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.

Neptune: Another way of learning

Hello….Today I am here to introducing you a new website which will help you to enhance your knowledge.

Neptune is an online platform which will help us to improve our proficiency. Learners can improve their language skills and proficiency through this.

One of the good sides of this site is friendliness of accessing. We can simply visit this site, the link is:

https://neptunez.wordpress.com/

Learners in courses of certificate of proficiency (COP) can share their learning experiences through this site. They can make their own blogs and share their ideas, thought as well as others can also comment on it by this communication happen. Through others feedback they can also gather knowledge  along with new ideas and can solve their mistakes also .

In about section any one can get instruction easily. This site is very helpful for improving any ones writing skills as we can write about anything and get feedback about our doing from teachers or students motivate us.

So, I must encourage learners to go this site if they interested to extend their knowledge. :-)

TED-ED an Interesting site of  English Learning *

Yippee today I am going to write about one of the interesting website which is very useful for us and we can have both entertain and learn at a same time with it. As now a days using of internet is becomes very easy and one of the part of our life so we can use it also for our education purpose also by using a very interesting site TedEd . One of the good things about it that is covers almost all subjects from science to arts and so many global issues. It includes hundred languages for these students which can motivate them to visit the website and enhance their knowledge. It’s a worldwide site for learning so people from any corner can access this site for study.

People will find it very easy to explore as it’s require very easy method to log in by some basic information. Any teacher can use this site to change monotonous method of teaching along making their lesson enjoyable.

Teacher and student can choose any video from it for learning. On the other hand it’s also so easy to make own video and post in there.

They have to choose any video from it or YouTube than include their question, discussions topics which are related with the videos in the section of think, dig deeper and discuss. They can custom it as their own. This type of lesson will be engage students and also easily motivate them to think about the topic of it.

This sites can help students to improve not only their listening skills but also improve pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and writing skills which is very good side. One of the best part of it that is include with four skills.

Although it has many good sides it has also some limitations e: g: For using TED-Ed in the classroom will need a multimedia room which is sometimes hard to get in Bangladeshi context as well as all classroom cannot afford it. Students can get interfered on their work or may fail to do their work if they cannot get continuous power supply. It will take time for loading the video for slow network by which students may lose their interest.

In spite of all these things we have to say that it is very helpful website for both teachers and learners as it is freely accessible and easy to use. In this site teacher or student can easily make their own interesting lesson by this can be a part of world education

English learning software EverWrite

EverWrite is one of the best English learning especially writing skill based software. It will be little bit heard to get it as it is a paid software, we have to manage it from someone if we cannot buy this software. This is consisting of six different practices and test contents e. g.

*editing exercises,

*identify rhetorical paragraphs

*working with transitions

*organizing your thoughts

*recognizing your thesis statements and

*practicing grammar.

After typing our name at the first we will be able to access this software.

If someone clicks any option they can easily do  practice and justify themselves.We can choose any of them according to our skill or on which we want to work on. After clicking any option there will be appear a text which  will ask us to select mode. By clicking any of it we can start testing ourselves.

In practice mode we will not see scores but in test mode we will see scores.

This software is very user friendly as it is a CD-ROM type software it has no link with internet. So, any students of rural areas and without internet service can use this software. It can motivate students. There are a lot of practices and tests are included in this software that enhances the writing skill of students along with reading skill also. The way it gives the score is also lucrative and it has print version also. In addition, the instructions of the tests and practices and the  background color of the software home page is also another user friendliness aspect for the learners.

Although it has some good feature but it not so easily available in Bangladesh which is its first and great limitation. We have to purchase it and it is unavailable at online. Moreover there is only two to five Practices or test materials. Learners can hardly interact with this software. If they can access this software in any way, they can develop or practice only writing and reading skills as this software cannot develop learner’s speaking, listening skills. It will be more productive for language learning students among Bangladeshi students if it also includes some speaking and listening materials.

EverWrite is one of the fantastic software or practice tests which can effectively improve one’s grammar skill though the software is with its very tiny weakness is amazing and fun to explore. 

Websites for vocabulary learning :-)

Before learning or acquiring any kind of language first we have to know about its vocabulary to understand the meaning of its sentences. Without knowing the meanings of the word we cannot assume or produce any sentence in any language.  In my blog I’ll basically focus on English language so in this writing I am going to give some web links for learning and practicing English vocabulary.

There are several methods we can follow for learning vocabulary such as by memorizing, guessing or with phrase practicing. Moreover we can also use our modern devices for learning or practicing our vocabulary skill. We can use software and so many websites for enrich our vocabulary skill. There are some links has given bellow:

* www.wordsmart.com

Level: High Intermediate to Advance.

In this site students can register for free then take placement tests. If anyone chooses multiple choice placement tests then they can hear the pronunciation of the word which they have to find the synonym. If someone doesn’t know the meaning then they can also guess the meaning by reading the sentence .Their level will be determined by the correct number and the time spent. It has the power to make students aware as its showing the scores at the end, that’s why students will be more care full to make correct answer.

They claim that their levels(C-f) is suitable  for TOEFL test preparation .For less proficient learners, there is also some levels which include with most frequent English words.

Though it’s very helpful software it will not be fully accessible without purchased. It’s actually for practicing not teaching vocabulary directly. The things I don’t like is it’s not provide the correct answer so students just know that answer is wrong rather the correct answer.

*www.lextutor.ca/test/levels/productive/2ka.html

Level: Beginning to Advance.

It’s a very helpful site with a huge range of vocabulary. We can find so many options and level here. If any student wants to illustrate then the student first clicks on the word level in the upper left portion of the screen. The student can click on a word if they want to hear the sound. Any word’s dictionary definition will be shown if it’s being written in to “Quick Look-up” on the home page. We can also hear the pronunciation by downloading a specific speech plug-in. We can also find a word’s examples with sentences which is very helpful for teachers. This is a very tiptop site for both students and teachers.

Though it’s a bit complex site but we will be access it easily after some tries. Then you will find it very helpful for you.

*http://www.vocaboly.com/

Level: Intermediate to Advance.

All the words are here are targeted from TOEFL, SAT, GMAT, GRE, and VOA Special English. For word sound student have to click phonetic transcription. As illustrated in the left hand column, this program provides students with seven types of interactive vocabulary exercises in three areas- study, test and game. Student work with sound, spelling and meaning. Student can use it according to their needs to practices of SAT Vocabulary, TOEFL Vocabulary, GRE Vocabulary, GMAT Vocabulary and VOA Special English.

Above all the sites will be very helpful for a student if they try from themselves and practices for improving their skill. Though these are more testing sites rather learning. We know practice makes a man perfect so you will find along with you when you want to practice you vocabulary skills. Best of luck J

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