Learning Reflection

From English Reading Strategies (1551180) course. I’d learnt many strategies that would be very useful for my reading skill like, scanning, skimming, guessing words meaning from the context, previewing, restatement, finding references, making inferences and predicting as you can see from my previous blogs and I also learned how to read faster. Someone said “the more that you read, the more things you will know” and as I had read a lot in this course ,you can guess how much knowledge that I got from this course.

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Now you may think that I only improved my reading skills because I had read a lot but in fact I got more than that. I also improved my writing skill and you that know how come, that’s because I had to write the blogs for what I had learnt from this class and I also had to write the summary of the things that I read in class, I improved my listening skill because the teacher always let us listen how to pronounce words in correctly way like native speaker does from Cambridge Dictionary, I improved my speaking a lot in this class because teacher always asks us to discuss with friends about the lesson in English and sometimes I was the representative from my group so I spoke a lot of English in this class and sometimes she let us talk whatever we want with friends BUT HAVE TO TALK IN ENGLISH so now you can’t deny that I improve my four language skills from this useful course.

However, the teacher also shares her us about experiences when she studied abroad, shares many tricks to study English, shares many good websites that would be very useful to improve our English skill. All the things that she shares were very useful for us all.

The difficult and easy things that I found in  this course.

In my opinion, the difficult that I found in this course were, that when I had to read some passages that was academic because there were many difficult words.I also thought that summary each paragraph was pretty difficult for me, I understood what was the passage about but I couldn't  summarize them by my own words and another thing was grammar, sometimes grammar made me confuse about the sentences so I didn’t understand what the passage want to express exactly but I could solve those problem by searching on the internet, finding it on dictionary, asking my friends and teacher. The easy thing that I found was scanning because I didn't have to read a lot just found the key words and the got the answers.

My attitudes toward to the lesson

        In my opinion, first I thought that this course would be very boring because I don’t like to read very long English texts that much after attended to this course made me feel like reading very long English texts is not that boring as there are the many strategies to help us understand what we are reading easier. I think this course is very useful for all students because it can help them easy to understand what they read and this lesson can be used in daily life like when you read newspaper, magazine and all kinds of books even when you do exam, it will help a lot in part reading. However, writing weblogs for this course really help you to improve writing skills, I can feel that because my blog become longer and longer every day. It’s like now I enjoy writing a lot. This course becomes one of my favorite courses.

Finally, I want to say thank you to Asst.Prof.Dr. Usa  Noytim who taught me a lot of things not only the lessons but also about manner and things that will be very useful for my study and my life. Thank you for many good things that you share like, tricks to study, your experience when you studied abroad that inspired me a lot because I also want to study abroad and i think it's really sexy to being very smart so I will try hard like you did. Thank you for being a cool and generous teacher. You are so coooooooooool.

Before I go I have something to share with all of you that come to visit my blog. Maybe you want to read a book after watch this video like me.

Source :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDB_ExkJ1z8

Bye, see you next semester. 

http://giphy.com/gifs/bye-goodbye-the-little-rascals-GB0lKzzxIv1te

Claasic Ann Landers

        14 November 2016, today was the last class of this semester, the teacher gave us our work back, it was weekly healthy diet planner. My score wasn’t good because I made some mistakes and then she gave us handouts. It was about “Classic Ann Landers”. the teacher told us a bit about the biography of Ann Landers. 

http://www.creators.com/read/classic-ann-landers

Next, she asked us to read the information on the handouts as quickly as we can and get all ideas what it about.

After that, she reminded us a bit about our manner because many students were talking in class while she was teaching.

Next, she asked us to do exercise by matching each letter to Ann Landers with its correct response.

Today she showed us a good website to learn English and let us watched a video about Hillary Clinton Concession Speech.

Here is a link if you want to watch: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/hillary-clinton-concession-speech/3589739.html 

After finish watching, she gave us a corrective feedback and then she asked us to do another exercise. When we all finished, she asked for volunteer to write the answer on the board and she gave us corrective feedback later and then she asked us to work in group of three people to do the third exercise. In this exercise we had to read the letter to Ann Landers and we had to give advice to the writer instead of Ann Landers.

