FOURTH POSTING

DOA- Dissertation online

WHAT IS DISSERTATION

• It is a long essay on a particular subject, esp one written for a doctorate or similar degree; thesis (Barron).

• It is also known as an extended usually written treatment of a subject; specifically: one submitted for a doctorate.

The online databases subsribed by TSL libraries:
E.g:

• EBSCOHost
• Lisa Net
• EnvironetBASE
• JSTOR
• Mastic
• SCOPUS
• Datastream Advanced
• Emerland Fulltext

The summary of articles related to CALL from the online databases.

First article

http://web.ebscohost.com.www.ezplib.ukm.my/ehost/pdf?vid=8&hid=16&sid=3e347fc3-930e-406e-acf8-cab715a38d5c%40sessionmgr9

This article discuss the results of the evaluation of an Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) system that operates over the Web. There are three dimensions:

a) the effect of the intelligent features of the system on the learning outcome of students.
b) the system's ability to provide individualized support to students that leads to more effective use of the system.
c) the general usability and friendliness of the ICALL.

To achieve this, they conducted an empirical study, where they compared the intelligent system with a non-intelligent version of it. The results of the study revealed that the students of the Web-based ICALL had gained more knowledge of the domain and had been able to interact with the system more effectively as compared to the students that had used the non-intelligent version of the system. However, the students of the intelligent version of the system found it more difficult and they needed more time to get acquainted with the system in comparison to the students of the non-intelligent system.

Second article

http://web.ebscohost.com.www.ezplib.ukm.my/ehost/pdf?vid=8&hid=16&sid=3e347fc3-930e-406e-acf8-cab715a38d5c%40sessionmgr9

Different to most current practice and to the explicit comments of some practitioners, natural language processing (NLP) can now play a valuable role in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This article discusses the position of NLP within CALL using GLOSSER as an example. GLOSSER is an intelligent assistant for Dutch students learning to read in French. It has been fully implemented and tested, and it offers information on approximately 30,000 different words (or rather: lexemes), which may be taken from any text (no special preparation is required). The assistance takes the form of:

•information on the grammatical meaning of morphology.
•entries in a bilingual dictionary.
•examples of word use taken from over one million words of text (including some bilingual text).

The application has received a warm welcome in user-studies, and has been found a useful tool by students. It relies essentially on lemmatization, part-of-speech (POS) disambiguation, lexeme indexing, and bilingual text alignment–all elements of NLP technology.

These are the examples of articles that i did read from EBSCOHost online database.

THIRD POSTING

Hello readers…

This week I would like to discuss about the web search engines. There are a lots of web search engines such as Google Scholar, Mamma.Com, Eric Digest, Yahoo.Com, Dogpile Search, AltaVista, Web Crawler, AlltheWeb.Com and so on. Furthermore, I would like to discuss the differences and similarities between the popular web search engines.


Web Search Engine?

So, first of all I would like to define the web search engine. What is web search engine? What for it use by people? According to Wikipedia a “Web search engine is a tool considered searching for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in news books, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input”. Web search engines work by storing information about many web pages, which they retrieve from the WWW itself.


The Examples of Web Search Engines


Mama.Com
Mamma.Com is a site owned and operated by Copernic Inc. Mamma.com is a "smart" metasearch engine — every time you type in a query Mamma simultaneously searches a variety of engines, directories, and deep content sites, properly formats the words and syntax for each, compiles their results in a virtual database, eliminates duplicates, and displays them in a uniform manner according to relevance. It's like using multiple search engines, all at the same time. It created in 1996 as a master's thesis, Mamma.



Google Scholar
Google scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research. At the end of 2004, Google launched the beta version of a new service, Google Scholar.


Eric Digest
Eric Digest provides one way to access the ERIC Digests (education articles) produced by the former ERIC Clearinghouse system. It contains short reports (1,000 - 1,500 words) on topics of prime current interest in education. There are a large variety of topics covered including teaching, learning, libraries, charter schools, special education, higher education, home schooling, and many more.


Yahoo.Com
Yahoo.Com is an Internet portal that incorporates a search engine and a directory of World Wide Web sites organized in a hierarchy of topic categories. It provides both new and seasoned Web users the reassurance of a structured view of hundreds of thousands of Web sites and millions of Web pages. It also provides one of the best ways to search the Web for a given topic. Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 1, 1995.

The similarities of the web search engines

The above search engines function as a tool for searching information. They provide a lots of information about the things that searcher need to know. Furthermore, all the web search engines are in electronic text form. People easily can find any information in anytime.


