Podcasting

Fun English Lessons is a comedy style talk show done by two Canadian brothers living in Shanghai, China. It's fun to listen to and a great way to improve English. Although I am already an advanced English learner, there is still something to learn from their talk. It's also a great material to adopt for classroom teaching. Up till now, there are 119 eposides and each episode has a topic. Take the first one for example, the topic is "humor" and they focus on several words and expressions such as hilarious, sense of humor, absolutely, awsome, suck and etc. followed by specific explanation, examples and dialogues. I found it very authentic, colloquial and contexturized. It works as a perfect supplement to formal classroom lecture. Each episode lasts about 15 minutes, neither too long or too short. I could incoporate this talk show into my lessons on a daily basis. My English lesson doesn't necessarily focus on the same topic with each episode they created. This talk show can be used to practice listening comprehension, expand vocabulary and enhance cultural understanding. I will prepare some worksheets based on each episode for students to do while listening or for further reference. I can also give some additional explanation if necessay, but I won't spend too much time on it. This talk show is downloadable, so students can listen to it repetitively on their spare time. I hope my students will enjoy the show and their English get improved with time going on.

Global Collaboration Part 2

Among those tools I've explored in the last mod, I think I will integrate Voxopop in a project for global cooperation. Actually, I am thinking of integrate Voxopop with either ePals or TalkingITGlobal. Voxopop(formally Chinswing) is a short of audio-based discussion board: it’s a place where you can post your question or thought to create a conversation (or to answer an existing one) and wait for others to reply in the same fashion. I choose global warming as the topic of my project, for instance. This topic is listed on both ePals and TalkingITGlobal and there are many threads there. Also, there are some classes around the world are doing the same project right now. I can either connect with another class through ePal or just work independently. I can ask my students to read through some posts posted by people coming from different areas, and then to summerize what they've read and post their own opinions. Then I will create a discussion topic about global warming on Voxopop. Students are required to respond to the topic orally. Also, they are required to respond to other students' responses (around 3 students) at the same time.

Global Collaboration Part 1

Among listed sites for global cooperation, I explored ePals and Talkingitglobal.

ePALS is not only the place where you can chat with people around the world and make friends. More importanly, it's an educational website which connects students, teachers and parents around the world for cross-cultural and interactive projects. ePals provides learning units, instructional resources, practices and member-created projects all arranged by topic. This makes it easier for the teacher to match her classroom with another by finding whoever is intereted in writing about the same topic. One unique feature of ePals is that families are invloved. Many parents left messages there looking for epals/penpals for their children, which I think greatly encourages global cooperation.

Talkingitglobal uses an online social network aimed primarily at youth to raise awareness and discussion on a number of global issues such as animal rights and sustainable development. It also encourages youth to take action that affects their local and global communities.

Both websites provide ways for students and teachers to communicate around the world much more quickly. People can make friends, practice writing and get to know other countries and cultures. I like both of them.

From my own experience, it is often difficult to motivate EFL students to readand write. ePals can serve as a platform to motivate and inspire studentsin language learning. By integrating a letter-exchange program in the classroom,students will be excited about literacy learning. As a teacher, I can selecte-pals for my students and develop real-life writing and learning experiences forthem. Students learn the format of a friendly letter and the parts of an e-mailmessage. With carefulselection of an e-pal group, students can also learn about other cultures,languages, and geographic areas that align with the curriculum in your school.