APPS

English:Just on 

The Fingertips !

Hello everyone!

This time, we study apps ! As a tool of English language learning and teaching. As we know, by the development of technology,we can attain whatever asked for, just by the means of mobile phones anymore. As well as the specialities that our phones have, they also enable a great affordance for applications that can be puchased and also for the ones free of charge actually. We can find educational ones among them too.By the bucketload! Sure language teaching based ones..So now why not turning them into our routine English laerning tools ??

As i mentioned before; there are a great many of language learning apps,too and now i want to introduce just one of them, tell about how does it work and what can be the possible benefits of this kind of application in English language education and so on. While i was just searching for language learning based apps i came up with one of Cambridge English Learning apps called Cambridge Starters 4. Actually It is formed of three different versions called Cambridge Starters, Cambridge Movers, and Cambridge Flyers according to their proficiency levels. And each version also has several stages as like 1-2-3.. in accordance of their difficulty level again.Now, let’s begin to introduce content of the app in detail.

When you log in the application you see 3 different tests which contain a series of questions and activities. And an ‘’About’’ section which informs you how to use the application. Each test of Starters is made up of three papers developed as Listening, Reading&Writing and Speaking papers mainly.And each of papers has several parts that contains a range of activities again.So let’s click on one of the tests and try it out !

When i start the test I see a Listening test which consist of 4 different parts.Each part contains Listen&match (where the user draws a line from each object given at the out of the one big picture,to the place where it is on the big picture in accordance with the recorded conversations between a man and woman.) Listen&answer ( where the user listens to the recording carefully and write the correct answer -name or number- after each question, Listen&choose (where the user listens to five short conversations between different pairs of people and choose the right answers -A,B or C- for the questions, and Listen&Colour Stage (where the user colours the objects given in accordingly with the colour they say in the conversation)

When it comes to Reading&Writing test, it contains five different parts and again variable activities such as filling in the gaps,spelling single words,reading and comprehending activities as you see at pictures below.And finally the Speaking test has five parts again. But this time the user takes the test alone with the examiner, but someone they know who speaks their language (like their teacher) The examiner explains what to do in English and the user does kind of speaking activities like introducing the objects,telling about the pictures and so on.

‘’Cambridge Startes’’ is available on GooglePlayStore and AppleStore. It is actually a young learner English learning application and seems like most kind of a self-learning activity.But in my opinion it also can be used in a classroom environment maybe by the means of a projector and make fun of practicing English learning. And i can say that it can be a good choice as an activity in order to develop students’ listening,comprehending and speking skills in the classroom.Especially for listening developing fulfillment. We can touch upon self-learners that this apllication can be an assistant tool to practice their skills and even just by the fingertips of their own. ..

Digital Story Telling

WOOHHOOw THAT’S AMAZING !!

Yess! here is a new age on English Language Teaching and learning. One more step for a productive and a supplier education. I have one more an amazing material here you can use for your pedagogic puposes in a classroom which is ‘’Digital story telling’’ . So now, let me tell about it!

Digital story telling is a kind of  a short  form of digital media production  that allows individuals to tell  a story or present an idea. This media production also includes digital effects equivalent of film techniques like full-motion video with sound,animation,stills and audio.And  This week we have done a digital story telling project of our own  with my fellow worker  Merve Kuru. I can say that  It was really a  different and entertaining endeavor . We also think that it is extremely educational. Before mentioning  about its educational benefits  i want to tell how a process we have followed on creating a digital story telling and what was the difficulties on preparing  such a project.

First of all we had to find an animation video maker program to implement our story on.After a research on the internet we have diceded to use the program called Animaker. Click here if you’d like to visit the program. Aniamker is an online animated video making platform which is so simple to use. It has all the tools you need for an animation film (like carachters,objects,sounds, musics,frames movement tools, facial expression choices, scenes and so on). Seeing that it had all the things we needed for our story on our minds too, we began to develop our  story named as ‘’Miranda’s Christmas Party’’ . In addition we have created our voice recordings which were needed for the dialogs in the film.  The program has an tutorial video ehen you firstiy enter on it. Because we have watched it beforehand, it was  so pretty easy to create the scnenes, record or upload the sounds, set the motions and the music.  This was also the thing made the working so enjoyable actually.

  

It was first time we had experienced such an activation.And i can say that we got shocked more and more on each step where we had done some applications on the program. There was a super technology there making all the implementations easier, inspiring the user and of course providing an entertaining cooperation with your fellow worker.  Preparing the project with a co-worker was also another thing that made the working so enjoyable and easy actually. Most probobly it would be a kind of boring workind if i had had to prepare my project on my own. So i believe that even if it will be tasked, it should be done cooperatively. So, here is our digital story telling video below if you’d like to watch;

When it comes to the difficulties we had while creating this project; the most challenging part of the task was just completing some little details on the video like timing the speakers’ sound, music,object effects and applying some motions and synchronisation of the several sounds on the same scene etc. It was troublesome a little bit but of course was soluble with a cooperation as well.

So, As a result, i can say that using such a task for your educational purposes in your classrooms can be extremely fruitful.It is a greatly educational task in terms of making the students learn to cooperate, using technology, learn to create an English dialog and pronounce this kind of conversations. And because of  its English context, It can also enable them to learn more vocabularies while using the program. You can either make them use this kind of program or  have them watch your video you created yourself to provide an entertaining English listening practice in classroom. J

Click click click !

Come and Join Our Yard !

Hello everyone ! Here i have a website probably you have used it before actually. Because it is a very popular website that is used by many people interested in English learning lately. That is Speechyard. ! Actually i have been using this website for awhile now.But you, If you haven't heard it before let's come and explore that entertaining and also educating website.

 
First of all, if it is needed to explain this website, i mean Speechyard,it can be said that it is an English teaching based website for students, It is a place where English learners have a perfect opportunity to improve their English and expand language knowledge by means of educational entertainment. Learning English through movies and books and translating unknown words from subtitles and add them to your library for further learning are just some parts of activities that will guide you through your English learning process. It has even more than these !


Before introducing Speechyard more, i can say that it is a very easy-used page that you will just need clicking on the tabs. First of all you should choose your native language that the words will be translated in, when you need. Actually the website has three main sections which are content, laerning and community as you can see the picture of them below.

When you enter in ''Content section'' which is also the home page,you will see a Categories tab on the left.It has some categorations of its contents such as video clibs, films,serials,books,documents,interviews,shows,commercials and more.


All of them consists of some related videos that you can watch and also while watching, providie subtittles of those videos. Furthermore ,There is one another good alternative that when you have a trouble in understanding the videos you can click on the word or phrase of the subtitle you don't understand and see the translated meaning and also the pronounciation of the word. You can add them to your library that you will have on your own Speechyard website and have the chance of studying them later.You can do this just by clicking on add section of the word. As you can see the picture of the process below.

When it comes to ''Learning section'' you will see some activities such as word constructor , dictionary cards listening writing and translating exercises and that will help you study English more. There are some examples showing the process below.

And finally when you come to ''Community section'' you see some friends from all over the world  that you can communicate with them and practice your speech ! :)

The Speechyard website is so very easy-used and well-organised and extremely entertaining site that i can definitely recommend to all the English language learners. It has two different versions that are free of charge and waged versions. If you would like to practice on all of its activities you must buy the pro- version that is waged and doesn't requires money much. Now, go and begin to use this amazing website. I am sure you will have fun of it. Come and join our speechyard. :)