Archive for January, 2009
January 18th, 2009 | 
Author: With the emergence of a new online course everyday, more and more people are opting for online education these days. Truly, online study has become a good alternative to traditional education. We live in a world where there’s almost no time for us to get into studies again, but still we all wish to get higher degrees. The number of accredited online universities is increasing day by day.
Internet is the main and the only channel of communication between the students and the faculty. The classes in these online universities are taken through V-SAT sessions and course material is in the form of CDs or DVDs that also contain lectures of different faculties. Assignments, projects and case-studies are delivered through e-mail. Problems and doubts can be cleared through chat sessions, and students can have every little thing at their fingertips without leaving the comfort of their home.
Online learning
is also called e-learning. For the people who have a fetish for travelling and just can’t stay at one place for a long time, online education is just for you. It goes with you wherever you go; it delivers lectures to you when you are free. So you see, online education offers high portability.
Personality development training and career training is also offered in online courses. Among the many benefits of online education, this is perhaps the one that helps one to come out of the shell and enhances his communication skills. As we know, communication is not done just through words but also through gestures and body language. And communication is one of the core traits of a successful business executive.
Building up your vocabulary is arguably the most important part of a language learning process. If you don’t have a base vocabulary to work with, you can’t study grammar, you have absolutely no use for spelling or pronunciation exercises and writing or reading is definitely out of the question. That’s why it’s crucial to have a good vocabulary work-up at the beginning of your studies but also to keep building it up as you go. Here are a few ways to do this.
1. Translated texts
This is a great method to use in the beginning of your studies, when you can’t handle reading (and understanding) a text solely in the foreign language you’re emphasizing on. Translated texts act as a natural dictionary as they will involuntarily form connections as you read the two versions of the same text. The downside however is that if the texts are too ambiguous or too complicated, you risk misunderstanding entire phrases or mistakenly attributing meanings to certain words. That’s why it’s extremely important that the translated text you’re working with is well written and doesn’t have any slang, confusing words, words with different meanings and so forth. You should also look for the most basic translated texts at first. Don’t worry if you find it silly to translate “It’s hot during the summer”, it’s a starting point and you won’t be better off skipping it.
2. Vocabulary games
Vocabulary games are a great way to enhance your word base, but they should usually be used only as an additional method for this purpose. The fact with vocabulary games is that they cannot teach you the same amount of new words as say translated texts or other methods that deal with improving your vocabulary, but they can be a fun alternative to take during those study breaks. Also, remember that everything we learn while relaxing and having fun is assimilated a lot easier and for a longer period of time.
3. Foreign language media
Media is obviously a strong source of vocabulary gain and the fun fact about it is that you won’t be shedding a sweat learning the new words, as they will come naturally. Every bit of radio, TV, stationary ad, computer game or any other type of media you can watch or hear in the foreign language you’re studying should be treated as an opportunity to improve vocabulary. Obviously, some languages will be harder to learn through this method, whereas others will be extremely easy (English/Spanish anyone?). If you find a good learning source, you could use foreign language media as a main method of vocabulary increase, but if these sources are scarce, you shouldn’t rely solely on it.