Cities or Countryside

In this modern society, people can choose to live either in the city or in the countryside.  Each of them has pros and cons.  As far as I am concerned, I prefer living in the city for its abundant supplies, high quality of living style and international perspectives.

 

        First of all, I would like to live in the city because it can provide abundant supplies.  No matter they are foods, clothes or anything I can imagine, I can buy them in many places with different styles.  With this convenience, I could find the finest things in an ideal price through comparing.  Besides, I will never feel dull to go out since there are many places I can visit.  For example, if I want to go shopping, from department stores to small shops are all I could choose.  In addition, five major chains convenience stores are accounted for over ninety-five percent of the market in the city, which means they are everywhere.  This way, even if I come out for necessities in the midnight, I still could easily find them in the convenience store.  Then, when talking of education conditions, city government, for sure, will be able to offer much more not only teaching materials but also latest teaching techniques for me to apply.

 

        Second, the high quality of living style in the city is all I want to enjoy.  The government and the police have put many much efforts managing the city's order and maintaining the city's operation.  Therefore, both the city's functions and systems are complete enough that I could have immediate and efficient services once I need assistance. In other words, the infrastructure is blameless.  Also, the sanitation consideration is another important factor for choosing to live in the city, because the government will regularly hire city cleaners to sweep roads and streets and to spray medicine to kill insects.  Even better, the entertainment in the city never fails to my expectation.  Whenever there are some big activities, such as pop stars concerts or celebrations of the New Year, they are all held in the city.  So, I can easily join them without looking at the map or stuffing in the traffic jam.

 

        Third, living in the city, I will be able to catch up with trends.  In this competitive society, to know what's happening around the world is very essential.  Besides, all kinds of newly equipments and facilities will be used firstly by the city people, such as medical equipments.  Moreover, in the city, I would have the opportunity to experience and see so many international brands and enterprises stand a place only to survive, knowing that how competitive it is in this world.  More important, under the cultivation of city's passion, I would be more courageous when facing new things in the outside world since I might have experienced.

 

        In conclusion, living in the city can enjoy its abundant supplies, well-constructed infrastructure, and develop my horizons toward the whole world.  And, no matter how much supports help I need, the well-trained staffs will provide their helps as good as they could.  In the end, I am substantially happy living in the city.


 

My Personal Tips of Learning English

English has already become a necessary skill for people who want to get a well-paid career in today’s society. And, the learning of English may vary from different individuals. As for me, there are only two key points to learn English well.




The very key point is to make the best usage of a material I get. For instance, I used to buy grammar books that have key notes in the front and exercises in the end of every chapter, and that were required by teachers. Then, I don’t really need to buy another one for my own sake. And, I listened and took notes in the classes, which it is recognized as the first time studying. Next, I got a notebook to summarize all the key points from books seen as the second studying. Then, I did exercises and corrected them seen as the third studying. Finally, I took notes of those wrong question items into the notebook taken as the forth studying. With these processes, I am sure that I learn well by only buying one book, and I didn’t spend unnecessary money on cram schools. Besides, with this spirit, I could apply into any other aspects of English learning. Take practicing listening for an example, I would buy movies and watch them. By using the same skill, I will watch one with one’s Chinese subtitle for the first time. The second time I will change the subtitle into English version. Then, for the third time learning, I close the subtitle function, and just try to listen to what one is about. Finally, for the last time, I will open my mouth and speak the lines of every character in the movie, which I may practice my speaking, too.



The Second key point is, without any doubt, to put as many efforts as I think I need to. Even though there are effective ways for learning, I would not be able to get the knowledge if I didn’t do it. I know that there many companies which sell learning kits, highlighting on learning without efforts. And, many parents just buy them as many as possible no matter how much do they cost. Speaking frankly, I don’t think those parents really know the problems of their children. Could laziness be interpreted as not knowing how to learn? I think those parents should ask this question to themselves. And, I believe studying is the least hard-working thing when comparing to other jobs. If anyone thinks it is hard to study; then, he or she should tell their parents that don’t buy those learning kits for wasting money.



To sum up, learning strategies may differ within people, but the way to learn well may not vary a lot since via right and efficient learning skills and hardworking, I believe the word “impossible” should be delete in learning environment.

Advantages of Using Wikispaces

Obviously, people are seeking more convenient and efficient ways in their lives as technology grows. When looking into past, people might feel cool if they could search information on-line, but that is going to be ordinary now because with the improvement of Web 2.0, people can not only read the information but take a part in helping revise it. Take wikispaces for an example, there will be at least three huge benefits that simple user can get.




First of all, it costs nothing if people want to register for accounts. Then, they can do whatever they want just like having a personal website. Second of all, people could send requests to ask friends to join their wikis. With that action, friends can manage their wikis and help revise others as well. Third, wikispcaces provides functions to upload things people would like to such as, files, YouTube videos, slideshow and Prezi. Simply by clicking, people can upload everything rather than study codes so as to understand how to construct WebPages.



