Monthly Archive for November, 2008

Moving Around in Language Lab

Published
by
Chris
on November 29, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Chris Teacher

Chris Teacher

Moving around – How to get from here to there.

 

 

 Getting from in place to another is really important in your language lab lessons. You need to move to talk to the other members of your class and take part in the activities your teacher will ask you to do. This blog will help you move!

Walk, stroll or creep

The easiest way to move in your English Lessons is to walk. You can do this by using the arrow keys.

Run, jog or sprint

Sometimes your teacher might ask you to move quickly, especially if it is part of a grammar game or communication activity. You can fly, but sometimes it’s just as quick to run. You can run by clicking ‘world’ at the top of the screen and choosing ‘always run’. If you want to run quickly you can tap-tap and then hold the upwards arrow key. You might need to select ‘Advanced>Character> Tap-Tap-Hold to Run’

Jump, hop or leap

To jump, just tap the ‘page up’ button on your keyboard. You use this to get over obstacles quickly. Sometimes your teacher might ask you to jump in the air to show you have finished doing a listening task or a conversation with your partner or group.

Flying through the air

Flying through the air

Fly, swoop or wheel

To fly, press and hold the ‘page up’ button. To land, press the ‘page down’ button. It’s hard to fly sometimes; you can easily overshoot where you are going. Your teacher might ask you to fly up to an object and read it, or fly to a location to find out some information. 

 

 

 

 

 

Vehicles -Drive, ride or pilot.

Park the sentence truck

Park the sentence truck

 

 

There are lots of vehicles you can use in language lab. Your teacher might ask to make sentences by driving trucks, or fly through correct answers in a plane. To use a vehicle, right click on it, choose ‘fly’ or ‘drive’ from the circle menu.

 

 

Teleport

The easiest way to travel in Language Lab. Click your ‘map’ button so you can see the streets and building around you from an aerial view. Now you can double click with the left mouse button on the place you want to go, you will teleport straight there.

 

 

 

Use the verbs of movement above to answer these questions.

 

1.    Which verb means to fly down quickly?

2.    Which verb means walk slowly?

3.    Which verb means to jump up and down quickly?

4.    Which verb means fly an aeroplane?

5.    Which verb means to move using a horse?

6.    Which verb means to run really fast?

7.    Which verb means walk slowly and secretly?

8.    Which verb means to run quite slowly?

 

 

English practice website review - ESL about.com

Published
by
Sally
on November 28, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment
Sally Teacher

Sally Teacher

Each week at Languagelab we will review one good English practice website that may complement your English studies with us. Each review will focus on two questions.

What are the key features of the site?
How can Languagelab students benefit from this site?

This week’s English practice website is called esl.about.com

What are the key features of the site?

Esl.about.com is like an enormous and interactive online English practice resource book. If you have a question about grammar, or you simply want to find a practice tutorial for a grammar point, the chances are that you will find what you need at this website.

How can Languagelab students benefit from this site?

With a website that has such an enormous collection of resources as this one it’s easy to get lost for hours simply browsing from topic to topic. In this case, that is exactly what I recommend you do. Why not begin your journey by choosing your level from the following links:

Beginning English

Intermediate English

Advanced English

Once you have selected your level browse through the topics that interest you or that you enjoy. Remember that we often learn and remember things better when we are enjoying ourselves, so making sure that you choose something you enjoy is always a good idea when you are trying to learn something new. Finally, don’t forget to bring your questions and doubts about the topics you study to the grammar house where one of our qualified English teachers will be ready and waiting to help you with those questions that a website just can’t answer.

Introducing Kent Fromund

Published
by
Sally
on November 28, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Sally Teacher

Kent Fromund

Did you know that Kent Fromund is really Griffin Morrisey’s nephew? Kent is one of English City’s newer residents. Actually, he’s not as new as some people think. If you’ve been coming to Languagelab for a while you may have met him in the past when he used to be called “Johnathon Shelman”. The big question here is why did “Johnathon” change his name to Kent? Read on to find out…

Warning, this story is complicated! You may need to read it several times to completely understand it. While you are reading please remember that Kent Fromund is the man who used to be called “Johnathon Shelman”

It turns out that Kent was not the first person to change his name in the Fromund family. Griffin’s real surname is actually Fromund but when he became a musician he changed it to Morrisey because he thought it sounded more musical. One day, not so long ago, Griffin and ‘Johnathon’ were chatting in the pub when Griffin told “Johnathon” that his (Griffin’s) real surname was “Fromund”. “Johnathon” was very surprised to hear this surname as, it’s quite unusual and … it was also the surname of “Johnathon’s” long lost father.

