English etc...

Final Presentation

2008-05-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

Here is where you can find my final oral presentation, longer, maybe more complete and hopefully nicer to hear :

presentation

Technical Vocabulary

2008-04-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Domain name : Domain name is an internet address of website. That is text, which we type in address field of browser to open requested website.

Advertising banner : Image or animation which is advertising website on another websites.

Applet : A Java program or application designed to be embedded in, and invoked from, a web page, or other application. It cannot be run by itself.

Keyword : A word entered into a search engine to find information or a site.

Labels : Labels are the names and terms used throughout a website that identify menu options, site categories or other elements.

Layout Table : A table that uses rows and columns to organize content visually on the screen. In a layout table, the positioning of content in particular cells does not imply a relationship to the content in other cells as it does in a data table.

Lorem Ipsum : Lorem Ipsum or Lipsum is random text. It is a common piece of garble that designers use as mock-content when testing layouts. It has been well established that if you write anything in a sample layout or design, people will spend more time reading the copy than looking at the full concept. "Lorem ipsum dolor" is sufficiently like ordinary text to show "text goes here" but it doesn't distract the reader.

Rotating five : round 2

2008-04-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well...it's supposed to be rotating...mine are a bit idle but here is an update :

* specific vocabulary concerning technical domains --> I've made a small list
* useful idiomatic phrases --> I finally have some of them !

- French accent that I can't bear (still there.....)
- using the good tense at the good time (well I'm trying)
- "th" pronunciation (cannot say it correctly) (still there)
- word stress
- sentence stress

Transcription

2008-04-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

Before reading you can hear my transcription source here : source

TRANSCRIPTION

You’re listening to the ESLPod.com‘s guide to the TOEFL test. Number 29.

Welcome to the ESL podcast’s guide to the TOEFL test. I am your host ? Jeff Mc ? coming to you from the center for educational development in beautiful Los Angeles California. Our website is eslpod.com/toefl.

On this TOEFL podcast we’re going to give you some good tips and advice on taking the TOEFL test. We asked one of our friends who is a teacher here in Los Angeles, an excellent TOEFL teacher, and a very experienced tutor for TOEFL students. His name is Warren Ediger. And we asked him to give us some of his advice that he gives his students when they are preparing for the TOEFL test. We take a lesson to Warren, you can also visit Warren’s website at successfulenglish.com. We wanna thank him for sharing his advice with us today. And now, here’s one:

If you are familiar with the TOEFL, you already know that the listening and speaking sections of the test require you listen to classroom lectures. After you listen to them you have to use information from them to answer questions, you have to be able to remember facts, identify main ideas and supporting details and summarize what you hear on the lectures. Unfortunately, many students are not familiar with academic English and until recently it has been difficult to find examples to listen to. But now that has changed. Now there is a wonderful new place where you can find many hours of good academic English, it’s called iTunes U.

During the last few years, millions of people have become familiar with iPods and music from the iTunes’ Store. The name iTunes U’s a combination of the name iTunes and the letter U from the word University. iTunes U’s a special area inside of the iTunes’ Store. When you go to the iTunes’ Store you’ll find the link to iTunes U near the top of the page and the main store menu. When you click on the link and enter iTunes U you’ll find free lectures, interviews and other kinds of content from some of the best colleges and universities in the United States, school such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke and MIT. If you have an iPod or other MP3 player you can download these lectures and carry them with you wherever you go, and if you don’t have an iPod you can easily listen to them or view them on your computer. Let me give you a few suggestions to help you use iTunes U to prepare for the TOEFL. First, be sure you look for lectures that are easy to understand. When you are trying to improve your English it’s important to read or listen to as much easy to understand English as possible. Remember this when you look for lectures on iTunes U, if they are too difficult, listening to them will not help you very much. So be sure you begin with lectures that are easy to understand. One way to help make sure that those are easy to understand is to listen to lectures about subjects you are already familiar with. For example, if you go to the UC Berkeley area on iTunes U and you look at the social science classes you will find many lectures on the whole History. If you are familiar with the Renaissance, find a lecture on the Renaissance and listen to it. What you learned about the Renaissance in your language will help you understand the English lecture. As you’ll look around you’ll notice that some lectures include pictures or video. These also help make lectures easier to understand. When you are listening to a lecture if you have trouble understanding part of it just go back and listen to it again. When you read or listen again to something you don’t understand it will often make sense or be easier to understand the second or third time you read it or listen to it. If you find a lecture that you really enjoy listen to it two or three times. Repeat at listening is always a good strategy to improve understanding and to help you acquire or absorb more English. Before you listen to a lecture take a minute to look around the iTunes U page for that class. Many professors give links to their websites where they have outlines of their lectures and other information that will help you. I would encourage you to begin with UC Berkeley or Stanford University. Both of these schools have large collections of lectures on many different subjects so you will have more choices. Later, if you want to look at other schools, you can find a list of them at the iTunes’ Store. I recently wrote a short article called “Preparing for academic English at iTunes U”. It includes links to the UC Berkeley and Stanford University areas on iTunes U, a link to the iTunes U area at the iTunes store and other helpful information. You can find the article on my website www.successfulenglish.com, that’s www.successfulenglish.com. My website will also tell you how to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Some phrases

