The Silent Way is an approach to language teaching designed to enable students to become independent, autonomous and responsible learners. It is part of a more general pedagogical approach to teaching and learning created by Caleb Gattegno. It is constructivist in nature, leading students to develop their own conceptual models of all the aspects of the language. The best way of achieving this is to help students to be experimental learners. The Silent Way allows this.
The main objective of a teacher using the Silent Way is to optimize the way students exchange their time for experience. This Gattegno considered to be the basic principle behind all education: "Living a life is changing time into experience."
The students are guided into using their inherent sense of what is coherent to develop their own "inner criteria" of what is right in the new language. They are encouraged to use all their mental powers to make connections between sounds and meanings in the target language. In a Silent Way class, the students express their thoughts and feelings about concrete situations created in the classroom by themselves or the teacher.
Procedures
This method begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands in order to achieve the following:
To avoid the use of the vernacular. To create simple linguistic situations that remain under the complete control of the teacher To pass on to the learners the responsibility for the utterances of the descriptions of the objects shown or the actions performed. To let the teacher concentrate on what the students say and how they are saying it, drawing their attention to the differences in pronunciation and the flow of words. To generate a serious game-like situation in which the rules are implicitly agreed upon by giving meaning to the gestures of the teacher and his mime. To permit almost from the start a switch from the lone voice of the teacher using the foreign language to a number of voices using it. This introduces components of pitch, timbre and intensity that will constantly reduce the impact of one voice and hence reduce imitation and encourage personal production of one's own brand of the sounds.
To provide the support of perception and action to the intellectual guess of what the noises mean, thus bring in the arsenal of the usual criteria of experience already developed and automatic in one's use of the mother tongue. To provide a duration of spontaneous speech upon which the teacher and the students can work to obtain a similarity of melody to the one heard, thus providing melodic integrative schemata from the start.
Materials
The complete set of materials utilized as the language learning progresses include:
A set of colored wooden rods A set of wall charts containing words of a "functional" vocabulary and some additional ones; a pointer for use with the charts in Visual Dictation A color coded phonic chart(s) Tapes or discs, as required; films Drawings and pictures, and a set of accompanying worksheets Transparencies, three texts, a Book of Stories, worksheets
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Silent Way Teaching
How to make a blog in blogger
Visit this to view the VIDEO!
Blogs are another kind of website. The content is usually organized by date and category with the most recent post/content displaying first.
Blogs are also easier to setup than websites, and because of this reason people are often lured into thinking blogs are a better option than websites.
But don't be fooled.
That doesn't mean they are easier to promote, build traffic and generate a profit (if that's your goal).
Both websites and blogs require work, patience, an understanding of Internet marketing and search engine optimization (the process of getting ranked high in Google, Yahoo, etc.)
So please don't go into this thinking that creating a blog is an easier way to make money online. Even bloggers making a lot of money have put in their share of time and effort.
Another thing you should know is that blogs can be somewhat limiting compared to a website (in terms of design and data manipulation) until you learn more about how blogs are coded.
However, if you use WordPress, you'll have the flexibility to do so much with your blog's content and layout. (More on that in a sec.)
Blog or Website? Can't Decide?
A lot of people get confused and wonder if they should create a blog, website or both?
Watch the video below to get my take on the subject.
Click here to watch the video!
WordPress? Blogger? Which is Best?
WordPress and Blogger are hands down the two most popular blogging platforms. I honestly see no reason to consider any of the others.
I started with Blogger, but when I started learning about the flexibility WordPress provided, I switched over in December 2007 and I'm so glad I did.
Blogger is great because it's super easy to use. However, WordPress has a lot more features and plug-ins that will allow you to enhance your blog.
And even though setting up a WordPress blog is slightly more involved, it's well worth it in the long run.
Remotely Hosted Blog or Self Hosted Blog?
Remotely Hosted
There are two ways to host a blog. The first way is to remotely host it-- which means your content/files literally sit on the server of the blogging platform (WordPress.com, Blogger.com, etc.)
