USEFUL WEBSITES

NEWS WEBSITES
age
http://www.theage.com.au/
This website shows a lot of NEWs which happened around us. The most important thing is that it is very academic and suitable for our overseas students.

sbs
http://www.sbs.com.au/
This is website which shows many AU news. There are a lot of news videos. Students can listen many news.

btn
http://www.abc.net.au/btn/
This is a very good website to practice reading and listening. Sometimes it is very interesting.

bbc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
This is a very useful website to learn English

breaking news english
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
There are a lot of practice such as listening, reading and writing on this website.
It is very good for E7 students.

Comments - Week 3

comment1:
On Xiao's third week reflection
http://xiaoslearningjournal.blogspot.com/2010/06/week-3-so-busy.html

comment2:
On Tilly's third week reflection
http://tillylearningjournal.blogspot.com/2010/06/reflection-week-3.html#comments

comment3:
On Julia's second week reflection
http://juliaslearningjournal.blogspot.com/2010/06/reflection-of-week-2-busy-holiday.html

Everyone who can, should learn English?

People all over the world all know that learning English is very important, especially in China. It is said that English, driving and computer are the basic living technology in 21st. Maybe it is a litter bit exaggerating, but it is truth in China. If students want to graduate from university, they must pass some special English exams. If people want find a new job, though experiences are very important, English is another symbol of personal ability, even their new job do not need English.

I am learning English for about 13 years. My English is still not so good. If I do not go aboard to study, I do not need use English. Sometimes I think Chinese pay much more attention on English, however, there are so many students in China, not every student need to learn English. They can develop other non-English ability. Because If people spend many times on learning English, and after that they find they do not to use English. It is waste money and time.

However, I think some basic useful English must be learnt. It is useful for tourism and accidents. English is lingua franca all over the world. It is much easier for people themselves if they can speak some useful English.

Why English is a lingua franca of our time

English, which is a globalization language, is spoken by much more people all over the world. In this earth, Mandarin is spoken by the most person, however, English is much more widely. English is not only the mother language in some countries, it is still a second language or official language in much more countries. In this world, English speaking nations are the most powerful such as Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and so on. Even there are other powerful nations in the world such as China, Japan, German and France, they speak different languages.

English is the most popular language in the world. People all over the world will learn English when they are children, especially in China. It could promote the development of English language on the other side. English is easy to learn for European.

Because of the development of globalization, people need the common language to exchange with other people. English is the best language to be a lingua franca, because most wildly people speak it.

The impact of English on the economy

English, which is a lingua franca, could promote the most development of economy all over the world. With the development of globalization, people need a common language to exchange with other people in some nations which speak different language. However, it is too different for people to learn a totally different language. It is very lucky that English is widest language in the world. English could be used as a lingua franca. After English as a lingua franca, people can much easier to talk with each other, even their mother language are not English.

English encourage different business development in the world. Firstly, People, who can speak English, are much easier to travel different nations. Therefore, English promote tourism industry. Secondly, people from developed countries could go to developing nations to help them manage the company. It develop the manage technology all over the world. Finally, developing countries can recommend the highest science and technology from the powerful nations.

Reflection for Week 3

This week is very busy. This Wednesday we had a critical response exam. Before this text, I remembered some typical sentences about the evidence, logic, tone and bias. However, because of the limited time, I forgot all of them. I always caught every sentence which I could remember. I have no time to deeply think about the logic and language. I was very worried about my exam.

This week we listened about a lecture of French. This lecture is very fast, and sometimes it is very difficult to understand. When I was listening this lecture in the class, I can not catch some useful note. After that, the most important thing is that I can not understand this lecture very much. After coming home, I listened this lecture twice. I still can not understand this lecture very much. Now I am very worried about listening very much.

This week we practice the critical response about comparing two articles. I think this is more difficult. Now I do not know how to write the response about one article. What about two articles? These two articles in unit2 are very difficult to understand. The teacher spent a lot of time on analysis these articles. However, I still think it is difficult to write an essay.

This weekend I will be very busy. Because I need to finish my learning journey, write a essay, practice my presentation and read two articles. Oh, it is so busy. However, I still want to sleep enough time.

Reflection for Week 2

This is the second week of E7. Next week we must to take a critical response exam. I am very worried about that, because when I practice the essay, sometimes I do not know how to express my thought, especially of the logic. Furthermore, I also do not whether my thought is right. Every argument I write some more words. However, I always think I do not write all of them, something must be lost.

My presentation is about the English movies. I think I choose this topic only because I like see films, especially Hollywood movies. I like magic movies, children movies, and history movies, I also like some vogue movies. I remember when I was a child, I did not like to go to the cinema. However, by more and more English films coming into China, people almost like to go to movie theater. It also encourage Chinese movie industry. Some Chinese living style and value are changed by impact of English movies.

