, because The Royal Ontario Museum was under-construction (for establishing a new appearance!). So, I just passed by ROM for several times; instead of going in there. Actually I also paid a visit to another museum in Toronto which is not on this website's list. That is Beta Shoe Museum. It has a rich collection of every kind of shoes, from the ancient to modern. I also had a good time there. It seems that Beta Shoe museum has no website, because I really cannot find it. Oh, if you find its website, please let me know!
Then, I click “international museum links.” Since there is no “Taiwan” on the list, I have no choice but see China’s part, only one museum which I do not know at all. Then, I try to see “England” part because I've been to London two years ago (do you still remember the bombs which are placed in London by terrorists? That's right! I was there when London was attacked by terrorists. Well, that's another long story; maybe I can share with you later. Among the museums on the long list of England, I am so glad that I've been to The British Museum, The National Gallery, The Victoria & Albert Museum. Doubtless, I have sweet memories about these three museums.
Then, I click “international museum links.” Since there is no “Taiwan” on the list, I have no choice but see China’s part, only one museum which I do not know at all. Then, I try to see “England” part because I've been to London two years ago (do you still remember the bombs which are placed in London by terrorists? That's right! I was there when London was attacked by terrorists. Well, that's another long story; maybe I can share with you later. Among the museums on the long list of England, I am so glad that I've been to The British Museum, The National Gallery, The Victoria & Albert Museum. Doubtless, I have sweet memories about these three museums.
(see!! it's the bookplate I made in V&A museum! Do you see my name on it? )
*I think (my brief conclusion): though not all museums in the word are introduced in the website, I still recommend that everyone should see this website. Even though you have little interests in “museums”, you can also take this website as a window on the world! I mean, it's a good chance for you to know more about every country's culture and heritage! I am not sure whether this is an excellent contend-based website or not, but I,m really fond of this website not only because it makes me think of those great memories but also lets me know there is another culture-friendly website!
*I think (my brief conclusion): though not all museums in the word are introduced in the website, I still recommend that everyone should see this website. Even though you have little interests in “museums”, you can also take this website as a window on the world! I mean, it's a good chance for you to know more about every country's culture and heritage! I am not sure whether this is an excellent contend-based website or not, but I,m really fond of this website not only because it makes me think of those great memories but also lets me know there is another culture-friendly website!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
A Website in Ch 4(CALL Essentials)
Ch4---Communication and Collaboration
The goal of chapter 4 is “communication and collaboration.” Though there are good websites I can introduce to you in this chapter, such as Tapped In, I still want to recommend “Monster Exchange.” And I would like to briefly analyze it for you.
※Goals: Encourage the development of reading and writing skills while integrating Internet technology into the classroom curriculum.
※Presentation: Classrooms from a variety of schools worldwide are paired together; the students in each classroom are split into groups, each of which designs an original picture of a monster. The students must then write a description of the monster. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail and the Internet. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture. The true challenge involves creating a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster. The written descriptions, original monster pictures, and redrawn monster pictures are scanned and uploaded to the Internet using the browser-based Monster Gallery Builder. The Monster Gallery Builder is entirely form-based and does not require the teacher or student to know any HTML code. The Monster Galleries are then published, and feedback is provided via e-mail.
※Appropriateness: I do think the website is really helpful! Not only learners but also teachers/parents are provided clear and useful guidelines in manipulating the website. And every link is quite specific related to what learners may want to know.
※Outcomes: Learners can practice the ability of writing and reading by figuring out what others’ monsters are and creating their own “monsters.” In other words, learners can learn from this drawing and get to know others’ drawings.
※Evaluation: Basically, there is no formal and strict evaluation in the website. But we can know how much students learn from checking the correctness of their monsters. I mean, we can judge students’ learning by their understanding of others’ descriptions and monsters which are created by them.
※Notes: In the link of “kids’ stuff”, there is another great link named
. You can find six interesting websites for English learning. Be sure to visit them when you finish discovering how amazing “Monster Exchange” is! Friday, March 30, 2007
A Website in Ch 5 (CALL Essentials)
Ch5 ---Creativity and Production
Hello! Time magazine! it's a mutimedia website.
I do believe that for students who want to upgrade their English ability from all over the world would definitely know this widely-known magazine! And I myself am one of Time magazine’s follower. But you know what? Its website is also great enough for you to visit everyday.
