Talk:Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning/Input

Untitled
x add Wikipedia links to radio stations

o add info about text-to-speech and links to comparisons and software (can also convert text and playback on MP3 plyaer for some software)

Add INA website
Michael Foster noted:

Professor Cziko & John:

The French website to which you alluded is the site for the National Audiovisual Institute in France that opened up its archives and released around 100,000 film, tv and radio clips for public use. Their website is:

http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php

I haven't used it for class yet, but there are lots of interesting historical and cultural documents that can make class and research more interesting.

Spanish podcasts
Janet said:

I have just began listening to podcasts in Spanish and it is a great way to improve listening skills and understanding! I definitely am going to start using this resource on a more regular basis. In addition, I like how I can subscribe to a podcast and then have itunes automatically download the most recent podcasts; that way, I don't have to worry about tuning in to a specific radio show at a specific time, for example, because podcasts are available at all times of the day. Recently, I have been listening to ABC news in Spanish which I definitely reccomend because it is a great resource for staying in tune to what's going on in the world, and the announcer does not speak very fast so it is easier to understand. Hopefully other learners find this helpful!

English podcasts
Jing said: For me, listening has been the most difficult part when learning English. During the days preparing for my TOEFL test,I found some useful on-line radio website whhich was really helpful for me.

Earth and Sky http://www.earthsky.org/shows/ It provides numerous information relating to science and nature by interviewing with scientists each day. EFL learners can listen to every topic they are interested in by clicking the specific date. Moreover, each topic has complete script and related link on-line.

Also, it you found science is boring and too advanced, you can use this website, which was designed for learners of different levels. It is quite helpful for me on listening skill.

http://www.esl-lab.com/ It includes various conversation topics of our daily life. For me, when I feel that the content is more familiar with me, I can understand the context easier. Also, it has vocabulary quizz followed by each conversation, vocabulary learning tips, and long conversation with realy video. And if you want to prepare for the TOEFL test, it has academic lecture, too.

I haven't tried podcast before. In fact, it's my first time hear about podcast. Maybe I will find more useful resourse there by the end of this course.

Jing

Encyclopedie des expressions
http://www.mon-expression.info/index.php/avoir-du-pain-sur-la-planche Gary Cziko 17:32, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Allo Cine
http://www.allocine.fr/ source of French films, videos, TV program.

Blogs
Need to add blogs and blog directories for finding blogs in different languages. Technorati is one blog search engine/directory. Google and Yahoo can also find blogs, but do they find them in non-English languages, too?

Here is a directory of Francophone blogs: http://www.annuaireblog.org/

Gary Cziko 05:05, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Google in searches in selected languages and countries
It is possible to use the Google search engine restricted to a selected language or to sites from a particuar country. Usually you add the country code after google, so that, for example, google.fr give you the French Google. Some codes that work for Google are:
 * France http://google.fr
 * German http://google.de
 * Switerzland http://google.ch
 * Canada http://google.ca
 * Spain http://google.es

I suppose there are many others and there must be a directory of these somewhere.

Gary Cziko 05:13, 19 September 2006 (UTC)