Merry Christmas to All!

taken from http://www.fantom-xp.com/

My Personal Learning Environment

Hi everybody!

This week we’ve been supposed to develop a mindmap of our personal learning environment. I’ve never heard before of this definition but it has happened to me a lot of times to reflect on what I should do to learn a language. I must say I’ve already tried to organize my own language learning because in these last few years at university I even more realized that learning a language is really difficult if you just rely on your formal education. I believe studying languages at university, even if you’re attending a master course, is not enough to learn them properly. So I wasn’t surprised at what studies in the field have shown and I completely agree with them.

As you see from the picture below I haven’t made a clear distinction between formal instruction and informl learning. I think the tools you use and the people you deal with to learn a language might be sometimes the same in both contexts. Moreover I think the map wouldn’t be balanced because most of situations in which I’ve realized to learn something effectively take place outside of the classroom.

My Personal Learning Environment

I think just attending classes is not an effective way to learn a language because you don’t always feel compelled to use your brain. Even if you try to memorize grammar rules and new words you will soon forget them because you are not experiencing the situations in which you would be supposed to use them. Instead, if you experience real situations you will remember them for the rest of your life.

As most of you know I’m having a short work experience in a hotel in England. I feel responsible for the job in which I’ve been placed and I’m motivated to do it well. I think that stress and emotions have a great impact on learning.

I’m aware that the most difficult skills for me are listening and speaking. Understanding colloquial English is sometimes hard work because people use a lot of phrasal verbs and slang expressions and might have different accents. For this reason I’ve decided to dedicate my informal learning to activities that could help me improve above all my listening and speaking skills. I believe experiences abroad and activities like talking with friends from abroad, listening to radio and watching foreign TV programmes play an important role in my language learning.

Bye bye!

Selena :)

Judging Online Sources

Hello world!

This week we’ve been supposed to reflect on what criteria we’ve used so far and should use to judge the incredible number of web pages we find on the Internet. I must admit the Internet was an important source for me when I had to do research for my bachelor thesis; nevertheless I hadn’t thought that thoroughly about the importance of a good judgement. Anyway, I think I uncounsciously evaluated everything I came across someway. First of all I paid attention to the appearance of the website; I think it is really important that a site is well-organized and without spelling mistakes. Secondly I surely had a look at the author of the document. I must say that, since I started this course and experienced how huge the Net is and how much rubbish there is on it, I’ve realized these two criteria are not enough. In these last weeks I’ve found myself having to judge a lot of online sources and this hasn’t always been easy at first sight. I’ve taken some more things into consideration:

• Since Sarah told us about it in class I’ve always had a look at the domain ( e.g. .edu or .ac.uk) and at the file type (e.g. .pdf); this way you can understand why specific pieces of information are provided and who is their target.
• I’ve always asked myself questions about the origins of the stuff I find. Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the web page? How reliable and authoritative is/are the author/the authors?
• I’ve made sure that the information given by the source is supported by valid documantation.
• If the web page offered the opportunity to see statistics about online visits or had a forum I would always check how many people has visited it and what they’ve said about it.
• I’ve usually tried to understand if the information has been updated regularly.

Of course these are useful criteria I follow to evaluate all kinds of sources. I had a look at the websites Sarah has suggested to us as well. I agree with all the tips the three universities give to students. Basically, I think I’ve mentioned all the most important points that we should pay attention to.
So we shouldn’t be attemped to rely on everything sources of information, especially the Internet, give us. It is really important to spend a little bit of time to decide weather the material we’ve found is enough serious and reliable or not.

I’m really curious to know how you evaluate information!

Bye bye from England! :)

Selena

My YouTube experience

Hi guys!

After all those serious web tools we’ve learnt so far, Sarah finally introduced us to YouTube. I couldn’t wait to explore it! I just watched comic videos on YouTube with my friends; but I began taking a look around on my own only after we started this course. Nevertheless, I’ve never thought before Wednesday about the great potential it might offer for learning English.

