2010年6月16日星期三
2010年6月9日星期三
2010年6月7日星期一
2010年5月5日星期三
Plan B for service learning
In the story telling part, I prepare a story about animals on the farm. After hearing the story with audio, I will show the worksheet to the child (6 questions about the story) to ensure he/she know the task. Then I ask the child to listen carefully again and try to complete the worksheet with my help. We will listen the third time and check the answers. And then I will ask the child to retell the story to help him memorize the words and learn the sentence patterns such as "there be...", "What is it?", "It is...", etc.
It is likely that we will still have time after finishing the story telling part, I chose a video clip "Farm Animal Song" by Peter Weatherall for a relax. The child not only enjoy the funny song and refresh himself but also remember the vocabulary of animals learned before. And we together learn to sing the song.
To enlarge the child's vocabulary of animals and the sentence patterns we have learned before, I also prepare an animal-matching game(http://www.kinderwebgames.com/cat.html). In this online game, the child is asked to listen to the question like "Which is the cat?", and then match the picture of the animal with its proper name.
The teaching is based on the audio-visual learning style with graphic information as well as listening materials.
It is likely that we will still have time after finishing the story telling part, I chose a video clip "Farm Animal Song" by Peter Weatherall for a relax. The child not only enjoy the funny song and refresh himself but also remember the vocabulary of animals learned before. And we together learn to sing the song.
To enlarge the child's vocabulary of animals and the sentence patterns we have learned before, I also prepare an animal-matching game(http://www.kinderwebgames.com/cat.html). In this online game, the child is asked to listen to the question like "Which is the cat?", and then match the picture of the animal with its proper name.
The teaching is based on the audio-visual learning style with graphic information as well as listening materials.
2010年4月7日星期三
2010年3月17日星期三
My favorite video clip about "phonics" for children
When I search Youtube, there are many interesting videos to select. For children who are learning phonics, the goal should be set to be teaching them to pronounce them correctly and make the 26 letters easy for them to remember. I chose this one, taking account for some methodology and theory I learn from SLA course.
At the early learning stage, human (children) prefer to comprehen information/knowledge as a whole. And later, they will gradually develop their analytical thinking and methods to remember things. Moreover, students can be roughly divided into 2 groups: the visual one and the audio one, which means some students receive or comprehend better and faster with the help of charts, circles and other graphic information while some perform better with auditory materials.Taking into all these into consideration, the video fits well with the goal as well as those theories. For one thing, the melody of the song/music is beautiful enough to catch children's attention and they will not feel bored with learning through singing. For another, students can also see pictures of things they are very familiar to appear with every letter, "C" with a cute cat, for example, so those "audio"-type students can also learn the alphabet and pronunciation easily.
Now, let's clip the video and enjoy it again!
What I learn from The two blog sites that Chung-Kai made
The two blog sites that Chung-Kai made show that Internet and Web 2.0 give people many inspiration of teaching methods and instructions. Teachers, teachers for ESL/EFL particularly, can make good use of blog for teaching.
Take Chung-kai's 2 blogs as example. One is for language learning and teaching with Web 2.0, he post many useful information on the blog as learning materials and supplemantary readings. It encourages students to share their opinions after reading them. Blog here serves as a casual chatting room and works better than traditional classroom activities because students will be less embarrassed and more willing to talk about their opinions. The other blog of Chung-Kai's is much like a Q & A forum. Teacher raises questions about ESL/EFL writing, including students' ideas about the topics, the problems they came across in writing and their advice for improving the teacher and his teaching methods. It builds a platform where students and the teacher are equal and bridges the two to communicate and understand each other better.
However, blogs also have its negative side. One is quite obvious. That is the teacher have to push a little harder at the very first beginning to get students involved into the blog-to-blog communicative activity. Otherwise, students often lack motivation to participate themselves.
Take Chung-kai's 2 blogs as example. One is for language learning and teaching with Web 2.0, he post many useful information on the blog as learning materials and supplemantary readings. It encourages students to share their opinions after reading them. Blog here serves as a casual chatting room and works better than traditional classroom activities because students will be less embarrassed and more willing to talk about their opinions. The other blog of Chung-Kai's is much like a Q & A forum. Teacher raises questions about ESL/EFL writing, including students' ideas about the topics, the problems they came across in writing and their advice for improving the teacher and his teaching methods. It builds a platform where students and the teacher are equal and bridges the two to communicate and understand each other better.
However, blogs also have its negative side. One is quite obvious. That is the teacher have to push a little harder at the very first beginning to get students involved into the blog-to-blog communicative activity. Otherwise, students often lack motivation to participate themselves.
