Phonetics: the sounds of American English
When I first saw the website, I found it ease my preparation for tutoring jobs. Some students in Taiwan have great difficulty in pronouncing correctly. Even though I thought it was not a big deal, it is good to speak out beautifully, isn’t it?
PBS Kid has a great number of teaching materials for children. I really like the songs they provided. The thought of being a kindergarten teacher suddenly occurred to me while listening to the music. It was very enjoyable to visit PBS Kid.
My ET is an interesting software I would like to recommend. It is a web-based program employing automatic speech analysis system (ASAS) to identify the words spoken into the recording device, and it can analyze the speech on pronunciation, pitch, timing and emphasis. However, I thought the grading system really…well, challenging. After all, it’s fun though.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
VOA special English
VOA special English is a website my interpretation instructor, Jason, strongly recommended.
The slogan of this website is Learn American English and Much More “Read, Listen and Learn.”
Like the name suggests, VOA special English is consisted of articles and audios. Since the speed is not too fast and level is quite acceptable for us, Jason adopts this website as one learning material. He usually requires us to read one of the articles before his class, and interpret in the class for the rest of students. After that, other students translate back in English. I believe my instructor enjoy this program a lot; therefore, he encourages us to practice with this websites often.
The slogan of this website is Learn American English and Much More “Read, Listen and Learn.”
Like the name suggests, VOA special English is consisted of articles and audios. Since the speed is not too fast and level is quite acceptable for us, Jason adopts this website as one learning material. He usually requires us to read one of the articles before his class, and interpret in the class for the rest of students. After that, other students translate back in English. I believe my instructor enjoy this program a lot; therefore, he encourages us to practice with this websites often.
BBC Learning English
Podcast has become a fad lately that I found one more today—BBC learning English.
In listen and watch section of this website, there is a 6-minutes English news podcast, which is similar to the one I found the other day, ICRT’s podcast.
Why save worms? Podcast Download Here
Clip Description: Many beautiful animals, such as pandas and whales, are in danger of being killed off by human activity. Some people are working to save these creatures... but what about the less pretty species? We hear from an environmental expert who argues that we should put more effort into saving worms than pandas!
Before they talked about the issue, the key words “conservation”, “species” and so on have been discussed. For instance, conservation means the protection of natural things, which is the focus of this clip. I enjoyed the clip because I am always fond of listening to British accent. Besides, listening to different accents of languages can also train our listening abilities.
Here are some vocabularies I learnt from the podcast:
species
a group of plants or animals whose members are similar and can breed together to produce young animals or plants
conservation
protection of natural things such as plants or animals
Example: Some people think the government should put more effort into conservation.
an ecosystem
all the animals and plants in an area and the way in which they are related to each other and their environment
invertebrates
a living creature without a spine/backbone, such as a worm _____
In listen and watch section of this website, there is a 6-minutes English news podcast, which is similar to the one I found the other day, ICRT’s podcast.
Why save worms? Podcast Download Here
Clip Description: Many beautiful animals, such as pandas and whales, are in danger of being killed off by human activity. Some people are working to save these creatures... but what about the less pretty species? We hear from an environmental expert who argues that we should put more effort into saving worms than pandas!
Before they talked about the issue, the key words “conservation”, “species” and so on have been discussed. For instance, conservation means the protection of natural things, which is the focus of this clip. I enjoyed the clip because I am always fond of listening to British accent. Besides, listening to different accents of languages can also train our listening abilities.
Here are some vocabularies I learnt from the podcast:
species
a group of plants or animals whose members are similar and can breed together to produce young animals or plants
conservation
protection of natural things such as plants or animals
Example: Some people think the government should put more effort into conservation.
an ecosystem
all the animals and plants in an area and the way in which they are related to each other and their environment
invertebrates
a living creature without a spine/backbone, such as a worm _____
Saturday, April 19, 2008
EZ News Podcast @ICRT
I like the section of EZ news of ICRT pretty much. Since we watch the news to learn what's going on around the world everyday, we could also read and listen to the English version in order to sharpen our listening and reading. In the EZ news section, ICRT provides two Podcast for both morning news and afternoon news that covered world news and Taiwan local news. Their using of words is not too difficult to understand. Besides, the speed is tolerable. Therefore I consider this podcast do benefit Taiwanese ESL learners a lot.
