Modern IT (Internet Technologies) in EFL teaching

English is the dominant language of the Internet. The Internet will in turn become the dominant place to learn English. The way languages are learned is changing, and these changes are accelerating.

The Internet is constantly evolving. It has created a dynamic environment for the communication and the management of information. The Internet has brought with it new forms of social interaction without boundaries. Technologies like MP3, iPod, Skype and PDAs, as well as blogs and podcasts, are making an immense variety of communication, information, literature, news and other language content available anywhere and anytime. A cascade of developments is causing interactive communities to spring up based on common interests, without regard to geography. This is going to stand traditional language learning on its head. English dominates on the Internet in areas ranging from entertainment to science. If you want to learn English, this represents an unprecedented opportunity.

You can access English language content on any subject and learn from it. You can connect with English speaking people who share your interests. You can do this with the help of e-mail, through blogs, podcasts and forums. You can link up with friends or even language tutors using free Internet telephony. The World Wide Web is the ultimate dynamic classroom and learning community.

Over the next few years the Internet will take over from the classroom as the place of choice to learn English.

In order to achieve fluency in English you need to be comfortable using at least 10,000 words. On the Internet, you can choose appropriate content to listen to and read. The content can be graded to your level. But what about learning and remembering all those new words. We know how quickly we forget words when we look them up in a dictionary. And there are so many words to learn. Fortunately, the Internet makes it a lot easier to learn vocabulary.

On the Internet you can use online dictionaries to look up words instantly (i.e., Babylon). There are learning software programs which create customized word lists for you as you learn words. This software can help you accumulate example sentences for these words from the familiar contexts you are listening to and reading. You can set vocabulary goals and follow your progress towards these goals. Vocabulary does not only mean words. It also means phrases, or chunks of words. Phrases are groups of words that come together in a way that is natural to the native speaker but not always to the learner. The Internet and the computer make this easier.
Technologies like Skype make conversations with the help of  computer easy to organize and the communication is free of charge. You can get your friends together for a chat or make an appointment with a tutor. It is like having lessons on demand. You can schedule one-on-one or four-on-one discussions via Skype with the tutor of your choice. In the relaxing atmosphere of Internet online discussion, learners and tutors become friends and form a community of people helping and encouraging each other. These are not stressful lessons. They are pleasant opportunities to communicate.

Learning on the Internet is effective because it is fun. There are already blogging communities with learners and tutors sharing their experiences. People come together from all over the world to help each other. Bloggers may post in their own language, or in English. English becomes the medium of communication among people of different cultural backgrounds. Blogging isn't an assignment, but a genuine, enjoyable, and meaningful activity. A contagious enthusiasm will keep you learning. It is not like studying. It's more like making new friends and discovering new cultures through language.
Internet will change forever the way people learn. Learning English is just one of many lessons we can learn on the Internet. Another one of them is to learn how to learn.

Also I think it is useful to teach by using power point in each lesson and by watching audiovisual materials. The power point should be interesting: pictures, sounds and contents. The audiovisual materials should be easy to understand as well as interesting activities: role play, interview, asking and answering from audiovisual materials.
After study by using the power point and activities, I think it works to develop speaking and listening skills.

ESSAY

How to make your routine life interesting?

 

A routine is something that we do regularly, without questioning or planning. Once established, routines require little effort, tracking, or decision making; by definition they become a consistent part of our lives. Routines are ways of doing that don’t require much conscious “doing.” This is what makes routines such powerful levers for supporting behaviors, whether positive or negative.
Our routines can help us or impede us, increase our focus and effectiveness or increase our distractedness. The best routines include those positive distractions as meditation, mindfulness, stress breaks, and so on. Positive routines also include all the other things we can do to balance our lives: exercise to refresh our bodies, talking with those we love, reading, going on retreats. These are activities that refresh and energize.

Do you brush your teeth each morning and evening? Since there is no avoiding routines, why not create routines that are supportive, healthy, and lead toward what you want to accomplish in your life. Routines are the ways in which we take care of ourselves. Some people spend fifteen to thirty minutes at the beginning of each day meditating — just sitting, just being alive, just being with their breath. This is a basic “sharpening the saw” activity, in which we are the saw. Meditation practice is a way to slow down, look deeply, and reveal ourselves to ourselves.

Positive routines are built to exclude severe distractions — the overstimulation and overexertion, without respite or relief, that can lead to anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, and a real lack of focus. We all have routines; why not create positive ones?

Routines are the way of nature and we are part of nature . . . Routines connect us to something larger than ourselves. Paradoxically, through the structures provided by routines, we can develop flexibility because our minds are so much clearer and our bodies more refreshed. Routines can support personal growth and the transformation of old, unwanted patterns.

 So, get yourself a planner. You can buy one or simply print out free calendars online and create your own planner. Finally schedule in your daily activities or things you would like to do into your planner in an organized time line. Start from the moment you wake up to the moment you plan to fall asleep. The transition from not having structure to having will not be fast nor easy but it will be well worth it, you may even find that you will be able to time manage better and free up time for things you love to do.

