EFS 693B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Listening and Communication
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EFS 693B
Notes: Week 5
I. Opening News: Healthcare insurance debate - ONN http://www.theonion.com/content/video/study_most_children_strongly
II. Listening to news
A. Why? keep track of current events, learn about
developments in areas of interest, get more acquainted with US culture...
B. What?
- Use stories on new or familiar
topics to practice getting meaning
- Use stories on familiar topics for
processing practice (dictation, accent practice, etc.) and building vocabulary
C. How?
- Use TV or radio for
current breaking news
- Focus on online
resources for study
- Get stories with
transcripts, captions, and/or supporting readings if possible
- Use a combination of extensive and intensive listening
III. Discuss your project with other students in the class (bring notes
to help you remember)
1) What material are you using?
2) Why did you pick that? What are your objectives?
3) Give an example of an effective procedure you're using. Why do you
think it's effective?
4) What is the most useful thing you've learned so far from the project?
5) What is your main problem in doing the
project?
IV. Discuss Homework: using VLC and the speed control. How many tried it? How many found it useful? Problems using VLC
-
Can't always find URL for videos (CNN Student news; Online News hour (recent))
-
Even if you find the URL, the video may not play (Stanford ecorner)
-
Click here for some suggestions
-
Note for http://ecorner.stanford.edu: you can register for free, download clips in WMV format, and play in Windows Media Player with speed control.
V. PBS Online News Hour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june03/dna_04-25.html. How well did you understand it? Did you use the transcript? Did you learn any new words? Handout--transcript with vocabulary profile and idiomatic and collocated phrases underlined.
VI. Introduction to watching movies: Groundhog Day
VII. Some additional links to explore
- http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2280 Robin Li, CEO of Baidu. No transcript/subtitles but possibly familiar material for some
- www.ted.com (Technology, Entertainment, Design): e.g., http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_how_technology_evolves.html This has subtitles.
- http://www.edict.com.hk/TextAnalyser/wordlists.htm. From the edict Virtual Language Center. Word lists (up to 5000 frequency level)
with definitions using the Brown Corpus (different from the BNC and General Service List described before). Definitions include Chinese translations.
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Homework: Unless otherwise stated (e.g.,
the independent project) you should complete this material in time to discuss it
in the following class. Be sure to bring notes if requested.
1) Continue working on your independent project. I recognize next week is the
main midterm
week and you may need extra time to study for your major courses, so the minimum
this time is 2-3 sessions for a total of
90 minutes. Of course more is better, especially if your midterms are over by
the weekend. I will return your reports to you with comments as soon as I can,
but you can continue working in the meantime. Next week, we will go back to the
three-hour target.
2) Review the words and underlined phrases in the handout
from the clip about the discovery of DNA. Note that this may take awhile, so
don't wait till the last minute. Bring your lists and definitions to class
next week.
a) Look up the meanings of all the words that you don't know (except those "off-list"), trying to match the definitions with the intended meaning in this context. Then identify which ones you think are worth learning for you personally and learn them.
b) Go through the list of phrases, identify ones you don't know, and try to define them, using any combination of logic, online dictionaries, Google, friends, etc. Again, decide which ones might be useful for you to learn