Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Teach Yourself Accent Reduction - review this site

Here's a new web page on Accent Reduction http://loseyouraccent.googlepages.com/home

I have not checked it out, so I am asking you to look at it and review it. Let me know if I should add it to my list of speaking resource. Reviewing it also means telling us what you think is wrong with the site or confusing about it.

There are 10 modules to follow at your own pace and improve speaking skills. You can also download and print modules.

And now a few words about the writing assignment - write and post a review of the site. In the past. I've asked you to let me know what you think of sites. Some responses are good. Others are disappointing - and still others missing altogether. Perhaps specific guidelines will help you write a review.

Writing reviews or evaluations is a common writing task both in school and the workplace. Reviews are not just about movies or books. Students and scholars write reviews of the literature in their field. In business, you may be asked to review a product, a procedure or even someone's performance. Reviews even show up in informal writing, such as when someone asks your opinion about a book, movie, destination or activity ("What did you think about....?")

You can apply the following guidelines for writing book reviews to writing other reviews

A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms.

Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work's creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question.

Evaluating web sites

3 comments:

  1. Hello Ms Vanessa.
    I read all these links that you suggested us and I have to say that are good. Specially the ‘Steps for Writing a Good Book Review’, ‘Pre-writing questions’ , and ‘Reviews’. These three seems to me very helpful. I’ll print them.
    The ‘Accent Reduction’ this is interesting too, but I think that something is missing. Maybe if we have acoustic word next the rule will be better to understand.

    I tell you something but I’m not sure if I’ll tell it rightly to understand me.
    In this blog there are a lot of useful links to look for anything we want. But it is difficult to find them quickly, because we don’t know where looking for them. We have to look for back in time and there is possibility don’t find them. If you put all the links with specific category somewhere in front page it will be help us a lot. In this way we’ll earn much time for reading and studying. Of course I speak from my side, it’s my thoughts and I don’t know if this is easier to be.

    I’ll ask something else. This time I study Italian language on my own. The explanation is in English so, the same time I study in two languages. I find a lot of grammar but I don’t find simply text for reading for the begging. I always find big texts with difficult words, and when I find something good they force me to buy. Maybe buy some books from Greece, but I like from internet because I study Italian in English .And I like that. If you know something to help me please tell me.

    I want ask you something last. Do you think that I speaking too simply? Is it time to looking for more difficult words, or this will happen natural in the future?
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mata

    Last things first: the simple word that is right is ALWAYS better than the difficult word that is NOT the correct word. You will make a lot of mistakes and not make sense if you try to use difficult words just because they are difficult. As your understanding vocabulary grows, so will your using vocabulary.

    Next in reverse order, there are good beginner Italian learning sites in English. I've found a few and will post links separately.

    As for making useful links easier to find, Tai made a similar comment/ request. You are both right. However, it's MY time you are talking about using to save YOUR time. I honestly do not know WHEN I will have time to go through back posts.

    Maybe you, Tai and others in the class can help by collecting links to back posts in different area (ie pronunciation, listening, speaking, writing, reading and so on). Post them and I will put them in "resource posts" sections in the sidebar.

    In the meantime, use the search function powered by Google that is at the top of the blog page. Bookmark useful sites (including the address or URL of individual blog posts) to save in your own personal favorites file.

    I thought the Accent Reduction site had good information but the layout and design was sloppy looking. The untidy appearance also made it hard to follow.

    By "acoustic word" do you mean a word spelled phonetically?

    ReplyDelete
  3. SITES FOR LEARNING ITALIAN

    Mata's project brings back some memories - I remember studying Latin from Spanish. I learned a lot of Latin but even more Spanish by doing so.


    Italian for beginners http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfarehome.htm

    Beginner Learn Italian with Podcasts at LearnItalianPod http://www.learnitalianpod.com/category/beginner/

    Learn Italian (links to instructional sites) http://www.wannalearn.com/Academic_Subjects/World_Languages/Italian/

    ReplyDelete

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