The differences of the web search engines

The Google Scholar and Eric Digest are more based on academic researches and sources. Both web pages really very helpful for the students. Students can obtain so much of information by using this kind of search engines. On the other hand, Mamma.Com and Yahoo.Com link for searching entertainment and other information. They are classified web pages in categories such as images, video, audio, news and so on. But the most important thing in Yahoo.com is advertisement. Moreover, all of the search engines have different interface. The Yahoo.Com is very colorful when compare with other web search engines. It's look more interest and easily attract the web users. So, these are the differences that i found in all the web search engines.



The Refferences

http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.google.com.my/intl/en/about.html
http://www.ericdigests.org/
http://www.mamma.com/

SECOND POSTING

How blogging can assist language learners to improve and enhance their writing skill

In my point of view, blog is a new way to attract students to communicate through their reading and writing. According to Richardson (2004) language teachers can subscribe to their students linguistic abilities especially in writing and reading by using the web log.

The huge majority of students preferred English writing the weblog to the more traditional ways. Most of them believed that weblog can improve specialized English and a few of them said that they would definitely continue using weblog. The findings seem to confirm that despite generally having no prior experience of web design, most of the students enjoyed the assignment, believed that it was helping the improvement of their specialized English and that it assisted them in producing good work.

Weblog not only provides teachers with an exciting new way to approach communicative language learning, it also, despite facing challenges, gives the students a new reason to enjoy reading and writing.

The “blog” is a contraction of “weblog” suggests that a blog

(a) Must be on the web and

(b) Must in some sense “log” something.

Blogs are often aimed at a broader readership than the blogger’s own friends and family because they communicate with the diverse blogging community as a whole (Barret 1999).

The comments feature, for instance, that allows the reader to write onto the weblog either directly or following approval from the author

The weblog is usually motivated solely by the need for self-expression, and often communicates something about the personality, or adopted persona, behind the blog, through the style of writing and the choice of topics. Indeed, continually updating a weblog, like regularly writing in a journal, may help writing students to appreciate that writing is an ongoing process.

Another advantage that the weblog provides is the ability to communicate without the inhibitions and preconceptions that accompany most face-to-face interactions. Writing weblog is less formal and less threatening, thus students can write without self-consciousness or inhibition ( Roed 2003).She investigates this factor in her article, and explains how, people behave differently when communicating online compared to a face-to-face situation. Research has shown that when communicating online, people show fewer inhibitions, display less social anxiety, and reduce their public self-awareness”.

Writing blogs helps the students to read blogs and vice versa because through writing, the writer becomes more aware of the notion of readers; and through reading, they become more familiar with the corresponding idea of purpose. The new Internet technology Weblogs is redefining the way students and teachers use the Internet, turning them from mere readers into writers to the Web as well, and making it easier to filter and track the ever-growing number of resources coming online each day. These are skills which can then be used outside of the blogosphere and in the world of study.

This is the articles that i found related to how blogging can assist language learners to improve and enhance their writing skill.

http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2006/index.html#_Toc148658496

http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2006/index.html#_Toc148658497

These are the blogs that i enjoy read.

http://yellowlane.com/

Yellow Lane - A personal blog that is beautifully designed, outlines the daily activities of Joshwa, who posts updates of anything from his vacation photos to his newly bought second-hand car.

http://www.politics1.com/presidency.htm

Politics 1 - A political blog, it offers a fascinating examination into the insights of a pro-conservative blogger. This blog is filled with daily updates and commentaries of the political right in American politics. According to the WebTrends traffic report (for the period ending June 25, 2005), Politics1 is recording over 288,000 unique user sessions, 520,000 page views, and 6.6 million hits per month. The power of blogging certainly reaches into the corners of politics.


http://www.webdelsol.com/Blog_House/

The House of Blog - A literary blog, the author of the site warns that booklovers should not buy a book until they have completed their pre-purchase intelligence gathering. Web del Sol's blog is designed with the smart reader in mind, filled with not only interesting analysis into the latest book reviews, but also useful links to other litblogs and literary webpages.


http://interactive.usc.edu/courses/2005_fall/ctin-511-interactiv.php

Interactive Media Seminar (CTIN 511) - This educational blog is but one of the many courses Justin Hall teaches at the University of South California. Known to some as one of the people who started blogging in January 1994 while he was a student at Swarthmore College, Hall helped revolutionalize the way online users communicated on the web. Now a professor of Interactive Media at USC, Hall continues to use technology to reshape the way education is operated, using blogs as a way to post syllabuses, communicate with students, as well as posting the most up-to-date information concerning the course as well as his field of research.

http://www.bigwhiteguy.com/

Big White Guy - What does gwai lo [gw-eye low] mean, anyway? As Big White Guy reveals, this Cantonese expression refers to Caucasian foreigners. A travel blog, the information on this blog is filled with intriguing knowledge and experiences of an expatriate living in Hong Kong. It is but one of countless floating in the blogosphere which offers fascinating experiences of a person living abroad and the cultural nuances of staying in a foreign land. (Not to mention what and how an eggtart tastes like).