Reflection of week 4

Next week will be the final exam. I think it is a huge task for both teacher and me. It is not hard to imagine that huge amount check for Carla and Jonathan. To be honest, the darkness and pressure makes me painful because I do not want to delay my university study and let my parents down. If my listening skill were as same as Rita, I would have more confidence. Listening and reading is still my biggest obstacle. It is so sad I still not find the effective way to record the answer before getting the question. I also have to learn the skill of summarising in short section.

Though there are still many problems in my class test, I also have opportunity to improve myself. A successful man who once have established an empire might also have this similar situation. I need transform my current method of preparation as soon as possible, the weak-yesterday me must go dead. Here is the way to make me become a survival.

Firstly, finishing all of my LJ in the afternoon
Secondly, checking all the listening lecture again and finding principle
Thirdly, improving my skills of summarising of reading
Then, finishing the OP PowerPoint before Friday
Finally, stopping every unessary activities such as watching World Cup before exam

Now, it is not the time to complain and regret myself, it is the time to use confidence and strategy to reverse this bad situation in this critical period. Confident people never get hurt, just do it!

Critical essay response of week 4

Critical essay response of week 4
Lytton, E7F
In the contemporary world, English as a lingua franca is popular in many areas of Asia. Taking Thailand for example, these is no consensus whether the Thai government should promote the critical period (between one and four) language learning yet. In his article ‘Seizing the Moment’ (2004), Robert Andrews argues passionately that English education should begin in critical period in Thailand. Dr. Surintra Sujitjon contends that adopting critical period language should be reconsidered by the Thailand government. This critical response will examines two arguments from both articles, analyse their logical, evidence, possible bias and tone in order to reach a conclusion about which one is more credible and persuasive.
Andrews first argument is that critical period is the best time for people learning a new language while Sujitjon opposes that there are potential detrimental influence can be found in critical period language learning. Logically, it seems that at first, the argument of Andrews is reasonable. However, according to “A child learning...without difficulty, without stress, without any of the self-consciousness...”, it is an over-simplification. Comparing with Andrews, Sujitjon are more logical, though she marginalises Japan at the end. With regard to evidence, Andrews does not give enough evidence and reference why critical period is “the most receptive” time and “the self-consciousness...inhibit...”, which obviously makes his argument weak. In contrast, the evidence provided by Andrews is more convincing because the quotation that he incites is also from SEAFLC thereby making Andrews has a contradiction of his own organisation; nevertheless, it would had been more credible if he had give more reference of “Mizugune’s research” such as how many students were surveyed in this reach and how heavy these “unforeseen negative consequences” are. In term of tone and bias, Andrews is too positive that he uses “without” three times. He wants to use this repetition to make people choose his college or the government adopt his suggestion. He is biased can be indicated due to his status Vice-President of the South-East Asian Federation; however, the language of Sujitjon is too negative such as “overloading”, “interfere”, “limit” and “stranger”. According “...follow Japan’s lead...our own language as second-class”, he is patriotism and aims to give people appeal of fear thereby stopping the government reformable policy. She is a local people and her article were posted in local newspaper decides she is prejudice.

REFLECTION for week 3

In this week, we have experienced the first writing exam in Wednesday. I found majority of my classmates wrote much more than me. Meanwhile, the quality of my essay is also questionable. Here are the problems in this writing. Firstly, my expression is poor because I do not take enough practice in this kind of writing. So I use most of my time to adapt the format rather than the conversing journal. Secondly, the way of typing and hand writing is quite different because the software can help me correct the mistaken word. But when I wrote in the exam, it is not smooth to write down some new words what I just learned in these two weeks. Finally, I spend too much time in the introduction paragraph. The time spending is not scientific, which leads to the fact that I do not having time to check my grammar. Now we also begin to write a response essay for two articles, this is similar with the one article response but the requirement is higher due to more words but same time. So I need to practice more and never lazy to write essay down to the paper.

I found the study in this week is not very efficiency. When I write something in the internet, it is easy to lose concentration. Sometimes I watch some news, sometimes I chart with my friend. But I always lose my purpose when I use a computer. I am person who have a lot of interest, but sometime my hobby can interrupt my study. So I must treat seriously this drawback and make sure I have a definite plan when I use computer to study.

