For the last posting on blogging, we need to post a topic about concordance. For this posting, we need to do a pair work, so, I choose Khairun Nadhrah Suhaimi as my partner to do this task. The article we need to discuss is “Beyond Concordance Lines: Using Concordance to Investigate Language Development” by Arshad Abd Samad in OTL book page 70.

This article emphasizes the significant of concordance and the advantages of using this software in analyzing language data, on how words and grammatical construction are used. The software has totally proves that it gives a lot of worth towards the teachers, researchers and even language learners in examining the concordance lines.

EMAS Corpus which was used in the study collected in 2002 consists of close to half a million words. It is an untagged and unedited learner corpus that contains written data in the form of three essays written by about 800 students which comprises of year 5, form 1 and form 4. The topics were based on the amount of language the topic could elicit. As such, topics and tasks were selected because students were expected to be able to write more because of their familiarity with the task and topic.

Various methods can be used to determine language development. A basic assumption made in this article is that developmental patterns can be implied by comparing the language use of three different age groups. In this article, developmental patterns are examined by studying the language productivity, range of vocabulary and sophistication vocabulary of the students.

Productivity in this article is indicated by the number of sentences per essay in the words per sentence. The productivity of the three age groups is compared in order to examine language development. As for the range of the vocabulary, the diversity of the vocabulary used in a corpus is often determined by calculating the type to token the ration (Schmitt, 2002). Specialized software such as RANGE is used in determining the sophistication of the vocabulary.

Therefore, although concordance software can be used to help analyze the language data available, many may still be easily be disturbed by the huge amount of data available. This article has attempted to present the relevant of corpus data in investigating language development without having to analyze concordance lines. The values in this study, thus, can be regarded as benchmarks against which to compare future groups of students as well as assess the development of the language program.

Applications of concordance in: literary work and linguistic

Suppose you are required to search a word in a particular poem within a limited of time. Of course you wouldn’t have the time to search for the exact word in the poem especially when the poem is too long and have many words that will make you even more confusing. So, therefore, Concordance is the best solution in solving this matter.

Concordances gather all the words of a certain work or author and arrange them in alphabetical order. Each word is followed by a citation to the appropriate line or passage where the word appears. Most concordances include the surrounding words or line in which the word appears. For instance, if you look up the word of “ABROAD” in the poem Lyrical Ballads (Bristol, 1798) written by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, you will find:

ABROAD..............3
   There's neither horse nor man abroad,     Idiot Boy
   "There's not a single soul abroad."       Idiot Boy
   And who is she, be-times abroad,          Idiot Boy

A concordance doesn’t do your thinking or investigating for you, any more than a computer does. You have to ask the right questions, you have to follow up your own hunches and insights. A concordance is a matchless tool for investigating texts. Its power is limited only by its user’s imagination.

A computer concordance can now be prepared relatively easily provided a suitable e-text is available. However, in practice a good deal of editorial work is required in the early stages if a reliable concordance is wanted, and to produce a concordance of a quality suitable for publication in book form is generally reckoned to take around 2000 hours.

REFERENCES:

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/english.

Excited, eager, nervous; this is what I feel when we was informed that we need to do online test. Well, first time I heard about that, I feel nervous and excited because for the fifth post, we need to talk about experience taking online test. So, we need to subscribe to the Uji ICT Test under Pusat Pembangunan Akademik. For this test, we need to complete ASAS Test within 30 minutes. The mark above is my score that I gain while taking online test.

Based on my experience taking online test, I can say that this is a very interesting test compared with online test before this which we just do in class. We can know our level about computer and this test give mark we gain immediately after we already finished our test. My knowledge of ICT is so little, especially to identifying the various parts indeed. So, with this test I can check my level about ICT component.

For me, I think the main objective of the test was to see whether the students understand the use of ICT. When I was test, I could see more and more questions asking on parts of the computer, like hardware, software which are inclusive of monitor, mouse, printer, scanner, CD ROM and others. The thing that makes me surprise is the question in Malay version.

It is difficult for me because before this, I learned about ICT and the component in English language but the test, in Malay language. I can hardly understand the language of the computer when it converted into Malay language. For example word like ‘gelintar’, ‘cakera liut’, ‘hamparan elektronik’ tetikus’ and so on make me started asking myself. But I thought, I should try and enjoying this test.

However, online test are not secured. It is because student can cheat in the test, ask their friend or online the answer through the internet. Sometimes the wireless is not available. This situation is completely different compared to the test in the class which is more secure. Nevertheless, I enjoy taking online test and also the course SKBP 1023 which give me a great experience. To all my friends, good luck for the final exam. Thanks to Pn. Zaini I learn more about English language by using such as medium a blogs to improve my understanding about English language and ICT. Hopefully you’re getting well soon.