“Johnathon” never met his  father. He was raised by his Chinese mother who had met “Johnathon’s” father  when he was a young man backpacking through China. When “Johnathon’s” mother fell pregnant her family were very upset and sent her away to live with a relative in the USA.

Nobody knows what happened to “Johnathon’s” father. He was broken hearted after “Jonathon’s” mother was sent away (he thought that she had run away from him) and he disappeared himself not long after she was sent away. He never knew about his little baby boy “Johnathon”.

When “Johnathon” heard Griffin mention the name “Fromund” he immediately started to ask more questions about Griffin’s family. He knew very little about his father, but the one thing he did know was that Fromund was his father’s surname. It didn’t take the pair long to put two and two together and realise that Griffin was “Johnathon’s” uncle. Griffin confirmed that at around the time “Johnathon” was born his brother had disappeared after writing a letter telling of the Chinese woman who had run away from him and broken his heart.

Once “Johnathon” realised that his father had not deserted him and his mother he decided to change his name to Kent Fromund to honour the father who he had never met. These days Kent can be found hanging around in English City working on Art exhibitions and telling stories to those who will listen to him.

Why don’t you drop in for a visit and ask him to tell you the story of how he changed his name? In the meantime, can you answer these questions?

1) What was Kent Fromund’s name when he was a child?

2) What was Griffin Morrisey’s name when he was a child?

3) What country was Kent Fromund born in?

4) Who is Kent’s uncle?

World of Warcraft in language Lab

Published
by
Chris
on November 26, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment
Chris Teacher

Chris Teacher

This week in languagelab we’ve been talking about games in our English lessons and in particular, the new World of Warcraft game, Wrath of the Lich King.

Wrath of the Lich King has just been launched by Blizzard and is an expansion pack for the largest online MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) in the world. In London there were queues of more than 2000 people as fans waited to be the first to get their hands on the game.

There are more than 11 million people involved in the fantasy game making it one of the biggest meeting places on earth. They spend time fighting monsters or each other, or both. Click here to watch the trailer.

Wrath of The Lich King

Wrath of The Lich King

We talked about whether video games and online worlds were a bad thing and if they had too much influence on people. It’s a tough question, especially when the virtual world can be so exciting with so many things to do. Certainly some people get addicted to games like World of Warcraft and spend a lot of their time playing, but people spend a lot of time watching football too! We decided that the point about virtual worlds was their ability to engage people and make them interested. This has huge implications not only for entertainment, but for education as well.

Computers and virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft play more of a role in out lives than ever before so they are bound to attract attention.

Check out these gaming idioms and match them to the right answers

Idiom

Answer

1. Checkmate

a) From darts – I make the rules

2. Call the shots

b) From roulette – You are having a bad time

3. The chips are down

c) From chess – I win

4. Show your hand

d) From football – let’s start again

5. Back to square one.

e) From cards – tell the truth

Answers

1.c) 2.a) 3.b) 4.e) 5. d)

Emoticons - Communicate Using Punctuation Marks

Published
by
Chris
on November 21, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Emoticons, How to Communicate using Punctuations Marks

 

 

 

Sometimes teachers and students in your English class will use punctuation marks to communicate when they write in chat or if they send you an Email.  These are called ‘emoticons’ and they are a very quick way to explain emotions or feelings. In this blog, I’ll show you the most common emoticons in Languagelab.

 

Where do Emoticons come from?

The word emoticons come from the words ‘emotion’ and ‘icon’ mixed together. They are a simple way that people can explain the way they feel without using too many words. People wanted a way to tell each how they felt without using long sentences with a lot of complicated grammar.

 

When can you use Emoticons?

