Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Journal 7

The end of 1st term is next week on Thursday 09.04.2009.During week 7 and week 8 EAP students presented the first draft of their assignment .Similarly, I submitted the assignment on 02.04.2009 and I will be submitting the final draft in the first week of 2nd term, which means after the holidays. Regarding the next assignment students are free to choose whatever topic they like among many interesting topics available. Iam planning to choose a topic close to my profession (Architecture), because it may be useful and helpful for my near future.

In writing class students learned about what is paraphrasing and how to write a good paraphrase. Then they did practice which were very supportive for their reports or essays. The next one was spoken presentation, about seven students have already presented their seminar on different topics by using visual aids and OHT.

In the reading class students have done some practice on IELTS reading questions. In listening class they listened to conversations and they discussed with the teacher the listening assessment which will be done next week. In computing class the teacher taught students some basic knowledge on Microsoft word and Power point. Finally this is the last Journal that I am writing. Now I feel more confident because due to this, my writing skills have improved and are much better than before.

Journal 6

Last week, EAP students were busy, as they have to present the first draft of their assignment next week. Also each student was required to present the seminar on a specific topic during the following weeks which relates to herbal medicine. In the writing class students discussed and did an exercise on how to reference texts and paragraphs. In my opinion it was quite useful as it was one of the requirements of the first draft.

After that students have finalized the topic for the spoken presentation and its date. My presentation will be about Kinesiology, I find it’s an interesting subject, in a way it relates to my profession (Architecture) in terms of the human body, proportion, scale and movement in space, which was mentioned by the well known Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio.

In reading class students also did training to summarize and criticize passages .The next class was listening. They listened to lectures and they have done some practice to improve their skills. Last Friday they have put useful information, journal writing and websites in their Blog, which they designed last week.

Journal 5

It is clear that the key to success is learning and studying. Last week students in writing class have learnt some kinds of referencing and solving problems which can be useful for doing their assignment on herbal medicine.

Also students and the teacher discussed the parts and items of their report. In addition, the process of doing assignment for me is a bit difficult, because I have never done it before but I think it is not very easy. However, when I was at university doing architectural engineering in my country I did a lot of surveying reports, site analysis and a thesis project which were quite different from the one that I will be doing.

In general, this assignment is a good idea, because it makes me ready to do other assignments in the future. In reading class the students did some practice about the herbal medicine article which was very beneficial and they can use it in the assignment. In listening also the students have listened to the lecture and they have done note taking which were helpful. The lecture was about the moon and it was interesting.

They have learnt strategies for seminar in spoken presentation and they were going to have some practice in class before the final presentation, which can be seen very helpful for them because most students came from different countries and cultures and in most countries they do not give a lot of attention to presentation. Finally, in computer class the students experienced some new web sites and programmes such as blog and EAP online.

Journal 4

Last week was very useful as I gained information about referencing and how to use this in English writing. Also I have learnt how to search for specific subjects which can be beneficial for doing assignments. In addition, in writing the students have done some practice to write an Annotated Bibliography which is helpful for them, because they got ideas of putting summary and critical thinking in the Annotated Bibliography together. Because of my lack of experience with this kind of writing I find it a little bit difficult and I need more practice to help me to be better at it.

In seminar presentation the students addressed some strategies to present their seminar.
In the reading class the students have also learnt reading strategies and they have done some homework in class which I see is useful because I can get the main idea from the passages and articles.

The next class was computer class, which was very handy for me last week because I have learnt online research and students have answered online question and discussed it with each other. Furthermore, I participated in creating a website blog and now I use it for online communication or group discussion.

Finally, I can say that I am happy with this course because it makes me to become more confident so in future I will be able to use what I have learnt from these classes and I am sure I will need these one day. Over all, this achievement is done by EAP teachers who are very supportive and hopeful. Without their help I would not achieve what I have now so that is why I would like to thank them.

Journal 3

It is clear that all the lessons from last week were useful, for instance, in writing class I learnt the use and the position of definite articles (the, a or an) However, there are a few problems in my writing, which I can control by doing more practice. In addition learning some grammar structures and the topic and support sentences are other beneficial points, which are very important in essay writing. Thus, students were also taught a few common mistakes such as, punctuation, clauses and joining sentences. They have got ideas about the first assignment which will be submitted at the end of first term. After all students are required to submit an assignment on Herbal Medicine, the assignment needs to be written like a report format. Also they need to demonstrate what they have learnt so far.

In reading class students learned how to summarize a text or a passage, then described the ways to avoid plagiarism.

Another aspect is listening which can be helpful in terms of taking notes and doing listening practice such as, listening to the lecturer in class at the same time taking notes.

To sum up, there are several points of feedback on computer class which can be suggested. In my opinion it would be better if students have a schedule in computer class for the whole week. In contrast, the class is useful and understandable in terms of basic information on computers.