Merry Christmas

So this is Christmas

and what have you done another year over

a new one just begun

and so this Xmas

I hope you have fun

the near and the dear one

the old and the young.

A merry merry Christmas

and happy New Year

let's hope it's a good one

without any fear.

And, so this is Christmas (war is over)

for weak and for strong (if you want it)

for rich and the poor ones(War is over now)

the road is so long

and so happy Christmas

for black and for white

for the yellow and red ones

let's stop all the fight.

A merry merry Christmas

and happy New Year

let's hope it's a good one

without any fear.

And, so this is Christmas

and what have we done

another year over

a new one just begun

and, so happy Christmas

we hope we have fun

the near and the dear one

the old and the young.

A merry merry Christmas

and happy New Year

let's hope it's a good one

without any fear.

(War is over if you Want it war is over now)

Camilla

PLE: My Personal Learning Environment

It is often said that if you attend a language course or if you study a language at school you're about to learn that foreign language; well, if on the one hand it is undeniably true that following a course you're laying the foundation stone for your learning process, on the other hand you must have clear in your mind the fact that you cannot learn a language just with classes or grammar exercises.

Learning a language is a process which involves each moment and each field of your everyday life, and it is something which is not only included in the pages of a book, but it is all around you, in every moment of your life. Obviously there must be a starting point, and that starting point may be a language course at school, or even at university, in order to get in touch with the language you want to learn. However, if you stop at the things you can learn during classes, your knowledge about that language will be what we usually call in Italy "Inglese (or whatever language) scolastico". What does this widespread label mean? To me, it means that you know "something" about that language, you know how it sounds, maybe also how it works, you know a lot about its grammar, but maybe nothing about its use in everyday life, its developement or its processes. At school you study foreing languages as well as you study History, or Maths, that is to say, as fixed matters, not as "live" matters as a language actually is.

As far as my PLE is concerned, I must say that the informal part of the learning process has always been very important to me: I remember myself being 12 years old and trying to translate the lyrics of my favourite singers, and at the same time learning new words and expressions without knowing I was actually improving my English. That has always been very useful to me for my learning experience, even if I know that it depends greatly on the level of curiosity each one of us can develop. Personally, I believe that formal learning can just help you to build a background for your language learning process, but you can really learn that language only if you come into contact with its "live" element, with its daily use; actually this can happen only if you manage to make an effort by yourself, and if you're curious enough to dip into that language in order to learn as much as possible about it every time you come across one of its various elements.

While building the mind map for my PLE I decided to show not only the different elements linked to formal and informal learning, but also which skills you're imrpoving while focusing on the two different fields of language learning. This does not mean that if you're watching TV you're not improving your grammar skills, or that during classes you do not improve your listening skills, but I wanted to make this distinction in order to point out where to focus your attention if you feel that you want to improve some of your skills. For instance, as far as my Spanish is concerned, I feel that I should improve my skills in oral production, so that I'll try to focus on the informal learning processes, whereas as far as my French is concerned, I should review my grammar, so that a good grammar book (formal learning) should be the best solution.

Ultimately then, it is a well-known fact that getting in touch with English in informal environments is much easier than with any other language, so that we should be even more encouraged to learn it given the fact that we come across it whenever and wherever we want, or sometimes even if we do not want, we're forced to relate to it. Informal learning processes are obviously more difficult to be developed as far other languages are concerned, but our curiosity should make us look for chances to get into contact with other langauges too.

Camilla

Consider the source. Reconsider the source.

At last...it's getting cold!
I love winter, that's my favourite season!

The topic we're about to discuss this week is very interesting and useful for those who often have to search for materials (especially online materials) as we actually are. I've read a lot about this topic because I was pretty ignorant about it, and I found very useful tips to use for my online investigations.
Firstly I'd like to quote a couple of sentences taken from an article by Tina Kelley and published by The New York Times which is called "Whales in the Minnesota River?" :

"If you wanted to publish a book that says 2 plus 2 equals 5, you had to go through a lot of effort and spend a great deal of money, but the cost of putting up a Web page saying 2 plus 2 equals 5 is virtually nothing".

