Yesterday, all the students in class 1c really became professional actors and actresses. We were entertained with a wide range of role-plays, from comedies to action movies. All the performances actually went beyond our expectation.
From my point of view, the most exciting and thrilling role-play must go to the group ALL 4 ONE. With a creative and interesting story, Mr. Vinh, Mr. Danh, Miss Thuỷ and Miss Trang turned the classroom into a real battle between a brave police, two frightened victims, and a notorious robber. No one could help laughing and applauding when Mr. Danh, acting as a police officer, holding a tiny paper gun, surprisingly rushed into the scene of the crime to negotiate with Mr. Vinh, acting as the robber, in order to save the two girls. FLYING KITES’ performance, on the other hand, was not as thrilling as the previous group, but it was undoubtedly remarkable and amusing. I was greatly impressed by the way the fortune teller dressed (Ms. Ph ư ơng sat on the ground, wearing a helmet and big sunglasses). Also, when Hien drank some kind of liquid given by the fortune teller, she immediately rushed into the WC, which I supposed to be one of the most amazing situations. Compare to FLYING KITES’ show, VIVAVN‘s play, to some extent, was kind of serious but contained a good sense of humor. Particularly, Ms. Tam gave a wonderful performance as a teacher responsible for teaching a naughty boy. She really impressed me with the way she managed with the broken glasses of Nhu Anh. When she talked to Ms. Ng an, her face looked so serious, but in an amusing way. What’s more, with an attractive voice, Ms.Ai Linh gave us an unforgettable performance of an everlasting song, “Nothing’s gonna change my love for you”, in her group’s play. Unlike other groups, my group’s role-play was quite normal and monotonous since we chose to discuss a social problem, the environmental pollution, which we believed would facilitate us to make use of the functions of giving and asking for opinions as well as agreeing and disagreeing with an opinion. Despite the play’s simplicity, we really do hope it will receive good comments from the teacher and the audiences. Generally, it is evident that all the students put a lot of time and effort into those creative role-plays.
However, sometimes, I found it difficult to catch up with the stories because I could hardly hear the performers’ soft voice. Besides, Mr. Binh was right to say that some students had problems with pronunciation. In addition, it is true that although some performances were very interesting, we could not figure out what functions were being used. Nonetheless, I believe those were just a minority. Actually, all the students did try their best and their performances showed us how much effort they had made.
In fact, I am not very interested in this kind of activity because I am not a good actress at all. Nevertheless, participating in a role-play, to some extent, enables me to practice using the functions, memorizing and calling up them easily in real-life conversations. Yesterday, do you guys know what made me extremely nervous? Yes, it was the way Mr. Binh observed each of us and put some notes down. In deed, my heart thumped wildly when he started to point out our mistakes. What an unforgettable experience, I felt like I was riding a roller coaster.
In conclusion, the show yesterday was more than a sheer mid-term test since it filled the class with lots of joys and laughter. Through such events, we can not only improve our speaking skills, but also promote the solidarity among every student.
Written by TATA.
P/s: No one is infallible; thus, I presume that I cannot avoid making certain mistakes in these two journals. However, I am very lucky to have you, my dear friends, who spend time reading and leaving many helpful comments on them. I would appreciate it a lot if you could help me point out the drawbacks of these entries and, if possible, give your own suggestions to make them better. I am always willing to receive your truthful feedback. Thank you!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
What we have learned.
This is the first time I have written a journal. In fact, I am now still uncertain about the functions as well as the requirements of a typical journal. However, believing that looking back on what you learned in the previous months and writing something about that would be very helpful for your learning strategies in the future, I tried my best to accomplish one. This journal discusses some of my opinions and experience about learning pronunciation and English functions, class debates, blogging, and the mid-term presentation.