The exam of listening and reading still seems a huge task for me. I feel a lot of pressure than before. if I chose again, I would not choose 25 weeks language learning because the time is so long and I have began to feel exhaust; but the attitude to study is so important and it is the basic to success. So I have no choice that if I failed in the final exams, I would come back to China because I do not want to study English course anymore and that will be so sad. I can not let my parents down so the best way is that make full use of all study materials from Carla, Jonathan and online Learning hub. Come on, trust myself, I am the best!

comment on discussion board

1
‘In My English's Purpose (Dhia Anugrah FEBRIANSA)’, Dhia Anugrah believes that "people will admire and respect you" if you learning english, this seems reasonable, but this circumstance may only happen that your English are excellent enough. For example, your English is even better than the local people in Australia. Actually people might only respect you if you make some success or are unique in some area. Specifically, English just a simple tool similar with mobile phone and computer. These tools may be special in remote area or few decades ago, but it is very common in many places now. Therefore, I firmly think the key to let others respect you is wether you are unique.

However, I agree with his opinion that “With English, you'll feel powerful”, regardless it is a little emotive. English, as a lingua franca, is widespread all over the world, especially in business area. This tool can expand our outlook which enables us to enter a new platform. In his platform, we can access more resource than before, such as global market, international friends and transnational funding. If we do not own this tool, our mind or ability might be limited in our own nation. Admit, there are still some students who are learning English do not feel powerful now, they feel more comfortable that after learning English because they have more choices.

2

english ,as international language ,which has prevailed all over the world .in Asia,more and more countries encourage its local people to learn english .even if some experters suggest that government should make english as their official language.in terms of internent ,a survey made by google shows that about 80%internent words written in english .in some african countries ,english has became to the national language which is instead of native words .it is doubtless that some countrise ,such as French,intend to repalce its status.but ,it is impossible to happen.it is a fact that the most powful countries in this world which speak english.it spreads its influence by television ,radio,or trade.in order to do business with these countries ,the poorer will english positively.

3

On the discussion topic of ‘English is under attack’, Yi ZHAO thinks it is ‘an unreliable idea’, but we can also infer that “some experts suggest that government should make English as their official language” also can be a result of those experts finding English under attacked. It can be seen that France uses more aggressive way to promote French. If I had known that learning French is free in France universities, I would have went France to study. It is quite attractive that the tuition fee of studying abroad is expressive for students from developing countries. What about mandarin? With the increasingly growth of Chinese business man all over the road and the popular of China ancient philosophy which can help the world find a way to solve global problems, the language of this largest population power will also the potential alternative in the future.

USEFUL WEBSITES

English reading ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
http://www.blogger.com/www.onestopenglish.com/lessonshare/archive.htm
A good English reading practice website, have different level of reading in same topic

English news ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
http://www.theage.com.au/
The Age", one of Australia's most popular newspapers.

English listing ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
http://www.esl-lab.com/
Great practice and a wonderful way to work independently on your English.

Critical response ♥ ♥
http://www.criticalreading.com/index.htm
A website which can expand the understanding of critical reading& writing

English writing ♥ ♥
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/#business
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material

English grammar ♥ ♥ ♥
http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/
free English language level test and grammar list


English exercise♥ ♥ ♥
http://a4esl.org/
An good website contain quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language

Craft making ♥ ♥ ♥
http://www.aussiecrafts.com.au/crafts/Craft-Project-Videos
A good website craft project which can lean making craft


PowerPoint tutorial ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
http://www.actden.com/
A tutorial website of Office software on-line, contain word 2010, Power point 2003/2007

Reflection for Week 1 and 2

These two weeks are not easy for me. First the class time is in shift 1, which means that I need to get up much earlier than shit 2. In the first week, it is really hard to struggle from the bed, especially in this winter season. But I know if I want to a successful man, I must pay attention for every details. After that I continually reminded me my goal before I get sleep and think the detrimental results of lazy habit. Now I can get up 6 o’ clock every day.

This module has higher requirement of independent learning. I think learning journal is a good way to improve my daily English, which means not only can I attempt to use English in academic purpose. Another advantage is that "blogger" can helps me to show own works in a public area, which helps me to pay more attention and learn from others when I writing something. For example, I am trying to use some new vocabularies in the dairy after finding wonderful vocabularies from my classmates’ blog. Meanwhile, I also found the "blogger" has a wonderful function that is “next blogger”. I can learn some extra knowledge in English if I feel tired.

