POST 5: CONCORDANCE

What is concordance?

A concordance is, according to webmaster's collegiate Dictionary (10th ed), an alphabetical index of the principal words in a book or the word of author with their immediate contents. Then concordances is a piece of software , either installed on a computer or accessed through a website, which can be used to search , access and analyses language from a corpus. It allows us to search a word or phrases for multiple examples of how that word or phrase is used in every text or speech.


What is concordance used for?

*Publish to web

*Creating indexes and word list

*Find phrase and idioms

*Comparing different usages of the same word

*Analyzing keywords

* Analyzing word frequencies


Benefit of concordance to language learners and teachers.


Concordance is very useful to language teachers. By using this software, they can use it as teaching materials for students in the classroom. The benefit of concordance to students is to understand differences uses or meaning of certain words. Certain words have a multiple meanings, so, by using concordance, teachers can take example sentences from a corpus and get the student to group of sentences according to their meaning. For examples, if the students have difficulty with distinctions of meaning between modal, can and could, they can define the meaning using the concordance software. It really helps teachers as well as students to distinguish the right meaning of some words. Next, concordance also helps students to identify their own errors. If students make a collocation error, instead of correcting them by their self, teachers can ask them to put the route word into the concordances software and see if the students can define their own errors. Teachers can get their students to use concordance to find and record their new words or phrases by the words have being used in concordance. If the teachers teach a specific use of a word or phrase, teachers could get the student to make sure the examples that their find matches the use that teacher have taught.

For the language learners, they can use concordance to:-

~ Checking meaning

~ Checking general syntax usage

~ Exploring special lexis

~ Checking derived forms

~ Checking collocates of words
~ Exploring set pieces e.g. phrasal verbs, clichés


Concordance can be a guide line to analysis error and do correction. They can indicate errors in their own writing which can be investigated and corrected by many of concordance. It gives learners specific languages items to investigate and at the same time allows them to work out how their use of languages differs from that of the concordance. Other than that, language learner can use concordance as serendipity learning. Learners can use it as the ways to browse down the word frequently list which must concordances provide.



It looks like browsing the pages of a dictionary. Serendipity learning also gives others benefits such as:

· Learners can truly autonomous and responsible for their own learning


· Can be guaranteed that the learning corresponds to learner needs because searches are leaner-initiated.


· Develop overall language awareness.



Sources:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/concordancers-elt

http://www.ecml.at/projects/Voll/our_resources/graz_2001/authentic/concordancers/menu_concordancers.htm#What

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POST 4 : CONFERENCE 'BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE'


HAHA





Hello Everyone!

Here I am again for the 4th posting. Last Wednesday (18hb Mac 2009), I have a trip to PNB Darby Park Hotel, Kuala Lumpur for the E-community Conference that is " Seminar E-Komuniti, Merapatkan Jurang Digital: Masyarakat Berpengetahuan , Model Malaysia " with my course mates . Actually this conference was conducted by the knowledgeable speakers from various fields to talk about E-Learning. There is a lot of topic has being discussed but I really attracted to topic about: how blogging can reduce writing apprehension. For me, this topic really interesting because it related to our courses; Language for ICT and give a little bit information about apprehension.




REDUCING WRITING APPREHENSION THROUGH BLOGGING ACTIVITIES



Actually I really didn't know what APPREHENSION is before. But after I listen to this talk by Madam Azianura Hani Shaari from UITM Penang, I know a little bit about it. From what I'm understand about this topic, APPREHENSION is a negative attitudes and perceptions toward writing and prejudice toward their own writing. So what symptoms for this writing apprehension are? Madam Azianura gives 6 symptoms' of writing apprehension. There are:-

- Scared to write
- Hand cramp
- Hate writing
- Mental blocking problems

- Produces a shorted essay
- Ideas hardly developed

There are also some factors that contribute toward a writing apprehension.

Ø Lack confident – some people have a low confident level. This also contributes toward writing apprehension because the person with the low self esteem will scared to write. They have no confident to write something because they scared to get any comment to anybody. Some comment might be encourage them to write and some might be not. So lack of self confident also contributes to these problems.



