Passions and Learning Project!

Olá,
A classe 2016 tem o prazer de apresentar os ensaios escritos na disciplina de Língua Inglesa IV. O tema deles são variados, mas o objetivo é o mesmo: Como aprender Inglês através de suas paixões.

Após um longo e bem feito processo de escrita, com rascunhos e revisões da professora, colegas e da Sarah Slater.  Chegamos, enfim,  a um resultado satisfatório e recompensador. Criamos juntos uma revista que reúne todos estes ensaios e os disponibilizamos aqui para que todos possam ler e aprender. Além disso, teremos a oportunidade de apresentar o nosso trabalho aos colegas de curso.

Estamos muito felizes em poder compartilhar nossas experiencias de aprendizagem com nossos colegas e com o mundo. Agradecemos o apoio, incentivo e ajuda da nossa Professora Larissa Dantas, muito obrigada.

Você pode ler os ensaios através dos seguintes links:

LEARNING THROUGH THE PASSIONS

THE POWER OF MUSIC: HOW MUSIC HELPS LEARNERS IMPROVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

THE USE OF SMART PHONES TO IMPROVE A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

HOW CAN WE LEARN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGNER LANGUAGE USING THE GAME "THE SIMS 3"?

SINGING TO IMPROVE YOUR ENCLISH SKILLS

USING WEBSITES AND VIDEOS TO LEARN ENGLISH

MUSIC: A LAID-BACK WAY TO LEARN LANGUAGES

CHATS ROOMS CAN IMPROVE LANGUAGE AND LEARNING SKILLS

IMPROVING YOUR ENGLISH SKILLS WATCHING FORMULA 1

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH SKILLS THROUGH INTERVIEWS AND MAGAZINES.

Elogios, criticas ou dicas? Deixe seus comentários!

Até mais.

LEARNING THROUGH THE PASSIONS

Camila de Souza Lopes

The knowledge of languages is considered one of the keys to success. In the globalized world, this kind of knowledge has become very important, especially in the business market. In a job interview, the fluent speaker of a foreign language will probably be the preferable choice for the vacancy. But, although it is important to learn more and more about languages, it is not easy. It requires time and motivation of the learners to practice. Unfortunately, both are quite difficult to obtain and maintain. One of the most effective solutions can be using the learner’s passions as a vehicle.      

A learner who studies according to his or her passion becomes motivated to study as much as possible. Dörnyei (2005) alleges that motivation is one of the most basic aspects of the human mind and the experts divide motivation into the two categories of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. For example, an extrinsic motivation may be represented by the business world forcing people who want to enter in the job market to know languages. But intrinsic motivation occurs when the student really wants to learn. It is something from deep inside of him or her. In this case, there is large possibility of the learner absorbing more information because it is something pleasurable to study. This is what happens with the learner’s passions.

Besides motivation, the learner’s passion increases the student’s autonomy. According to Benson (2003), learning autonomy occurs when the learner decides how he or she will study, what subject, what kind of materials will be used and the way the student will assess the learning process. Through hobbies, the student will learn researching and exploring, improving from the less complex language to the most complex language related to their hobbies. An example is the student who learns through TV series. In the beginning the student starts to watch episodes in the target language with subtitles in mother language and later the student will probably watch them with subtitles in the target language or with no subtitles. The results, of course, will depend only on the learner and the amount of time that he or she dedicates.

Another significant advantage of this way of learning is efficiency because “time is money”. The student can appropriate their free time to do something useful and save time. If the student loves to read, the book can be in the target language. If the student likes to watch films, the film can be also in the target language. If the student listens to music, the songs can be in a foreign language. In this case, the use of technology in the students favor is also important. The portable devices can be used to carry books, songs and even films in many different languages. The learners can share the media with each other in a few minutes and the knowledge will be spread with no difficulties.

