王薇榕's Podcast

Today, my topic is "to learn English through DVD film"
There are 3 questions to be answered by the following:

1. How to learn English through DVD film?
2. What have I learnt from the film Ally McBeal?
3. What do I think about this way of learning English?

1. How to learn English through DVD film?
(1) Turn to the Chinese subtitle to get the overall understanding
(2) Change to the English subtitle and learn certain usages of spoken English
(3) cancel the subtitles to practice listening ability

2. What have I learnt from Ally McBeal?
(1) Linguistic evidence:

WORDS
- make-believe = fake
- on purpose = intentionally
- get over = to successfully deal with a problem or difficulty
- be profiled in a magazine = have one's picture on the cover of the magazine
- groupie = a young woman who follows popular musicians or other famous people around
- backstab = to secretly do bad things to someone else

PHRASES
- The percentage will be less = very very little chance
- more than just friends = lovers
- triggle old feelings = to evoke the feelings
- between you and me = a secret and don't tell other people
- Don't get me wrong = don't misunderstand what I said
- What the hell.... = exactly
- I'd be happy to.
Evidently
=> to accept an invitation

(2) Cultural information:

TERMS ABOUT THE COURT
- the titles for people within the court:
the defendant, the defendant's lawyer, the district attorney, the witness, the client, the judge, and members of the jury.

- terms used in the court:
to plead guilty, nothing further, objection, objection overruled, verdict, adjourn

OTHERS
- Jennifer O'Neill

3. What do I think about this way of learning English?
(1) I can learn many things, such as new words, phrases, their usages, and culture of the foreigners.
(2) I can learn with lots of fun without any stress.

Today I will introduce how to do the blogreading through RSS.

Firstly, do you know what RSS is?
According to Wikipedia,
RSS is the abbreviation of Really Simple Syndication, and usually used by news websites, weblogs, and podcasting. It is used by the weblog community to share the latest entries' headlines or their full text, and even attached multimedia files.

As a language learner, how can we use this tool for increasing English abilities?
Just need to sign up and log in, you can add blogs you found interesting or useful to you. Then, you can get the updated articles of all the weblogs you have added at any time, and can read all of them within only one window, instead of searching them one by one. For some weblogs, you can even listen to or watch the informations.

Where can we search blogs with RSS services?
1. blogsearch.google.com
2. www.technorati.com

The blog I want to introduce is BBC Learning English.
It was designed especially for those who want to "learn" English.
There are many catagories, including the News English, Business English, Watch and Listen, Grammar and Vocabulary, Quizzes, and the Flatmates. All of the articles are for leisure or practical usages to raise learners' learning motivations or input some cultural manners. Moreover, there are vocabulary explanation below each articles, audios to practice your listening, and scripts for you to check your comprehention.
Most importantly, there is a catagory for teachers. It provides articles with lesson plan attached!

In my opinion, blogline is a really good tool.
It saves your time, and you can get the updated articles.
However, the only defect is that it is kind of hard to find an appropriate weblogs!!

Today I will introduce another useful website for writing in English
view.byu.edu
In this website, I can search certain words or phrases, and their usages by typing in some key words.

(1) Distinction of the usages among Demand, Require, and Need
1. Demand is used in economy
Ex.
demand curves / pattterns (市場需求圖表)
demand shock
demand function
demand condition
2. Require and Need have nearly the same usages, however
Require usually follows with words like
information, planning, approval, treatment, or assistance
Need usually follows with words like
help, time, money, support, or food

(2) Specific words about "smell"
1. unpleasant smell: fetor, reek, stench, and stink
2. pleasant smell: aroma, fragrance, perfume, and scent
3. sweet smell: bouquet, and redolence
4. acrid smell: acridity, and pungency

(3) The parts of a "car"
roof (車頂)
car door (車門)
floorboard (車底)
wheels (車輪)
fenders (擋泥板)
trunk (行李箱)
engine (引擎)
bonnet (引擎蓋)
air bag (安全氣囊)
horn (喇叭)
accelerator (油門)
gear (排檔): first gear (一檔), low gear (二檔), third gear (三檔), and reverse gear (倒退檔)

I think this website is really a good tool for my English writing because of its good and clear charts to dinstinguish the usages of words having the same meaning in Chinese. And the most important thing is that by using this website, I can expand my vocabulary amount.

Today I will introduce some useful tools for writing in English

First, I would like to share the tools I always use when writing
They are the Far-East Online Dictionary, the Dr. Eye Online Dictionary, and Yahoo Intelligence Plus.
I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of each of them

And then, I am going to introduce three more online tools
the Babel Fish Online Dictionary
the Longman Dictionary of Comtemporary English CD-ROM
and the Onelook Dictionary
through my translation homework last week

The topic of the translating article is about "Savant Syndrome"
I used the Babel Fish Online Dictionary to find some English words by typing their Chinese names
Ex.
神經系統 --> nervous system
即席演奏 --> extemporaneous performance
鋼琴協奏曲 --> Piano Concerto
However, it makes mistakes as well
Ex.
生長發育障礙 is not "growth growth barrier"!!

I also used the Onelook Dictionary to find out the related words about Savant Syndrome
Ex.
autism (自閉症)
cerebral palsy (腦性麻痺)
neurophysiology (神經生理)

Finally, I used Longman Dictionary of Comtemporary English CD-ROM to find the collocations for the word "disease"
Ex.
suffer from the disease
contrate the disease
catch the disease
the spread of the disease
something cause the disease
an infectious disease
be dying from the disease

All in all, we can use the online dictionary as a good tool when writing in English, but the most important thing is to guarantee the usage of what you found through the tool. Don't make jokes by over trusting the tools!!

Today I will introduce you a very useful website to improve English abilities
www.eslpod.com
In today's show, you will hear a brief introduction of this website, my attitute toward it, and what I have learnt from it

ESL Podcast#110 "Hotel Reservations"

1.to crash :
to stay at someone else's house for a very short of time

2.to book :
to make a reservation

3.toll-free :
a free call, not need to charge for it
In America, numbers like 800, 866, 877, and 888 are toll-free numbers.

4.phone-tree :
an automatic voice message

5.queen room :
the size of the bed. It is the second biggest. The biggest is the "king room"

6.standard room :
the normal or cheaper room. The room bigger than it is called suite.

7.courtyard view :
the room looks onto other rooms

Literally, it is iPod plus broadcast
That is we can hear broadcast from it, and download them to our iPod
The function of Podcast is just as Blog
However, instead of words, we record voices to express ourselves
Beside of being a host, we can subscribe other people's Podcast,
and becoming a guest

It is a very helpful technology for me
because I can improve my English speaking and listening abilities

This week, I choose a show called "Trends Taste and Travel"
From this show,
I learn some cultures in Europe
as well as some words which are not used frequently
For example,
hit --> reach or arrive at
buck --> one US dollar