Elisa's PLE

I can say that I’ve been focusing for so many years only on grammar or text books; sometimes realising that there wasn’t any particular improvement. Just doing exercises isn’t going to improve my English that much.
Over the few years, I’ve come across new tools and way to strengthen my English. I’ve been exploring the most effective ways for myself. There must come a point when we put our learning into practice. First of all there’s no doubt that the best way to become fluent speakers is to spend much time as possible with other fluent speakers- through work or study or friendship. It’s easier said than done, I know.

In this last university semester we have focused on Web 0.2. I think we all have spent so long contemplating on how useful it could be for a language learner…so I will avoid being boring and repetitive.
I would like to stress that if we do things ONLY because it’s good for our English, definitely we won’t improve; so if we read on English magazine we should do it firstly because we’re interested in British news and we enjoy it and maybe learning something new about the language.
So in my spare time, I often try to put together interests and English by reading foreign newspaper, listening to my favourite singers, downloading lyrics and singing. In my opinion, that’s exiting, fulfilling and useful at the same time.
Finally, I’d rather speak about my personal experiments. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give you a completely new tip on how to learn a language; but something which particularly works for me. When I find something which could be personally worthwhile for me, I immediately write it down on a piece of paper and I stick it in a place which would definitely remind me of the meaning: for instance on the shower door of my bathroom a post it will jog my memory telling me: “LOOK OUT IT COULD BE SLIPPERY”. If I can’t find a suitable location for the post note I’ll resolve the problem by drawing a picture on the post it: for example my last reminder was a face with very big protruding ears, that brings to mind “sticking-out ears”. Another useful or effective technique is to take down a word or a phrase that especially interests me and I connect it with a personal aspect of my life i.e. I recently wrote down on a CD the phrase: “ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE”.

Evaluate before Believing it

Which sources are likely to be most useful to me? First of all I must say that I didn’t use to do research on the Internet and I’ve been experiencing it since the beginning of the University. Too late? Maybe but I was a bit afraid about it and my family as well. As we all know, there’s not only a huge quantity of information on our disposal, but a very uneven level of quality. Furthermore, the information purpose often doesn’t refer to the pleasure of let people know something…but information can means “someone want to convince you to buy his products, agree with his opinions, share his ideas and ideology and so on…in other words we should learn HOW evaluate the sources of information we come across.

At the college, I only studied and focused on the school books or eventually the further notes provided by the teachers. Obviously, starting the University many things changed in particularly how to study, how to take notes during class and as well how to do research by myself. It was not so easy but I can say it was worth its while because if before I was supposed to study only what the teachers taught me then I could expand on particular topics of my interest; I’ve learnt that very often every issue has more than one side to explore. In other words, I became a bit more independent and free on my studies.

There’s no doubt that whenever I do research, be it in the library or online, I always have to evaluate the information I come across. I would stress that my criteria of judging are not always the same, I mean, it depends on the purpose or the targets . As a matter of fact, my job researches often tend to focus on a small amount of web documents which are already provided by the company I work for. where I usually have to face a great number of book or web sources are when I’m searching for something connected with my interests or University studies. I might dispose of some priceless suggestions or advices and I can address my searching. But, unfortunately, more often than not I have to evaluate the information sources on my own. More or less I try to follow the same tips the San Diego University suggested, so I check who is the responsible for publishing, how the content is developed, when it was published…Moreover, I must admit even the lay-out page is quite important for me…I know…I might seem a bit superficial but let me say that looks also play a part.

I appreciate the suggestions which some American universities make for students because nowadays Internet plays an important role and learning how to use it effectively for whatever purposes is extremely essential.
It’s obviously important that University and academic world give advise on how to use and exploit this tool. People need help and be encouraged to take advantage from Internet. I recognize I’m still living in a too traditional society…that’s so restrictive and sometimes I can’t put up with it...that's life

Unforgettable Licia

I really can't forget this special cartoon which has grown me up and help me to learn many things...about the world, the society and RELATIONSHIPS...it was my bible and for this reason it's time for me to say THANKS KISS ME LICIA..

YouTube

According to wikipedia, YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. It is perhaps the more exciting tools of our bloggineglish course and there’s no doubt that it can be very useful if it is used in a intelligent way…As a matter of fact, I found several websites which focus on different tools like videos, images, set of questions and vocabulary idiom and give us online lessons for practicing English.

Nowadays, a wide variety of video content are displayed, we can find everything from movie clips, to TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos. I think it’s another wonderful example which can help us to improve our language skills in a funny way. When language learners, in particularly upper-intermidiate reach such level of the language how can get better or keep their memory active with English? There is no easy answer to this question. People learn languages in many different ways. We should be selective, in other words start to combine English with our interest and hobby. YouTube and the other web 0.2 tools come our assistance...

Nevertheless, I would stress that English has consolidated its dominance as the language of the Internet, where -according to statistics- 80percent of the world’s electronically stored information is in English …It is the common language in every field, from science to air traffic control to global jihad, where it is apparently the means of communication between speakers of Arabic and other languages. I recently read in a widely read English newspaper, The International Herald Tribune that the English language is still spreading thanks to the new virtual empire of the Internet.

Podcast...how many functions.....

