Discussion Question 4

1. According to Wikipedia, top-down and bottom-up are both strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, mostly involving software, but also other humanistic and scientific theories. In practice, they can be seen as a style of thinking and teaching. In many cases top-down is used as a synonym of analysis or decomposition, and bottom-up of synthesis. Top down approach starts with the big picture. It breaks down from there into smaller segments.
A top-down approach is essentially the breaking down of a system to gain insight into its compositional sub-systems. In a top-down approach an overview of the system is formulated, specifying but not detailing any first-level subsystems.
A bottom-up approach is a type of information processing based on incoming data from the environment to form a perception. Information enters the eyes in one direction (input), and is then turned into an image by the brain that can be interpreted and recognized as a perception (output). In a bottom-up approach the individual base elements of the system are first specified in great detail. These elements are then linked together to form larger subsystems, which then in turn are linked, sometimes in many levels, until a complete top-level system is formed.

2. http://www.ellentv.com/

The Ellen Degeneres Show is good for top-down approach. It has entertainment, story, people, facebook updates, criticism for the unfairness. Just by briefly listenting to the show, students can enjoy with catching keywords.

3. According to Wikipedia, a podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. The word is a neologism derived from "broadcast" and "pod" from the success of the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on portable media players.
To discuss the benefit of podcasting for L2 learners, it is important to have a premise of diligent L2 learners who are intrinsically motivated. They can make themselves used to listening L2, analyzing the story of each and catch new words. They can also dictate.

My lifelong question solved!

"Which one tastes better?" 검색결과 약 57,700개
"Which one is tastier?" 검색결과 약 14,300개
"Which one is more tasty?" 검색결과 약 22,000개

collocation

pay bill
pay debt
pay costs
pay lunch
pay service

make mistake
make promise
make invoice
make money
make deal

give presentation
give message
give discount
give calculation
give expenses

CALL Review 1

Teaching Vocabulary

Introduction : problems of teaching vocabulary at school - many teachers demand their students to memorize vocabulary in a short time. The vocabulary they memorize is occasionally far from their daily usage. Usually the characteristics of vocabulary lists are mostly needed for TOEFL, TOEIC exams. They also include Korean SAT words but at private institutes, they demand more.

I think I can employ crossword puzzles in English classes which is more fun compared to teaching definitions, introducing examples and making students memorize words. If I guide them the way making crossword puzzles on computer, they can make their own and test their vocabulary skills.

Christmas crossword puzzle

This is from eclipse crossword and it was so interesting !

September 11, 2012 Lecture

If you know 5,000 words, you can understand written English about 90%. In order to understand the rest of 10%, you need 83,000 words. So it is very hard for ESL learners to master English words. Learning and teaching vocabulary is very important. After mastering your vocabulary word books, you cannot get the words out of your mouth. Why? Soohyun said that the words did not completely become ours and understand them fully. If we look at the words in a written form, we may easily get the meaning. However, since we did not develop productive use, we are puzzled when we have to use them due to lack of experience. We can comprehend but cannot use those words for conversation or essays.

What do you mean by "knowing vocabulary"? - spelling, grammatical category(part of speech), definition, tense form, prefixes/suffixes, pronunciation(sound), etc.

1. Form - spoken, written, word parts(prefixes/suffixes)
2. Meaning - form and meaning, concept and referents(plus nuance), association
3. Use - grammatical functions, collocations, constraints on use

Discussion 2 - 1st question

Read and compare the vocabulary methodologies introduced in this article.

• Which ones do you think the most useful? Tell three methodologies you want to use for your students?

Lewis, 1997

What is lexical approach? Discuss Michael Lewis's four categories. How is this idea different from what you have known about language and language learning?

Michael Lewis (1993) challenged the standard view of dividing language teaching into grammar and vocabulary by arguing that language consists of lexical items. He treats them as belonging to four major categories.
A relatively small group of lexical items is the words and polywords. A second category is collocations. In Lewis's approach, a third category is fixed expressions, and a fourth, semi-fixed expressions.

Language fluency and accuracy is achieved largely by retrieving and combining ready-made chunks of language. ‘The ability to chunk language successfully is central to understanding of how language works' (Lewis, 1997).

Sep 4

First day of 'Use of Multimedia in ELT' class!