I think readability is how much it is easy to understand a particular text. I mean to what extent this text includes frequently used words. I want to learn;
How can I make a text more readable with the help of using the computer to determine readability?
Now I have completed the activities about text analysis and I think for reading these tols are really good for teachers.
Vocabulary profiling is the tool that gives us our text's lexical frequency profile. We can easily determine which words are more frequent in the text we are going to give the students. We can realize whether to teach or not some of the words in advance. Also, we can determine which words to focus on more.
I also liked the concordances tool very much. With the help of it, we can see how our frequent words in the text are used in other contexts. It is useful because we can teach the word in other contexts and students can have a broader concept of words we are working on.
I do not see any problems related to twxt analysis except for 'time'. Teachers have to have lots of time before coming to class with a ' well-determined-prepared text'. And, usually they have their printed text which they extract from an old book.
To sum up, I want to give answer to my question above :)
1.Get a text
2.Look at its readability statistics.If it seems that it is suitable for your students, go on.
3.Look at its vocabulary profile.
4.Design pre-reading activities on less-frequent words if necessary.
5. Look at the text's concordances.
6.Design activities to make students aware of keywords' usage in other contexts.
Then, I think you can have a good text to give your students.
If you think I missed some parts let me know :)
26.10.11
www.pimpampum.net/bookr. good? bad?
I remember when we were working on 'Young Learners' we learnt that they were encouraged when they produce something (booklets,story books etc.) at the end of the lesson. I think this tool is very good for children. I would want my students to make a book as a group. It would be for example at the end of the term. I would tell them that this is a project based lesson and they will produce an online-book. In order to do that, they will search for pictures and related information and by doing so, day by day they will become more interested in the given topic. They will learn something, hopefully.
Actually, I would not use this tool so much with my students because I think it is time-consuming. They may be more interested in the pictures and this may become a problem when they go away from the lesson point. I would introduce them bookr, but not let them use so much in the class.
Actually, I would not use this tool so much with my students because I think it is time-consuming. They may be more interested in the pictures and this may become a problem when they go away from the lesson point. I would introduce them bookr, but not let them use so much in the class.
21.10.11
20.10.11
Why blog posts?
I have to confess that I just learnt how to use blogger properly. I made some changes and made my blog colourful which now seems lovely to me :) I think you should do this as well..
If I had known blogger when I first started to university, there would have been hundreds of posts in my blog. For five years, as you know, we have been dealing with different topics, concepts and areas. However, I think it is not too late. It is late for me to use it as a student but it is the right time to use it as a future English teacher. I am planning to use blogs in a way that will enhance my course track. I will make my students reflect on what I teach them and I will encourage them to develop their observation and evaluation skills by making them share their ideas with each other. In the end, they will become more self-confident in that they will not hesitate to 'speak'. It seems simple, may be you think that it is not very important but 'speaking' is the core of learning. As teachers you should first give students the chance to speak. Then you will see that, the more they speak, the more they will comment on and the more they will learn. To sum up, my first goal to use blogs will be to make my students self- confident in the language learning environment.
If I had known blogger when I first started to university, there would have been hundreds of posts in my blog. For five years, as you know, we have been dealing with different topics, concepts and areas. However, I think it is not too late. It is late for me to use it as a student but it is the right time to use it as a future English teacher. I am planning to use blogs in a way that will enhance my course track. I will make my students reflect on what I teach them and I will encourage them to develop their observation and evaluation skills by making them share their ideas with each other. In the end, they will become more self-confident in that they will not hesitate to 'speak'. It seems simple, may be you think that it is not very important but 'speaking' is the core of learning. As teachers you should first give students the chance to speak. Then you will see that, the more they speak, the more they will comment on and the more they will learn. To sum up, my first goal to use blogs will be to make my students self- confident in the language learning environment.
19.10.11
Google scribe!
Now I am trying to writing the benefits of 'Google Scribe' by using it : ) I am really happy because I am not spending so much energy. It directly makes me write. I think this tool is very useful in that sometimes we may not remember a word and we stop writing. However; it shows us a word list while we are stuck and then we can go on writing. This tool makes me remember my mother when I was in elementary school. She was trying to help me when I couldn't do a maths question and I then had to go on with my homework because I had no reason to stop :(((( :)
So this tool is very good for language learners because students will not give up writing when they have trouble with words. It will make them get used to collocations, phrases, adjectives, adverbs etc. as time passes. They will become good writers and they will write without hesitation which is the first problem of writing.
As teachers we may give students short writing assignments from the first moment of their learning. Of course these should be very short and their topic should be selected in a way that will make them excited to write about.The goal is to encourage them to use Google Scribe. I think it works .
So this tool is very good for language learners because students will not give up writing when they have trouble with words. It will make them get used to collocations, phrases, adjectives, adverbs etc. as time passes. They will become good writers and they will write without hesitation which is the first problem of writing.
As teachers we may give students short writing assignments from the first moment of their learning. Of course these should be very short and their topic should be selected in a way that will make them excited to write about.The goal is to encourage them to use Google Scribe. I think it works .
14.10.11
5.10.11
TWITTER/ TROUBLE
I have to start with that I am not a big fan of Twitter . It is not like facebook and it seems to me that it is only for letting people know what you are doing in the last two minutes. Nowadays, it is conquered by a lot of famous people who do not know anyting about the world they live on. They are always fighting with each other and take people's attention to ridiculuos things so in my opinion it is not an area to be used in education, language teaching. Language teaching needs a calm area in which everyone can focus on language only. So far these are my opinions about Twitter. I know I am pessimistic about it but that's what I've observed until now.
tricider. com
I think tricider is a very useful tool in that it gives each of the students to express their ideas freely ( as now students a re more free with online communication). For the shy students or for students who do not have self-confidence in the class, it is a very good way to make them participate easily in the activities. I would use it when I am teaching something which requires my students' comments and which requires their creativity. It would be nice to prepare them to the subject before the class by proposing an idea and waiting them to comment on this because as they focus on the thing I write, they would not forget what we are working on when they come to the class after a while.
On the other hand, this tool could turn in an area in which the students write just to compete with each other and this competence could be dangerous because then they would forget the real aim behind it.
I could add it to my teaching when I run a project with the students. I would want them to share their ideas day by day. They would design the project step by step with the help pf tricider. They could also benefit from other people's ideas. In my opinion, this is a very beneficial tool to share ideas.
On the other hand, this tool could turn in an area in which the students write just to compete with each other and this competence could be dangerous because then they would forget the real aim behind it.
I could add it to my teaching when I run a project with the students. I would want them to share their ideas day by day. They would design the project step by step with the help pf tricider. They could also benefit from other people's ideas. In my opinion, this is a very beneficial tool to share ideas.
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