Some Great Presentations on SlideShare.net

• http://www.slideshare.net/jonathankopp/top-10-tips-for-unicef-to-tap-the-social-web-04-march-2011
• http://www.slideshare.net/sxsw2010 (Table of Contents of sorts :-)
• http://www.slideshare.net/princessmisia/most-memorable-quotes-from-sxsw-2011
• http://www.slideshare.net/jimsalinger/16-things-i-learned-at-sxsw

Arg. There's always more than one has time to absorb.  Didn't want to lose these links. Come back later!

L2 English Learning & Teaching - Online Bits

We've been studying approaches to teaching English as a second language in ENG 575/775.
Here are some related bits culled from daily online excursions since January 10, 2011.

1. Jay Walker on the world's English mania 
2. Forbes Interactive Word Birth Chart: How a  Toddler Learns to Talk
   (See Philip DeCamp and Deb Roy's MIT Media Lab Human Speechome Project)
3. Deb Roy at TED.com in February: The birth of a word (20 minutes)
   Go to minutes 04:56-05:50 to see the evolution of "gaaa..." to "water".
   See length of utterances of caregiver speech and compare with each word is acquired in minutes through minute 07:50. The minimum length utterances coincide with when the word is acquired
   We do a subconscious scaffolding - the language learning environment adapts to the learner(!)
   
4. Dr. Patricia Kohl at TEDxRainier: The linguistic genius of babies (10 minutes)
   "the celestial openness of the child's mind", the 8-10 months old sound development critical period:
   going from a citizen of the world to a culturally bound citizen
   "It takes a human being for babies to take their statistics."
5.  S{ubterranean} E{nglish} E{xposed}

 Some available online tools for learning ESL:

1. Oye, ¿cómo va mi ritmo? Bueno para gozar. in Google Translate
   (Here is the actual song on YouTube)
2. quizlet.com:
   
   • Elements of Thinking Flashcards 
   • Quizlet for Teachers
   • Now has voice recognition (in beta testing)
3. voxy.com: "Learn a language from life"
4. Learn English Network
   Teacher's Blog
   
5. 
   

Turnitin