Languagelab.com Blog

Using your inventory to learn English
To get the most out of your English classes at languagelab you need to know how to use your inventory. Your English teacher will often give you notecards you need to read or objects you need to wear or use. In this blog, I will help you find things in your inventory, create new folders and change the names of notecards and items.

Finding things.
Your teacher will often give you notecards in English class; these are really useful and important. They help you read information, discuss things with other students and explain your homework. When you take these you automatically save them.
First, open your inventory by clicking on the ‘my stuff’ button at the top right of your screen. Type the word in the search box at the top of your inventory, or click the ‘recent items’ tab where you should be able to see all your recent objects and notecards.

Keeping things in order
To keep your notecards in order you could put them in a new folder. To make a folder open your inventory and right click the top, then choose ‘create new folder’. You can now give this a name, for example ‘Important English Grammar’. You can drag and drop items into folders.

Changing Names – Renaming
Sometimes your teacher will ask you to fill in a notecard and save it, this might be part of a listening activity or a discussion, it might even be a grammar quiz. To remember which notecard it is, you can easily change the name. Find the item in your inventory and right click on it, now choose ‘rename’ from the menu. You can now write any new name you wish.

Giving other people objects and notecards
To give someone else a notecard, open your inventory, find the object and then drag and drop it on the person. This will give someone an item or notecard from your inventory.

Next week: Maps and Landmarks, finding your English Class

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Introducing Pebbles Kronfeld
Recently at LanguageLab our resident actress, Pebbles Kronfeld has been hosting a series of activities in which students have had the opportunity to practice their English while learning about important elements of English speaking people’s culture.

Here is an overview of a sketch comedy session with Pebbles and how it can be useful for improving your English skills.

Initially we read through the script of a sketch called Camel Spotting created by the famous Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Pebbles helped us with pronunciation and difficult vocabulary, as well as making sure that we understood the humour of the sketch. Understanding humour is a really important aspect of learning a language that is often overlooked in the classroom. It is one thing to be able to ask directions to your hotel but getting a joke is an entirely different kettle of fish.

After helping us to understand the script and the situation, Pebbles asked us to try and imagine how the different characters were feeling and exactly what they wanted to say when they were speaking. We then had to try to read the script aloud with the correct tone of voice to express this feeling. This is another really important skill to have when communicating in English. The tone of voice we use and the words that we stress in a sentence can completely change the meaning of what we are saying.

How many different meanings do you think the following sentence can have depending on which word in the sentence is given the most stress?

I don’t think he should get the job.

Click here for answers and examples.

To read more about Monty Python’s flying circus click here and to watch a YouTube clip of the comedy sketch that we practiced click here.

Next week: Find out how dropping in for a coffee at Millie’s café will have you chatting like a local in no time.

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Giving instructions
Giving instructions using the target language in a beginners course is another challenge in SL. In our Spanish for beginners we follow three procedures to make sure the participants in our course can follow class instructions: translation to English, images and modeling.

In the first place, we have an introductory lesson to present the most common instructions students will be listening to in each class. In this introductory class, we use English to explain these expressions (listen, pay attention, repeat please, come here, follow me, how do you say …. in Spanish? among others). All the phrases taught are posted to the course wiki, in a written form and we also add a recording. In this way, students can access this resource as many times as they want.

In this introductory lesson as well as in our regular classes, we use boards with images that illustrate instructions. Images help students understand and retain the message. In some cases, especially at the beginning of the course, we offer the written instruction in English and Spanish.

Modeling is perhaps the most efficient way to give instructions using the target language. In order to do this, we have a helper (team-teaching). The teacher gives the instructions to the helper once or twice, for the students to see what they have to do. This is especially good for complex activities. In case that the instructions are not clear, the helper translates them. We believe that we should not waste time in the instructions because what is important is the activity. As the course proceeds, students get used to the language used for instructions and there is no need for translations.

In the following pictures you will see some of the instruction boards we have created for our Spanish lessons.

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Tense choices 101
What is the difference between ‘tense’ and ‘time?’ The answer is that ‘tense’ classifies verbs through NAMES like ‘present tense’ or ‘past tense’ and ‘time’ classifies situations described by verbs according to WHEN they happened. Sometimes, the link between tense and time is straightforward. What this means is that you can clearly see that the situation is in the past, the present or the future. But sometimes a verb in one tense describes a situation in another time. And sometimes there are strings of verbs put together that express something complicated (like ‘had been running’). You also have to think about how far into the past, the present or the future you are. What should you do? How do you make quick decisions about which tense to choose when you have a range of tenses to choose from and when each tense could change your meaning?