2010年3月10日星期三
Podcasting
Podcast initially means ipod plus broadcasting. Researchers at the Center for Journalism and Communication Research at the University of Texas at Austin in the USA are proposing a four-part definition of a podcast: A podcast is a digital audio or video file that is episodic; downloadable; programme-driven, mainly with a host and/or theme; and convenient, usually via an automated feed with computer software. Podcast shows its strength for free sharing. People are easy to download a podcast episode from the Internet(including video, mp3, etc.) It is a useful tool for teachers to arouse students' attention to learn language. They can also use it to upload information and learning materials for students to download. Here is a video from youtube for "what is podcasting"
Another one is about "how to create a podcast with blogger"
Another one is about "how to create a podcast with blogger"
2010年3月3日星期三
What Web 2.0 Is
When I search "Web 2.0" on wikipedia, it defines the term as “web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web.” Using the searching engines such as wiki, google and yahoo which is one of the useful tools of Web 2.0, I benefit a lot from the convenience and abundant resources it brings to us.
Web 2.0 allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive receiving of information offered. The goal of Web 2.0 is to share information, save time and enhance communication among people around the world, to help people better understand each other and benefit from all aspects of our lives. Examples of Web 2.0 include Web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites and blogs.
What is the advantage of this technology when introduced into Language Teaching? For example, teachers can apply a teaching blog to upload the syllabus of the lesson, PPT, supplementary reading and listening materials on it; students can post their problems of learning or their advice of the class. In this case, teachers are able to know better the need of different students and make appropriate adjustments in class contents, onclass activities as well as homework to meet different learning styles.Both teachers and students make full use of Web 2.0 technology to teach and learn a foreign language.
Web 2.0 allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive receiving of information offered. The goal of Web 2.0 is to share information, save time and enhance communication among people around the world, to help people better understand each other and benefit from all aspects of our lives. Examples of Web 2.0 include Web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites and blogs.
What is the advantage of this technology when introduced into Language Teaching? For example, teachers can apply a teaching blog to upload the syllabus of the lesson, PPT, supplementary reading and listening materials on it; students can post their problems of learning or their advice of the class. In this case, teachers are able to know better the need of different students and make appropriate adjustments in class contents, onclass activities as well as homework to meet different learning styles.Both teachers and students make full use of Web 2.0 technology to teach and learn a foreign language.
What have I Lived for?
When a baby looks at the mirror for the first time, according to Lacan, he sees himself, forms his “imago”, and finds the very proof of his existence in the world. That is the first step of our life-long search for a meaning to live for.
What is the meaning of life?
We can explore the issue by probing in depth the stories from others and seeking for the answers based on our personal experiences.
No doubt that everyone has his own interpretation of the purpose of life. As to Russell, it is the strong impersonal interests that keep the elderly from growing old; For James Murray, the man who made the greatest dictionary (the Oxford English Dictionary), it is a profound community from the past, at present, even to the future, of which all the members endeavor to build the best sort of monument to their mother tongue for the future generation; and for some artists, like the tailors in J.B. Priestley’s essay, it is to work for the perfection and the belief of “Art for Art’s Sake”. That without a purpose to live for, however, leads to subservience to authority in work, compliance to some principle and so on. That’s why, as Russell explained, the unhappy Americans lapse into an opulent melancholy.
The people mentioned above have a profound similarity --- to find one’s role in the society and play his part. It calls upon man to bring out the best in himself and the world by assuming the very resposibility of his own. And I have found mine through being a one-month volunteer teacher in a remote county in Guizhou Province, China. There I saw the wide gap between the rich and the poor; I felt the villagers’ struggle against starvation, illness and death; I was touched by the peasants’ kindness while angry with their cowardice in the face of authority; I was shocked by their indifference to their own sufferings; and I felt sadly sorry for the children, for they are cheated of their chance for a good education, simply by living in poverty. Having witnessed the reality of some serious social problems of our society like poverty, social security, education, I learned about the grassroots-level society and began to understand its people. Inside myself a heart is growing, a heart that not only beats for myself, but cares for others as well. There is little I can do for them at the present, but I know that I should shoulder the responsibility to provide more, to serve more for the improvement of their living condition.
As for me, the search for knowledge also lays great significance in my life. Linguistics, the major field I have been studying in university, offers me a valuable opportunity to appreciate language and help me develop the ability of critical thinking. It is a science where the search for the absolute goes on. There are men in this field who can annouce in all sincerity that language is beauty, beauty language. Syntax leads me to discover the inner structures of words, phrases as well as sentences and to appreciate the beautiful notion that language is “the infinite use of finite means”; pragmatics raises the question like “how the speakers can mean more than what they actually say in conversation?” to further discuss the use of language for communication.; phonetics enables me to conduct many experiments about acoustic features of different sounds to better understand how sounds achieve to materialize the meaning of language. The most interesting part lies in the relation between language and mind in which language is regarded as a congitive approach to human brain. Though there is still a lot to work on, the part is a promising land for expolaration. My major has engaged me in the quest for the ultimate. For the first time in my life, I had such a strong desire for the unknown --- both knowledge and truth. I have doubts and puzzles such as “Why should it be this not that?”, “How come?”, etc. The process of learning, despite its endless drugery and slow progress, holds surprises, delight and bittersweet. The pursuit of spiritual enlightenment strongly urges me to make the every hour count and each minute I trade only for something of value.
