My Autonomous Learning Pla

After learning for a whole semester, I know some useful English learning websites which can help me improve my English skills.


Vocabulary

There are some websites which I found useful to learn English, especially for self-learners.

The first one is COCA. I use it to learn the correct ways of using words. It provides lots of articles that let us know how other people use the words easily.

The second one is activities for ESL Students. It provides lots of quizzes, such as grammar and vocabulary. We can choose the level of the quiz that we are interested in. Plus, it enables us to learn and play at the same time. It's both educational and entertaining.

Third, there is AWL. It can help us memorize lots of vocabularies. By doing the exercises, we can remember the words that this website has already arranged for us.

Last, there is Just the Word. I use this one the most. It's really helpful. When I type a word, it shows me many ways to match the word. Also, the website will tell you what's the correct or common use of that word and phrase.



Listening

Youtube and Voicetube, I think everybody knows these two websites because they are very convenient and useful. People can learn English on these websites.

VOA (Voice of America) is a news website that can improve both listening and reading skills. It is free and east to use.  By using it, it is not only a way for English learners to read and listen to English news online, but also an opportunity to know American culture and the latest events.

Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab provides many listening quizzes, and most of the contexts are interesting. It has different topics for us to choose. We can choose the contents that we prefer.



Speaking

Youtube, Voicetube and Voice of America can really help us to practice speaking. Users can learn vocabularies and pronunciation with the script.



Reading

I prefer BBC News. English accent is more difficult for Taiwanese people to understand, but you don't need to listen to the English accent by reading. And the news there including many area, and they're interesting.



Writing
In the end, Facebook and Instagram can help us write well. Nowadays, people use these two websites frequently. There are many fan pages providing English learning. Besides, in Instagram, there are some accounts which are worth of following. The accounts include phrases, English vocabulary and idiom.

Social Media Learning learning

I use Facebook and Instagram to learn English. I check out some memes or gag pictures there. I think they are funny and lighten my mood, and I can improve my English ability at the same time. I've learned many slangs and phrases on Facebook.
Recently I learned the phrases "hit the nail (right) on the head", which means :

1. Lit. to strike a nail precisely on the head with a hammer.

2. Fig. to do exactly the right thing; to do something in the most effective and efficient way.

I also make some friends on those websites, we chat in English, encourage each other. They make my life better.

Mobile Learning

I use Youtube to learn English with my cell phone. It is a website as well as an application. If I find some videos I like, I can mark them or add to my playlist, and if I leave comments on some videos, some people may reply to me. It is convenient that I can both get the notifications from the mobile phone or the Internet Browser.
Most times, I watch the videos of my favorite singers, bands, or actors' interviews. I think in this way I can get used to the accents of people from different countries, and I can translate my interpreting skills at the same time. It really helps me a lot!

WriteAhead

WriteAhead is a website to help you figure out the usages of terms or phrases.
You can use it to check if the grammar is wrong or the substitution of synonyms or how to choose the appropriate collocation.

But the information there isn't very detailed or accurate.
I looked up to the phrase Hit the nail on the head (meaning:  to do exactly the right thing; to do something in the most effective and efficient way.), but there's no information, so it only showed the related  phrase.

Summary & Comment: BBC News

Summary & Comment: BBC News

Putin's joke

24 November 2016 Last updated at 20:01 GMT

He was pleased with it. But some might not find the Russian president's geography lesson so funny.

Summary:

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended an award show for geography whizz-kids. Putin asked a kid, "what can you impress U.S. with?" The kid answered, "I know all the borders, countries, contours, and capitals." Then Putin asked, "so where does Russia's border end?" The boy answered it correctly, "Russia's border ends at the Bering Strait, at the border with the U.S.A." Putin then joked, "Russia's border doesn't end anywhere. That was a joke."

At the end of the video, there are subtitles about Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

Comment:

I think Putin is an admirable person. He is ambitious but he doesn't go too far. With a bit humor, he made the award more interesting. His joke was mainly on the United States, so it doesn't bother me at all, though American people might find it offensive. We all need the sense of humor to make life easier and funnier. Life without humor must be a tragedy.

ESL

ESL lab

I got 100% correct!