LOVE STORY

I met someone and got married. That was a mistake. Eventually we got a divorce. I starting going out to country bars.
Surprisingly enough, I had a few dates, meeting in public places, but just didn’t find the right one and thought I never would from a dating site. I sort of gave up on it until one night. After getting home from a bar, which I hated, I went on my computer. For some reason I logged in that site again which I was really glad I did. I got an interesting email from a guy and liked his picture. I was also touched by his email and that he was also interested in my picture and profile. From then on we started emailing each other quite a lot from that site. We seemed to have so much in common through our emails. We continued writing and eventually got on Skype, and chatted for quite some time.  We discovered that we had so much in common. It was really amazing. Our families even lived in the same town of all places. We chatted every night as often as we could.
And then, a miracle happened! We started chatting on our computers about music. Wow…we also liked all the same music and we both wrote songs. I told him I liked country music and used to frequent a particular bar about some years ago, which had closed down. Of course he asked me the name of the bar back then. I told him. He was really surprised and told me he used to play there. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not!  The guy I was interested in who was the rhythm guitar player in my favourite band. It was like a miracle happened suddenly! Like a fairy tale! We carried on chatting every moment we had for some time, and eventually he gave me his
phone number. We started talking on the phone every night. It was just amazing all the things we had in common about everything! Yes, it was too good to be true!

After about 3 weeks of talking on the phone every night, chatting on the computer & exchanging pictures, we decided to meet. I was brave enough for him to pick me up at my mother’s place as I developed this trust in him, by his voice and his honesty. I met him downstairs in front of my mother’s apartment building. He got out of his car, and the first thing we did was look at each other and start laughing, and laughing like crazy, and couldn’t stop laughing! After a while, he asked me if I didn’t mind if he got up on stage to do a solo. Hey, a man singing with his guitar was like being in heaven. He got up on stage and started playing his guitar and singing in front of an audience. That did it for me. I was hooked! And the guy I admired some years ago was performing in front of my eyes, and, was my date! I was in heaven!

Fate brought us together. We met our "soul mates"!

Romantic Ideas for Valentine’s day

Give her/him a surprise

Bring her to a dark place, where u have lit candles forming the shape "I Love You"

Lay out kisses in the shape "I Love You" before she comes home and only appear when she sees it with a bouquet in your hands

Buy personalized jewelry for him/her

Write the words "I love you" on her hands while keeping her distracted.

Write a letter everyday telling how much she means to you for every day you're apart.

Hold her hands and hug her, then tell her you want to grow old with her and continue to hold her and be with her when both of you are old.

Send her flowers whenever you feel like it.

Kiss him/her. Without reason of course!

Fill a whole room with helium heart shaped balloons and invite her with the words "I love you"

Fix a puzzle together.

Sing a love song to her/him,

Look at her intensely and dont talk..

Spray his/her favourite perfume all over his/her room so it will smell like him/her!

Leave a trail of "chocolate kisses" from the front door to the bedroom, right up to the bed. On the bed leave a note that reads 'I kiss the ground you walk on.' Make sure you're not home when s/he gets in!

Write a love note or poem on a piece of paper and then cut it up into puzzle-like pieces. Send one a day to your special someone.

Plan a romantic getaway and only tell him/her when its time to leave!

Look straight into the eyes of your love and PAY ATTENTION to what they tell you! Tell your mate something about you that no one else knows.

Men: Talk more. Women: Touch more.

My Valentine's Day cards

 

You are everything to me

I find myself thanks to you

My tender soul becomes free

Thanks to your love and it is true

Your heart is like a sun

My love story is so long

Your place is number one

For you I write a song

Let it hot or let it cold

You are young or you are old

Anyway I love you

And you love me too

Let me call you treasure

You are only mine

We will be together

In the Day of Valentine

Interview

Who are you?

My name is Helen Petrenko, I am 25 years old. I live in Kerch. I’ve been living here since I was born. I study in Tavrida Kerch University of Economics and Humanity. I learn here two languages English and German. I think that nowadays it is very important to know foreign languages.

How did you learn English?

I began to study English at kindergarten. Then I studied at school №19, where English was the most important subject. After that I wanted to improve my knowledge of English and entered this institute. Sometimes I felt shy to speak and made mistakes in pronunciation. Studying at the institute has given me much.

What has English given you?

English discovered me a wonderful world of new opportunities and interests. English is the international language of communication. It gave me the possibility to make friends and travel without problem. So, now I can communicate with native speakers and read newspapers, books in original.

HOW TO GAIN A WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR A PERFECT ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER

Work-life balance is about the interaction between our paid work and other activities, including unpaid work in families and the community, leisure, and personal development. Work-life balance for any one person is having the 'right' combination of participation in paid work (defined by hours and working conditions), and other aspects of their lives. This combination will not remain fixed, but may change over time.

When you work every day, all day, with no time set aside for living life, you just get more stressed. You lose sight of reality. You get out of touch with creativity, which is just as important for producing quality work as it is for innovating in business. You take much longer to do things and you get so exhausted that you sit there looking at the screen for hours.

Work-life balance is a problem for many people. Not just teachers, either— anyone who works in a job that involves some kind of thinking is tempted to take work home with them. I suppose that maintaining a good balance is one of the benefits to noble work.

A perfect English language teacher plans a lesson. So, she can plan not only the working hours, but also she can make the vital plan and to follow it, she can move on well-developed plan. Generally you know you have a good work-life balance when you: have a sense of control in your work and life, have a strong sense of achievement from work and life, gain enjoyment from everyday life.

A perfect English language teacher may be able to involve her children and her husband in your interests.

Here one of the ways of achievement of work-life balance for a perfectionist.