Languagelab.com Blog

I was working away on my island in Second Life and doing my best to make it easy for visitors to find their way round without getting lost. To do this I went to every location and ‘installed’ teleporter pads. If you are from my generation you’ll remember the old Star Trek episodes on the television, where Captain Kirk said ‘Beam me up, Scottie.’ Those beams looked and sounded like my teleporter.

So I ‘installed’ teleporter ‘pads,’ which means I placed objects round the island. These objects would ’send’ people from one object to another, without the person having to move on their own. All they would have to do would be to ‘right-click’ on the object and select ‘teleport. Thus, ‘teleport’ is a verb and ‘teleporter’ is a noun.

Once you have chosen a location (or as we might say ’selected a location from the menu’ or selected a location from the ‘list’) you click on the word that says ‘energise.’ This squeezes you into a little ball and sends you to another location.

These space age words have become common vocabulary in virtual words. Here they are again:
install
teleporter
pad
teleport
menu
energise.

If you haven’t been to Second Life before, you might want to visit this virtual world so that you can experience what these words mean. You can to do that by going to http://www.secondlife.com. But Captain Kirk would probably say that he’s been using these words for years.

Using Second Life for education is something that Languagelab have been researching and developing since SL was in beta. Now educators all over the world are using SL to produce unique and innovative projects.  From learning a language to tracking flight paths in real time over a city, using a virtual platform to perform research and deliver education solutions is what many see as the future of Second Life.

The Second Life Education Support Faire has brought together educators from all over the world to showcase their projects. Languagelab has presented on several topics including; Lessons from two years of teaching in SL, the challenges of providing a multi-cultural registration area, The English City People and how acting can be used in teaching English, Languagelab’s history and the technology and logistics of running English City and the website.

Languagelab has received very positive responses from all the presentations so far and will be presenting again at:

Languagelab.com – “Operations a lesson in multi-sim, multi-data,& multi-cultural”

Languagelab.com – “Lessons from 2 years of teaching in SL”

Language.lab.com

Hints: May, May be or Maybe?

Is it the month after April or is it a grammar word?  Do they mean the same thing?  Do they have words that mean the same thing (synonyms).  Can we use them when speaking and/or writing?

When you are not sure whether to use it as one word (may), two words (may be), or two words combined into one word (maybe), you might need to brush up on the grammar of modal verbs.

Visit this site to revise them.

Maybe, two words combined into one (called compound words), is an adverb meaning “perhaps” or “possibly.”

May be is a verb phrase meaning “might be” or “could be.”

Examples:

Maybe I will go out tonight. – INFORMAL – I DON’T REALLY KNOW.  WE’LL SEE.

I may be going out tonight.  – A LITTLE MORE FORMAL. I HAVE A PLAN BUT IT’S NOT BEEN CONFIRMED YET.

OR

I may go out tonight – QUITE A BIT MORE FORMAL. – IS THERE A PLAN FOR TONIGHT?  I’LL DECIDE TONIGHT.

So, let’s go over that one more time.

“Maybe” is an adverb meaning “perhaps,” so if you are uncertain whether to use this word or the phrase “may be,” try substituting “perhaps”: “Maybe she forgot I said I’d meet her at six o’clock” becomes “Perhaps she forgot. . . .” When the substitution makes sense, go with one word: “maybe.”

When you are wondering whether you may be waiting in the wrong cafe, you’re dealing with a verb and its auxiliary: “may be.” Two words.

See you soon,

Grammmar Girl

English Language Spelling Rule 1 and 2 – Pronunciation and Spelling

If you speak and write in Arabic, Farsi or any other language that doesn’t use English letters, please don’t worry if you find spelling in English difficult.  I would too!  Even if your first language is Spanish, you might also stumble over your letters.  English is a puzzle.  We speak one way.  We write in another way.  The sounds don’t match the spellings.  What are you supposed to do?  Grammar Girl is going to whip up some simple spelling rules for you.

Rule 1
Short Vowel Spelling

What is a short vowel?  It’s a simple, short sound.  For examples of words with short vowels my favourite website is Learn Any Time.

This fantastic website will also give you some more rules and tips.

And here is the spelling rule for these particular vowels:

To spell a short vowel sound, only one letter is needed:

at           red            it            hot           up

Rule 2
Long Vowel Spelling

Try listening and repeating the long vowel sounds at ESL-Galaxy.

To spell a long sound add a second vowel. The second may be next to the first, (boat, maid, cue, etc.) or it may be separated from the first one by a consonant  (made, ride, tide, etc.). If the second vowel is separated from the first by two spaces, it does not affect the first one.  So, doubling a consonant can be called “protecting” a short vowel because it prevents an incoming vowel from getting close enough to the first one to change its sound from short to long:

maid,  made,  but  madder;            dine,  diner,  but dinner.

Try out the two rules.  I’ll give you two more spelling rules next month.

See you soon,

Grammar Girl

Go and join the Christmas Parties on Wednesday 25th December at English City.

Christmas is an annual holiday celebrated on 24th-25th December. Traditionally it is  Christian festival held to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem.

Customs vary from country to country but the celebration usually centres around spending time with family and friends and eating a lot of food, and perhaps going to a Church service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Houses are decorated with a Christmas tree and lights and presents are placed under the tree.

In most European countries Christmas Eve is celebrated on the 24th but in the UK and USA it is celebrated on Christmas Day, with turkey being the traditional Christmas Dinner.

However, each country has different traditional food and drink, in the Czech Reupblic they eat carp,  a freshwater fish and in Poland there are 12 different courses to eat on Christmas Eve !

Christmas began as a Christian festival but is also celebrated by many non-Christians as a secular, cultural festival. The holiday is celebrated all over the world.

Go and join the Christmas Party on Wednesday 25th December at English City.
Times are:
7am-9am      PDT  (3pm-5pm UK)  With Kent
9am – 10am  PDT  (5pm-6pm UK)  With Phillip
10am-12pm  PDT  (6pm-8pm UK)  With Pebbles
Click here to check schedule.

You can pick up your present, talk to your friends and have a happy and fun experience while practicing new vocabulary and learning new Christmas words.

See you there !

Jessie Teacher

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 !