LET’S SAVE OUR PLANET!

Everyone must play a part in protecting the environment. There are many things you can do on your own every day to help save the planet. Here are some suggestions.


REDUCE! Really, the best thing we can do for the planet is to use less of it. Our consumer society is mainly responsible for the environmental crisis. Here are some questions you can ask yourself before buying something, “Do I really need this?” or “Is there another product which would do the same thing but more sustainable?” Or ask the question, “Will this last a long time?” Some other questions may be, “Do I know how this item was made, how it will be used and how it will be disposed of?”


REUSE!  What do you think of using your own ceramic cup or mug at your school or local club? It means there are no plastic cups to throw away. You can wash it and reuse it every day. Unfortunately, we are encouraged to buy a new “improved” item even if the one we have can be repaired or reused. When we buy things, we should buy items which are durable; we should use them properly, and  have them repaired when necessary. If we practise this, many things can not only last a life-time, but also be passed on to future. However, If something is truly unusable for its original purposes, try to be more creative and think of how else it might be used. When you’re done with it, think of whether someone else might be able to use it. You can donate some of the things to the poor. You may also sell some of your used items through personal ads in a local newspaper.


RECYCLE! Rather than throwing an item out when neither you nor anyone else can make use of it, have it recycled. And while recycling is not possible, it is better to send goods to a landfill or have them burned up. Find out what types of materials can be recycled in your area. Clean and sort the materials before putting them out in the bin. Recycling your drink and food cans means there will be less trash in a resource recovery facility or landfill. Moreover, a company can use the old cans to make new ones.  
We can save our environment being a friend of earth.If we do not work by own self we will be threatened for earth as well as for our future generation. So, by practicing these three R’s in your daily life, you can not only create a clean environment for yourself but also for everyone around you

Man and Climate

Humans cannot change the sun's radiation. But they can control the increase amount of carbon dioxide. The main cause of the increase of carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels. Since the end of the 19th century, industrial activities increased rapidly giving rise to many factories. These factories use coal, natural gas to produce electricity. Nowadays, about 85 million barrels of crude oil are burnt daily. It produces carbon dioxide. Therefore it is clear that more and more greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are being generated world wide by humans. Moreover, we are also increasing the green-house effect by cutting down trees. We cut down trees everyday to make fire, furniture and other purposes. As a result, carbon dioxide is increasing and oxygen is decreasing day by day.
 

Read and think about the questions.

 1.  Can man influence the climate? If the answer is yes, explain how?


2.  Which human activities are responsible for increasing carbon dioxide in    the atmosphere?


3.  How can trees help to save our environment?


Comment your thought.. Thank you :-)

Environmental pollution in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is now apparently in the grip of all sorts of pollution like air pollution, soil pollution and water pollution. The dwellers of the urban areas are the worst sufferers of such pollution. The indiscriminate industrialization process in Bangladesh over the past decades has created significant environmental problems. We will now know about some of the most common types of environmental pollution and ways of coping with them.  

Air pollution

Air pollution comes from a wide variety of sources. In Bangladesh poisonous exhaust from industrial plants, brick kilns, old or poorly-serviced vehicles and dust from roads and construction sites are some of the major sources of air pollution.
We can reduce this type of pollution by making less use of motor vehicles and avoiding the use of vehicles older than 20 years. We may also use proper lubricants to lessen the level of emission and pollutants. We can encourage people to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) for fueling

their cars. The government may relocate hazardous industries like brick kilns to areas away from human habitations.


Water pollution

Water pollution can occur in oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds and underground reservoirs. As different water sources flow together, the pollution can spread easily and quickly. Causes of water pollution include :  

• increased sediment from soil    
• erosion  
• improper waste disposal and littering 
• leakage of soil pollution into water supplies  
• organic materials that decay in water supplies etc.

In fact, polluting the land means polluting the water. Throwing away a toxic substance on the ground near a water space means it eventually reaches a body of water. As a result, the water is polluted. Industrial wastes must not be disposed in rivers or lakes. We need to be more careful about disposing household wastes too. Use of pesticides means that when it rains on the lawn or garden, chemicals wash into the water bodies. Therefore, we must be aware of the dangers of using pesticides as they may pollute our rivers, canals and lakes.


