Session 2 - Investigating language

Think back to all the resources you have sampled and the activities you have tried. Which of them do you find particularly useful to your work? How/Why?

Thesaurus
Definitely the most relevant dictionary I need at work (particularly, my essays). 
I may know a number of useful vocabulary items but they won't come to mind when I need them. That's where Thesaurus comes in.
Like I was preparing F.2 lesson today. I tried to share (connectives) more ways of talking about the reason or the cause of action. Grammar book only mentions because, as, since and because of. I would like to have some more for the class since they have no problem in using those connectives. Thesaurus has helped a lot. I type 'because' and 'because of' in Oxford Thesaurus and it gives me a number of synonyms. 
Actually, if you want to skip using 'because', the choices you have are mostly for formal contexts. For example, 'for the reason that', 'owing to'. These phrases are more suitable in formal situation. 
I am definitely introducing Thesaurus to this F. 2 elite class. To be honest, I think so of them are using one already but they have this tendency to use the 'long, big' words. They ought to know 'sophistication' doesn't equal to grade A writing. 
Using Thesaurus will trigger a series of action as you have to ensure that word is used in an approiate context, correct collocation/ preposition...
Thesaurus --> Dictionary (Cambridge + Oxford) --> corpus/ sentence.yourdictionary.com/ ozdic.com/ Google


P.S 
I am so glad that I live in a city where Google and websites aren't blocked. My friend in Beijing taught in Hong Kong before and now returns to her hometown. She continues teaching but she has no access to Google. She said she struggles to find games, ideas and resources online. Even busyteacher.org is blocked...

Google rules!! <-- the Communists RULE