Emoticons are very informal, that means you can use them with your friends but not with your boss. You can use them in a text message but not in a formal letter. 

 

Some Emoticons

These are the most common emoticons,

Icon

Meaning

 

Icon

Meaning

:-)

I’m smiling, I’m happy

 

:-(

Sad, depressed

;-)

Wink

 

:D

Big smile , grin

:-*

Kiss on the cheek

 

=0

Surprised or shocked

:-S

Confused

 

:(

I’m crying

:-P

Sticking out your tongue (some people might find this rude)

: I

Expressionless, indifferent, emotionless

 

More Emoticons

If really like these and would like to find out more, there is a very big list at

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

 

See if you can find out from the list above what these complex emoticons mean!! (answers below)

 

  1. =’ т ‘=
  2. (\_/)
  3. ¯\(©¿©)/¯
  4. (^_~)
  5. <=O=(^^^)=O=>

 

1. Lion

2. I’m furious

3. I don’t know (I dunno)

4. Wink

5. An aeroplane

 

 

 

 

 

LANGUAGELAB ROZPOCZYNA DZIAŁALNOŚĆ W POLSCE I OGŁASZA KONKURS NA NAJLEPSZEGO ONLINE DIZAJNERA!

Published
by
jessie
on November 20, 2008
in Polish
. 1 Comment

Czy studiujesz lub zajmujesz się dizajnem lub architekturą?
Czy chciałbyś stać się częścią jednej z najnowszych i najbardziej ekscytujących marek w Polsce?
Czy jesteś w stanie stworzyć coś naprawdę kreatywnego w wirtualnym świecie?

Jeśli tak, czekamy na twoje zgłoszenie!

Szukamy najbardziej pomysłowych i kreatywnych dizajnerów lub architektów do zaprojektowania najnowszej polskiej przestrzeni w naszym wirtualnym świecie języka angielskiego Languagelab. Czekamy na świeże, oryginalne i niczym nieograniczone pomysły. Zawieszona na ziemią kawiarnia, galeria w kształcie Polski lub balansujący w powietrzu zamek…wszystko zależy od twojej wyobraźni. Zwycięski projekt zostanie zrealizowany w wirtualnej przestrzeni Second Life w mieście Languagelab odwiedzanym przez studentów z całego świata.
Languagelab jest jedną z najbardziej uznanych marek w Second Life. Zwycięzcy zapewnimy czynny udział w realizacji projektu dający szanse współpracy i nauki od doświadczonych ekspertów regularnie pracujących w wirtualnej rzeczywistości.
Nagroda główna – zwycięski projekt zostanie zrealizowany w świecie Languagelab. Dodatkowo zwycięzca zostanie częścią ekipy dizajnerów, którzy stale z nami współpracują przy rozbudowie miasteczka Languagelab. Z pozostałych zgłoszeń wyróżnimy 5 najlepszych projektów, których twórcy otrzymają dwutygodniowy specjalistyczny kurs języka angielskiego dla architektów.

Zgłoszenia wszystkich zainteresowanych wzięciem udziału w konkursie przyjmujemy do 30 LISTOPADA. Ostateczny termin na przesyłanie gotowych projektów - 20 GRUDNIA.

Jeżeli chcesz się zarejestrować lub uzyskać więcej informacji skontaktuj się z James’em Aldous’em pod adresem email james@languagelab.com.


OGÓLNE WARUNKI KONKURSU:
- ostateczny termin rejestracji - 30 listopada 2008. Ostateczny termin składania gotowych projektów - 20 grudnia 2008. Ogłoszenie wyników konkursu nastąpi 20 grudnia 2008.
- projekty mogą być w formie odręcznych rysunków lub prac stworzonych przy użyciu programów komputerowych.
- gotowe projekty należy przesyłać na adres james@languagelab.com
- projekty muszą być w jednym z formatów: JPG, PDF, TIFF albo gif.
- stworzona przestrzeń będzie wykorzystywana do spotkań awatarów w Second Life, więc musi być w stanie pomieścić kilkunastoosobowe grupy.
- przestrzeń będzie wykorzystywana jako galeria, więc musi zawierać obszar do prezentacji prac plastycznych. Na otwarciu budynku odbędzie się wystawa prac uznanego artysty Karola Radziszewskiego.