Besides, with only one account, people can create as many wikispaces as they want, which suits the spirit of being simple, fast and costless. And what’s more, wikispaces doesn’t really limit users’ actions; in other words, it can be made into any kinds of useful or creative website. For example, teachers could use it for a place to store their teaching materials; while students may like to show more about themselves.



In short, wikispaces indeed has a lot of advantages, which makes whole world move into a new era. People no longer look for information, but could interact with other people through screens, which really impress me. Surely, only by using it could people fully discover and know its merits.

The Review and Reflection of the Movie “The Lady”

Whenever there is a hero or a leader, I can’t help but to wonder that are those their fates or just coincidences? In the movie “The Lady”, a sense of divineness reveals abundantly by the acting of Michelle Yeoh staring as Aung San Suu Kyi.

In the beginning of the movie, Aung San Suu Kyi’s father got murdered due to his peaceful and democratic stance. Coming back from UK, she was asked to lead a group. Is it her fate or coincidence? Everything happened so fast that she couldn’t even realize that her decision will make her life change for good. And what’s more, the following up strikes, fights, restrained and detained are all far unlike her eased life before.

In Burma, a warlord dominated the country for so long with unjust and cold-blooded means. As soon as he knew that she will lead the democratic group, a series of predictable actions that aim to stop her are going to be extremely fearsome and horrific. Every time she tried so hard to be steady, the man on the horseback pressed her more. However, maybe those pressures are reasons why she could stand still when facing those incredible challenges. Speaking of the main actress in “The Lady”, Michelle Yeoh surprisingly changed from an action movie star into a mild lady with great dignity, showing her skills are improved a great huge.

Her husband, on the other hand, was a history professor, and his supports for her was tremendous, which can be seen from the several visits with their two sons and apply for a Nobel Prize so as to free his wife. Sadly, under many years efforts, not only the ignorance of the warlord but also her husband’s suffering from cancer did beat her strong heart once again. While she was thinking about back for a visit, she chose to stay for everyone had devoted so much, and once she went back, she would never be allowed to come again. This decision, without doubts, is crucial. And, bursting into tears when knowing her husband’s fatality was really sorrowful and depressed either to her or us in the movie theater. Then, eventually, she was freed and her will, which never changes and gets moved, now is going to continue in Burma.

Overall the whole film, I have to admit that the director didn’t make good use of cutting and editing the film to make the story look more fluently. However, every different music appears in every different scenes among different characters, which strengthens the spirit of those characters, and even more, I believe it is the music that fills lives into not only characters but also the story itself, and I could even see the pure soul of “the lady” the minute the music was played. Besides, the successful transformation of an action actress to a leader of a country is another key point to make this movie be touching deeply in audience’s hearts. To conclude, the movie focuses on the process and courage of the lady, leading her people to democracy even though the movie tends to direct it in a more plain, or I should say too much meaningless repetitions way. It is a wonderful movie still. I mean merely by watching Michelle Yeoh’s magnificent performance, I feel that she is “The Lady”.

Technology-Enhanced Language Learning

Amazingly, technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) has been a fashion. Accompanying with this teaching approach, there are so many new computer skills that I should be equipped with and apply them into my teaching, such as, wiki spaces, interaction white board, blogger, and RSS.


To begin with, Web 2.0 is the most important concept that linked the rest of things. In the past, we search information on the websites which are created by a few of people, and the information there are not changeable. So the connection between people and information goes only one way; in other words, people find information which is there already. To be frankly, it feels cold in that way since there is no interaction. Then, after the first generation, it comes to the era of the second generation, also called Web 2.0. It makes the Internet into huge communities through several spaces, which people have already used them, like Wikipedia. This way, everyone could contribute to the spaces, which subsequently show the interactions between people. What’s more, the connection goes both ways, which would be more convenient, efficient and much easier. Take wiki spaces for an example, simply get a free account of it, then I can manage it as my own webpage, and what’s awesome is that all of my friends can join me just by clicking, making them a part of the wiki spaces. With this wiki spaces, I can even have discussions and even plan for a trip. Take RSS feed for another example, before web2.0, people open so many web pages to read things they want. Now, with RSS feed, people will read what they want within one page, and all they have to do is to add their favorite pages through RSS.


When speaking of applying into language teaching, I believe it would definitely be an impact on ways of teaching now. Since today, Learning has been about taking notes and taking tests. However, with the appearance of TELL, students could have opportunities to learn by doing them directly, which might subconsciously evoke their intrinsic motivation or reinforce their knowledge into long term memory.


In brief, TELL will become more and more common after a few years because technology is still making progresses. And, maybe, students will go to school by their avatars. Who knows! Therefore, I think it is always good to learn new things so as to keep myself spinning as the earth never stops.

About CALL course

CALL, standing for Computer-Assisted Language Learning is getting popular recently with the huge progress of technology. And, many related concepts or ideas just pop out without noticing, such as web 2.0. As a teacher, I think I need to catch up with this trend; otherwise, I will be eliminated in this high competitive society.