This week I’ve tried to search for videos that might interest me or be useful for my English language learning. I must admit I felt quite overwhelmed by the large number of videos you can find on YouTube. I realized it is really difficult to find out intelligent worth watching videos because there are really too much stuff. You can just pick and choose! However, as we just did with the other tools, we should still be critical and narrow down what we come across.

What’s great in YouTube is that you can not only watch and upload videos, but also save, collect and share them with other people! You have the opportunity to comment on them and so to interact with other users. What’s more you can make your own video and broadcast it on YouTube! I just knew that some friends of mine already did it!

taken from salpetti.wordpress.com

Surfing YouTube I realized that this tool can really help me improve my English. Most of videos are actually in English and range from serious issues to funnier and more relaxing topics. You can simply choose what most interest you and you think might be useful for achieving your goal. This means you don’t have to choose only among videos with pedagogical purposes. I think watching and listening to videos which don’t offer the opportunity to read their scripts and get a learning guide might be even more useful. This way you must make an effort to understand what you are listening to. So you are tempted to listen to the video over and over and deepen your knowledge. Moreover, since I believe enthusiasm is really important to learn a language, I think YouTube can be particularly useful. I was really stimulated by some interesting and exciting videos!

Let’s have fun! :)

The world of podcasts

Hi guys!

This week we’ve focused on one particular aspect of our English learning process: our listening skills. Understanding everyday spoken English is sometimes hard work. Informal colloquial English is a totally different kind of language from formal written English because you don’t pronounce every word separately and clearly and you use a lot of phrasal verbs, idioms and slang expressions. We always complain that we don’t have a lot of opportunities to listen to English native speakers as we don’t live in an English speaking environment; now we shouldn’t do it anymore. Sarah showed us a useful way for English listening practice that until now most of us didn’t take seriously into consideration: podcasting.

taken from peacecorpsonline.org

What’s a podcast? It is an audio or video file free distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds. You can download it onto your personal computer or your iPod or mp3 player. Using podcasts instead of normal audio files on the Net you have some advantages. First of all, you don’t have to listen to or watch podcasts online. If you don’t simply have enough time to spend in front of your computer or if you spend a lot of money when you’re connected to the Internet, you have the opportunity to upload podcasts onto your mp3 player and listen to them whenever and wherever you want. This semester I’ve gone from Conegliano to Padova by train almost every day to go to university and I’ve sometimes completely wasted my time; from now I could take advantage of the time I spend in train better listening to useful podcasts for improving my English. Secondly, podcasts are a great solution for those who don’t have broadband at home too. You can download the podcast onto another computer with high speed Internet connection and then of course upload it onto your mp3 player.

It took me a while to search the Internet for good podcasts that might interest me; I realize the world of podcasts is big enough to get lost! I tried to be critical and came up with these three websites:

VOA News

This is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. It offers you the opportunity to download a lot of podcasts about all the news, information, educational and cultural programs it broadcasts every week. It helps you not only learn American English but also learn about American life and keep you up to date with world news. This website has a section with special English programs too; the goal is to communicate in clear and simple English with people whose native language is not English. Even if I prefer listen to genuine speeches at standard English speed these special English programs can help you understand complex subjects.

Business English Pod

This website offers you the chance to learn business English through free weekly mp3 podcasts. Lessons are for intermediate as well as advanced business English learners and focus on particular skills (e.g. meetings, presentations, telephoning, negotiating) and language functions (e.g. disagreeing, questioning, expressing opinions). I’m really interested in it because I’d like to work in business!

The Bob and Rob Show

This website is a sort of variety show that gives you the opportunity to improve both conversational British and American English through audio lessons. Bob and Rob are respectively a Yankee and a Brit who teach English at the same university in Japan. You have the chance to hear two different English accents and compare them.

Have a nice weekend!

See you :)

Selena

Simply del.icio.us!

