Music=English

As English is an international language with which people all over the world share in common, music is no exception. In fact, music was the first international "language" that people worldwide could understand despite their cultural distinctions. With this in mind, Music can be very similar to English since they are both the most widely used international "languages". Learning English is just like practicing a musical instrument, such as piano. If students read English books and practice having conversations in English in a daily basis, they would be able to master the English language rather quickly. This is Gershwin Prelude No.1 played by my son, Justin (17).

Practice in Evaluating Web Sites for Critical Reading

Students easily access information on the Internet these days, but they need to evaluate information carefully against what is known about its sources and sponsorship.
Here is one practice in evaluating websites for critical reading.
Compare the pairs:
Onco Link:http://www.oncolink.com/oncotips/article.cfm?c=5&s=12&ss=20&id=12
Smoker's Home Page:http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html
1. What does each URL tell you about each web site and its publisher?
2. Who is the author of the information? Is there a way of verifying the qualifications of that author?
3. What combinations of facts and opinions can be found at these sites?
4. How accurate and current is the information found at these sites?
5. What is the purpose of each web site? (Information, entertainment, advocacy, business, public service?)
6. Are there links to other pages? If so, where do these links take you?

Vocabulary learning through Extensive reading

According to Krashen, learners need to be exposed to large amounts of comprehensible input which is meaningful, relevant, and interesting, in a stress-free environment. Extensive reading certainly has the benefit of greatly increasing a student's exposure to English. Then, what is extensive reading?
-reading large quantities of material, whether short stories and novels, newspaper and magazine articles, or professional reading
-reading consistently over time on a frequent and regular basis
-reading longer texts(more than on a few paragraphs in length) of the types listed i the first point above
-reading for general meaning, primarily for pleasure, curiosity or professional interest
-reading longer texts during class time but also engaging in individual, independent reading at home, ideally of self-selected material
I hope ESL/EFL students fall into extensive reading every day in order to improve your vocabulary and reading ability.

Devil Wears Prada for Listening

I chose this movie, because it has lots of humor and the actresses speak clearly, so the audience can easily understand the movie. Also, you can practice listening by replaying the clip over and over again until you completely hear the lines.

YouTube is a great source of free video sharing, which lets users upload, view, and share clips from movies and TV shows. I love it!

Another reason why you should learn English

Many students are eager to learn English in order to get into good colleges or to get better jobs in their countries or in America. However, to cosmopolitan people, the main reason for learning English is to communicate with different people from different cultures. Traveling gives us good opportunities to listen and speak English, which is the international language, and to learn other cultures effectively. If you speak and understand English better than others, your travel will be more interesting and informative to you. I have been to many different countries : France, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan, and Korea.
I was pleased to communicate with those people and I could fully understand their diverse cultures. Seeing with talking is much more betther than reading a book!

My First Blog in My Life!

It took almost an hour to follow only three steps in creating my first blog . But I am really excited with my success job on the trendy technology work. In fact, it is very interesting to do this as a verbal person (Digital Immigrant)!! I am so glad to learn technology this semester, and I feel I am a newer generation than my high school kids, and of course, than my old fashioned husband.^^ (I'm sorry!)