I do believe that for students who want to upgrade their English ability from all over the world would definitely know this widely-known magazine! And I myself am one of Time magazine’s follower. But you know what? Its website is also great enough for you to visit everyday.
This chapter’s goal is introducing us the notion of “creativity and production.” At the first, I am not really understand why Time magazine’s website can be taken as the symbol of creativity, but I find out the answer at its “photos link.” Once you click on the link, you would see tons of pictures. Most importantly, you can find various kinds of photos you like, and guess what the article/news is from the pictures before reading them. Sometimes the pictures are not reveal what happened in those pictures directly, so you can let your imagination run wield and predict what you would know from the news. Besides, you can also use those pictures (legally), that is, the photos part in Time magazine is a free and rich photo album which provides you any photo you are searching for.
What’s more, the website of Time magazine also provides video or audio services/clips of most of the news. In other words, if you want to let your eyes relax for a while, you can also have other choices to know the news. (Oh~you can also sharpen your listening skill at the same time!) Of course there are many advantages of the website, maybe you can pay a visit to it and discover other amazing features that attract you!
By the way, have you ever visited the website of "Time for Kids "?
It's a really sweet and friendly website for children to know inportant news in more interesting ways. Or, if you are not really confident in English, you may try to devoted yourself to this website before visiting the website of Time Magazine!
A Website in Ch 6 (CALL Essentials)
Ch6 --- Inquiry and Problem-Solving
Tom Snyder Productions is the website I visit this week.
It provides a variety of softwares which are appropriate for different grades, types of content that help students to solve problems in areas such as the environment, social relations, etc
Though I knew it’s a software publisher before I visit there, I still feel quite shocked when I really see that website. Because I never see such an “organized” website which is for purchasing English learning material (especially for children). The reason why I use the word “organized” is because it’s indeed a really clear classified website. There are some links that can lead you to the field you want like.
What’s more, there is a much more specific classification of various links can cater to learners’ need.
The part of “teacher tools” interests me the most because I can find and learn something new information which may help me to come up some new ideas for my teaching in the future. I click almost all links in this field, then I am quite surprised to find out a truth. That is, kids nowadays really have tons of resources to make their learning better and much more fun! Compared to what resources I had when I was little, kids nowadays can try different ways to learn. In other words, as long as they want to learn, there are lots of attracting materials they can use.
I do believe Taiwan has such a good website as well, but I haven’t met it yet!
Oh! If you want to know about the history of this website, just click this!
The part of “teacher tools” interests me the most because I can find and learn something new information which may help me to come up some new ideas for my teaching in the future. I click almost all links in this field, then I am quite surprised to find out a truth. That is, kids nowadays really have tons of resources to make their learning better and much more fun! Compared to what resources I had when I was little, kids nowadays can try different ways to learn. In other words, as long as they want to learn, there are lots of attracting materials they can use.
I do believe Taiwan has such a good website as well, but I haven’t met it yet!
Oh! If you want to know about the history of this website, just click this!
Friday, March 23, 2007
Lab 1 (reflection)
Oh~
Today we have a really great time in lab!
In the first twenty minutes, we are asked to give others feed back on BB, everyone just keep silent and do it with 100 percent concentration. When I reply what Celia said in the BB, I mention Jenny Pao. I want to say more about her, because she was my idol when I was little. And I love the TV program 魔法ABC sooooo much!
【鮑佳欣1995年GMAT以780分打破世界紀錄，同年TOFEL測試成績660分，為台灣地區最高分。著有《英文小魔女》、《英文小魔女在哈佛》等】
After finishing giving feed back, we start to visit others’ blog. Everyone’s blog is very different, and I just keep changing the background and colors of my own blog. Teacher teaches us how to find out every color’s html code, I think this is cool and pretty useful!
Ok, it’s time to put what we discussed last week to teacher’s blog. For our group, this is the beginning of challenge. We are really eager to make a perfect picture(diagram), but we just cannot achieve it! We try thousands of ways to do it, finally we succeed! I think our group should give the credit to Vercy, because she makes a great diagram!
Then, we go to “tapped-in.” We create our own room and learn how to join others and this is interesting. Though it’s just a chat room, I think it still differs from msn or yahoo messenger. But I do not know what’s the exact differences, maybe…if I type Chinese in this room, I will feel…kind of guilty, because I know I have to use English just like everyone does!
