The reading homework tonight is only one page - the article "San Francisco Legislator Pushes Feng Shui Building Codes" (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, p. 5 - 6), but the following exercises make it a fairly intensive reading. As well as the readings in Quest, to which we will generally pay intense attention, it's also important to read extensively, and hopefully for pleasure. It is this extensive reading that should compose most of your daily allowance of 16 to 20 pages. The TOEFL iBT handbook includes suggestions for improving your reading and writing skills, and chief among those suggestions is regular extensive reading - especially articles from publications such as The New York Times and the BBC News website (Educational testing Services (ETS), 2008, p. 56). On Wednesday, we will be following up this suggestion from ETS when we start blogging the news.
In the meantime, you might like to add a comment below to share your ideas on these related questions:
- What do you normally read in English?
- How much have you read in English in the past?
- What would you like to read in our class this term?
- Is there anything you do think we should not read in this class?
- Do you disagree with the popular choice for the number of pages to read daily?
- and anything else that occurs to you write about.
The poll on religion is a bit more controversial, as the more varied answers given so far show, and we will discuss that one a bit later, after covering a bit more on the topic of religion in Quest, so don't comment on it just yet.
__________
References
Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
I read a lot - I'm usually reading a novel and at least a couple of books at any one time. I also read a few newspapers and magazines every day, and I follow a couple of journals.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, I'm reading Queen Lucia, a novel by E.F. Benson (much as I love this hilarious social comedy of English village life, I'm not thinking of setting it for a class novel), also a collection of essays on his behavioural economics research by Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and economics at Duke University in the US (I am considering reading one of these essays in class), and a history of the papacy just published by John Julius Norwich, 2nd Viscount Norwich, a British peer and excellent historian. I'm am interested in both history and religion, so am enjoying Norwich's Absolute Monarchs.
And what have you been reading?
For me,I do not read a lot. Sometimes I read news online and magazines. Even though it is challenge for me, I am try to read any material three times a week.
ReplyDeleteNow, I am reading the House of Mirth, a novel by Edith Wharton.
I agree with popular choice for the number of pages to read daily.I heard numerous people said that reading is the best way to study English. When you read, you can learn the way of native speakers using vocabulary and styles of writing.
I am OK with any book or material which we read in this term, because I just want to learn how to write natural language in English.
16 votes?
ReplyDeleteThere are 14 students and 1 teacher in our class.
If you sign in, you can't vote more than once, but it is easy to accidentally vote twice if your not signed in and using a different computer - the polls cannot guarantee single voting.
But I don't think that matters. The majority view is pretty clear, so I will take that into account when we start reading next week. I also take into account the level of difficulty, so I won't really expect 20 pages of everything, but for a novel, 15+ pages/ day seems to me not unreasonable.
Just noticed some seriously mangled grammar.
ReplyDeleteIn my last comment, I should have written:
If you sign in, you can't vote more than once, but it is easy to accidentally vote twice if you're not signed in and are using a different computer - the polls cannot guarantee single voting.
One more note, relating to the issue of grammatical correctness.
ReplyDeleteOf the two errors I corrected in the last comment, the first one, where I mistakenly typed your not you're, was incorrect grammar, and it was not a problem - the meaning was still perfectly clear. The second one, where the word are was missing, left the grammar perfectly correct, but was a serious problem because it changed the meaning.
If it was only the first mistake, I would not have worried about correcting it. It was the second one, the mistake that affected the meaning and my reader's understanding, that worried me.
I confess I click double vote :(
ReplyDeleteSorry
Anyways I agree with the majority naka^^
Have a good weekend all
And if you double clicked you have to read twice as much as everyone else.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Golf - I suspect you might not be the only to have voted twice. Although it's possible that everyone voted, that would also be unusual, very pleasing, but not definitely abnormal.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteThis example makes me have clear understanding about grammar correctness. And also get a point when you made a comment about Naya and Rian' answers.
I need to know how to use grammar correctly, not because that is what grammar rules say. But because that is the way I can express idea fluently.
What do you think? Is it a clear understanding? Any points I still miss?
Dig,
ReplyDeleteYour excellent summary of the important points here reflects a clear and correct understanding.