This week we listened some lectures, all of them were about English. I think listening is still a qfor me, and I always can not catch some important details, even I write something. I always do not which is the answer, and this time my paper is almost empty, because I do not know how to write the answer. After this time, I can see the questions about the lecture. Sometimes it is much easier for because I can catch some answers. However, sometimes, I also lose a lot of information, and I do not know how to spell some words.

I think must really improve my listening, vocabulary and grammar. I will do my best to do my own dictionary and listen more extra listening after class.

Reflection for Week 1

This is the first week of E7. Before this week, I was very about my E7, because some people told me that E7 is more difficult and academic. It is said that E7 is a litter bit like university courses. Though we all finished our education in the university in China, in Australia English is the major language that all of our courses are in English. E7 is focus on getting ready for the courses of the university in future.

Listening
It is the most difficult for me in English, especially in E7, because listening in E7 is about the academic lecture. The most important is that all of the questions are about the short answers and short sentences. The grammar and vocabulary must be very good. In the first time, I take the notes for the lecture. I always only catch the common things, and lose some details. Even if I can catch some details, I do not know which is the answer for the question.

Reading
It is another major problem for me in English, only because my vocabulary is not so good, and sometimes if there is a long sentence in the article, I always can not understand it. Teachers in E7 told us that we can use own dictionary. In E6, we make another dictionary. However I only have some Chinese explanations in it. I always forget what is the meaning of this difficult word. If I could remember them with some short sentences, it is much easier.

Writing
The problems of my writing are grammar and academic. When I was in E6, the teacher told me that I really must improve my grammar, and read more article news, because my essay is not so academic. Because of my poor vocabulary, sometimes I want to express my thought, but I do not know how to use this word. This week we began to write the critical response. I think the most important is to understand the article before.

Speaking
Our speaking exam is oral presentation. This week we need to think about our topic. All of our topic must be together with English. Because of living in homestay, everyday I can talk with local people with some interesting things. We talk about the birthday party of their youngest daughter. The topic about this party is fringe. Everything must be about the fringe, clothes, food, gifts, and so on.

My Course Goals and strategies in REW advanced 2

During this E7, my main goal is to pass the E7 exam, and I have enough English ability to go to the university to have academic courses. However, I think that the exams are so difficult to me, because my vocabulary and grammar are not so good. I need to plan my study and improve my English. My English learning goals are list below.

READING
Read fast and accurate.
-Read more news articles and borrow some academic books about my major from library.
-Improve the English speed during the limited time.
-guess some difficult words from sentences and paragraph in English meaning.
-Use own vocabulary dictionary, and create some sentences by myself to much easier remember.
-Improve my grammar and remember some typical sentences.

WRINTING
Write a more academic essay
-Have no grammar and spelling mistakes
-Write two essays every week to improve my writing.
-Use more academic words in my essay.
-Read some typical essays

LISTENING
Understand a long academic lecture and take clear notes
-Every morning and afternoon on the way listen some English lectures and conversations
-Use some useful website, such as BTN , SBS and breaking news English.
-Try to understand local people’s daily communication
-listen some academic lectures about my major from internet

SPEAKING
Talk with local people more fluency
-Talk with Homestay master every day
-Remember much more vocabularies
-Improve my oral presentation skills by more practice

6/3

Today we create a new blog on google, it is only for rew's learning journal by myself. People can follow with their friends in one group by this new blog. It is my first time to use blog all in English. I have a blog in China,but I lost it for a long time because after creating it,I never use it.
This afternoon,we listened a lecture. It is a about 20 minites lecture, and is very similar with the E7 listening exam. It means that it is difficute for me. Maybe I will fall asleep at the ending.

I am a Visual Learner

Visual learners
Visual learners attend to information most effectively when they see something, for example, pictures, diagrams, films and videos or demonstrations. Check to see if some of the following characteristics may apply to you.

Behaviours/ characteristics of visual learners:
Remember what they see rather than what they hear
Remember diagrams and pictures
Prefer to read and write rather than listen
Have trouble remembering verbal instructions
Need an overall view and purpose before beginning a project
Like art more than music
Sometimes tune out when trying to pay attention.


Study hints for visual learners:
Take written notes in lectures & class
Use colours to highlight important points
Pay attention to diagrams, charts and pictures in text books
Use mindmaps ( with colours & diagrams) to organise information for an assignment or for revision for an exam.
Put summaries and mindmaps on the walls in your study area
Use a wall planner.


www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_StudySkills/study_tuts/learning%20styles/visual.html