Story: Alice, The Miserable Girl
Alice has always suffered a mysterious illness since she was born. She was a kind skin and bones girl with hard cheese. Her biological parents kicked the bucket when she was one year old because of this strange disease. This meant she had to go to live to an orphanage. There, she spent the rest of her childhood until she turned fifteen. Then, she was adopted by some people who never had the chance to have their own children. Alice was thrilled to bits when she realized she would be adopted and leave that orphanage. People who worked and lived there usually gave her a hard time. Although the man and woman, who took this girl from that place, were not her legitimate parents, they treated her as she was the most important person for them.
Alice had a happy and peaceful life since then. For the first time, she felt what being in seventh heaven was like. However, one day things hit the fan. Unbelievably, her illness began to affect the girl again. Unfortunately, how this illness was extremely contagious, it was passed on her adoptive parents in the blink of an eye without warning. As a result, the poor girl lost her beloved relatives in about two days but she stayed alive. Perhaps, she unfairly had to pay through the nose for being over the moon for a short period of time in her life. The funeral day, Alice hit the ceiling and screamed blue murder. She did not want to come to terms they were six feet under and she was alone in the world now.
Afterwards, the unlucky teenager had to live by herself in her dead adoptive parents´ house. As time went on, she started to lose her mind and let herself go. One night, the miserable girl decided to play with a knife which caused her death at the end.
Words:
-Word: "scheme": Abstraction consists of the translation of terms in the scheme to terms in a theoretically model or database.
-Meaning: An internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world.
-G. info: noun/transitive verb-regular.
-Example: Folsom man sentenced for Ponzi scheme.
-Personal e.g: I think this is a well organized scheme.
-Word: "reference": The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, abbreviated as CEFR, is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe.
-Meaning: The most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression, the class of objects that an expression refers to.
-G. info: noun.
-Collocations: with reference to/ reference book, number.
-Example: Deputies were called to Paloma and Sandia in reference to motorcycles and four-wheelers in a vacant lot stirring up dust and making noise.
-Personal e.g: You need a good reference book to support your thesis.
-Word: "examination": Nonetheless, existing examination boards have retained their own naming conventions, e.g "Intermediate", which are, arguably, easier for them, and their students to remember.
-Meaning: The art of giving students or candidates a test (as by questions) to determine what they know or have learned.
-G. info: noun.
-Collocations: on closer examination.
-Example: The scene was preserved for gardaí to carry out a technical examination and the state pathologist was called in to carry out an examination.
-Personal e.g: Unfortunately, according to this examination, we may conclude you have a Cancer.
-Word: "profile": Welcome to English Profile-a collaborative programme to enhance the learning, teaching and assessment of English worldwide.
-Meaning: An analysis (often in graphical form) representing the extend to which something exhibits various characteristics.
-G. info: noun/transitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: to keep a low profile/ to profile somebody ´s life.
-Example: A biochemical profile of blood.
-Personal e.g: I had to profile my life when I wrote my autobiography for the language VI blog.
-Word: "process": This site is part of the collaborative process.
-Meaning: A particular course of action intended to achieve a result.
-G. info: noun/transitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: the process of.
-Example: I am in the process of writing to him right now.
-Personal e.g: Learning is a complex process that never ends.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Task 2 answer
English Profile is a collaborative research programme which was created to give a set of Reference Level Descriptions for English. This research programme investigates the way people learn a language and also organizes the kind of knowledge learners must have at a certain level of this language.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is an assessing guideline that is used to describe the content people have successfully learned, about an European foreign language, according to their level. These levels are divided into: A1 Breakthrough, A2 Waystage, B1 Threshold, B2 Vantage, C1 Effective Operational Proficiency, and C2 Mastery. Common Eropean Framework is the old version of English Profile. They both work together as a group in order to provide descriptions of the grammar, vocabulary and functions, the learners need to know to master a certain language level, and also an appropriate method of assessing and teaching.
I think both English Profile and Common European Framework should be implemented in our country, because we really need as students and educators an objectibe way of learning an teaching a language. Chilean education in general just keeps using rudimentary methods to teach in schools, which are useless to acquire a foreign language for real. That´s why we have not improved our quality of education. We must consider the English subject as an opportunity to learn a foreign language and not as something, in which students have to learn some content by heart to be graded by their teachers.
Words:
-Word: "knowledge". Knowledge of language is acquired by such mechanisms as conditioning, association, practice in exercising skills, etc.
-Meaning: The psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Moral realism conflicts with the knowledge that we possess about the world.