There's always a risk involved with doing it this way because if Blogger or WordPress decide to shut your blog down (for whatever reason), you would lose all your content.
It also doesn't look as professional to have a blog address like http://yourblog.blogspot.com or http://yourblog.wordpress.com. And if you want to make money, first impressions mean a lot.
For the record, I don't endorse remotely hosted blogs. I think hosting is so cheap these days that it's worth spending a few extra dollars to own your content and have a real blog address like http://yourblog.com -- especially if you want to make money.
Self Hosted
With a self hosted blog, all your content sits on the hosting account that you own. Your blog address is more professional and easy to remember because you can have a true domain like http://yourblog.com.
My blog is a self hosted WordPress blog. What that means is my blog's content is published to my own domain, 2CreateAWebSite.com and I even got to create a subdirectory called "blog" so my blog address is http://blog.2createawebsite.com.
Why a Blog and a Website?
Even though I already have a successful website, I decided to create a blog too.
Here on my site, you'll find more static/unchanging tutorials, and my blog is more like a journal where I talk about current topics in the world of website creation, blogging and making money.
As I mentioned in the video above, whether you use a blog, a website or both is up to you. There is no rule of thumb. You really have to feel your way around and see what's best for your needs. But if you're just starting, I'd definitely only focus on one or the other.
Serious About Making Money From a Blog?
If your goal is to make money from a blog, you might want to consider Yaro Starak's Blog Coaching Service. This guy is no amateur and makes 6 figures per year from blogging alone.
In his free report, Blog Profits Blueprint, he lays the groundwork for creating a successful blog and helps you keep your expectations in check when it comes to making money. Very solid advice here.
Also, Yaro wrote a very good piece that explains why so many blogs fail. I've published a copy of the report here so make sure you read it.
In Conclusion...
Whether you plan to create a stand-alone blog or use it to compliment your existing Web site, they can be a great asset to your online business.
Some of the keys to success include...
Blog with a purpose
Just like a website, a blog should have a focus and target audience. Don't just blog to sell products. Give your audience useful information that will entice them to subscribe. Blogs with too many ads and no useful content are a turn-off.
Keep it relevant
Remember, people want to know what's in it for them, so your blog's info should be relevant to your audience's needs and desires.
Blog often when you have good info to share
More is not better when you are putting out junk or recycled material. One of the top reasons people unsubscribe to blogs is lack of originality or the "heard it all before" syndrome.
Add personality
Display a photo. Crack a joke once and while. Let your audience know there's a human behind the words. Don't take yourself too seriously. Have fun and develop your unique blog voice.
To Get a Better view, click the FULL SCREEN button on the bottom of the video!
How To Add “Read More” Expandable Posts Link
This is a pretty popular Blogger hack that lots of people have asked me about. Instead of answering to each email individually, I thought it would make more sense to write an article about it.
With this hack, you can choose to display a select amount of text from the beginning of each post as a teaser instead of showing the entire post on the front page of your blog. Then when people want to read the rest of the post, they can click a “read more” link to see the full post. This is very handy if you have lots of long articles all on one page. (Note that you’ll need to have post pages enabled in order to make this feature work.)
For further information please download the tutorial file bellow:
Freddy's How to add Read More in Blogger/BLogspot
Cause and Effect Paragraph
A cause makes a thing happen; an effect is what results when that thing happens. If you brush your teeth and your teeth get whiter, then brushing is the cause and whitening is the effect. A cause-and-effect paragraph helps a reader understand why things happen: the weakening of the ozone layer, the war in Vietnam, the spike in teenage obesity.
While cause-and-effect paragraphs may be indispensable to writers who explain politics, human behavior, or the hard sciences, they can also be misleading. If a school, for example, has high reading scores, it may have nothing to do with the quality of teaching and everything to do with students the school has recruited. If I happen to be an honest fellow with good study habits and the ability to make friends, it may have nothing to do with how my parents raised me and everything to do with my genes.