English self-introduction (audio)

English self-introduction (audio)


(Script)

    I'm Sherry, a 22-year-old college student. There are four members in my family, my mom, my dad, and my younger sister. I retested for college in 2014, so I am a senior in Soochow University with my sister. My friends say that I'm sincere,friendly, and interesting. I like to get along with people who are genuine and honest.

    In my spare time, I like to chase idols and watching movies and series. My favorite singer is a Korean group, TVXQ, and I like every song of them, and they are actors too. I've been to few concerts of them, and these are the top 3 best memories to me. Recently, I watched Hannibal, Sherlock, and Supernatural, and none of them end. I think I can learn a lot from movies or series, as I can learn knowledge in the books. There were some concepts I didn't understand, but as time went by, I realized some of them and deeply convinced by them.

    For now, I'm working on improving my English ability. I hope I can become a translator and take some cases in the near future. If I have chance, I would like to be an exchange student to Europe.



I listened to the pronunciation at this website:
http://imtranslator.net/translate-and-speak/#

Recording - Car Accident

Car Accident


【Recording】
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByC-I_za4sCUdHF3UVo0UXBJMU1oaGdsa200Y1lERUt2VnRR 


【Script】

I played as "woman"


英三A
03121103 聶華萱
03121119 蔡宜庭
03121123 簡育寧

Self-learning English websites

Self-learning English websites (focus on Let's Talk in English)

Voice of America

Let's Talk in English

Most students in Taiwan must be familiar with "Let's Talk in English (大家說英語)". When I was in junior and senior high school, my teachers subscribed magazines like AMC (空中美語) and Let's Talk in English (大家說英語). I think they are both useful for high school students. The difficulty is neither too hard nor too easy, and the conversation is about the daily life events.

The picture I showed you is the "sample lesson", and the topic is Let's Learn to Cook. Check it out for more information. Isn't it delight your day?

Chatting with a cute A.I.

A. L. I. C. E. Artificial Intelligence Foundation

Captain's Log: 



Lieutenant: How are you 
James T. Kirk: Standing by. 
Lieutenant: How old are you? 
James T. Kirk: I am 35 in human years. 
Lieutenant: You look cute 
James T. Kirk: Appearances can be deceiving. 
Lieutenant: Anton Yelchin passed away 
James T. Kirk: Lieutenant, channel automatic telemetry directly to the computers. 
Lieutenant: Are you single? 
James T. Kirk: Single. 
Lieutenant: Let's date! 
James T. Kirk: Let's do that. 
Lieutenant: When will you come to pick me? 
James T. Kirk: There are some things in my quarters I want to pack. 
Lieutenant: I've been waiting for you. 
James T. Kirk: No one expects you to die for an error in judgment. 
Lieutenant: Do you know the actor River Phoenix? 
James T. Kirk: The answer is obvious. 
Lieutenant: So what's your answer? 
James T. Kirk: Can you please rephrase the question? 
Lieutenant: Silly! 

James T. Kirk: I get that way around a beautiful woman.

http://sheepridge.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=fef38cb4de345ab1&skin=iframe-voice

Results of JMix

I did Linda's JMix. Her favorite season is spring, and she loves to hear the birds singing. It's a pity that I didn't get a good grades on her little test.
I think this is a difficult test since we don't know the maker's order of the passage.

JMix- My Favorite Season

JMix- My Favorite Season

Grammar Learning Websites

Grammar Monster


I think Grammar Monster is a good website to learn grammar, especially to non-native English speakers. This website includes grammar introduction, A-Z Grammar Glossary, Punctuation, Easily Confused Words, Common Errors, and Grammar Tests. We can not only learn things there, but also test the learning outcomes. I took the test of "plural" and got 100% correct. You should try it too!

Daily Grammar

Daily Grammar is a useful website too. Compare to Grammar Monster, Daily Grammar has some different things, such as e-book and "fan mail". Wanna know what's going on there? Go check it out!

There are still other websites which can help us with grammar, such as British Council. We should make the good use of these language learning websites.