-Personal e.g: Knowledge needs to be acquired through experience.
-Other: idiom. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: knowing a little about something tempts one to overestimate one´s abilities.
-Word: "language". Use of language is exercise of the skills that have been mastered.
-Meaning: The mental faculty or power of vocal communication.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals.
-Personal e.g: A linguist is a person who really knows what language is.
-Word: "research". The fourth question remains on the horizons of research.
-Meaning: Systematic investigation to establish facts.
-G. info: noun/intransitive-transitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: research into/on.
-Example: This article is well researched.
-Personal e.g: I need to research on children´s behavior for my psychology report.
-Word: "discipline". As a theoretical discipline, linguistics was devoted to devising principles of analysis that could be used to provide an organized and systematic account of the elements of a language.
-Meaning: Training to improve strength or self-control.
-G. info: noun/ transitive verb-regular.
-Example: The offenders deserved the harsh discipline they received.
-Personal e.g: Christianity is a religious discipline that started to be fomented two thousand years ago.
-Word: "system". A language is a certain system of habits and skills.
-Meaning: Instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to work as a coherent entity.
-G. info: noun
-Example: The system consists of a motor and a small computer.
-Personal e.g: Carlos has a problem in his nervous system because of an accident.
-Other: idiom: To get something out of one´s system: doing something to feel better after suffering.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is an assessing guideline that is used to describe the content people have successfully learned, about an European foreign language, according to their level. These levels are divided into: A1 Breakthrough, A2 Waystage, B1 Threshold, B2 Vantage, C1 Effective Operational Proficiency, and C2 Mastery. Common Eropean Framework is the old version of English Profile. They both work together as a group in order to provide descriptions of the grammar, vocabulary and functions, the learners need to know to master a certain language level, and also an appropriate method of assessing and teaching.
I think both English Profile and Common European Framework should be implemented in our country, because we really need as students and educators an objectibe way of learning an teaching a language. Chilean education in general just keeps using rudimentary methods to teach in schools, which are useless to acquire a foreign language for real. That´s why we have not improved our quality of education. We must consider the English subject as an opportunity to learn a foreign language and not as something, in which students have to learn some content by heart to be graded by their teachers.
Words:
-Word: "knowledge". Knowledge of language is acquired by such mechanisms as conditioning, association, practice in exercising skills, etc.
-Meaning: The psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Moral realism conflicts with the knowledge that we possess about the world.
-Personal e.g: Knowledge needs to be acquired through experience.
-Other: idiom. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: knowing a little about something tempts one to overestimate one´s abilities.
-Word: "language". Use of language is exercise of the skills that have been mastered.
-Meaning: The mental faculty or power of vocal communication.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals.
-Personal e.g: A linguist is a person who really knows what language is.
-Word: "research". The fourth question remains on the horizons of research.
-Meaning: Systematic investigation to establish facts.
-G. info: noun/intransitive-transitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: research into/on.
-Example: This article is well researched.
-Personal e.g: I need to research on children´s behavior for my psychology report.
-Word: "discipline". As a theoretical discipline, linguistics was devoted to devising principles of analysis that could be used to provide an organized and systematic account of the elements of a language.
-Meaning: Training to improve strength or self-control.
-G. info: noun/ transitive verb-regular.
-Example: The offenders deserved the harsh discipline they received.
-Personal e.g: Christianity is a religious discipline that started to be fomented two thousand years ago.
-Word: "system". A language is a certain system of habits and skills.
-Meaning: Instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to work as a coherent entity.
-G. info: noun
-Example: The system consists of a motor and a small computer.
-Personal e.g: Carlos has a problem in his nervous system because of an accident.
-Other: idiom: To get something out of one´s system: doing something to feel better after suffering.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Task 1 answer
Corpus is a study and analysis of real contemporary language used by native speakers and learners of that language. This study and analisis of language is stored and checked in a database.
A Corpus based textbook is a text in which real and updated language speech is used. This means for example if learners of a certain language read this sort of text, they would just find the kind of language it is utilized nowadays in the country it belongs, and not a fake representation from foreign areas.
I think Corpus Linguistics is not just important, it is essential for language teaching. If educators taught their students by using more material based on Corpus instead of the one created by Chilean education, these students would learn English in a much more efficient way. For example, if a kid listened to a CD in which his or her mediocre teacher recorded himself or herself speaking, this boy or girl would not be able to learn appropriate pronunciation and grammar but just the opposite. Moreover, there are some bad English books for school students in Chile that are not very based on Corpus. These books are just cheap material which focus on old or unrealistic language usage. It is not pretty likely these boys or girls are able to get a good knowledge about real and modern English if they both listen to innappropriate recordings, in which native speakers or people with excellent speech command are not included, and keep on using textbooks with a lack of content based on Corpus for their classes.
I believe I can use Corpus in my class by making my students read texts, written by English speaking authors, and making them listen to recordings in which native speakers talk in the way they do nowadays.
Words:
-Word: "method". This method represents a digestive approach to deriving a set of abstract rules.
-Meaning: A way of doing sth, especially in a systematic way.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: She´s following a new method to teach her class.
-Personal e.g: Grammar Translation method is still being used in many schools in Chile.
-Other: idiom. Method to one´s madness: planning to do sth crazy or weird in a structured manner.
-Word: "analysis". Adherents believe that reliable language analysis best occurs on field-collected samples.
-Meaning: An investigation of the component parts of a whole and their relations in making up the whole.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Cost benefit analysis consists of weak definitions on both sides of the equation.
-Personal e.g: Psychoanalysis started being developed by Sigmund Freud in 1890.
-Other: idiom: In the last analysis: when all things are considered.
-Word: "approach". The Corpus approach runs counter to Noam Chomsky´s view that real language is riddled with performance-related errors.
-Meaning: The act of drawing spatially closer to something.
-G. info: noun/ intransitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: make an approach.
-Example: The hunter´s approach scattered the guese.
-Personal e.g: In his book he makes an approach to his theory.
-Word: "study". Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language.
-Meaning: A detailed critical inspection.
-G. info: noun(pl dies)/ transitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: study on, study in.
-Example: She is in a deep study.
-Personal e.g: I hope my studies help me in the future.
-Word: "lexicography". Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analysing and describing the Semantic, Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon of a language.
-Meaning: It is the art of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part of lexicology.
-Personal e.g: Lexicography is a complex art related to language speech usage.
A Corpus based textbook is a text in which real and updated language speech is used. This means for example if learners of a certain language read this sort of text, they would just find the kind of language it is utilized nowadays in the country it belongs, and not a fake representation from foreign areas.
I think Corpus Linguistics is not just important, it is essential for language teaching. If educators taught their students by using more material based on Corpus instead of the one created by Chilean education, these students would learn English in a much more efficient way. For example, if a kid listened to a CD in which his or her mediocre teacher recorded himself or herself speaking, this boy or girl would not be able to learn appropriate pronunciation and grammar but just the opposite. Moreover, there are some bad English books for school students in Chile that are not very based on Corpus. These books are just cheap material which focus on old or unrealistic language usage. It is not pretty likely these boys or girls are able to get a good knowledge about real and modern English if they both listen to innappropriate recordings, in which native speakers or people with excellent speech command are not included, and keep on using textbooks with a lack of content based on Corpus for their classes.
I believe I can use Corpus in my class by making my students read texts, written by English speaking authors, and making them listen to recordings in which native speakers talk in the way they do nowadays.
Words:
-Word: "method". This method represents a digestive approach to deriving a set of abstract rules.
-Meaning: A way of doing sth, especially in a systematic way.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: She´s following a new method to teach her class.
-Personal e.g: Grammar Translation method is still being used in many schools in Chile.
-Other: idiom. Method to one´s madness: planning to do sth crazy or weird in a structured manner.
-Word: "analysis". Adherents believe that reliable language analysis best occurs on field-collected samples.
-Meaning: An investigation of the component parts of a whole and their relations in making up the whole.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Cost benefit analysis consists of weak definitions on both sides of the equation.
-Personal e.g: Psychoanalysis started being developed by Sigmund Freud in 1890.
-Other: idiom: In the last analysis: when all things are considered.
-Word: "approach". The Corpus approach runs counter to Noam Chomsky´s view that real language is riddled with performance-related errors.
-Meaning: The act of drawing spatially closer to something.
-G. info: noun/ intransitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: make an approach.
-Example: The hunter´s approach scattered the guese.
-Personal e.g: In his book he makes an approach to his theory.
-Word: "study". Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language.
-Meaning: A detailed critical inspection.
-G. info: noun(pl dies)/ transitive verb-regular.
-Collocations: study on, study in.
-Example: She is in a deep study.
-Personal e.g: I hope my studies help me in the future.
-Word: "lexicography". Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analysing and describing the Semantic, Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon of a language.
-Meaning: It is the art of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
-G. info: noun.
-Example: Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part of lexicology.
-Personal e.g: Lexicography is a complex art related to language speech usage.
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