"We've inherited this notion that if it pops up on a screen and looks good, we tend to think of it as fairly credible".

I definitely agree with these two statements, and I think that they show two of the most relevant problems within the issue of trustworthiness of webpages. In fact, considering the great amount of information one can get access to in the World Wide Web, the problem of determining whether a webpage is trustworthy or not becomes central in our search for documents. Unfortunately, most of the times we're not able to judge properly, and we get wrong by considering just the layout of the webpage and not judging using the right criteria. According to the great majority of the websites I've visited to get information about this topic, the main criteria to judge the reliability of a web document should be:

• Authorship (Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the source)
  
• Publishing body (Where we are in the geography of cyberspace, looking at the web page you are trying to evaluate and focusing on the URL)
  
• Currency of the document (Considering the age and updatedness of your page)
  

However, we should always keep in mind that "evaluating information usually consists of weighing a number of criteria together" (Practical Steps in Evaluating Internet Resources) and that "there's not only a huge quantity out there but a very uneven level of quality" (Evaluating Sources of Information).
In fact, it is undeniably true that the problem of coming across untrue and rough information is extremely high in the Web. While surfing the Net I've read quite a lot of articles demonstrating how easy it is to publish any kind of bogus information or how frequently websites publish just what they're paid for (e.g. it is frequent habit for Amazon.com). Paradoxical though it may seem, everyone has the chance of publishing essays demonstrating not only that 2 plus 2 equals 5 (which would be of no danger at all), but also political, medical and scientific fakes which could eventually be dangerous for the readers evaluating them as trustworthy.

It is often the case that we tend to be not so critical as we should, so that we do not have to make the mistake of evaluating a webpage only when there are "grammatical errors, sloppy spelling or a goofy design, that makes us distrust the content" (Tina Kelley). Evaluating sources is a skill we need all the time, even when we feel overwhelmed with the endless amount of information available, and "The temptation would be to accept whatever you find. But don't be tempted" (Evaluating Sources of Information)!

As far as I'm concerned, I do agree with the statement Tina Kelley quotes in her article: "People have to be their own editors" within the information they come across in the World Wide Web! That is absolutely true, and is actually the basic issue at stake here. And finally, we should always remember that "there are other, nonelectronic, methods of getting much of the information" and that "it may be the Internet is the best resource, or maybe a book, or maybe a person will be the best resource"!

Camilla

Broadcast Yourself

YouTube...Broadcast yourself!

YouTube is among the most famous websites in the world! There you can find everything you want, and even more than what you could have ever imagined!
I’ve recently discoverd YouTube: unfortunately I’m a bit out of the whole Web 2.0. thing because I do not have broadband at home, so that it takes 2 hours to me to load a single video! However I often go to my father’s office in order to look for strange videos, and it is cool to see how many unbelievable videos you can find...everything you could be interested in is available on YouTube!
I often look for videos of concerts, foreign TV shows or for some episodes of my favourite TV series! Other times some friends of mine send me links to some strange videos which always make me LOL!
As for ESL learning experience, I think that YouTube is a great place where to find useful materials in order to improve our listening skills!
The videos Sarah proposed to us are very interesting and funny, I especially loved the one about the “sort of” translator, that’s awesome! Hope we’ll never become such “good” translators! While watching it I was wondering if the Italian accent really sounds like that abroad! It was obviously a joke, and all the accents were a bit exaggerated, but the Italian accent really sound so? Just Sarah can answer to this question!
To me that was much more similar to the accent they speak in Naples...but I watched some other videos I found in YouTube and I realized that the Italian accent perceived abroad is that of Southern Italy (try for example to look for the joke about “The Italian man who went to Malta”, which is everywhere!).
With reference to the other videos, I really like them as well, and particularly the one about the i-rack! That’s amazing, and everything correspond exactly with what is really happening...great piece of lampoon against G.W.B! And now it’s time for the i-ran! YouTube is full of amazing videos like the one Sarah choose for us, the only problem is that looking for them is so time – demanding! Most of the time you get lost among the great amount of videos available, and you go from a video to another losing a lot of time...isn’t YouTube something like a “drug”? Once experienced you get addicted to it!