The writer’s problem was that her granddaughter behaves not well and she gets along with her granddaughter not well so she asked for advice to improve her relationship with her granddaughter. After finished this exercise, every groups had to send representative of each group.

This was advice from my group.

Dear Southwest: I can tell you it happens with almost families when the kids are being teenager; they think that they grow enough so they should have their own space. You just have to understand them and give them a time to adapt themselves

Maggie maybe a bit lack self-discipline so you should tell your son to warn her and teach her to behave better

Today I’d learnt many vocabularies and leant how to pronounce it correctly.

1.Contract  /ˈkɑːn.trækt/  (n.)  : a legal document that states and explains a formal agreement between two different people or groups, or the agreement itself.

2.Contractor /ˈkɑːn.træk.tɚ/ (n.)  : a person or company that arranges to supply materials or workers for .building or for moving goods.

3.Subcontract /sʌbˈkɑːn.trækt/ (v.) : to pay someone else to do part of a job that you have agreed to do.

4.Cautious /ˈkɑː.ʃəs/ (Adj.) : someone who is cautious avoids risks.

5.Trustworthy /ˈtrʌstˌwɝː.ði/ (Adj.) : able to be trusted.

6.Glamorous /ˈɡlæm.ə.əs/  (Adj.) : attractive in an exciting and special way.

7.Resent /rɪˈzent/ (v.) : to feel angry because you have been forced to accept someone or something that you do not like.

8.Refrain /rɪˈfreɪn/ formal (v.) : to avoid doing or stop yourself from doing something.

9.Sensitive /ˈsen.sə.t̬ɪv/ (Adj.) : easily upset by the things people say or do, or causing people to be upset, embarrassed, or angry.

When we finished lesson, we had to do a quiz. It was pretty difficult for me.  

The strategies that I used today were skimming, scanning, guessing words meaning from context and Predicting.

        For me, i thought this lesson was pretty easy because there were not much difficult vocabularies and the texts were short but I still found some sentences that I didn’t understand because of grammar but I could solve that problem by asking my friends and teacher. I had a lot of fun in class today because the lesson was interesting and as we had to work in group so it was fun to brainstorm ideas and discuss with friends as I love talking a lot so I didn’t get bored. See you next semester because I am pretty sure that teacher will ask us to write the blogs again.

http://giphy.com/gifs/thebachelorau-the-bachelor-26uf1mDxufefcArQY

Paragraph reading strategies "Books and Novels"

         7 November 2016, today I had to run to class because I was enjoying my breakfast and didn’t pay attention what time it was but I got in time anyway. Teacher came to class at 8.30 am as always. First of all Teacher check who was absent today and then she gave us handouts and asked us to us do exercises  and show us the books that related to our handouts.

Next, She lets us answered the questions. We had to read all information of each books as fast as possible to answer the questions.

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After that, she asked us to do another exercise on the handouts. After finishing, she asked us to work in group and write the summary of each paragraph and asked someone in class to wrote it on the board.

I had learnt many vocabularies and also how to pronounce it correctly.

1.Geography (n.)  /dʒiˈɒɡ.rə.fi/ = the study of the systems and processes involved in the world's weather, mountains, seas, lakes, etc. and of the ways in which countries and people organize life within an area.

2.Institute (n.)  /ˈɪn.stɪ.tʃuːt/ = an organization where people do a particular type of scientific, educational, or social work, or the buildings that it uses.

3.Institution (n.) /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/ = a large and important organization, such as a university or bank.

4.History (adj.) /ˈhɪs.tər.i/ = (the study of or a record of) past events considered together, especially events of a particular period, country, or subject.

5.Heroic (adj.) /hɪˈrəʊ.ɪk/ = very brave or great.

6.Heroine (n.) /ˈher.əʊ.ɪn/ = a woman who is admired for having done something very brave or having achieved something great.

The strategies that used today were skimming and scanning and guessing word meaning from the context.

For me, I thought the lesson’s today was very difficult because there were a lot of difficult words and I had to read a lot to the get main point of each paragraph but I solved the problem by asking the teacher and asked my friends. Also finding the difficult words in dictionary. Even though the lesson was hard but I had a lot of fun in class because it was fun to discuss and had a little argument with friends. That’s  all for today. See you next week. Good byeeeee.

