John Wang English learning

2006-10-24T13:29:00.000+09:00

In a modern society television has enjoyed more popularities than any other forms of entertainments among the city dwellers. However as television occupies more and more people’s spare times, TV commercials has gradually and silently snaked into our vision, they are disturbing, people complained, because they are too much and come too often , they are gradually changing the TV watching experience from a enjoyable relaxing one to a disappointed even frustrated one. Some has suggested that TV commercials should be banned, in a sense I would like to agree with the propose, cause I suffered from watching these endless commercials as much as they do, honestly speaking watching a channel without any commercials would be heavens for me, however realistically speaking I do not think that the possibilities of banning the commercial exist anywhere in the business oriented modern societies.
First of all, television stations have to survive, TV commercials generate a major revenue for these stations to remain themselves on the stage, otherwise they gone out of the business, in other words banning the commercials you are cutting the throat of the stations, no commercials no other programs either, the argument stops, now we can happily enjoy reading our books again, but what about those people who can not read or do not like reading , do not mention those who just love TV so much , watching TV is just like their daily bread, the situation would be a disaster for the TV lovers and the lonely hearted all over the community.
Secondly, the TV commercials are not all that bad aren’t they, they provide a lot of useful information for us, look at yourselves in the mirror how many things your are wearing or carrying has no any relationship directed or indirectly with the TV commercials, we have to admit that our life has been influenced a great deal by the commercials, I wonder that if it is fair to say that we are so used to, we are spoiled by the convenience that the commercials have provided us. It is so ironic that the commercials are like something that we sometime hate it so much, but we need it, and until the moment that we get it all out of our world we are not going to realize that we do need it badly.
Last but not least, if you are patient enough, and have just a little bit sense of artistry, you would discover the beauty of the TV commercials, what I mean is that these TV commercials are produced so fine, why do not you try to see them with the eyes of an artist, rather than just sit there complaining.
Based on the discussion above it may be appeared to my audiences that I have promoted the TV commercials somewhat to much, it probably rises the suspense that I am hired man of the commercials companies or some TV stations, but trust me , I am only speaking my own words, and I honestly believe that the secret to every solution is the balanced point, either to much or not at all is not good for us, what we really need is a balanced point, but the question is that where the balanced point lies, I would like to leave this question to all my dear audiences to decide and hopefully I’ll soon discover some changes when I watch TV commercials again .

2006-08-03T14:41:00.000+09:00

In the field of English writing teaching researchers tend to use skilled writers and unskilled writers to categorizing language learners. I found that it is quite funny to categorize writers this way, do we really have the standard for skilled or unskilled writer. Even if we do have the standard, do we really care about this, or there is something more important than skills when comes to writing. What is the purpose of the writing teaching, of course as a teacher we want our students to know how to write, but what is the proof that your students really know how to write, by showing you that they know all the writing skills or a good essay instead, you may argue that how come a learn who knows very well of the writing skills comes out with a bad essay, are you trying to tell me that knowing the skills is the guarantee of a good essay. No, a good essay needs something more than skills. I can prove this to you. If skills are the guarantee of a good essay, then it is impossible for someone who does not know the skills to write a good essay. However the truth is on the contrary, top writers were not learned to be the top, they were not following any rules since there was not any rules before, and they are creators of the rules, in other words, not good skills created good writing, but good writings created all the rules and skills. We summarized all the good points from the surface then made up so called skills and then use it to evaluate the learners. However, what we understood is from the point of production, we have no idea about the producer, we only know what is good , because it has already been created , however we have no idea about how it was created, no matter how much we pretend that we know.

2006-07-28T17:35:00.000+09:00

This is my first semester here in Iwate University and my first year in Japan. Time past so fast, just like a blinking of eyes , the scene of the arriving night to the University’s dormitory seems like yesterday and here I am, not mentally willing yet have to be prepared to say that I am not a new comer, I’ve been around for a while, what a pity . Specially when think about my Japanese, I can not really say that my Japanese have not improved , however the realization of it’ll take ages for me to master the language really knocks me to the ground, oh , boy.
This one is a self analysis of the strengths and weaknesses for being an English teacher. Honestly speaking I really want to talk about my weakness instead of strengths, because I discovered that one serious weak point could cover all the strengths you may have. How many of you would agree with me if I say that public speaking is an art, as a teacher no matter at primary school or university level, no matter what kind of teaching strategies and methodologies implemented, oral communication or in the other words the way you talk to your students is the essential factor to the success of classroom teaching. We often hear teachers say in the class that I am sorry, I talked too much I should give you guys more opportunities to speak. Yet to me, speaks little and listens all the time does not necessary make someone a good communicator. The point is not how long you keep listening; it is how much you listened. I could listen to someone for hours with a little interruptions and feedback, however my mind just engage too much with my own ideas, it seems that I am listening yet I am interpreting the speaker’s words my way, in other words I listen very carefully but I do not comprehend the points from the speaker’s position. If I am too wrapped up with myself no matter how patiently I listened to my students I am not going to be a good helper to them, because I’ll never really understand them. Anyone who has a similar problem with me or you have any suggestions please share with me, thanks.