2008-04-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well we had to choose phrases we'd like to know and know how to use. Here are mine :
- be likely to : the oldest children in families are likely to have the highest IQs
- exactly why there should be : Exactly why there should be such differences is not clear
- which enjoys the most : The theory which enjoys the most support is...
- be found to have : First-borns were found to have significantly more frequent face-to-face contact
- It used to be the case that : “It used to be the case that the only people who paid any attention to me were those who liked what I did,” Hugh Laurie
- be keen to : He is, however, as he is throughout our conversation, keen not to moan.
- come what may: “come what may I will love you until the of times” Moulin rouge
- brace for hit : iPhone sellers braced for hit on unsold handsets
-get ready for something : get ready for something new
-cut off midsentence : “whatever” she said cutting me off midsentence
-come to the edge of tears : J. K. Rowling came to the edge of tears in a New York court yesterday as she defended Harry Potter
- swept by a craze for : Japan has been swept by a craze for an electronic toy
- waste one’s time : Splatter fans won’t be wasting their time if they give this a look.
- it makes diminishing sense : It made diminishing sense to have a single, overarching operating system capable of supporting any application a user might need when new techniques meant that computers were much more flexible
- more than double the number : Windows Vista, the latest version, has 50 million lines of code, more than double the number of the 1996 version of the software
- in the same vein : The novel became a cult hit across Europe, and Werber followed it with two other books in the same vein
-land a job : how to land the job of your life
-set out to do : Today I set out to find out a little more about
-think something over : I've thought it over and have made up my mind
-mean something : I do mean what I say
-ride for a fall : If someone is riding for a fall, they are taking great risks that are likely to end in a disaster.
-that makes the two of us : I wish I would win the lottery." A listener who says "That makes two of us"
-hit the airwaves : If someone hits the airwaves, they go on radio and TV to promote something or to tell their side of a story.
-on the same wavelength : we’re on the same wavelength on this subject
-light years ahead of others : this firm is light years ahead of others in term of development
-and all that jazz : This idiom means that everything related or similar is included.
- You can’t unring a bell : This means that once something has been done, you have to live with the consequences as it can't be undone
-get wind of : I got wind of her recent wedding
-show one’s true color : To show your true colors is to reveal yourself as you really are.
-green with envy : If you are green with envy, you are very jealous.
-melting pot : America is a huge melting pot
-run before walk : If someone tries to run before they can walk, they try to do something requiring a high level of knowledge before they have learned the basics.
-run off your feet : If you are run off your feet, you are extremely busy and don't have enough time to do everything.
-failure is the mother of success : Failure is often a stepping stone towards success
-move closer to doing : airlines moved closer yesterday to allowing the use of mobile phones on board.

Pronunciation

2008-04-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the paragraph I chose for the pronunciation exercise, it's a part of the wonderful Carl Sagan's quotation :

"[...]Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.[...]" Carl Sagan

podcast again

2008-03-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

I've just found an interesting and useful website on podcasts. I'd like to present you this podcast, it's about web development again :

Rotating Five

2008-03-22T17:40:00.001-07:00

Gad Elmaleh's so funny but learning English is also a very serious activity! It's something I love to do but I still have many difficulty. For example with :

- "th" pronunciation (cannot say it correctly)
- specific vocabulary concerning technical domains
- using the good tense at the good time
- useful idiomatic phrases
- French accent that I can't bear

I hope to solve (and not improve ^^) these problems little by little and I think that it's A good idea to first identify them.

Gad Elmaleh

2008-03-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Learning english will never be the same when you will see this hilarious video... ;-)

Who are you?

2008-03-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

As far as I am concerned....my name is Naa'ilah Aly and I'm currently student in the IMAC engineering school. I'm studying things like multimedia, audiovisual, programing....and yes, english!
Here you can find my oral presentation
Presentation

Podcast

2008-03-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here are two links to different and interesting podcasts :
web design
Disney

Professional goal

2008-03-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

For the moment my professional goal would be to work in web development. I already had the occasion to develop website and I found this quite interesting. Here you will find one of my project (but it's not in English sorry! ) about a famous Indian film director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

About reading...

2008-03-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Since I learned reading I cannot spend a month without reading a book. The last one I read was a Dan Brown's book, Deception Point, and it was as interesting as this brilliant author's other works. I found an interesting interview about The Da Vinci Code.

Web development

2008-03-11T12:11:00.000-07:00