Arghhh!!! This was my first reaction when I was told computers, keyboards, the Internet and blogs were going to be my next tools to improve my English.. As you can understand, technology is not one of my passions..
Anyway, after two weeks of e-learning and e-activities, my skills are slowly improving and I'm even beginning to enjoy writing posts! Creating your own blog can be frustrating if you have such little knowledge of e-technologies, but it can also make you proud of yourself when you finally click on the right button publishing your post..
What are blogs for? Will they be really useful to improve my language learning? Well, we'll see..but let's just take this example: while I was looking for blogs on cuisine and recipes, I came across some new words and expressions which are usually used in spoken English. What is more, whenever I write a post, I always try to use vocabulary and grammar properly (even if I'm not the kind of person who reads their own posts hundreds of times!). In general, I would say I'm getting quite conscious of what I'm writing and reading, trying to learn from what is good on the Web.. The only problem, now, is to become able to recognize what is actually good out there!!!
;-) Marta
4 commenti:
Hi Marta!
I visited your blog and I really liked this post in which you wrote your first impressions about these two weeks of blogging!As I wrote in my blog,I'm not very good at dealing with new technologies either, but recently I've been learning to appreciate the potential of new technologies and their benefits on our English!
This new way of working gives us the possibility to be exposed to the language in a more natural way, while doing things we really like (such as surfing the net in search of interesting sites!)
If you want to, you can visit my blog and you will realise that I had exactly the same skepticism about blogs and things like that...but now I'm really excited about them!!!
I hope to hear you soon!
Alessia
Hi Marta!!
I was left speechless too when I got to know that we would spend many hours in the laboratory dealing with blogs, e-tivities and all the rest...just like you, I didn't even know what a blog was and I believed that Internet was simply a synonym for “search engine”, nothing more. Luckily I can still change my mind: Internet definitely deserves its reputation of “means of communication of the new millennium”! Surfing from link to link, you can see places and meet people without moving from your chair...nowadays it has become normal, but I think it's amazing! So finally curiosity overcame me and here I am, clicking here and there and enjoying creating my blog (well, actually I'm still struggling against my computer and its SLOW connection!!!). Most of all, I like the idea of getting in touch with new persons like you by reading their blogs and commenting on them; in this way I will have the opportunity to be exposed to colloquial English, as Alessia said, and to enrich my vocabulary with both everyday and specialized terms, as you pointed out.
I really envy the fact that you don't need to check your posts again and again before sending them! I always try to read my messages through carefully, still I make a lot of mistakes! :-( If you find some inaccuracies while reading my blog, please tell me, I will appreciate it!
Elena
Hi, Marta!
How are you? Reading the blogs of our group and the comments on them, I stumbled across a question of yours: you wanted to know how add an image behind the title of your blog. I can explain you how to do it! Well, you should enter in your blog and click on costumize: a page where you could add and arrange page elements will open. Then, click on edit on the title bar; another window, called Configure Header, should appear. If you arrive here, adding an image to your title will be very simple: you can add an image from your pc or from the web, then -for the placement- click on behind the title and description and…that’s it! I’m sure you won’t have problems, since you’ve got an high speed connection (that’s why peer revision could be useful!;-) ).
From our comments and posts, I found out that we all had the same first impression on Blogosphere…I find solace in it! I’m not the only one who had no idea of how a blog works, it’s great! Anyway, after two weeks blogging, we’ve finally found our feet. I completely agree with you when you say that clicking on the right button makes you proud of yourself! I must confess that this is a new way to study, and I like it…it’s quite relaxing sitting in front of my computer with a piping hot cup of tea, especially with this horrible autumnal weather!
See you soon!
Martina :-)
Hi Marta! The way you wrote your first impressions about these two weeks of blogging is very fun! I think that this was most people's reaction. I used to surf the net only to visit websites that could be interesting to me but I had never thought of visiting other people's blogs and leaving comments on them. I believe that this activity will improve our knowledge and our English, too. As you pointed out, we will come across new words, phrasal verbs and expression that will increase our vocabulary and also our writing skills. Nevertheless we have to pay attention and be careful not to learn wrong things! There is so much rubbish on the web!
Giovanna
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