Teaches asks us to copy our group’s discussion (about our final project!). Because we all know all of the chat content will be presented, we pay attention to what we say, I mean, we try very hard to avoid taking non-sense. But guess what? We still joke around! Ha~ and we cannot stop laughing!
What a great afternoon in lab, I love taking the course in lab because it makes me feel that I’m learning something “practical.” I am looking forward to next lab class!
Today we have a really great time in lab!
In the first twenty minutes, we are asked to give others feed back on BB, everyone just keep silent and do it with 100 percent concentration. When I reply what Celia said in the BB, I mention Jenny Pao. I want to say more about her, because she was my idol when I was little. And I love the TV program 魔法ABC sooooo much!
【鮑佳欣1995年GMAT以780分打破世界紀錄，同年TOFEL測試成績660分，為台灣地區最高分。著有《英文小魔女》、《英文小魔女在哈佛》等】
After finishing giving feed back, we start to visit others’ blog. Everyone’s blog is very different, and I just keep changing the background and colors of my own blog. Teacher teaches us how to find out every color’s html code, I think this is cool and pretty useful!
Ok, it’s time to put what we discussed last week to teacher’s blog. For our group, this is the beginning of challenge. We are really eager to make a perfect picture(diagram), but we just cannot achieve it! We try thousands of ways to do it, finally we succeed! I think our group should give the credit to Vercy, because she makes a great diagram!
Then, we go to “tapped-in.” We create our own room and learn how to join others and this is interesting. Though it’s just a chat room, I think it still differs from msn or yahoo messenger. But I do not know what’s the exact differences, maybe…if I type Chinese in this room, I will feel…kind of guilty, because I know I have to use English just like everyone does!
Teaches asks us to copy our group’s discussion (about our final project!). Because we all know all of the chat content will be presented, we pay attention to what we say, I mean, we try very hard to avoid taking non-sense. But guess what? We still joke around! Ha~ and we cannot stop laughing!
What a great afternoon in lab, I love taking the course in lab because it makes me feel that I’m learning something “practical.” I am looking forward to next lab class!
Friday, March 16, 2007
A Website in Ch 3 (CALL Essentials)
Ch3---Developing and Practicing Listening and Speaking Skills
Adam Rado’s English Learning Fun Site(ELFS)
http://www.elfs.com/
This is the website I visited this week!
☆ I’m not going to use some guidelines on p.45 to evaluate this website, in other words, I will use my own way, which I think it’s more suitable for this website, to share what do I know and feel with you!
*First Contact:
To be honest, I think the homepage is a little bit confusing for me. Though there are only a few columns there, it’s not as easy as visiting SchMOOze University, which I introduced last week. Oh, maybe that’s because I’m still not quite used to learning English though English website. Before long, I decide to move my mouse to “books” part because there are two index fingers!
*Get into the “book” part:
There are three different columns that can help learners to acquire different English ability. For me, the most attracting part is TOON IN To IDIOMS. It uses funny pictures (in a pretty “comic” way) to help learners to remember the definition of the idioms. I think this is fascinating! When I was in senior high, my English tutor asked me to learn idioms by reading a book ( COMPACT FUN WITH IDIOMS ) Just like this website, the book also uses pictures and interesting dialogue to help students to learn idioms. I used to consider the book is the bible for me to learn idioms, but now I get another bible, which is the website! For most ESL students, it’s hard to memorize idioms and put them in to practice. But now, I do believe that we can learn better with the help pf this website.
*What do I learn?
This website also provides IDIOM QUIZ for learners to check their leaning. This is a really sweet idea!
*Room for improvement:
Just like what I’ve mentioned in the beginning, there are so many “indefinite” links on the pages, and this makes me do not know where to click. I mean, many links in this website do not have a very clear and specific instruction to follow. So, I cannot know what the link is after I click it. This is inconvenient and kind of wasting time.
*Here comes a conclusion:
Though there is some drawback in the website, I still strongly recommend learners to pay a visit! Because you will find out that learning idioms is not as difficult as you thought!
http://www.elfs.com/
This is the website I visited this week!
☆ I’m not going to use some guidelines on p.45 to evaluate this website, in other words, I will use my own way, which I think it’s more suitable for this website, to share what do I know and feel with you!
*First Contact:
To be honest, I think the homepage is a little bit confusing for me. Though there are only a few columns there, it’s not as easy as visiting SchMOOze University, which I introduced last week. Oh, maybe that’s because I’m still not quite used to learning English though English website. Before long, I decide to move my mouse to “books” part because there are two index fingers!
