Class Nine: Blogs and Review of subjects

CHANGE OF CLASSROOMS FOR THE PARTIEL:

Monday : tous les groupes salle A401

Tuesday : 9h-10h - groupe 10 LEA1 dans la salleB421

15h15-16h15 - groupe 6 LEA1 dans la salle D363

TODAY'S Lesson

BLOGS

What does the word Blog mean?

What are the main characteristics of a Blog? Look on the Wikipedia site.

---------**Review of Topics**--------

After this class, you should be able to answer all of the questions given below. Or, if you don’t know the answer right away, you should know HOW TO FIND the answer. Part of what you are learning is HOW to search for information.

Class One:

Grammar test!! Remember that this is an English class too. If you have troubles go to the Centre de Ressources Linguistiques 17h on the 3^rd Floor of the Biblithèque des Cerclades.

Class Two:

Do you remember how a search engine works? (What is a spider? Or a Boolean operator?)

What are some different search engines that you looked at?

What is a keyword? Advice about keywords: short, simple and essential meanings only.

If you want pages in English what language should your keyword be in?

What is the difference between a meta-search engine and a regular search engine?

Vocabulary to know: backbone, bookmark, copy, domain name, email account, FAQ sheet, file, firewall, hit, homepage, hub, hypertext, ISP (internet service provider), login, keyword, password, paste, protocol, research (undénombrable, singulier), to search for, search engine, server, tool bar, username, user-interface, webmail, website,

Class Three: Library searches

Describe how you find the online catalogue for the Bibliothèque des cerclades?

What kinds of documents can you find at the library of congress website? Who is the targeted audience?

What resources are found at the British National Library?

Class Four: Radio online

Online radio is not only for music. What other subjects are broadcast online?

What is NPR? What kinds of programs do you find here?

What different accents can you learn from the BBC Radio Website?

What do you find on the BBC Learning English pages?

What is Voice of America? What other kinds of media can you watch on this site?

What is podcasting?

How can you learn English by using Internet Radio?

Class Five & Six: Exchange programs

Where can you find a lot of information about the Erasmus program?

What are the conditions for studying abroad?

What other kinds of programs help students study or find work abroad?

What is a gap year? How would you spend yours?

Class Seven: Jobs and Internships

What is a resume (in American English)? How is this word pronounced?

What do you send with a resume to apply for a job?

What advice do different sites give you about preparing your resume?

What advice do they give you about preparing a job interview?

How can you find an internship when you do research online?

Class Eight: Email

What are the differences and similarities between email and a letter?

What is a mailing list? Can you give an example? Where do you receive the information?

What is a newsgroup? Can you give an example? Where you retrieve the information?

Class Nine: Blogs and Review

What is a Blog?

What kinds of things can you put on a blog?

What is the difference between a Blog and a traditional Website?

Class 8: Email and the things you can do with email

Today’s lesson is about email and some extra things you can do with it.

Some Vocabulary to remember

mail (also known as “snail mail”), a letter (dénombrable), some mail (undénombrable), receiving email: inbox/outbox, folders, send, reply, forward, address book, attachments, signature, client, ISP (internet service provider)… When we want to talk about email (courier électronique), you must use the “e” ahead of the word. If you don’t English speakers think you are talking about regular postal mail (letters and packages).

Section One: you can answer these questions without the computer. (15 minutes)
We will answer these questions together in class

What is email? Create a definition like you would find in a dictionary.

Email means…. It is a system for ……

What are some similarities between regular postal mail (snail mail) and email?

(give two or three reasons)

What are some of the differences between regular postal mail and email?

(give a minimum of 3 reasons)

What are some problems that can arise when you use email ? (for example, problems with the delivery or with attachments)

(give a minimum of 4 reasons)

Do you have the same satisfaction receiving an email as a postal letter?

Section Two: Use the computers to answer the following questions:

Look at this site and answer the questions: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blinternet.htm#email from the History of the Internet:

- Who created email? When?

