Don’t forget TED.com!

…good advice from English4University. I thought of Mata when I saw it, but TED.com is not just for university students or advanced learners. This post also reminded me to post more about studying at university and for standardized tests. Are you preparing for university and IELTS or TOEFL exams? 

Don’t forget TED.com for practising your English. This is a truly wonderful site. If you are preparing for an examination with a listening component – like IELTS for instance – then you should be doing lots of listening practice. I would strongly recommend looking at TED and browsing through the list of topics. 

You can use the search facility to find something that you are interested in. Then just listen. If you have problems you can use subtitles in any of about 45 languages. There is an interactive transcript so you can read the transcript and play the video from any point that you choose. The cost of this? It’s free! 

If you haven’t seen TED before then why not start by listening to Jay Walker giving a presentation about English learning? It’s here.

Don’t forget TED.com!

A look at Massive Online Open Courses

…also called MOOCs. The video below is a VOA Special English Education Report. You can subscribe to Special English videos and also follow on Facebook

A class with tens or even hundreds of thousands of students might sound like a teacher's bad dream. But a big idea in higher education these days is the massive open online course, or MOOC. Some universities offer free, non-credit MOOCs available to anyone in the world. Others charge for courses and provide credits. The idea is still developing.

Handout For Simple Journal-Writing

Here is a writing idea from ESL instructor and education blogger Larry Ferlazzo that I would like to try here. Sadamu, Mata and others (whom I have not heard from recently) have posting privileges and can post either directly or as a comment to this post. If you are a visitor or a student I directed here but who has not posted, then you can post in comments. If you participate regularly by posting in comments and would like to be a regular contributor, we can add you. 

Alternately, I can open a Blogging English "branch" on Tumblr for anyone who wants to post (but no spam). In the meantime, try this exercise. It can be very short or longer. Larry writes (and includes and example at the end),

I’ve previously posted about research discussing the value of students sharing what is happening in their lives (see The Value Of Sharing Positive Events) and have written on this blog and in my books how I apply this finding in my teaching, primarily in my English Language Learner classes.

I have students write about two positive events in the week and why they felt they were positive, and one not-so-positive event and what they could have done to make it better. They share it... Not only does it help build a positive classroom atmosphere, it provides an opportunity to write for an authentic audience and it helps me learn what’s going on in students’ lives..

English Language & Usage Weekly Newsletter, Tues Sept

Hello all, I found this newsletter while I was looking for something else and subscribed to it because I thought readers might find it interesting and helpful. If you register, you can post questions too. Someone posts an answer, perhaps someone else does as well. Then subscribers vote on how useful and helpful the answers are and which one is best. This is an example of "crowdsourcing," 

Top new questions this week:

Good evening Ms Vanessa..and all my classmates!!

I miss everyone ..  I have to talk to you over a year .. And that's because I go to school.  Νow Ι finished my  school and I'll go to  university. I Passed my exam successfully and will study at a university in the field of sociology. I'll start the lessons in October..

I'm very happy and wanted to share it with you .. I think I forgot to write the English language

 There have been many changes here .. and now I can follow your discussions ..

This is my new  from me for now .. I have much to tell you .. about my experiences at school and how important it was for me .. I would like to learn your news you from here .. Ms VANESSA I want to learn new  from you ..

 Sincerely Mata..