Camilla

They're back...Back for Good

Hope this video will make you LOL!
It is called APACHE and it is part of "The Ultimate Tour" 2006!
Even if you don't like Take That, have a look at it, that's amazing!
And you can even practice your listening skills while watching it!



Camilla

Confessions of a Shopaholic

A few weeks ago some of my peers told me that they liked my style; particularly, elenavi said “Let’s take, for instance, this quote from your post: “However, here I am, I know it, and I intend to learn using it as much as possible!” Isn’t this your personal style? Of course! That's absolutely you! Imagine that while reading your post, it was like listening to you when we talk together at lesson on Monday!”
The way I write in informal English has been highly influenced by my readings, in fact, as silvia said “The way we write is inevitabily influenced by what we read. Therefore, we can learn how to improve our informal English only by reading a lot!”. And that's what I actually did during these last months, I started reading Sophie Kinsella’s books, which are written with a very informal and friendly style. I love her way of writing, which is much more similar to spoken language than to written language. Her novels are mainly about a young woman, Becky Bloomwood, who’s a real shopaholic, and who lives an amazing life, facing a lot of sentimental and economic troubles.

Ok, I know that Sophie Kinsella’s bestsellers are not exactly the kind of “contemporary literature” a student at her last year at university should be interestend in, but they’re so exciting that I like reading them in my free time!
An what is more, they help me improving my writing skills!

Sophie’s way of writing is so effective and attractive that you cannot stop reading her books, but while enjoying Becky’s adventures you can also learn how to write using informal written English, which is exactly what we’re asked to do in our blogs!

In order to show you what I mean by “effective and attractive style”, here’s the beginning of Sophie Kinsella’s “Confessions of a Shopaholic”:

“Ok. don't panic. Don't panic. It's only a VISA bill. It's a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be?
I stare out of the office window at a bus driving down Oxford Street, willing myself to open the white envelope sitting on my cluttered desk. It's only a piece of paper, I tell myself for the thousandth time. And I'm not stupid, am I? I know exactly how much this VISA bill will be.
Sort of. Roughly.
It'll be about ... £200. Three hundred, maybe. Yes, maybe £300. Three-fifty, max.
I casually close my eyes and start to tot up. There was that suit in Jigsaw. And there was dinner with Suze at Quaglinos. And there was that gorgeous red and yellow rug. The rug was £200, come to think of it. But it was definitely worth every penny — everyone's admired it. Or, at least, Suze has.
And the Jigsaw suit was on sale — 30 percent off. So that was actually saving money.
I open my eyes and reach for the bill. As my fingers hit the paper I remember new contact lenses. Ninety-five pounds. Quite a lot. But, I mean, I had to get those, didn't I? What am I supposed to do, walk around in a blur?
And I had to buy some new solutions and a cute case and some hypoallergenic eyeliner. So that takes it up to ... £400?”

I know that all my peers (who actually are all women) know what’s going to happen to the poor Becky…isn’t it?

Well, it was just a funny extract from Sophie’s novel…just to show you how interesting her style is!
I’ll post some other extracts in the next weeks…and I hope my style will become more and more similar to hers!
I love it!

Camilla

Podcast yourself

What a time-demanding activity to look for podcasts!
I’ve spent the whole morning looking for good podcasts about language learning. It was quite difficult because not all the websites I found were trust-worthing. However, I’ve come up with three interesting pocasts which I found during my “surfing the net" morning!