- What does the @ in the address signify?

More information about email can be found on these sites, http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00047/email.htm (good vocabulary in the second to last paragraph)

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/email.htm (watch the video. Or scroll down to the diagrams)

http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/20how.htm (look at both pages for easy technical descriptions)

- What are the different parts of an email address called?

- Do you know how to read (aloud) the following email address: what are the names for the punctuation? (at, backslash, colon, dash, dot, hyphen, semicolon, tilde, underscore...)

MmeBays_Cergy@lang.u-cergy.fr/English

- What explains the difference between how you can receive emails via a POP server (also called email client software) vs. Webmail: What are the differences between these two systems? What are the advantages and drawbacks of each? (This information was in the text you read as homework)

- What is SPAM? (give a simple description, don’t list all the different types).

= = THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH EMAIL = =

1) What is a MAILING LIST? (these are also called LISTSERV lists)

Look at this animated site to find out how email mailing lists work. http://www.learnthenet.com/english/animate/maillist.html

- What is the difference between a “moderated” and an “unmoderated” mailing list?

From the following site, find a list with a topic that interests you. http://www.coollist.com/

2) What is a NEWSGROUP?

Look on this site again to find out how they work. http://www.learnthenet.com/english/animate/maillist.html

This site should give you more information about different types of human communication online. What are the different types? How are they all different?

== OTHER WAYS TO COMMUNICATE ==

What is Instant Messaging? And how does it work? How is it different from an email, mailing list or newsgroup?

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging.htm

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/05/25/how.messaging.works.idg/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/instantmessaging/qt/windowslivemess.htm

== USES AND ABUSES ==

If you have time:

What is Phishing? Or Identity Theft? How can you avoid being a victim?

What is a P2P network?

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HOMEWORK

Read « Blog toujours, tu m’intéresses » article from Le Monde Diplomatique , mardi 19 mars 2002.

Class 7: preparing for and finding jobs and interships

Today you will be looking for tools to help you find a job. Then you will look for summer jobs and internships in some English speaking countries (or Spanish or German speaking countries too).

- From the following site, find out what a “resume” is and how it is a “selling tool”.
http://jobsmart.org/tools/resume/index.cfm

(if you cannot find the definition, look at the Sample Resumes section and look at the examples. You will recognize what a resume is from these.)

- Find the right kind of resume format for you now or for when you finish your studies in LEA at Cergy (you are a “new graduate”).

- What is the British English word to say a job resume? How is this same word (the answer to the first question) used differently in American English (hint: the definition is more specific)?

- Compare these three more sites about writing a resume:
a) www.rockportinstitute.com/resumes.html
b) http://esl.about.com/library/howto/htresume.htm
c) http://www.questcareer.com/tips.htm

- Describe each site and its style with one or two sentences.
- Which one is the most adapted to you?

- Write down some notes about yourself following the example in the b) site. This means, answer questions 1, 2 and 3 on the advice given in the Here’s How section.

- What must you write and include with a CV when you apply for a job? (What is this called?)

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Here is a giant site that specializes in Job hunting: http://content.monster.com/

Go to the Jobs Basics section and look up the Resume Center. Scroll to the bottom of the page. And look at some sample resumes and letters.

Now go back to the Job Basics section and click on the Interview section. Scroll down the page and choose Virtual Interviews.
- What is a Virtual Interview?
- Then chose the Campus Virtual Interview and follow the interview for a couple of pages (this takes too long to finish, so only do a few pages).

Go back to the main Interview section. You will see the Dos and Don’ts section.

