-LINKS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING | Let's Study English!

Media English

21 11 2012

Would you like to see more media resources online? Have a look at these links:

For English language students:

Breaking News English - News articles with activities. New articles each day.

BBC World Service – Learn English - Reading and listening practice using news from the BBC.

CNN Literacy Network – Learning Resources - News stories with activities from CNN.

VOA - Voice of America Learning English News

Voice of America Special English News - Online news reports read at a slow pace with simpler vocabulary

Japan ST Online - Japan Times bilingual site for learners of English

New York Times Learning Network - News summaries, quizzes and language practice activities on current news topics

NHK World Wave - Video highlights of NHK English news clips with the Japanese subtitles and explanations.

Australia Network Learn English - Watch news stories and do exercises to help understand and practice the language used in the reports

For young people:

California Distance Learning Project - News stories from the United States with activities

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Behind the News

BBC Newsround - A news site aimed at children in the UK with news articles, as well as audio and video report on a wide variety of topics.

CNN Student News - Provides the day’s top stories via video and includes activities for students to test their listening and reading comprehension

For advanced learners:

Japan Today - News and discussion in English on current news in Japan

Nettizen - Access to hundreds of online newspapers from all over the world

Newseum - More international newspapers

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Categories : -LINKS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING, Media English

SALC-bot is a friendly computer program that can chat about the SALC, learning English, and many other topics. If you agree, SALC-bot will save your conversation for a study about how students use chatbots. For more information about the study, email Troy Rubesch at troy-r@kanda.kuis.ac.jp.

Here is some advice for chatting with SALC-bot:
- Type in complete sentences (not just “No” or “Yes” or “Really?”)
- SALC-bot cannot understand bad spelling or bad grammar.
- SALC-bot can chat about anything, especially the SALC and learning English.

* If you do not see SALC-bot in the box above, click here! *****

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Categories : Chatbots!

Podcasts

7 07 2011

Better at English podcast – Short episodes. Natural conversation. Transcript and notes on website, with vocabulary and grammar.

OneStopEnglish – the road less travelled – 4-minute episodes of this mini-drama for English learners. Fun characters and easy to follow stories.

Listen to English – learn English – UK based, short episodes (3 – 5 mins) with transcript

British Council – Learning English podcast – Conversational, simple English on a variety of topics. 5 – 10 minute programmes.

SALC Exclusive! Travel Podcasts

Try these travel podcasts to improve your listening and learn about some interesting places at the same time. The lessons can help improve your vocabulary and pronunciation, as well as your listening skills.

Click on the links below to listen to the travel podcast mp3s and complete the worksheets (available only for KUIS students in the SALC and on Moodle).

Bangkok, Thailand: Podcast (on Moodle) Worksheet (on Moodle)
Sapporo, Japan: Podcast (on Moodle) Worksheet (on Moodle)

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Categories : Listening (including Podcasts)

Chatbots!

22 06 2011

Chat with a Computer Program (often called a “Chatbot”)!

Alice – One of the most popular chatbots online. She has won many awards. She is very smart and can talk about many topics. To start chatting, type into the box in the middle of the screen that says “You say:”

Elbot - A friendly and funny robot that likes to joke around. He can talk about almost anything in English and German. Push Elbot’s red button and start a conversation.

Joan - Joan was launched January 2005. She is very realistic and she speaks! Joan can answer questions and she can also learn from conversation.

George – George is very good at chitchat. He has been learning from users since 2003.

Ultra Hal – A semi-animated bot which learns from users. Type your name under the first green button and then click “Let’s Chat.”

John Lennon Chatbot – This chat bot pretends to be John Lennon by using his own words from conversations and interviews.

Other “Artificial Intelligence” games

Akinator – Think of a character from TV, movies, or animation. Then answer some easy questions. The Akinator will guess the character that you’re thinking of.