In conclusion, the use of a learner’s passions as a vehicle is one of the solutions to learning a foreign language while improving the usage of student’s time and skills.  With motivation, autonomy and accessibility to the material, the learning process will be more pleasurable. As Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

             

THE POWER OF MUSIC: HOW MUSIC HELPS LEARNERS IMPROVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

Naianne Lisboa

    

     

 This probably happen to you: song gets stuck in your mind and you cannot get rid of it. That is because music surrounds us throughout our lives, who does not have a favorite song? So, if music is so present in our lives, why not use it in education? Teachers and learners have realized instinctively the benefits of using music as strategy to learn a foreign language. Indeed studies prove the power of the music and the positives reactions it induces in the brain and its effects when associated to language learning. Don. G. Campbell (1992) states that the music can connect the two brain hemispheres, that is making the brain more productive. Therefore, it is possible to say music has a great power of stimulating students to learn a new language.

     Music can make students enthusiastic and motivated because, it is usually part of the students’ daily life. The students can sing to learn new vocabulary and pronunciation, making the learning more fun. Because students generally have a strong knowledge basis in music exploring students’ interests, capabilities, and confidence this area can help  increase knowledge in others areas. Furthermore, it is important that learners have interest in what they are doing. Because when learners like the activities, they are more productive and they achieve more learning results.

    Teachers use music in language classrooms because they perceive the learning advantages when music is incorporated into language learning. Music can be used in class in different ways. For instance, Professor Sandra Adkins uses choral in her practices as an optional activity, but all the students participate. She states that the students take her ideas of using music for learning and build upon them, creating their own ways to bringing music in their learning. Students approve of this method because they are learning something and consequently stimulating their motivation. But this kind of activity needs to have a purpose. The song selected needs to have connection with the lives of the students and a relation with things taught previously.

   

 When I started to study English, I had no idea how to study a foreign language autonomously. I went to class and read the textbook, but the results were not good. Later, I began to search about ways to improve my English skills and I started to practice. For example, I started looking for the lyrics of the songs on the Internet to understand the new vocabulary, after familiarizing        myself, I would sing, reading the lyrics, until I had them memorized. Using these strategies, I improved my listening, reading, and speaking skills, and I have acquired new vocabulary.

Music is exciting and, motivating and promotes positive reactions in our brain. Music had and has a great influence on my English learning process. Furthermore, studies prove music has a powerful influence in language learning, a phenomenon that I experienced in my own learning process can be work in whatever language learning process. It is important to say learning process do not need to be boring, it can be fun and enthusiastic. Let’s try connecting learning with things we love.

THE USE OF SMART PHONES TO IMPROVE A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

Ana Karoline Cardoso da Silva

In the last decades we have watched a new style of learning and teaching become more prevalent. Instead of only books and the four walls of a classroom, teachers and students are beginning to take advantage of what “technology” has to offer us: practicality, velocity, portability. Who could ever imagine that one day we would talk with a friend on the other side of the world just using a little device? It is fantastic to imagine all these possibilities concentrated in the palm of our hands. And why do not use it to improve foreign language teaching and learning? Authors, teachers and students are already accomplishing it, which gives us a lot to say about it.

Marc Prensky is a famous writer in the area of education. He endorses the idea that education and technology form an efficient couple that guarantees successful teaching and learning. In his book “Teaching Digital Natives” (PRENSKY 2010) he tries to help people understand how this technological world works because he also believes that in  the future the classroom will be dominated by technology and  teachers should be prepared to handle with a classroom full of students, not holding their books, but their smart phones. 

           

When you buy a smart phone, it already comes with a kind of virtual store where it is possible to find hundreds of applications (apps) available to download that help language learning. You can, for instance, download “Duolingo”, an app that focus on grammar and vocabulary; the objective is to complete phases to raise your level. There is also the “English Grammar”, another app developed to be used as a grammar reference. Additionally, there are games where the main purpose is not to learn English, but it may it may occur as a consequence. Here we can mention the “Trivia Crack”, a very interesting game which I am addicted to. It works as a quiz, the questions are about entertainment, arts, history, geography, sciences and sports, so it is also an educative tool; it is connected by Facebook and you can compete with your friends. Moreover, there are lots of dictionaries. In my opinion, the “EN-PT Dictionary Free” is fantastic! All the words come with translation, phonetic transcription, options to hear their pronunciation and the best part is that it works off line.

