Archive for July, 2008

I Decided To Take A Spoken English Course

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

When I was growing up in Japan, taking English second language training was mandatory in almost every school. If you ask any English foreign language teacher about Japanese students, they will probably tell you the same things. We tend to have some of the best grammatical understanding of the English language, but we have a lot of difficulty making conversation in a language that is not native to us. Good grammar is a product of our education system. In English language training, as in everything else, the school system puts a lot of emphasis on technical knowledge. The problem is that, with the pressure to do everything correctly, we do not feel comfortable taking risks. And speaking English when you did not grow up with it is definitely a risk.

This is why almost everyone who wants to succeed in business in Japan goes on to take a spoken English course. Although you can find spoken English courses in Japan, they are not nearly as popular as you might think. In order to really learn how to speak English fluently, you see, it is necessary to get outside of Japan and go to a country where it is spoken as the native tongue.

That is why I decided to take a spoken English course at St. Giles academy, a small English language school in San Francisco. I have wanted to learn to speak English fluently ever since I became interested in Hollywood movies at the age of 15. One of my friends, for example, took a spoken English course online when we were teenagers. Because there was no one there to correct his speaking, it did him very little good, and cost his parents a lot of money as well! I knew that there was only one way to go about learning English: travel abroad and take some classes.

The spoken English course was one of the biggest challenges of my whole entire life. You see, participation was one of the main requirements. We were all required to try out each and ever sentence ourselves, and even to hold conversations with native English speakers. Although it was a little hard to do at first, soon I began to feel comfortable with the conversation sessions. I even made a few lasting friendships!

Tags: education system, english language training

Related posts

Consider The Results Of Learningstyle Questionnaire

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Before we begin, know that our goal is to give you as much useful information about Learningstyle Questionnaire, as we can fit on our page.

There are many benefits to taking a learning style questionnaire but it is essential to make sure that you understand the purpose of this kind of test. Many people might be a little apt to label students as types and this isn’t the best approach to education. After considering how to use the results of a learning style questionnaire you will see how the information benefits both student and teacher.

Many teachers are taking a student-centered approach to education. Traditionally, the classroom was teacher-centered as many of us remember. The teacher would lecture to the class and students would take notes. There was no real need for a learning style questionnaire because teachers were not working with the way students learned. They were mostly concerned with conveying information.

No matter what you though about the first part of this article, the second part is bound to blow you away.

This is not to suggest that the lecture and note-taking approach isn’t valuable. Many students who fill out a learning style questionnaire find out that they are auditory learners. This simply means that they retain the most information when it is conveyed thorough the ears. The lecture is a great approach for teaching to this crowd.

However, not all students learn the same way. There are plenty of students who are visual learners. These individuals find on their learning style questionnaire that they take in the most information when it is presented visually. Adding graphs and charts to convey abstract ideas is a wonderful approach to this audience.

Some students who take the learning style questionnaire find that they learn best by doing. These kinesthetic learners perform very well in classes like shop or home economics because they actually get to complete tasks as they learn. Adding assignments that require the student to build or create as they take in new information is a great approach for this group.

When I took my learning style questionnaire I was really shocked to discover that I learn best through music. I scored highest on questions regarding music. This is really ironic because I don’t play a musical instrument and I never even learned how to read music. However, I remember things better when they are linked to songs.

Just because you score high in on area over others doesn’t mean that you are one specific style of learner. This is only used as a guide for creating lesson plans that will spark interest in the subject for the students. The learning style questionnaire isn’t designed to label anyone at all. Find out more by reading our other articles about Learningstyle Questionnaire.

Tags: Education, learning style questionnaire, learningstyle questionnaire

Related posts