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read faster !

         31 October 2016, the teacher taught us to pronounce some vocabularies in correctly way by using  http://dictionary.cambridge.org/. It was a good website because we could listen how native speaker pronounced it. 

these were vocabularies that i have learnt.

1.Accuracy (n) /ˈæk.jə.rə.si/ : the fact of being exact or correct.

2.Semester (n) /sɪˈmes.tər/ : one of the periods into which a year is divided at a college or university

3.Oral (adj.) /ˈɔː.rəl/ : spoken and not writing 

4.Consistent (adj)/kənˈsɪs.tənt/ : always behaving or happening in a similar, especially positive, way.

5.Compulsory (adj) /kəmˈpʌl.sər.i/ : If something is compulsory, you must do it because of a rule or law.

6.Reluctant (adj)/rɪˈlʌk.tənt/   : not willing to do something and therefore slow to do it.

7.Behind (adv) /bɪˈhaɪnd/ : at the back.

8.Effective (adj)/ɪˈfek.tɪv/ : successful or achieving the results that you want.

9.Receive (v) /rɪˈsiːv/ : to get something.

10.Conduct (v)/kənˈdʌkt/  : to organize and perform a particular activity.

11.Acquire (v)/əˈkwaɪər/ : to get something.

After that, she gave us corrective feedback of homework that she assigned us last week then, she asked us a question about 

“How do we improve our speaking, listening, and writing skills ?” 
♥For me, I improve my by watching English movie, listening to English music, and sometimes reading quotes.   

And she also asked “How do we read in English?”.

♥For me, normally before i read i will predict what passage going to tell me from the title of the passage and then when found difficult words while i am reading in English. I will try to guess the meaning of that word from context and keep reading till finish but if i can’t even predict or that’s difficult word makes me don’t understand the passage, i will find it on dictionary.

After that, she asked us another question about

" what are obstacles to faster reading ? "

♥For me, Difficult word is obstacle because when i read in English and i found difficult words that i can’t even guess what does it mean, make me can’t continue reading, I will find it on the dictionary.

Next, She asked us to answer to see if we are a good reader.

“ Do you agree or disagree?”

1. A good reader always reads at the same speed.

2.You should focus on one word at a time.

3.You need to understand every word of what you are reading

4.You can only understand  a text if you read it slowly.

5.You should always read from the first word in a text to the last.

6.You should use a dictionary as soon as you come across an unknown word.

She told us if we disagreed all of those questions, we were being a good reader.

♥For me i agreed with Item 4 so that’s mean I still had to practice more to be a good reader. I have to practice to read faster. 

After that she gave us hand outs and started new lesson, it was about Read Faster.
She asked us to read the passage and think what’s the topic and summary of the passage. After that we had to read the passage about Obstacles to faster effective reading and to do exercise 1 and 2.
When we all finished, she let us took a break for 15 minutes. 

After that teacher let us do more exercises and then gave the corrective feedback when we all finished. 

For this lesson I used many strategies like, scanning, skimming, guessing word meaning from the context.

For me, I thought this lesson was pretty difficult because there were many difficult words and the exercises were very hard but I could solve those problems by finding a difficult vocabulary in dictionary, asking my friends and asking teacher. I had a lot of fun today. See you next week.

http://giphy.com/gifs/bye-goodbye-the-little-rascals-GB0lKzzxIv1te

extensive reading

  17 October 2016, today the teacher told us the midterm scores. I got 15 from 20, it wasn’t bad score but not good neither so I will study hard to get better scores in Final exam.  After that the teacher told us when we are going to have the second quiz and final exam.

Next, the teacher started the new lesson “Extensive Reading” Teacher let us guessed what it is and then talked with a partner. After that, the teacher asked us the question “Do you often read in English for your private study?” and If “Yes” what is the way that you use? On Internet, Magazine, Books or Study books.

She asked us to discuss that with our partner. For me, I used Internet. I love reading quote of movies on Facebook and Instagram. 

Next, the teacher shared her experience about her studying abroad and told us many tricks to study. She told us to practice and read more because it will be good for us. 