            Some apps that I constantly use include the dictionary mentioned above. For example, I am using it right now to help me while writing this essay. I cannot forget to mention the app named “English Irregular Verbs”, highly helpful to check the verbs on their past participle form.

However there are other ways to enjoy the smart phone. I use it to listen to music, pause it when necessary, and follow the lyrics to train my listening. To practice my speaking, I record my voice and then I listen. One can also download books and magazines, text messages to my friends. And everything inside a bus, or while waiting to be attended in a medical appointment: convenience and portability, all in one.

           

Inspired by this “technology wave” some projects have been developed to give the support required to teachers, an example of this is the “Educonexão Project”. It was created by a franchise named NET to make teachers around Brazil able to deal with technology inside the classroom. The course lasts 2 months and the teachers are supposed to create a web-class to present in the end of the period. The tutor of the project at Florianopólis, a city located at the state of Santa Catarina, said that in the end of the course the teachers were more motivated and full of ideas to make their classes more interesting.

            Despite all the benefits there is still resistance by the teachers about using technology inside the educational context; they think, for example, that cell phones and classroom do not match, since it steals the student’s attention. And it steals, if the teacher is not prepared to manage his or her class and if she or he is not prepared to turn this situation in his or her favor. After all, as Marc Prensky (2012) said, that the teacher is not obligated to know everything, but he or she can learn with the students as well. As a matter of fact, this new way of learning and teaching did not come to impose that the old ones are ineffective, in fact it just wants to show us how dynamic the learning process can be .In the end, everybody just has to enjoy: motivated teachers, more autonomous students and the educational process occurring in a curious, different and efficient way. 

HOW CAN WE LEARN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGNER LANGUAGE USING THE GAME "THE SIMS 3"?

Débora Souza

Technology has changed the learning process through the years. Teachers can utilize video games during the language learn process, for example. Technology is claimed to motivate the students because most of them are connected all the time. On February 4^th, 2000 a life simulation game series called “The Sims”, developed and published by EA games (Electronic Arts), was released. Will Wright initially created this game to be only an architecture simulator, but it became much more. The Sims third edition is much more useful to EFL students because it has far more details and attractive resources than the previous version.

 

Picture 1 - The Game

Students, mainly children and teenagers who are growing up in this High-Tech era have a number of quick and easy ways to access information and learn. Therefore, is very important that teachers take into account these “Digital Natives” (PRENSKY, 2001) and their sophisticated software and hardware. Teachers also must follow the “mediator rule” (VYGOTSKY, 1989), in which, according to social interactionist theory, the collaborative learning and interactive activities are essential in the classroom learning and students must share their knowledge. It is important that teachers intervene the learning process using approaches that allow their students to interact or dialogue with each other independently. Therefore, they should connect the students with knowledge as well. Teachers who care about students’ interest keep open the possibility to improve different methodologies that motivate students and develop their autonomy.

 

Picture 2 - The Sims

The game “The Sims 3” unconsciously induces people to another language. This game has so many different versions. It can be played on smart phones, tablets, laptops, video games, on-line or off-line. It is an engaging software because it is a life simulator that is funny, creative, and interesting. There it uses a rich vocabulary (clothes, colors food, places, home items, and others), it allows an interaction among the players (depending on the version), and it usually provides three different languages for play. The Sims is an endless game. It is possible to play with many characters and their several generations of a family. Thus the players/students learn through those things and they enrich their vocabulary, just by playing a game. They just need to create a whole family or just one character, buy or building their own house, maybe go to the university and then get a job, or perhaps open a business. They face routine problems and do almost everything that happens in a real life.