Nevertheless, a cause-and-effect paragraph can be a valuable tool for explaining outcomes and trends, and an excellent way to predict future trends
Sample Cause-And-Effect Paragraph
Sample #1:
In New York City, fifty percent of all public school teachers leave the profession within their first five years on the job. While the teachers union and some politicos have charged that the high attrition rate is due to the salary gap between city teachers and their brethren in the suburbs, the real problem is student behavior. There are approximately 1.1 million public school students, and many of them, especially those in poor neighborhoods, have family problems that make it hard for them to sit still for five hours a day. These students may come from homes with no books, where TV sets blare all day, where no parent or older sibling has a college degree, where generations of kids have found the world of academics foreign, frustrating, and fruitless. Because many of these students cannot read a menu or calculate two-digit addition problems, they find long hours in the classroom tortuous. And while classrooms can absorb one or two of these kids—that is, the teacher can teach with a minimum of disruption—classrooms with four or more problem students reach a critical mass. The bad kids tip the good kids, and the simplest lesson becomes a test of wills between teacher and student. Only the most patient, most gifted teacher can endure more than a couple of years of these daily battles. If she wants to keep teaching, she flees for greener pastures —schools like Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, Midwood—or a school in Westchester. The result is alarming: perhaps half of the city’s 1000 schools have green-horn teachers with only a few years experience. Many of these novices don’t know their subjects and don’t know how to control a room filled with difficult kids. Many soon find non-teaching jobs. As a result, the teaching profession, at least the way it’s practiced in New York City, becomes a form of slumming, or something to do until you grow up—like the Peace Corps or the army.
Sample #2:
In recent decades, cities have grown so large that now about 50% of the Earth's population lives in urban areas. There are several reasons for this occurrence. First, the increasing industrialization of the nineteenth century resulted in the creation of many factory jobs, which tended to be located in cities. These jobs, with their promise of a better material life, attracted many people from rural areas. Second, there were many schools established to educate the children of the new factory laborers. The promise of a better education persuaded many families to leave farming communities and move to the cities. Finally, as the cities grew, people established places of leisure, entertainment, and culture, such as sports stadiums, theaters, and museums. For many people, these facilities made city life appear more interesting than life on the farm, and therefore drew them away from rural communities.
Sample #3:
Smoking
Smoking has many serious effects. The most obvious effect is the deterioration of a smoker's health. Smoking increases the risk of lung disease, increases blood pressure, increases the risk of heart attacks, and reduces the flow of oxygen to the brain. Smoking creates respiratory problems. A smoker's cough expels phlegm, a thick mucus in the nose and the throat that wants to escape the body. Prolonged use may lead to emphysema and the need to hook up to a machine to pump enough oxygen into the lungs. Another effect of this habit is that smoking breeds halitosis; a smoker's breath always smells foul and repulsive. Smoking frequently results in social isolation because fewer people smoke or want to be in the presence of asecond-hand smoke. Friends and acquaintances often bluntly tell their smoking friends that they don't want the smell in their cars or in their homes. The strong, offensive odor of smoke clings to smokers' clothing, hair, and skin. The final effect of smoking is that is depletes the pocketbook. Smoking is now an expensive habit, and the price of cigarettes continues to rise. The effects of smoking are many, which leaves one wondering why intelligent people do not find a way to break their harmful addition.
Choose one of the following topics and write a cause and effect paragraph
Why is Paris Hilton, someone with minimal talent and iffy looks, so popular?
What is one cause of weight gain?
Why has President Bush, despite his frat-boy persona and mangled syntax, won so many elections?
Why do women, despite their frequent denials, love macho men?
Why is it preferable (or silly) to marry someone of your own ethnicity or religion?
Why hasn’t soccer, the world’s most popular sport, caught on in America?
How does smoking marijuana affect your mental or physical health?
Why does flattery work, even when the person being flattered knows you are a lying liar?