Ø Teachers' comment - teachers comment also contribute toward writing apprehension. That because, some comments were given maybe will give encouragement to the student but some may not. A bad comment maybe can lose students confident and they become scared to write. In my opinion, I agree that a bad comment maybe can improve their writing skill because they will work hard for it. But in the same times for other students who faced a confident problem, they will feel scared to write because the worried if they get bad comment teachers. But it depends to individual how to define it.



Ø Culture face saving
Ø Proficiently level
Ø Audience
Ø Lack role models
Ø Examination

But weblogs also can help fostering positives writing attitudes. That is:

Promotes brainstorming and peer review activities.


- Students centered
- Face saving – blogging activities allows other people from around world to leave their comment. So by this activities, others people can leave their comment without losing their faces and identity
- Increases involvement among passive students – by blogging, it can increase a participant among students to write online. Passive students can sit and write their ideas by online writing
- Huge audience – writing in the blog it doesn’t means only us in our country will read its. A people from around the world will read it and give comment. By these activities, it will improve our writing and give us chance to share our thought with the other students from different country.
- Boost up confidence and motivation – for me, blogging can push up my confidence level because I can write anything I want. I don’t need to scare to write because no one will know me. So by reading others comment in my blog, its give me motivation to write more and more. That because when others leave their comment, I will give my self reflection too.

** For me, I agree that blogging helps us a lot in writing. But nowadays, I realize that a lot of blogs nowadays using informal language on their writing. Some people said that they more comfortable by using informal language on their online writing like using a short form, slang and trailing dots. Letting them using informal language will give motivation and encouragement to them to continue writing. However, in the same time, it means us letting them to continue their mistakes. I think it better for us to write using a proper language so that we will bring ourselves to be good writer. But every people have their own opinion. I just give my opinion about their topic and I totally agree that blogging can help to reduce writing apprehension problem. ^^^







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3rd Posting - Search Engines




Mamma.com is created in 1996 as a master thesis. This site owned and operated by Copernic.Inc. Its provide a variety of engines ,directories, and content sites, compiles their results invirtual database ,eliminates duplicates and display the result in a uniform manner according to relevance. Mamma .com's ability to give a best result that available from search sources because it searches a series of other engine of other search. It likes using many search engines in the same time (including other search engine like yahoo, Google).Mamma.com also searches about jobs, videos, shops, travel, yellow pages and white pages.




Yahoo.com is search engine like mamma.com .Yahoo! search not only web article but its helps user to find an information from the content like news, images, mail (provides free email, picture sharing, spam protection and etc.), maps, travel, music, games, and sport. With Yahoo! Answers, users can find answer from around the web.




Google scholar is an example of a search engine that searches specifically for scholarly literature. It is fast and easy to use and can lead us to hundred of relevance articles. This search engine also same like the others because it is also provides all information about academic. Google scholar can search about article, peer-reviewed journal, and academic books, also academic publishers.




Eric Digest is provides one way to access the ERIC DIGEST that produce by Eric clearing house system. Eric digest are:-
a) Short report (1,000 - 1,500) on topics that related to education field. There are variety of topics was covered. For instance, teaching, learning, libraries, charter school, special education, higher education, home schooling and etc.
b) This site is targeted specifically for teachers, administers, policymakers, and other practitioners and also useful for educational community.


Similarities

From what I'm see, each of these sites have a similarity between each other. Yahoo! Search, Google Scholar and Mamma.com are search engine web. Users can use these four web sites as the search engine to find their information that they need. Other than that, Yahoo! and Google have a same content such as both provide an email account for users. So, users can use this services to exchange their information with other friends spread the world. Last but not least, these entire search engine become an informative tools for user especially student to get their information.

Differences

There are some differences between this four of search engines. For instance, Mamma.com and Eric Digest provided an article that related to the topic only. Both of this search engines have less hit list then Google and Yahoo because they only search information that really-really related to topic and make our work become easier. But for me, Mamma.com is good because it give us a lot of information in the same way. By using metasearch on Mamma.com, it will search a series of search engines from other search in the same times. So, it's faster than other search engines. Mamma.com, Google scholar and eric digest is more on academic search such as journal, literature book and many more .However, Yahoo! Search apply variety services on their pages and not only focused on academic things.