 

Picture 3 - How it works

When I started to play The Sims I did not notice that it could be useful to my learning, but I realized that it is because I usually played it in English. By playing I acquired a huge vocabulary. And it was easier to remember the words, when they were followed by pictures. This really helped me in the learning process. Now and then, this game gave me some challenges when I had to research to understand what was happening. After I became more interested in learning English, I realized how that game was becoming important to me. My purpose was not only to have fun, but to learn.      

 

Picture 4 - Mobile Version

This game offers a range of possibilities not only for the EFL students’ independent learning, but for teachers who are developing activities inside and outside of the class. Other people agree with me, that simulator games as “The Sims” enlarges learning. For example, there was a writing project developed with twenty-five students in the fourth grade with the purpose of creating narrative texts in Portuguese. This project was developed in four steps. At first, the students were introduced to the game software to learn how to use the tools. Then they started to play. In the third step they were encouraged to write about what was happing during the game, and in the last step, the students could post their narratives in a The Sims fan page on the internet (CRISTIANE OLIVEIRA, 2011). The participants in this project were really motivated and involved. It is observed that activities like that, wherein students can learn having fun, usually have good results. Additionally, the students were introduced to a new software, so they upgraded their technological skill, they improved their narrator ability, they learned different words, and they certainly expressed their all creativity in their stories as well. After this experience they became more autonomous.

According to the report, the digital technology that appears in The Sims 3 should be used to make a language learning process more interesting and enjoyable. It is practical and possible considering that people can play it everywhere. The richness of the game can be used to acquire vocabulary and for specific purposes as a writing project. Furthermore, it motivates the students to learn based on what they like and already know such as computers and technology. This game gives players a sensation of freedom. Therefore, students/players and teachers need to be careful because The Sims may become an addiction! 

SINGING TO IMPROVE YOUR ENCLISH SKILLS

Eliene Monteiro

Who has never sung any of their favorite songs before or even searched the lyrics of foreign songs in order to sing it? Singing is part of our lives, even if we are not professional singers. Related to learning a foreign language, we recognize that singing can be a great way of improving the language in several ways. However, there is not much research about this theme. Many authors just mention the use of songs in their theses, but they do not relate them with singing. Based on some research on the use of singing in language learning acquisition and in my own experiences, I decided writing this essay.

Singing is a great strategy if you want to improve your English abilities in several key skills. Thinking about the main reasons of why an English learner should use this tool, I am going to list four advantages: (1) It is great for pronunciation; (2) It helps you remember words; (3) It builds your self-confidence; and (4) It is good for your motivation.

First, singing is great for practicing pronunciation. By studying a little about the Stress in English phonetics, you learn about the Word Stress. Word stress is an important aspect of English pronunciation and it can easily identify a non-native speaker. Through using word stress in your speaking, you improve your pronunciation skills. Through listening to songs several times, especially sung by native speakers, your ears get used to the stress that each word has, and when you sing them, your voice tries to imitate the stress contained in the words.

Second, singing helps you build vocabulary and remember words. According to a new research published in the journal Memory and Cognition, phrases sung in a foreign language are easier to remember than when they are just said. It was discovered through a study with adults learning Hungarian. They were divided in three groups, the first one heard spoken English phrases and a Hungarian translation, the second heard a Hungarian phrase sung, and the third group heard Hungarian phrases spoken in a rhythm, as a chant. The results of this study showed that people who had heard the phrases being sung performed notably better than people from the other groups.

            Next, singing in a foreign language builds your self-confidence. High self-confidence has a  positive correlation with oral performance (HEYDE 1979), but several people get nervous when they have to sing in front of people, even more than when they are just speaking to them. In this way, if you can sing in front of people, speaking will be a simple activity. It is not necessary for you to be a member of a band to sing in front of an audience, a simple joke with your friends in a karaoke can provide opportunities to practice singing. Start singing in front of your friends can be the first step for you to build your self-confidence.

