Surprise, surprise!...Bookmarking is so delicious...
Hello everybody!I'm sorry...I haven't written anything since last Friday...as you know, I was very busy because I had to work on my PPT presentation on my job application letter for the English course with Professor Taylor...Finally, I have time to write something about how my language learning process is going on...
Last week I learnt how you can save bookmarks on the web, so that you can click on your favourite sites even when using other computers. I think that this computer resource is really useful not only because you can visit the sites that interest you much quicker, and can see them listed one after the other, but also because, exploring tags, you are provided with a lot of interesting information, which has already been filtered by other people having probably the same interests as you. In my opinion, what is even more important is the fact that when you save bookmarks you can write notes, usually a few short sentences, where you explain the significance of the information you saved, so that people reading them can decide immediately wheter the site is relevant to him/her or not. So, these sentences are supposed to convey the main topic of the web page as well as its value, the reason why s/he chose to save it.
As far as the task of this week is concerned, I found it useful, too because, once again, we put in practice what we learnt in theory. In my opinion, this is indeed the only way to really become familiar with some discovery. All of us was asked to explore tags on Delicious as well as Google sites and blogs to find information regarding language learning, which is the real purpose of our blogging activity. Then, we were asked to create a network, so that we're able to share the information found on the web with the other members of our group. My group found very interesting sites and blogs about idiomatic expressions, everyday conversational language, punctuation, listening activities, C.V. and cover letter writing, newspapers, pronunciation. In particular, I think that English Punctuation by How to Learn English, BBC Learning English/Pronunciation Tips, and APA Formatting and Style Guide are the best choices. Obviously, what I've just said depends on my personal knowledge needs, and it's not a kind of absolute truth!

The first site I chose about puctuation interests me because I have a lot of doubts when using punctuation in English:it is really very different from Italian!So, sometimes there is interference from my own language. However, I'm trying to follow some simple rules (following too many rules is sometimes even worse!), such as the fact that semi-colon is used not so much in English as in Italian, or the fact that a complete thought has to be signalled with a full stop, and never with a comma.However, this site can really help me learn more about how punctuation is used in English.

The second site is a BBC site about problems with pronunciation, another troublesome issue when considering the English language.This site provides you not only with theory about the sounds of English, but also with quizzes, videos. podcasts, so that you can practice what you learnt.

As far as the last site I chose is concerned, I already visited it during the first semester when I had to write my wikipage about architecture.It is indeed a site with information about the ways to write references in accordance with the different types of sources (Academic writings, Internet sites, books, articles,...).I find it very useful because this year I'm writing a lot of academic texts, which have to contain the list of the sources my work depends on, as well.And these references have to be cited properly.Moreover, this site will be very useful when I'll have to write my thesis.How to cite references is always an important issue.

For now, that's all guys!

See you tomorrow,

Michela