Soil pollution 

Among the most significant causes of soil pollution is the enormous volume of industrial waste which is being produced every day but not disposed properly. The mismanagement of household wastes, particularly the polythene shopping bags, has caused serious threat to the soil, and the drainage system. Another cause for soil pollution is the use of agricultural pesticides, fertilizers etc. Sometimes fuel leakages from automobiles may get washed away by rain and seep into the nearby soil.





Pesticides and fertilizers are useful for plant growth but their overuse has led to soil pollution. Natural fertilizers and compost can be used instead of their chemical alternatives. Recycling is another way to reduce and control soil pollution. Recycling papers, plastics and other materials reduces the volume of refuse in landfills. Deforestation also causes erosion, pollution and the loss of fertility in the topsoil. Planting trees and re-forestation help prevent soil erosion and pollution.
(English For Today : class 9.Unit-5,Lesson ;2)

Have you use the AWL yet?

Academic Word List is one of the best educational web site which will help students to enlarge their vocabulary skill. The AWL created by Coxhead .We can easily access by going the flowing site :

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/index.htm

This website is very useful for practicing and exercising the academic vocabulary. They have provided some tools which will be very helpful both for the teachers and students.  vocabulary There are ten tabs left side of the site, as AWL highlighter, AWL gap maker, teaching, learning, word list and there are ten sub list and concordance list .

This website is featured like AWL highlighter, AWL gap maker and using concordance line.

*AWL highlighter can be used to highlight all the academic words from any particular text.

*AWL gap maker enables us to create a fill in the gaps exercise using a particular text. Gap maker has another option that the exercise can be made in both ways, like a list of words can be given with the exercise or it can be otherwise.

The website is very user friendly .We don’t need to sign in or fill any other rules. For the user there is a clear instruction is given about how to utilize this website. These tools are very useful to make teaching materials as it is focuses on academic word list.

                      

Everything in this world have some positive and negative sides alike this website has also some limitations .There is no visual attraction as there is no pictures. Another drawback is that there is only an example of concordance list is given the site. We will not find any instruction how to use this concordance list and then any corpus is not given in this website.

This site is very helpful for both teachers and students .Teacher can make material by using this sites by using gap maker as well as students can practices and extend their knowledge also .So hurry check this site if you don’t do yet……Best of Luck  :-) 

Thank you.

“Oxford Word Skills”

Another great tool for language learners .We know the importance of having a good competence on vocabulary .The more we know vocabulary the more we can constructively express ourselves . Oxford Word Skill software is very easy to use .The thing we need to do is  run the software in the computer. After starting the application there will be a user name for sign in .After finishing that one can access this easily.

We can have some other instrumental use of it such as pronunciation part, which will also develop our pronunciation skill too.The software contains almost 80 unites of vocabulary presentation and practice. All the units are divided into models of five to ten units on the basis of different units. Each unit contains different kinds of topics .Learners find there so many exercises which will help them to improve themselves if they practices all. It is not necessary that learner have to work here chronologically, they can start their work from any section. The section are-

•          Expanding your vocabulary ( units 1-6 )

•          The body ( units 7-13 )

•          You and other people ( units 14-19 )

•          Leisure and Lifestyle ( units 20-26 )

•          A changing world ( units 27-32 )

•          Institutions ( units 33-37 )

•          News and currents affairs ( units 38-43)

•          Work and finance ( units 44-51 )

•          Concepts ( units 52-57 )

•          Spoken English ( units 58-66 )

•          Written English ( units 67-73 )

•          Aspects of Language ( units 74-80 )

This software cover a wide range of vocabulary and it also can improve our listening and pronunciation skill as some tasks are design on listening. In here we can see that tasks are based on different exercises like fill in the blanks (with or without clues), some also have task with or without listening .They will also get immediate feedbacks. Learners can repeat the words or phrases two or more than three times to remember it .There are also have some other interesting activities in   “Oxford Word Skills’’ advanced software. Such as :  Expanding your vocabulary ,Immediate answers for all the exercises ,A list of vocabulary with a phonetic pronunciation guide ,Listening bottom ,Filling vacancies with suitable words.Learners will get various types of vocabulary there ex:

*Various aspect of language; compounds, discourse markers.

