Corpus tool for learning and research- BRITISH NATIONAL CORPUS (BYU-BNC)

Hi!

For this entry, I would like to share with you a website which provides millions of text corpus. Its Bitish National Corpus by British Young University (BYU-BNC. Corpus is a collection of texts. Sounds complicated? Don't worry. I will help you to understand. (I also in your situation when I first heard the word.;p)

The LOGO

WHAT IS IT?

It is websites which stores a 100-million-word text corpus of samples of written and spoken English from a wide range of sources. It is good for language learning as people can check how the language is used based on its frequency.

 

WHO CAN USE IT?

The tool is suitable for students who are:

• beginner, intermediate and expert level of English

HOW TO USE THE TOOL IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

• the collocation games

Teacher prepare a pre-prepared slide of words. I each slide, teacher write one words. Then, in class, teacher divide students into 2 big groups. They are asked to guess the best word that go with the sentences. The teacher then can check the concordance lines in class. (believe me, its fun!)

THEORY OF LEARNING USING THE TOOL

• The tool promotes autonomous learning, where students can always look for the concordance by themselves at home. Autonomy is important in independent learning as it built students' confidence and knowledge.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT

• It is authentic-the examples of words are all based on the real life usage
• It prepare students with real life words
• It is FREE!

WHAT I HATE ABOUT IT

• It is too  wordy. There are lots of words and it sometimes make students lost interest in a short time
• The website is too plain-nothing colorful or fun.

STEP BY STEP USING BYU-BNC

Step 1: Go to British National Corpus

Step 2: Enter the text that you want to look up

Step 3: You got lots of example of the sentences using the word

how it looks like

Okay. I hope I do provide you with some help for the website. Have fun using concordance!:-)

Send your video via MAILVU

Good day, everyone!

For this entry I would like to share with you another cool website which is called Mailvu. Personally, I love this website. It enable you to send video email in just a minute! It is very easy and simple to use. If you don't believe me, read further and decide.

Sending email is not just sending words

WHAT IS IT?

Mailvu is a tool that enable you to send video email. That's mean that you can send your video to another person email through Mailvu without the fuss to attach any video in email. The tool do all the jobs for you. All you need to do is record your video and enter the person's email address. The tool is basically free for free account. But they also offer Business account (of course you need to pay for it!) which has more features. 

WHO CAN USE IT?

The tool is suitable for students who are:

• beginner, intermediate and advance level. The tool is very easy to use nad the task difficulty can be made vary according to students' level. And of course its your job, teacher!:-)

HOW CAN IT BE USED IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

• connected classroom-speaking activity

Connected classroom is having students doing speaking or writing outside the classroom. Mailvu can be use for connected classroom activity to make students practice their speaking. The teacher could give a topic for students to respond to at home. Using Mailvu, the students will have to record their response and sent to the teacher email.

THEORY OF LEARNING USING THE TOOL

• The tool can be used to promote autonomous learning among students. In connected classroom, students are doing the speaking at home, without teacher's help. Autonomy is important in language learning as it more effective and solve the motivation issue (either the students are interested to engaged in the activity or not)

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT

• It is very easy and simple to use
• It allows autonomous learning via giving students chance to do the speaking activity on their own
• It support connected classroom activities
• Once you received a video email, you can reply the sender with the video email too
• It is FREE!

WHAT I HATE ABOUT IT

• Unless you have Business account you will not be able to save or to put the video in your website or blog. 

STEP BY STEP USING MAILVU

Step 1: Go to http://mailvu.com/index.htm

Step 2: Click 'Allow' to use your camera and microphone

Step 3: Record your video

Step 4: When you satisfied with your video, click Send Video  
            Mail

Step 5: Enter the information asked like the email address   
           of you and the person you want to send the video to

Step 6: You video is sent!

Click allow and record your video. Then click Send

Enter your friend's email address and the video mail is sent

As I did not sign up for Business account, I can't embed my video email that I have done here. So, if you want to know how it works, try it yourself. It really simple and easy and quick! It is really something you should try!