First, I will discuss my thoughts about the Bloch reading. Although Bloch mentioned that Generation 1.5 students (this phrase refers to immigrant students; there is a growing literature on these students) may have different backgrounds from international students who come from areas where literacy is widespread, I felt that what Abdullah contributes to his blog in Bloch’s article is similar to how we run our blog for this class. If you asked me whether my academic writing skill has improved by posting my reflection article every week, my answer is “Yes.” First, I have to read academic articles, and learn the new terminology and knowledge for each article. Next, I need to digest the articles and post my reflection. From the process of reading to distributing, I am doing not only the critical thinking, but also summarizing my ideas about the articles in academic writing. In addition, Bloch claims that blogs have often been used in content area courses to foster a collaborative process of making meaning. I enjoyed looking at the feedback from my classmates and professors. Sometimes, their feedback or suggestions lead me to another level of thinking and perspectives. This interaction helps both sides, the author and the audiences, to communicate in the blogosphere, and reaches the goal: it allows students to voice their own opinions. Therefore, I am pretty sure that this training provides me an opportunity to compose academic writing.
As for plagiarism, I have no exception that I do not clearly understand what plagiarism means. Even though I see the rule of “plagiarism” on the syllabus which I received for each semester, I have never spent time on it. Therefore, Bloch brings out a good concept: it is necessary to understand how plagiarism is viewed in the university. The writers will not be able to establish the validity of claims in academic writing until they fully understand the importance and details of plagiarism.
The only difference I see between Abdullah and me is that I learned “formal” English during my education, so I do not have trouble with “vernacular literacy” in my blog. In other words, I do not even clearly know how to distinguish between what is vernacular or professional forms of literacy. Hence, I do not feel the boundary between the blog (more vernaculerform) and the classroom assignment (more professional form). Is it good or bad if the English learner do not know the differences?
2010年3月25日 星期四
2010年3月22日 星期一
Questions from Dr. Reinhardt
What is your general impression of the game?
How much language use is involved? What skills are addressed?
How could you use this game to learn the language on your own?
What kind of classroom tasks could be built around the game?
Actually, I am not a game fan since my parents do not like for me to play games. My parents always think that playing games is nothing but just a waste of my time. It is true that I have never learned English, the only foreign language I know, via games. I feel sorry that I do not have this kind of fun learning experience when learning English. For most English learners from Taiwan, they seldom learn English intrinsically because English is a required course from junior high to first year in college. Now, the English learning is even earlier, students have to learn English from elementary school. Maybe learning English is more fun since there are a lot of native English speaking teachers at schools in Taiwan compared with the time I learned English. Also, the learning materials are more visual and vivid to attract students’ attention or motivate students’ learning.
Although I do not have game-oriented learning experience, I would like to share the “repetition” learning strategy that Piirainen-Marsh and Tainio bring. There are four types of repetition: repetition and imitation in next turn, anticipatory use, recontextualisation, and expansion. I use the “repetition” in learning English via “movies” or “television shows” instead of games. For the first type of repetition, I first repeated what the actor or actress said by imitating and reproducing the language. During the repetition, I mainly focus on the idiomatic expressions, voices, intonations, and accents, and try to catch up with their speech speed. For the second type of repetition, it is true that if I have watched the movie or TV shows more than one time, I could anticipate what is coming next. It is possible for me to speak out the lines with the actors or actress simultaneously. As for the third type of repetition, it is not hard to find out that similar movie stories might have the similar conversations. This is good training to express the things in different ways. This final type of repetition is the most difficult one for me. It seems that I could use what I learned from the movies or TV shows in my “real” life, and “expand” its usages. Sometimes, it is funny when I use the movies or TV’s conversations with my friends because I might recite the line from the movies or TV. Overall, I have benefited from the repetition strategy when learning English.
How much language use is involved? What skills are addressed?
How could you use this game to learn the language on your own?
What kind of classroom tasks could be built around the game?
Actually, I am not a game fan since my parents do not like for me to play games. My parents always think that playing games is nothing but just a waste of my time. It is true that I have never learned English, the only foreign language I know, via games. I feel sorry that I do not have this kind of fun learning experience when learning English. For most English learners from Taiwan, they seldom learn English intrinsically because English is a required course from junior high to first year in college. Now, the English learning is even earlier, students have to learn English from elementary school. Maybe learning English is more fun since there are a lot of native English speaking teachers at schools in Taiwan compared with the time I learned English. Also, the learning materials are more visual and vivid to attract students’ attention or motivate students’ learning.
Although I do not have game-oriented learning experience, I would like to share the “repetition” learning strategy that Piirainen-Marsh and Tainio bring. There are four types of repetition: repetition and imitation in next turn, anticipatory use, recontextualisation, and expansion. I use the “repetition” in learning English via “movies” or “television shows” instead of games. For the first type of repetition, I first repeated what the actor or actress said by imitating and reproducing the language. During the repetition, I mainly focus on the idiomatic expressions, voices, intonations, and accents, and try to catch up with their speech speed. For the second type of repetition, it is true that if I have watched the movie or TV shows more than one time, I could anticipate what is coming next. It is possible for me to speak out the lines with the actors or actress simultaneously. As for the third type of repetition, it is not hard to find out that similar movie stories might have the similar conversations. This is good training to express the things in different ways. This final type of repetition is the most difficult one for me. It seems that I could use what I learned from the movies or TV shows in my “real” life, and “expand” its usages. Sometimes, it is funny when I use the movies or TV’s conversations with my friends because I might recite the line from the movies or TV. Overall, I have benefited from the repetition strategy when learning English.
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