Welcome to Skillful
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Welcome, and thank you for registering for the class this term.
Our aim is to cover all of unit 3 of Skillful 4: Reading and Writing, which we should be able to do in our 16 hours of classes over the next five weeks (there is a one-week break for Songkran in the middle). In addition to your paper book, there is also a very useful digital version of the text, and an online workbook for further practice.
If you have not already done so, please register for the digital version of Skillful, and then join both the online class and the online Workbook class, for which there are short presentations posted on Classroom.
As with the Google Apps for Education that we will use and this class blog, it might take a couple of sessions for you to become familiar with these tools, but I am confident that you will find that initial effort worthwhile. By moving some of the work to out-of-class activities, we can then focus our class time on preparation for and discussion of the skills you will practice at home, or wherever you like.
Introduction to students — page 6
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| The digital version of the book is very convenient |
Another point that I like in her introduction is Zemach's emphasis on practice, for which she suggests that we do "a little bit each day." The research on this is strong: regular deliberate practice in small chunks of time is far more effective than long sessions once or twice a week (Schwartz et al. 2016, ch D). Since we meet twice a week, and on consecutive days, this is especially important to bear in mind.
Question
As Warwick and Rogers often do, giving readers a specific question or two to respond to is often an effective way to engage readers. It helps to check that we understand what we have read, that we have thought about the ideas critically, and to that we can apply them to our own of more general situations.- Which one of the five strategies that Zemach introduces on page 6 do you think will be most useful for you to focus on over the next five weeks?
References
- Schwartz, D. L., Tsang, J. M., & Blair, K. P. (2016). The ABCs of how we learn: 26 scientifically proven approaches, how they work, and when to use them. [eBook edition]. W. W. Norton & Company. https://www.amazon.com/ABCs-How-Learn-Scientifically-Approaches-ebook/dp/B016CAJLBA/ref=sr_1_1
- Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
According to Zemach's five strategies, I think the most useful way for me over the next five weeks is practice. Now, I find it hard to make clear and informative sentences because my vocabulary collections are quite limited. Also, I hardly attempt to use new vocabulary in my contexts as I feel unconfident and fear of awkwardness. However, over the next five weeks I am going to memorize and use new vocabularies in this unit to expand my ideas and give more details of I will say. I always believe that practice makes perfect and I believe that it will work well this time.
ReplyDeleteThank you Earth, I enjoyed reading your thoughtful reflections on Zemach's suggested strategies. Vocabulary is on my list of things to look at this evening. Blogging is a less formal place to try out new vocabulary and experiment with grammar.
DeleteAlthough Zemach suggested five strategies on successful learning, I've found that the most effective one is practice what I've learned from the English class. This is in line with what Xun Kuang, a Chinese philosopher, mentioned that “tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." As I realized the important of practice, I usually find a way and chance to use what I’ve from the English class. For example, when I learn new vocabulary, I usually try to use it by memorizing it and writing a sentence. By doing so, I am able to remember the new vocabulary and whenever I want to express my idea the new vocabulary is available in my brain and ready to be used—this is also applied with gamma.
ReplyDeleteI like the quotation from the Chinese philosopher. Getting involved in something is a great way to learn; it provides motivation. That's why the IELTS and TOEFL guides recommend choosing articles, talks and so on that interest you so that you get involved in what you're doing, and respond. Responding requires involvement. And of course, just learning something, say the eight-step writing process, won't be much use unless you practice it by actually writing, for example short comments on a our class blog, where responding to the ideas of classmates is involvement.
DeleteAll the strategies in page 6 are useful for learning English but if I have to pick one which is the most useful for me is practice. I think leaning language need to practice as much as possible to be familiar with it and from my experience I think the best way for me to learn new vocabulary is to use it frequently. Moreover, I find that the online book has many exercise to do, so I think it will be very useful for me.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, practice strategy on page 6 mention about learning vocabulary but the word practice I mean is practice all the skills which are listening, reading, writing and speaking. And because of the online book, which is easy for me to work or do exercise I think I can practice more often.
I believe in the famous quote Practice makes perfect but for me, I need time to be perfect by improve my skills. However, I will try my best to learn and do exercise in the next five week in the class.
Thank you Gubgib. I also like the digital exercises that Skillful makes available for you to practice. But good as those are for checking understanding and correctness, I think that practice using them to read or listen to something and then respond to the ideas is more useful, which is one reason we write regularly here.
DeleteReferring to Zemach's five strategies in the book, be an independent learner is the most useful for me to focus on over the next five weeks because the knowledge is not in a class only. We should look for chances to study and improve our skills outside the class and take responsibility for our own learning as well. We will be curious and engage in what we are learning. Think what we can do to practice and learn English in our routine life and be patient with it. I set the goals to study abroad, then I try to use English as much as I can. I try to read only English on the labels of BTS station or any other kind of transportation and speak English with my co-workers every day. Furthermore, I also find researches to read because we will gain new information and knowledge in another field and improve English in the same time. These help me improve a lot. Thus, be an independent learner is the most useful for me.
ReplyDeleteI think practice has been the popular choice, but I'm inclined to agree with Nat that being an independent learner, and accepting responsibility for your learning, is at least as important. And these days, there are an enormous number of resources available on the Internet, among others: newspapers to read and to often comment on, TED Talks, online discussion forums, and of course NetFlix.
DeleteZemach's five strategies are great for increasing everyone's language skills. At the same time in my daily life, my english skill is useless. It makes the ability to retrieve vocabulary for communication. Is going to be quite bad. But I think within five weeks. I will strive to make the classroom experience with that strategy to improve English skill.
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ReplyDeleteAccording to Zemach's five strategies on page 6, what I believe is the most important tactor to be successful in learning languages or anything is to be an independent learner and the autonomous one. Being an autonomous learner, the learner can study at any time or anywhere, and they can take every opportunity that comes to enhance their skills. Moreover, having determination to study is also the key to success. It will help us all do exactly like what Zemach inform us on page 6 automatically. We will do everything starting from self-preparation in learning, reviewing what we have learnt for each class, being active in taking part in class activities, practicing lots of exercise and so on. By being determined for the goal of mastery in language, it will truly allow every language learner to reach their potential in learning and to reach the proficiency in using it as they expected.