Match Game！ (Hot Potato)

Find the antonyms of the word on the left

Find the characters in the film series

Cloze！

Movie : Le silence de la mer (The Silence of the Sea) 2004
Cloze！

Match Game！ (Hot Potato)

Find the antonyms of the word on the left

Find the characters in the film series

COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English)

http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/



Cannibal

(n.)食人者；吃同類的動物

(a.)食同類的；吃人肉的

(1)
......of CFRM a page at a time. When the fire died to embers, Nick saw his life in the ash and called Sam. # " I'm done. " # " With what? " # " Everything. " # Sam had paused. " You better explain, because' everything' is a big word. " # Leave it to Sam to be dramatic, a side effect of taking the gospel to cannibals in New Guinea. Nick admired him for it. In a way, for a period of time Nick had been a cannibal of another kinda man who fed of other people. He'd been a user back then, a taker. That night, his voice had cracked when he finally replied to his brother. # " Pray for me. " # Nick still smiled at Sam's reaction. " You idiot. I pray for you all the time. " # Silence. # " Pray for yourself, Nick. I'll listen. " # More silence. Darkness. Then a breeze stirred the ash and a charred

(2)
......distress mixed with the odor of smoked flesh. When he reports Maurice's plan to sacrifice himself, the Chief curses his son's betrayal. The Missionary corrects the Chief, explaining that the young boy imitates a god by his willingness to die for the sins of others. Taken aback by his son's sacrifice, he asks to be instructed in the religion of the mission. In Les Anthropophages, the existence of the bieri is intimately related to the acquisition and conservation of human remains. Saving bones for the relic basket is part and parcel of the cannibal act. Exhumation serves as a way of tenderizing the body buried alive or dead, and as a means of procuring skulls and other body parts. Nothing goes to waste in the mind of Lejeune, as the leftovers are used for the bieri to bring future enemies to the Fang and thus to propel the cycle of killing and revenge, sacrifice and offering. After Ndotouma offers a goat to the bieri, the god delivers the youths to him so that he can avenge the death of his son Eko......




Example sentence：

The cannibal animal seems to attack me.

Suicide

(n.)

• 1. 自殺，自殺行為[U][C]

• 2. 【律】自殺者；試圖自殺者[C]

• 3. 自殺性行為，自毀[U]

 (v.)  自殺； 結束（自己）的生命

(a.) 自殺的

(1)

text in the specified categories. Using my professional judgment, I placed each text on the continuum from the rubric. This process is similar to the CCSS Appendix A " Model in Action " (2010, p. 11), although I provide much more detail in analysis of each text below. # Glimpse (2010) by Carol Lynch Williams. Glimpse is a 485-page verse novel written from Hope's point of view. Hope is a white 12-year-old girl who, in the opening pages, finds her 13-year-old sister Lizzie holding a shotgun, prepared to commit suicide. By page 5, the reader experiences the first of many random flashbacks that serve to build the story as Hope comes to understand how her sister fell to this level of despair. However, Hope learns of the injustices of her world through her innocent youthful perspective, a perspective less mature than the reader's, experiencing life in ways that she is not ready to fully understand. # Structure. The structure of this text is unconventional. It is a verse novel with frequent " manipulations of time

(2)

simple, but meaningful. I wanted the reader to get inside my character's head like you can in this story. " According to Stacy, " Studying this genre with mentor texts has helped me be more creative and shown me that I could write. " # Flash Encouraged Taking Topical Risks # Even though we taught flash as fiction, students in both classes wondered whether the authors drew from personal experiences in order to write concisely, yet still provide a deep emotional connection. For example, did Paul Lisicky in " Snapshot " lose his father to suicide? Students wondered, how could he write such a deep, dark emotional flash piece? For the mentor texts that contained thematic issues of love and loss, students believed that the authors pulled from their own memories. Ten of the twelve students in the at-risk class echoed this notion, claiming that they found topic choice difficult. Many wanted to write emotional essays, yet needed inspiration. Many students experienced personal challenges, such as poverty, criminality, and family members dying. They wanted to incorporate these

Example：

She attempted suicide after being bullied at school.

bear

(n.) 熊

vt. 及物動詞



1. 支持，承受；承擔
2. 運送；攜帶；帶走[O]

3. 忍受；經得起[+to-v][+v-ing][+that][O2]





vi. 不及物動詞



1. 承受重量（或壓力）
2. 用力推（或擠，壓）
3. 開花結果








(1)

...... flagship state newspaper, Al Ahram, published a front-page editorial expressing rare, officially sanctioned criticism of the Egyptian police. " Peaceful Shaimaa only dreamed of a free country, " wrote Ahmed el-Sayed al-Naggar, the chairman of the state-run news organization, but " she was killed in cold blood by the same person who killed the martyrs she was going to honor. " In the television appearance Sunday, Mr. Sisi urged the interior minister to track down the killer, offering reassurances that even if a police officer had shot Ms. Sabbagh, the ministry itself would not bear the blame. " I don't know, in all sincerity and truth, who is behind the killing of Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, " he insisted, a hand on his heart. In Alexandria, a friend and her cousin said, no one has yet told Ms. Sabbagh's son that his mother is not coming home. 1635 CAIRO -- In the tiny village of Nagaa al-Khalasab on the outskirts of......