After that, the teacher gave us the handout  it was about extensive reading and then let us think the words relate to “Research” and wrote them on the board.

Extensive reading = simply reading a lot of English (reading almost every day) at a fairly easy level so you can understand the text without needing a dictionary.

http://giphy.com/gifs/studying-6xYo0QETZyXhm

After that, we started reading in the handout, summarized each paragraph and did some exercise. When we all finished, the teacher gave us corrective feedback.

The strategies that I used today were finding the references, scanning and making inferences.

Today because text was academic so it was very hard for me there were a lot of difficult words but I could solve that problem by finding them on dictionary and teacher also told some. I had a lot of fun today. See you next week. Byeeeeee

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scanning

         10 September, the teacher gave us handouts and asked us a question from the handout.  “ At which hotel can you have an international buffet dinner with jazz music ?”  So we had to use scanning strategy to  find a key word. A key word were international buffet and  jazz music.

                      

Next, the teacher told us what is scanning and how to scan. 

                                   

Scanning : A type of speed reading technique which is used when you want to find specific information without necessarily understanding the rest of the text or passage.

How to scan : 

1. Need to have a question in mind. 

2. Decide on a key word or expressions that will signal the needed information. 

3.Do not read every word or read only the word that answer your question. 

4. Need to read fast. 

After that the teacher asked us to work in group of five people and see which group will be the fastest. When we all finished, the teacher gave us corrective feedback. We kept doing like this for 2 exercises. Then the teacher asked  us to do the rest of exercises by ourselves and see how much time we took for each exercises and when we all finished, the teacher gave us corrective feedback. I found that when I used scanning strategy made me found the answer faster.

Today the teacher also showed us how to book a flight online. I hope I have a chance to book one later.

The strategy that I used today was scanning.

I liked this lesson because it was fun to find the answer of each exercises and tried to take time as less as possible but this lesson also made my eyes got tired a bit as I had to use my eyes to scan a lot. I think learn how to scan is good because it is very helpful when we have to do reading exam or we have to find the answer race against time. I had a lot of fun in class. See you next week.

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west meet east ( continued )

                       3 September 2016, the teacher started class by telling us the score that we did the test.  I got 3/5. Not bad but I think I could do better if I read handouts well. After that the teacher let us correct exercises that she ordered as homework together.

Next, the teacher let us do another exercise then corrected when we all finished. After that she old us to read a whole passage of that exercise and make summary. That passage was about the life of Yong-hee Kim, mother of United States football star Hines Ward.

After that, she told us to do another exercises and corrected when we all finished.

Next, she told us to discuss the question with a partner. The question was

What products, Celebrities and foods from other Asian countries do you like ? 

My partner said that she likes Vietnamese foods because  they are very delicious and they put a lot of kind of vegetables in their foods. She loves vegetables that why she likes Vietnamese food very much.

Next, the teacher asked us if we met a foreigner living in our country, what questions would we most want to ask him/her ?  Discuss with a partner and make a list of question.

1.Where are you from ? 

2.Do you like Thai food ? 

3.How long have you been living in Thailand ? 

4. In your opinion, Do you think Thai girls are beautiful ?

 5. Have you ever seen Thai Movies ? 6. What is your name ? 

7. Can you speak Thai ?

http://giphy.com/gifs/robert-downey-jr-question-excellent-dXICCcws9oxxK

After that, the teacher let us do another exercises and read the passage called Expat in Asia. Then do more exercises.

Today I had learnt many new vocabularies and how to pronounce them in correctly way, such as

Discriminate : (/dɪˈskrɪm.ɪ.neɪt/) to treat a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, because of their skin colour, sex, sexuality, etc.

Obstacle : (/ˈɒb.stə.kəl/) something that blocks you so that movement, going forward, or action is prevented or made more difficult.

Overcome : (/ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm/) to defeat or succeed in controlling or dealing with something.

Overwhelming : (/ˌəʊ.vəˈwel.mɪŋ/) difficult to fight against.

Prominent : (/ˈprɒm.ɪ.nənt/) very well known and important.

Support : (/səˈpɔːt/) to agree with and give encouragement to someone or something because you want him, her, or it to succeed.

Inspire : (/ɪnˈspaɪər/) to make someone feel that they want to do something and can do it.