Writing post in blog is same with writing in paper. Both of this category writing needed a right skill while writing. For example, we must concern about our vocabulary, grammar, spelling, sentences and so on. But the differences between writing in blog and writing in paper or written communication are the way to we deliver what we wrote to someone. After posting the writing, we can learn our mistake from the comment that was given to us. We can ask someone who are good in English to give a comment for example our lecturer. For me, I think practices makes perfect so, I just keep working at it. I hope the more I write the better writing I get.

I think that blog is a useful learning experience for me. While using blog, I learn many things. For example, a word likes podcast, photo blogs, video blogs, and so on. These words are unfamiliar to me. But I enjoyable use this. Learning blog is useful because it give more advantages. It is also an effective especially to the English learners. While writing post in this blog, I also can express my thought and my feeling. Beside that, I also was learning how to improve my writing skill. I enjoy using blog. While blogging, we can retouch our blog to make it interesting for the readers. It is so many widgets in this blog like video, music and so on. We can also put our picture in this blog which make me feel more fun and enjoyable.

So many things I think that I need to know before I can complete the blogging activity successfully. For this blog, I think I not yet explore the whole thing of this blog. I think I need to more time to explore this blog and searching for something new. For example, I want the theme for my blog from the different web and how to put into my blog. I also want my blog are colorful and cheer which can make the readers feeling the feel that I want to deliver to them while view my blog. I also want my writing skill will improve especially from the grammatical errors and my writing will become clearer and easier to comprehend.

While using blog, I like others, having problem also. Not many problems that I facing but it also can make me feel tense. For example, when first time I used blog, I don’t know how to make my friend list appear on the page. I also didn’t the way to make a header custom in my blog, how to add widgets, how to put music and so on. After a while, I learn all that things from my friend and now I don’t have any problem if someone asks to me for the help to the same thing.

Will you tell your friends, recommend to others about blogging? My answer is, why not? Blogging is an enjoyful and fun activity. We can learn something new from this blog. Beside that, blog it is effective way to the others who having problem to speaking in English or lack of communication in speaking to others or shy how to deliver their idea or thoughts. They can express their feeling or thought through the posting in their blog. Moreover, they all can improve their writing skill with posting more. If they reluctant to write a post, they can give a comment on my blogs or my friends who having their own blog.

After the SKBP is over, I think I will continue using this blog as another way how to improve my writing skill. So many things I need to know. Blog is a one of another way for me to learn English. Fortunately for me, there are lot websites that offer tips on how to improve or enhanced writing skill such as blog. For me, improving writing skill is tedious but rewarding process of continues learning and rewriting. I will continue using blog even after the SKBP is over.

The task for this week is quite different compared by another task before. For this assignment, I need to go to the Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang for searching information about ICT. The differences about this task are we need to find about ICT through using online database or journal. This is a new thing for me. The experience for using online database is a new knowledge which everybody needs to know.

When I used online database at PTSL, I found that there are so much good information that we can found at the PTSL. The best thing to me is we can use computer provided by PTSL for gain knowledge and searching information and it is free. We don’t need to find a book that we wanted at the library only just click and the information will be appearing. This is a fastest and saving cost. It is also can save time and money.

Based on topic that I choose, for me, I think ICT give big impact in education. It is because, ICT growth consistent with globalization world today. Nowadays, we can see almost 100% school in the world using ICT in their education. We can denied the impact of using ICT in our daily live. While searching online database at the PTSL, I found varieties resources about online database; that is EBSCOhost, Emerald Fulltext Article, Times Higher Education and ProQuest online journal.

EBSCOhost, I noticed that is talk about guidelines for college administrator related how to become a good leader by preparing online seminar. This is a one from another example the impact of using ICT in education. Student can learning about how to become a good leader through online seminar. Student didn’t need go out for participate or learn in this seminar. By staying at home, student can get knowledge and participate in this seminar. This is good because is saving time and money. Student just registers through online and can make own schedule for this seminar. This program will include a 60-minute presentation followed by 30 minutes of question. This online seminar will presented by Featured Higher Education Presenter; Dr. Gerald Amada. He has an experience presented seminars for more 20 years and more than 100 college campuses.

Another online database is Times Higher Education. This online prepared by Melanie Newman and Hannah Fearn. It is about academic salaries; how much student spend money for academies salaries, it is worth or not. This online gives opinion and information to student in term of spending money in academic salaries. This is good for student to take this online as a guide for spending money. Student also can gain knowledge about academic salaries. This online give detail information about academies salaries and based on the strong resources and researcher that can built believed among student.

The next is Emerald Fulltext Article. . This article is about the impact of an intelligent classroom on pupils’ interactive behavior. The purpose of this research is to determine whether new intelligent classrooms will affect the behavior of children in their new learning environments. This discussion in this online about learning the environment among students especially from aspect ICT; how ICT can accomplish successful learning in the school. It is also investigates whether an intelligent learning environment can enhance learning experiences. The study explores key factors that seem to have some influence in this process: the flexibility of the space, the mobility of the teacher and the use of new technology. New technology enables flexibility and mobility, both of which are analyzed in the study. In addition, interactions in the classroom are another factor being investigated in order to find out if these technology-based classrooms will increase or diminish them.