Hi everybody!

This week we’ve explored a tool that I’ve found extremely useful! It has a name that is absolutely easy to remember; it simply conveys what it is for real: something del.icio.us! Its attractive name and its enjoyable function remind me of an inviting cup of delicious strawberries!

taken from http://www.1-2-pimp.co.uk/

Since I started attending this course and surfing the Net more frequently I’ve noticed that in many sites there was a logo called del.icio.us; this name caught my attention and I always wondered whether Sarah would show us how to use this tool!

So what’s del.icio.us?

It is a Social Bookmarking, a way to store, share and discover web pages of interest online.
Using del.icio.us, first of all, you have the advantage of saving links to all the websites and blogs you want to remember online instead of on your personal computer; this way records (bookmarks) give you the chance to find your favourite web pages quickly wherever you are. Secondly, the list of web pages you saved through this tool is public; this means you are sharing your bookmarks with other people, but at the same time you are getting access to their bookmarks too. You can describe the sites you want to save not only making a short description but also using different keywords (tags); this way you can search for all the websites and blogs associated with specific tags as well as get to know how many people have bookmarked the same web pages as yours. I think creating a sort of community where you can exchange suggestions for new interesting links with people who has your same interests is the biggest advantage this tool has. Social Bookmarking gives you the great opportunity to find great websites because you are searching for them among all the websites that users regard as their favourite.

Before last Wednesday I never heard about social bookmarking; when I had to search for something online I always went to Google and explored its sections Web and Groups. So I was always overwhelmed by a barriage of sites; it took me a lot of time to filter them and find out what I was really searching for. Moreover, at the end of my research I sometimes had a feeling that I hadn’t come up with the most suitable sources; I thought that there might be something more authoritative and reliable on the Web that I hadn’t managed to find out. Social bookmarking offers you the way to narrow down the list of web pages you might interested in and successfully find the best!

taken from careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?SocialBookmarks

In order to start social bookmarking and using del.icio.us, this time, we were supposed to search for websites involving language learning and other subject matters we’re studying at university. I mostly concentrated on finding out something related to informal conversational English. I tried to search for websites that we’d never come across before too. I found three interesting English language learning websites for esl learners that can help you improve your listening skills. As we don’t live in an English speaking environment, I believe we should take advantage of them as much as possible. As I am interested in economics as well and I would like to work in business, I found out a website offering business English lessons. Well, if you are interested in learning more about everyday English and business English take a look at my bookmarks adding me at your network!

Using the network I created for the members in my group, I chose the bookmark from each of them which most attracted my attention. I really appreciated the BBC web page Elena chose about English pronunciation tips. I think speaking with excellent pronunciation is really difficult! Among the bookmarks Elisa saved I liked that about synonyms, antonyms and definitions. I think trying to increase your own vocabulary is really important to express yourself -both in speaking and in writing- better. Imma found out an interesting website about differences between informal and formal English as well. It actually shows you how to avoid colloquial writing, but it indirectly tells you what the most popular colloquial expressions in friendly e-mails and chat rooms are. Katja chose something about informal expressions too. The interesting thing of this website is that you can learn in which particular English speaking area of the world each slang is used. Finally, I chose a completely different bookmark among those Lisa stored. This time it is about funny items you can create to personalize your own blog.

I have to say you all did a good job!:)

I hope you enjoyed visiting my favourites as well:)

Selena

A fun overview of current web technologies

Hi guys!

Surfing the net I found out a curious metro map! Have a look at the clickable online version!

taken from iA

That’s the Web Trend Map 2007 created by a strategic design agency in Tokyo. It’s definitely impressive and suggestive!

I now have an almost exact overview of current web technologies!

It shows the current Internet trends using the Tokyo Metro map; there are the 200 most successful websites ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.
The focus is on English language sites, but there are some popular Japanese and German ones as well. Among the stations there’s “our” Beppe Grillo’ s blog too!

