Review questions for November 23

1. Learning a language, like English, is not just learning vocabulary and grammar and studying books. It is also learning how to use the language in order to get things accomplished, create contact, maintain relationships, establish trust and so on. These are the social or professional functions of the language.

In this respect, what are the ways you are learning English in our class by internet?
- Before the class I had never hear anything about podcasts, but since the day I discover it, I find this way of communicate very interesting: Indeed I can hear english tracks, from very different sources. So I can acquire vocabulary on a lot of themes. Moreover I discover recently that their where “mac podcasts” like “Mac attack” or “Mac Cast”, and my subject for one my exam of the CELSA is about Mac and virtual communities. So, I will certainly use these English podcasts in order to create my corpus.
- Our class is an opportunity because we have to write a lot in order to communicate: we can acquire more reactivity on an multimedia support and our writing English is more fluent. Moreover we can also keep our “window” with all our answers, so we can check our grammar mistakes.
- But it’s more than writing fast and be reactive in english, we have to open our mind to an other culture, the e-learning culture, and try to as curious as possible, with an other langage. I mean that it’s not always easy to be open minded, and it’s more difficult to be clear and to understand everything in English. But if we keep trying we will get a better English, a better comprehension of new media (podcasts, blog, ftp..), and a better way of thinking.

How are you creating and maintaining contact and relationships?
- I have American friends living in Texas and in San Francisco, so regularly we send us emails, we chat with msn in English, it is more social. Now with the new MSN version, we can also send us little audio files instead of writing. So I can hear English accent and made me more familiar with the right pronunciation.
- Moreover I will maybe do an internship in San Francisco, so I had also to communicate differently (more professional) with a human resources director, in my cover letter and my CV : Consequently I will (maybe) work in an american firm.

How are you using English? What are the ways you could do this better?
- I watch videos original version
- I read in English even French authors (Stephen king and the Comte of Monte Cristo)
- The way I could do this better is to buy regularly an English newspaper , the Times or Herald Tribune for example: because these journals look like Le Monde and it has a journalistic style, so I will understand clearly articles but also analyze a new treatment of information.

2. What is an FTP server and why is it useful? What are some of the activities you can do with it? Do you have one available for you, and which one is it? If you don't have one, why don't you get one?

- FTP or file transfer protocol is a protocol used for exchanging files over the Internet. FTP works in the same way as HTTP for transferring Web pages from a server to a user's browser, and SMTP for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that FTP uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer. FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g., uploading a Web page file to a server). While data is being transferred across the data stream, the control stream does not do anything. This can cause problems with large data transfers through a firewall, which will time out sessions after long periods of idleness. While the file may well be successfully transferred, the control session can be disconnected by the firewall, causing an error. FTP requires the user to login before data transfer can occur. However, anonymous access is also popular.

- It is useful beceause thanks to this protocol we can put all our files directly on a server, bu not only because we can pass them froma computer to an other, keep a version on the web…

- I don’t have one but apparently wanadoo offer me one so I will surely use it to create my one website where I will present my CV and works to human ressources directors.


3. Our class has a special approach to interactivity. It is not possible to have the same interaction of a normal class, but it offers several new ways of interacting. What are these? What are the ways that are especially interesting to you? How could they work better? What technical solutions can you suggest?
- We write in a common window, all at the same times, it goes sometimes really fast but at the end we can keep a writing files with all our discussions, so we correct mistakes.

I like msn to communicate, even if sometimes it's hard to follow all the conversation.

4. Prepare one question about the last class: what did you not understand? What would like to have more information on and why? What question did our discussion cause you to ask?

- Last class I didn't understand what was a FTP protocol, but now I am at the "discovery step", so I am more familiar with this word and with the advantages of this protocol.

I would like to have more informations in order to create my own website. I hope it will help me to communicate.