Firstly, having a good pronunciation is one of the crucial aims of learning speaking. In the previous semester, the book Sound English was used and it proved to be undoubtedly useful for developing my pronunciation. Initially, I found it was quite boring since all I had to do was listening to simple sounds and reproducing them. Nevertheless, after several months, I eventually discovered the real value of the book. By practicing little be little, I was able to make some sound contrasts used in English and felt much more confident when I had to speak in front of the class. In addition, the book facilitated me to overcome mistakes that English learners often encounter. For instance, students can produce a sound correctly when they are concentrating on it, but revert to their previous, faulty pronunciation at other times when they have to cope with grammar and vocabulary, and the meaning of what they want to say. Thanks to the book’s different exercises, I have learned how to maintain correct pronunciations in various situations. Besides correct pronunciations, stress and intonation are undeniably essential aspects of learning speaking. It would be advisable that we be taught those things in this term. Furthermore, I have been working very hard to perfect my pronunciation because speaking is one of my favorite subjects. Still, I have no idea whether I have made any progress or not. It would be very helpful if you could provide me some feedback on my oral talk last Wednesday. Also, I recommend that the book Sound English continue to be used in this term.
Secondly, learning English functions plays an important role in developing our conversation strategies. Personally, I really appreciate and benefit from the clear and direct advice and language patterns given by the course books and the teacher, because they enable me to choose the best ways to express myself in particular situations. For example, when receiving a compliment, I am supposed to say “thank you “, or “ I’m glad you like it”, which is rather contrary to what we often do in our culture. Furthermore, thanks to the functions, I can avoid saying something too directly or impolitely, which is likely to cause the listeners to feel unpleasant or disrespected. For example, when you want to decline an invitation, you can use some of these polite ways “I’d love to but I already have plans”, or “sorry but I can’t come “, instead of saying rudely “I don’t want to come”. Throughout the lessons, we are required to take part in many activities such as role-plays, discussions, debates, etc. To me, those activities provide favorable opportunities to practice and memorize the functions in different contexts, so that we can easily call up them in real-life conversations. For example, before learning the functions of expressing disagreement, I often felt reluctant to show my opinions in a conversation since I didn’t know where to start. After practicing them, I feel much more confident in speaking because I have the appropriate tools for voicing my disagreement politely and effectively. Indeed, I consider learning English functions a crucial stage in learning speaking.
Thirdly, what I am most interested in in learning speaking are class debates and discussions. In my opinion, they are opportunities to practice both the English you already know and some new ways of expressing things. For instance, when we want to say something, we can try using some expressions like “as far as I am concerned…”, or “the way I see it …” instead of simply saying “I think …” Furthermore, class debates and discussions are interactive and lively activities where we are not prepared in advance, so critical thinking to respond to other people’s opinions and questions seems to be really necessary. For example, when somebody objects to your ideas or asks you why you choose that solution, you are supposed to give a satisfactory reply supporting your view points spontaneously. Through those activities, your agility can gradually be developed. In addition, unlike role-plays, where we all become actors and actress with perfect pronunciation and beautiful sentences (because everything is prepared ahead of time), class debates and discussions allow us to point out our mistakes. Particularly, when you are unprepared, you are likely to encounter a lot of mistakes in pronunciation as well as grammar and vocabulary. Recognizing the mistakes and learning from them help us perfect our speaking skills. Besides, I would like to recommend that the teacher should encourage all the students in the class to actively participate in those activities, since I realize there are many students feeling hesitant to express themselves in front of the class. I believe a few words of encouragement from the teacher will give them lots of incentive to voice what they think.
Fourthly, keeping a group’s blog is a distinctive feature of this semester. Initially, it seemed to have nothing to do with speaking. Sometimes, I even found it time-consuming as preparing an entry to post on the blog required a lot of time and effort. Nevertheless, after a few weeks, I got used to it and step by step discovered its potential benefit. Blogging encourages me to use the internet more effectively. Indeed, I have to spend more time searching for useful information supporting the lessons than chatting or playing games online. Moreover, there are lots of things to learn when you visit other groups’ blogs. Also, I find giving and receiving comments are the most interesting parts of blogging. However, I made a lot of mistakes in posting new entries for I was unclear about the rules. Particularly, I uploaded many pictures without including their sources. In addition, I myself posted several irrelevant entries on the blogs, which are regarded as junk. Thanks to the teacher’s reminder, I eventually recognized my faults and already removed all the unsuitable things. Generally, keeping a blog, to some extent, is a good way to study, but I can hardly consider it one of the most effective methods to improve speaking skills.
