The reflection paper of CALL class

Before the class, I have known that there are so many resources that we can use to improve English. While I have no idea about how to find such resources and what kind of the resources suit me the best. I only used computer to find the definition of words which means that I used it only just as a dictionary. However, after taking the CALL class in this semester, I have learnt so many useful and excellent ways to improve skills through Internet. For me, the most impressive and suitable resources are blogger, TED and OpenCourseWare.

When to talk about blogger, all I know is to write articles for expressing feelings to share with friends. In fact, I have never thought about that this platform which I used to use frequently could also be a way to improve English. With writing on blogger in English, no matter it is an assignment or a diary, we can have the chance to exchange articles to our friends. It is much more interesting to read an article written by the one who we are familiar with than by one we even don’t know who he is. Also, it encourage ourselves to write when our friends continually update their bloggers.

 Another advantage of blogger is that we can add the links of websites to our blog, such as several online dictionaries. It save time and is convenient for us to use when we need these websites. We can add the links with the websites that we find useful when we are surfing the Internet. Because there are too many resources on the Internet and it is impossible for us to remember all the addresses of these websites, adding links to blogger make us easier to find them when we need. In addition, we can not only add the website which can improve English skills, but also add the websites interest us.

The second one that interests me a lot is TED, which is the most suitable to me than any other online resources. There are many videos that are about the presentation given by different people. It is not just a website for video, like YouTube, but also a useful website to improve by watching others presentations. We can not only gain the language skills but also learnt the methods to give a successful presentation by imitating the speakers. For example, using proper pause, intonation, body language are some basis elements to give an attractive speech.

The third website is OpenCourseWare. It was my first time to know about it and it really astonished me a lot. I couldn’t image that there are free courses online which means that we don’t have to go to cram school and spend lots of money. There are so many courses in different fields from various university that allow us to take when there don’t have such lessons in our school or we don’t have time to take lesson.  Moreover, some courses even provide videos, readings and exams to improve our listening and reading skills. Therefore, OpenCourseWare is really a useful resource to gain knowledge as long as we make use of it.

In this semester, I learnt lots of ways to learn with computer which is important and necessary as computer have popularized in this generation. Because of the busy daily life, I haven’t spent much time on these websites so far. While as the coming of vacation, I will have much free time to make maximum use of them. Hopes myself will have progression. 

#10 Comments on opencourseware

I've never heard about the opencourseware before. The first time I visit the website is to prepare the presentation on CALL class. I marveled at MIT OpenCourseWare 's resources of learning. It's amazing that I can find so many courses of different field. Moreover, some courses even provide videos, readings and exams. With the functions, we can not only learn the knowledge about the course, but also improve our listening and reading skills. The most impressive thing is that the resources on the website are all free which means we can make use of it to improve our English skills instead of spending time and money on cram school. I really like the opencourseware website and I will give it a try in the future.

#6 TED video:Letting go of God

The title: Letting go of God
The link: http://www.ted.com/talks/julia_sweeney_on_letting_go_of_god
The speaker:Julia Sweeney

 I recommend this video and consider it is worth to listen because I really appreciate her speaking skill. The content was not about knowledge or analysis but about her story. Although there was no academic erudition in her speech, she still successfully attracted the audiences.  Making use of abundant facial expression and exaggerative body language was the method Julia Sweeney used. I have watched this video for several times, and every time I was tempted by her funny way of giving a speech. While I didn’t just watch for fun, I tried to learning skills from her. I imitated her and then practiced to combine the way she used with my speak style. To sum up, I really recommend this video:  Letting go of God. 

#5 The reflection of Steve Jobs address and my life story

The first story which is about connecting the dots impress me a lot. I think this is very important to our career now because we can't just have one skill in this competitive society. And we never know how the knowledge we learnt would effect our future; therefore, I think we should to try to learn more skills of different fields. Maybe someday all the specialties will connect together and help us in our business, just like Steve Jobs. 

#4 Learning from Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I learnt a lot from his talk and below are some expressions which I want to learn the most.


1. drop out of 退出(學校)
    "I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months" 

2. a dorm room 宿舍房間

    "I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms"

3. intuition 直覺

    "And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on."

4.  calligraphy 書法、筆跡

     "Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. "

5. subtle 精巧的

    " It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating."

6. come back to sb. 回想起來

    "But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. "

7. it's likely that 很可能

    "And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. "

8. a falling out 衝突

   "But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out."

9. side with sb. 支持某人

    "When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him."

10. screw up 【俚】把某事弄糟、搞砸了

     "I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly"

#3 Comment on wabesite: ESL Podcast

I think this website is very useful to improve the listening skill. We can not only listen to the recording online, but also to download it to our computer or music player. It makes us more convenience to listen again if we want to review it. And its other superiority is that there will be a new one almost every day so that we will have the latest content. Also, the explanations of words or phrases which the host gives are very detailed. The most important is that this website is free. The only weakness is that all the recordings are conversation; therefore, we won’t learn the academic words and phrases. The pity of it is that we won’t have the comprehensive learning. 

#2 Dictionary Exercise

1.swap(v.)：to replace one person or thing with another
  E.g. I think I'll swap this sweater for one in another color.
2. correspondingly(adv.) ：in a way that matches or is connected with something that you have just mentioned
  E.g. A period of high demand and correspondingly high prices 
3. neighborliness (n.) friendly and helpful behavior, especially between people who live near each other  E.g. A sense of community and neighborliness
4. disruption (n.) a situation in which it is difficult for something to continue in the normal way; the act of stopping something from continuing in the normal way
  E.g. We aim to help you move house with minimum disruption to yourself.
5.  reinforce (v.) to make a feeling, an idea, etc. stronger
  E.g. The climate of political confusion has only reinforced the country's economic decline.



I like Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary the best because it not only have a great quantity of vocabulary but also is easy to use. We can find detailed 
information about a word, like definition, example sentence etc. In addition, it have 
a function which is better than other dictionaries： to add words to "My Wordlists". 
With this feature, we can list the words that we are still unfamiliar with and, moreover, 
We can test ourselves. To sum up, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is an 
awesome tool not just for looking words but for learning.