Homework debate

Here is a discussion on homework at the university level. The transcript is in this site, in case you do not undestand the audio. There is also a quiz to check your comprehension in that page.

1) Is there a balanced view on this subject, just one point of view or more than one position?

2) Do they include evidence or facts to prove their positions?

3) What is YOUR position? Do you think there should be homework or not?

Do you need to be told what to do or are you responsible enough to do what you are supposed to?

Exam practice

As I had mentioned in class today, here is the sample of our argumentation quiz.

Prof. Gilberto Berríos designed this multiple choice quiz on line and is quite helpful. Remember to write your name so he knows who is taking it. It is good practice for departmental exams. It is timed to 70 minutes, so be prepared to spend some time in front of your computer. Try it out. It is worth it (=vale la pena).

What do aye-ayes have in common with this boy?

In class we read about the way this animal probably uses sound to find its food. Watch the following video about a fourteen-year old boy, Ben Underwood, and try to look for similarities. Write your findings in the comment´s area. There is a longer video about him here.

Is it safe to use cellphones while driving?

I wonder if there were any accidents during our Easter break due to cell phone use. Do you think that they might be a cause of death on the road?

Go to this page to read about two studies on the subject. After that write about your reactions in the comment´s area.

The machine is us ...ing us

Watch this video to check if you are a digital kid from the 21st century.

How close do you feel to Web 2.0 technology? How much do you know about what is going on in the world of Internet? Do you just chat and send email or is there something else you do? Have you ever set up your own webpage, blog, wiki? Are you registered at Facebook, Myspace, Hi5 or any other social network? How often do you surf the net? Do you know what Del.ici.ous is? How about rss?

You don´t have to answer all of these 8 questions but we would love to know more about you and your net habits and knowledge.

Last song syndrome = song-stuck in your head

In our unit on hypothesis, there are three aspects we will be identifying in the articles we read:

1) the problem or phenomenon.

2) the hypothesis or hypotheses in the article to explain the problem or phenomenon.

3) facts and opinions.

Read the following web sites (1, 2, 3) and identify these elements. Write your answers in the comment´s area.

Have you heard about LSS? Has this phenomenon ever happened to you? Had you thought of a possible hypothesis to explain this phenomenon?

By the way, here is a sample of the next hypothesis quiz.

Songs and Language learning

Adriana mentioned in a comment last January the use of captioned TV to improve reading in English. Then Fabiana said songs could be helpful too. Now I want to check with all of you how much you think songs influence language learning.

Has it ever happened to you that you hear a catchy song and then it is in your mind for the whole day or the whole night and you might even wake up listening to the song playing inside your head? That is the song-stuck-in-my-head phenomenon or last song syndrome mentioned in the next post.

Educator Tim Murphey conducted an analysis of the lyrics of a large corpus of pop songs and found that they have several features that help second language learners. They contain common, short words and many personal pronouns (94% of the songs had a first person, I, referent and are written at about a fifth-grade level); the language is conversational (imperatives and questions made up 25% of the sentences in the corpus); time and place are usually imprecise (except for some folk ballads); the lyrics are often sung at a slower rate than words are spoken with more pauses between utterances; and there is repetition of vocabulary and structures. These factors allow learners to understand and relate to the songs (Murphey, 1992). A further benefit of pop song lyrics is that their meanings are fluid, and, like poetry, allow for many different interpretations (Moi, 1994).

Find lyrics to songs here. Which is your favorite song of all times, by the way?

Mine? I love songs by Linking Park but "Under Pressure" by Queen is my most favorite one. I can listen to it over and over again for hours. See its lyrics with translation here. To listen to it, press the yellow play button.
Berta
Jorge S.
Luis V.
Justo
Amnelys
Gilberto
Luis S.
Reinaldo

What might await in your future

Although this slideshow has a lot of information about the United States, China and India, there are some predictions based on certain facts that might relate to your future.
Did you find something surprising, alarming, untrue, speculative, interesting in the slideshow? Write your thoughts in the comments area.

No class Monday March 3rd: Back pain

I got a mechanical contracture in my lower back which probably resulted from sleeping at a wrong angle (I had to take care of my mom all this week at a hospital and I had to sleep in a chair for two nights).

I have an acute back pain and a hard time trying to sit. So, this is the deal:

1) We will not have class on Monday 3rd but we will meet next Wednesday, probably in the big lab second floor, to watch the video of this week and then have class.

2) I expect EVERYONE to have read and completed the reading and exercises of "What happens when you drink?" on a separate piece of paper to hand in.

3) Go to the Mayo Clinic link to watch a slideshow on back pain. Identify if what I have is a spasm, a strain or a sprain according to the cause. Tell me what recommendations I should follow to relieve my pain. Write your answer and explanation to your answer in the "comments" area of this post.