Why do men and women cheat?
What is the effect of high interest rates on the stock market?
Although it is fake, why is professional wrestling so popular?
Choose your own topic.
Argumentative Essay
Writing An Argumentative Essay
Why do people argue? Because it makes us explore different opinions thoroughly. It teaches us to ponder on opposing statements, to present only distinct and precise information. The art of arguing is to treat your opponent with respect and at the same time rebate his claims. This is what you have to do when writing an argumentative essay. The purpose of an argumentative essay is to win the debate with your point of view and support your point with facts or relevant ideas.
In this kind of essay, we not only give information but also present an argument with the PROS (supporting ideas) and CONS (opposing ideas) of an argumentative issue. We should clearly take our stand and write as if we are trying to persuade an opposing audience to adopt new beliefs or behavior. The primary objective is to persuade people to change beliefs that many of them do not want to change.
Your victory will depend much on the topic you choose for the essay. There are several rules for selecting a successful topic, if you follow these simple steps on how to write your argumentative essay you will be efficient from the start.
The following are some helpful tips to help you write your essay.
Choosing an argumentative topic is not an easy task. The topic should be such that
1. It should be narrowed down
X Marijuana should be considered illegal. (Not a good topic because it is too general. In some medical cases, marijuana is prescribed by the doctors and the patients are encouraged to use it in case of suffering from too much pain)
√ Selling and using marijuana in public places should be considered illegal.
2. It should contain an argument
X We should decide whether we want a bicycle or a car. (our stand is not clear: do we support having bicycles or cars?)
√ If we are under the age of 30 and want a healthy life, we should definitely get a bicycle instead of a car.
X Are you one of those who thinks cheating is not good for students? (a question cannot be an argument)
√ Cheating helps students learn.
X Considering its geological position, Turkey has an important geopolitical role in the EU. (facts cannot be arguments)
√ Considering its geopolitical role, we can clearly say that the EU cannot be without Turkey.
3. It should be a topic that can be adequately supported (with statistics, outside source citations, etc.)
X I feel that writing an argumentative essay is definitely a challenging task. (feelings cannot be supported; we cannot persuade other people)
The argumentative essay starts with an introduction. The introduction is the gateway into your paper, and it serves two roles. The introduction should grab your reader's attention and let him or her know what your paper will be about. Your thesis must also let your reader know what your essay will be about. By the time he or she finishes your conclusion, the reader should know what you intend to write about, what you think of that subject, and what specific statement you intend to prove.
The body is where you stop talking about what you're going to do in your essay and you start actually doing it. In other words, the body is where you actually prove the assertion you made at the end of your introduction. Because the body is meant to do the heavy work of your essay, proving the point which you want to make, the language in your body will most likely be less engaging and more basic than the language in your introduction. Because the job of the body is to prove the thesis, it is both the easiest and the most dangerous part of your essay to write. It's easy because the body is the part of the essay where the words probably come to you easiest, but proving the thesis often turns out to be easier said than done.
Sample argumentative essay: A University in Every Town
The Turkish government is planning to open 15 new universities in developing provinces of Turkey. This is a response to pressure coming from local MPs who in turn voice the demands of their constituencies. However, while the already existing 85 universities are wrestling with financial and academic difficulties, it does not seem to be a good idea to add new universities to the system of higher education.
First of all, the new universities will experience staffing problems. That is, they will have difficulty finding faculty that is qualified to teach in these budding universities. In our country the number of academicians who meet the academic requirements is limited. New universities will have two choices: either to draw from the existing pool or to employ under qualified people. To attract those instructors from other universities they will have to offer attractive incentives . However, since these will be state universities they will not have the necessary funds and most academics will be unwilling to go to small town universities where academic and life standards are below par. The only venue open to these universities will be to employ local professionals or under qualified instructors. The inevitable result will follow: a drop in the quality of education.