The seeking for love is another key step in the search for meaning in my life. The famous singer Roberta Flack once said, “To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” Suffering brings pain, but it also sends us love, a fundamental element in the meaning of life. Being deeply sad about losing my beloved grandpa, I have realized how important family is to me. Love gives us hope and courage to let go as well as to move on. Love makes us be thankful to what we have now and learn to cherrish every moment being with our families. It imparts to us a fulfillment of inner peace and homely grace.
Through learning from others and introspecting myself, I have been analyzing the meaning of my life, evaluating which way and where I am headed, while questioning for what, to what, or to whom I am responsible. The exploration will never cease. As T. S. Eliot put it:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
What is the meaning of life?
We can explore the issue by probing in depth the stories from others and seeking for the answers based on our personal experiences.
No doubt that everyone has his own interpretation of the purpose of life. As to Russell, it is the strong impersonal interests that keep the elderly from growing old; For James Murray, the man who made the greatest dictionary (the Oxford English Dictionary), it is a profound community from the past, at present, even to the future, of which all the members endeavor to build the best sort of monument to their mother tongue for the future generation; and for some artists, like the tailors in J.B. Priestley’s essay, it is to work for the perfection and the belief of “Art for Art’s Sake”. That without a purpose to live for, however, leads to subservience to authority in work, compliance to some principle and so on. That’s why, as Russell explained, the unhappy Americans lapse into an opulent melancholy.
The people mentioned above have a profound similarity --- to find one’s role in the society and play his part. It calls upon man to bring out the best in himself and the world by assuming the very resposibility of his own. And I have found mine through being a one-month volunteer teacher in a remote county in Guizhou Province, China. There I saw the wide gap between the rich and the poor; I felt the villagers’ struggle against starvation, illness and death; I was touched by the peasants’ kindness while angry with their cowardice in the face of authority; I was shocked by their indifference to their own sufferings; and I felt sadly sorry for the children, for they are cheated of their chance for a good education, simply by living in poverty. Having witnessed the reality of some serious social problems of our society like poverty, social security, education, I learned about the grassroots-level society and began to understand its people. Inside myself a heart is growing, a heart that not only beats for myself, but cares for others as well. There is little I can do for them at the present, but I know that I should shoulder the responsibility to provide more, to serve more for the improvement of their living condition.
As for me, the search for knowledge also lays great significance in my life. Linguistics, the major field I have been studying in university, offers me a valuable opportunity to appreciate language and help me develop the ability of critical thinking. It is a science where the search for the absolute goes on. There are men in this field who can annouce in all sincerity that language is beauty, beauty language. Syntax leads me to discover the inner structures of words, phrases as well as sentences and to appreciate the beautiful notion that language is “the infinite use of finite means”; pragmatics raises the question like “how the speakers can mean more than what they actually say in conversation?” to further discuss the use of language for communication.; phonetics enables me to conduct many experiments about acoustic features of different sounds to better understand how sounds achieve to materialize the meaning of language. The most interesting part lies in the relation between language and mind in which language is regarded as a congitive approach to human brain. Though there is still a lot to work on, the part is a promising land for expolaration. My major has engaged me in the quest for the ultimate. For the first time in my life, I had such a strong desire for the unknown --- both knowledge and truth. I have doubts and puzzles such as “Why should it be this not that?”, “How come?”, etc. The process of learning, despite its endless drugery and slow progress, holds surprises, delight and bittersweet. The pursuit of spiritual enlightenment strongly urges me to make the every hour count and each minute I trade only for something of value.
The seeking for love is another key step in the search for meaning in my life. The famous singer Roberta Flack once said, “To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” Suffering brings pain, but it also sends us love, a fundamental element in the meaning of life. Being deeply sad about losing my beloved grandpa, I have realized how important family is to me. Love gives us hope and courage to let go as well as to move on. Love makes us be thankful to what we have now and learn to cherrish every moment being with our families. It imparts to us a fulfillment of inner peace and homely grace.
Through learning from others and introspecting myself, I have been analyzing the meaning of my life, evaluating which way and where I am headed, while questioning for what, to what, or to whom I am responsible. The exploration will never cease. As T. S. Eliot put it:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Something about Picca
Hi, my fellow classmates! Glad to introduce myself to you. You can call me Picca, or whatever you would like. I come from Guangzhou (Canton), mailand China. Here I will study in the English Department for one semester. As it is the first time for me to come to Taiwan, I was a little bit worried but the warm welcome from and the hospitality from the students of Providence University help me soon adapt to the study and life in Taiwan. What an exciting journey! I love this place and hope to make friends with you!
Sometimes lazy and naughty as I am, I work hard on my major - linguistics. My goal of this class is to learn how to make use of computer skills and to make teaching English more interesting.
In the near futher, I want to further study abroad to learn sociology and linguistics.
Sometimes lazy and naughty as I am, I work hard on my major - linguistics. My goal of this class is to learn how to make use of computer skills and to make teaching English more interesting.
In the near futher, I want to further study abroad to learn sociology and linguistics.
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