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.