ellloenglish

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ELLLO ENGLISH!!! 

triple L.wow!

WHAT IS IT?

it is an English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO), where people can do listening activities, learning vocabulary and downloading audio files, notes and etc.

LET'S EXPLORE IT MORE!!

this is the homepage

content and categories available

can connect with tweeter

LET'T LOOK INSIDE:

one example, scenes

this is a list of scenes topic. there's a lot more actually

choose one

basically, this is how it looks like.zoom for bigger view

in the transcription above, there certain phrases highlighted in blue colour. when you click in the play button, the phrases will be pronounced twice and after that it will pronoun the next highlighted phrases using correct pronunciation

there's also an audio slide show

and audio notes as well

there are also exercises available on the right hand side of the page

LET'S TRY THE OTHER CATEGORIES, VIDEOS

list of videos available

videos created by people from all over the world

an example

there are transcription and quizzes to be looked at

THEN , NEWS!

there is a news reading, exercises and vocabulary explanation

THEN THE LAST ONE THAT I'VE TRIED, MIXER

quite similar to the other categories. some audios or notes can be downloaded

IS IT A GOOD WEBSITE? yessss. WHY?

1. it is a very well organised website because

-easy to be accessed because there's a home button there in which people can go back to home anytime they want

-the lesson is nicely arranged in order, people can see it clearly at the left hand side of the page

-it is arranged according to the categories, and under that it is arranged by topics

-it is easy to download, just right click on the linked words

2. it gives the transcriptions of all the listening audio, so it is very useful for people who want to check whether they listen correctly or not

3. we can click on certain phrases to listen to the right pronunciation of the phrases. the phrases are pronounced twice, then the descriptions of the phrases and the examples of sentences are also given straight away and questions are given as a practise. 

4. there are 3 types of exercises given based on the vocabulary highlighted, comprehension, listening activities where students can listen to the vocabulary highlighted and how to use it. possible answers are also given

5. people can download both notes and audio files for free

6. you don't have to sign up to use this website, so you can freely use this anywhere and anytime you want provided that you've got an access to the internet

7. there are many choices available (eg:views, games, mixer, videos, news, scenes, songs, points and many more)

IF IT IS A GOOD WEBSITE, WHY CAN YOU USE IT IN THE YOUR CLASSROOM AND HOW DOES IT IS CONNECTED WITH THE CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE LEARNING?

-it is important for a language learners to listen to a variety of accents so they can know what are the differences between native speakers and non-native speakers of english and ways of how different people around the world use English

-it helps in vocabulary enhancement in terms of pronunciation and information on how to use the words correctly

-the materials are authentic because most of the videos are recorded by themselves so students can learn how do people actually use/communicate in English (english that we won't hear on the script) *real language use vs. language in the book*

-it encourages autonomous learning in which students can learn and doing tasks without teacher's help, independently

-students will be exposed to different types of texts, how the language is used in everyday situations (different text require different styles, vocab, jargon)

-it provides variety of topics so students can choose the topics of their interest, in addition increase their general knowledge can be expanded (content learning through language *CLIL*)

-it helps in developing variety of skills (eg: writing, reading, speaking, listening)because it offers students with the opportunities to practise these skills.

-it provides context (real audience and purpose so there will be a reason to listen/read (language is learned through context, not isolated)

-it contains a variety of levels, so students can choose levels that are suitable for them

-students can enjoy while learning language by choosing the audio that is lower than their levels

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

-some of the audio/videos have low quality in terms of background noise, the video resolution, the flow of the speakers' voices, the sound of the voice itself

-there are errors after certain times using it (it happened to my friends, i don't know the reason why)

-On the homepage, the categories appear randomly. Suddenly, there will be more options/categories appear, so you can't really see all the categories at one time

-some of the activities (eg: scenes) are not really authentic (it is made as authentic), so it's not really helping students in communicating in reality (videos is a different case)

THAT'S IT!!! TRY IT!!

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visuword

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WHAT IS VISUWORDS??

In my opinion, the word 'visuwords' is derived from the words visual and words, which mean the words that are visualised. 

What makes me said that?

Because it is a website that present ideas in a graphic organizer

LOOK HERE:

INTERESTING, ISN'T IT???

So basically, visuwords is a website that presents relationship of ideas and words added by their concepts as well as the meanings of the words

HOW TO USE IT??

it's easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

learn it HERE:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

IS USING IT IN THE CLASSROOM A GOOD IDEA?HOW???

1. I can ask students to write an essay from the graphic organiser
2. I can ask students in groups to discuss one part of a discussion, eg: marriage in details
3. i can save the page, edit it by erasing the colour (which shows relationship between words), print it and ask students to find the relationship between words
4. I can teach vocabulary to students and the words that are related to the word
5. Students can use this to study by themselves/just getting the broad view about a topic

WHAT IS GOOD THEN??