I believe that you should stop thinking about the names of the tenses. First think about what you want to say and THEN how you can say it. Which tense is going to convey your meaning? I know this isn’t easy but you could try this technique when you’re writing. Take your time. Think it through. Build your confidence.

In the meantime, have a look at this very brief list of tenses.

Tenses

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How you look affects how you learn
Having an avatar that looks good makes you feel better. It makes you feel better and it helps the other students and teacher
respond to you well.
There might also be times when your languagelab teacher will ask you to wear something. This might be for fun or it might
be to take part in a role-play or an activity where you need to look differently. I sometimes ask my students to wear ‘word’
hats to answer questions or different jackets to pretend they are shop keepers.
Please don’t come to class naked or in a bikini, even in the virtual world other people can get offended.

How to change your clothes
In Language Lab you can make your avatar look like anything you want. This is what I did to myself in just a few minutes.
You can get loads of clothes in the two language lab clothing shops either Banana fashions or at Periwinkles

Everything is free and Donatella is on hand to give you some advice about what looks good.

How to save your appearance

Once you are happy with what you are wearing you can save it. Right click on yourself and you will see a circle menu,
choose ‘appearance’. You should see a next box like the one below, click ‘save as’, and you can save the clothes you are
wearing as a folder. Now you can drag that folder onto your avatar to change your appearance.

1. Put a sock in it.
2. Pull your socks up.
3. Keep your shirt on
4. Keep your mouth zipped
5. Put on your thinking cap

Next week:
Keeping your inventory in shape.

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Recently you may have heard the words ‘City People’ mentioned by teachers and other LanguageLab staff and students. If you have been reading this blog carefully, you will have seen several references to them.
You may be a seasoned City People user, or you may not have the faintest idea who they are and what we are talking about
when we mention them. Either way this weekly series of blogs is designed to help you find out more about the City People
and more specifically, how you can use them to help improve your English.

Before I start my introductions (one City Person character per week) I’d like to say a little more about myself.
My name is Sally Langer but I am also known by my Avatar’s name, Salsita Almendros. I am a qualified English teacher
and you can read more about my profile on our teacher’s profile page.
Aside from teaching formal English lessons at
Language Lab I also work with the City People to ensure that the activities they do will help our students to practice
speaking English.

You can read a short summary about the City People and what they do here,
but for more detailed information and up dates
keep an eye out for my weekly blog. If you have any questions or thoughts about the City People please leave them in the
comments.

Next week my first focus will be on Languagelab’s very own resident actor Pebbles Kronfeld who has been hosting a series of activities
in which students have had the opportunity to practice their English while learning about an important element of British culture.

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Appearance is important in RL and it cannot be taken for granted in SL. In Second Life you can look as you wish, you can even look like any animal. This flexibility is great for teachers. You can change your image according to the lesson you are teaching. Changing your appearance is an easy and fast process:

• Right click on your avatar
• Choose “Appearance”

You can also access the window, by clicking on the “Edit” and “Appearance” options at the top menu. Here you can find all the options to modify the character:

• Shape: Body, Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth, Chin, Torso, Legs
• Skin: Skin Color, Face Detail, Eyes, Makeup, Body Detail, Legs
• Hair: Color, Style, Eyebrows
• Eyes: change eyes color
• Clothes: Shirt, Pants, Shoes, Socks, Jacket, Gloves, Undershirt, Underpants, Skirt.

You can use textures and colors to enhance your avatar by applying them to your avatar’s skin and clothing. Inventory items to wear can be found in your Library folder. Open your inventory, find something to try on. Right-click the file and select “wear” or drag each item from your inventory onto your avatar. You can also find free clothes and body parts (shapes, skins, hair, eyes) in different places in SL.
To take off clothes: right-click on your avatar and select “take off”. Quick change: Drag a clothing folder with an outfit from Inventory and drop it on your Avatar.

