EFS 689E - STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Learning English on Your Own

Notes

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                3. Speed control

                4. Graphic equalizer (set to voice/speech): on Windows media player under Enhancements

                5. Multiple windows (e.g, for simultaneous video & transcript): http://ecorner.stanford.edu.

            B. Recording monologues: pronunciation practice, question responses; oral journal; storytelling; presentations: use Windows Sound Recorder (note: pause briefly before 1-minute if you want to record longer) (in the All Programs menu under Accessories>Entertainment>), Audacity, or another recorder with high quality sound. Keep a file of all you recordings by date and review them occasionally.

            C. Use English on your social networks. Pay attention to both quantity and quality of your posts

            D. Write reviews for Amazon, Yelp, and other consumer lists.

II. Your 1 month and 6 month plans

            A. Examples

            B. Discussion

III. Procedures: setting up your own English lessons, linked to objectives. Note the extensive study <-----> intensive study continuum.

            A. Preparation

            B. Focused practice

            C. Followup; record keeping

            D. Example procedure (lesson plan) ~80 minutes [note that your lesson plans don't need to be this detailed]

      Lesson Objectives - note, these are not necessarily the same as your learning or performance objectives (in this case, they are all linked to intensive listening):

·         practice general and detailed comprehension

·         identify and review new vocabulary

·         improve processing through dictation (especially reduced forms and grammar); note patterns of errors

Procedure

1.      Go to preselected material: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2247. Prepare for listening: read the description and think about the topic (4 minutes) [note, you can find organized materials at ecorner at http://ecorner.stanford.edu/browse.html#Collections]

2.      Listen to the material once with the captions off, straight through and write a brief summary of what you heard (8)

3.      Listen again straight through with the captions on and add to your summary. Note, at ecorner you can toggle the captions on and off using ctrl-down arrow (on PC). Try it. (8)

4.      Open a separate window with the transcript available; listen a third time, pausing when you don’t understand what seems to be an interesting point and then checking the transcript—note you don’t have to understand everything; write a new summary, without looking at the earlier one, that clearly identifies the main point and supporting information (15)

5.      Copy the transcript to a Word document. Read through the transcript and highlight words or phrases you don’t understand. If you have Babylon, you can look up the meaning at this time. If you have AnswerTips in Firefox, you can go to any webpage that let's you paste in text (e.g., http://translate.google.com/#). Put the text in the translation box then use AnswerTips (alt-click). For phrases, put the phrase in quotes into a Google search. If you don’t find a definition put the phrase in followed by the word means in quotes into a Google search, e.g., “I’m outta here means” (15)

6.      Go to www.lextutor.ca/vp/bnc/.  Copy and paste the transcript into the text box and get the frequency profile. Review the words above the 2000 and below the 8000 level (adjust depending on your own level) and select any that you want to learn, focusing on high frequency or interesting ones. Look up the definitions of key words you want to remember. Copy the word or phrase along with its definition and the sentence it occurs in into your vocabulary list; review the list; put into a different form (e.g., flash cards) for later review (10)

7.      Go back to the video (with subtitles off) and do a dictation. Listen to the first sentence or two and pause. Then begin the dictation, working with short chunks. Listen to about 30 seconds this way, then rewind and go over the same part again the same way. Then check your answers against the transcript. Do another 30 seconds if you have time and interest  [note: you can download the video and listen using the VLC player so that you can control the speed and use hotkeys if desired] (10)

8.      Listen to the whole talk one more time with the captions off, trying to understand as much as possible in a natural way.  (5)

9.      Think about the lesson overall: what did you learn about the topic that was interesting? What did you learn about English? Write a few notes in your learning journal (5)

10.  Think about other uses of the material (e.g., for a blog entry, a recording in your oral journal, etc.); follow this up with another lesson where you listen to the rest of Hawkins’ clips more extensively, this time first with the captions on, then with the captions off (while taking notes), focusing on getting the meaning. Use pause where needed to allow time to think, and repeat interesting parts. (5)

IV. Assessment

• performance objectives - read 200 words per minute; understand and enjoy a movie without subtitles; answer questions with minimal hesitation (can have threshold as well a quality measures)

• learning objectives - learn 100 words; learn major uses of articles and prepositions

• materials objective - read a book; watch a movie

• time objectives - write for 30 minutes without stopping

V. Making a plan

            A. Goals and objectives

            B. Setting times: Set a total weekly time and then plot out the actual practice time by time of day; make up missed times the next day or restructure your plan. Making a plan and then sticking to it day by day, week by week, is the single best way to maintain motivation!

            C. Collecting/identifying materials: Find and bookmark materials in clusters; put related materials together.

            D. Creating lessons: linking techniques and procedures coherently. Each session should be a "lesson", even if it is short and has only one or two lesson objectives

V. Not completely on your own: working with others and formal classes

            A. Finding partners: sign up if you want to continue with other students in this class, or check http://www.speak-english-today.com/pages/view/language_exchange; http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

            B. English in Action (Stanford)--one hour/week conversation partner: https://ssl.perfora.net/ccisstanfordu.org/EIAclientSignup.shtml or LOT (Language Orientation & Tutoring): http://www.stanford.edu/group/efs/LOT.html

            C. EFS Classes: http://efs.stanford.edu

            D. Stanford Continuing Studies: http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu. Look under Communication courses (COM 23, COM 32, COM 34, WSP 169)

            E. List of online English courses, with ratings: http://www.eslcafe.com/search/Online_English_Courses/

VI. Open forum: what questions or comments do you have about learning on your own?

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Homework

1) FOR THE INDIVIDUAL MEETING - Come prepared to discuss your individual project. You should have a draft ready and specific questions for me regarding both the presentation next week and other aspects of your future plans for English language learning. Unless you choose another time, the starting date for plans is August 20.

2) FOR THE NEXT CLASS - Come prepared to give the presentation of your course outline, focusing on the next month but including some information about the following six months. The assignment is repeated below. Be sure that you have practiced it so that you can stay within the 5-6 minute time range.  Important: send your PowerPoint or other notes by email to me by Monday August 13 at 10:00 PM. We will save time if we can all present from my computer.

Note: you are encouraged, but not required, to continue work on your individual project this week in preparation for beginning your one-month course. There is no report due for Monday--spend your time preparing the course outline and presentation.