CNN Posting : Dozens dead in Japan volcano eruption

 This was especially shocking news to me, because I traveled Japan in this July.
I loved the place I experienced. That was Tokyo, and I heard Mt. Ontake located 200km west of Tokyo, and the volcano is known as the second highest volcano in Japan.
Because of the eruption, 99 people has been dead or injured. It sounds really disasterous.

Daily Life : Dynamic Duo at CAU

Yesterday was the second day of LUCAUS, CAU's annual festival.

For the day, Dynamic Duo came to CAU!!

Their rapping was awesome, espicially I liked BAAAM!!, one of their famous songs.

This evening, YB will come to CAU, and I am really anticipating his live.



Daily Life : I got new smartphone

I bought new smartphone yesterday!!
As you can see, it is 'LG G Pro2'. It has 5.9 inches Full HD display.
The display is amazaingly big and vivid.
I was always unsatisfied with iPhone's small screen.
(I told about this in one of my postings)
Now, I am totally satisfied with this big screen!!
But,,, there's one disadvantage of that. I can't put it in my trouser pocket.....
Anyway, I like it!!

Tasks in Class : Skill Practice Assignment II : Creating my own corpus and condance with Animation Scripts

 To make my own concordancer for middle school students, I used the written scripts of "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", "Mulan", and "the Incredibles" as my corpus data.

 

Tasks in Class : My 4th Discussion Forum

1.Explain the two listening techniques: top-down vs. bottom-up and tell us when you employ each technique for what purpose.
 
 In short, top-down listening is for catching general idea on what you heard. The listeners don't have to know every bits of words perfectly, because through using their own background knowledge, such as contexts, topic, or situation, they can offset what they missed. In contrast, in bottom up listening, it is on the central focus to grasp every details of what they heard bit by bit. In this listening, listeners use strategies like dividing or analyzing listening contents.
 
 I thought when the learner's listening competence is in beginning level, using bottom-up strategy is much more desirable. The listeners have to develop their listening skills to some degree for utilizing background knowledge as a assistive strategy. Thus, bottom-up listening can be used for equipping learners with basic listening skills and knowledge. When they are geared with those basics, you'd better use top-down listening.  Top-down listening is much more close to real-world listening. It is more authentic and practical than bottom-up listening. Therefore, only with bottom-up listening, learners will comprehend few things in real conversation. Through top-down listening learners can develop their fluency more effectively.

2. What type of listening materials do you think good for top-down or? bottom-up strategies? Review the listening materials and select some for each.
 
 First up, I reviewed movies, audiobooks, and TOEIC listening CD as listening materials. Movies and audiobooks have something in common in the aspect that authentic languages are used in both them. It means they contain real-world language. However, there is difference between them. Movie scripts are mainly spoken language, but audiobooks' language is more related to written language, because its source is written texts. Meanwhile, TOEIC listening material is made for testing. It is very far from authentic use of language. Speeches in it are artificially made by its designers. That means it uses more clear and plain language than movies or audiobooks. For these reasons, I thought TOEIC listening materials fit well with bottom-up listening, and Movie is more proper for top-down listening.

3. What is podcasting? Discuss the benefits of doing podcasting for L2 learners.
 
 Originally, podcasts were audio files that broadcasted through internet by various people, but video files can be podcasts. It doesn't have fixed frame or rule, so anybody can be the broadcaster easily and freely. Also, the listeners or viewers can easily access to it just by downloading it from iTunes or from many webpages.
 
 As I mentioned, its diversity of contents is its primary trait, and that can be huge benefit in L2 learning. That is, with podcasting, we can cover each learner's various interests. This is very important point, because fulfilling learners' interests are directly related to their intrinsic motivation which becomes huge power to make them continue to study. Also, using podcasting in language class can be mentioned as a kind of CBT. Understanding Podcasting's contents become major goal, and language learning get relatively less attention in the classroom. We can induce subconscious and implicit language learning through it. Lastly, there are podcastings for learning English. It uses relatively easy English than normal podcastings. That would be very helpful for the learners at the beginning level.    

CNN Posting : U.S. begins airstrikes in Syria

 This news clip shows that U.S. started air strike on the region under ISIS's control.
I wish this action to be good start for eliminating ISIS and their crimes on sinless people.
Also, I wish those attacks to be successful and to make minimum damage on civilians.

This is part of the article from New York Times website. You can get more information through it.

 The United States and five Arab allies launched a wide-ranging air campaign against the Islamic State and at least one other extremist group in Syria for the first time early Tuesday, targeting the groups’ bases, training camps and checkpoints in at least four provinces, according to the United States military and Syrian activists.

The intensity of the attacks struck a fierce opening blow against the jihadists of the Islamic State, scattering its forces and damaging the network of facilities it has built in Syria that helped fuel its seizure of a large part of Iraq this year.

Separate from the attacks on the Islamic State, the United States Central Command, or Centcom, said that American forces acting alone “took action” against “a network of seasoned Al Qaeda veterans” from the Khorasan group in Syria to disrupt “imminent attack planning against the United States and Western interests.”

Officials did not reveal where or when such attacks might take place.

Al Qaeda cut ties with the Islamic State earlier this year because the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, disobeyed orders from Al Qaeda to fight only in Iraq. Just days ago, American officials said the Khorasan group, led by a shadowy figure who was once in Osama bin Laden’s inner circle, had emerged in the past year as the Syria-based cell most intent on launching a terror attack on the United States or on its installations overseas.

The latest campaign opened with multiple strikes before dawn that focused on the Islamic State’s de facto capital, the city of Raqqa, and on its bases in the surrounding countryside. Other strikes hit in the provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasaka, whose oil wells the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, have exploited to finance its operations.

The extent of the damage caused by the strikes remained unclear. Centcom said the wave of fighter planes, bombers, drones and cruise missiles struck 14 targets linked to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Hot News : 2014 Incheon Asian Games has begun

 

 Opening ceremony of 17th Asian Games was held on the last friday. I heard that some of my friends thought is was totally a mess, and I agree with that opinion partly. Anyway, here I upload time table of games. Let's check games' schedules for not missing them.