Click on “More articles like this” after the Dos and Don’ts section. Now click on the article “Your turn to Ask”.
- What does it tell you about your role in the interview?
- How can Hobbies benefit you? (Another article in the Dos and Don’ts section)

What is the definition of an “internship”? Go to Google and type into the search bar “define: internship” (the 3^rd definition is the easiest to understand)

Find some internships in foreign countries like England, the USA, Australia, Spain, Austria…

http://www.studyabroaddirectory.com/listingsp3.cfm/listing/712
http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/summerjobs/a/summerjob.htm
http://www.idealist.org/
http://www.foe.co.uk/press_for_change/volunteer/
http://www.jobsabroad.com/listingsp3.cfm/listing/23592

HOMEWORK:

Read the text: Managing Email (pages 14 -17 in your brochure)

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Extra information:
http://www.directetudiant.com/ (the French equivalent of the Jobs Abroad site for you to look at later)

Career Advice:
Go back to this site: http://jobsmart.org/tools/resume/index.cfm, look for the Career Guides Section and select Career Guides for Everyone. Then choose the question “What do I want – Online career tests”. Select the The Keirsey Temperament Sorter and follow this text for Non-English Temperment Sorters (the link is at the bottom of the page). How did you do? What is your personality like?

Go back to the jobsmart.org page and find another test to help orient yourself towards a career.

Class Six: Writing to Ulster Students & Exchange Programs

Contact with the Northern Irish & Exchange Programs

Part One: Contacting the Northern Irish Students

Open up the software BlocNotes (WordPad or OpenOfficeWord). You will write two paragraphs (about 50 words each), one in English and one in French. The topic depends on the class you are in:

MONDAY

Group 7: Your favourite travel experience (or What is the funniest or most frightening travel experience you have had?)

Group 9: Your favourite travel experience (or What is the funniest or most frightening travel experience you have had?)

Group 5: Your favourite travel experience (or What is the funniest or most frightening travel experience you have had?)

TUESDAY

Group 10: How much do you “consume” media (like TV, Radio or the Press) and does this influence the way you think?

GROUP 6: How much do you “consume” media (like TV, Radio or the Press) and does this influence the way you think?

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Part Two: Exchange programs:

From the U-Cergy website homepage, find the section about studying abroad. (Hint, it’s in the International section)

- As an LEA student, what other countries can you study in?

- Who is the person (or people) responsible for International Relations in LEA? If you want to go abroad, it is sometimes necessary to contact this person directly if you have questions about your candidacy.

Find information about the Erasmus program.
- What are the conditions for participating in the Erasmus program?
- What are some of the different steps taken before going on the Erasmus program?
- What must you do when you arrive in the foreign country? And when you come back to Cergy?

- Where can you turn if you don’t have the money to pay for your year abroad? (give two concrete examples, minimum)

- Also in the International section of the Cergy website, find the information about doing an international “internship”. Find out the conditions, and what organisation can give you information. (if you don’t know the word internship, look it up in the American Heritage dictionary online: http://www.bartleby.com/61/ or through Google)

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- Look up some other exchange programs by doing some keyword searches on the Net. (15-20 minutes)
- What keywords should you use? (remember KEEP IT SIMPLE and only put the ESSENTIAL words. So, think about what you are really looking for).

- Imagine that you want to go to study in the following different countries (and one more of your choice) (and it is not possible to go through the UCP). What programs (other than Erasmus or through the UCP) offer exchanges to these places?

Australia, China, Mexico and XXXXXXXXX

==> Find at least three programs for the year to work or study (or both). What are the conditions to go? Does it cost anything? How long would you go for? Where would you live?

In the USA, this is called a Junior Year Abroad (Junior is the 3^rd year of University). Listen and watch one or two testimonies from students who go abroad: http://www.nbc4.tv/jya/index.html First watch the Postcard, and then you can see episodes of their lives.

(Do NOT spend more than 5 minutes on this in class. If the sound or video doesn’t work, go on to the next exercise)

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- What is a “Gap Year”? (10 minutes)

- What does a person usually do during a Gap Year?

- Give some examples of sites that help organise your Gap year. What do these sites offer?

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If time (if not do this at HOME): Look up CouchSurfing or the Hospitality Club. What do they offer or promote? How can these organisations be helpful in learning about different cultures and places?

