2010-2011 ACADEMIC YEAR ACTIVITIES

Activity #1:  Making a Profile: Deadline 24 October 2010.

Nb: All the activities are to be done both as

• a written exercise  due : 24 October 2010 Deadline midnight (23:59:59)
• & then oral presentations start: 31 October 2010. (Assignment #1)
• To be sent by email to m_bellal@esi.dz

A. PERSONAL DATA: PROFILE

What are the goals through this activity?

• Let students learn to use “Word processor” & “PowerPoint”
• Let students learn how to prepare a good slideshow
• Let students learn to use “ergonomics”
• Let students learn how to speak before an audience & be understood.
• Let students know how much they know about themselves & their work 

In other words:

1. Practice “writing” & “reading”
2. Practice “speech” & “listening”

Language learning is based on four (didactic) skills

 Advice: How to make a good presentation & how is it going to be best scored?

Ergonomics (or human factors): is the science of designing the job, equipment, and workplace to fit the worker.  According to “The International Ergonomics Association”, “Ergonomics” is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.

1. The presentation:

• Presentations are made with slideshows via a data show
• The contrast between background colour and the font colours for visibility and the font size for readability.
• The text is generally one sentence to two sentences on each slide
• An image, a diagram, a chart to illustrate your speech – one picture or two on each slide, depends on importance you give to your illustration.  
• Bibliography and sources (references or links you quoted the information from)
• The page number (footer or header)
• The content list

2. The speech:

• The speech must be performed with a loud voice [audible], a slow speed for the audience comprehension and topic understanding;
• The difficulty with vocabulary words is to be resolved through different ICT means on the Internet before class session, e.g.: Google linguistic tools (or any other of your choice).
• The problem with stuttering is also to be resolved through different ICT means on the Internet before class sessions, e.g.: Google linguistic tools (or any other of your choice).

3. The debate (discussion): is also a parameter for scoring. Both sides (speaker and audience are scored).

                                                Thank you.

•  Activity Two:  Information Retrieval (Activity One mean time)

There are new words that appeared with the semantic web. This activity intends to help you find what do words exactly mean?

Use the web and search engines to find out the meaning and the use of the words below:

• Activity Three:  Translation

Deadline is 15 November 2010

Questions:

• What does translation mean?
• What are the advantages of translation?
• What are the drawbacks of translation?
• What are the dangers of translation?   

How to avoid mistranslations (both syntactic [sentence construction] & semantic [word & sentence meaning])? 

Discussions are to be undertaken with students (oral production) within class sessions & scored. (Assignment #3)

Discussions are to be undertaken with students (oral production) within class sessions & scored. (Assignment #2)

Mixed Activity (Two/Three):  Information Retrieval - Translation

From texts retrieved from the Internet & given to students, make a junction to translation from web translators and /or electronic and automatic ones.

Find out mistakes in vocabulary & syntax.

 Activity Four:  Make a Presentation on a chosen topic with a chosen partner

Deadline is 30 December 2010.

1. Students should work collaboratively (02 persons);
2. Students should choose the topic they want to deal with;
3. Students should must send a written document under PDF or DOC format;
4. Students should must then send their PPT presentations;
5. An incremental list will be set in presence of students in their own groups to decide the order in which presentations will be led.

Discussions are to be undertaken with students (oral production) within class sessions & scored. (Assignment #4).

It is advised that students may think of a partner & a topic at the very beginning of the academic year (October 2010).  

Deadline dates are not definite. They may change according to task progress.

Other Activities are to come soon.

Extra Activity (to be scored: an extra score)

Make a documentary movie with an oral comment