HOLA!!

I found the task of this week really stimulating…I’m even more struck about Web.2.0 which provides access to a wide range of useful sources for English language learners. I’ve already heard about the word “pod” but I didn’t know what exactly was…A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which can be found on the Internet. The portmanteau word "podcast" comes from "iPod" and "broadcast" terms.

First of all, I added this well-build website thought up specifically for English language learner. Its main targets focus on listening and understanding...it also gives the opportunity to learn some of the most used idiomatic expressions coming across the dialogues or speeches. Moreover, at the and of any recording more time is spent to explain some idiomatic expressions or phrasal verbs and lead us to a metalinguistic reflection. We know that working with this kind of recording, a track can be played as often as necessary and it may be advantageous to press “pause” after each sentence or a particular expression and take time to think or write it down in order to memorize and learn to use them and the way native speakers do.

The second one is BBC news podcast …I found this website useful in order to improve our linguistic skills and at the same time we can keep update about what happen around the world. Maybe it’ll be hard to live up to such listening without reading but it is suggested that students trying to keep our hand in listening real and fluent speech. In particular, it is said that English learner are supposed to use the variety that has came to be known as “BBC English” which is the pronunciation used by speakers such as newsreaders and announcers on TV and radio. BBC is a widely broadcast and respected variety, and for most people Is easily understood so for these reasons it is considered as “the model English”.

Finally, I subscribed Business English Pod because I consider it essential for those who are going to work in a European and international context. it provides free weekly MP3 podcast lessons for intermediate and advanced business English learners. Each Business English podcast lesson is based on a particular skill (like meetings, presentations, telephoning, negotiating, socializing, travel, conversation ....) and language function (clarifying, disagreeing, questioning, expressing opinions, persuasion ...). I’ll find it extremely interesting and useful because I personally realised that business world change very quickly and to keep us up-to-date we can’t focus only on textbooks… and above all this kind of topics are not usually treated exhaustively in class.

We all know that podcasters' websites offer freely download of their content, but what’s more a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

so TAKE ADVANTAGE....

Del.icio.us is an outstanding revelation

HI my blogfriends!!!

As Sarah and my peers have already pointed out Social Bookmarking is a practical and effective way to store and share our favourite websites and blogs online. I wouldn’t be repetitive and I prefer to stress another aspect of it … in other words the use we are going to do with del.icio.us…. I mean.. We are going to share really useful English learning websites. I consider quite interesting practise our English on the web and for a while forget our academic and pedantic grammar books…

For this reason my blogmates and I chose to share some websites focusing on topics which aren’t usually treated exhaustively in our school books or in class. First of all I added a Listening website which provides amazing transcript games.

Then, I noticed that most of us found useful adding some Pronunciation website... from my personal experience it's really important because over the years I’ve been learning English.. you know.. I don’t want really people to hear immediately that I’m Italian and above all I’ve sometimes spoke with mother-tongue English speakers who really can’t easily understand me…it’s a shame when all the English we’ve learned is wasted because people can’t understand us!!!! We need work on our pronunciation as well, before learning new words..

Moreover, we subscribed a website based on phrasal verbs and idioms in English, because we are always coming across a great many of typical or fixed expressions when we listen to and read English. They are in such widespread use that it is inappropriate to ignore them. Even then, there may be language we wouldn’t use…in other words.. we should be selective and think: “would I never say it? When? Who to?” and if we end up it’s not useful…we don’t need to bother trying to learn it..

In the end, I’m quite satisfied with what we’ve learnt this week.. because we are going to leave out our grammar books. I don’t want to say that we have to set fire to our books because we all know that it’s good to use grammar correctly and grammar does help us speak more accurately…but it’s time for us to experience other aspects of a language, if we’re always thinking about grammar rules, it can stop us being fluent...

That's all..

BYEEEEE

Halloween….SoRrY, but it doesn’t belong to my culture..

I really enjoyed reflecting on the topic of CULTURE, because nowadays it’s getting even more intriguing and complicated maintain the original and spiritual worth of a holiday. We are living in a time in which the business aims rule over the world.

Looking for further information about Halloween, I figured out that it has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes erroneously regarded as the “Celtic New Year”. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31 the division between the world of living and the otherworld was blurred so spirits of the dead and inhabitants from underworld were able to walk free on the earth.

Over the time the exact customs and traditions regarding this holiday have been partly lost, lacking of primary documentation and above all integrated with other traditions like the Christian culture which had a great influence on it. In fact Pope Gregory IV standardized the date of All Saints’Day on November 1 in the name of entire Western Church in 835.

There’s no doubt that this festival originally belonged to the countries having a shared Gaelic culture and language, like Ireland, Scotland…
Halloween did not become a holiday in the United States until the 19th century and It was due to the transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849) finally brought the holiday to the United States. In Mexico, Halloween has been celebrated during the last 40 years where the celebrations have been influenced by the American traditions.

Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. But I can’t understand why is this holiday becoming famous even in my country? it seems that there is no longer the distinction between different cultures. People unconsciously tend to accept every “unknown” holiday in order to take advantage from a day off. In my view, what is the worst is that every kind of holiday represents a profitable business for every country or market.. Halloween in particularly is totally commercialized...