Now you can watch some exchange students and related subjects on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uinrDYS6SBg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvGuxP7-RI0 (this may be difficult to understand because they have a fake Italian accent).
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Homework:

Read the article “The Call of the East”, The Economist, Feb 17^th, 2005. Fill in spaces and answer questions. There will be a quick quiz next class period about this text.

Go Onto the Internet this week. Answer the following question:
What does CNN Student news provide to help you learn English better?
http://www.cnn.com/EDUCATION/

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Extra Information:
What kinds of education and training programs are offered through the following sites?
Union et aides européennes: http://europa.eu.int/
Programme Face: http://www.fnege.net/ (you may need to do a keyword search on this site)AJECID : http://acadmae.free.fr/AJECID/.
Internships international: http://www.backdoorjobs.com/ii.html

Class Five: Recapitulation & Contacting Irish Keypals

Recapitulation: take 5 to 10 minutes to answer these questions. You may work with your neighbors. We will answer them aloud in class.

- Do you know this vocabulary: account, bookmark, to click, file, folder, hypertext, keypal, meta-search engine, online, plagiarism, podcast, to post, search engine, to search for, to scroll (down), to type,

- What is the difference between the Yahoo.fr Group and the Class BLOG?

- Why can’t you access the Yahoo Group when you are signed into your Yahoo Mail account?

- Where are you supposed to post your homework online?

- How does a BLOG present information in terms of the chronology of each entry?

- Where do you find the Homework for the next lesson?

- How can you go directly to Class Two without having to scroll down the screen?

- Where is the Centre de Ressources Linguistiques located?

- How can you make a reservation to go to the CRL?

Time for YOUR Questions(in French or in English)

Contacting the Irish Students

Part One: Consolidating the questionnaire for the Irish Students (10 minutes approx)

With your neighbours (in groups of 4 or 5), consolidate your questions and choose the 5 best questions for the Irish students. These should include two “yes-or-no” questions, two multiple choice questions, one open ended question. Hand this in to the instructor also. This survey will be posted online for the Irish students to answer.

Part Two: responding to the Irish texts.

Have you received an email from an Irish student? Make sure to check your Yahoo Mail account for their comments on your essays. If you have not yet received an email, check again next week. They will be writing to you soon.

Connect to the Yahoo Group. Go to the Fichiers section and open the file Franco_Irish_Exchange. Then find the file that corresponds to your class group (NB: Lundi 14h30 + 15h30 are combined so you open the same file).

Open and read some of the Irish texts and prepare a response (votre professeur vous dirait combien de textes il faut lire et auxquels il faut répondre car ils sont beaucoup moins nombreux en class que vous) (Bien sûr, vous pouvez lire les textes des autres groupes aussi ! Ils sont intéressants).

Group 7 – Lundi 13h30:

Group 9 – lundi 14h30: read all the texts in both folders for 14h30 and 15h15.

Group 5 – Lundi 15h30: read all the texts in both folders for 14h30 and 15h15.

Group 10 – Mardi 9h00:

Group 6 – Mardi 15h15:

Respond to one of the texts, or contact one of the people who did not yet post their text. Write a short email in English to the person who wrote the text (See the Excel folder for the email addresses).Give your impressions of the content. Correct his/her French if you want by making suggestions about the vocabulary or the grammar.Tell the person about Cergy , the town you are from or the Cergy-Pontoise region.

Part Three: Exchange programs: (10 minutes)

From the U-Cergy website homepage, find the section about studying abroad. (Hint, it’s in the International section)

- As an LEA student, what other countries can you study in?

- Who is the person (or people) responsible for International Relations in LEA? If you want to go abroad, it is sometimes necessary to contact this person directly if you have questions about your candidacy.

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HOMEWORK:

Go to the Centre de Ressources Linguistiques and work on some English language software (you choose which software you want to work on). Bring your teacher an Attestation signed by the monitor to prove that you went.