You can change your appearance to make a topic more real, for example, dressing as a doctor or nurse if you are teaching about health, a hospital, etc. Wearing an animal avatar if teaching about animals. Quickly changing clothes is very handy for teaching clothes and colors. Your imagination is the limit!

Tutorial Links here for Changing appearance and

Clothing:

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Have you had your coffee yet? Are you sure? When did you have it? This week at LanguageLab we focused on practicing and using
the simple past and the
present perfect.

Understanding when to use these two tenses is difficult for many students of English.
The rule of thumb is that the simple past is used to
talk about actions completed in the past at a fixed time, while the present perfect is used to talk about actions that were completed
in the past but still affect the present.

That sounds good in theory, but what does it mean in practice? In this class I used photos that showed a day in my life to demonstrate
some of the differences between the two tenses.

For our first activity we put the photos in order so that they showed my day
from start to end. This gave us the opportunity to practice describing events using the simple past. After this we used the
photos to show how the present perfect is used when an action is connected to an event that occurred in the past.
For example, we looked at a photo of me standing in my hotel room after checking in.
We decided that using the present simple, the caption under
the photo would be, “She has checked in.”

To practice using the present simple and the present perfect click here.

allowScriptAccess=”sameDomain” bgcolor=”#ffffff” height=”189″ pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”
quality=”high” src=”http://www.bubbleshare.com/swfs/slider.swf?4216″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”500″>
BubbleShare:
Share photos –
Create and Share Crafts

Bookmark this blog:

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Important! Read this blog quickly, before you look up difficult words.

To improve your reading skills, it is sometimes a better idea to find the main point of a paragraph, chapter or even the book.
To do this, you could ask say or ask yourself:

• This mainly deals with …
• The main idea may be expressed as …
• The title that best expresses the ideas of this paragraph is …
• The writer wants to tell us that …
• The best name for this story is …

Last month, I gave you part of the opening paragraph of Eva Luna (by Isabel Allende). Here is the first paragraph, again,
but in full. As you read it, try and complete the sentences.

My name is Eva, which means “life,” according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a
shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy,
because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory. My father, an Indian with yellow eyes, came from the place where
the hundred rivers meet; he smelled of lush growing things and he never looked directly at the sky, because he had grown up beneath
a canopy of trees, and light seemed indecent to him. Consuelo, my mother, spent her childhood in an enchanted region where for centuries
adventurers have searched for the city of pure gold the conquistadors saw when they peered into the abyss of their own ambitions.
She was marked forever by that landscape, and in some way she managed to pass that sign on to me. (Allende, published by Knopf, 1988)

This paragraph is a little complicated and, in my opinion, there is more than one idea. Here are my answers. What do you think?

• This mainly deals with an explanation of why Eva is such an unusual person.
• The main idea may be expressed as how it is possible to have a rich and a poor life.
• The title that best expresses the ideas of this paragraph is (perhaps) ‘Drama, Comedy, History’
• The writer wants to tell us that Eva is a good story-teller.
• (One of) the good names for this paragraph is ‘Where I was born’ or ‘My parents.‘

This tells us that there are no wrong answers. Think, read and then think again.

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Sounds Good – Using Sound in the Classroom

Listen, hear, eavesdrop,, heed,

To get the best out of your English classes at languagelab.com you need to be able to use and change the sound. Today’s blog will help you listen to your teacher as well as the other students in your class. We’ll learn how to mute and control the sounds you hear when you are in lessons and interacting with other students and your teacher.

To set things up yourself click Edit > preferences > voice chat. Push ‘device settings’ and you can change where you sound comes from (input) and where you hear it from (output). You can also change how loud you will sound to other people in class. Please make sure that your speakers are turned off when you are in class, this make a terrible noise called feedback which everyone can hear. If you are having very big sound problems then there are languagelab helpers who can give you some advice.

Listening to the teacher and other students Your teacher will often ask you to talk to other students in your class. This might be in pairs or in small groups. This is really important and gives all students the chance to practise speaking a lot. When you are talking to another student or students you can ‘mute’ all the other members of the class you are not talking to. There are two ways you can ‘mute’ another students. Click on the ‘nearby’ button at the bottom right of your screen and select mute for each person. (right)

1. I was all ears
2. I heard it through the grapevine
3. You could hear a pin drop
4. I couldn’t hear myself think

Next week: Clothes: How does what you look like help you learn English?