Fifthly, compare to last term, the format of this term’s mid-term test is rather different. We are required to do a lot of things such as role-plays, presentations, writing blogs… However, what I would like to discuss here is the presentation. Actually, I really looked forward to it since it was a chance for me to act like a real teacher. Reckoning its importance, my group had a big plan for it. The project was intended to comprise two parts, the PPT presentation and some clips to illustrate the lessons. In order to recording some daily conversations, we decided to spend a whole day traveling around district one, interviewing foreigners. Because this was the first time we had done this kind of job, we felt quite scared in the beginning. Nevertheless, we soon overcame that fear after talking to some friendly tourists. It was very lucky that we met lots of kind foreigners who were more than willing to answer our questions. To return their honesty, we gave them postcards as souvenirs and they seemed to be very happy, which left a deep impression on each of us. Also, meeting and talking to those people enable us to practice our English and made us become more confident. After the journey, we felt very happy and hopeful about the project. Unfortunately, we were terribly let down by an unforeseen circumstance. Our efforts were in vain because the videos’ quality was so poor that we could not include them in our presentation. We could hardly recognize ourselves in the clips due to the horrible sound and extremely blurred images. As a result, out presentation did not live up to our expectation. Nonetheless, the journey remained an unforgettable memory in our mind. Furthermore, the project was more than a mid-term test since we benefited a lot from it. In deed, we have learned how to promote the solidarity and also gained a lot of first-hand experience.
In summary, in the second semester, there are many considerable changes in studying speaking. Personally, those changes contributed to giving me another attitude towards speaking class. I tried my best to become more active, talkative (perhaps) and confident in order to get good results in one of my most favorite subjects. Learning speaking is a long-term process which requires a lot of patience and attempts; however, with the help of my teacher and classmates, I hope things will become easier.
Written by TaTa.
Firstly, having a good pronunciation is one of the crucial aims of learning speaking. In the previous semester, the book Sound English was used and it proved to be undoubtedly useful for developing my pronunciation. Initially, I found it was quite boring since all I had to do was listening to simple sounds and reproducing them. Nevertheless, after several months, I eventually discovered the real value of the book. By practicing little be little, I was able to make some sound contrasts used in English and felt much more confident when I had to speak in front of the class. In addition, the book facilitated me to overcome mistakes that English learners often encounter. For instance, students can produce a sound correctly when they are concentrating on it, but revert to their previous, faulty pronunciation at other times when they have to cope with grammar and vocabulary, and the meaning of what they want to say. Thanks to the book’s different exercises, I have learned how to maintain correct pronunciations in various situations. Besides correct pronunciations, stress and intonation are undeniably essential aspects of learning speaking. It would be advisable that we be taught those things in this term. Furthermore, I have been working very hard to perfect my pronunciation because speaking is one of my favorite subjects. Still, I have no idea whether I have made any progress or not. It would be very helpful if you could provide me some feedback on my oral talk last Wednesday. Also, I recommend that the book Sound English continue to be used in this term.
Secondly, learning English functions plays an important role in developing our conversation strategies. Personally, I really appreciate and benefit from the clear and direct advice and language patterns given by the course books and the teacher, because they enable me to choose the best ways to express myself in particular situations. For example, when receiving a compliment, I am supposed to say “thank you “, or “ I’m glad you like it”, which is rather contrary to what we often do in our culture. Furthermore, thanks to the functions, I can avoid saying something too directly or impolitely, which is likely to cause the listeners to feel unpleasant or disrespected. For example, when you want to decline an invitation, you can use some of these polite ways “I’d love to but I already have plans”, or “sorry but I can’t come “, instead of saying rudely “I don’t want to come”. Throughout the lessons, we are required to take part in many activities such as role-plays, discussions, debates, etc. To me, those activities provide favorable opportunities to practice and memorize the functions in different contexts, so that we can easily call up them in real-life conversations. For example, before learning the functions of expressing disagreement, I often felt reluctant to show my opinions in a conversation since I didn’t know where to start. After practicing them, I feel much more confident in speaking because I have the appropriate tools for voicing my disagreement politely and effectively. Indeed, I consider learning English functions a crucial stage in learning speaking.
