Friday, March 20, 2020

Ecology and Technology essays

Ecology and Technology essays Indeed, in my opinion, technology does owe ecology an apology. This is because ecological imbalances were as a result of the Industrial revolution, which could be said to be the beginning of the non-ending technological advancement cycle. During Industrial revolution, we began altering or climate and environment through changing agricultural and industrial practices. Before the industrial revolution, human activity released very few gases into the atmosphere, but now through population growth fossil fuel burning and deforestation, we are affecting the mixture of gases in the air, which in turn affects all other species in the world. The water bodies have been major victims to, and have experienced the whims of technology. They have been used as dumping grounds for all toxic waste waste that is as a result of technological advancement. This has brought about the extinction of some species and has killed many types of marine species. In addition to this, the once beautiful beaches of the world have been scarred with waste. The natural water rivers no longer hold rich ecosystems as before as many of them cannot be able to survive in the harsh conditions. What do anthropogenic greenhouse gases mean? Discuss the anthropogenic greenhouse gases in terms of their potential to cause global warming. Anthropogenic greenhouse gases are those gases that are emitted into the atmosphere and have an adverse effect on the climate. These are gases that are as a result of human activities. Greenhouse gases are the gases trapped inside our atmosphere, which tend to keep the planet earth warm. These gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor (H2O), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and many chlorofluorocarbons (which will be explained in better detail later). These gases are what warm our planet to livable conditions, and are responsible for life, as we know it on earth. Then one might ask, "What is the problem with these e...

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

English Tongue Twisters for ESL Students

English Tongue Twisters for ESL Students Tongue twisters are short, memorable lines that are difficult to pronounce, especially rapidly, because of alliteration or a slight variation of consonant sounds, and are especially useful in pronunciation when focusing on related phonemes, or sounds. In other words, there are several s sounds such as sh, z and tch, and a tongue twister focuses on the minor changes in the mouth required to move between these sounds. By changing back and forth a number of times to the different sounds, students can improve their knowledge of the specific physical movements required for that particular phoneme set. Learning a tongue twister employs musical intelligence, which is one of the multiple intelligences of learners. Another example of this type of learning includes grammar chants. These types of exercises  build up muscle memory related to speech, making it easier to recall later. Fun but Not Necessarily Accurate Tongue twisters are lots of fun, but they often dont make much sense, so its important to warn students before introducing them to tongue twisters that theyre not meant to be learning guides for using proper grammar. Rather, they should be used for exercising pronunciation muscles. For instance, in the old nursery rhyme tongue twister called Peter Piper, the content of the story may make sense in terms of narrative, but the phrase Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, doesnt actually work because you cannot pick already pickled peppers. Similarly, in Woodchuck, the speaker asks how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, which would make sense if only woodchucks didnt chuck wood with their teeth. For this reason, when introducing an ESL student to English tongue twisters, its doubly important to go over what the limericks mean in the context of the piece as well as in the context of the words on their own, paying special attention to common idioms that dont make sense when directly translated to a foreign language. Practice Makes Perfect A very large part of understanding how to speak a foreign language properly comes in understanding how the muscles of the mouth are meant to move to elicit certain  sounds and pronunciations- thats why tongue twisters are so handy in teaching ESL students to speak English correctly and quickly. Because tongue twisters consists of so many slight variations on the same sound, all of which are used colloquially in American English, the ESL learner is able to get a clear grasp of how pen sounds different from pin or pan, despite sharing a majority of the same letters and consonant  sounds. In the poem Sally Sells Sea Shells by the Sea Shore, for instance, the speaker is able to go through every variation of the s sound in English, learning the difference between sh and s as well as z and tch. Similarly, ​Betty Botter and A Flea and a Fly walk the speaker through all the b and f sounds.