2006-07-25T14:31:00.000+09:00

Preface:
I chose the topic that correct thinking lead to correct writing—think in English the essential ability for improving EFl learner’s English writing skills, based on several reasons.
First of all, the nature of the language tells us that languages are the expression forms of the thoughts. Especially written form of the language requires even more explicit and creative thinking process. Zamel(1982) proposed that writing is a process of exploring one’s thoughts and learning from the act of writing itself what these thoughts are. Before every linguistic and metacognitive knowledge, before every writing skills and teaching approaches, English writing has to be the expression of English thoughts at the first place, if the thought doesn’t exist there is no expression of it, in other word if an EFL does not have the ability to think in English, then the person has no ability to compose in English. Some researchers consider that write in L1 and then translate into English as a strategy for English writing. This is a misperception of English writing, in the sense this approach against the nature of the language. For example if an EFL first write in L1 which is Chinese then translate the writing into English , this learner actually did two thing, first write in Chinese the whole composition process was done by think in Chinese, then he translate it into English . In this process does the person really write in English or he just translates the other language into English. During the whole process, the only thing he did which is relate to English was translating, can this be perceived as one of the strategies for English writing, may be not because it is not an English writing at the first place. The result of examine the current studies which done by L1 English experts and EFL experts is that the notion of think in English -- the essential factor for improving EFL learner’s English writing ability has not attracted enough attention and this lead to the second reason for choosing the topic.
In the area of EFL English writing, most of influential researchers are themselves native English speakers. That makes thinking in English a nature process which can be easily ignored by them. Researchers who has English as their mother tones tend to take EFL English writing researches into more technical level, such as different approaches toward writing teaching or they try to exam the roles played by linguistic and metacognitive knowledge in English writing. A great deal has been learnt about writing from studying how native speakers acquire composing skills , the emergence of EFL writing as a sub—discipline has opened new theoretical perspective, research methods and pedagogical strategies. Particularly instructive has been the work on the differences between L1 and EFL writing practices, the significance of cultural background to writing , and the nature of EFL texts. (ken hyland) the current view of the EFL writing has been one of the sub—discipline of the L1 writing. When comes to the differences, cultural background to writing is mainly count. And the nature of EFL texts is apparently from the perspective of production analysis, however in this area the enough attention should be diverted from the productions to the productors, that is the different mind set and the thinking power-- the ability to think in the target language really count. Because the native experts do not preserve the essential difference between L1 and EFL writing, as they treat EFL writing as a sub—discipline, consequently the teaching approaches for EFL English proposed by native experts do not have that much differences from those proposed for L1 writing qualitatively speaking. Over the last 20 years, process and product approaches have dominated much of the teaching of writing that happens in the EFL classroom. In the last ten years, genre approaches have gained adherents (e.g. swales 1990, Tribble 1996, Gee 1997).what is product approach, it sees writing as being primarily about linguistic knowledge, with attention focused on the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices.(Pincas 1982b) this approach has no special content to imply why and how it is going to work for EFL learners in fact this is the way how L1 learners are taught in writing classes. It is impossible for native English speakers to think from the position of an EFL. Consequently the researches and theories proposed by them are not going to be very helpful for solving the problems EFL learners facing.
My third reason for choosing the topic is that EFL researchers are not taking active roles in the area of EFL English writing instructions as they supposed to. Most of EFL researchers have followed the native expert’s ideas, the current researches done by the EFL experts are mostly studies concerning that if a particular native expert’s idea can be applied in EFL expert’s research environment. For example a Chinese researcher after reading the ideas from the native experts then start to use the ideas in some Chinese universities for a research program in order to find out if the ideas are workable in the situation. The problem with this approach is that EFL experts understand native expert’s ideas quite well, however the native experts do not understand the EFL expert’s starting point. Comparatively speaking the EFL experts should know the better way than the native experts do, therefore they should play a more active role in this area.
What is essential in this area, has been perceived by native English speakers as a natural process, and easily missed out. Namely the ability an EFL has, to think in English. It is said before thinking is the underlying force for any languages, without active and creative thinking power, without the ability to think inside the target language itself, any EFL’s English writing production is meaningless, it is just the copy of the patterns and the enumeration of the grammar items. There is no real cohesion in the writing, there isn’t any line for audiences to follow because the writer’s English thoughts are either broken or doesn’t exist at all. Based on the reasons above, I believe that the study of EFL learner’s ability to think in English certainly deserve more attention.