Thirdly, what I am most interested in in learning speaking are class debates and discussions. In my opinion, they are opportunities to practice both the English you already know and some new ways of expressing things. For instance, when we want to say something, we can try using some expressions like “as far as I am concerned…”, or “the way I see it …” instead of simply saying “I think …” Furthermore, class debates and discussions are interactive and lively activities where we are not prepared in advance, so critical thinking to respond to other people’s opinions and questions seems to be really necessary. For example, when somebody objects to your ideas or asks you why you choose that solution, you are supposed to give a satisfactory reply supporting your view points spontaneously. Through those activities, your agility can gradually be developed. In addition, unlike role-plays, where we all become actors and actress with perfect pronunciation and beautiful sentences (because everything is prepared ahead of time), class debates and discussions allow us to point out our mistakes. Particularly, when you are unprepared, you are likely to encounter a lot of mistakes in pronunciation as well as grammar and vocabulary. Recognizing the mistakes and learning from them help us perfect our speaking skills. Besides, I would like to recommend that the teacher should encourage all the students in the class to actively participate in those activities, since I realize there are many students feeling hesitant to express themselves in front of the class. I believe a few words of encouragement from the teacher will give them lots of incentive to voice what they think.
Fourthly, keeping a group’s blog is a distinctive feature of this semester. Initially, it seemed to have nothing to do with speaking. Sometimes, I even found it time-consuming as preparing an entry to post on the blog required a lot of time and effort. Nevertheless, after a few weeks, I got used to it and step by step discovered its potential benefit. Blogging encourages me to use the internet more effectively. Indeed, I have to spend more time searching for useful information supporting the lessons than chatting or playing games online. Moreover, there are lots of things to learn when you visit other groups’ blogs. Also, I find giving and receiving comments are the most interesting parts of blogging. However, I made a lot of mistakes in posting new entries for I was unclear about the rules. Particularly, I uploaded many pictures without including their sources. In addition, I myself posted several irrelevant entries on the blogs, which are regarded as junk. Thanks to the teacher’s reminder, I eventually recognized my faults and already removed all the unsuitable things. Generally, keeping a blog, to some extent, is a good way to study, but I can hardly consider it one of the most effective methods to improve speaking skills.
Fifthly, compare to last term, the format of this term’s mid-term test is rather different. We are required to do a lot of things such as role-plays, presentations, writing blogs… However, what I would like to discuss here is the presentation. Actually, I really looked forward to it since it was a chance for me to act like a real teacher. Reckoning its importance, my group had a big plan for it. The project was intended to comprise two parts, the PPT presentation and some clips to illustrate the lessons. In order to recording some daily conversations, we decided to spend a whole day traveling around district one, interviewing foreigners. Because this was the first time we had done this kind of job, we felt quite scared in the beginning. Nevertheless, we soon overcame that fear after talking to some friendly tourists. It was very lucky that we met lots of kind foreigners who were more than willing to answer our questions. To return their honesty, we gave them postcards as souvenirs and they seemed to be very happy, which left a deep impression on each of us. Also, meeting and talking to those people enable us to practice our English and made us become more confident. After the journey, we felt very happy and hopeful about the project. Unfortunately, we were terribly let down by an unforeseen circumstance. Our efforts were in vain because the videos’ quality was so poor that we could not include them in our presentation. We could hardly recognize ourselves in the clips due to the horrible sound and extremely blurred images. As a result, out presentation did not live up to our expectation. Nonetheless, the journey remained an unforgettable memory in our mind. Furthermore, the project was more than a mid-term test since we benefited a lot from it. In deed, we have learned how to promote the solidarity and also gained a lot of first-hand experience.