Have fun looking at it! :)

My new experience with feeds and feed aggregators

Hi guys!

I’ve just used the feed aggregator Sarah made us get to know on Wednesday in order to keep track of your blogs. It’s incredible how much this tool is useful! In the last weeks I’ve learnt so many things and found out so interesting tools that, I must admit it, I’m enjoying blogs more and more every day!

I must say I have never heard about RSS and aggregators before; I didn’t really know what they were and I had no idea of their features and advantages. When Sarah told us she was teaching us something which could make our life easier, I felt immediately relaxed! Every time I have to learn something new about Computer technologies I’m a little bit worried; at first sight they all seem to be complicated, even if, after all, they proved to be very simple to use. This time I was really enthusiastic because I was learning something that could give me the oppurtunity to save time!

Nowadays time is an extremely important resource; we should use it wisely and efficiently as much as possible. Just using Bloglines you are sent all the updated news of all the websites and blogs you wanted to subscribe to in a standard easy-to-read format. This way you do not have much effort and waste time going to every websites to see if there are updates; that’s a wonderful invention!

I also think the possibility of creating playlists is really great! The page in which you have the list of websites you subscribed to does not appear confusing anymore, and this way you may find what you’re looking for easier and faster. On Wednesday, in the lab, I created three folders: one for my group G, one for other blogs I am interested in and one for online English newspapers. What is more, Bloglines is a news aggregator you don’t have to install on your computer because you can access it free through any web browser.

I’m sure Bloglines will help me organize my time online better. I’m really satisfied with this new tool!

Have fun!:)

Selena

Should Halloween be celebrated in Italy?

Hello there all!

Only just ten years ago Italian people knew little about the Halloween holiday; for most, it was just a strange American feast, something like an Anglo-Saxon carnival. Nowadays, through the influence of movies and marketing, it is popular in Italy as well. Quite a few Italian kids go trick-or-treating from door to door, even if they are still met with mixed reactions; some are not fully updated on the new tradition and do not know what to do with the group of masked kids standing on their doorstep, while others are abreast with the times and are on standby with various treats.

We don’t really understand the tradition, but nobody complains too much about it. Although it does not have any strong meaning for us, it is an excuse to have fun. We don’t yet take it seriously, but slowly, as there are a lot of masked parties and great fun, I think its popularity will continue to grow and this holiday might become a bigger part of Italian culture.

But what is Halloween actually a celebration of? It seems to be a holiday that was invented in America, but it has far deeper roots. Halloween was actually originally born in Europe. Only in the 19th century, immigrants from Ireland and Scotland brought their customs with them from their homelands, and kept them alive in America.

http://www.blogger.com/www.warwickshire.police.uk

On Monday we’re going to debate whether Halloween should be imported to and celebrated in Italy. As member of group G I would be supposed to have arguments for the Halloween celebration in our country. I must admit it, it took me quite a lot of time to find by myself some good motives for the introduction of this holiday; so I decided to search the Internet for more reliable information and I came up with some interesting statistics for the economy.
In the Italian on-line newspaper Il Messaggero the Coldiretti farmers’ union said that the growing popularity in Italy of the American Halloween celebration has proved to be a boon for Italian farmers, who increased their pumpkin production and variety to meet demand; they have actually seen a significant increase in the production of ornamental pumpkins and those for size competition. I found out Italy produces some 60 million kg of pumpkins a year, especially in the northern regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, as well as in Campania in the south. What is more, according to the consumer group Codacons some 8 million Italians celebrated Halloween this year, spending around 255 million euros, while according to the agency of Telefono Blu 190 million euros were spent on masks and fancy dress and 140 million euros on organized parties.
Without a doubt, there are a lot of commercial interests, and corporations didn’t think twice about trying to graft an American tradition onto a society already extremely americanized. Halloween could be really important to the economic growth of Italy.