English as a Second Language Podcast
That’s a really well – organized and clear website where you can find podcasts available to “help you learn English even faster”!
In this website you can find podcasts which offer English lessons (which are called “English Café”), but also podcasts dedicated to specific topics such as “shopping”, “business”, “daily life”, “dining” or “entertainment”. Moreover, if you become a ESL Podcast member you can access further tools such as “additional vocabulary” or “extra explanations”.
I listened to an episode of the podcast about “shopping”, where they teach you how to “buy a jacket or coat when it’s getting cold”. It may be useful, isn’t it?
The “actors” speak very slowly trying to be as clear as possible. After the dialogue they explain to you what has been said and they also clarify the spelling and meaning of specific words!
Furthermore thay explain the difference between “jacket” and “coat” and they also give examples of the use of words in different contexts; grammar explanations are provided as well.
That’s really interesting and useful for language learners, actually as we are!
Podcasts are available to be listened to directly from the website, or you can download them on your computer.

Podcast.net
That’s a podcast directory where you can find podcasts about a number of different topics, vocabulary and language learning included.
There are podcasts available in spoken English that can help you to improve your listening skills and learn new words and expressions.

Very Vocabulary
That’s a non profit educational podcast where you can find podcasts devoted to the teaching of difficult English vocabulary.
The podcast is really useful to clarify the use and meaning of some difficult words, which we may not have heard of before!
For instance, I listened to a podcast where they explained the meaning and pronunciation of “onus” (which is an obligation or diagreable necessity) or “perfidy” (which means faithlessness and can be considered as a violation of promise or vow).
That’s quite interesting, even if podcasts are not divided into sections, so that you do not have the chance to choose which words you want to hear the explanation of!

I think that podcasts are among the most interesting tools available on the net which we’ve been suggested since the beginning of the course. However, I must say that it is quite difficult to access quickly all the podcasts for those who do not have the broadband, as I do. It takes half an hour to load a single podcast, so that I think that next time it’s better if I listen to them in the lab!
It would become too time demanding at home!

However, I’m realizing that my knowledge about the Internet and its applications is increasing week by week: how narrow-minded I was before, just surfing websites, using e-mails and forums!
However, I believe that it will take some time to me to become more and more confident with these new tools!

Camilla

That's del.icio.us

Hi everybody!
Here’s another week…and here’s another thing I didn’t know about web 2.0: del.icio.us!
I had no idea that it was possible to create an online “favourite list”, that’s very useful, handly, and I really appreciate the fact of having the chance to see my favourite websites wherever I want, and those of my “network” too!
Actually, I have no idea of hundreds of tools available on the Internet, but I’m sure that, thanks to this course, I’ll discover something more week by week!

I’m surely not so narrow – minded about the web as I was just a couple of weeks ago, but I must say that if I feel a bit upset about all these new tools I’m getting in touch with: they obviously make my life easier, but there are a lot of things I have to learn about them, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to use them properly!
However, I’m here to do the best I can, and I hope everything will work!

I had a look at all the favourites of the members of my network: they all found very interesting links to websites about various aspects of language learning. As we were supposed to do, I focused on a single website chosen by each member of my group, and here’s my remarks:

• English at home (elenavi’s favourite)
  This website is really friendly, complete and user-friendly thanks to the toolbar on the right side of the page. The most interesting section is the one dedicated to “speaking interaction”, with a number of useful sentences and expressions for each kind of situation. There are also avdices about what native speakers would say in each context of situation.
  Moreover, I tried the “Test yourself” section: I answered to 10 questions about modals and I got a score of 7 out of 10! In fact, I’m not so fond with modal verbs, and that’s why I chose them to assess myself!
  That’s really helpful, I think I’ll try other exercises as soon as I have some freetime!


• BBC Learning English (marina_fu’s favourite)
  That’s a very useful and complete guide to the English language learning experience; moreover, being a BBC website it’s very professional, effective, updated and well-structured.
  In my opinion, the most interesting part of the website is the “quizzes and exams” section: it is full of interesting tools available to test yourself, such as crosswords, examskills or tests for the listening skills. As for grammar, I really liked the “grammar challenge” section, with helpful advices to face tricky grammatical structures.