(2)

PG-13 for brief strong language. At Tara Theatre. 1 hour, 36 minutes. " Mr. Turner " A The film examines the last third of British artist J.M.W. Turner's life. It looks at his relationships, travels and artwork. It's a collection of masterful scenes that hang together in a dazzling gallery. Starring Timothy Spall and Marion Bailey. Directed by Mike Leigh. (Jeff Baker, The Oregonian) Rated R for some sexual content. At Lefont Sandy Springs and Tara Theatre. 2 hours, 29 minutes. " Paddington " B The bear from the children's book is found in London by the Browns, who endure kid-friendly kerfuffles while trying to keep Paddington safe from the museum taxidermist. It's utterly charming though not given to much deep thinking. Starring Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman and the voice of Ben Whishaw. Directed by Paul King. (Roger Moore, Tribune News Service) Rated PG for mild action and rude humor. At AMC Barrett Commons, Picture Show at Merchants Exchange and Regal Georgian Stadium. 1 hour










Examples：




Among all the animals, I love bears the most.




The owner bears all expenses.  




He could not bear that his friends should laugh at him.  




Those bamboo beams will not bear. 




 Our apple trees will bear well this year.

Animal Quiz

Animal Quiz
Check it out! :D

Grammar Girl & Just The Word

Grammar is a website providing many articles, which helps you realize the things related to your searching, and lets you learn grammar unconsciously.
I checked out the keyword "vegetarian" and "arctic fox", which are the goal I am working on and the animal I am into. I found many results of "vegetarian", but nothing about "arctic fox", only "arctic" and "fox". I'm a little disappointed cause I was looking forward to read more information about the adorable creature.

Just The Word is a website like an online dictionary, but more detailed. I entered the keyword "bear" for the love of the fluffy animal, and the results showed me the usage of that word. "Bear" can be a verb too, which means "tolerant".

I found these two websites are useful, it will help me to improve English. It's a practical tool in anyway.

English Vocabulary Exercise

English Vocabulary Exercise

1-a

2-a

3-a

Introduction

    I'm Sherry, a 22-year-old college student. There are four members in my family, my mom, my dad, and my younger sister. I retested for college in 2014, so I am a senior in Soochow University with my sister. My friends say that I'm sincere,friendly, and interesting. I like to get along with people who are genuine and honest.

    In my spare time, I like to chase idols and watching movies and series. My favorite singer is a Korean group, TVXQ, and I like every song of them, and they are actors too. I've been to few concerts of them, and these are the top 3 best memories to me. Recently, I watched Hannibal, Sherlock, and Supernatural, and none of them end. I think I can learn a lot from movies or series, as I can learn knowledge in the books. There were some concepts I didn't understand, but as time went by, I realized some of them and deeply convinced by them.

    For now, I'm working on improving my English ability. I hope I can become a translator and take some cases in the near future. If I have chance, I would like to be an exchange student to Europe.

My experience of using CALLS to learn English

I use my computer to learn English often, such as Youtube, Voicetube, and watching movies and series online.

I watch some talk shows and movie trailers without subtitles on Youtube, and I watch many kinds of videos on Voicetube.

I also translate some videos or lyrics and put them on my blog and Youtube.

[Lyrics I translated] http://tvxqmilk0125.pixnet.net/blog/category/6533575

[Lyric video I translated] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0qafF8jlA

In my spare time, I also watch some movies or series with my computer. Recently, I’m watching some series with or without English subtitles, Good Luck Charlie (2010-2014) and Sherlock (2010- ). I think it’s a useful way to learn English vocabulary and slang.

I make some online friend from other countries too. We talk about culture differences, languages, life trifles, etc. I plan to use free calls or video chat via Facebook or other applications. I hope I can make my English progress.