1. it's FREE, you don't have to sign up, and it's easy peasy lemon squeezy!!
2. It's quick because once you've typed the word and clicked Enter, the related words appear in a few seconds
3. it's beautiful and interesting because there are many different colours like your own notes
4. it shows relationships between words and the meaning as well
5. it gives details explanation of the words if you are hovering on the words
6. you get to enhance your vocabulary since you can see a lot of new words and the words that are related to the word you typed
7. you can memorise keywords for certain topics because you learn through graphic organiser, this is quite suitable for self-study
8. it can be viewed in full screen, can be zoomed in and out so you can see the ideas closely or broadly
9. the graphic organiser can be dragged and moved, but the relationship cannot be changed (this can either be good or bad)

HOWEVER, IT HAS SOME PROBLEMS:

1. it contains too many colours that represent too many relationships between words. This might be a problem for students who are colour blind. And this might cause confusion because there are too many relationships and colours to be memorised. Yes, they can refer it, but it will consume much time then
2. the connection of the words that appeared after you typed the word might be too broad and general, and students can lost tracks without teacher's guidance

HAPPY TRYING!!!

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corpus concordance

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CORPUS CONCORDANCE

corpus can be defined as a large sample of written or spoken language, used for studying the language.

this week, my lecturer Duncan Hunter introduced us to a useful website which is called BRITISH NATIONAL CORPUS. Here is the LINK to the website.

As a language teacher, I really think this website is very useful for both teacher and students. The reasons are:

• both teachers and students will get to know other(native speakers') real language used in terms of collocation of words. This is also a valid evidence because the samples are taken from newspaper and everyday conversation language (authentic language use)
• help to expand students' lexical items/ vocabulary items in a way that they can know what words can go together and what words cannot
• help students to increase their communicative strategy and intercultural skills because if students are trained to use this websites, they will be more alert with the real language use. This is because spoken words can have more than one meaning that usually connote other meanings and commonly associated with the culture of the language users

However,

• Teacher should remind students to be selective because not all of the sentences use are suitable to use in academic or classroom context
• sometimes, the words are used very widely and it may cause confusion and misunderstand

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lyrics training

~Lyrics Training~

another website that i knew from my lecture is LYRICS TRAINING. this is a website where you can learn english through English songs. While the song is being played, you have to type the lyrics of the songs or filling up the blanks with missing words from the song. 

lyrics training. Click HERE to go to the page.

the activity

so, i think this website is suitable to be used by students as a tool to improve their English, because:

• it's FREE and FUN! because students will dealing and working with songs, that i believe most of people enjoy songs, so this will make them happy and exciting doing this activity
• it has three different levels where students can choose the levels that are suitable to them (the levels are beginners, intermediate and expert)
• students are free to choose the song that they favour the most, or they can choose new song that they like
• students can enjoy and learning at the same time. Not only that, they can also memorise the song lyrics
• students can view their score and they could also view the vocabulary items in the song if they sign up
• students can enhance their vocabulary level because they will be exposed with broad themes of songs that contain many words
• students can develop their listening skill 

what i don't like about this website are:

• there are a few songs which contain inappropriate music, music videos and lyrics, so they are not quite suitable for students to learn. (they might use that kind of language in their written exercise)
• there are time limit to type the lyrics so it's quite annoying for me because we are not testing students in terms of speed, but listening and vocabulary, so students should be given some time/their own time to finish typing
• some words that are missing are not actually words, but the other kinds of sound which follow the melody of the song such as ooooo, yeahhhhh, ahhhhh..... <-- these are not really helpful in developing students' vocabulary, students might get confuse as well
• the sentences used are not formal because it is a song, so it won't contribute in helping students' writing skills as much

inappropriate music videos for students in my culture

and that's it! =))

happy singing and learning!

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Listen and Write

~Listen and Write~

DICTATION

this week, my lecturer, Russel Stannard showed us a new website that can help students learn English better. this is the LINK to the website. The website is called LISTEN and WRITE or in other words, people call it DICTATION. dictation can be defined as sentences that teacher reads out to test students' ability to hear and write the words correctly. So, to conclude, this website works by reading a passage out loud and then students have to write the words read/played. it has 26 different levels which are arranged according to titles and difficulty order, and each level has three types of tasks;

1) full mode (students have to write the whole letter of the word)

2) quick mode (students have to type the first letter only of the word)

3) blank mode (students have to fill the missing words in the boxes)

In my opinion, the full mode is the most difficult task, followed by the blank mode and the  easiest one is the quick mode. This website is suitable for students in the age of 13 and above.

Students can use this website to improve their english as it has a lot of benefits. the benefits include:

• AGAIN, it free!! Students don't have to pay for learning =)
• it can encourage autonomous learning since students can learn by themselves without teacher's help/guidance
• students can do it at home if they have their own computers and internet access
• there are many levels provided where students can choose the levels that are suitable for themselves
• by doing the tasks, students can enhance their own vocabulary because they will be exposed to a lot of new vocabulary items
• students can develop their listening skill as well as spelling skills (or maybe their typing skill??) because they will listen to many words repeatedly and this will make them familiar with the sound of the word (may include the correct pronunciation of the word as well)
• the tasks are fun because it involves sound, in which a real person is speaking!
• students can evaluate or assess themselves in terms of listening skills and spelling skills
• the topics used are good and are up to date which can help students to increase their general knowledge

However, there are certain things i dislike about this website, which are:

• the speakers speak/use different kind of English and accents and this can make students confused of how certain words are pronounced by speakers from different parts of the world
• the website can be shared via facebook, so, if the students share it, they might get distracted with facebook
• students have to sign up to view their score
• last but not least, students with no access to internet cannot do this activity

that's all.happy trying!! =))

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