^^

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IMPACTS OF BLOGGING...



BLOGGING ARTICLE

Blogging: A Distinct Social Impact
Submitted by mpodlesny
Fri, 7 Dec 2007

Blogging has diligently progressed to the forefront of digital communication in a historically expeditious rate of speed. As early as 1983, threads of message boards dotted the internet with newsworthy postings, including the infamous World Wide Web. By 1994, some were using the web as their daily diary or sounding board.* People began to pay attention. By 1997, these personal homepages became sources of news. Who are we listening to out in cyberspace? It is true that most believe what they read or see on television. After all, these people have our best interest at heart! Don’t they? Or is there an agenda they serve of their own? The dangers of a world of information and socializing through blogging can leave a questionable impact that’s left to be decided.

The daily diaries of 1997 soon spread from journals of self-satisfying thoughts to a belief that people were actually interested in things they said. And many were. The web world grew from personal blogging to videos, thus the webcam. Soon the legal and corporate world began to hire bloggers. The question remained in some of our eyes, what kind of person would post their life for all to see? Or was it their life they were posting?

The immediate fears of children and teens in the blogging world are an ongoing debate. In the eyes of the teen, cyberspace has become a text heaven, taking the place of baby boomers talking on the phone. In the eyes of the parent, the teen is foreboding prey of the parasites feeding on the innocent lying in wait on the end of a text from a “friend” accepted. The law seems to stay one step behind the predator in these cases and children stay one step in front of the parent in finding the scum. The latest threat to servers funneling porn into our lives for not reporting the culprit sets them back about $300,000.00, while the child porn business is a $5 billion business. with 95% of their customers from the U.S.** This social impact that has taken the younger generation into places their parents never thought of falling is all brought to us by the wonderful world of blogging.

In our latest Presidential race, blogging has given the voting public a progressive, new look at candidates they never considered in the past. Overnight, Ron Paul became a viable candidate, when most didn’t recognize his name the day before. Isn’t this a questionable way to choose a person we are to trust with our country? If enough people get on the web and blog an interest, I could become President. People are too busy to research candidates themselves, so they take the word of bloggers, who may also be the predators that are on your children’s bedroom computers.
In defense of the world we have created on the web, we have the opportunity to learn, prosper, and discover the world at our fingertips. Students have a wealth of knowledge, while we can stay at home and do everything from graduate from college to shop at our favorite stores. The positives are abundant and obvious, while the negatives hide and pop out at us while we enjoy the good.

We’ve grown full circle from allowing television the right to tell us what to believe, where to shop, and what to buy. We now have any Tom, Dick, or Harry into our lives by means of the web, as we shop and educate ourselves and think we are minding our own business. Blogging is a distinct and valid social impact on the world and decidedly so. The positive aspect is there are signs of boredom in the blogging world; soon there will be another source for the intruder. Maybe one day we will have a mind of our own and use it.
By: Lynn O`Neil

Edited By: Bruce A. Tucker

source:
http://www.articletrader.com/internet/blogging/blogging-a-distinct-social-impact.html

*Blog is taken from word web and log which means logging or writing entries in chronological order. Blogging become a trend in the world of internet. A blog can be a personal journal which recounts events in a person's life on a daily basis. It can be focus on specific topic like movies,food,music sports politics news or business.

Blog can help language learners to improve and enhance their writing skills because it become trend among people nowadays.Blogs, in a intranets environmentcan be an excellent way to sharing knowledge with their organization . They can read even give a comment to them. It will help to improve their writing skill by getting comment/feedback directly from others.

Therefore, blogs also can be medium of communication and sharing thought. By reading others blogs, they can discuss and exchange their ideas. Its will make the writer become more knowledgeable and improve their writing skill because they need to write blogs often. Then their writing can be improve day by day.. ^^

Url related to blogging:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging

video related to blogs:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=367ab9eed5af82966a48

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LEARNING ENGLISH VIA ESL WEBSITE

WEBSITE: www.eslcafe.com

Objective:

- Give information to viewer. For instance information about job to student (graduated)
- Help us to improve our English language by their activities.

