BBC Listening + Most Valuable Brands

In today’s lesson we had a discussion on the most valuable brands, according to the Marketing consultancy company Interbrand. We had the chance to practice listening (gist, comprehension), grammar (reformulation of the text and grammarising the summary), finding and understading vocabulary connected to the tapescript. As homework I asked you to rewrite the text using the chunks we have learned and some information from the original article. I’m sure some of you might have found the lesson a little bit difficult and that’s the reason why I’ve decided to upload some material connected to what we learnt this afternoon. Here’s a list of some resources you can listen to, read, and practice as homework.

* Interbrand list of the 100 best global brands

* BrandZ top 100 ranking of the most valuable brands in the world

* Transworldnews article: The Coca-Cola Company Will Host a Conference Call to Discuss Financial Results

* BBC Learning English – Words in the News – Listening (With audio and tapescript)

* BCC News – Google Brand “on the rise”

* Top Brand values fall in recession (BBC Video)

Finally, a video with two business analysts discussing the ingredients Interbrand take into account when ranking the world’s most valuable brands among other things. Take a look.

Dictionaries & Thesaurus

Here’s a list of my favourite online dictionaries & thesaurus. They will be of great help while you are studying English online and writing and doing tasks. Check them out by clicking on the links.

Dictionaries

• Dictionary.com (My favourite one. It is considered the largest free online dictionary and  you can also check out the audio pronunciation feature)
• Cambridge Dictionaries Online (good for students and it also includes a phrasal verb & idiom dictionary)
• alphaDictionary (This one has a lot of features free English dictionary, grammars for 350 languages, crossword puzzles, word games, language jokes, and the “Word of the Day” kinda thing! worth checking)
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (good for teachers and students as well. Some things you might like are audio pronunciation features, illustrations and word-root appendixes)
• Infoplease (Another free dictionary with  encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, dictionary and much more)
• AllWords.com (English dictionary with multi-lingual search – French, Spanish, German – as well as links for word lovers and crosswords)
• Urban Dictionary (by far my favourite one – click here and check out why)
• The Compact Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford always has the best dictionaries and this one is not different. Thus, you can check out the writing tips)
• Fact Monster (A good free reference site for students, teachers, and parents. It includes other things such as sports, science & math)
• Webster’s Online Dictionary (This one claims to be Earth’s largest dictionary with 90 modern and 10 ancestral languages. Plus, word of the day, hour & minute)
  
• Rhyme Zone (This one is not only a dictionary and thesaurus but also a thesaurus and it includes the functions of a rhyming dictionary & spelling checker. How cool is that?)
• Wiktionary (Wiki dictionary from the Wikimedia Foundation – more of a complement to Wikipedia)
• Ultralingua Online Dictionary (What I like about this one is the fact that you can download it to your Iphone, laptop, etc.)

Thesaurus

• Thesaurus.com (It is claimed to be the largest free online thesaurus including antonyms)
• Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus (Contains more than 5000 synonyms and over 250000 cross-references. Thus, an alphabetical Index list)
• Aiksaurus (not one of my favourites but still somehow useful)
• Merriam-Webster Online (both dictionary and thesaurus)
• yourDictionary.com ( Another free online dictionary/thesaurus that offers definition search from Webster’s dictionary for word meanings and thesaurus. It also has forums and language articles, not mention brain games)
• Dictionary – MSN Encarta (It’s a dictionary, thesaurus and also contains a translation section. To my view, it is very limited)
• TheFreeDictionary (What I really like about this one here is the fact that you can create your own homepage by adding or removing things such as quotes, words, weather, etc)
• Wordsmyth (The only turn off of this one is that you’ve got to create an account)
• WordWeb (downloadable dictionary and thesaurus. Can be used offline. Pretty good)

The last dictionary/thesaurus I want to mention is actually my favorite one among all of the other ones I have talked about. It is called VisuWords. It is a graphical dictionary and thesaurus that uses word webs to find meanings and associations with other ideas and concepts. Here’s an example with the word “plausible”

Pronunciation III

Here’s another post and more links and videos, as requested. I will not stop posting about pronunciation, but the next posts will be about different subjects, including our book club.

If you haven’t tried the BBC Learning English website, you have no idea of what you are missing. The website is complete and has a section entirely devoted to pronunciation. It includes:

• The sounds of English – all those weird symbols that I keep teaching in class and students are always complaining about how hard it is to memorize them;
  
• Features of English – lots of information about different elements of English pronunciation;
• Quizzes – tons of quizzes to help you improve your knowledge of English;
  
• Programmes – A couple of radio shows that you can download to your computer (all with audio and tapescript)

Another interesting pronunciation video is this one that became a huge hit on YouTube a couple of months ago. Amy Walker, 25, posted a clever video on the Internet of her performing 21 English-language accents not long after moving to Philadelphia recently. In this video, she does a little tour of 21 accents in 2 1/2 minutes. Accents vary from UK to Ireland. Can you spot some of them? (Tip: She does the Torontonian accent)

Finally, a video that will make you laugh (especially if you are into accents and are not easily offended). It features Canuck comedian Russel Peters making fun of different accents. Enjoy!