In the lecture listening part, I found it is a little bit hard but I can follow it. The reason why I not did it well because I do not know which kind of questions it will ask. Next, the questions was quite different than before, which we always recorded what things happened; but now I find the question maybe force on the cause of something and how it happened.

I think the reading is a real problem for me in E7, the passages are always too long, and it is easy to lose concentration. But I think this practice is quite valuable because it is so shame that if I could not understand the meaning of journals when I start my postgraduate education. So I attempt to find some effective ways to conquer this problem, this week I am beginning to use ILC reading package for fast reading, I think it is really helpful.

What about the oral presentation? In the first week, I firmly thought the topic of oral presentation was hard to be chosen and the materials were difficult to be found. But now Carla give me some constructive advices which can help me present an interesting topic. I also have learnt how to make full use of RMIT library resources that is very helpful when I begin my study in university.

I reckon the critical thinking is also fairly helpful because it is the basic of creative thinking. After I writing some responses to some “professional” journal, I also understand more deeply how to write a more logic essay.

In conclusion, I have learnt some useful skill in E7, but the problem is that the effective of leaning was not very high, I need to learn more from others.

My learning goals of E7 study

E7 is my last 5 weeks of language course in REW, 20 week's language study is a little long, but I have already conquered it. These 5 weeks well become the key to my postgraduate study, thanks to Carla asked us to submit our goals. Without this goals, it is very easy to get lost when we studying. Here are my learning goals and strategy.

Listening
-trying to listen more lecture material on internet
-improving my listen skills in numeral aspects
-improving my listening in watching TV
i. 30minutes listening test will be very difficult to concentrate and take notes. Even I record it; maybe it is still a little hard to answer questions due to terrible handwriting and disordered structure. So I need to do listening practices everyday and learn how to record lecture logically and smoothly.
ii. examine myself regularly especially some big numbers
iii. finish 10 months’ ‘behind the news’ program

Reading
-adapting long journal reading and finding author’s argument more quickly
-forming a critical thinking habit
-do not use the dictionary in the first-time reading
i. I will read different articles and increase the ability of concentration and fast reading. I think fast reading is very important in this model. Understanding the author’ arguments may be a little bit harder than before. So I need to practise, practise and practise. Practise make perfect! Only in this way, I can confront with final reading test confidently.
ii. I will also do some headline matching enable me to understand the article more precisely.
iii. I need to work hard to learn how to identify the weak evidences of author. Due to our culture, this may be a little difficult, so I need to humbly learn for Carla and my classmates.
iv. The reading exam of this module might contain a lot of new vocabularies for me, so I need to form a habit to not depend to dictionary. However, I also need to pick up the new word after I finishing the question.

Writing
-improving the speed of writing
-avoiding basic grammar mistakes
-expand more ideas and academic vocabulary
I. The speed of writing always is my weakness, because of this; I always lose some unnecessary marks. Such as some basic grammar mistakes.
II. I need to think more carefully before I writing, never let the phenomenon, which writing “chose” as “choosed”, happen again.
III. Another important thing in writing is enrich my vocabulary. Using new word in writing can largely help me remember new word and it is also very interesting.

Speaking
-making more improvement in simple past tense
-making the oral presentation more logically
I. I can write something happened in the past and then read it or tell this story to my classmates, this way can help me get used to the simple past tense
II. I’d better find a suitable topic which is easy expand ideas

my learning style

today our teacher Carla taught us to test our learning style, finally, i konw i am a kinaesthetic learner. here is the information:

-Kinaesthetic learners or active learners
Kinaesthetic learners prefer to being involved in activities. They need to apply the information and make it their own by constructing something or practising a technique or skill.

-Characteristics of kinaesthetic learners
• Often they take notes or even draw pictures or doodle whilst listening
• Remember best what they did
• Memorise by walking and seeing
• Like ‘hands on’ activities and group interaction












-Study hints for kinaesthetic learners
• Test your learning by applying it or transforming it to another form. For example use lecture notes or readings to draw a diagram, flow chart or even construct a model.
• Start or join a study group
• Relate facts or theories to your own experience
• Learn or memorise information by teaching or telling someone else
• When studying take frequent breaks. This is also helpful for the other learning styles.

information resource: http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_StudySkills/study_tuts/learning%20styles/kinesthetic.html