In summary, in the second semester, there are many considerable changes in studying speaking. Personally, those changes contributed to giving me another attitude towards speaking class. I tried my best to become more active, talkative (perhaps) and confident in order to get good results in one of my most favorite subjects. Learning speaking is a long-term process which requires a lot of patience and attempts; however, with the help of my teacher and classmates, I hope things will become easier.
Written by TaTa.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Here are some useful ways of agreeing or disagreeing with someone's opinion. Notice that you need to be very polite when disagreeing with someone in English - even someone you know quite well.
AGREEMENT
-I could'n agree more.
-That's just what I was thinking
-You know, that's exactly what I think
-I agree entirely.
-That's a good point.
DISAGREEMENT
-Yes, that's quite true, but...
-I'm not sure I quite agree.. (what you said...)
-Well, you have a point there, but...
-Perhaps, but don't you think that...
-I see what you mean, but...
***If you know someone very well you can disagree more directly using expressions like these:
-I can't agree with you there.
-You can't be serious!
-Come off it !
-Don't be so silly !
Source:daihoctaichuc.net.
Oanh.
AGREEMENT
-I could'n agree more.
-That's just what I was thinking
-You know, that's exactly what I think
-I agree entirely.
-That's a good point.
DISAGREEMENT
-Yes, that's quite true, but...
-I'm not sure I quite agree.. (what you said...)
-Well, you have a point there, but...
-Perhaps, but don't you think that...
-I see what you mean, but...
***If you know someone very well you can disagree more directly using expressions like these:
-I can't agree with you there.
-You can't be serious!
-Come off it !
-Don't be so silly !
Source:daihoctaichuc.net.
Oanh.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
How to agree with an opinion
Our group has been preparing for our presentation of speaking, and my part is"How to agree with an opinion" . So I have read some book and searched the internet to find some useful expressions or functions. There are some ways that you can use:
When you strongly agree with an opinion, you can say:
"I couldn't agree more! "
"That's exactly what I think"
"That's exactly what I think"
Or some simple ways like:
"That's absolutely true! "
When you strongly agree with an opinion, you can say:
"I couldn't agree more! "
"That's exactly what I think"
"That's exactly what I think"
Or some simple ways like:
"That's absolutely true! "
"I agree with your point"
Or you just say "absolutely"
And sometimes people also say :
" I'd go along with you there"
" I'm with you on that."
" That's just what I was thinking"
" That's a good point. "
" That's just how I see it"
If you just half agree with an opinion, what will you say?
I will tell you some ways :
"Hmm, possibly, but ..."
"Yes, perhaps, however ..."
"Yes, perhaps, however ..."
"Yes, in a way, however ...
"Well, yes, but ... "
"Well, yes, but ... "
When you would like to say that your friends have their point but what you think is not totally similar , you can say:
"Well, you have a point there, but ..."
"There's something there, I suppose, however... "
"Yes, I suppose so, however ..."
"I guess you could be right, but ... "
"There's something there, I suppose, however... "
"Yes, I suppose so, however ..."
"I guess you could be right, but ... "
Or some times you can say:
"That's worth thinking about, but ... "
So I hope these ways are useful for you , and you will find it is easy to show your agreement with an opinion.
(source : www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-English/debate-suggestions )
Saturday, April 5, 2008
More expresssions on stating and response an opinion.
So far, you have learned some expressions on stating and responding an opinion.Now,we would like to offer you some more expression which you may come up with during your conversations or to make your speaking go smoothly.