　　

2006-07-24T21:09:00.000+09:00

Lesson plan
New horizon book 2 page 50.
Description of class: junior high school students, grade 2.
Aims:
1. Teach students listening to the gist of the story.
2. Reading strategy: guess the meaning
3. Vocabulary teaching.
4. Grammar teaching: if clause.
5. Speaking practice

Procedure:
1. Ask students to listen to the CD then tell the class what the story is about, they are free to use either L1 or English.
2. Tell students that pay attention to the main idea of the story, do not concentrate on details. Replay the CD.
3. Divide students into groups. Ask them to discuss in their groups what the main idea of the story is.
4. Ask one representative from each group to report the result of the discussion to the class.
5. Give copies of the text book which do not have vocabulary and grammar explanation points on it to the students. Ask them to read the story in the groups and guess as a group the meaning of the new words.
6. Ask students report to the class as a group the result of their guessing.
7. Teacher listen to the students and give advices try to lead the students to the correct guessing. Encourage students to use English as much as they can, this process involve a lot of negotiation of meanings between students and teacher and also among students themselves.
8. Ask students to look at the dictionary for undecided words meaning.
9. Students reread the story then tell the story in their own words to the class, use L1 or English.
10. Ask students the difficulties of understanding the story, lead to grammar teaching point: if clause.
11. Teacher explain the usages of if clause, ask students reconsider the meaning of the sentences that contain if clauses in the story.
12. Ask students to make sentences using if clause.
13. Teacher read the story again ask students to listen and see if they understand the story.
14. Ask students to follow teacher read the story aloud.
15. Teacher retells the story in English then asks students to practice retelling the story in English among their group members.

2006-07-18T11:14:00.000+09:00

In my previous essay I talked about the group works in china’s school. In today’s class, my fellow Chinese student shared quite different story about the group works. Then I realize that I could be quite misleading by referring my situation as china’s situation. It is actually easy to understand that things will be different across the regions, sometime even in the same region, same school, the situation could be different because the teacher’s attitudes, beliefs and the approaches. However I made an over generalizing mistake by perceiving my situation as china’s situation. I apologize about the misleading in my previous essay please do not take me wrong, one thing about study aboard is that whenever you got the opportunities to express your personal point of view, you tend to be the representative of your own country unconsciously, and even if you do not, your audiences will probably interpret your personal views as china’s position. In fact only because I come from china does not qualify me to represent the country, because I simply do not know that much.
And I would really like to say thank you for correcting me. Thank you for helping me to grow up. You know encouragement is sweet, however it is actually criticism makes me progress. When I post anything on my blog, I am open to your kind opinions and corrections, please do not be hesitate for helping an eager heart. Thanks a lot once more.

2006-07-16T10:00:00.000+09:00

As a student I participated a lot of group works back in China; however they did not work that well for me. At the time, I simply did not have the motivations, I guess a lot of my fellow students were in the similar conditions with me and teachers too reacted quite negatively from time to time. To Chinese schools anything which is not directly related to the final test is considered waste of the time. Test is the core value of Chinese education system. Imagining such a huge population only has certain amount of universities, and the examination is the only standard for qualifying a candidate, what choice do we have. Questions are why any activities under the circumstance at the first place. A simple answer to the question would be a very sick person does not want anybody to notice his sickness so he pretends to be like I am ok, but that only makes the situation even worse. The policy makers are demanding schools adopting modern teaching methodologies and release students from heavy school burden and decrease the pressure that brought by the examinations. Schools are forced to implement activities to show that “I am ok” I am pretty health ,do not worry about me, as long as I am doing activities with my students they are going to be fine , the exanimations are going to be ok , everybody are happy. I hope by now you understand why group works and activities were not enjoyed by lots of Chinese schools.

