Dear all,
Good to meet you again. I really enjoyed the last two lecture sessions we had and I do look forward to go into your class soon. (Hope you guys do too ^^)
Anyhow, this week I would like each of you to write in a blog post on your own English language experience. You may write your post based on the following questions:-
1. Frankly, did you enjoy learning English back in secondary school. Why?
2. Do you think you are good in English? Why?
3. How did your English teacher conducted his/her classes in general?
4. Did your English teacher play language games to get you interested in learning English?
5. Were you forced to memorize model essays and practice a lot on grammar?
You are most welcome to elaborate more apart from answering the above questions.
Remember, you must write at least 100 words and the dateline is Monday (15/8/2011).
All the best :)
1. Frankly, I did not really enjoy learning English back in secondary school, especially in Form 1 to Form 3. Main reason, my English teacher is seriously a boring teacher. I totally lost interest in this subject, didn't really pay much attention in class back then. Luckily, things get better when I entered Form 4. Another cute, funny, and 'not boring at all' teacher taught us English. There was when I started gaining interest in English again. =)
ReplyDelete2. Hmm... I think I'm not really good in English. I have sat the IELTS test and of all the few tasks required in the IELTS test, I'm weak in speaking. I can understand what people say but I feel that it's difficult for me to communicate with others due to my poor vocabulary. I personally feel that this is the main reason I'm not that good in English. Besides speaking in English, writing is also what I fear the most in all English paper test, whether it is just a normal school English test or others.
3. Back in the secondary school days, English lessons were conducted as what other normal teachers do. They teach, give notes, ask us to write an essay or do some exercises and hand them up. This cycle goes around for a few years ever since I started learning English in primary school.
4. Before I enrolled myself in MUCH, I have been doing my matriculation in another college, the English lectures is one of the class that I look forward to. This is because the English lessons is conducted in a way that all students will have to participate in the class activities. Playing word games, presentation and etc. do increase my interest towards learning English because I had never thought and experienced of learning English in these ways.
5. Memorizing model essays is something common for all students as their teachers would tell them to do so if they couldn't write an essay by themselves or to help the students to improve their English writing skills. However, this did not happen to me. I didn't memorize any model essays during my secondary school life and college life. But I did practice on grammar, usually doing exercises to avoid spelling mistakes, use the correct tenses and others.
1. English, for me, is one of my favourite subject apart of Pendidikan Seni Visual and Science. I love English since my very first English Language Class during Standard Three. Maybe I was really lucky cause most of my English Language teacher is lively and creative. In secondary school, my interest towards English Language drops for a certain period cause my school English Teacher is a Malay teacher, who speaks Malay in an English Class. She just teach briefly, give homework, and then that's all. It's so so so boring. Till then I went for English Language Tuition Class with an Indian lady, she is a retired English Language Teacher. Her sense of humour and liveliness do lures my interest towards English Language again.
ReplyDelete2. Am I good in English Language? Ehmm... my answer would be, just fair. I am from a very Chinese educated background. My family are all Chinese-spoken. And I went to a Chinese Primary School, attended Secondary School of about 80% Chinese student. I had no classmate of other races except Chinese(btw, there's one year with a Chindian, who speaks Chinese) That's why I cant speak English really fluent. On the other hand, the worst part of me in English Language is vocabulary. This can be explained by less reading of English books. Follow by will be Grammar. My English Language teachers or tutors always said I can write long essays, but I never write one without a single Grammatical error. That's really sad =( and I always want to improve it.
3. For school teachers, they will be quite 'boring'. They just teach whatever in the syllabus, give homework, essay, we pass up, they mark and return, and we do correction. That's all. For my English Language tuition teacher, they will be more lively and creative. The favourite teacher of mine-the Indian lady I mentioned above- she teach not by rushing syllabus. Sometimes, she will even like giving us non-curriccular knowledge. This helps alot cause we can put in new issues and ideas in our essay. And the class also won't be too bored.
4. yayaya! My tuition teachers would do so. Once a fortnight she will give us some word quiz, spelling bee or language games. This do help to capture our attention and learn the language. I love spelling actually. I knew it's weird, but I just love it <3. Only by spelling then I will memorize new vocabs and learn the spelling and meaning.
5. Memorize model essays. Errmmm.... Nope. My teacher will just give the model essays, just ask us to read through, then copy down some beautiful phrases. Just like that. I don't like memorizing model essays, for me it will just prohibit my own ideas and creativity. For grammar part, I did practiced a lot on it. But, till now, I still always make stupid stupid grammar error. ='(
❤thelittleone❤
Well for me English is a vivacious and immaculate language with full of expression and passion. But i particularly hated my English lessons in school because of the monotonous and mind numbing teachers who never seem to be a least bit bothered about educating us the correct way. Not to mention a particular teacher who had a horrendous vocabulary problem. But thankfully i am exceptionally good in English not to brag or to boast i grew up in an English speaking family. My family members and I cant't possibly connect with our mother tongue which is tamil which lead us to speak English our whole lives. Frankly i can't possibly explain how my English teachers conducted their lessons. It is because i was a student who never actually paid attention to what the teachers thought. But i guess they would have thought all those boring grammar, tenses and nouns. I also don't remember whether my teachers had fun activities to inspire us. Well i guess not. But i do remember a particular English teacher who tried forcing me into memorising my English essays which frankly i never really did.