Activities

- Job (job center home, Korean job board, resume recruit teacher etc.)
- Grammar lessons
- Idioms
- Phrasal verbs
- Pronunciations power
- Quizzes
- Slang
- Students and teachers forum

* This website suitable to all age of group such as teachers, students, and everyone. That because this website provide a lot of information about English language

Self reflection

- This website help me to improve in my writing, pronounciation and speaking.
- Its also quite interesting and fun because this website provide a games

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History Of CALL






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Educational Games






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Computer Assisted Writing Using Word Processor

Advantages and disadvantages of word processor

Advantages

• Grammar, spell checking and word count option
- word processor provide this type of services .When the dictionary recognizes a word as misspelled, the word will underlined with red line and green line if grammatically errors. We can choose alternate spelling by clicking the flagged word. Then by using word processor, we no need to count the word one by one because there are word counts provided in the word processor. Word counting can be easily found under the tools option and we no need waste our times by counting it manually.
• It is easy to share and store word processing files electronically. It allows us to makes change to our document. We can move, change, delete, save and format all our ideas in one handy file.


Disadvantages

• Requires a computer/laptop includes the electrical power to write.
• Data can be lost by computer malfunction (computer malware such as worm, virus etc.)
• Symbols and equations are easier to write then create on a computer.

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POST 1: ONLINE READING



BIG BANG THEORY




The Premise








The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our universe. Discoveries in astronomy and physics have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that our universe did in fact have a beginning. Prior to that moment there was nothing; during and after that moment there was something: our universe. The big bang theory is an effort to explain what happened during and after that moment. According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. What is a "singularity" and where does it come from? Well, to be honest, we don't know for sure. Singularities are zones which defy our current understanding of physics. They are thought to exist at the core of "black holes." Black holes are areas of intense gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be so intense that finite matter is actually squished into infinite density (a mathematical concept which truly boggles the mind). These zones of infinite density are called "singularities." Our universe is thought to have begun as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something - a singularity. Where did it come from? We don't know. Why did it appear? We don't know. After its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our current universe. It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons unknown. This is the Big Bang theory.





Big Bang Theory - Common Misconceptions


There are many misconceptions surrounding the Big Bang theory. For example, we tend to imagine a giant explosion. Experts however say that there was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion. Rather than imagining a balloon popping and releasing its contents, imagine a balloon expanding: an infinitesimally small balloon expanding to the size of our current universe. Another misconception is that we tend to image the singularity as a little fireball appearing somewhere in space. According to the many experts however, space didn't exist prior to the Big Bang. Back in the late '60s and early '70s, when men first walked upon the moon, "three British astrophysicists, Steven Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose turned their attention to the Theory of Relativity and its implications regarding our notions of time. In 1968 and 1970, they published papers in which they extended Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to include measurements of time and space.1, 2 According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy."3 The singularity didn't appear in space; rather, space began inside of the singularity. Prior to the singularity, nothing existed, not space, time, matter, or energy - nothing. So where and in what did the singularity appear if not in space? We don't know. We don't know where it came from, why it's here, or even where it is. All we really know is that we are inside of it and at one time it didn't exist and neither did we.



Big Bang Theory - Evidence for the Theory What are the major evidences which support the Big Bang theory?


First of all, we are reasonably certain that the universe had a beginning.
Second, galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance. This is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who discovered this phenomenon in 1929. This observation supports the expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted.
Third, if the universe was initially very, very hot as the Big Bang suggests, we should be able to find some remnant of this heat. In 1965, Radioastronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin (-454.765 degree Fahrenheit, -270.425 degree Celsius) Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) which pervades the observable universe. This is thought to be the remnant which scientists were looking for. Penzias and Wilson shared in the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery.
Finally, the abundance of the "light elements" Hydrogen and Helium found in the observable universe are thought to support the Big Bang model of origins.



Sources:





This type of reading material can be categorize as reading for information because its give us more information about what Big bang theory all about. Before i'm reading this article, i really don't know what is big bang theory all about. So, after i had google it on internet, i find out that big bang theory is a explaination about beginning of our universe.The article give explaination about big bang theory background and our universe science world (physics and astronomy). So, i have conclude that this article is a READING FOR INFORMATION material.

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