The last resources online database I found that is ProQuest online journal. ProQuest online journal is about developing leadership in the ensemble classroom was written by Eric Shieh. He is a director of orchestras at Hazelwood east High School and Kirby Middle School in St. Louis Missouri. So, his journal more prefer to how to develop leadership in term of music educators. According to the author, there are three more things are necessary. To developed leadership in the ensemble classroom, we must; foster an environment where the expression of diversity is promoted, develop a flexible leadership style for encouraging development and give students’ opportunities to exercise leadership.

So many ideas I want to tell about this journal. But for more information, anyone can see this journal at this PTSL and can get the PDF about this journal. For more details, this below I put the references about this online database and online journal which I get from my research through online at PTSL. As a conclusion, for me, I agree that ICT give impact to education. The using of ICT become a necessity in our daily live especially nowadays, in this world that new globalization; world without border.

REFERENCESS

1) MAGNA-Resources For Higher Education (EBSCOhost) by Dr. Gerald Amada

2) Times Higher Education-online journal –How Much It Worth by Melanie Newman and Hannah Fearn

3) ProQuest Education Journal –Developing Leadership in the Ensemble Classroom by Eric Shieh

4) Emerald Fulltext Article

Writing quality of students can be improved by using word processing because word processing as excellent tools for students their handwriting must be neat enough and their spelling and grammar correct enough to convey their message, tasks that they may find difficult. The computer has undoubtedly helped them to write better. Recognizing that computer writing has much potential for helping our learners to learn how to write. Beside that, this was a necessary as the study was intended to help the learners with the problem specifically mentioned by them.

Example of the computer programs for writing Word prediction

• Student-specific programs that identify words that student uses repeatedly; when the student types the first few letters, the program lists frequently used words that start with those letters
• speeds up the typing process

Thesaurus

• offers student other words that mean the same as the word he or she is using
• adds variety to student’s writing and increases student vocabulary

The website of the activity

http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/computeraided_writing.asp

The access center website enables to the students to know more about computerized writing or computer assisted instruction and writing by introduce about that program and explanation about the writing program. These website also give the readers or students the software in writing program.

http://www.editavenue.com/how_works_1.asp

editavenue website enables clients to achieved this goal by providing an online marketplace for document editing commerce. This website also can access hundreds of professional editors who can correct and refine written communication. You just click on a link that viewed on the website for more information.

This is a few example of the software in the essay writing category which can be used by student in writing program. This software includes the information that the writers needed. Thus, all of us should try this software websites to know more about writing assisted language.

http://www.inspiration.com/edresources/index.cfm

This is the Web site for Inspiration and Kidspiration, which are organizational writing programs.

http://www.brighteye.com/texthelp.htm

This site reads text out loud and gives students a word predictor, a homophone locator, a thesaurus, a spell checker, and a dictionary. A Word Wizard guides students to the word they are looking for.

To sum up, computer assisted writing give more advantage to the writers especially students which can improve their writing skill and learning more about writing program and give more benefit to the writers by including a software for computerized writing that can be a guide to the writers.

In this text (http://www.rhlschool.com/read5n31.htm), the passage tells us about the new painting that was exhibited in the gallery, whereby the visitors made many speculations of what the painting represents of. Each of them guessed until one of them entered the room and spoke that the painting was painted by his 3 year old son. He told them all, that his son symbolizes the painting as a maze and how the painting looks so amazing to him.

Throughout the whole text, we can easily imagine and understand the passage of what it is said. From the text also, the readers could test themselves by developing and reinforcing the reading comprehension skill. One of the skills is critical thinking which it builds up our thinking. Moreover, the readers can also learn new vocabulary such as “curator” which means the custodian of a collection (as a museum or library) as well as by improving one’s grammar. On the other hand, reading comprehension gives the readers the opportunity to give their own opinion or idea based on their understandings of the text when answering the questions. Furthermore, throughout the exercises, the readers could also enjoy themselves as well as to release their tension.

So, to all the readers out there who loves to spend their leisure time with useful activities, you can try out these exercises provided in this website (http://www.rhlschool.com/reading.htm). Enjoy yourself and have fun doing it!!!!!(^_^)…

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Blogging is a one from another way for me to express my feelings and my idea.

Actually, I am a person who lack of confident to speak in English. Compared with my friends, my English is not enough.

Writing my own blog gave me opportunity to express my opinion and helped me develop confidence to express my view point.

I really excited about how to create my own blog. This is a new things for me that make me really enjoyable.

Lastly, I hope all of you can participate in my beautiful blog and give more comments to me. I really hope you will enjoy it to view my profile.

have a nice day…