Emerge : (/ɪˈmɜːdʒ/) to appear by coming out of something or out from behind something.

Dogged : (/ˈdɒɡ.ɪd/) very determined to do something, even if it is very difficult.

Determined : (/dɪˈtɜː.mɪnd/) wanting to do something very much and not allowing anyone or any difficulties to stop you.

The strategies that I used today were skimming,  scanning , previewing, finding references, predicting and guessing words meaning from the context.

In my opinion, I thought  this lesson was pretty hard for me because there were many difficult words that I didn’t know the meaning  and that made me read more slowly but I could solve the problem by finding it in dictionary and asking my friends however, many exercises in this lesson were very difficult but as teacher gave us the corrective feedback of all exercises so I knew what mistakes that had made.That's all for today. Bye, see you  next week.

http://giphy.com/gifs/90s-movies-FyGpoHioS4A92

Fashion Essential (Continued ),West meet east

                       26 September 2016, today we had mid-term exam. For me the exam test was pretty difficult because there were many vocabularies that I didn’t know the meaning. After we all finished exam, the teacher asked us to read the passage called Splitting Hairs and did exercises and when finished reading and and she asked us to talk with partner about the answer of each questions in exercises.

After that, the teacher gave us handouts and started new lesson. She gave us some words and ordered us to find the meaning or information of it.

Martial arts : a sport that is a traditional Japanese or Chinese form of fighting or defending yourself.

Mc Donalds’ Happy meals : It’s a promotion of Mc Donald.
Hello Kitty toys : Toy's company.

Moutain Dew: It’s fizzy drink. Country of origin is USA.

Crouching Tiger : It’s Drama/Action Film.
Tazo Chai Tea : ginger, cardamon , cinnamon, fennel, black tea.
Wasabi mashed potatoes : mashed potatoes with wasabi.
Fusion dishes : essentially a mixing of food culture and cuisines.

Boba drinks : It’s bubble tea. Country of origin is Taiwan.

Rick Yune : An american actor, screen writer, producer martial artist and former model.

Nicole Bilderback: Korean- born, American actress

kelly Liu: An american actress, voice actress, director, producer singer and artist.

After that, she asked us to do exercise and discuss about the questions in handouts with the partner that sat next to us.

Next, she told us to read the passage called The “Asianization” of the United States.

And then she ordered us to do some exercises for homework.

The strategies that I used today were skimming,  scanning , previewing, finding references, predicting and guessing words meaning from the context.

In my opinion, I thought  this lesson was pretty hard for me because there were many difficult that I didn’t know the meaning and Chinese names were hard to read but I could solve the problem by finding it in dictionary and asking my friends and teacher. That's all for today.See you  next week.

Exercise : Your university has decided that all female students should have long hair and all male students should have crew cuts. Write your opinion about this.

    In my opinion, I think that the new hair rules are a bad idea because it seems like University want to produce robots  not creative students. Set the rule like that, I think, it’s the way to block off the ideas of students  and I think hairstyles won’t be affected  ability to learn so then why all students should have hair in the same way ? University is very stressful. Rules about student’s hair will put more stress to students.Let students create their own hairstyle is better. Let them be creative people.

http://giphy.com/search/cut-hair

Fashion Essential

   12 September 2016, the teacher asked us  when we hear “fashion” what do we think ?

For me I think about clothes and accessories. After that, the teacher gave us the hand outs and told us to read the paragraph; it was about famous fashion items and I had to find what the name of each article is. When we all finished this exercise, the teacher gave us another handouts.

Next, the teacher taught us to pronounce  some vocabularies in correctly way.

1.Halter :( /ˈhɒl.tər/ )  a piece of women's clothing that is held in position by a strap that goes behind the neck so that the upper back and shoulders are not covered.

2.Kimino :( /kɪˈməʊ.nəʊ/) a long, loose piece of outer clothing with very wide sleeves, traditionally worn by the Japanese.

3.Sneakers : (/ˈsniː.kər/) a type of light, comfortable shoe that is suitable for playing sports.

4.Jeans : (/dʒiːnz/ ) trousers made of denim (= strong blue cotton cloth) that are worn informally.