2006-07-10T20:01:00.000+09:00

To me the most difficult grammatical item was present perfect continuous; in fact I still have difficulties with it now. For example: it has been raining. Does the sentence indicate that the rain just stopped or it is still raining? How about: I’ve been waiting for you. Am I still waiting for you, or I am not waiting now. According to the book, present perfect continuous can indicate two kinds of situations. First of all, it can be used to express that the action has just stopped in a very near past. Secondly, it is used to express the continuation of the action. The book I read does not say that when to use what. I guess it all depending on the different situations, if someone says that: I’ve been doing this for my entire life. Perhaps the speaker is talking about his or her career or some habits. In that case the person would probably still carry on doing the activities. On the other hand if I say: the street is very wet, it has been raining. The rain has just stopped perhaps several minutes ago. The other example I mentioned above: I’ve been waiting for you. If I am talking to the person face to face that means my waiting period has come to an end, he or she eventually appeared. If I am writing a letter or talking to the person over telephone line, then I am trying to tell the other party that I am still waiting. However in the first case: I’ve been waiting for you. If I am asking the confirmation of certain relationship say a marital one. In this case even if I am talking to the person face to face, the implication would still be that I am still waiting for your answer.

2006-06-28T16:23:00.000+09:00

What do you need in order to work at Japanese’s junior high school

Last Thursday, a guest speaker was invited to the class to give us some practical suggestions on how to be a good Intel or alt in a Japanese junior high school. The speaker was an experienced English teacher from a junior high school. And the lecture was very well prepared. However the lecture was delivered in Japanese only. Although I tried so hard, still I could not help myself felling into sleep from time to time. One thing I hate about the language of Japanese is that it spoken in a monotonous tone, consequently the speaker’s face looks just like a surface of a calm lake. The monotonous toned utterances does not give a language learner like myself any clues about what is going on here so does the facial expressions.
The very little information I got from the speech was that there are rules concerning the proper use of the titles when speaking to your senior teachers in the school. Rules are important anywhere in our human societies, as they regulate persons and keep things in good orders. However Japanese people have placed extra emphases on the rules more than any other communities does.
The two questions asked by the speaker were quite thoughtful as well as helpful. The speaker asked us to divide into groups and discussed first of all the differences between elementary school and junior high school. Secondly what kind of attitudes should you have as a junior high school English teacher. After brief discussion then every group put the results of their discussion on the board. The speaker then gave his comments on the ideas of the students.
I hope you realizing several things about what you need to work at a Japanese junior high school as a foreigner, from my experience above.
1. Master the language of Japanese; make sure you enjoy the language, because enjoying the language is the sign that you are going to enjoy the culture at later stage of your staying in Japan. Do not be discouraged by my personal opinion about the language of Japanese, believe it or not I enjoy Japanese, and I am going to learn more about the culture of the country.

2. be willing to learn all kinds of rules, learn to lead your life under very detailed rules of nearly everything. Adopted yourself to the system as quick as possible, once you get familiar with the rules you will find that rules can make your life easier. Quite contradictory to what you think isn’t it?

2006-06-15T20:11:00.000+09:00

A group teaching experience
What we did in the class today was basically a group teaching. The good thing about group teaching is that you can always call on your group members for help during a crisis. On the other hand, sometimes crisis can be caused by communication failures between group members as well. No matter how well you prepared, there is always possibility for unexpected situations to occur, different teachers may have different ways to deal with it. However under the situation of group teaching, it can be really hard, as the members have to give some spontaneous reactions.
The strength of our class is that we did have a very clear instruction for the dialogue and the cohesion between presentation and practice was not too bad. The weakness is that none of us are experienced English teacher and we became a little bit awkward in front of the class.
Before the class, I thought that it could be an easy task for us to enjoy, I never thought that I in any way could become nervous, however I did become nervous.

2006-06-06T20:49:00.000+09:00

What was the goal of the class?
From watching the video, I guess the goal of the class was to help students to speak more English , in order to make it easier to the students , the teacher started with a simple and interesting question “ do you belong to --- club?” “How long have you played ---?” through answering the question students felt relaxed and a little bit exciting for the class, they are well prepared for the class, and the English speaking environment was great.
What activities did the students do to accomplish the goal?
They did a group work and interviewed each other.
What role did the teacher play in the class?
Teacher acted as an organizer and a monitor, an instructor, a team leader and a coach.
From watching the teacher and students did you receive any hints as to how to have a successful English class?
Have clear instructions and be supportive and encouraging.