The Ben Zmiana Foundation are also involved in this project, for more information click here.

English practice website review - BBC Learning English

Published
by
Sally
on November 18, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments
Sally Teacher

Sally Teacher

Each week at Languagelab we will review one good English practice website that may complement your English studies with us. Each review will focus on two questions.

What are the key features of the site?
How can Languagelab students benefit from this site?

This week’s English practice website is BBC Learning English

What are the key features of this site?

Continue reading ‘English practice website review - BBC Learning English’

Languagelab named as solutions provider by Glenn Linden

Published
by
jessie
on November 18, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Languagelab has been named as a solutions provider in Glenn Linden’s latest blog post on real world businesses that use Second Life.   “We define Solution Providers as professional businesses and individuals who work in Second Life with real-world businesses, creating immersive experiences that aim to invite, engage, educate and entertain fellow Residents, as well as their employees and internal audiences.”

Using the Second Life grid to operate a real life business is becoming increasingly common. As the pioneer of language learning in virtual worlds with a real life work force on every continent Languagelab is a working example of how traditional services such as language learning can be taken into the 21st century.

Glenn also said “Languagelab uses the immersive environment of Second Life as part of the learning experience for their unique language classes”.  Languagelab is in good company using the grid as a platform as L’Oreal, the World Bank and Cisco all use the grid to provide services and carry out promotional activities.

There are many reasons to use virtual worlds as a platform for your business; cutting operations costs, hosting international events without leaving a huge carbon footprint and taking advantage of the immersive environment to create a truly engaging experience. Being able to re-create an environment or situation as we can in English City is something that you could never do in real life.  If you live hundreds of miles from the nearest large city that has a multi-cultural population you may never meet anyone to practice your English with but as Languagelab students know, at English City there are lots of native speakers and students from 45 different countries to talk to.

See you soon in English City !

You are the Green Dot: Finding out where your English class is

Published
by
Chris
on November 14, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments
Chris Teacher

Chris Teacher

It’s nice to walk, it’s also nice to fly, but as you know at LanguageLab, you can teleport. You will always need to find your English Class, but you might also need to move around to other places, your teacher might even send you on a treasure hunt. For all these activities you will need to know how to orientate yourself in the LanguageLab city. In this blog I will show you how to find out where you are, use your big and small maps as well as making and saving landmarks (LMs)

Where am I? Your Maps

You have a small map which can live on your screen. To turn this on and off press the arrow in the right hand corner. You are a the dot in the centre and other people are green dots. On my map above the blue blocks are objects that I made. To zoom in or zoom out left click on it and scroll your mouse wheel

Landmarks

People and places will often give you landmarks (LMs). Using these you can teleport anywhere. To use a landmark, just open it from the section in your inventory and click ‘teleport’. To save an LM click the ‘here’ menu at the top of your screen and then choose ‘create landmark’. In this way you can save your favourite places in language lab.

Teleporting Tips.

- sometimes you can teleport into strange places, for example you can teleport into a house with no door, or under the floor. If you are trapped, use your big map to teleport away.

- Please look for green dots (people). If there are lots of people in one place then there is probably a class or an event happening there. If it is not your class or an event you want to go to, please don’t teleport into the middle.

Next week: Abbreviations in Language Lab: What R U doing? Part 1

Learn Spanish at Languagelab in 2009

Published
by
shiv
on November 14, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment
Learn Spanish at Languagelab

Learn Spanish at Languagelab

Languagelab is delaying the launch of its Spanish for beginners until early 2009. See course information below. Please send enquiries to spanish@languagelab.com

Would you like to learn Spanish through real experiences in a friendly, Spanish speaking virtual city?
Have you ever wanted to learn a language but found yourself put off by dry, traditional classes?
Did you learn Spanish a while ago … y lo tiene un poquito olvidado?

….well Languagelab is offering you the chance to learn with our qualified native speaker Spanish teachers from the comfort of your own home …. in our very own virtual Spanish speaking city ‘Ciudad Bonita’.

Continue reading ‘Learn Spanish at Languagelab in 2009′