How to get the most out of the eReader

THE RESOURCES

News forum

The News forum is for news and announcements.

• Anybody can post on it, but remember that these messages are sent out to everyone in the community. 

Key BNL2709 words

This is the vocabulary glossary for the reader. In the glossary, you will find detailed information and activities for all the target vocabulary from this reader.

• All the words come from the BNL 2709, a full list of the most common 2709 words in English. The use of these words accounts for about 90% of most texts, so learn these words properly, and you will have the best possible foundation for understanding and speaking English.
• The glossary also includes a variety of enjoyable video clips and ideas for practice in your BLOG and in the WIKI.

Introducing Yourself

Once you have registered as a member of this E-Reader, please

• take some time to introduce yourself to other members of the community.
• upload a photograph of yourself through your profile.

Animal Chat

Take a look at the chat times – or arrange your own times with friends – to pop into the chat room and practice the language you have learned in real time.

Great Animals Vocabulary Wiki

Learning a language and learning words means actively using the words. The WIKI gives you a chance to practise the language.

• Simply press the ‘edit’ button, and then write away. Don’t forget to ‘save’ your changes when you have finished though.
• It would also be good if you left your name in the WIKI by your contributions so everyone can see who you are. You can also use the WIKI prompts for your Blogs, Video Blogs and Audio Blogs. (See below)

Quotes about Animals from WikiQuote

Some quotes about animals for your interest and entertainment.

Blogging and Video Blogging

Every registered member with the e-reader has their own BLOG. (You’ll see the button for your BLOG above the profile).

• Keeping a BLOG will really help you improve your English, and you will find lots of suggested activities in the site, most particularly in the glossary.
• You can also do the same activities as speaking practice by making video blogs, and using a host such as GOOGLE video or BLOGGER. To share your videos on the site, all you then need to do is post the link to your BLOG on this site.

Audio Blogging

Another alternative is to upload your blogs on audio through the audio blogging facility. It’s up to you.

THE ACTIVITIES:

Research Before You Read

Before you read each e-text, we ask you to think about the subject by visiting some web-sites, watching some videos, and doing some research in your own language.

• This will help you a lot when it comes to understanding the e-text, as you will already know quite a lot about the subject.
• Please note that depending on your computer set-up, video clips may take some time to load. You might want to download them onto your computer and store them for easy viewing using Real Player.

The reading kaleidescope: four different perspectives

In this set of activities, you read the e-text a number of different times.

• Note that all the target vocabulary from the BNL 2709 most frequent wordlists are coloured blue so look at these words especially carefully. The only words that are not from the BNL2709 words are coloured red.

1. Read with hypertext

As you read the text you can use the ‘hypertext’ tool to check the meaning of any word in the dictionary (double-click on any word) and listen to its pronunciation (click once on any word.)

If you ALT+click on any word, it is added to the WORD BOX. 

• You can then use the WORD box to test your spelling, speed recognition of the words, and explore the way the words are used in different contexts. 
• These activites are based on Tom Cobb's award winning Compleat Lexical Tutor web site (http://lextutor.ca).

2. Read with glossary

When you read with the glossary, you should concentrate just on the BNL 2709 words – those words marked in  blue.

• When you click on the hyperlinked words in  blue, you will enter a glossary where you will find more information and activities about the word, including quotes, song lyrics, and video clips, all intended to help you learn more about how that word is used in English.
• The glossary will also include links to the Vocabulary WIKI, and activities for you to complete in your BLOG. These activities will not help you learn the word but help develop your writing and powers of expression in English.
• You can also complete these activities using an audio-recorder or video BLOG in order to help you practise your speaking.

3. Read, highlight and listen

In this section, you can listen to any section of the text you please.

• This will help you with recognising these words when you hear them and pronouncing them correctly when you speak.
• You will need though to download the free text-to-speech software to take advantage of this facility. You can download this from the ‘speaks for itself’ website.

4. Read with concordance and wordnet.

As you read again, you can now use the concordancer to see many examples of how the words are used in sentences. Wordnet will give you further definitions and examples of the word, so that you build up an excellent picture of how the word works.

Over to You

1. Wikipedia

Each E-Text is a shortened and somewhat simplified version of a Wikipedia Text. In this section, you can now go to the original and unsimplified article, and see how much you understand.

2. Discussion

The Discussion Forums provide you with some questions and ideas related to the e-text. This gives you a chance to practise using the language to communicate your ideas to other people, as well as giving you the chance to meet your friends, and make new ones.

A Lexical Playground

1. Put the story back together

So, how well did you understand the e-text? In this activity, we ask you to recreate the story, sentence by sentence.

2. Find the pieces in the puzzle

This activity also asks you to recreate the story, but this time by piecing together the text using the words as your clues.

3. Fill in the gaps of the c-test

Finally, you are asked to recreate the e-text by very simply filling in the gaps in the text.  These gaps are missing letters from each word, which helps you focus not only the vocbulary but also the grammar of the text. 

Focus on Key BNL2709 words

1. Which Word
   • Like the WORD BOX activity in the Hypertext reading, this activity lets you see many examples of how the key BNL2709 words in this text are used in many different texts.  This helps you discover how to use these words in patterns and chunks, which is the natural way we communicate.
2. Fill in the Gaps
   • These activities go back to the E-Text, and provide a series of gap-filling activities with a focus purely on BNL2709 words – the most frequently used words in English.

Writing and Speaking Projects

The reader finishes with some writing and speaking projects for you to try out to see how well you have learned the language. The suggested tasks include those that are commonly used in international exams, such as IELTS.

Round up

This section asks you to evaluate your progress, and discuss any aspect of the reader you like before moving on.