Here’s one sample news from EZ news on 2008/4/20:
Subject: Latest WHO bid to be submitted in coming days ....
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the government is set to submit President Chen Shui-bian's latest letter of application to the World Health Organization soon. M-O-F-A's Lily Xu .... says that the Presidential Office is currently negotiating with the island's diplomatic allies in regards to how best to approach Taiwan's bid to join the health regulatory body this year. According to the M-O-F-A spokeswoman .... President Chen will also write to W-H-O Director-General - Margaret Chan - to explain his wish to join the organization as a full member under the name "Taiwan." The M-O-F-A spokeswoman added that her office hopes that the flexible approach will get more support from the members of the W-H-O .... as well as from countries such as the U-S, Japan and member states of the European Union. Both the U-S and Japan have openly expressed their support for Taiwan to have "meaningful participation" in the health body.
Here’s one sample news from EZ news on 2008/4/20:
Subject: Latest WHO bid to be submitted in coming days ....
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the government is set to submit President Chen Shui-bian's latest letter of application to the World Health Organization soon. M-O-F-A's Lily Xu .... says that the Presidential Office is currently negotiating with the island's diplomatic allies in regards to how best to approach Taiwan's bid to join the health regulatory body this year. According to the M-O-F-A spokeswoman .... President Chen will also write to W-H-O Director-General - Margaret Chan - to explain his wish to join the organization as a full member under the name "Taiwan." The M-O-F-A spokeswoman added that her office hopes that the flexible approach will get more support from the members of the W-H-O .... as well as from countries such as the U-S, Japan and member states of the European Union. Both the U-S and Japan have openly expressed their support for Taiwan to have "meaningful participation" in the health body.
Podcast-ESL Pod.com
The theme of today is Podcast. So what is Podcast? I believe some of you may be confused about what it is, but nevermind, let’s see what it is.
According to Wikipedia, a podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
In a brief sentence, it is an audio allow you to download in your computer or portable equipment such as mp3.
Here’s one good podcast for you—ESL Pod.com
The website English as a Second Language Podcast is designed for ESL learners, covering various topics of podcast for users to download. Besides audio and scripts, there are also some questions or challenges to test your comprehension. These questions can be asked in the form of multiple choices, match maker or fill in the blanks. My instructor also recommended us a software called “hot potato” which is a free ware used to create question forms like I mentioned above. You can give it a try if you are interested in “do it on your own.”
The podcast I choose this time is ESL Podcast 363 – Using the Telephone. It is a piece of dialogue between one man and women about finding the telephone number of a friend during the power outage. Before the dialogues take place, there is an introduction which I considered an annoying advertisement. However, since it is free, we’ll just tolerate that. LOL!
The speed of the speakers is pretty slow which is perhaps a good thing for beginner; however, I found it too slow. It would be better if I can adjust the speed of the podcast.
But well, in the last part of the podcast, they would finally offer the normal speed.
Another thing for us to pay attention is that listen carefully to their pronunciation and intonation. But keep it your mind that it is not normal speed, you’ll probably seen weird if you talk like this.
Again, like Randall’s, there are various topics from many fields to choose from. And after the dialogue there are also exquisite explanation of the dialogue, the sentence, and the vocabularies. I really appreciate the efforts of ESL podcast in doing this fine explanation; however, there is too much advertisement in the clips. I hope they will work on this a little bit.
According to Wikipedia, a podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
In a brief sentence, it is an audio allow you to download in your computer or portable equipment such as mp3.
Here’s one good podcast for you—ESL Pod.com
The website English as a Second Language Podcast is designed for ESL learners, covering various topics of podcast for users to download. Besides audio and scripts, there are also some questions or challenges to test your comprehension. These questions can be asked in the form of multiple choices, match maker or fill in the blanks. My instructor also recommended us a software called “hot potato” which is a free ware used to create question forms like I mentioned above. You can give it a try if you are interested in “do it on your own.”
The podcast I choose this time is ESL Podcast 363 – Using the Telephone. It is a piece of dialogue between one man and women about finding the telephone number of a friend during the power outage. Before the dialogues take place, there is an introduction which I considered an annoying advertisement. However, since it is free, we’ll just tolerate that. LOL!
