Chatbot

Hello,

It occured to me that it would be good practice for English students to try interacting with well-designed chatbots. This would work especially well with customer service representatives and sales people.

The latest generation of chatbots are programmed to reply in natural conversational English. As well, they are constantly evolving their language through AI. Similarly, some offer up interesting conversation filler to keep the conversation going.

You can find many different chatbots at:
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Artificial_Intelligence/Natural_Language/Chatterbots/
http://www.chatbots.org/.

Enjoy the lesson idea!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Free ESL/EFL resources from the US Govt

Hello,

I keep running across great material through my Master's course.

Case in point, the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs produces material for ESL/EFL teachers. It's probably on par with the British Council's work in this area.

They publish a quarterly magazine called "English Teaching Forum" which is chock full of instant communicative lessons. I think they were trying to blend contemporary SLA research and applied linguistics into teacher-friendly formats.

You can order a subscription free or download past issues for free online:
http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum-journal.html

It's a little American-centric at times, but still very interesting.

Enjoy the lessons!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Small Talk

Hello,

Here's the Small Talk material I promised you.

Small Talk

This is the video I mentioned about John Cleese in Fawlty Towers NOT avoiding taboo subjects in conversation.



Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Real Material: Create an ad on Idea Bounty

Hello,

I had a great idea for an activity that is sure to get your business and marketing English students highly engaged and motivated. Go to www.ideabounty.com.

Idea Bounty is a crowdsourcing platform where anyone(!) can submit ideas for new advertising and marketing campaigns. Every month, there are several new briefs from different companies, mostly multinationals. The format can range the full gambit from TV commercial scripts and print ads to web campaigns and guerilla marketing campaigns.

To get started, you will need to register on the site to obtain the briefs. This is free to do. Once you download the brief, you can assign it as a classroom activity for students to do in small groups or individually. Use the activity to highlight marketing language. I might also suggest looking at different ad sites to view print copy.

At the end, get students to submit their entries by the deadline. They can have a chance to win several thousand US dollars. (It's an open international competition.) If they don't win, they may still qualify for certificates showing how well they ranked - silver and bronze. (I received 2 bronze awards for the Peperami campaign in 2009 and came 46th out of 1100 entrants. It was a lot of fun.)

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Brilliant activity resource book for busy teachers

I stumbled across this book while browsing through my favorite bookshop (Amazon.co.uk). What a fantastic book! This book has quickly become one of my favorites. And I say this having a massive library of EFL books at my disposal.

It offers you an extensive and diverse array of communicative activities under four main subject headings: Conversation, Functions, Grammar and Vocabulary. The activities vary from pair work, group work, debates, role plays, brainstorming, and group discussions. Each activity offers anywhere from 5 to 60+ minutes of classroom work. Make your life easier, get this book today!

Enjoy the book!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One
www.voiceone.fi

Five big questions about Nokia's New CEO

Finally, some new material. Sorry, I've been terribly busy, but here is something new on Nokia's new CEO. This is based on the Forbes Mobilized Blog Entry from September 10, 2010. It's available here:
http://blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwoyke/2010/09/10/five-big-questions-about-nokias-new-ceo/

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice


Five Questions for New Nokia CEO

Haiti - A Historical Perspective

I wanted to create an activity related to the disaster in Haiti, but looking more at the fundamentals of the serious problems facing Haiti. To do that, you need something with some historical perspective. I used this article from Newsweek (not my favorite magazine). The article is typical of Newsweek, light on actual facts drifting off into personal commentary (fluff!). But I think it will do for our purposes.

The article can be found here:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/231179

The discussion activity is here.

Haiti - A Historical Perspective


Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi