DUOLINGO

   

This week, i would like to introduce you Duolingo which is a free language learning platform that includes a language learning website and app, as well as a digital language proficiency assessment center. It offers fifty-four different courses across twenty three languages.

                Duolingo was created by Carnegie Mellon University professor Luis Von Ahn and his graduated student Severin Hacker.  Now, all materials and activities are written and edited by expert team of teachers and authors and are organized into core subject areas such as Skills, Grammar and Vocabulary. Everybody can find whatever they are looking for language learning.

               

Duolingo helps you learn new vocabulary and grammar through interactive games and quizzes. There is a strong emphasis on pronunciation since you will listen to new vocabulary and then right away practise saying those words. It also shows your progress as you use the program.

                Duolingo is suitable for everyone who wants to learn a foreign language himself as a second language, especially in English and the other social languages such as French, Espanola etc. Thousands of teachers also use it to enhance their lessons. Duolingo lessons give each student personalized feedback and practise preparing them to get the most out of classroom instruction.

   The purpose of Duolingo is to provide extensive written lessons and dictation with speaking practice for more advanced used. It also helps you target your weakest words. It shows them while you work through module.  A lot of the learning that goes on in Duolingo is visual. There are pictures for learning vocabulary, colors that indicate whether you are right or wrong and highlighted tapable text for new words and grammar points. You also have to complete lesson to unlock new lessons. This is great for lazy language learners who need a little extra motivation.

               

    I recommend this website because it is really professionally prepared  and very dependable. It is easy to use for everyone.  It can be seen  that creator of the page has been making an effort to help both the learners and teachers.  You will spend funny time in Duolingo while you are working with it. I use it to learn in French now and I will use it to learn other languages such as Espanola. I can also say that when i start my career, I will use this site. If you want to learn a new language as professionally, this site is at your service!

FOLLOW BLOGS EASILY WITH RSS

This week's assignment is about RSS feed reader. I will introduce RSS.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.

There are many RSS Reader options available on the internet that you can either download or use online. I prefer using an online service which is called FeedReader. 

RSS feedreaders are very useful tools for following the content changes, updates, announcements etc from the blogs you follow. You can personalize your page adding categories  and placing the blogs you follow under these categories. You can also make a search by keywords and the feedreader will then list all the results from the blogs you follow.

As you can see above, I follow several blogs and FeedReader helps me a lot keeping up with the latest posts and it is really simple to use,too. Among these blogs, I have a favourite one that I recommend for EFL teachers to check : Özge KARAOĞLU

She is a English teacher, ELT author, freelance teacher trainer and educational consultant

in teaching young/very young learners, teaching with web based technologies; for international organizations, schools and institutes. The blogger posts about novel and innovative ways of teaching. She has many radical ideas which, I think, is what makes this blog interesting.  Teaching with the web-based technologies is the main concern of the blog so you can find many teaching tips whose aim is to combine tech and education and create effective ways for learners in the process of language learning.

I hope it will be useful for you, see you next week ! :)

FROZEN REVIEW

Hello everyone! This week we were supposed to prepare a wiki page about a movie that we watch before. We needed to write a review about the movie. It was a group project. My partner was Şule Genç. We decided to watch an animation movie which is suitable for every age: FROZEN. You can read our review from this link.

      We met with wiki project at the first time. So we thought it would be difficult for us but it was not. On the contrary, Wikispace is a website which you can easily shape your posts and add images, gifs etc. Everybody can reach your opinions about your post and you have the chance to edit your post whenever you want. However; different people can examine your post and they can change somethings in the Wikispace even if you do not want this change. I think it may be one of the disadvantages of the site.

      While we were writing our review, we had fun. We listened and sang the songs of the movie together. Sometimes we had even danced with the songs  .This situation had caused a waste of time. But that was really enjoyable for us.

            This project is useful for the terms of using technology with students to share their own experiences, thoughts and recommendations. It is a really easy way of getting information in a fast way. You can observe this screenshoots in order to better understand Wikispace.

 

Finally, I want to mention a little why we choosed this movie. It emphasizes that family and love are very important for every alive. They say in the movie : ''We don't have to feel it any more, Love is an open door.Love is an open door, life can be so much more... ''  I strongly recomend you to watch the movie.  I believe that everyone will find something on himself / herself in the movie. I hope you to enjoy it! 

 Here are some related videos:
Trailer 
Let it Go 
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? 
Official Site 

'' THE FEARFUL SCREAM ''

      This week, we were supposed to make a podcast in pairs. I interviewed with Şule. We decided to create a sound rich story and narrate it together. The name of our story is ' The Fearful Scream '. It tells us a fearful event that happened to two friends. The story is suitable for A2 students. It was funny but hard work at the same time for us. We used two telephone and one computer at the same time. We changed our sounds and we added some effect in some places. Despite the difficulties, i think  podcasting is very useful for learners to improve their pronunciation and listening skills.

         This is my first podcast. I hope you have a nice time without fear. :)

       

          It was such a lovely, sunny day. We were walking in the park when we heard a loud scream. (AAAA!) We looked at each other and followed the voice. Then we saw a big balloon hanging from a tree. There was a letter tied to the balloon. We wondered what was written in the letter. When I was trying to catch the letter, my friend said:

         ''STOP!IT MAY BE DANGEROUS FOR US!''

         The time we were discussing opening the letter or not, the balloon suddenly blew up!

         EVERYWHERE WAS COVERED WITH BLOOD. THE SKY GOT DARKER AND DARKER, HEAVY THUNDERSTORMS AND RAIN BEGAN.

        We were shocked, we couldnt move, breathe and speak. We picked up the letter from ground, in fear.

        ''STEP INTO THE DARKNESS, SAY GOODBYE TO THE LIGHT. WE LIVE IN AN ETERNITY WHERE EVERYDAY IS NIGHT!''

was written on the letter.

        Suddenly, the little girl screamed again! (AAAA!)

        ''HELP, COME AND SAVE ME!''

        THEN A STRONG WIND STARTED.

        There was no one else to help her except us. So we followed the voice, walked into the forest. We passed tall and dancing trees and finally we saw the little girl. She was standing on a bridge. Her last words before falling of the bridge were:

       ''YOU SHOULD HAVE STUDIED YOUR ENGLISH EXAM!''

       ''WAKE UP HONEY, IT IS TIME TO GO SCHOLL.''

        Omg, such a bad dream!