I.GIVING AN OPINION
There are many ways to state your own opinions,depending on the level of certainty or sometimes your likeness of the problem.Now,here we go
Expressing a strong opinion
You can say:
-In my rekoning
-I strongly believe in
-I definitely think that
Expressing a strong value
You can say:
-It's a nonsense
-It's wrong to
-It's perfect for
-They're ideal for
Expressing certainty:
-Without doubt
-In fact,
-Clearly,
-Surely,
Expressing high probability:
-There now seems to be a general acceptance
-I believe
-I doubt that
Expressing fair probability:
-I guess that
-I suppose that
-There's probably a good argument for
-I'm beginning to think it would be a good thing
-I don't suppose
They are some alternative ways to express an opinion.I hope it will be useful for you.
Conducted by:Thanh Huyen(Jessica1502)
Collected from many books and internet.
I.GIVING AN OPINION
There are many ways to state your own opinions,depending on the level of certainty or sometimes your likeness of the problem.Now,here we go
Expressing a strong opinion
You can say:
-In my rekoning
-I strongly believe in
-I definitely think that
Expressing a strong value
You can say:
-It's a nonsense
-It's wrong to
-It's perfect for
-They're ideal for
Expressing certainty:
-Without doubt
-In fact,
-Clearly,
-Surely,
Expressing high probability:
-There now seems to be a general acceptance
-I believe
-I doubt that
Expressing fair probability:
-I guess that
-I suppose that
-There's probably a good argument for
-I'm beginning to think it would be a good thing
-I don't suppose
They are some alternative ways to express an opinion.I hope it will be useful for you.
Conducted by:Thanh Huyen(Jessica1502)
Collected from many books and internet.
Friday, April 4, 2008
There are many expressions used to give you opinion . How many expressions have you known? Let's see:
1. Giving your opinion neutrally :
"I think ..."
"I feel that ..."
"In my opinion ..."
"As far as I'm concerned ..."
"As I see it ..."
"In my view ..."
"I tend to think that ..."
2.Giving strong opinion :
"I'm absolutely convinced that ..."
"I'm sure that ..."
"I strongly believe that ..."
3.English expression for asking someone's opinion :
"What do think about...?"
"What's your view about...?"
"How do you see the situation ?"
These expressions are not enough . If you have any other ones , please share with us .It's my pleasure to think your opinion .
Signature : Oanh. Source: english-at-home.com
1. Giving your opinion neutrally :
"I think ..."
"I feel that ..."
"In my opinion ..."
"As far as I'm concerned ..."
"As I see it ..."
"In my view ..."
"I tend to think that ..."
2.Giving strong opinion :
"I'm absolutely convinced that ..."
"I'm sure that ..."
"I strongly believe that ..."
3.English expression for asking someone's opinion :
"What do think about...?"
"What's your view about...?"
"How do you see the situation ?"
These expressions are not enough . If you have any other ones , please share with us .It's my pleasure to think your opinion .
Signature : Oanh. Source: english-at-home.com
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
What do you think about it?
We have just learned a very useful expression in our daily life.That's giving opinions ,expressing agreement and disagreement.In order to help you to be familiar with it, we raise a problem for you to discuss.You can express what you think about it,whether you agree or disagree with the statement.The debate will be about 1 week's time.After that,we will come to the final conclusion .Here is the problem:
"All university students have to study obligatory subjects like:phylosophy,Vietnamese culture,Vietnamese language...Some students say that it's not neccessary,especially to us whose major is English.We only need to study what is efficient for our future career."
What do you think about it.
Give your opinion and support it.
Remember to use functions which we have just studied.It's a pratical way to review the lesson.
We're looking foward to hear your ideas.
NOTE:your ideas may be demonstrated on the comment section.
Conducted by :Thanh Huyen
"All university students have to study obligatory subjects like:phylosophy,Vietnamese culture,Vietnamese language...Some students say that it's not neccessary,especially to us whose major is English.We only need to study what is efficient for our future career."
What do you think about it.
Give your opinion and support it.
Remember to use functions which we have just studied.It's a pratical way to review the lesson.
We're looking foward to hear your ideas.
NOTE:your ideas may be demonstrated on the comment section.
Conducted by :Thanh Huyen
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