The speed of the speakers is pretty slow which is perhaps a good thing for beginner; however, I found it too slow. It would be better if I can adjust the speed of the podcast.
But well, in the last part of the podcast, they would finally offer the normal speed.
Another thing for us to pay attention is that listen carefully to their pronunciation and intonation. But keep it your mind that it is not normal speed, you’ll probably seen weird if you talk like this.
Again, like Randall’s, there are various topics from many fields to choose from. And after the dialogue there are also exquisite explanation of the dialogue, the sentence, and the vocabularies. I really appreciate the efforts of ESL podcast in doing this fine explanation; however, there is too much advertisement in the clips. I hope they will work on this a little bit.
Randall's Cyber Listening Lab
Today I will introduce you another useful website for English learners— Randall's Cyber Listening Lab. There are various clips in three sections to choose from here.
The clip I choose from Randall's Cyber Listening Lab today is “Easy Pet Care” from the difficult section. It is a dialogue between the male neighbors. Norman will be away during the weekends and he asked Shawn to take care of his pets. According to Norman’s description, his animals are kind of spoiled and weird. For example, the dog watch TV program and the cat go to the therapist.
Shawn, at last, suggests Norman to find some professional help to take care of his crazy animals. This clip is kind of funny and interesting to listen that it has a lot exaggerative expressions in the dialogue. After listening (twice recommended by our instructor) to the audio, you are required to answer to comprehensive questions. Then you can read the script of what you have just listened. Here are some vocabularies to learn:
Pamper-spoil a child or pet
Temperamental –change feelings or mood
Fangs-long sharp animal teeth from snake
Docile-easy to handle
Script Here
Now it's your turn to try. Enjoy!
The clip I choose from Randall's Cyber Listening Lab today is “Easy Pet Care” from the difficult section. It is a dialogue between the male neighbors. Norman will be away during the weekends and he asked Shawn to take care of his pets. According to Norman’s description, his animals are kind of spoiled and weird. For example, the dog watch TV program and the cat go to the therapist.
Shawn, at last, suggests Norman to find some professional help to take care of his crazy animals. This clip is kind of funny and interesting to listen that it has a lot exaggerative expressions in the dialogue. After listening (twice recommended by our instructor) to the audio, you are required to answer to comprehensive questions. Then you can read the script of what you have just listened. Here are some vocabularies to learn:
Pamper-spoil a child or pet
Temperamental –change feelings or mood
Fangs-long sharp animal teeth from snake
Docile-easy to handle
Script Here
Now it's your turn to try. Enjoy!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
To go or not go; that is the Q
Are you overwhelming in whether to attend graduate program?
Is it necessarily to attend now, or it would be better to go to one some years later?
On what base do you consider go to graduate school?
This evening I have just found a useful article for seniors from “About.com,” analyzing whether to go to graduate school-- Should You Go to Graduate School?
In the article, the author suggests the readers to think about a few questions such as the reasons to go to graduate school, personal interests, motivation, and personal qualities before making the decision of applying graduate school. In the past, I guess most people choose further studies due to the financial concern in the future, but not many people are due to the academic concern. However, I thought differently now that perhaps enrolling in a graduate program help some people to achieve their academic pursuit. People attend the program for a variety of reasons though. I think this article can somehow help people to clarify their ideas about attending graduate school.
Quotes from the further articles: People decide to pursue such a degree for a variety of reasons. These reasons may include career advancement, increased pay, skills development, and the love of learning. Regardless of the reason, one should take great care in making this decision. The demands of a graduate education are great, both emotionally, and financially. Sometimes the benefits do not outweigh the costs. If you decide to work your way through school, you must determine how you will fit classes and schoolwork into your already busy schedule.
Should You Go to Graduate School?
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Espanol Beginner
Self Introduction in “Espanol”
Buenos dias. Soy Tina y tengo veintitres anos.
El dia de mi cumplenanos es 10 de septiembre.
Soy de Changhua, pero estudio en Taipei.
Yo estudio Ingles en la universidad.
Hablo bien ingles y un poco de frances y tambien espanol.
El lunes no estudio, pero toco el piano.
El martes estudio.
El miercoles tomo cafe con las amigas.
El jueves veo partido de futbol.
El viernes tengo libre.
El domingo descanso en la casa.
^_________^
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