In addition to recruitment problems, small town universities will have financial difficulties. The funds allocated to them by the state will not be enough to build from scratch all the facilities that make a university a "real university". A university is more than a few classrooms. Students will need dorms, gyms, cafeterias, sports facilities, labs and computers for their academic and social development. How many new universities can claim to have only a few of these facilities on their campuses? The result will be a small town "university" which consists of a sole building that houses classrooms and offices, and nothing more.
It is argued that the establishment of a university in a developing town will contribute to the development of local culture, community and economy. However, if a university is wrestling with staff recruitment problems, or if it cannot solve its financial difficulties it means that it cannot be of any help to the local community or economy either. It will only employ a few locals, provide substandard education to a few local youth, and it will not fulfill the the aim for which it was initially established.
Universities are institutions of higher education and they need to provide education to satisfy certain standards. In order to provide such quality education they need to have qualified teachers and must provide minimum social and academic facilities. Since funds are limited, we should raise the standard of our existing universities first. Only after that, should we invest in establishing new ones.
For Further information and Examples you may visit the links bellow:
1. How to write Argumentative
2. Argumentative Essay Examples
3. Argumentative Essay Sample
How to Podcast
A podcast is simply a series of audio files that you make available for others to hear. It is called a podcast because it is usually broadcast on a daily or weekly basis. Creating a podcast is easy once you have the proper tools.
Instructions
Step 1
Choose a topic for your podcast.
Step 2
Decide on the frequency you would like to publish your podcast. A news-based podcast is more effective when published daily, while a story-based podcast could be published weekly.
Step 3
Write a script for your podcast. Sometimes it is valuable to write out what you want to say in your podcast. This helps make your podcast sound more professional and eliminate “umms,” “uhhs” and uncomfortable pauses.
Step 4
Record your audio file. Work with audio recording software that is easy for you to understand and use. Complicated software will do nothing more than waste time as you try to figure out the features. Audacity is an easy and free tool to use.
Step 5
Convert your audio file to MP3 format. More than likely, your audio recording software will save your audio recording in its own format. You will need to “Save As” or “Export” to MP3 format so your listeners can open and hear the file.
Step 6
Upload your MP3 file to your Web server.
Step 7
Create an article or blog post introducing your podcast and describing what you are discussing in the podcast.
Step 8
Link your MP3 file to your new article or blog post. Your link will look similar to this: < a href="http://yourwebserver.com/mypodcast.mp3">Click Here to Listen.
Things You'll Need:
* Web site or blog
* Internet Access
* Audio editing and recording software
* MP3 files
* Microphone
Tips & Warnings
• Remember that listeners can only hear your voice, not see you, in an audio podcast. Your topic or theme should be something about which you are truly passionate, which listeners will sense in your voice.
• If you have a short podcast (5 or 10 minutes), you might be able to complete more than one recording at a time. Spend an hour or two creating all of your podcasts for the week. This will save a lot of time.
• Some audio editing and recording software will require that you install an MP3 Encoder to convert or export your audio file to MP3 format. Check the user manual to see which converters your audio software requires or recommends.
• When uploading your podcast to your Web server, be sure to upload it in binary format. In any other format, you will risk corrupting your file.
• Always test your MP3 file link to make sure it is pointing to the correct file and that the MP3 opens.
For further Information you may simply click the following links:
1. Podomatic Podcast Creator
2. Youtube Podcast Tutorial
3. Podcast Coach
In patience
[A Poem by Freddy Dirga]
Sitting here I’m bleeding
Lighting my cigarette in suffering pain
Still, in this bench I’m hoping
Breathing deeply in this chilling rain
I couldn’t find my shadow
I’m looking for the light
At least to murder this sorrow
Before I come to the night
The light disappeared behind the cloud
Keep still, I’m freezing with my patience
In this rain I’m crying loud
My heart’s turning steel, to avoid being deviance
When the light shows up late
Then give me more cigarettes
About Me
- FDP
- Making a blog is not only about design. A simple but nice blog is the most favorable one. Make it like this guys...