5.T-shirt : (/ˈtiː.ʃɜːt/) a simple piece of clothing, usually with short sleeves and no collar, that covers the top part of the body.

6.Comfortable : (/ˈkʌm.fə.tə.bəl/) Comfortable furniture and clothes provide a pleasant feeling and do not give you any physical problems.

7.Reality : (/riˈæl.ə.ti/ ) a fact.

After that, the teacher let us read the passage called “ Fusion ? Confusion” and tell her what is each paragraph about.

Next, we had to do exercises. When we all finished , the teacher told us to discuss with friends about the picture ( she ordered us last week as homework ) that we prepared, what is she/he wearing ?

The strategies that I used today were skimming,  scanning and guessing words meaning from the context.

In my opinion, I thought this lesson was pretty easy for me because it didn’t have many difficult vocabularies and as I love fashion so it was fun for me to study this lesson. Bye. See you next week.

http://giphy.com/search/victorias-secret-fashion-show

today's technology ( continued )

5 August, the teacher gave us a topic and let us go to write the answer on the white-board.

The topic was “ What technology can you use to learn English? ”   
I went to write Instagram and the rest of my friends wrote E-mail, Facebook, messenger.

After that, the teacher let us think and write our ideas about the advantages and disadvantages if using the internet when we finished we had to talked about our ideas with a friend who sat behind us.

Next the teacher picked someone to present in class and it was me.

I told my friends in class that I think advantages of using the internet are, we can search for all information that we want to know, we can communicate with people that live so far away from us, we can update what are happening around the world and we can search something on internet that can make us relax. On the other hand, the disadvantages of using internet are, nowadays some people are getting addicted to internet so they spent time with their family less and there are a lot of wrong information on the internet as  anyone can post anything.

http://giphy.com/search/typing

After that the teacher had some words for us and we had to find the meaning.

Cyberspace : The internet considered as an imaginary area without limits where you can meet people and discover information about any subject.

Key pal : A person with whom one regularly exchanges E-mail for fun.

Netizen : a person who uses the internet.

Emotion : a strong feeling such as love or anger, or strong feelings in general

CU stand for See you.

RUOK stand for Are you okay ?

OMG stand for Oh my god!
LOL stand for Laughing out loud.

After that, the teacher  gave us a hand out and told us to read the passage in handout called researchers worry as teen grows up online. Then the teacher picked someone up to share what we got from the passage. Next the teacher let us write “ what is the researcher’s opinion and teenager’s opinion on the board.

researcher’s opinion 

1.Chatting online may be better than watching television,but it's worse than hanging out with real friends.

2.We are not only looking at what the computer can do for us,but what are they doing for us.

 teenager’s opinion

1.School is stressful and busy.

2.Nobody seems to expect the online world to be the same as the real world.

3.Appreciate the ability to edit what they say online or take the time. 

Then  the teacher told us to do exercises and we all finished exercises, the teacher gave us 10 minutes for break.

After that we had to do the test. I thought  the test was a bit difficult for me because I didn’t prepare myself well as my friend told me the test would be unseen passage so I didn’t read much on handouts.

The strategies that I used today were skimming,  scanning , previewing and guessing words meaning from the context.

In my opinion , the lesson was pretty hard for me  because there were many difficult vocabularies that I didn’t know the meaning but I can solve  the problem by find it on dictionary and asked my friends and I really feel thank you for the teacher because in this class made me feel like I had more confidence to speak English.

Exercise C. Answer the questions.

1. How much time spent online do you think is too much? Why ?

Answer  In my opinion, I think 3 hours is too much to spent online because if you spent time more than 3 hours, the light from the screen might damage your eyesight.

2.Do you think that everything can be communicated by E-mail ? Or are some things best said face-to-face ? What example can you give ?

Answer I think everything can’t be communicated by R-mail because it’s better to said face-to-face as we can show the real feeling that we really feel such as guilty for them or feel sorry for them.

3.Would it bother you if people lied you online about their age or appearance ?

Answer In my opinion, I annoyed the person who lied online about their age or appearance because maybe they are criminals who want something from us.

Bye. see you next week.

http://giphy.com/gifs/justin-buh-bye-l0MYzLLxlJDfYtzy0