Lastly, singing is good for your motivation. Motivation is activated when you are involved, engaged and excited doing what you like while learning something. Why not do this to improve your English skills? Why not have fun with it? According to the renowned psychiatrist William Glasser (1990) “Fun is the genetic payoff for learning.” Music lovers know for sure what I am talking about because singing is a fun activity, your motivation to improve your English grows even though you do not might not even notice that you are learning.

             There are several easy ways for a person to start singing in order to improve his/her English. For example, youtube, a well known website, can help you to sing, you have just to type the name of the song you want to sing plus the word “karaoke” or “instrumental” that you will probably find a great version for you to sing while following the lyrics of the songs desired.

 Another tool is the app called The Voice: On Stage by StarMaker. You can download to your computer or cell phone. In this application there are four judges (like in the TV program “The Voice”) that turn their chairs for you if you sing well or on the pitch. While singing, you can follow the lyrics and there are backing vocals too. The more you sing, the more you can “buy” new songs through the coins the application gives you.

 Lastly, there is Karaoke Party, a website through which you can sing online and get a score based on your performance. All you need is a microphone to connect in your computer, and through this website you can also challenge your friends.

Learning a foreign language seems, for most people, like a difficult thing to do. But as with everything a human being does language learning requires strategies to be successful. For those who want to learn a foreign language, improving it can become an easy activity if you improve it through your passions, through things you really like to be involved in. Singing is a strategy that provides us a number of advantages that can help us to be successful in learning a foreign language.

USING WEBSITES AND VIDEOS TO LEARN ENGLISH

Thaianny Gomes

Nowadays it is critical to learn a foreign language. English is required everywhere. To understand what the actor says in the movie, that music that everybody is talking about and specially in the workplace. Many people lose great job opportunities because they do not know English. But most of these people have Internet access at home and what they do not know is that it is possible to learn English anywhere, anytime and for free.

First, the student has to know how to use these tools in order to learn a foreign language. It is complicated when somebody who does not know anything about learning through websites is put in front of a computer asked to search for websites, it is not good for the student’s motivation. Egbert (2001) already warned against this because the student loses time searching for something still unknown instead of focusing in the language learning.

Lots of websites can help us to learn and improve the process of learning English, there are websites through which specific skills can be improved. Most students have problems with their listening comprehension and the website Elllo, for instance, aims to improve this skill with podcasts according to the students’ level, the subjects of the conversations are varied and the student is exposed to the English of native and non-native speakers. For example, in one video an American and an Indian talk about good health. By practicing with these tools the student can become capable of understanding the English spoken around the world.

For those who are taking the first steps of learning English, there are sites directed to make the vocabulary of the target language grow by ending each lesson with the student’s mother language as a support. When the student is a beginner it is hard to go to sites where everything is written in English that is why the websites have to fulfill the student’s needs and level of proficiency. For beginners, Duolingo is an interesting option. In this website, it is possible to practice the target language from the first moment. All the four language skills are well practiced. Beginners can also improve writing with websites where beginner’s books can be downloaded.

Videos are always a good option to learn English. By watching videos it is possible to learn since the alphabet in a fun way until the proper pronunciation of words. There are plenty of videos recorded by professors who teach how to speak and the right way to pronounce specific sound of the English language. It is also important to search for channels where the focus is teaching English like British Council’s channel or the videos on BBC Learning English where there are videos teaching pronunciation tips. Another channel that helps with speaking is Rachel’s English, a website where Rachel teaches how to pronounce similar words and other things related to the American accent.

Research on English learning through websites shows positive results and it is an interesting way to learn for students. Once you learn how to use websites on learning, it is impossible to stop. More and more interesting things keep appearing. For example, you can download books for free in order to improve reading and writing, watch a video with your favorite song lyrics or watch an English subtitled movie online to improve listening and speaking. There will always be a video or website that is going to catch your attention regardless of your level because this is the best way to learn, the way you like.