Monday, November 19, 2007

Localized or Globalized

If you are a language teacher, what will you choose to use for teaching and students' learning an ESL/CSL learning context? The familiar Taiwanese tools or English-medium tools for students to expose to English world? If you are an ESL/CSL language learner, what types of tools do you prefer and will you keep using? Please share your ideas!

*ESL: English as a Second Language ; CSL: Chinese as a Second Language

14 comments:

豪子 said...

As all my friends know, I like Google services so much. I think Google Translate is a good tool for ESL/CSL language learners. Google Translate can translate not only between English and Chinese but also between many languages such as French, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and so on. Furthermore, Google Translate can translate not only paragraph text but also entire web pages.

Kyle Huang said...

Thanks how for sharing Google translate! This is really a useful multilingual tool. It takes both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. In TX, we have a big population of Spanish speakers, and with this I think I can start to write them some emails. Nice~ http://www.google.com/translate_t

Anonymous said...

I use google translate too. But one thing you must notice that its translation doesn't guarantee the correction of grammar though.

Kyle Huang said...

The machine translation has much to do the corpus techniques and the linguistic database. Take Chinese for example, Chinese sentences are complex and the machines can't always unambiguously identify the structures and come up with the equivalent words in the text. Also, the traditional and simplified Chinese have many differences in word usage, tones and idioms. The nuances are easy to detect and self-evident for native speakers but not a machine. I believe that's the indispensable value of human translators, isn't it?

月ㄦ said...

As for me, I think textbook is important for students.

RAINBOW's teaching world said...

Actually, I never use Google Translate before. I think it's really helpful if it can translate many languages. I'll try the tool next time, because it seems really useful to ESL.

hueijhenji said...

Many teachers use real material, textbooks or F/C to teach.
But I think computer is also a good tool to teach, and it also can extend the students view toward thing. So, if I may teach, I will choose the way by computer.

Kyle Huang said...

Given that the online translation is helpful, we still need to make some judgmental calls with regard to its accuracy and appropriateness based on the contexts and situations in the text. In Chinese, we refer to the "信、達、雅" in translation.

Fran said...

In my opion, to use real materials to apply in teaching is much better than just teach studetns by the textbooks. And I think, visual aids are really important, such as: PPT, flash cards.....

camilla's blog said...

I am used to use the google and wiki.These two websites have a lot of useful information I really need. Also, I feel that these two websites are much more professional than yahoo. Every time I google, I enjoy the time I search on it. In addition, the google has the function of gmail. We can use it to communicate with others.It’s totally different from yahoo. Therefore, I feel that using google to search is my habit of everyday.

Anonymous said...

I think most of teachers choose real materials or something around the classroom before. Now, more and more teachers use machines like computer,especially internet. I am no exception. However, it's just a small part of teaching. As educational workers, we should power what students want and how to make English class interest. In this way, I think localized or globalized tools are not very important.

Anonymous said...

I think most of teachers choose real materials or something around the classroom before. Now, more and more teachers use machines like computer,especially internet. I am no exception. However, it's just a small part of teaching. As educational workers, we should power what students want and how to make English class interest. In this way, I think localized or globalized tools are not very important.

Zheng-Yan's Blogger said...

I think I will through watching movie, listenung MP3 or music to expose to English world. I think that causing their interest is pretty important.

jlauriemeixin said...

As a teacher and student I find using Google has been very helpful to me and my friends. It is a much useful multilingual tool that is intergrated using many languages. Even though it is useful I find that translation to translation is a little off kilter.