29 december 2006

Deset najpogostejših napak pri oblikovanju spletnih strani

Za vse, ki vas zanima oblikovanje spletnih strani, ali pa tistih, ki spletno stran oblikujete in vzdržujete samo zaradi svojih študentov/dijakov/učencev, članek, ki vam bo razkril, kako lahko svojo spletno stran izboljšate. Članek je v angleščini in ga najdete tu.

Veselo branje!

19 december 2006

Talking across the world - vabilo na konferenco

As the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry is increasingly being outsourced to non-English speaking destinations, the need for good English language communication skills is acute. At present the single biggest problem to industry growth in this area is English language communication skills.

The applied linguistic research that has started in this industry is fascinating and the potential is enormous. At present, a number of research bids have been submitted to look at issues of language assessment, curriculum development, corpus building and quality measurement in this industry.

We are keen to invite academics who have been working in this area or a related area to submit a paper for this conference.

Specifically, the conference will address the issues of:
  • Modes of Adult Learning in the workplace This will cover papers related to adult learning principles; modes of delivery (e.g. classroom based training- class/small group/ individualized support; autonomous learning); stages of professional development (e.g. novice expert level capacity);coaching and mentoring.
  • Assessing language for work impact This will cover papers related to language and communication assessment practices in the BPO industry e.g. examples of how homegrown assessment works in house and for what purposes; the role of commercially available business English testing instruments.
  • Academic and workplace partnering This will cover papers related to how workplaces and the tertiary sector inter relate in the provision of employment related skills with specific reference to language and communication skills development at the secondary and tertiary levels.
  • Curriculum innovation and evaluation in language education at the workplace This will cover papers related to how language research can inform the development of training materials; the syllabus design process from planning to implementation to evaluation; development of teacher education and trainer/coaching support programmes.
  • Intercultural communication and its place in training This will cover papers related to how intercultural awareness impacts the success of outsourced BPO work; critiques of existing programmes in intercultural training and ideas for more effective training and awareness raising for culture.
  • Discourse analysis and linguistic research This will cover papers related to linguistic analyses of different aspects of BPO interaction and transaction, both spoken and written e.g call centre exchange and email/chat support.
Plenary papers will be 1 hour and all other papers will be 40 minutes (30 minutes presentation and 10 minutes questions and answers).

For further details, please visit our conference website: www.talkingacrosstheworld.com
Deadline for submission is 15th January 2007.

17 december 2006

Sladke sanje

Ne vem, ali radi kaj spečete za praznike. Če je vaš odgovor pritrdilen, vam priporočam obisk dveh spletnih strani. Če je odgovor nikalen, nič ne skrbite, recepte s teh strani boste s pridom lahko uporabljali tudi v razredu - seveda takrat, ko se boste pogovarjali o hrani.

:: Epicorious - Christmas desserts, če vas zanima, kako se narediti hiške iz sladkarij (gingerbread houses), tu je še video.




:: Waitrose - množica receptov, tudi takšni, ki jih boste s pridom uporabili za peko ali izdelavo daril.

14 december 2006

Vaclav Havel

Verjetno že veste (jaz sem šele sedaj odkrila), da je to jesen Vaclav Havel gostoval na Univerzi Columbia (NY, ZDA). Prijazni Američani so odprli posebno spletno stran v čast njegovega obiska, kjer so shranili tako njegova predavanja kot intervjuje z ljudmi, ki ga poznajo. Če omenim samo nekaj imen: Lue Reed, Edvard Albee, Milos Forman, George Soros, Bill Clinton in drugi.

Intervjuji so strukturirani in razdeljeni v krajša poglavja (povezavo najdete do njih čisto na dnu te strani). Seveda so zelo zanimivi, načenjajo pa tudi marsikatero zanimivo vprašanje, ki lahko služi kot iztočišče za debate o ameriškem videnju Češke in političnih dogajanj v tej deželi. Zanimivi so tudi kot opis občudovanega človeka: politika in umetnika (poslušajte Lueja Reeda). Vsekakor so vredni ogleda tudi če nimate v mislih priprav na naslednjo uro.

13 december 2006

Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics

Naletela sem še na eno zanimivo zanimivo publikacijo. Kot že naslov pove, gre za Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, ki je odprtega tipa (brezplačna, tako kot naša Scripta Manent). Izdaja jo Teachers College, Columbia University (ZDA) od leta 2001.

Za svoje cilje si je revija zadala naslednje:
This web journal is dedicated to publishing research in the fields of TESOL and Applied Linguistics. Its mission is two-fold: 1) to promote efficient dissemination of research, and 2) to facilitate academic exchange between the TESOL/ Applied Linguistics students/ faculty and members of the profession world-wide. Within a conceptual framework that values an integration of theory and practice, the journal publishes full-length articles dealing, in a principled way, with language, language acquisition, language teaching, and language assessment. The journal particularly welcomes submissions in the following areas: second language acquisition, second language assessment, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, second language instruction and second language teacher education. Reviews of books in these areas are also welcomed.
Priporočam!

09 december 2006

Best blogs galore

Se opravičujem za angleški naslov, ampak nekako se zdi najbolj primeren za to vsebino.

Začelo se je namreč tekmovanje za najboljše bloge na področju izobraževanja. Kategorije so določene, nominiranci tudi. Obisk Edublogs Awards je zato priporočljiv, saj vas bodo povezave pripeljale do odličnih blogov. Res se lahko učimo od njih!

Aja, pa ne pozabite glasovati za najboljše! Časa je le še do 16.12.2006.

04 december 2006

TESOL Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2007

TESOL vabi vse nadobudne učitelje tujih jezikov, ki bi radi naučili kaj novega, da obiščejo wiki Evo 2007 in si ogledajo ponujene programe. Izobraževalni programi so brezplačni in trajajo šest tednov.
Pričetek: 15. januar 2007
Vpis: 1. - 14. januar 2007.

02 december 2006

Berimo!

Spletna stran DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journal ponuja povezave do kvalitetnih znanstvenih revij, ki svojo vsebino ponujajo brezplačno. V večini akademskih založb uredniki, uredniški odbori in recenzenti svoje delo opravljajo brezplačno, vendar naročnine kljub temu rastejo, še posebej naročnine velikih neakademskih založb. Knjižnice tako porabijo ogromno sredstev za naročanje revij. DOAJ zagovarja prosti dostop do kvalitetnih znanstvenih vsebin, zbira povezave do spletnih strani teh znanstvenih revij ter njihovo delo promovira.

Pri brskanju po teh revijah sem naletela na zadnjo številko Asian EFL Journal, ki je v celoti posvečena temi "task-based learning" (SOS - kako se to prevaja v slovenščino?).

Zanimive članke boste našli tudi v Iberici, Journal of Language and Learning, Language @ Internet, TESL - EJ pa še kje. Veselo branje!