2006-05-25T06:27:00.000+09:00

My first school visit

First day of my school visiting, more than what I expected, I was not only introduced to the fellow teachers, but also got the opportunity to observe the English class. Here is the process of the class.

Description of the class: junior high school grade: 3. student number: 33. Time 50 min.
Activities
Descriptions
Time(min)

Warm up
students read by themselves the text previously learned
2--3
Review
T. S role playing the text.
T read the text S follow.
3—5

Presentation
Vocabulary study
10

Practice
T read the text S follow,
S read by themselves
S follow CD reading the text.
10—15

T explain the text
10--15

Strength of the class:
This is a very well organized class, effective for teaching vocabulary and reading. Teacher apparently has a lot of practical teaching experiences and mastered the teaching strategies so well.

Learning point:
What I learned from the class is that student’s motivation is essential to the success of the teaching. And I believe students are better motivated if they trust their teacher. In school teaching, teacher has multiple roles to play with. A teacher or instructor, a leader, a team builder, a friend , a helper, a consultant , a parent, a playmate, a group member, a researcher, last but not least a learner, learn from your students , if you are willing your students can teach you lots. Try your best as a teacher to fulfill the roles above, the trusting relationship is expectable. Once the relationship established, you’ll know the way to motivate your students, and from them you’ll get enormous inspirations and joyfully feelings as a reward.

2006-05-12T21:05:00.000+09:00

My English learning experiences

I do not have any English learning experiences, until my junior high school years. Probably like most of you guys did, at the beginning I was not enjoy English learning at all, on the contrary, I felt frustrated and almost gave it all up. I should admit that the invasion of the western culture in china had a significant impact on my English learning. The fact is that china was gradually opened up at the time, towards the end of my third junior high year the whole country was prevailed with the notion of learning English superisom. It seemed no other options but to take English study more seriously, fortunate enough that was exactly what I did.
The first thing I did was to change my attitude toward my English lessons in the school, and as I did so I found that my relationship with my English teacher start to change, he started to look at me not as someone who was completely hopeless in English learning but a person that can be worked on with. This subtle change brought tremendous inspirations on my English study. I felt I am alive again in English classes, the vocabularies the grammars that used to troubled me so much , seemed not bothered me that much any more , I cherished so much about the new life that I found in English study , I would not allow it perish easily.
Remember everything that I should remember in studying English became the precondition for remaining alive in English class, I tried to catch every single word that my teacher spoke in the class, I used every little piece of possible time to practice what I been taught in the classes, and I tasted all the methods that I been introduced to. I did not know whether all these efforts would eventually worked for me or not but I did it anyway. I carried this positive attitude with me and gradually found myself fall in love with English learning. Through all my senior high and university years, English had been a sweet smelling lover to me, yes I tried every way possible in order to learn more about her, and I never tired for doing so. I am enjoying the relationship so much, and I think I am blessed.
One thing I really want to say is that motivation is crucial, once the internal need had been identified, you’ll be able to work out the best suitable way for you to reach the target soon or later, one way or the other.

John Wang English learning

2006-04-30T10:56:00.000+09:00

An analysis of my language learning experience

My most enjoyable language learning experience has been doing listening activities; I really spent a lot of time just listening, to the radio or some real person, especially listening to the native speakers. My belief is that if you can not understand what you hear, there is no way to speak the language. I have been suggested from the very beginning of my second language study, that I should try to speak more, it seems the more you practice the quicker you’ll master the language. I do not know whether this method works for you or not, but it certainly does not work for me, because I am not going to try it at the first place. As I said in my previous essay that I love English and I enjoy it. Therefore I’ll avoid any uncomfortable, in other words I’ll speak when I feel I like to do so.
Despite all the suggestions, I put my emphasis on English listening from the beginning of my second language study. when people speaking to me , I feel my brain is at working , like a computer , get some input and process on it, but more than what a computer can do , our brain not only passively accept information and work on it , but also create new things from the input date . Maybe I can put it this way, according to the theory of innatism our brain needs just a little bit stimulation from the environment and it’ll automatically works out the rest. Although some theorists believe that universal grammar does not activate after certain age, but in my case I do feel that right kind of input and stimulation to the brain act as a very big role on my learning process.
I dislike pure grammar study normally done inside a class room. As I mentioned before, I treat English as a thing of beauty, grammar study to me is just like to cut the beauty into pieces in order to understand in detail how and why it is made up that way. By cutting it into pieces I may be able to understand more, but alone the way, my interest destroyed and my motivations lost. That is why I always try to avoid pure grammar study as much as I could.