*Get into the “book” part:
There are three different columns that can help learners to acquire different English ability. For me, the most attracting part is TOON IN To IDIOMS. It uses funny pictures (in a pretty “comic” way) to help learners to remember the definition of the idioms. I think this is fascinating! When I was in senior high, my English tutor asked me to learn idioms by reading a book ( COMPACT FUN WITH IDIOMS ) Just like this website, the book also uses pictures and interesting dialogue to help students to learn idioms. I used to consider the book is the bible for me to learn idioms, but now I get another bible, which is the website! For most ESL students, it’s hard to memorize idioms and put them in to practice. But now, I do believe that we can learn better with the help pf this website.
*What do I learn?
This website also provides IDIOM QUIZ for learners to check their leaning. This is a really sweet idea!
*Room for improvement:
Just like what I’ve mentioned in the beginning, there are so many “indefinite” links on the pages, and this makes me do not know where to click. I mean, many links in this website do not have a very clear and specific instruction to follow. So, I cannot know what the link is after I click it. This is inconvenient and kind of wasting time.
*Here comes a conclusion:
Though there is some drawback in the website, I still strongly recommend learners to pay a visit! Because you will find out that learning idioms is not as difficult as you thought!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
A Website in Ch 2 (CALL Essentials)
Ch2 ---Developing and Practicing Reading and Writing Skills
SchMOOze University(http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu/)
This is the website which I explore in Ch2.
*Goals: Provide ESL students a lively and an interactive environment to learn
English.
*Presentation: It has 20 links on the homepage. And each link bring learners to the section they want. It's an extremely simple-to-use and a clear homepage.
*Appropriateness: Because there are many links, students might need more instructions before entering those different websites. It would be great if there are some brief introductions.
*Outcomes: Learners have more opportunities and access to communicate with other ESL students or even native speakers.
*Evaluation: Evaluation is not the main part of the website.
*Notes: The link, "Dave's ESL Cafe on the Web" is really interesting! Dave has the experience of teaching English in Japan where he discover and cultivate his ability of teaching English. There is a short and funny video in the that website. Pay a visit to it! Here is the video
For ESL students, this is a really helpful website because it provides an "authentic" access to learning English. I've already created my own account, but I haven't tried to talk to anyone. I am really looking forward to "having my own room! Though I'm still not quite sure how to use this website efficiently, I do believe that I can benefit a lot from this amazing platform.
Last but not least, not until I played the game of “treasure hunting”(Oh, I named it by myself, I am not pretty sure the correct name of this game) did I know this website’s another“main attraction.” However, I did not have a good time in the game. Frankly speaking, I still cannot know why this game can make Schemooze much more famous. Haha, if you are interested in my experience in this game, you may see check it …it titled as Lab 2 (reflection) :)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
ABOUT CHERRIE
Oh~First, I would like to say "welcome" and "thank you" for visiting my blog!
The main purpose of this blog is providing some information about learning English. And also, I want to share something valuable during my English-learning process with you!
As to Cherrie, me, 羅伊廷, you might try to know WHO I AM.
I am an English major student in Taiwan.
I fell in love with English when I was a fourth grade student.
You know what? English just has a kind of irresistible charm for me.
To get more authentic experiences, I participated in a study tour in London for two months, and tried to be a completely backpacker in Toronto, Canada last summer. These are the “English-speaking” countries that I have visited in recent years. During the process of English learning, I’ve met some excellent English teachers. They not only led me to the world of English, but also aroused my interest in English teaching. I hope I can be a good English teacher in the future. But I think it’s really hard to define the meaning of “a good English teacher.” To be honest, I haven’t figure out the exact meaning of it, but I will try and try to find it out.
Not until I became a junior in the university, did I make a decision that I want to study “TESOL.” So, I am just a beginner in this field, and there are tons of new things for me to learn. After starting to know more about TESOL, I am reminded again that teaching is definitely not an easy task.
For enriching more knowledge in teaching, I attend TKT courses for a month (JUNE,2007). TKT is a test designed by Cambridge University. It’s a challenge for me to take these courses, because I’m just a beginner as I’ve mentioned. But I really benefited a lot from TKT. I had a great time in those courses.
I love learning English, and I expect myself have the ability to be a good English teacher.
Stepping forward bravely, trying my best to do everything, and taking care others--
This is Cherrie's philosophy.
This is Cherrie.
Friday, March 2, 2007
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