ReplyDelete1. I don't really enjoy English in secondary school because I do not like my English teacher. This is because I felt neglected as my teacher always pay more attention on those students who have better command of the English language.
ReplyDelete2. No,i don't think so because I'm chinese educated and as I've said earlier on my teacher neglected me hence, it affects my learning of the language. Besides, I've never tried to improve it because it is a hard work for me.
3. My ex-English teacher will give us a set of vacabularies with meanings. The next day, she would pick some students randomly before the lesson start. Those students choosen should answer the meaning of these particular words which she've said out.
4. For the English lesson on every wednesday, she will divide us into four groups to participate in English language games such as, spelling bee, scrabble and crossword puzzles. The loser will get punishment from the winning team.
5. She just give us a lot of grammar practises but we were not forced to memorize essays. However, I did do essay once in the blue moon. ^@^
1. Definitely not. Why I said so? This is because my secondary school teacher is very boring and so formal. First, there is no good interaction between students and teacher. She will only teach whatever in textbook, anything out from there she would not. She just will stick to text book can say textbook is her “bible”. My classmates and I survive in that class just because we all go for extra classes. Later my love towards the English lessons grew as I entered UNIVERSITY TUNKU ABUL RAHMAN. The lectures at there are very nice and the classes are happened to be lively.
ReplyDelete2. HAHAHA… I have to rate myself? I find this is the hardest part to answer. Just to be fair ,actually I am not. I can speak English well but when came into writing essays my weakness will pop-out. I have encountered problem with grammar and vocabulary. In my opinion, there is no such word as perfect, because there is a lot of things that we need to learn out there. I think I am still in the learning process.
3. At UTAR, the lectures will conduct forums, individual and group presentations .They will give a topic and will choose six of us randomly and ask us to argue about the topic. It is actually interesting. In a way, it is a good practice for us to present the presentations without any fear and anxiety. Group discussions are best medium to create good communication between different races of students.
4. No, it is because at my school they mostly emphasize on text book syllabus and exam-based questions.
5. No, but my teachers asked us to memorize new phrases and words. For me, forcing students to memorize model essays and somebody’s creation and ideas is not the best way to improve their English .I feel that an essay with own flow of ideas and creativity is better than memorizing others essays.
Yes, I do enjoy learning English a lot. I love it beacause it is my favourite subject back in both secondaty and primary school. Plus, I was my teacher's pet in my secondary school. I can say that I perform quite well in my English especially in my written work because I simply like writing. I guess I obtain my confidence levYes, I do enjoy learning English a lot. I love it beacause it is my favourite subject back in both secondaty and primary school. Plus, I was my teacher's pet in my secondary school. I can say that I perform quite well in my English especially in my written work because I simply like writing. I guess I obtain my confidence level in my English beacause of my hobby, reading books, which helped me a lot in my essays and of course thanks to my mum who guided me all tha while with my English. Generally speaking, my English teacher would give practices on comprehension and all her articles that she used for comprehension will be very interesting. She will also always emphasis on exam oriented question a lot. Usually she would not play language games just simply beacause we would not have the time to play such games due to the urge to finish our syllabus. But we still have the interest to learn English because my teacher will make our lessons enjoyable. Frankly, I was not forced to memorize any model essays but I made a practice to write an essay a day. Again I was not forced to practice a lot on grammer but it was my own effort on the grammer part. I also did seek my teacher's advice and her guidance on my grammer. It was not that my English teacher wouldn't give any practice on grammer, but the practice was insufficient to enhance my grammer.
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ReplyDelete1) I love and enjoy learning English lessons back in my secondary school. It is because my English teacher is a very nice and tolerable person. Her English is very fluent and excellent. She is the Head Panel for the English Language Society back in my school. Actually, I never skipped any of her classes even if I am not feeling well sometimes. Most of us find the grammar part is the most difficult to master. Well, I must admit that I am not so good in grammar too, but, my secondary school teachers did really help me a lot to improve my grammar. They tackled the grammar gently in such a way that we students can able to understand the basic of the grammar. Besides that, I love the English literature the most especially, the novels and short stories. Through literature, I learned many new literal terms like synopsis, plot, metaphors, themes, moral values and so on which I never heard of back in my primary school.
ReplyDelete2) No, I am certainly not. Frankly speaking, my English is just in the average level. At home, I communicate in my mother tongue with family members. I only speak in English when I meet my friends. So, I get very less opportunity to upgrade my English. The same goes to my writing too. Plus, English has a very wide scope so, there is a lot more to learn and discover while I just learned only a few of them.
3) My teacher will conduct the class in an open and lively manner. Her classes never went boring. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every class of her. Our classes are not about sit in our place and follow the lesson written on white board throughout the English lesson. It is more than that. She will teach one lesson and then gives us a group activity, so that, we can have a better understanding on the particular subject.
4) Yes, we do spend some of our time for language based games in our class once or twice a month. Usually, our teacher will allocate the last period of Friday class for class activities. During that time, we will have a lot of group work and presentation. At times, we will conduct a short play on the novels or short stories that we studied before. This approach really stimulates my interest in learning English.
5) In terms of model essays, I would say no as we will be provided with the model essays to be go through and understand the usage of the right word at the right time in order to produce a good essay. As for our grammar, we were not forced to memorize but been taught to understand and remember the grammar so that we will not make any grammatical mistakes in future.