The world of PODCASTS

Dear all,
this week I'm going to talk about podcasting. The origin of this word derives from the combination of two popular nouns; "iPod" (the mp3 player) and "broadcasting" (from radio and television). A podcast is an audio-file or a video that you download from the internet. After you download it you can listen to it on your computer or on an mp3/portable music player whenever you want.

The task of the e-tivity of this week is quite complex; we are supposed to explore the world of podcasts, to find three of them which can be useful for our English listening practice, to save them in del.icio.us, to comment on them in our personal blog, and finally to upload an audio-file in which we record our impressions about this new experience.

Following you can find three podcasts I chose in order to carry out this e-tivity:
1- Series Information: English As A Second Language Podcast;
2- Digital Podcast;
3- The English Blog.
The reason why I chose these podcasts is that I was interested in their contents.

In "Series Information: English As A Second Language Podcast" there are many audio-files dealing with different sujects; you can find situations of the every-day life reproduced on one audio-file. For example you can find how to ask for a rise, how to give bad news and condolences, how to get a licence, how to get a men's haircut. Furthermore, you can learn the problems of having a jealous girlfriend and many other interesting things.
The average duration of an audio-file is twenty minutes; some audios are longer; other are shorter.
Thanks to these audios one can improve and practice his/her English listening skills.

In "Digital Podcast" you can listen to simple and daily news. You can find many audio-files dealing with different news; for example "Pop star Kylie returns to stage in Sydney", "Madonna defends Malawi Child Adoption", "Men suffer from Compulsive Shopping too" etc...
If you click on www.breakingnewsenglish.com, you can find many other "lessons" based on different subjects: business English, enviroment, heatlh, issues, lifestyle, people, enterteinment, gossip, technology and world news.

In "The English Blog" you can find audio-files based on different levels of English and dealing with different subjects, for example: "Business English Pod", "English, Baby! Daily Lesson" and "Listen English- Learn English". I was particularly interested in the last podcast and so I listened to it. According to Peter Carter, the producer of this audio-file, "The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are three short (2 or 3 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. You can download them to your computer [...]. You can put the podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player, and listen to them on your way to school or work. The full text of each podcast is on this site (and will also appear on your iPod screen), so you can look up the meanings of words that you do not understand in a dictionary. Then close your eyes and listen!". In my opinion this is a good description of podcasting which helps people to understand the reason why it is so useful.

In conclusion, as far as the podcasts I chose are concerned, I can states that from the structure point of view they are very similar to each other; what changes from one podcast to another one is its content.

That's all for the moment!
See you soon!
Barbara

Here below you will find my personal audio-file...Please, don't listen to it!!!



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Introduction to the GENRE OF WEBSITES

Hello everybody!
As you can clearly understand from the title, this week I'm going to discuss the genre of websites. Just to make it clear, the word "genre" indicates different kinds of literary and artistic works and it deals with conventions and communities of people.

The task of the e-tivity of this week is to start analysing the genre of websites. In particular, we have to choose two websites we put into del.icio.us last week, to identify the audience to which the two websites are addressed and finally, to analyse the language features.

The two websites I have chosen are "English Learning" and "A Genre Analysis of Blogs" (home page: "Into the Blogsphere"). The reason why I have chosen these websites is that they are similar as regards their homepages but they differ from one another in their internal pages.

In the home page of "English Learning" you can find a brief introduction which explains to you the aim of this website and in what it consists ("everything, from lessons for students to jobs for teachers..."). Therefore, there is a double audience for this website: English learners and Teachers. Furthermore, this website is characterized by many key-words which are the links to the next pages of the website.
The paragraphs aren't long at all; they are characterized by simple and short sentences which provide a brief explanation on the upper link or of the title.
The language used is descriptive (the authors of the website give an explanation on the aspect you are interested in); it is very simple and concise; the verb tense used in this website is the present tense, and finally, this website presents many hyperlinks.

In the home page of " Into The Blogsphere" there is a brief introduction which explains to you what this website is (" This online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities."). Its aim is to provide pieces of information about the blogsphere.
There are few paragraphs characterized by complete and simple sentences; the language used in the home page is informative and informal; but if we click on a link, for example on "Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog" we realise that the language used in this page is formal and therefore, it is different from that used in the front page; probably this is due to the fact that the audience the two pages are addressed to chances; the audience of the home page is represented by people who have been using the blogsphere for the very first time, whereas that of the link I clicked on is represented by academics.
The verb tenses used are the present tense and the present perfect. Moreover, the conditional is used as well.
In the home page there are many links and hyperlinks.

Summing up, I can state that the home pages of the websites I chose are very similar to each other; however, the structure of the internal pages of the two websites and the language used are very different from one another (short paragraphs and informal language on the one hand; long paragraphs and formal language on the other hand).

Well, that's all for the moment!
Bye

Barbara

Comment on SOCIAL BOOK MARKING


Dear all,
the e-tivity we are supposed to carry out this week deals with social book marking.
Social book marking is a way to store and share your favourite websites and blogs online. First of all, we were supposed to explore http://del.icio.us and find five websites we were interested in, but also of interest to our classmates.

Most of us found websites dealing with the English Language, i.e. English errors, English listening, the use and the non-use of articles, English synonyms; with subjects connected to University (Tulane University); and also to our future after it (stages and master abroad and in Italy). For each website we were supposed to make a post on del.icio.us in which we briefly described it.
Then, we were supposed to comment on a bookmark of each of our classmates but this was a problem because each of us was registered in del.icio.us with a nick-name and not with his/her proper name. For example, I was registered as "bbaby83". I found five interesting websites:
Language Translation: English, French, German, datch, Finnish, Czech, Italian & Portuguese ;
Guide to Grammar and Writing ;
11 rules of writing - a coincise guide to important grammar, punctuation, and writing style rules ;
Variation in English words and phrases ;
English as a Second Language Glossary of Idiomatic English Expressions .

As far as my classmates' choises are concerned, I think they found very interesting websites too. I am particularly interested in:
"Blogging from beginners: ProBlogger Blog Tips" because it is an introduction on the basic elements of blogging and, as this is my first experience in the blogsphere, it is very useful for me;
"Guide to Punctuation" because you can find some easy but very important instructions on how to use commas, full stops, colons etc...;
"English Synonym" because synonyms are very useful for improving your writing skills.
Finally, in "Steges in Italy and abroad" and "University master in Italy".

In my opinion social book marking is very useful; as a matter of fact thank's to my classmates's favourite websites I found some interesting pieces of information I will use after my degree (for example, to find a stage or a master).

Well guys, that's all for the moment!
Bye

Barbara