Finish writing to the Irish students if you did not finish in class.

Class Four: Radio, Podcasts, Webcasts and Audio

Radio, Podcasts, Webcasts and other Audio files on the internet

Radio is not dead!! On the internet because you can listen to radio stations from around the world and for any topic. You can find very specific programs or very general programs with a world audience. Radio is certainly not just for music anymore!

Objectives: To introduce you to some very useful audio/radio resources on the WWW so that you can improve your listening comprehension. Use these sites to listen to different accents and learn a different point of view from news stories or audio documents from other cultures. Some radio sites also have learning sections with transcripts of programs and/or vocabulary and comprehension exercises to help you improve your English.

ATTENTION! If you cannot download these shows (server full, software stuck…), go on to the next question.

National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/ is America’s oldest and most respected public news radio. (20 minutes)
==> What are the top stories?
==> Listen to a few minutes of the 5 minute Hourly newscast. (Do you understand everything?)
==> At the bottom right of the homepage, find out what general topic of news comes with free transcripts.
(What does transcript mean? if you don’t know go to Google and write in define: transcripts). Listen to one of these stories and read the transcript simultaneously.
==> Find a news item about the immigration debate in the USA.
==> What is the Story Corps: America Talks? Listen to one of the stories.

BBC Radio: Go to the BBC Radio Homepage (20 minutes)

==> Listen to the World News Bulletin (use Windows Media Player)
==> Go to Radio 4 ==> The Today Programme. You can listen to today’s programs or the Listen Again archives. Listen to one of the news items.

==> Go back to the BBC Radio Homepage and click on World Service. At the bottom of the page on the right, click on the Learning English Section.

==> Also on the World Service homepage, choose a Podcast or Videocast to subscribe to or try the Download and Podcast Trial (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/). Try one from Radio Ulster or Radio Wales for different accents.

Voice of America: http://www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm (10 minutes)

==> Go to the VOA English section (in the menu bar at the top of the page) ==> American Life (in the left column menu) ==> Wordmaster: Analysis of American English (yellow icon at the bottom of the page) ==> Choose any report to listen to and read the transcript as you listen.

Another feature of American Life is Immigration in the Special Reports column (on the right of the screen). You can listen to stories told by New American Voices (icon at the bottom of the page) or read articles about the immigration debate.

==> Webcasts: in the left hand column, click on Webcasts. For the language choose English==> Special English TV. (or click on any program. Special English News is read slowly and is easy to understand)

MORE RADIO ON THE INTERNET If you have the time….

(These following sites are to give you an idea of the variety of radio on the internet)

College Radio is a tradition in the USA. Find out on the Wikipedia site what this is. Go to the bottom of the description and find some links to College Radio Stations or Indie radio stations.

What is Assistive Media? http://www.assistivemedia.org/current-features.html
- In your own words, explain the history and purpose of this site.
- Take a few minutes to listen to one of the documents. Is it easy to understand? As an LEA student, by the end of the second year, you should have no problems understanding these programs.

Studio 360 is another alternative Radio project. http://www.wnyc.org/studio360/about.html
- What is its main focus?
- Go to the American Icons section. What are the three items presented? Do you know them?
- In the first of the three, who are some of the artists who participated in the project?
- Listen to some of the music by Mme Anderson.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/radio// (you can also find videos on this site)

HOMEWORK: Think of 5 questions to put on a questionnaire for the Irish students about travelling to a foreign country, interesting cultural experiences abroad, favourite destinations and cultural differences… The questions should include two “yes-or-no” questions, two multiple choice questions, and one open ended question. Try to be creative.
Write these questions on a piece of paper that you will give to the instructor.

Extra information:

Alternative Media:
Alternative voices in the USA can be heard thanks to the internet: http://www.michaelmoore.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
Satirical voices : the Onion has "funny", sarcastic information. Can you understand why it is funny? (this is a real test of your language skills in English) http://www.theonion.com/content/index

LIBRARY SEARCHES

LIBRARY SEARCHES

This class is divided into four main sections. Work quickly and divide your time as you need to for maximum efficiency.