As you’ve probably understood, my point of view is different from what I should defend in class on Monday. Personally, I believe Halloween has been artificially imported into Italy, and I don’t like artificially imported traditions. I think we don’t have the cultural backbone to support it. I might sound narrow-minded, but I think traditions should be created the way they should be, by doing something because it has existed for a long time among a particular community.

Nevertheless.....

Happy Halloween!

My first two weeks of blogging

Hi guys!

Well, I must admit it, I didn’t know anything about blogs before I started attending this English course. Actually, I heard about Beppe Grillo’s blog and I remember I had a look at it once, but it was truly beyond me what blogs really were and what a huge and complex world the blogosphere was! Only just three weeks have gone and I’ve already created my own blog! It sounds a little bit strange to me, but I’m really excited!

At the beginning I had some difficulties because I was not familiar with these technological tools, but then everything became easier! Exploring blogs on Technorati I was astonished that I had so much fun. I’ve become aware of the importance blogs have as form of communication. I’ve realized that bloggers blog for any number of reasons, from promoting a business to merely discussing an interest or reporting their feelings and emotions, and that blogs can be about anything! I love blogs especially for the sense of community they offer thanks to the comment feature. I’ve found it amazing to have the possibility to take part in discussions regarding the contents of blogs and to communicate directly with the person who creates the blog. I also like observing the way bloggers reflect in their blog pages their personalities. Generally speaking, I feel that blogs are an enjoyable way to learn about the world around us!

The Blogosphere from discovermagazine.com

I’m surprised that in so little time not only I’ve learned a great amount of things about blogging but also, and above all, I’ve made a lot of improvements in English! I’ve realized blogging has enormously influenced my language learning.
Personally, I believe there are some problems with the old traditional methods of teaching English. Sitting in a class listening to boring lectures might really be a waste of time because you don’t feel compelled to use your brain. I’ve always tended to study hard for some months and then take a few months off, and, using traditional studying methods, after the break I often forgot most of what I had studied and I lost a lot of vocabulary. Contributing to the course blog and continually updating my personal blog I feel that once I learn something, I don’t forget it.

· First of all I think motivation is very important to learn a language, and this way it’s difficult to lose your enthusiasm because responding encourages you to partecipate actively, and it’s also something more interesting, as you share ideas and opinions.

· I believe in the use of blogs as language learning tools because, when you have to comment a blog’s posts, firstly, you must understand what you are reading, secondly, you must think of an answer in English, and that encourages your brain to think in English. It is an active method because it teaches you something that exactly happens in real conversations. On the contrary, when I only used the old method I didn’t feel ready for real conversations.

· Moreover, I think that, instead of trying to remember rules and translations, blogging offers you the possibility to read so much and about everything without a lot of effort that, over time, you’ll have a feel for English grammar and may easily and naturally improve your vocabulary.

· Until now, at university, I’ve mostly learned formal English because textbooks and teachers have always taught me a written style of English, and unconsciously I’ve learned to speak “written English”. Using blogs I’ve realized the difference, especially in vocabulary choice, between everyday English and formal English is really big. I think before writing complicated essays and translating difficult articles we should improve colloquial English.

I’m a firm believer that, even if we only read and write, blogging might be a successful way to learn English!

That’s all for now, I look forward to reading what you think about!

Selena

Exploring the blogosphere

Hi everyone!

After hours and hours on Technorati, I decided to suggest these two blogs to you. Hope you like them!

As I like planning cheap journeys in Europe, I put in the tags the word “travelling Europe”, and I came up with a blog called Europe String, which I found particularly interesting. The author is a girl who lives now in Frankfurt, but in her life she lived in the USA, Hong Kong, China and Korea. She has been travelling around the world for business and leisure, and for this reason she feels qualified to give tips about travelling on a budget! She shares information about cheap restaurants in our continent, cheap ways of getting around -weather by land, sea or air- and where to sleep -from hostels to sleeping at airports. She also focuses on particular cities giving a combination of info.
I like this blog because it has a lot of links -both in and out the written text- to other blogs or websites on the same or related topics.