• Wordreference (Silvia_Lovato’s favourite)
  What can I say about it? I use it all the time, that’s a fantastic tool available on the web in order to find translations of words in various languages, such as English, Italian, French and Spanish.
  It is the most famouse, friendly-use and fast online dictionary.


• Fullbright IT and US exchange (urbanimarty’s favourite)
  That’s a very interesting website about exchanges between Italy and United States. Thet offer great opportunities for those who study English and want to improve their language skills by living for a period in an English speaking country.
  It is not exactly a website about langauge; however, it is interesting and it gives important information for those who are interested in doing such an experience abroad.


• Free English exercises (veronica_bozzato’s favourite)
  That’s a website which collects hundreds of exercises available to improve many aspects of English, such as grammar, vocabulary, verbs or listening skills. The layout of the pages is well-structured, they’re divided into several levels and topics so that the whole section is very effective. However, I tried to do some exercises about modals at the advanced level (the highest one) and I must admit that they were pretty simple, maybe too simple. Anyway, the interesting thing is that you can choose exactly what you want to be assesed on: for instance, there were exercises available on each single modal verb. That’s a very good opportunity in order to find exercises about specific topics!
  
  That’s all for the moment, hope you enjoyed my experience surfing on your favourites!Lola

Trick or Treat?

Photo by webgirlpip

Have you enjoyed your Halloween?

I know...I'm a little bit late with my "Happy Halloween" but here I am, hope you enjoyed your Halloween!!!

I'm happy to be in a group "for" Halloween, because I really am FOR Halloween! I also bought some pumpkins and decorations for my house, and some witch hats that we used during the party!!

I think that it is worth celebrating Halloween, even if it is something we borrowed from the Anglo-saxon culture, because it is nice, it is a reason to go out and have fun! Moreover, the day after the 31st October is holiday in Europe too, so there's no reason why we should not celebrate it!

However, I can understand adults who do not understand it, because they didn't grow up with this idea of "Halloween" and they don't even know or understand what it is!

Anyway, I think that Halloween will be more and more celebrated in the future, and in a few years it is going to become a European feast too!

Did you know that The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", which is now also known as All Saints' Day? (Wikipedia)

That's really interesting! I did't know it!

Trick or Treat?

Camilla

About Bloglines

Photo by Javier rIL

Here I am experiencing Bloglines for the first time!
I didn't know that such an interesting tool existed, I should have known it before spending hours and hours looking for "what's new" in the websites I usually look at!!!
However, here I am, I know it, and I intend to learn using it as much as possible!
That's absolutely great!

I get really surprised each time I come into contact with all these new tools provided by the Internet, and I feel very upset because I realize myself being completely "outside of the world of Information Technology"!
However, that's amazing to see how technology can make our life easier!
I quicky had a look at the section "About" in the main page of the Bloglines website, and I would like to quote a couple of sentences in order to explain in little details what Bloglines is:

"Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content."

"Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new "live" web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests..."

" Bloglines allows you to search for, read and share any updates from your favorite news feed or blog..."

Bloglines is very useful in order to be always informed on what's happening in your favourite blogs or forums, and though now I'm focusing on our English course blogs, it is great to have the opportunity of getting all the new posts directly just clicking on one single website!

However, I'm sure I'll subscribe also to the feeds of the blogs I usually visit for my own interest!

For the "ignorant" as I am about the blogosphere and its vocabulary , here's a definition of some of the new concepts we've come into contact during last few weeks:

FEED: A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator. A web feed is also sometimes referred to as a syndicated feed. (Wikipedia)

FEED AGGREGATOR: In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader or simply as an aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. (Wikipedia)

PODCAST: A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the

Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom. (Wikipedia)

ATOM: The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP is the acronym, but it is referred to as 'AtomPub' for short) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating Web resources.
Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a web site. To provide a web feed, a site owner may use specialized software (such as a content management system) that publishes a list (or "feed") of recent articles or content in a standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by web sites that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow Internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content. (Wikipedia)

BLOGLINE: Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator for browsing weblogs and other news feeds via syndicated feeds utilizing technologies such as Really Simple Syndication and ATOM. Unlike other feed readers that download posts directly to one's device, Bloglines is a server-side aggregation system, where blog entries are downloaded and updated on the server on a frequent basis. (Wikipedia)

That's all for the moment, hope you find my post interesting!!

