Week 3. 
This week  I learned  Using Delicious.com to Store Useful Links  and  read some  articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills. I also have a chance to  take a quick look at some of the lesson plans for both skills.  I read  Lindsey Miller's article about 'Developing Listening Skill with Authentic Materials' which provides me with important  information about the aims and advantages of using real English conversations or speech such as news on radio or TV for the learners. It affirms me that I have been doing a right thing for my intermediate  listening class where students listened to  a real Englih conversation downloaded from YouTube as my listening materials. The article, however, reminds me that I have to be more focused in determining the listening tasks for the students. The second article 'New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation', by Maria Busa, also affirms me that using linguistic perspective can help teacher teach pronunciation in a more effective way. In teaching pronunciation or helping student's pronunciation, I often contrast or compare some English sounds with the equivalent Arabic sounds for  English words containing such sound as  [ð] as in the English words 'they, though'.   This technique is very effective, especially for the Muslim students as  they also learn Qoran and Arabic language.

I also have searched and checked several websites which provide me with great ideas about English teaching and lesson plans. One of the best websites, besides the ones I usually use, http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/u/teach.htm. I can see that this would be best for the second language learner to learn listening and speaking. It  is very  a good source for both teachers and  students as there  are different activities to go through.  The URL, the 'English as 2nd Language' , is a good reference and resource to help us understand the basics of being an English teacher and develop our understanding of teaching techniques. It includes step-by-step instructions of writing lesson plans and provides classroom handouts by learner level and topic area. One teaching idea mentioned here is using YouTube for teaching listening. You can check the http://esl.about.com/od/listeninglessonplans/a/youtube.htm. It is appropriate for intermediate students.  I think http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/speaking/teaching-ideas/is a best web for teachers. It provides us with lots of ideas for teaching speaking.

This week I also had a chance to discuss with my students about using web technology for the listening class and use them as audience for my final project. I was so glad finding that the students   were very enthusiastic and so eager to create their own blog and the class blog. I believe that it's a good start! After the class, we took a picture together showing our enthusiasm for the class.