As I love tasting new dishes, I wanted to look for a blog that might give me some ideas for new recipes. I chose a blog called A Slice of Cherry Pie, which is simply something appetizing!In my opinion this blog is much more interesting than others about food because it shows you many recipes you can come up with using seasonal ingredients. The author is an English girl who posts her specialities and photos. She is a self-taught cook who is passionate about good food and home cooking. I like this blog because it is full of images which catch the reader’s eye.
I would recommend it to you because it communicates the pleasure of cooking and teaches you genuine recipes for your body. Personally, I believe cooking makes you feel relaxed.

The style used in the blogs I chose is very similar as in both the language is almost informal. That can be seen for example by the use of the contracted forms of auxiliary verbs, the negative contraction, the negation with “any”, “going to” for future prediction, the relative pronoun “that”, abbreviations and exclamation marks. I think the language it’s not very informal because there aren’t any slangs, dots and swear words.

Searching for blogs, I’ve noticed that I was mostly attracted by those that have an original and readable title, so I can say blogs’ titles are extremely important to catch the reader’s attention. The layout is very important, too. It shouldn’t be too much complicated because it could create confusion in the reader’s mind, and so on first sight the reader could prefer to visit other blogs. As regards links I’ve noticed that most of them aren’t the url but just a clickable word which is part of the text. Visiting blogs I’ve also realized that the language can vary from specialized to everyday according to the topic and the audiance. It can be also spontaneous, just like a real conversation, or a little bit more planned when it describes something. Of course, the formality of the language used might be influenced by the relationship between bloggers and readers.

That’s all for now. I look forward to reading your comments!

See you,
Selena

Welcome to my blog!

Photo by reesie

Hi everyone!

I chose this photo to introduce myself because I like exploring culinary habits of other cultures and I’m particularly a fan of oriental cuisine! Sushi dishes are so colourful that they remind me of world multiculturalism. I love new experiences, and this is why journeys are my absolute passion. I’m very curious about other cultures and, when I travel, it is important for me to meet locals, spend time with them and get an idea how they live their lives. I’m interested in exploring their own way of communicating, arguing, showing affection and eating! Two years ago I studied in Germany, at the University of Mainz, for ten months, and it was a fantastic experience from the personal point of view because it allowed me not only to know full well German culture but also to meet people coming from all over the world. I was especially intrigued by their food culture, and I loved organizing international dinner parties! As you’ve probably understood by looking at the image, I’m very fond of fish, but I would like to taste as many traditional dishes of the globe as possible. When I’m not travelling, I like spending my free time planning my future journeys. The most impressive culture I’ve experienced was Chinese culture with its strange manners. I think that this way of travelling can help you to be more open-minded because, if you are able to listen to people who are different from you and try to understand them, that makes life much easier especially when -at the university or at work- you have to deal with a lot of people.

Here are the three websites I use most frequently:

http://www.lettere.unipd.it/

This website is known by each of us as it is truly part of our life. In the last weeks I often consulted the timetable and the courses’ schedule as you’ve also probably done but almost every day I have a look at the section about international relations to check if there are new interesting opportunities to have a study or work experience abroad.

http://www.ryanair.com/site/IT/

I know this website very well because I’ve almost always travelled with Ryanair. It offers cheap flights to Europe’s most important destinations and, since we are students with meagre earnings, I think it gives us the opportunity to travel more or to save some money. Another important thing is that, fortunately, the flights are usually on time!

http://www.wikipedia.org/

I always visit this site when I have to do some research on a particular subject, to check the meaning of specialized terms or simply to satisfy my curiosity. It is very useful because in the texts there are many links to other related topics, so that you can form at first sight an exhaustive view of what you are interested in. An advantage of this online encyclopaedia is that you might look up anything in many different languages.

I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

Bye,

Selena