*Different academic fields in English; literature, science, journalism, newspaper, food, kitchen and vegetables.

* A range of concepts; problems and solution, truth and lies.

*A wide range of topic; behavior, competitive sports.

So in this software we can learn different types of vocabulary .Its friendliness also promote to use this software .Any one can access this software to improve their level . There are spaces for writing in the answers plus a 'Test yourself' cover card for students to 'cover and check' they have learned the new vocabulary .As it gives instant feedback we can easily identify our position and can get the score .This software is motivational too .It arises learners interest by giving interesting topics, pictures .It’s task has no time limit .There we will see every section is divided in different kinds of options and it has also notebook to save and print out their own notes or translations. 

WE can use this software outside the class also so students can get interact with this program at anyplace and at any time.

Though it is a great software to increasing our vocabulary it has few drawbacks .As there is no time limitation learners will not be take it seriously they will do it lazily .Another thing is we cannot customize it as it is a CD ROM software . They have to work on given tasks. User will also notice it that passages are remaining same in very Fill in the Blanks .It will be more effective if it has some speaking tools also.

To sum up,I can say  any learners can improve their  vocabulary skill if they practices all the exercise by themselves no doubt. Outcome of this software is very beneficial. The goal of this software is to make learners conscious about grammar, correct their pronunciation and increase their vocabulary power .So we can upheld our level by practices the task in this software .So do practice if you want to polish you skill too .Best of luck J

Free Rice !!! Free Rice !!

I am going to give you free rice..! Ha.haa but you have to gain it by answering some questiones. :-) 

Free Rice is a web site through this site we can get knowledge and also eradicate the hunger .It is freely accessible site. The link is given bellow:

http://freerice.com/

This website actually encourages language learners to learn vocabularies and allows them to donate to charities by playing multiple choice quiz games. The rule is if a learner answers each question correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to help end hunger through World Food Program. Because of its friendliness it becomes one of the most popular vocabulary learning sites.

There are so many languages which invite other learner’s too not only English learners such as French, Italian, Spanish, and Korean etc .It is also design for so many subjects such as

This website motivate the users by giving scores through grains .For each correct answer the player get 10 grains of rice good thing is that  there is no negative marking for incorrect answer.

The learners can play the game individually, pair or group. This will help them to learn how to work in groups.

It also gives us feedback immediately if we do mistakes.

It can be improve our pronunciation, enrich our vocabularies.

Limitation:

As this site presents any word only not in a descriptive way which may make learners confused about the word. So, most of the time the learners try to predict the answers.

The site also repeat the same words more than twice, in that case the learners will get demotivated because they are finding the same words again and again.

In conclusion, I will suggest my students this site though it has some difficulties it is very helpful for learning vocabularies.

"Blog" as a platform of teaching.

We are living in a society where we all are connected by social media so why should not use this as a media of teaching .I prefer  to write about one of the tool which will be very  helpful for teaching language .The tool is “Blog”. Teacher can use their blog as a communicative tool both with students and their parents.

Blog is a platform where people can write about their own feelings in any particular topics it can be anything the blogger choose to write about .Which will contain so many information along with writers thoughts. A writer can write in his own way, freedom is there .So if we read  a blog we will fully understand  what they want to tell us.

Teacher can use "Blog" for teaching language to their students. E:g:

Motivate students towards writings: If teachers tell students to create a blog and post their writing about what they learn in their class it will be interesting to them and also they can improve themselves as they will get feedback in their writings. One more important thing is that they will be more conscious while writing for making their writing error free which will also improve their writings.

Reading skill: It will also improve students reading skill.

Interaction: Everyone can see each other’s  post and can discuss their which will interact them.

Post class idea: If teacher post about the topic what will discuss in the class it will give a  brief idea to students .It will also be benefited for absent students.

Broaden up students mind: By using blog as a teaching material it can be engage students to think critically.

Evolution: Teacher can give them task to do in blog for evaluating their knowledge.

Connecting: Through a blog teacher can connect all the students around the world.

Teacher can also use activities, games, puzzles to enrich students learning experiences in blog.

A blog can be a great idea for a teacher to encourage their students to think innovatively .Teachers can use a blog in several ways for teaching purpose. It will be very beneficial for students if a teacher use blog as a medium of their teaching.