Camilla

Language

After having read all your opinions about language in blogs, and after having thought about it, here's a short summary of what I think language in blogs should be.

Firs of all let me tell you that I think writing a blog is a great opportunity for a non native speaker to get into contact with everyday language. A blog is a free “place” where to express oneself, where to feel free to communicate whatever is important for each one, however each one want, and this is to be taken into great consideration; however, freedom does not mean that we can use slangs, or that we can write 2 for to, 4 instead of for or U in place of you. These abbreviations are mostly used in oral language, and would not be correct in written, though informal, language.
In fact, informal does not absolutely mean incorrect: grammar, prepositions, verbs, punctuation (maybe at a smaller extent) and spelling should always be right; basically, what changes is style, register, word choices, abbreviations, in order to make each post more personal, pleasant to be read, and easier to understand and follow!
In my opinion, the point is to express one’s personal style, whereas, for example, Academic English should be more impersonal!

While reading all the posts that the members of my group wrote about language, I came across with some cocepts expressed by some of my peers which I definitely agree with. For instance, I agree with Silvia when she says that "The way we write is inevitabily influenced by what we read. Therefore, we can learn how to improve our informal English only by reading a lot!"
That is absolutely true!
And that is why we should take advantage of this opportunity we have to come into contact with the blogospehre because we’ve got the chance to read a lot of things written in informal Enhlish.
Moreover, I agree with Veronica when she says that "We both think that peer reviewing is very useful both for the person who corrects, and for the person whose work is edited".
I think it is very important too, and we can really help each other only if we do not have any fear or hesitation to point out our peers’ mistakes.

Finally, I would like to say that long–winded sentences or paragraphs should be avoided in blogs (even if I think that it is very difficult for Italians), because there is the risk of boring the readers and not to focus on the main point of the subject matter.

Language and communication on the net are therefore so different from academic style that it is worth being explored and learnt.

Camilla

My first two weeks as a blogger

Well...I must say it: I didn't know anything about blogs!

So I've just come into contact with this huge and complex world: I was fit in using forums, which I often look at, but blogosphere was something unknown to me!

Well, now I've got my own blog and it sounds a bit strange to me! So that maybe the best thing I can do to learn using it is...using it! And going to visit other blogs!

I love the fact of having my own blog in English, because actually I'd really love to speak English all the time...at home, at university, in the streets...unfortunately I live in Italy!

Ok...I know Italy is a wonderful place...I know we eat so well...but...I've always loved English, since I started learning it at primary school, is it impossible to have an English speaking Italy?
I'm obviously joking!
I also love the fact of having the opportunity of using everyday English, in my own style!
(As I would never say during classes...) THAT'S AWESOME!!!

Surfing the net I've found this interesting website where you can build a map of the "world you've seen"!
Since my blog will essentially be about travels, I publish my map...it's not a lot, I know, but I hope I'll have the chance to see as much world as possible!
I'm only 23 now!




Well, If you want to create your own visited country map, this is the link!
It would be nice to see where you've been so far!

Camilla

Welcome to Lola's blog

Photo by Rachel Thecat

This is Bora Bora, one of the most famous places in the world!

I've decided to post this photo because I really love travelling, and I'd really like to have the chance to go to French Polynesia one day, it is my dream!
It is such a dream to me, and I'm such interested in travelling that I've spent my whole summer working for a tour operator which is specialized in organizing travels to French Polynesia and Seychelles Islands!
That's why this photo represents something about me...I've spent the last 3 months in a place where everything was about Tahiti and her islands, and I also had the opportunity of meeting some people from Polynesia, who came to take a course in the office where I worked.