Part ONE: When you connect to a site, look at its address (this section should take 5 minutes maximum) Specifically answer the questions in red which are preceded by an arrow.

==>What is a “domain name” for a WWW address?

This site http://www.hyperdictionary.com/ can help you find a very simple definition.

Otherwise, write « define : domain name » in your Google search bar (hint: Internet is a network based on TCP/IP)

You can also look up the definition on http://www.dictionary.com/ which will also give you some good links to dictionaries such as the American Heritage Dictionary.

En dernier recours, utilisez un site de traduction, par exemple BabelFish http://babelfish.altavista.com/ pour trouver la définition d’un mot que vous ne connaissez pas. Attention !! : Les sites de traduction ne donnent pas toujours la bonne définition et il faut vérifier le sens dans un autre dictionnaire unilangue.

==> Give some examples of international domain names for example for Spain, or a company in the USA, a company in Britain.

Part TWO: Now, open the University of Cergy Pontoise site (http://www.u-cergy.fr/ ) (10 minutes)

Find the link to the library. Now look in the documents section and go to the general catalogue (research de documents, recherché par catalogue).

==> Find an internet Guide/book available at the UCP library. (Where is it located? Is it available now?)
Remember that the UCP library is programmed in French, so use French keywords, not English like you would if you were looking for pages in English. You may have to use several different combinations of keywords to find something useful. Don’t settle for the first book you see / ne pas se contenter avec le premier titre sur la liste. (This advice counts for ALL of your searches)

Go back to the Library’s introduction page and click on the Electronic Resources section -> Sciences Humaines -> Economie.

==>Now find The Journal of World Business Notice how many different journals are available online.

Part THREE: Go to the US Library of Congress site (do a search on a search engine to get to the home page). (20-25 minutes)

==> What are some of the “highlights” of this website?

==> Click on the Catalogue menu. What kind of searches can you do? What are some other online catalogues that they have presented here?

==> Look up a Photo reference. Find a portrait that you like. Describe it and give the reference to the web page and the number of the photograph.

==> Go to the Resources for …. Kids & Families section (top left on the screen). Choose the America’s Library section. Explore. Can you describe what you do and what you can learn from a site like this?

==> Go to the Webcasts from the Library section. Then go to the Science & Technology section and find a webcast about Renewing American Culture. How long does the video last? What is the topic of the book presented? (Don’t spend too much time watching the videos here. You can do this at home, on your own time.).

(when you finish the following section of today’s lesson you can come back and look around some more in different categories)

Part FOUR: Investigate the British National Library site (10-15 minutes)

==> Find out the opening hours for the British National Library (at St Pancras). What do you need to have in order to use the library and its reading rooms?

From the main page, go to the Learning Area. What are some of the subtopics you can look at?
==> Culture & Knowledge and then click on the Disinformation movie (choose to watch the film WITH subtitles). Watch one section, but not the whole movie. Describe what you can learn from a section like this. (For more discussion, look at the Activities section when you are at home).

==> From the BNL home page, go to the catalogues section. What are some of the catalogues you can find at the BNL? In the Main (integrated) Catalogue, how many entries are there for Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

==> Go to the What’s On section found in the top menu (What does “what’s on” mean? Give a French translation). What event is being given this week?

Continue to explore the site and other things you can find on the BNL site until the end of class.

HOMEWORK: What is a Podcast? Learn how to download podcasts

Go to the Wikipedia site and find the history of podcasting and how to use it. (The UCP has a strict firewall that will not allow you to download software at the UCP. However, you should do this from home, without the firewalls.)

Read: Podcasts Go Mainstream, PC World, p 28.

OPTIONAL: At home, look at the French BNF site (especially look at the Signets section in particular to find information about how to use the internet more effectively!!). You will see that there is a wealth of information online from Public sites like these.