In this course, I am glad that I will have chances to learn many useful computer skills, such as blog, wiki spaces and video stuffs. Besides, I will also learn how to perfectly applied those skills into real teaching environment, which I believe it is the ultimate goal; that is, to teach. What’s more, under professor’s instruction, I am going to gain valuable knowledge of many new-popped out concepts or ideas, and even better, I will have my own teaching materials websites, making me so excited that I listen to lectures attentively in the class. And, all of those class activities are going to be done by myself, which I think it is always better for students to learn things by actually doing them rather than listening to lessons or having tests.


In short, CALL teaching is what takes people’s daily lives by a storm now and what will change the way we have our educations in the future. With no doubt, I need to learn it, and maybe because I have such kind of knowledge background, I will possibly invent an on-line game to teach English.

Interviewing with Pro. Jessie for Teaching English Listening and Speaking

After interviewing with Professor Jessie, I think that she applies some important theories and teaching methods discussed in the following paragraphs.

First of all, when talking about motivation which is the force that energies and directs a behavior towards a goal, Pro. Jessie provides students with many selected model speakers, panelists, programs, movies to view so students may learn how to present, how to raise questions, know what debate in English is like. Then, after the films and videos, she would ask questions and want students to answer them so as to encourage impromptu speeches in interaction. That is, you respond by your own quick response, which can be seen in the idea of anxiety. Since either too much anxious atmosphere in the classroom or too less may have a bad influence on students’ learning effects, Pro. Jessie balanced it very well by encouraging students to do their best rather than threatening them. Besides, instead of being extrinsic motivated, she intends to let students choose topics so that students are intrinsic motivated since they can choose topics they like and they would find it easier to manage. And, when she raises questions or gives some reflections after groups’ presentations, her behaviors have met the value and expectance that is also a theory of motivation which emphasizes the need for both, making student believe that their reports will lead to goal attainment and they have values.

Second of all, in Maslow’s Hierarchy theory, I would like to point out the most significant three needs she applied in the class. For one thing, in esteem needs level, because many students are not equipped with good English abilities and are lack of confidence, she especially cares about students’ self-esteem by not pointing out students’ errors until the presentations are finished. For another, in need to know and understand level, she has her webpage which looks like a big journal taking down a lot of Internet resources related to students’ learning. In addition, she puts what the students do no matter to combine the global issues, cultural issues, life style decisions, creative literature, arts and debate issues and put them in the forms of speech, presentation and debate. For the other one, in self-actualization need level, since it is the highest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy theory, it is really difficult for students in our ages to achieve that level; nevertheless, Pro. Jessie tires her best to push and support students to achieve this goal so as to fulfill students’ potentialities. By doing this, not only students’ self-actualization but also students’ self-efficacy does she arise from students for she creates harmony class atmosphere and always does a lot of encouragements to students, believing that they can perform the needed action instead of having other impeding factors to the desired outcomes.

Thirdly, I also learned that she intends to apply cooperative learning, which is that students work together to achieve a goal, having faith in that goal is achievable as the replacement of competitive-goal learning. In the class, students are asked to do four presentations within a group, which can be seen as group-oriented goals. And, each student has to be responsible for each other as a group, perfectly fitting the characteristic of individually accountability. Moreover, everyone has the opportunity to speak in front of the class, meaning that every student all gets chances to showing the best of themselves and will be with more favorable attitudes toward their classmates, which can not be found, without doubt, in a competitive learning environment.

Finally, I believe that Pro. Jessie has applied the Communicative Language Teaching method in her classroom all the time. In the first place, she encourages students to speak English in the classroom rather than use their native language, known as the goal of teachers who use CLT that is to enable students to communicate in the target language. Secondly, she thin

ks that a teacher should be like a guide, which is the same as a teacher as a facilitators in CLT methods, seen from her acts of monitoring during the performance, raising questions and answering questions after presentations as an adviser, and sometimes a co-communicator, engaging in the communicative activity and talking to students. And, another significant observation is that she would like to let students paraphrase whatever they see, hear or read, based on that class materials, to let them know that there are many different forms to perform the same meaning of ideas or thoughts, which also meets CLT methods’ goal and spirit when later on, she would ask students to present what they write, recognized as feedbacks. Besides, students’ cooperation and interaction is another important principle when conducting Communicative Language Teaching. In the view of this, seen through students’ group reports, they deal with each other very well during her class. Finally, Pro. Jessie aims to take students’ errors as tolerable errors since CLT is a fluency-based teaching method. However, she still encourages students to gain their English proficiency gradually because language is for communication, reproving that teacher should be like a guide or a tower, always lightning the way for students.

In conclusion, I am very glad and thankful to be able to interview Professor Jessie who is gracious, knowledgeable and experienced in teaching English listening and speaking. Before leaving, it is so warm that she reminds us of some considerate suggestions for being a beginner teacher in this field, saying that to create an environment speaking the target language is very important. Then, knowing teachers’ and classroom’s language and applying them to your teaching are other essential points. The last but not the least, a teacher should be professional; then, your students would come to believe that they can learn things from you. In the end, by doing this mid-term project, I have learned many useful and practical teaching experiences, strengthening my belief to be a good teacher.