Journal III

Discuss readings skills that you have learned in this class, but have rarely used in your reading. Do you think they are really necessary ones for better reading? Why or why not?

After learning so many kinds of reading skills in this class, I found some reading skills are really necessary for better reading, which I have rarely used in my reading.

1. Recall
Reading does not take place in a vacuum. It is done as part of our process of learning. For this reason, recall is a very important facet of our reading skills. Based on our text book, recall includes recall of details, recall of main ideas, recall of a sequence, recall of comparison, recall of cause and effect relationships and recall of character traits.

We might remember the process of reciting from our early public school days when we had to recite a poem for the class or we had to recite multiplication tables aloud in class. Chances are that these things we've recited intensively remain with you as part of your base of knowledge. In fact, they have probably become such an integral part of our knowledge that we don't even think of them as things we have to remember; instead, we just "know" them. This is what the purpose of recall is in the process of reading too. Recall can be a little difficult, but once we are recalling our material with skill, we will be in terrific shape for reading. Recall involves being able to access the information without being cued. For example, answering a question on a fill-in-the-blank test is a good example of recall.

2. Critical thinking      

Critical reading refers to a careful, active, reflective, analytic reading. Critical thinking involves reflecting on the validity of what we have read in light of our prior knowledge and understanding of the world. Critical thinking in reading is like critical thinking elsewhere. Its purpose is to get us involved in a dialogue with the ideas we hear in class so that we can summarize, analyze, hypothesize, and evaluate the ideas we encounter. Critical thinking includes a complex combination of skills. Among the main characteristics are the following:

(1) Open-mindedness

We are thinking critically when we

-evaluate all reasonable inferences

-consider a variety of possible viewpoints or perspectives,

-remain open to alternative interpretations

-accept a new explanation, model, or paradigm because it explains the evidence better, is simpler, or has fewer inconsistencies or covers more data

-accept new priorities in response to a reevaluation of the evidence or reassessment of our real interests, and

-do not reject unpopular views out of hand.

(2) Judgment

We are thinking critically when we

-recognize the relevance and/or merit of alternative assumptions and perspectives

-recognize the extent and weight of evidence

Critical thinkers do not take an egotistical view of the world. They are open to new ideas and perspectives. They are willing to challenge their beliefs and investigate competing evidence.

Critical thinking enables us to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses of otherwise objective data, and to evaluate how well each analysis might meet our needs. Facts may be facts, but how we interpret them may vary.

By contrast, passive, non-critical thinkers take a simplistic view of the world.

3.       Retrieving material from long-term memory, comparing, inferring

(1) Recollection: This type of memory retrieval involves reconstructing memory, often utilizing logical structures, partial memories, narratives or clues. For example, writing an answer on an essay exam often involves remembering bits on information, and then restructuring the remaining information based on these partial memories.

(2) Recognition: This type of memory retrieval involves identifying information after experiencing it again. For example, taking a multiple-choice quiz requires that you recognize the correct answer out of a group of available answers.

(3) Relearning: This type of memory retrieval involves relearning information that has been previously learned. This often makes it easier to remember and retrieve information in the future and can improve the strength of memories.

Developing Adult EFL Students' Speaking Abilities

☆1. What affects adult EFL learners’ oral communication?

Factors affecting adult EFL learners’ oral communication

(1) Age or maturational constraints

Adult learners do not seem to have the same innate language-specific endowment as children for acquiring fluency and naturalness in spoken language.

(2) Aural medium

Listening plays an extremely important role in the development of speaking abilities. If one cannot understand what is said, one is certainly unable to respond.

(3) Sociocultural factors

To speak a language, one must know how the language is used in a social context. On the other hand, ignorance of the nonverbal message often leads to misunderstanding.

(4) Affective factors

The affective factors related to L2 learning are emotions, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety, attitude, and motivation.

☆2. What are the components underlying speaking effectiveness/proficiency?

Within the framework of a speaking course, discuss activities that can be used to address grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence.

Canale and Swain’s components underlying speaking effectiveness

(1)   Grammatical competence

Grammatical competence includes increasing expertise in grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. Grammatical competence enables speaker to use and understand English-language structures accurately.

Activities: meaningful oral grammar practice

(2)   Discourse competence

Effective speakers should acquire a large repertoire of structures and discourse makers to express ideas, show relationships of time, and indicate cause, contrast, and emphasis.

Activities: discussions, oral dialogue journal

(3) Sociolinguistic competence

Adult second language learners must acquire stylistic adaptability in order to be able to encode and decode the discourse around them correctly.

Activities: problem-solving activities

(4) Strategic competence

Strategic competence refers to the ability to know when and how to take the floor, how to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the conversation, and how to clear up communication breakdown as well as comprehension problems.

Activities: role-play

☆3. How can adult EFL learners’ speaking abilities be improved?

Review the four kinds of activities discussed by Kang and suggest other activities that fit these categories.

Interaction as the key to improving EFL learners’ speaking abilities

Teachers should provide students with opportunities for meaningful communicative behavior about relevant topics by using learner-learner interaction as the key to teaching language for communication. Communication in the classroom is embedded in meaning-focused activity.

(1) Small Talk

At the initial stage, adult EFL learners should develop skills in short, interactional exchanges in which they are required to make only one or two utterances at a time.

(2) Interactive activities

Effective interactive activities should (A) be based on authentic or naturalistic source materials; (B) enable learners to manipulate and practice specific features of language; (C) allow learners to rehearse, in class, communicative skills they need in the real world; (D) activate psycholinguistic processes of learning.

(a) Aural: oral activities

e.g. jigsaw listening

(b) Visual: oral activities

e.g. films, videotapes and soap operas: opinion-expressing activities

(c) Material-aided: oral activities

e.g. storytelling, oral reports or summaries from articles in newspaper

(d) Culture awareness: oral activities

e.g. discuss cultural misunderstandings

WSI Learning Method

Every human being who attempts to learn a second language has already learned a first language. WSI learning method is based on our first language acquisiton.

The picture showed us how students acquire a second language in WSI.

My Favorite Teachers in Wall Street Institute

My Comments on Wall Street Institute

1.Wall Street Institute is the world leader in English Language Training. I think the courses in WSI can be described as “participatory learning”, “student-centered learning”, “cooperative learning”, “use of authentic, nature of language” and “integration of the four skills-listening, speaking, reading and writing”.

2.I developed a “feel” for the language by experimenting with its grammar and words. I made my own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom. I used authentic language in meaningful contexts.

3.I’m heartily grateful to all of my dear English teachers. Special thanks for Jared Garland and Jacob Powers Helmstadter. Jacob, I’m very appreciate your reading club. It’s really helpful. It’s our treasure. Please keep on with it. Jared, special thanks for your help.

4.If you choose WSI, that means you choose success in English study. Don’t hesitate; seize the best opportunity to study English that comes along. I promise you’ll not regret to choose WSI. Because I regretted why I came to WSI so late. If I had chosen WSI earlier, I would have had been successful before. Thanks, my bosom friend-WSI.